7/4 vs Padres

[Station 13]

Happy 4th

 

let's go

[SoxFanForsyth]

Webby looks good. Get him his first win. Leggo!!

[jung]

Boy has Ells turned it around since he stopped trying to jerk the ball over the RF fence. If Boras put that s*** into his head that is just one more reason I owe Boras a swift kick in the nuts.

[Palodios]

If there ever was a good day to get your first win, its against the Padres offense.

[jung]

Webby only using two pitches lately. May only need two to get these guys.

[Palodios]

I'd love to see the Padres using the 7 run rule this afternoon.

[a700hitter]

Nice start to the game. The kid has a couple of runs to work with. He needs to show that he can get through an order 3 times.

[jung]

Well that sucked....that looked like a ball Napoli should not have even tried to put a swing on that ball. So I guess we deserve it.

[Station 13]

s*** luck for Nap there

[SoxFanForsyth]

Webby at 24 pitches through 2. Helps that the padres are aggressive but he's pitching with good efficiency

[Mr Tibbs]

Where is the lineup??

[jung]

Boy looking at the HR numbers at the half way mark...wayyyyy off last year's numbers MLB wide. Guys like Davis going nuts but by and large HR numbers are way down. Regardless of the warmer weather, don't see a way for MLB to make up that big a year over year dif.

[jung]

Well that was a long out in early April or late September

[Palodios]

Brandon Synder is looking like a real major league player. Its funny that he replaced Pedro Ciriaco, and they're both 4A players who came in to play utility roles and and ended up overproducing.

[jung]

I wonder if Davis HR totals will prompt more players to go to that unbalanced bat with all the weight up in the barrel....like swinging an ax. Saw tape of #32 for Davis. He could have made that swing from a hammock. Just not even trying. Obviously have to be strong enough to handle that kinda' bat but it is not like he is putting these mighty strokes on balls. He is just dropping the head on the ball for the most part.

[a700hitter]

Brandon Synder is looking like a real major league player. Its funny that he replaced Pedro Ciriaco, and they're both 4A players who came in to play utility roles and and ended up overproducing.

He's seizing his opportunity and trying to make it hard for the Sox to call up Middlebrooks.

[jung]

Yea but I wonder how many more throws from 3rd like last night's Snyder might have in that arm of his. He is not exactly a defensive wiz. WMB is not great either but better than Synder. WMB probably back after the ASB.

 

WMB has to be able to recognize and lay off of ML sliders starting on the outer 3rd and headed off the plate. If he can't do that it hardly matters how many balls he knocks out at AAA. He will be meat up here. Volquez would have had the WMB we know spinning like a top. Hopefully waiting longer (apparently that is what he is trying to do down there) allows him better pitch recognition.

[Station 13]

Throw strikes.this staff walks too damn much.

[Standing Room]

Give Middlebrooks some time to get his head on straight, make him earn the promotion by hitting well for more than 12 games, ad then call him back up. He'd be a huge boost to the offense and defense (we'd get to put Iglesias at shortstop) if he could get back to the player he was last year.

[jung]

May Iggy never extend that swing out to where it was last year. If he can keep this swing where it is...he is on his way.

[a700hitter]

Another guy thrown out on the bases costs us a run and maybe more.

[jung]

Man this SD team must be tough to watch day in and day out. That even sounds like torture.

 

It just does not do anything. Nobody coming to the plate you really wait for...nobody pitching that you would anticipate....nobody in the field that makes you stand up and take notice. Probably have the world's fastest computer trying to figure out who they should send to the ASG.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Another guy thrown out on the bases costs us a run and maybe more.

 

Do you really have a problem with Pedroia stealing with Napoli up?? Come on now, there's a difference between sending Victorino with nobody out as Ortiz due up and then letting Pedroia, who has an 81% success rate, attempt to get into scoring position for the middle of the order and a guy who grounds into a lot of DP

[Bellhorn04]

6 innings 2 runs for Webster.

[a700hitter]

Do you really have a problem with Pedroia stealing with Napoli up?? Come on now, there's a difference between sending Victorino with nobody out as Ortiz due up and then letting Pedroia, who has an 81% success rate, attempt to get into scoring position for the middle of the order and a guy who grounds into a lot of DP

With the middle of the order up, I'd rather run with 2 outs to put him in scoring position with a single. Pedroia and Ells probably have green lights anyway, and Farrell didn't send him and Butterball didn't wave him over, so no, I don't have a big problem with that play. I was just noting that it was another guy thrown out on the bases and a lost run. Base running has not been a bright spot for this team.

[a700hitter]

Iggy has proved himself to be a dangerous bunter.

[Bellhorn04]

Iglesias refuses to drop below .400.

[jung]

I surely do not think the running issues here have been what Farrell had going in Toronto. That was hideous.

 

My biggest issues here are with Butterfield. Granted Farrell puts Butterfield out there. I am not sure Butterfield is even taking calculated risks cause he does not ever seem to hold the runner up. I would not have had Vic challenge Joey Bats in RF for example. I just did not get that. Butterfield has seen Bats throw. He is not only capable of making that throw but challenged is likely to make that throw. To me Butterfield does way too much of that. Somewhere along the way either in the regular season or post season if we get there I would not be surprised to see Butterfield really burn us somewhere along the way.

[a700hitter]

Webster did his job today. He still gives up way too many walks. 4 walks in 6 innings is living dangerously. He kept us in the game and bent but didn't break today, but he's not going to knock anyone out of the rotation yet.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Butterfield has not had that many guys thrown out at the plate by any means.

 

And this team has scored the most runs in the entire MLB while hitting only an average amount of homeruns (13th in MLB, 9th in AL). Clearly they're doing a good job of being aggressive on the bases without running into a ton of outs. When you're aggressive, you're going to get thrown out some, but you're also going to be able to score a ton of runs without relying on the HR.

 

Give me a team that manufactures runs and is aggressive on the bases over the team that relies on the long ball all day everyday and twice on Sunday.

 

There is no reason to complain about the baserunning on this team at all. It's clearly working very well.