MANNYHOF24

Yeah, thats pretty much true, Im not huge into the MLB draft, do power hitters never fall into the lower first round?

Because I am a huge Manny homer.

No one in particular actually, I was just looking at a guy like Longoria, and wish that our system could produce a power hitter once every ten years. I love the pitching and guys like Youkilis, Pedroia and Ellsbury. I think its the one thing our system could use.

am I the only one who doesnt think the Manny thing is a huge deal?

Good rebound by Matterson.

Just a random question, are we ever going to let a stud hitting prospect make it through our system?

I think Buchholz is a better option than Matterson.

Wait, I was distracted, homerun by who?

I think the key tonight is getting to Sheilds early, and not let him settle in like the time he shut us out back in april.

Yeah, I havent made a gamethread since early april, actually i havent been around here much lately, but is it sad that i realized that I missed a message board? I don't think so either.

Matterson vs. Shields Since there was no gamethread I decided to start one. Big week, get it done. Manny mojo is back and better than ever. http://www.mthope-eastside.com/blog/archives/manny-2.jpg

Colds dont keep a player like Varitek out for 10 games, buddy.

It had nothing to do with NESN's brodcast of the games actually. It was just the way there were had been advirtising, the week ahead. Division Collision. haha I dont know why I put that in the title, I just think it was lame.

ok, i'll try to refute some of these, the ones I don't I agree with you on. 1. I pretty much agree with you on this one, however the only thing I will say is look at 2004, when Millar started slow but then picked it up big time in the second half. I think that was justifyable for awhile but he should have not gotten any playing time after August. Samething with Belhorn, I mean come'on these guys were huge contributers for the first championship run, he wasn't just going to abbandon them after a slow first month. I think with Belhorn he was pretty much burried by mid-june anyways. 2. Embree was not tito's fault. He pitched like s*** all year even after the Red Sox realsed him in late July. I don't think it's tito's fault when a pitcher doesn't pitch well, I mean its not like he wasnt putting him in the same situations he was sucessful in during the previous year. As for Remlinger, his success came in the much weaker national leauge after his short stint with the sox. 3. As for Renteria, there was no indiacation that the FO and tito knew exactly how hurt he was. I think that was purely Edgar's fault for not letting the Red Sox know he was hurt as bad as he probably was. As for Hanely, know one knew he was going to be as good as he was. He was a struggling minor league hitter in AA at that time. Hindsight is always 20-20. 4. Shoppach? Seriously, it's not as if the FO lost faith in him because he had two bad games. At the time he wasn't in the Sox plans to play alot. That's not Tito, that is on Theo for not giving hime more of an extended stay at the big leauge level. 5. As for Cla Merideth, if he can't handle giving up one homerun then do you really think he could have ever thrived here? Plus if you look at his stats, he is getting worse ever year in a big way. I think if he was allowed to stay in Boston after that for more than a few apperances, he would have been fine. That was another Theo not giving him more time with the club. 6. Hansen is not Tito's fault. I would blame more the Boston pitching coaching staff for tinkering him mechanics, as well as Theo for bringing him up way to soon. Explain logically how this is Franconas fault? I would love to hear this one. 7. Completely agree on Schilling, but I split the blame 75% francona, 25% Schilling for not being honest. 8. Foulke-Timlin-Papelbon If you really remember september 2005 as well as I do, then you remember how huge it was for papelbon to come in and pitch 2-3 innings. I think the way our pitching was that year it he was more vaulable in that capacity. Timlin did a decent job as closer, but he wouldnt have had a chance to save games if paps hadn't pitched so brillantly in middle/late relief. Foulke should have been pulled by mid-may, no earlier no late IMO. The fact that he was still the closer until the end of June was a mistake. But he was an established all-star closer that deserved a chance to work himself out a little bit. 9. Bronson Arroyo does not have all-star stuff. The only reason he pitched well in the first half of 2006, was because the NL hitters hadnt seen anyone like him. Look how he has done the last two years. 10. Am I missing something, was it known Clement had an arm injury late in 2005? I thought that wasnt discovered well into 2006. Im pretty sure, I may be wrong. 11. Who else would have played secondbase? He was the secondbase men that Theo had given him, so he played him. I think it's as simple as that. 12. Finally about Manny. I have been the biggest Manny supporter here I think. But do you remember what happened that led to this? Manny refused to play on a scheduled off day, even after injuries the previous night to Damon, or Nixon I can't remember. I don't think Tito was even the one who got into it with Manny the most. I think it was Schilling, but even still Manny was WAY out of line there and deserved to have had anything happen to him that did. Also to say that Tito was the one that wanted him gone is pretty ridiculous. Theo had been tryting to get rid of this guy since 2003, and he thought he had finally gotten his justification. There, phew that took alot out of me. Go ahead rip apart everything I said, but thats all I got.

Possibly the pressure of the contract year spilling over? I know usually things don't seem to phase him, but he is human.

I understand your thinking, but pitchers have bad months. You can't just abandon them for the rest of the season. We are going to need Okajima down the stretch. Jima was rested (relative to the rest of the bulpen) since he had the night off on sunday. I think that maybe he should have started the inning. I will agree that was a mistake, possibly i might have left Adrsma face another hitter.

Baseball slumps happen, the fact of the matter is that Ortiz was hitting like Ortiz after his early slump. Want some Stats Ortiz in May, .325 .409 .617 along with 8 homers and 22 runs batted in. Do you really think April is an indication of how Ortiz will perform for the rest of the season? I think his track record shows that we will see more of the may ortiz rather than the april Ortiz. I mean say you had a s***** hitter who was a career .200 hundred hitter than hit .300 in april, but then .200 in may. Do you think based on his april performance that he will be a .250 hitter for the rest of the season? I think not.

In 2005 our pitching staff just wasnt that good. I mean our ace that season was a 41 year old David Wells and Matt Clement. How can you argue that year was Francona's fault. That team was not built to win in October, at all. It also doesnt help the fact that the bullpen was burned out due to our starters consistanly not getting deep into games. We lost that series because our pitching sucked, it had nothing to do with Francona. The 5th year I was talking about was this year, which obviously remains to be seen.

I know its only the end of June, but to me this is a huge week for the sox. Obviously it's not make or break or anything, but it would be nice to see us going 4-3 in these games. I think Manny needs to step up again this week and the bulpen needs to figure it self out. How big do you guys think these games are this week?

Are you serious? Ortiz had been on fire since hitting .074 in the first three weeks. To say that Carter, an unknown rookie, could have a bigger impact is baseless and quite frankly kind of ridiculous. I'm pretty sure that Ortiz had been hitting .321 since that time and was probably OPS'ing close to 1.00. I mean do you really think Chris Carter is even close to a healthy David Ortiz?

Right, but in a tie game in the 8th do you go to your only other option Papelbon? I don't think so. Everyone else was burned out, this is what happens when two of your starters have short starts back to back. I don't buy stats for managers, I mean say anything you want but, could this team have had anymore sucsess over the last 5 years? Probably not.

Varitek has had a horrible month. His swing just looks awful, he has no timing or power. I don't know why all of a sudden he became the worst hitter in baseball, but it happened. This guys started off the year on fire, I think he was hitting .295 in late May. Does anybody else think this could have something to do with the 2 serious ilnesses he had this year, or is his sucky-ness starting to show? I think if we gave him a week off to clear his mind and get to a good place physically he could still be an assest down the stretch. We need Tek to hit better than .220.

Varitek has been so terrible. Im starting to think he is not gonna turn it around this season.

Huge K for Lester there. One more out to go.

Lugo still sucks.