8/31 @ A's Blue Moon...I saw you standing alone...

[VA Sox Fan]

RED SOX (62-70)

Podsednik LF

Pedroia 2B

Ellsbury CF

Ross RF

Loney 1B

Saltalamacchia C

Aviles DH

Ciriaco 3B

Iglesias SS

Pitching: RHP Aaron Cook (3-7, 4.76)

 

ATHLETICS (73-57)

Crisp CF

Drew SS

Reddick RF

Cespedes LF

Moss 1B

Gomes DH

Donaldson 3B

Kottaras C

Pennington 2B

Pitching: RHP Brandon McCarthy (7-5, 3.12)

 

Game time: 10:05 p.m.

[jung]

Ells apparently not hitting better than Iggy. Iggy missed a bunt attempt and promptly hit into a DP the other night. Ells missed a bunt attempt and promptly hit into a DP tonight.

[jung]

Cook sucks again tonight. Has not had a single ground ball. Not only no ground ball outs but no ground balls at all. Another laugher of a FO beauty....Cook starting for the Red Sox...terrific.

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

No one has mojo. No more gamethreads for the rest of the year.

[Taz]

FFS, Here we go again... allow 4 in 2nd inning. http://www.talkceltic.net/forum/images/smilies/31.gif

[jung]

Heck the game threads are about the only fun we can have this woeful season.

 

It is amazing to see how fine Cook must be to succeed. His margin for error is something on the order of .0001%

[Bellhorn04]

FFS, Here we go again... allow 4 in 2nd inning. http://www.talkceltic.net/forum/images/smilies/31.gif

 

To hell with it, Taz...these games are just advance preseason games for 2013.

 

The Yankees lost to the O's tonight...only 2 games ahead of them now. :thumbsup:

[TylerD]

Just got back from a week of vacation. Nice to see not much has changed for the Red Sox

[Bellhorn04]

Sox are 62-70 coming into this game. I would take a rough stab at 10-20 in their last 30 to end up 72-90.

[Bellhorn04]

Another Sox starter digs a grave for the team in the first few innings.

[Bellhorn04]

Let's see how far Tazawa can go. Time to have a look at him as a starter I would think.

[a700hitter]

Cook sucks so bad. He doesn't belong in the majors. Are they going to subject us to him for the rest of the year? It's not like he is in our future plans.

[jung]

Sounds about right Bell. I had thought they would flip what they had to do (win almost two out of every three) and lose at just about that rate and that looks like where they are going.

 

I frankly do not think they would have done a whisker better with Crawford, Agons and Beckett. Beckett is the only one of the three that pitches....sort of!

 

Notice that the Dodgers have started to slide since taking on a few Sox players....about the equivalent of adding a couple of tons of lead to a ship already taking water.

[Bellhorn04]

Sounds about right Bell. I had thought they would flip what they had to do (win almost two out of every three) and lose at just about that rate and that looks like where they are going.

 

I frankly do not think they would have done a whisker better with Crawford, Agons and Beckett. Beckett is the only one of the three that pitches....sort of!

 

Notice that the Dodgers have started to slide since taking on a few Sox players....about the equivalent of adding a couple of tons of lead to a ship already taking water.

 

Yes, I think that this trade with the Sox is going to wipe some of the smile off Magic's face.

[Taz]

To hell with it, Taz...these games are just advance preseason games for 2013.

 

The Yankees lost to the O's tonight...only 2 games ahead of them now. :thumbsup:

 

 

That's about it though... just maybe the O's can catch them... Maybe if we can do the O's a favour & sweep the Wankees in the series at home in a week or so... Hey, who knows, huh?

 

Cook gone. We've been told how tired the bullpen is & it now has 6+ inn to cover...

 

It's after 4 in the morning here... why am I doing this to myself? :dunno:

[Bellhorn04]

Cook sucks so bad. He doesn't belong in the majors. Are they going to subject us to him for the rest of the year? It's not like he is in our future plans.

 

So out of the dung heap of pitchers Ben collected in the offseason, one of them contributed, Padilla.

[jung]

Cook is horrible...as bad as the Sox starters have been Cook is the only one of them that if you just took a few years off of us, we could very likely hit. He is that bad.

[a700hitter]

So out of the dung heap of pitchers Ben collected in the offseason, one of them contributed, Padilla.

...and none contributed in a positive way as starters. The only depth they provided was with regard to the height of the garbage heap.

[jung]

Geez I forgot the ever forgettable Punto in my list of recent ex-Sox now Dodgers. They actually had Punto leading off the other night.....and we beat up V for his lineups. Come to think of it, with Punto, AGons, Crawford, Beckett and HanRam in the Dodger stable, they probably don't have a snowballs chance in hell....to much Red Sox weight to carry around.

[jung]

As for the Sox dung heap of pitchers.....that was a sham from the start. Some of our forum members tried to compare it to what the Yanks did in 2011 to try to help their rotation along and there was never any comparison between the two approaches. At least you could look at the Yankee choices and consider them reasonable risks, less than 50% bets for the most part but you could see your way to what led them to take a shot on somebody. The Sox choices were simply choices of convenience. As soon as some team threw somebody on the dung heap, here came the Red Sox.

[a700hitter]

As for the Sox dung heap of pitchers.....that was a sham from the start. Some of our forum members tried to compare it to what the Yanks did in 2011 to try to help their rotation along and there was never any comparison between the two approaches. At least you could look at the Yankee choices and consider them reasonable risks, less than 50% bets for the most part but you could see your way to what led them to take a shot on somebody. The Sox choices were simply choices of convenience. As soon as some team threw somebody on the dung heap, here came the Red Sox.

It was pretty obvious that none of the dung that they flung at the wall would stick... and none of it did.

[a700hitter]

We are not even competitive. They are just horrible.

[Bellhorn04]

As for the Sox dung heap of pitchers.....that was a sham from the start. Some of our forum members tried to compare it to what the Yanks did in 2011 to try to help their rotation along and there was never any comparison between the two approaches. At least you could look at the Yankee choices and consider them reasonable risks, less than 50% bets for the most part but you could see your way to what led them to take a shot on somebody. The Sox choices were simply choices of convenience. As soon as some team threw somebody on the dung heap, here came the Red Sox.

 

And then of course there were the exciting starter tryouts for Bard and Aceves. And here we are on August 31 and both of them are totally f***ed up.

[DocHolliday]

 

That's about it though... just maybe the O's can catch them... Maybe if we can do the O's a favour & sweep the Wankees in the series at home in a week or so... Hey, who knows, huh?

 

Cook gone. We've been told how tired the bullpen is & it now has 6+ inn to cover...

 

It's after 4 in the morning here... why am I doing this to myself? :dunno:

 

It's amazing to me that we are less than an hr from the beginning of September and the A's and O's are leading the wild card. These were teams that nobody had on their radar at the beginning of the season.

 

The O's were hot out of the gate and haven't faded out like they have in recent years - thanks in large part to a statistically defying record in 1 run games and hits on all of their young pitchers.

 

Meanwhile the A's stumbled out of the gate and caught fire at about the time the Sox were in Oakland in early July. In a way, their run this year is similar to their "moneyball" years when they we're ridiculously hot during the 2nd half.

 

If you include the Rays in the conversation, that is 3 of the 8 legitimate contenders for playoff spots in the AL with either weak fan support and/or small market challenges. Without the thrill of a 1 game wild card game, a Orioles/Rays, A's/Rays, or Orioles/A's playoff matchup in a 5 or 7 game series would likely go down as the least followed playoff matchup in years.

[a700hitter]

Sox are 62-70 coming into this game. I would take a rough stab at 10-20 in their last 30 to end up 72-90.

If they lose 90 games, it will be something that they have not done since 1966. I didn't start watching the Sox until 1967. This will be a first for me. Last year's collapse was historic too. This ownership has had some very terrible accomplishments to go with the good accomplishments.

[jung]

Remy talking about team chemistry based on Reddicks comments to Nalco saying that the A's have floated on team chemistry and pitching. I actually think that Remy and Reddick are talking about two different types of team chemistry. Remy is clearly taking about whether or not teammates get along or are buddies, maybe even kindred spirits. That is not what Reddick is talking about. Reddick is talking about the ability for a team to gel on the field. All those teams that Remy talks about not having buddy buddy chemistry gelled on the field. Their playing styles fit together into a cohesive effort.

 

The Sox dick-heads may have liked each, even loved each other but as good as they might have been as individual athletes, they never gelled on the field.

[Station 13]

Aceves = home run pitcher

[TylerD]

It's amazing to me that we are less than an hr from the beginning of September and the A's and O's are leading the wild card. These were teams that nobody had on their radar at the beginning of the season.

 

The O's were hot out of the gate and haven't faded out like they have in recent years - thanks in large part to a statistically defying record in 1 run games and hits on all of their young pitchers.

 

Meanwhile the A's stumbled out of the gate and caught fire at about the time the Sox were in Oakland in early July. In a way, their run this year is similar to their "moneyball" years when they we're ridiculously hot during the 2nd half.

 

If you include the Rays in the conversation, that is 3 of the 8 legitimate contenders for playoff spots in the AL with either weak fan support and/or small market challenges. Without the thrill of a 1 game wild card game, a Orioles/Rays, A's/Rays, or Orioles/A's playoff matchup in a 5 or 7 game series would likely go down as the least followed playoff matchup in years.

 

Our division is simply scary. I really don't know how long it will take for the Sox to be a competitor again. But with the Yanks and Rays playing as good as they always do, and now Baltimore in the picture this division is insane. Not to mention the Bluejays always start the season hot, but seem to fade out. They might be a tough team next season if they play an entire season rather then just half. They have given the sox a lot of trouble this year. Then again.... Most teams have. It's sad to say but the Sox are going to have to be better then good next year to compete in this division. And that is a LONG LONG road from what we are this season.

[a700hitter]

And then of course there were the exciting starter tryouts for Bard and Aceves. And here we are on August 31 and both of them are totally f***ed up.

Two very good bullpen arms that are probably ruined.

[TylerD]

Damn I can't even get mad anymore. Spent to much energy getting mad this season. I'm tired. I'll just smile and shake my head.