8/4 vs Twins

[NC Sox Fan]

Ciriaco!!!.........wait, what???

[TutGadol]

Did you see his playing days with the Rays?

 

Yeah he was always the only Ray player I liked. The thing is he stopped stealing bases, playing gloden glove defense and hitting for average, he's only a power hitter now.

[TutGadol]

I would rather seen Ciriaco playing short and Aviles at third. Punto made a very nice catch earlier but still...

[jung]

V has had a few opportunities to put Aviles at 3rd this year and has yet to do it once. You would think that Aviles might actually play 3rd better than he plays SS but V has not put him over there one time this year even when he has had the opportunity.

[jung]

That was not a particularly good AB by Crawford there. That pitch was not in a location he was looking for and was not a pitch he was looking for. Would have been better served letting it go by and try to get on something later in the at bat.

[Station 13]

Amazing, the Twins starter only thrown 40 pitches through 3 inning.

[TutGadol]

The Sox aren't working counts. Triple A pitchers regularly get to the 4th and 5th inning with less then 50 pitches against us.

[jung]

The Sox hitters have in the main gotten really sloppy. If you are going to swing at first pitches they better be damned good pitches to hit and if they are damned good pitches to hit, you should do something with them. We don't but it does not stop us from swinging at them. for the most part they are just not pitches you should swing at 0-0 count.

[TutGadol]

Why does Shop always hit the runner?

[Station 13]

What a stupid game so far.

[TutGadol]

A good throw would've got him. Shopach is a mess today.

[TutGadol]

De Vries's curve reminds me of Cliff Lee, but he doesn't have the command Lee has on that pitch. With all the hanging curves so far someone will eventually wait on it and drive it out.

[a700hitter]

I think we are going to find a way to lose this game too.

[Station 13]

I think we are going to find a way to lose this game too.

 

You mean give away?

[Station 13]

2 measly hit by a mediocre pitcher that throws 88-90.

[jung]

He has been hanging them all night and we have done nothing with them. I very quickly just went to microwave some cheese bits for my daughter and missed the entire bottom of the 5th. We must have had another stellar half inning of baseball.

 

What kills me is tha they do the same thing night after night after night. Then go into the post game presser talking about doing better the next night. But they don't do anything differently...nothing...same failed approach.....and surprise surprise...they get the same result.

[SemperFi Sox]

suck it up

[SemperFi Sox]

we still can't hit for s***.

 

new slogan for this team..

[SoxSport]

Crawford hitting better lately. Maybe he'll stay in the two-hole. Unless Pedey complains to Cherington.

Just kidding--I think.

[jung]

Doubly frustrating the twins are turning out to be a better late innings team than we are. They keep hanging around and hanging around until late in the game when they beat us. They get it together and we are still foundering around.

 

You would think the Sox would finally just start to play at least differently just because they have been pounded senseless playing this way.....but no....not these guys. Like I said last night I do not believe they are working from a plan of any kind but I do not believe V would have it that way and I do believe V knows it is his responsibility to define a game plan for them. I just think the players and coaches have completely ignored him from the beginning and I don't even know if he tries any longer.

 

Just to be clear, I am not a V fan. I keep saying that just so people don't think he was ever one of my favorite managers. But he has in my view been handed an awful situation and has been set up to fail.

[SoxSport]

I would rather seen Ciriaco playing short and Aviles at third. Punto made a very nice catch earlier but still...

 

pretty obvious. but it's the Red Sox.

[SoxSport]

The Twins are a better smallball team, because they have to be at their salary scale.

 

Henry has allowed his people to spend far to much of his money--without much return. The result seems to be a bunch of prima donnas rivaling the 50s Yawkey days. Not much of a team, and nobody to teach them.

[jung]

Come to think of it...this is exactly the way Sox at bats looked at the end of last season. Remember what Tito said...they no longer listened to him...he could not get them to respond. Stands to reason that these guys have not listened to nor responded to V from the very beginning.

[SoxSport]

It's up to the media to ask the right questions--

 

like why don't the Red Sox get more walks leading off a game?

 

and who really makes up the lineup card?

 

and who really determines which pitchers pitch when?

 

and why they don't force runs in close games?

[TutGadol]

Whoever chooses the inning ending songs on NESN has a good taste in music.

[jung]

Taking pitches that are outside the other way as opposed to trying to pull them is just straight up hitting sense though....purposefully hitting behind the runner is a component of small ball but not trying to pull balls you can't pull is just common sense. Trying to pull when you can't is just stupid, independently minded, senseless, and frankly selfish baseball.

[TutGadol]

Come to think of it...this is exactly the way Sox at bats looked at the end of last season. Remember what Tito said...they no longer listened to him...he could not get them to respond. Stands to reason that these guys have not listened to nor responded to V from the very beginning.

 

That's a good point, they're not working counts, not waiting for their pitches. Magdan is becoming desperate, they aren't listening to him and then become all apologetic in the press conferences.

[Bellhorn04]

That's a good point' date=' they're not working counts, not waiting for their pitches. Magdan is becoming desperate, they aren't listening to him and then become all apologetic in the press conferences.[/quote']

 

It's right there in the stats, plain and simple. For many years until this year we were in the top 3 in the league in walks. This year we're tied for 10th, very close to being second last in the league.

[SoxSport]

That's a good point' date=' they're not working counts, not waiting for their pitches. Magdan is becoming desperate, they aren't listening to him and then become all apologetic in the press conferences.[/quote']

 

The manager has no clout. And they know it. They are all a bunch of loose cannons.

[jung]

One thing I find truly interesting is the way the Sox can talk like they are actually "trying" when in fact it is so obvious that they are not working to any plan and equally obvious that V would not have it that way if he had a choice in the matter. If you are not working to a plan you are not in fact trying...you are just up there taking your hacks independent of any other thought process going on anywhere else on the "team". Players and Management alike are going to try to lay blame for this whole mess at the feet of V or possibly V and BC and as little as I care for either one, it ain't going to work. There is no way in my view any real student of the game is going to accept as fact that this is V's fault or V and BC's fault as much as it is the fault of upper management for running this team into the ground and the players for just being the worst examples for a complete and total lack of anything remotely resembling team baseball over what has now even spanned an off season.