seabeachfred

Spud, it is also tantalizing to Lucchino the meddler who in August called Buchholz our future ace in waiting. How stupid is that? Just what you would expect to hear from a ignorant dork like that. Truth is, though, in spurts Clay has shown he can be an outstanding pitcher. His first half in 2013 showed he was among the very few top pitchers in the game. The question has always been how could the Red Sox get that maximum out of the guy for a whole season? They and everyone connected with the Red Sox from the owner down to the fans are still looking for the answer.

Good to hear from you again VJ, and let me say we might be able to get Cole Hamels for Bucky and JBJ, but there would have to be more like Betts, Swihart and maybe someone like Margot. Hamels isn't going to come cheap and CB and JB are only the appendages to such a trade, the minor segments.

Interesting piece of info Youk but can't say that I'm surprised. That team has always seemed to put gap power and consistent hitting over the lumbering slugger. What I am surprised about is that the Royals are the only team in the Bigs who haven't had a 40 homer man. It seems to me that there should be a couple of other teams in that category too and the fact that they aren't does surprise me. Now if the Royals could just take the Series it would certainly please the daylights out of me because we'd still be the only team with three titles this century.

Not with our manager Bellhorn. We saw how he kept running the guy out there time after time this past season, and even when he benched him it was for a day or two and then right back into the lineup to screw up some more. No!!! In my opinion the safest thing for the Red Sox would be to get him out of town....fast!!!!!!!!

Well you're right on that score Spud----Mujica certainly got better the last part of the season, but, truth be told, I do not want to count on him as our closer next season. I saw him come apart with the Cardinals in 2013, so badly in fact that he was jettisoned from the roster for the playoffs, and, as you said, he sucked pond water for us most of the season. Let me be honest with you.....when I wrote that post last night I was a little pissed off with the thought that the Giants would be shooting for their third WS Title this century. To me this is our domain and I don't want to share dominance with any other team and I would hope you and my other friends on this board would think the same way. Anyway, GO ROYALS. PS---heard a good one last night after the game. It is the first time I ever heard the work cockroaches used as a term of endearment. Someone referred to the Giants as a bunch of cockroaches because you just can't kill them off, and, you know what? That's true---like the real ones the Giants just seem to be able to die the way they keep coming back. And the Giants picked up on it and seemed to enjoy the comparison. Well, now I've heard of everything.

I do too my friend, but I have to admit that my reasons are very selfish. If the Giants win it means they have won three World Series this century and right now we are the only ones to have done that. As a very provincial person I don't like to share my team with any other and I would hope most Red Sox fans feel the same way. If, say, the Giants had only one ONE WS this century I wouldn't really care who won this time around.

Whatever might be the case in this regard, Cherington is going to have to make some good decisions this off season after disastrous ones after 2011 and 2013. Fans, the media and the press isn't going to stand for another shithole season of the likes of Bradley, Middlebrooks, Drew, Mujica and a host of other turds that brought us down to disgrace this past season. If he has to pay through the nose for Cueto, or Hamels or Lester or Shields, he's going to have to do just that. And Prune Face had better be ready to unload his strong box to make it happen as well as discard some of his pets like a couple I mentioned last sentence. None of us want to hear any Pollyanna ******** or excuses roaring out of the mouths of anyone in the team's hierarchy. Except for a few bootlickers and ball washers, most of who have fled the board, all Red Sox fans expect to get into the Playoffs next fall and that is exactly what our attitudes should be.

Good Jacko.....tell you what, why don't you take him off our hands. Fact is, your Yankees wouldn't touch Bradley with a hot iron.

Right now I will send out an SOS to the Royals for when they play the Giants. Yes, the Cardinals are dead as a doornail. The first thing Royals is when you face a pinch hitter leading off an inning, get him OUT. Do not let him single or walk or you will pay for it. KC must also not get too conservative---run at the Giants, force them to play defense. Do not let them sit back. Thirdly, have a quick hook for any starting pitcher who dallies by the wayside. If they don't have it, get their asses out of the game likity split. That's how you have the best chance of beating that team.

Maybe it's because you've been hanging around with Spud for too long. His answer was a gem, but the right answer to the wrong question.

Ahi Caramba Dojii!!!!! Right on the money---and I wouldn't like it one twit if either of those outfits won it.

Nice try Spud, though I don't have the foggiest idea of what the hell you were trying to tell me. Your statement was true but not the answer I was looking for. Save that answer for another time. I'm sure it will be appropriate then since the statement is true.

I don't know Ted. I think Jacko might have something there. I get the nasty feeling that someone high in the Red Sox chain of command loves this bum and will do everything possible to try and shoehorn him into the lineup somewhere along the line. The guy should be traded out of the American League to some NL team that can use a fourth outfielder because the guy doesn't look like he is going to hit worth a damn and he sure as hell has proven that he is not a coachable player. Punch the turd's ticket out of town.

Though it is not over in the ALCS (remember us in 2004), the Royals season up to now is one of he best stories of the 2014 baseball season. Though it disappoints me that our team isn't in the ALCS you can't help feeling good for KC and their long suffering but totally loyal fans. If they sweep the O's tomorrow they get in the World Series for the first time in 29 years, and keep in mind that most of those seasons have been downers. I also hope the Royals go on to win the WS and all of you ought to know why. Do you? Let's see who can tell me first.

Well you bring some good humor to the board. Keep them coming.

BEL, since I don't deal in ******** and am a bottom line guy, all I can tell you that if we didn't have Beckett in 2007 we wouldn't have that WS Title from that season. I will also add that he did a pretty good job in 2009 and most of 2011 before he bombed out the last half of the '09 season. Though it may be water on the bridge for most Red Sox fans, I still blame Francona for those disappointing finishes in '08 and '09. Tito refused to alter his pre-game plan in Game Two of the ALCS when an obvious injured and ineffective Beckett was penciled in for seven innings in Francona's pre-game "master plan". Even after he blew three leads and was getting his ass reamed Francona waited too late to t ake him out. We eventually lost that series and a chance to go to the 200u8 WS. In 2009, we invaded YS for a big four game series only a game or two out with Beckett having a good odd numbered year and on full rest, but Francona as only he could possibly know, decided to start a fast fading John Smoltz. We got seven runs that night but JS got torched. Next night Beckett went nine innings for a no decision in a game we lost in 18 innings. We got swept in that series and never recovered. If we had pitched Josh in that first game we would have won that opening contest and who knows how our morale would have been the rest of the series. A week or so later the Yankees invaded Fenway for a three game set with Jon Lester unable to pitch because he was used in a wasted game the day before instead of being saved for the New Yorkers. Francona in a complete brain freeze started Brad Penny who got ripped apart. You know the irony of those miserable choices of opening key series? Both Smoltz and Penny were both released AFTER doing damage to our chances. In fact neither pitched for the Sox after their torching in those two starts.

Still the comedian. Let me know when you're working the Improv---I'd like to catch your act.

You guys out there saw this game. Now someone tell me that baseball isn't the greatest game in the world. Boring????? The only people who think baseball is boring are bores themselves. Just for the hell of it, during inning breaks I tuned to NBC to see that Sunday Night Football game between the other Giants and the Eagles. No comparison. That was a big bore. The only bummer of baseball tonight, if there indeed was one, was that our team wasn't playing in it.

My case is a little different than the two of yours but we still are on the same wave length. I watch baseball because I love the game no matter who is playing, but as a convert to the Red Sox cause I have become a true believer and can never say I'm a baseball fan first.......I'm a Red Sox fan first and foremost, but at the same time I look forward to setting down in front of my TV and soak in all the positive vibes soon to be coming up when the Giants meet the Cardinals. I once used to laugh when someone told me that rooting for the Red Sox was different than rooting for some other team while I mumbled ******** under my breath. Those guys were right. Once you're a Red Sox fan it is a life sentence......and most likely beyond that. Let's enjoy the game tonight guys. At least we all know that baseball is first and always will be with us. Frankly, football really can bore the s*** out of me, truth be told.

Boy, truer words were never spoken. Here we have the best game in the world and the powers-that-be do everything under the sun to screw around with it. I learned the game the same way you did Ted---my father took me to Ebbets Field and showed me the finer points of the game without the blaring effects of tinny noise and other distractions.

Blame Hosmer, that stupid bastard. Britton had thrown, what, 12 straight balls and he swings at a bad pitch with a 1-0 count. The Royals deserve to lose this game for dumb stuff like that.

On balance Ted from my vantage point I'd say Beckett gave us more positive stuff than negative, though I'm sure our friend Palodios wouldn't concur. About the 2008 ALCS, I always blamed and will continue to blame Francona for that loss. Before game two in a series where we led 1-0, he laid it out that he wanted Beckett to go six or seven innings---and he refused to deviate from his pre-game layout. He was stubborn in that regard. Well Josh was meat that night and squandered three leads. If Francona would have gotten his head out and him out of the game by the fifth inning we would have won that second game and gone home to Fenway with 2-0 series lead.

Perhaps......but I saw enough of him failing miserably when he came to bat with runners on base. He would get hits with no one on time and again and then come up crapola when there was a chance to get a hit when it counted. Except for a very small window in early September that was his MO from the first game of the year. I really believe the Red Sox had better have a Plan B in case he come a cropper again next season. Remember, he didn't field too well either and wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed running the bases. Maybe it was his youth but there were things about what I saw in him that worries the hell out of me. And I'll bet you that Swihart will be a more successful player than Bogaerts will.

Well glad he saved his better games for the ones I saw him pitch. He was devastating in those contests, especially the games he pitched against the Yankees in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. He never lost to them when I was there. For that I am grateful to him.