6/9 Nationals vs Red Sox

[mvp 78]

In the end we are going to have to give up someone good to get great pitching. No one is going to hand us Gio or Felix. The trick is in recognizing who is going to be good. Thats where Epstein fell down.

 

To me, Gio isn't/wasn't worth it.

[evilhand]

We need better pitching than we have and I just don't see enough change there (unless we pull off a trade that brings it to us) to get the job done.

 

I don't get why people aren't more excited about Buchholz right now. The pitchfx data paints a very encouraging picture. Mechanically he seems to have found consistency and he's finally got a feel for his change up again. He appears to be getting back to where he left off before getting hurt... the efficient guy who was going deep into games and inducing weak contact in 2010 and 2011. The only difference is that his change up has once again become the swing and miss pitch we enjoyed back in 2007 and 2008.

 

He was clearly rusty early on after sitting for the better part of the year with his back injury. After three straight dominant starts, I think there's every reason to be excited about him going forward.

 

Add that to Beckett and Doubront and you have a pretty good staff. So it really just comes down to Lester figuring it out and Matsuzaka coming out and doing what he did tonight with a bit of better luck and a little less pounding the heart of the zone with his heater and you have an excellent rotation.

 

Lester's history suggests he'll figure it out at some point. He was a dominant front of the rotation guy until late August of 2011.

[evilhand]

All I can say' date=' my friend, is that I hope you are right. And you might well be right. Besides, your tagline suggestion of me being old fashioned or something like that, is true.[/quote']

 

On this much we can agree.

[FredLynn]

On this much we can agree.

 

On that note, I am going to watch the rest of the Celtics game. Great game so far; 19 lead changes; one point game. Win or lose, I am proud of this Celtics team, taking a favored younger and more talented Miami team to the limit and maybe over it.

[evilhand]

Every time I think the Heat are about to go on a run the C's make a big shot. Rondo has been a beast this series.

[jung]

I really don't think the injuries have been an issue. The issues that we thought would bear on this team....things that went neglected as part of the "tighten the purse strings" for a year deal from management for example are really still the things that bear on them today.

 

Can they overcome them or mitigate them or improve upon them to such a degree that they can climb past the teams they need to in order to get to the post season in light of the overall league improvement? I think that will be the story of their season. Hard to blame injuries to everyday players when the everyday players you have have performed at least to this point so well. You can only put nine of them out there per game.

[evilhand]

The injuries on the offensive side have absolutely been mitigated by the backups playing over their heads. What that means is that as the team gets healthy, it becomes more and more likely that they'll continue to score runs at this rate and there's a slight chance for improvement... especially once Ellsbury gets back.

 

The reason to get excited going forward is that the starting pitching has actually been pretty good for a while now, and especially so in the case of Buchholz and Beckett with Doubront continuing to be a solid back of the rotation option.

 

What I saw out of Matsuzaka tonight makes me think he can be a solid back end contributor as well and as I said in my previous post, I think Lester is more likely to figure it out than not based on his history. The rotation isn't as bad as the early struggles make it seems. Hell, just Matsuzaka over Bard is a big improvement.

[jung]

I think Buch has turned the corner and have said so. However if you remember, we were counting on 1, 2 and 3 in the rotation to pitch to their potential and do it for the bulk of the season. I would have to say that it has not to this point happened. I don't see anything in the way that Lester is pitching that I am particularly happy about. Beckett has been very consistent but I don't know from one start to the next if he is going to have his focus waver and toss up a real stinker. That seems to be his only issue.

 

Buch has turned the corner. However now, we are scrambling for a 5, the position we did not fill in the off season. Felix is as good a 4 as you could have I think but there is only so much you can expect from a 4 and we are "hoping" I guess that dice is the guy at the 5. He could be. Just going to have to see.

 

As I have said before I think a good many of these questions will be answered this month and if we are in it by the end of June I think we are in it to the end. Past June I think the only question then will be injury to any of 1,2 or 3 in the rotation. That was another point made all off season. Those three guys had to pitch to their potential for the bulk of the season and that also meant all three of them staying off anything past the 15 day DL as the Sox simply have no answer for that. While injury to SP can really effect any team, in the case of the Sox injury to one of those three would significantly change their chances.

[jung]

By the way, hate to think the lose of Bradley after all the injuries the Celtics suffered turned out to be the key but I think the C's could have pulled this off with Bradley.

 

Beyond him, think about the guys they lost that should have been in this game against the the vaunted Heat....Argh!!!!!!

[FredLynn]

By the way, hate to think the lose of Bradley after all the injuries the Celtics suffered turned out to be the key but I think the C's could have pulled this off with Bradley.

 

Beyond him, think about the guys they lost that should have been in this game against the the vaunted Heat....Argh!!!!!!

 

Go Thunder. I hate the Miami Heat and in particular, LeBron James.

Great effort by the Celtics. They failed to get to their goal, but they got further than nearly everyone except them thought they would. They left it all on the court. Nothing to be ashamed of at all.

Now its time to rebuild and get younger.

[Jacoby_Ellsbury]

Boston Celtics - rebounding optional.

[jung]

Yea I know they have not rebounded worth s***. They lost so many young legs though....Green, Wilcox even Bradley to some extent if rebounding is the discussion. Even Stemsma was on a bum wheel as was Pierce and Allan at the end of the season.....amazed they were able to play as well as they did....one of the all time great coaching jobs and probably one where Doc will never receive adequate credit.

[FredLynn]

Yea I know they have not rebounded worth s***. They lost so many young legs though....Green' date=' Wilcox even Bradley to some extent if rebounding is the discussion. Even Stemsma was on a bum wheel as was Pierce and Allan at the end of the season.....amazed they were able to play as well as they did....one of the all time great coaching jobs and probably one where Doc will never receive adequate credit.[/quote']

 

I still think that trading away Perkins was a huge mistake. He was a force in the middle.

Time to rebuild the team from the ground up, around Rondo and Bradley.

[kapsis21]

Who is starting GT

[FredLynn]

Who is starting GT

 

You are. Of note today, Rich Hill is on the DL again with left elbow soreness, and Mark Melancon is up:

 

By Alex Prewitt, Globe Correspondent

Shelled in the majors yet utterly dominant in AAA, Mark Melancon has made his return to the Red Sox clubhouse.

Demoted in April following a dismal Boston debut in which, in four outings, he gave up 11 runs on 10 hits in 2.0 innings, Melancon was called up from Pawtucket for today's series finale with Washington.

 

"After five or six times of doing it, you realize it doesn't help to go down there and get pissed off," Melancon said. "It's tough to go down there after you've had a couple bad outings, but you've got to make the best of it. That's what I was trying to do."

 

Melancon certainly made the best of his stint in the International League, compiling a 0.83 ERA in 21 innings. He allowed just 15 hits and 2 earned runs, and sported a 9.00 (27:3) strikeout-to-walk ratio.

 

"A lot of people ask me, was it confidence? No it wasn't confidence," Melancon said of his initial struggles in Boston. "I really didn't think it was, and I still don't think that's what it was. Simply aggressiveness and approach."

 

Melancon, who said he hasn't been told what his role with the Sox would be, didn't feel that mechanical issues contributed to his struggles in his first season with Boston after coming over from Houston.

 

Boston's bullpen has been quite effective thus far this season, which Melancon said alleviated the frustration of remaining in AAA.

 

"It was easier when our guys up here were doing well," he said. "Obviously you don't wish for an injury. When they set the bar as high as they were, it was obvious why I was down there kind of hanging out."

 

As far as the welcome he received in the Red Sox clubhouse upon arriving this morning? Melancon went academic for that answer.

 

"I guess it's like if you go to a different school and you come back, you see all your old friends," he said. "Just a good feeling.

 

"It's nice to know that when these guys have your back, it's a good feeling. That's what you want, that sometimes you don't know."

 

To make room for Melancon, Rich Hill was put on the DL with reported left elbow/forearm soreness. He last pitched on Friday against the Nationals, throwing a scoreless inning with two hits and one strikeout. Hill had a 2.63 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP in 17 games.

 

Hill, for his part, told reporters that he had no answers, but said he planned to see Dr. James Andrews, the famed Tommy John specialist who performed the surgery on Hill last year, in Pensecola, Fla., tomorrow morning.

[BornToRun]

So we're back under .500. Death, despair, and the season's over right? Pumpsie?

[noreaster]

c'mon guys. 64 - 38 the rest of the way and we win 93 and are in the playoffs. maybe even win the division. the injuries will all be healed and the calvary will be here in a month. too early to be negative. go red sox!

[jung]

Hate to see Hill go but it is sort of ironic how these things sort of go their way. Seemed like we had to many LH relief pitchers for this club. Bang...there goes Hill.

 

People wanted to see Melancon get another shot....Bang....enter the aforementioned Mr Hill.

[VA Sox Fan]

Game time in a little over an hour. Someone start today's GT.

[jung]

Seeing the Nats playing the Sox has been a little rough on the eyes.

 

"Pitching and Youth"...hmmmm....Who would have thought those would have been worth anything?

[a700hitter]

In the end we are going to have to give up someone good to get great pitching. No one is going to hand us Gio or Felix. The trick is in recognizing who is going to be good. Thats where Epstein fell down.

The Nats didn't exactly get raped on the talent side of that trade. Tommy Milone is doing okay in the majors, but all of the minor league pitchers in the deal are doing pretty s***** this year. Extending Gio for $8 million a year for 5 yrs is a freaking steal.