6/23 @ Detroit

[mvp 78]

In fact the more I look at the idiot ump claiming he knew what the f*** he was talking about to Farrell his argument is a complete fabrication.

 

Nava had already turned his glove over to make the transfer BEFORE the ball came out. The ump was arguing that the glove simply moved down without Nava having rolled the glove over to get the ball out. Absolute worst call outside of balls and strikes I have ever seen. That is 50 years of baseball. Nice job ump.

 

The worst? C'mon now. That is not even comparable to Knoblauch's phantom tag. Let's be real for a second.

[MJantomaso]

The fact that players arent pulling their weight is not Farrells fault.

[jung]

The fact that players arent pulling their weight is not Farrells fault.

I guess you are referring to comments about Bailey. Problem with throwing Bailey out there in a 1 run game in the 7th inning is that is "Not a low leverage" situation. Farrell is choosing to toss Bailey out there in situations where he is doomed to failure. You could see it from the very first pitch Bailey threw. He had no shot. Bailey is done...maybe done for a career and it does not take a rocket scientist to see it.

 

As for Felix and his inability to get past 5-6 innings. That is not Farrell's fault. It is what it is. We all hoped we had started the season with one more arm for the rotation. None of that is Farrell's doing.

 

I probably would not have liked seeing Bailey out there in the 6th against the bottom of the Tiger's order either but that would have been worlds better than the 7th against the top of the Tiger's order.

[SoxFanForsyth]

The worst? C'mon now. That is not even comparable to Knoblauch's phantom tag. Let's be real for a second.

 

I'm not saying it's the worst in the last 50 years, but it's up there. This play was right in front of him, and in broad daylight. There was no playoff pressure that could have gotten to him or anything like that.

 

It was a pathetic call, period.

[mvp 78]

The fact that players arent pulling their weight is not Farrells fault.

 

Yeah, more often than not, it's the players' fault not the manager's or umpire's.

[italstallianion]

That's why they say it's easier to fire 1 guy instead of 25.

[italstallianion]

I'm not saying it's the worst in the last 50 years, but it's up there. This play was right in front of him, and in broad daylight. There was no playoff pressure that could have gotten to him or anything like that.

 

It was a pathetic call, period.

 

 

Where's a challenge call when you need it.

[jung]

Why do I consider today's call in RF the worst call outside of balls and strikes I have seen in 50 years?

 

Because the phantom tag call is one that is pretty frequently missed and you can argue that one is worse than another by a matter of degrees. You did not have the wrong ump even trying to make the call in the case of the phantom tag.

 

This was a failure of the entire ump crew, most particularly the 2nd base ump and the 1st base ump. I am not even sure which is worse...the 2nd base ump for making a call that he did not see and should not have made or the 1st base ump for not having positioned himself as he should have both making the call and preventing the 2nd base ump from even opening his big mouth in the process. What the 2nd base ump was claiming to Farrell did not even happen. To me, absolutely the worse call I have seen outside of balls and strikes.

 

As I said before, what really disturbs me here is that Selig now has entire ump crews that are not doing their jobs and have no idea where they should be and what they should be doing to make solid calls. While I am not happy about individual umps making bad calls, I am way less happy with whole crews of umps blundering around the field like the Keystone Kops, one lying and the other swearing to it.

 

Worse yet...believe it or not...in the face of everything the 2nd base ump is STILL sticking by his call. To me, now that in-season PED testing will be the rule of the road going forward, the abysmal performance of ML umpire crews and individual umps, their attitude toward players and coaches, their insistence on inserting themselves into games in meaningful ways when their goal should be to disappear into the woodward is far and away the biggest problem MLB faces. My comment about this being the worse call I have seen in 50 years is as much driven by the downward spiral of individual ump performance and the downward spiral of ump crew performance as it is by the specifics of the call itself.

 

It should not be a surprise that the worst officiating in pro team sports occurs in the leagues acknowledged to have the worst commissioners, the MLB and the NBA.

 

You guys that have been petitioning for finding the means to remove some of the power from umps either via replay and coaches challenges or even software based systems to make ball and strike calls have finally won me over. f*** um'. Less control by umps will be better than the same or more control by umps. Fewer umps will even be better than more umps. This is the year when for whatever reason the level of ineptitude has just gone over the top. Maybe it is worse because years of being bad finally results in performance getting worse and worse. That this is the worse year the umps have ever had is an opinion we have heard from virtually every corner except of course the ever silent MLB itself. I guess the degree to which one might be willing to tolerate this BS varies from one to the next. However I can no longer defend anything that allows the umps to continue to have the degree of control over games that they have. It is time for this to end IMO.

[mvp 78]

Ah yes, I forgot how beloved Gary Bettman is...

[SoxSport]

Bailey has imploded, and putting him out there in a one run game was risky. Fact is, Red Sox pitching is sinking fast, and Farrell is left with a bunch of guys who are unreliable save for a few. When you have starters who can't go more than 5 innings, you wear out your bullpen.

 

The Front Office has not done an effective job in replenishing the pitching--after Hanrahan went down. The team has been hanging onto 1st place in baseball's toughest division, and the urgency to bolster the pitching doesn't seem to be there. DeLaRosa, for example, is rated a better prospect than Webster, and they are sitting on him like a hen keeping an egg warm. They babied Buchholz for years, and guess where it got them? A guy who is fragile. Miller is another guy they hang onto, and he craps the bed every other inning he pitches. Not consistent throwing strikes. Granted Bailey's implosion was unexpected, but it's a disaster considering they did nothing to replace Hanrahan.

 

Hard to see this team staying on top of the division with the pitching in disarray. They need some boldness.

[a700hitter]

I missed today's game, but the pen seems to need some help. Bailey has turned into last seasons Heath Bell.

 

4 games in the loss column separate the entire division.

[jung]

Might even be worse than Heath Bell. Bailey does not have a single pitch that he can throw that he can get by hitters. He just doesn't. It is so obvious now that you can see the balls coming back off the hitter's bat as the ball is leaving Bailey's hand.

 

I actually would give the Sox more credit than saying this was entirely unexpected as well. While I know it is popular to say they got Hanrahan as insurance against a future Bailey injury if you just look at Bailey's pitch usage you can see the slider disappearing. You can see everything but the FB disappearing long before this. I think the Sox probably saw something like this in Bailey's near future...maybe not as bad as this but close enough to need somebody else to be the closer for this team. Unfortunately, Hanrahan was on the way to surgery. Not sure that is anything more than a really bad break, like what they have now with Ross.

 

As for why Farrell is doing what he is doing...I have no earthly idea.

[User Name]

Bailey has imploded, and putting him out there in a one run game was risky. Fact is, Red Sox pitching is sinking fast, and Farrell is left with a bunch of guys who are unreliable save for a few. When you have starters who can't go more than 5 innings, you wear out your bullpen.

 

The Front Office has not done an effective job in replenishing the pitching--after Hanrahan went down. The team has been hanging onto 1st place in baseball's toughest division, and the urgency to bolster the pitching doesn't seem to be there. DeLaRosa, for example, is rated a better prospect than Webster, and they are sitting on him like a hen keeping an egg warm. They babied Buchholz for years, and guess where it got them? A guy who is fragile. Miller is another guy they hang onto, and he craps the bed every other inning he pitches. Not consistent throwing strikes. Granted Bailey's implosion was unexpected, but it's a disaster considering they did nothing to replace Hanrahan.

 

Hard to see this team staying on top of the division with the pitching in disarray. They need some boldness.

 

Yeah, let's rush the guy coming back from TJS who's still building up his pitch count. You're an idiot.

[MJantomaso]

Bailey needs one of those phantom DL stints to get his mind right. He's shown that he can be a reliable relief pitcher in the past but he's not all there between the ears. Confidence plays such a huge roll in a players performance and clearly Bailey is depleted of it.

[seabeachfred]

It wasn't a tie game. The Sox had a lead.

 

the bullpen is in shambles because Bailey sucks and the starters are going 5 innings.

 

The fact is we have another dugout dud as a manager and a carbon copy of FrancoMa's "I DON'T WANT TO LOSE HIM" idiocy that has plagued us the past few years. From Farrelcona"s own words he said just two days earlier that Bailey would only be used in low leverage situations. Yeh, right!!!! There have been too many cases the last few years where is has become the function of the manager to "save" the spirit of a player at the expense of the team we all saw that yesterday. The result is the team has gotten hurt badly because of managerial stupidity. Just keep in mind that while Farrelancona was managing Toronto they has two years worse than the two preceding him. We have a real mediocrity dugout dunce in our midst and I don't care who likes hearing it or not. We now should be four games ahead but the guy cost us two games in Detroit and four in the last two weeks. Our team cannot afford such ineptitude.

[seabeachfred]

It wasn't a tie game. The Sox had a lead.

 

the bullpen is in shambles because Bailey sucks and the starters are going 5 innings.

 

The fact is we have another dugout dud as a manager and a carbon copy of FrancoMa's "I DON'T WANT TO LOSE HIM" idiocy that has plagued us the past few years. From Farrelcona"s own words he said just two days earlier that Bailey would only be used in low leverage situations. Yeh, right!!!! There have been too many cases the last few years where is has become the function of the manager to "save" the spirit of a player at the expense of the team we all saw that yesterday. The result is the team has gotten hurt badly because of managerial stupidity. Just keep in mind that while Farrelancona was managing Toronto they has two years worse than the two preceding him. We have a real mediocrity dugout dunce in our midst and I don't care who likes hearing it or not. We now should be four games ahead but the guy cost us two games in Detroit and four in the last two weeks. Our team cannot afford such ineptitude.

[SoxSport]

Their pitching is in trouble, and they are sitting on two guys in AAA who could help. It's a joke that Aceves is still in purgatory after he has saved them twice now in two starts getting called up. His reward was back to purgatory. DeLaRosa has always been ahead of Webster in the prospect list, and he is pitching lights out in AAA. They are babying this guy the same way they babied Buchholz a few years back. Both of these guys need to be tried in the rotation before there is a complete pitching collapse. Or at least in relief to replace some of the stiffs they have right now.

 

We know Buchholz is the anti-Pedey, but what happened to Lester? Farrell/Nieves were getting credit for fixing this guy, but he has become unfixed and they haven't found any answers.

 

They are 25-25 their last 50 games, since going 20-8 to start the season. That's enough in this division to miss the playoffs. Wake up, front office. Time to set aside politics.

[seabeachfred]

Their pitching is in trouble, and they are sitting on two guys in AAA who could help. It's a joke that Aceves is still in purgatory after he has saved them twice now in two starts getting called up. His reward was back to purgatory. DeLaRosa has always been ahead of Webster in the prospect list, and he is pitching lights out in AAA. They are babying this guy the same way they babied Buchholz a few years back. Both of these guys need to be tried in the rotation before there is a complete pitching collapse. Or at least in relief to replace some of the stiffs they have right now.

 

We know Buchholz is the anti-Pedey, but what happened to Lester? Farrell/Nieves were getting credit for fixing this guy, but he has become unfixed and they haven't found any answers.

 

They are 25-25 their last 50 games, since going 20-8 to start the season. That's enough in this division to miss the playoffs. Wake up, front office. Time to set aside politics.

 

You said it on another thread SoxSport......they over-develop players and keep them in the minors too long while signing guys on the downside of their careers and therefore blocking the young guys. We need pitching badly right now, especially with Buchholz out with whatever candy-ass mishap he has while Lester had been downright putrid. Jon may also be a very weak and fragile persons despite his courageous battle and victory over cancer. Some pitchers have slumps but battle and still persevere. Lester goes deep in the tank.

[User Name]

It's funny you say that Fred, given how aggressively they have been promoting guys as of late. What you and SoxSport are saying is absolutely wrong. The only reason RDLR isn't in the big league roster is because they're still building up his pitch count.

[a700hitter]

Meanwhile, today marks the one-year anniversary of the Red Sox trading Kevin Youkilis to make room for Will Middlebrooks.

 

It was a deal that didn't work out too well for any of the players involved so far. Consider:

 

• Youkilis has hit .232 in 108 games for the White Sox and Yankees with a .335 on-base percentage. The 34-year-old is on the disabled list for the second time this season with the Yankees. He underwent back surgery in California last week to repair a herniated disc and is expected to miss at least 10-12 weeks.

 

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said the team does not expect Youkilis to return before the final weeks of September — if then.

 

• The Red Sox received righthander righthander Zach Stewart and infielder Brett Lillibridge from Chicago in return for Youkilis. Stewart pitched poorly in two starts and was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates after the season for Kyle Kaminska, a minor league lefthander who played in six games and retired.

 

Lillibridge was traded to the Guardians in July, released in November and signed by the Cubs. They traded him to the Yankees last week — ironically to improve their depth at third base because of the loss of Youkilis.

 

The only peripheral return on Youkilis for the Red Sox is righthanded reliever Jose De La Torre, who was obtained from Cleveland for Lillibridge. He has pitched in three games for the Sox but spent most of the season with Triple A Pawtucket.

 

• Since the day Youkilis was traded, Middlebrooks has hit .210 with a .646 OPS. He broke his right wrist last Aug. 10 when he was hit by a pitch and missed the rest of the season.

 

Middlebrooks started slowly this season and lost his job to Jose Iglesias. He has not played in five of the last six games.

[jung]

Really worried that the Sox will give up on WMB only to find some other team putting the effort into getting him straightened out and doing so successfully.

[VA Sox Fan]

Pitching matchups for the Rockies series

 

Posted by Peter Abraham, Globe Staff June 24, 2013 09:45 AM

 

 

Tuesday: RHP Juan Nicasio (4-3, 4.78) vs. RHP Ryan Dempster (4-8, 4.23), 7:10 p.m., NESN

 

Wednesday: RHP Roy Oswalt (0-1, 7.20) vs. RHP John Lackey (4-5, 3.03), 4:05 p.m., NESN, MLB Network.

[MJantomaso]

Really worried that the Sox will give up on WMB only to find some other team putting the effort into getting him straightened out and doing so successfully.

 

You don't think the sox are trying to get him all sorted out?

[SoxFanForsyth]

Really worried that the Sox will give up on WMB only to find some other team putting the effort into getting him straightened out and doing so successfully.

 

If they do "give up" on WMB, it will be in a trade, and they'll have to get a really good return for him. They're absolutely not going to DFA him or sell low on him.

 

I could see him going in a deal to Philly, though. The team that likely needs a 3B the most this year would be our rivals.

[Standing Room]

They won't be giving on on Middlebrooks any time soon. He's 24 years old and he has options. Plus his "dead pull" swing was made for Fenway.

[a700hitter]

If they do "give up" on WMB, it will be in a trade, and they'll have to get a really good return for him. They're absolutely not going to DFA him or sell low on him.

 

I could see him going in a deal to Philly, though. The team that likely needs a 3B the most this year would be our rivals.

I hope they send him to AAA. He's killing one of my fantasy teams, and I don't want to cut him.

[seabeachfred]

It's funny you say that Fred, given how aggressively they have been promoting guys as of late. What you and SoxSport are saying is absolutely wrong. The only reason RDLR isn't in the big league roster is because they're still building up his pitch count.

 

It's been better "of late" but you only have to look at Lavarnway to see how they have held him back.....and for what, Ross? Ross has been bouncing around the ballparks for the past decade and it is always the same. Whatever defense he brings to the ballpark is totally cancelled out and then some by his pathetic hitting. Meanwhile Ryan is up and down and up and down some more. And what about Kalish? He was solid in 2010 and should have been our RF in 2011 but we had Drew and that $15 million albatross, so money trumped talent. Drew did nothing and go hurt again while Kalish was sent down where he got injured and has been a sunk cost since. Better now? Yes, to a point, but once again a Drew is keeping a young player out of the lineup.....meaning Middlebrooks. I'm going to warn you and others of something. If the Red Sox misuse this guy or trade him to another team they will regret it. He is a player who has 30 homer, 100 RBI talent and he should be playing 3B with Iggy at short. Meanwhile Drew and his 225 batting average is in the lineup because once again money trumps talent and common sense.

[jung]

I can see an argument for sending WMB down at this point. Hopefully he will get some help to go along with the playing time. I hope WMB gets more than playing time in Pawtucket. He needs a plan for one thing.

 

I never could find out if Iggy converted to the more compact swing he uses now vis the assistance of somebody in Pawtucket or if he adopted it on his own. Lavs sounds like he was left to his own devices . WMB needs help. Hope he gets some.

[User Name]

It's been better "of late" but you only have to look at Lavarnway to see how they have held him back.....and for what, Ross? Ross has been bouncing around the ballparks for the past decade and it is always the same. Whatever defense he brings to the ballpark is totally cancelled out and then some by his pathetic hitting. Meanwhile Ryan is up and down and up and down some more. And what about Kalish? He was solid in 2010 and should have been our RF in 2011 but we had Drew and that $15 million albatross, so money trumped talent. Drew did nothing and go hurt again while Kalish was sent down where he got injured and has been a sunk cost since. Better now? Yes, to a point, but once again a Drew is keeping a young player out of the lineup.....meaning Middlebrooks. I'm going to warn you and others of something. If the Red Sox misuse this guy or trade him to another team they will regret it. He is a player who has 30 homer, 100 RBI talent and he should be playing 3B with Iggy at short. Meanwhile Drew and his 225 batting average is in the lineup because once again money trumps talent and common sense.

 

You keep banging the Lavarnway drum, but he could have hit his way into the MLB roster, but didn't. Deal with it.

 

Drew is playing because he's been excellent defensively and has provided some semblance of offense while WMB provides neither of. That's why he's at SS and Iglesias, who, with his superior defensive ability, was able to move around the diamond, is at third. That is the common sense move. You're just looking for an excuse to whine.

 

The Kalish point has been hammered into oblivion, and is a massive logical fallacy. Again, just whining for the sake of whining.

 

The important thing is what's currently happening, and as your above point proves it's been better. Under the current FO, this organization has never been shy in promoting positional prospects, and suggesting or stating otherwise is ridiculous. The problem is that they've coddled pitching prospects to the extent that it hurts their development. That point is absolutely true, but it's something that's improving at the organizational level as we see the aggressive promotion of pitching prospects this season, with Webster already making his debut, and RDLR soon to follow.

 

Isn't it all about "what have you done for me lately" anyway?

[User Name]

I can see an argument for sending WMB down at this point. Hopefully he will get some help to go along with the playing time. I hope WMB gets more than playing time in Pawtucket. He needs a plan for one thing.

 

I never could find out if Iggy converted to the more compact swing he uses now vis the assistance of somebody in Pawtucket or if he adopted it on his own. Lavs sounds like he was left to his own devices . WMB needs help. Hope he gets some.

 

I remember reading somewhere that both our good friend A-Rod and D-Ped had a hand in him adopting the new, contact-first stroke.