7/14 Dodgers in Beantown

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Time for my We're not the Orioles chant.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Regarding Valasquez, totally non competitive. Find somebody that can put them in a situation where they at least have a chance. This roster has a lot of pieces you find at a junkyard.

 

A junkyard in Beverly Hills.

[Station 13]

Sell. They have no bullpen. Hanging by the thread.

[illinoisredsox]

Regarding Valasquez, totally non competitive. Find somebody that can put them in a situation where they at least have a chance. This roster has a lot of pieces you find at a junkyard.

 

Like I said, I’d rather see a kid in his spot in the pen. A kid might get better; Velazquez isn’t going to. Houdini acts don’t last forever.

[Oscars]

He's a solid player, a good hitter with occasional power, a good fielder, and good baserunner, but he is never going to be a great player. I'd move him while his value is high.

 

Right now he has none of those attributes

[a700hitter]

That was a long torturous loss where the manager, stupid base running and dumb fielding contributed to the loss.

[moonslav59]

I'm the last guy to ever give up on a season, but I'm leaning heavily towards SELL, SELL, SELL!

 

[a700hitter]

I'm the last guy to ever give up on a season, but I'm leaning heavily towards SELL, SELL, SELL!

 

I am not there yet.

[Station 13]

I'm the last guy to ever give up on a season, but I'm leaning heavily towards SELL, SELL, SELL!

 

 

Will the Dodgers take our shits this time?

[Jasonbay44]

The frustrating seasons keeps getting more and more irritating

[illinoisredsox]

Sell. They have no bullpen. Hanging by the thread.

 

Pen did pretty well tonight. Dodgers got to the 7th guy. They did virtually nothing against the other 6.

[Jasonbay44]

I am not there yet.

 

 

We have about two weeks to make this decision.

[moonslav59]

I am not there yet.

 

I'm "leaning" which means I'm not there "yet" either.

[moonslav59]

We have about two weeks to make this decision.

 

Yup, but the groundwork needs to be laid, first.

 

That could start now.

[a700hitter]

Right now, I am interested in seeing Cashner start on Tuesday.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

I'm the last guy to ever give up on a season, but I'm leaning heavily towards SELL, SELL, SELL!

 

 

Realistically, who can the SOX sell? They could sell JD and Beni. If they try to sell Sale and/or Price, the SOX will have to eat a lot of their contracts. Nunez, Leon, Pearce you can't give away. Porcello and Moreland might get the SOX something.

[Jason33]

Sell Sale massive contract with his great years behind him.

[moonslav59]

If we sell, these are the keepers:

 

Devers

Bogey

ERod

Vaz

Price

 

Betts, if he extends

 

Sale is untradeable.

 

Everyone else is traded, if the return is better.

 

All free agents to be should be traded for the best we can get.

 

Free agents after 2020 should be heavily shopped (JBJ).

 

Sell Beni, yesterday.

 

Line up some trade partners, see what we can get for Porcello, Holt, Moreland and Holt. Reset the tax in 2020 and shoot for a 2021 contender with or without Betts (or JD).

 

 

[Jason33]

I have to agree he’s been terrible unfortunately.

[moonslav59]

Realistically, who can the SOX sell? They could sell JD and Beni. If they try to sell Sale and/or Price, the SOX will have to eat a lot of their contracts. Nunez, Leon, Pearce you can't give away. Porcello and Moreland might get the SOX something.

 

Trade Porcello, Moreland, Holt (maybe resign him later), Beni and JBJ to start with.

 

Selling Price and Sale would not be worth it. They could still be a force when we get good again.

 

If we think JD will opt out, trade him. Maybe do it anyway. His back is acting up and he's 2 years older than when we took the risk.

[vegasbob]

If your season comes down to hector Velasquez's ability to pitch, you are already dead in the water. Just another gutless f*** trying to hang on. Watching Cora at the dugout corner watching Hector go up in flames was priceless. The bullpen completely torched because of the failure of another starter (Price ) to go even 6 innings . The 3 run HR was very bad luck, the cheapest HR in the majors, but it still counted. When hitters like Devers, JDM and Bogaerts fail to come through with the game on the line MULTIPLE times, maybe it is time to say we need to relook at this team, yet again. Andrew Cashner is fine as the #4 pitcher to finish the season but Andrew better not hope for a playoff situation because it will not happen this year.

[vegasbob]

12 hits, 6 walks and 2 Dodger errors to score a total of 4 runs---inexcusable. 2 more SOLO HR's vs a 3 run bloop to the Pesky Pole area. When this type of game happens to your team, don't expect much of a turnaround. They are jinxed this year.

[vegasbob]

Despite all my negativity, a sincere congrats to Benintendi for finding his arm and making a great throw to home to prolong the agony . First time in a while he showed a stronger arm. But the beard is a phony look for the matinee idol . And the f***ing neckwear looked like a pearl necklace on him.

[vegasbob]

BTW, Steven Wright may as well take a long draw on a natural gas pipeline as well after going once again on the IL after letting a shot hit him in the foot. What a waste of human protoplasm , only exceeded by the time Steve Pearce has spent IL'ing, and Mitch Moreland isn't far behind. These guys are in their 30's and contrary to popular belief, you do not need to be at 100% to play baseball at a decent level.

[oldtimer]

I went to bed and missed what I saw as inevitable. Sox down to their worst relief pitchers. So, they pllayed good ball most of the night but threw it away when getting a man on second and nobody out. It called forr a bunt to third with Mookie and Devers to follow. Instead, Cora decided to hit away, JBJ ran on a ball hit in front of him and the subsequent long fly to right was wasted. They can always walk Devers and it came down again to one man trying to hit (one in 4 chance). Bad base running and bad game management. The team should have won this one.

[jung]

Sell Dana LaVangie for one thing. This entire staff is caught in a time warp of nibblenibblenibble-ville. Either they don't have enough command of their pitches or they don't have enough confidence to throw in the strike zone, particularly with the rocket ship baseball. Its always one or the other and for a number of our starters, its both.

 

We had two Dodger pitchers show us about the only way you can throw as a starter and get your team through a season. You have to have SOMETHING you can throw in the strike zone for a strike, something that if the hitter does not swing is a called strike. Its not one of these stupid flat FB's whether at 93 or 96 but its not one of these breakers constantly thrown in the dirt either.

 

YES, you can get hitters out getting them to chase. My God, the modern hitter looks like a mouse chasing a piece of cheese they are so desperate to swing. But it will take these nibblers about 20 pitches an inning to get three outs.

 

This staff is numbingly similar one to the next:

- Sale can no longer throw his Slider. Even when he can throw it, he losses confidence in it in an a nanosecond. Why do you think his stints now end with a succession of crap FB's until Cora finally comes out and rescues him

- Porcello had his season in the sun when he turned himself into sort of a power pitcher. Must have burned out his arm because he cannot even do that anymore and his secondary pitches are not good enough to get by on

- Price has the means to get hitters out but it simply takes him too long to get there. Jays ragged him out for 100 pitches in 5....Dodgers just did the same. Does not matter who it is.

- Erod now has a magical Change which hitters cannot seem to figure out, be they LH or RH hitters. The hitters keep expecting it to either drift back over the plate or leak back to it and the way he throws it, its dead straight and just dies on the way to the plate. But his Slider is basically crap which means he is still a two pitch Starting pitcher. Even with that, he has shown more ability to throw at least SOMETHING that will be a called strike if the batter does not swing. That makes him an anomaly on this staff until and unless they put Nate back in the rotation.

 

The rocket ship has made pitchers leery of pitching in the zone. They are not good enough to pitch in the zone and their mistakes are now sent into orbit. So they spend entire games trying to slip an 0-0 get me over pitch by to get ahead in the count and then its nibblenibblenibble trying to get hitters to chase.

 

IMO, you need to have a monster pen to pitch the way our starters pitch. It just takes too many pitches to get hitters out even given that these stupid swing out of their shoelaces swings makes them in the main vulnerable to a good many different pitch types. They K a lot as a result and its now an entire game of K or HR, HR or K or BB.

 

Pitchers used to challenge you in the batters box. If you stood too close to the plate, they either made you dance in the batters box or flat knocked you down in the batters box to avoid being hit. Now, if one of these guys throws even close to inside, the broadcast teams are all atwitter about gaining control of the the plate....MY ASS they are...not even close to gaining some respect and holding down at least one side of the plate or the other! That creates a problem all its own because with the rocket ship, hitters can just reach across the plate one handed and if they can get any part of the barrel at all on it, ITS GONE to the opposite field. Then there are so few starters that have anything they can throw for a called strike especially in the AL, it has just become a joke.

 

So the first thing I would do is get rid of Time Warp LaVangie assuming Manfred won't take a sudden turn back to sanity and reverse the rocket ship. Then I would get some pitchers that actually had something they could get past hitters IN THE STRIKE ZONE. Pitchers have to have command to throw inside and gain control of part of the plate and they have to have command and movement in the strike zone to throw pitches that both induce swing and miss and are called strikes if the hitter does not swing. Either that or you better have one of the best pens in the business because your starters are all going to be up at 100 pitches in 5 innings which, WHAT A SHOCKER, is where our starters are in 5 innings.

 

Then I would clean house and get rid of the guys that are not worth what THEY think they are worth selling high as often as I could. Our superstar hitters can't hit breaking balls worth crap for one thing and it appears to me that this year's trend toward pitchers throwing more and more breaking stuff is going to continue. We have strayed too far in MLB from a version of the game designed to show the game AND its players in the best light and I honestly don't know if there is even the means to bring it back it has gone so awry. Pitchers don't pitch and hitters don't hit, not really. Welcome to 21st century MLB.

 

It is likely not possible in this day and age to build a rotation out of guys that can get swing and miss in the zone enough to matter, guys with command and movement in the zone. But to have maybe, MAYBE only one starter that can is death to any team that does not have a killer pen....its just that simple playing MANFRED-ball. This is the mess you get into when you have a commissioner so bound and determined to f*** with the game that he cannot even leave the GOD DAMNED BASEBALL ALONE. Good luck figuring out what to do to build your team.

[OH FOY]

Next 7 games while we play the bums, Toronto and Orioles, Sox need to go 5-2 minimum. Wildcard is absolutely not over. Come on now, lost to the Dodgers, plenty of games left. 69

Yanks play Rays, you automatically gain, if you win.

Wild cards have been determined many times on last day, and sometimes after.

When you play good teams expect a dogfight, when you play the bad ones, you have to take care of business.

Edited July 15, 2019 by OH FOY!

[TylerD]

Well that’s depressing to wake up to. All that for nothing. Ugh.

[Bellhorn04]

Next 7 games while we play the bums, Toronto and Orioles, Sox need to go 5-2 minimum. Wildcard is absolutely not over. Come on now, lost to the Dodgers, plenty of games left. 69

Yanks play Rays, you automatically gain, if you win.

Wild cards have been determined many times on last day, and sometimes after.

 

Get out of here with your positive thoughts LOL

[notin]

Right now, I am interested in seeing Cashner start on Tuesday.

 

Me too. But only because I’m hoping the Sox can flip him for other minor leaguers...