joe

Folks, the Red Sox can’t advance without solid pitching. Hopefully Theo will be doing a lot of things this off-season. To the White Sox fans: I was not impressed with your team or your silly manager. I hope the Yanks will sweep you… remember you did not earn it, we gave it away!

Well, I just came from work and I have not seen anything, and yet I think I can answer your question: Because that Penguin in the dug out forgot that Matt is useless this time of the year, and he also forgot that he has Arroyo. All Penguins are created equal!!!!! They will never change until they are fired.

The White Sox are not a very good team now as they were. Their offense is no match to ours, their pitching is just above average at best. I see the Red Sox easily beating them 3-1.

Two thumbs down to Francona.

We could have DiNardo and Papelpon, and..., but the problem is that Tito won't use them until its too late.

There is some truth to that, but Yanks should blame themselves for the followings: 1-They made two costly errors. 2-Their manager kept their struggling starter for too long. 3-I am not sure why Sierra was in the lineup, he is not productive. 4-They had several chances (left bases loaded), and they did not deliver. Sox will gladly take any win.

LOL...LOL...LOL, of course it was Millar. Who else?

You guys are arguing about Millar, but the fact is that Millar did not add himself to the lineup list. It was his manager who put him in this lineup. Therefore all the blame should go to his manager! Look at how he is managing this series: on Tuesday Sox played two games. Game1=Wakefield, game2=Schilling Everybody knows that Schilling is struggling and he is likely not to pitch more than 6 or 7 innings. On the other hand Wakefield has been pitching 8 or 9 innings consistently. Papelbon is a starting pitcher, so if you use him in the bullpen, he can be used as a long reliever. Mike Myers, and Bradford are NOT long relievers! A smart manager would have used the following combinations: 1-Wakefield with Bradford/Myers. 2-Schillings with Papelbon in same game, and immediately take Schillings out of the game if he is not pitching well. Dumb Francona did the followings: 1-Wakefield with Papelbon. 2-Schillings with Mike Myers, and Bradford, and he made sure to keep struggling Schillings in the game until Schillings shot himself in the foot and we lost the game, and the Sox’s winning momentum is killed (they easily lost the next game). I am not even going to talk about his poor lineup choices. Sox, Yanks, and Guardians are pretty equal teams; it will take few smart moves by managers to tip the scale to one team or the other! We DO NOT have a smart manager to tip the scale in our favor. Instead, we have dumb Francona because Theo wanted to do it on the cheap! The Sox team has to play much harder to compensate for their manager’s stupidity.

I have to agree with you. When amateur Francona manages the game without Brad Mills help, expect bad moves like that.

The Yanks will play 4 games against the Orioles, and I think they will easily sweep them. The Orioles are a very bad team now. The Red Sox will play 4 games against the Blue Jays. The Sox has struggled against the Jays, and I just don’t see the Sox sweeping them! Assuming the Sox will win two games, then they will be behind by two games when the Yank-Sox series starts. Sox are playing at home, but the last time Sox-Yanks played at Fenway Park on July 14-17, Yanks took 3 out of 4!!! Sox are coming out of a long team-wide slump, while the Yanks are hot. Honestly, I am very concerned.

In my opinion “carrying the team” = RBIs. I don’t see how could Millar be carrying the team in September if he has only 5 RBIs, yet he played the most. Olerud who played once every three days has 11 RBIs, Damon and Cora both have 6. It is probably not accurate to use batting average as the sole indicator of the batter’s contribution to the team. If the team does not benefit from your hit, your hit is worthless(except to you since your batting average will go up). I guess you could say it is not his fault if his team can’t benefit from his hits, but this is why there is something called “clutch hitter”

I disagree. Timlin is simply not sharp tonight. This was clear from the beginning. It is the job of his stupid manager to take him out when he is struggling before more damage is done. The whole bull pen was available. What is wrong with using Mike Myers? Francona's stupidity = loss

Pitching-wise, in my opinion the most urgent issue is to get a "real" closer, not another starting pitcher or replace an existing one. Mike Timlin might not be able to handle this role for too long.

I would be worried. Matt has a long history of a “miserable” late-season pitching.

I have seen another similar post by Riverside Sluggers about RS slump in September, but I really believe that this is the best time to be in a slump. Slumps are cyclic, and you do not want your team to have a very good September only to slump in October. I believe once they get out of it, they might have a super October. I’ll start worrying about the RS slump if they don’t get out of it sometime late next week.

No, wrong! Francona did not win us World Series. Just before the playoffs, Francona had a meeting with all the coaches and told them I am not going to manage this team (of course because he can't), and that "we together" are going to manage it. Throughout the playoffs Francona was consulting with them, especially with Brad Mills who was the real brain, on almost every decision. Francona did not even make decisions on who was going to be the starter. He himself said that to the media on several occasions, and Theo knew it, and that is why he is not being paid well, and is not being taken seriously by the organization, and was lucky to get a contract extension. Francona does not have the skills to be an effective manager. He knows that, and baseball strategists know that. He had never been to school to learn baseball coaching, the only qualification he had is that he was a hitter in the majors, and that does not mean he will be a good manager! Rem Dawg who also was a hitter, said in his book about himself becoming a manager that he does not think he can handle the pressure and be an effective manager! Believe me, Rem Dawg is a lot smarter than dumb Francona. One more thing: Francona knows when to hide behind Brad Mills and avoid detection, but sooner or later he will make that big mistake and will lose his job, and we won’t have to worry about him.

His fielding errors are a concern, but his production has been actually good since late May. He struggled in April and most of May, so his Bat Ave=.288, and his OBP=.348 only. I like him a lot better than that "flamboyant Nomar". Most of his fielding errors are because he is rushing to deliver the ball prematurely. He is trying to do too much. The solution to these problems is for the manager to calm him down, something I am not sure if his manager is doing. At least he does not have "swing problems". I hope he calms down during the playoffs, there is no room for errors then.

I know your post was not addressed to me, but execuse me, you call the followings an "intelligent statistical research"? Olerud 2004 Avg.259 OB.359 SLG.374 HR9 OPS .733 Olerud 2003 Avg..269 OB..372 SLG.390 HR10 OPS.761 MILLAR 2005 Avg. .275 OB.358 SLG .389 HR 7 OPS.748 I call the above a very poor, misleading and meaningless statistical crap! You need to go back to school and take statistics101 again!!! The 03 season was Olerud's worst in his 17 years career, and it had to do with injuries. His career stats would show you the real Olerud: Olerud:Bat Ave=.296, OBP=.399 Millar:Bat Ave=.289,OBP=.365 Also Olerud was gold glove, Millar only dreams about it. So, picking Olerud's worst year from his 17 professional years to claim that Millar is the better, to me is very un-scientific, misleading and biased! To me the important issue is that we got three guys who can play 1st: Olerud, Millar, and Petagine. Stats show us that both Olerud and Petagine are better than Millar, so why Millar gets 90% of the playing time?

Selling alcohol “overly” to young men could lead to intoxication, and combine that with an anti-Yankee environment + youthful indiscretion then you got the perfect storm for troubles. Don’t they hold bar owners liable if they serve too much alcohol to their customers who later get involved in drunken drive?

My guess is that the Red Sox organization does not want to be liable for the actions of rowdy Sox fans. It is possible that some Yankees fans got assaulted by RS fans inside Fenway Park, and their lawyers might have argued that the RedSox club is responsible because they sell alcohol as well as “Yankees Suck” T-shirts, hence they’ve created a hostile environment for the Yankees fans. So, this ban is probably a decision that was made by lawyers, and not RS officials. I do not really think John Henry gives a damn about Yanks.

Because his manager does not know how to interpret the scouting report. According to the report Millar was 4 for 6 against that pitcher, so he sent him to bat thinking that there would be a %66.67 chance of getting a hit. 4 for 6 are statistically meaningless. Possible interpretation could be that Millar was “hot” one day, which is something very rare to see, and then he was 3 for 4, then on another day he was 1 for 2 with a walk. Another interpretation is that the pitcher himself was in a slump that day. So, 4 for 6 do not mean that he will have a %66.67 chance of getting a hit! A smart manager would have ignored this meaningless stat, and made the decision based on “who is hot now!” and since Millar is in a slump these days, a smart manager would not have sent him to bat. That ground ball killed the last momentum the Sox had. As for Remlinger, he is just another John Halama with a different name. Theo was going to do something about Sox’s pitching problems, but he was distracted by another episode of “Manny being Manny”. (Thank's Manny) Right now any team could beat the Sox (remember KC?), and this is scary because getting a wild card spot this year will be very difficult!

Good riddance. I wont miss him or his strikeouts. Hopefully, Francona and Millar are next.

No. Also, remember at the end of this season the 5-10 rule applies to him (5 years in the club, 10 years in the majors) so he will have veto power over any trading decision...

Maybe they should have sent fat ass Millar down there. Olerud/Petagine/Youk are all needed! but Millar is not needed.