seabeachfred

OK Palodios, let's say I'm with you on this. What I don't know is when we have pull the trigger and start thinking about the future.....is it at the end of May, the end of June or at the TD. I lean towards the end of June because I think three months in should pretty much tell us where we're going and three months out should give the newcomers plenty of time to show or not show what they can do.

Always like Lavarnway and played him up hoping he would get a chance. That either made me full of crap or prescient---I don't know. I do know I would like to see him, Brentz, Cecchini and, ok I'm a little ahead of myself, Betts as well. If this thing doesn't turn by the end of June I think we have to give serious consideration to giving the kids a shot at the big time.

All very true Spitball but the way I look at it those teams can take a trip to Mars and disappear....what do they mean to me? Only the Red Sox are worthy of my time and loyalty and now I find myself going back and forth.....to be start rebuilding and if so when........or do we continue on course and hope we pull what the (excuse the language) Dodgers did last summer and hope for a complete turnaround. I ask it because I've been going back and forth for the past few days on what should the team's course of action be. I will say that if things haven't come around by the end of June some serious consideration should be given to the future. We do have last year's WS Title and two more in the past decade to kind of tide us over until the new wave starts making noise.

Well what would you suggest to turn it around---if in fact it can be turned around this year. I would like to get VA's take on it too as well at 700. Maybe that's what we should be focusing on instead of ranting away. I await your opinions.

Yes I did Youk---but after ST and what has transpired the first month and a half I don't need a see and eye dog to tell me that the young players might not be ready. Certainly Bradley coming off a disastrous Spring and barely hitting 200 has not shown he is ready to face ML pitcher on a regular basis. Bogaerts needs to start driving in runs and hitting much better with runners in scoring position and as for Middlebrooks, his calf injury really slowed him down and it looks like he still doesn't have his timing---and now he's on the shelf for four weeks at least. When realism sets in you have to make adjustments in your thinking. I will say this, though. If people like Pedroia, Victorino, Napoli, Gomes and Nava had been playing up to their capabilities and AJ not being a total washout at catcher, we might still have been able to absorb the growing pains of the youngsters but that hasn't happened.

Call it a night guys and gals and hope for better tomorrow. What the hell can any of us say at the moment. We're all singing the blues.

You want it plain and unvarnished, well here it is....OUR TEAM RIGHT NOW STINKS. We don't hit, the defense is mediocre, the starting pitching is miserable after the first three guys and the way we're going we aren't going to get far unless we wake up and get off our asses. It may be annoying to you but it's the damn truth and I would suggest you also develop a thicker skin VA when posters come out with stuff like this because there will be more and more of it if the team doesn't start winning.

Read some of my posts.....I've made some suggestions. Look them up.

We could bring back Nava, put him in left and see if he has gotten his stroke back. The guy hit 303 for us last season; you just don't forget how to hit in six months. My opinion only but I think Sizemore can still play CF and, besides, we've lost ten one run games this season. I think it is time to sacrifice a little defense for more offense. Maybe if we had done this we would have won half of those one run games that we have lost.....know where we'd be if that had happened? FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!

Nonsense!!!!! Bradley cannot hit and he strikes out over a third of the time so that plate discipline goes out the window since he doesn't walk very often either. As for defense, yes, that's what we need defense........we've lost ten games this season by one run. I think a little more offense for defense might be a good idea so maybe we start winning more of these one run games. Moreover, I was one of Pedey's biggest supporters and on Dirt Dogs was clamoring for him to be brought up before he was in August, 2007. You have me mixed up for some of those other guys who were shouting for a trade for Ronnie Belliard (remember him?) or for Alex Cora to me made the regular second baseman, so you are absolutely wrong there. No, I think my argument is very valid.

Gomes, though I get my Italian up with the best of them, I bought into the front office's hyping of our young talent....I should have stayed cynical. Bradley cannot hit, he has two or three blind spots and he has a slow bat. Bogaerts is the next best thing to a gusher but he can't hit with men on the bases to save his ass. Middlebrooks still can't shake himself loose, his calf injury earlier in the season setting him back and makes us wonder when he will go on a tear. Farrell's batting order is abominable having X batting sixth when he can't drive in a run. Bradley belongs at Pawtucket and Herrera has no business on the team when a better hitter and base runner like Brock Holt is still in the minors. This team looks no better than it did the first two weeks of the regular season. I'm now beginning to wonder if the front office hasn't over-hyped a few more of our prospects as well.

No he can't and no he won't. His own words tell all....."I'm confused and I'm a mess". Punch his ticket to Pawtucket----six or seven weeks later than it should have taken.

When you lose ten one run games in a little over a quarter of a season you have a s***** offense, and that is something that seems to have escaped Farrell's alleged mind. Until Bradley is sent down, Herrera along with him and Nava and Holt brought up the offense will continue to lose one run games. At least those two can hit a little. Also it is time for Buchholz to be sent to the bullpen because he is totally unreliable.

I no longer think so BEL. We have now lost nine or ten one run games this season......if we had won just have of those we'd be in first place. We can't make up those games and as long as Farrell is managing with his head halfway up his rectum we'll keep losing those type of games. Last night might have been the last straw or close to it.....two on no outs in the 7th and he lets Bradley hit??????? He doesn't have him bunt, he lets him swing away. That's right, Bradley can't bunt. He can't hit, he can't bunt and he has little power, yet he plays against both lefties and righties when he should have been sent to Pawtucket before the season as the front said he would be. When a team loses ten one run games in little over a qu arter of the season the problem is not keeping Bradley in for his defense but getting some hitting in the lineup. Sizemore in center or Victorino and reverse their spots, bring Nava up and send Bradley down. Also what is Brock Holt still doing down in the minors when we have he totally useless Herrera taking up a roster spot. All he can do is make outs, errors and get thrown out trying to steal a base because he gets a bad jump and is a stupid base runner. No BEL, unless some changes are made and unless Farrell gets his head out of his ass, this team is heading for a very disappointing season. Hell we can't even win more than two games in a row? That's the sign of a pretty piss poor team.

I caught some hell in early April when I hinted that Xander might be a choker. You can argue the merits of that one but the fact remains he cannot hit with runners in scoring position to save his ass, while Bradley can't hit period and WMB is underachieving so badly that I'm getting an earache just remembering how I was touting him in ST. Face it, right now we stink.

Because Farrell is managing with his head up his ass....perhaps. Here's another one. Why is Bogaerts batting sixth instead of second? He hasn't driven in a run in a month and half if you can believe that but he does have a decent OBA. Put Victorino at leadoff for some speed, Bogey second, Pedey third, Papi and then Napoli. That 2-5 quartet helped win a WS last season but that seems to have slipped Farrell's alleged mind. The team is playing horse s*** ball but IMHO Farrell isn't doing so hot from the dugout either.

The power hitters are not hitting with power, the singles and doubles hitters aren't hitting singles and doubles, we have two starting pitchers who aren't worth s*** right now, and it looks like the team is going through the motions at half speed. Was the easy-does-it approach during ST culpable in this disastrous start we're having? As for Farrell, he is trying the best he can but he looks flummoxed to the max. He never turns the runners loose anymore and is waiting for the three run homer that hardly is ever coming. Sure, thanks to Cherington we lost much of our speed, and Victorino can't stay in one piece this season. However, maybe a few hit and runs, bunt and runs and trying to open the game a tad might work. Two more weeks of this and some of us will consider throwing in the towel. This team just doesn't seem to know how to win right now and who know if they will ever shake themselves from their stupor.

And no matter what party line man says, Lester is that circumstance where it has to be done. There is no guarantee that Barnes, Renaudo, Owens and the others are going to be ready to step in and keep us in contention. There is no guarantee that they will even be winning ML pitchers. Most pitching prospects never make it according to the odds. If we hit the jackpot on two of that group, which also includes Webster and Delarosa, we can consider ourselves Vegas bound. Even with that we still need two bell cows to the pitching staff who experience and winning know how can keep us in contention.

You can put money of that last sentence of yours Ted, and we know who will be the one rationalizing the longest and loudest.

I wonder if this is not some order from upstairs that Cherington must operate under some stringent guidelines and that big contracts are now a thing of the past. Again, if the ownership and front office thinks that 2013 allows them to let key players walk and have a bridge year period of three or four seasons it will not sit well with anyone except the bootlickers who follow the party line ad nauseam. For the record, I was all in favor of the team giving a full chance to Bogey, JBjr and WMB when ST began and I still would love to see them hit their strides, but I just have to believe that their weak seasons so far has given Cherington and Co. pause to wonder if these guys were ready. Tonight they go against Scherzer, certainly not a great confidence builder. You mentioned the team being short a bat when the season began. If these three guy could start hitting consistently, Bogey with men on base and the other two with more regularity, we might be ok down the road. The division is wide open to the team who can finally separate themselves from the rest of the pack but right now we have major trouble putting more than two wins in a row together. Something is badly missing from the team this year and it is more than Ellsbury's absence.

One of the more frustrating aspects of this season so far, among a whole list of frustrations, is that irritating thing we've become proficient at......tieing the game up and then losing it. I think we've done that about a half-dozen times so far this season. When we start coming back in games and TAKE THE LEAD and not have to lose another game in extra innings, then we might be on our way to something besides abject mediocrity. I keep asking myself just when the hell are we going to go on a good run and win a bunch of games in a row.

I did RJ but not for that reason. I was getting good and steamed and decided to give myself and you guys a welcome time out to save you from some of my rants. A month later and we are still looking as flummoxed as we did when I took my sabbatical. I also never shrink from admitting when I'm wrong and you should know that by now.

Pal---Fans, the press and RSN is not going to stand for three or four bridge years, especially when with the AL East so wide open this season that we should be taking advantage of the mediocrity in the division. Instead we are shuffling around and not even being mentioned is any of the talk that is circulating about which team is going to make a move for some of the pitchers and position players that might be up for grabs near the trading deadline. Giving WMB, Bogaerts and Bradley a solid shot at their positions was fine and still might work out but there comes a time when some alternate plans should be put on the drawing board, but the Red Sox are never mentioned while the Yankees, Orioles and Rays are. If our key players like Papi, Pedroia, Napoli, Victorino and now Sizemore would all go on a tear together we might still be able to make a run for the division title so long as our starting pitching held up their end, but here too, the front office apparently sees no reason to inquire about the availability of people like Samardija and Masterson while Doubrant and Buchholz continue to flounder. Now it is possible that Cherington is making plans to make a move, but I would like to see something before one of our rivals gets hot and makes off with the division lead while we still can't put more than two wins in a row together. By June first in my opinion he has to decide whether he's going to sink or swim with what he has and take his chances that no other team in the division is going to move ahead of the pack, or decide that if he wants to try and win this year make the move (s) that will help us g et there.

Screw you bub!!!!! They were negotiating with Lester last fall, in ST and they didn't sign him and now Jon says he's going to wait until after the season to figure things out. So they are NOT negotiating unless you want to call Lester a liar. As for Lackey he is under contract for 2015 for the minimum salary and has said he would consider retiring rather than pitch for that. I don't call that progress while you apparently do being the house man that you are. The only thing I see that's plain to see is that you don't know what hell you're talking about. I'm going to make two predictions.....One, if Lester signs this year I will give my mea culpa and say I was glad I was wrong. If he signs elsewhere you will disappear for a month as is your habit and then come slinking back on when the heats off and try to tell everyone it was all for the best. You may think you're on to me but I've been on to you for a long time. You're a big fat mouthed phony who tries to tell everyone they don't now what's going on while you pretend to know what's up. I'd suggest you get over yourself but you're too far gone for that. Get lost.

Ted, the question is why did Farrell once again bring in Miller when he is inept in these kind of situations---or did already forget Tuesday evening? Another thing.....let's see one of our stats whizzes check this one out......How many times have we "come from behind to TIE the game", not go ahead mind you, but TIE only to lose the game later? I've counted about a half dozen times. Until we can come back and get a lead going into the last inning this kind of inept s*** will keep happening. Let me add an addendum to what d-money said...f*** BOTH MILLER AND BUCHHOLZ!!!!!