seabeachfred

How come I winced like hell when I read your last sentence. I still am enraged over that call to pitch to him in that situation. Live and learn, right Farrell?

No one has said it would be easy Jacko; in fact, most of us here I venture to say believe it is going to be a tough series, but you conveniently forgot to mention how resourceful the Red Sox have been this year. Maybe I should remind you how we handled the Rays this season and your team as well. Keep also in mind that the Tigers bullpen is a little suspect and that we have some competitive and tough pitchers in the clutch on our side. Of course, I know you'd like to see us fall on our collective faces but I wouldn't hold my breath too long on it. I will concede this; it will be a tough ALCS series.

I think you could be right Pal on that. We have to remember that after our great thirty game start we hit some skids until we righted the ship and started taking on all comers from June on. Also, can you expect to beat the Tigers or anyone when you're depending on Bandages Bailey and Kid Webster to take your chestnuts out of the fire?

Torii may have slowed down a little but he brings a lot of extras to the teams he plays for. He had another solid season at bat and the guy is a lion in the dugout and clubhouse. You only had to be at Angels Stadium this season to hear all the pissing and moaning about how the Angels stupidly let him get away. He is one Tiger we have to handle in this series.

Read today a missive that Seattle reportedly is ready to offer Ellsbury a six year $121 million dollar contract. If that has a strong element of truth to it Jacoby is as good as gone because the Red Sox will never match that. Too bad because the more I see him perform the more I think he is heading for some very solid years. Then again, that is only my opinion.

Spitball----about a week ago I made the assertion that the 2013 Playoffs might be the toughest ones to judge as to the effectiveness of calling it, but it seems to have run by the boards. The teams that were supposed to win......the Cardinals, Tigers, Dodgers and Red Sox have prevailed so maybe it wasn't so hard to dope after all. Still I saw the 2013 A's addition as much stronger than last year since this season they hit with more power and more consistently. The Pirates seemed to be the kind of team that won a lot of close games throughout the season. As for the Braves, they ran the tables on what was supposed to be a stronger division with Washington and Philly in it, but then those two crapped out so who knows if the Braves were really that good. As for the Rays, anytime you have pitching as they do it's a good idea to take them seriously. Now these next two series? Are the Dodgers that good or mediocre as they were the first three months, will the Red Sox like in games one and two, or will they be more like the guys who struggled in the next two, and what of the Cards? Are their young pitchers ready for the main events, and how long before Cabrera and Fielder bust loose? Hard for me to figure this two series out. OK, I will take the Red Sox and Dodgers to meet in the World Series. God, please don't let me have jinxed the BoSox.

To me it has always been a good fastball, solid curve, or slerve, and definitely a damn good change-up. Your overhand curve is sometimes very hard to throw for strikes and there is the risk of balls bouncing in the dirt and even an umpire missing the break exactly. The slerve is a modified curve thrown three-quarters overhand, easy to teach and easier to control and works amazingly well as an out pitch. As for the change, there is nothing that throws a batter's timing off more than an effective change-up. My pitchers on the teams I coached really improved their game when I suddenly stopped being stubborn and listened to a friend to insisted I teach that pitch. I became deeply in love with that pitch-----but know when to throw it and keep it down if you can.

Well don't beat yourself over the head with it Juice. Remember, when it really comes down to really knowing how something is going to play out almost all of us don't know crap about it because there are too many variables and much luck involved with it. To be honest though, I don't like the teams you have in the WS---well maybe I can take the Cards since that means they have taken care of the Dodgers, a job that I could only consider an A1 accomplishment.

If you find the right girl RSFFL you'll have no trouble along those lines. Of course, if he roots for a different team than you do it will be a challenge to keep peace in the house when the Red Sox and her team plays. My Linda is a big Angels fan since we live in the Los Angeles-Orange County area and that makes me the odd ball to the neighbors for the most part. I hope you will behave better than I do when you're at the game with your future better half. Since the 2008 ALDS my wife refuses to attend any baseball game with me when the Red Sox are playing in it. I guess some of my colleagues on this board could understand.

At the risk of saying something that can come back to haunt me my friends, it should be a damn good series, us and the Tigers. Selfishly speaking I hope it goes at least six games so I can get to Boston and watch our team take those guys on. Too late to go this weekend so I'm stuck at the back end of the that series because I have already made up my mind that I do not get caught dead in that shithole of city where the Tigers play.

Great post sk7. I had forgotten that we did score a lot of runs in 2009 and 2010 but I also recollect that we were pretty much feast or famine most of the time, one of those years didn't we get off to a 2-10 start? It was 2010 when Pedroia, Martinez and Buchholz all went down in that series in SF ( I was there), and in 2009 we slumped badly after the ASB. Both years we were very inconsistent. I think those teams were stripped clean by all those injuries we suffered those two seasons; this year we seemed to stay a lot healthier----and I think this may have the most resourceful Red Sox team in this century---which is how long I've followed the Red Sox.

Then send some good vibes the Cardinals' way Mark. I'm in kind of a dilemma. I was talking to Dave at Sports Travel today and gave him a $200.00 deposit for a trip to somewhere to watch the Red Sox in the playoffs.....MAYBE. Try this one out. I will call him tomorrow to see who we play. If it's the A's (doubtful at this point with the Tigers leading 2-0 and Verlander pitching perfect game after four innings), I will see a couple of games there. If not I will wait and hope there is a game six or maybe a game seven in Boston. I have no intention of going to that shithole city of Detroit, no way. If that scenario works out I will stay for the first two games of the World Series in Boston. I wonder if any other of my friends on this board plan on trying to go to these games

Right Juice, we should allow their fans to worry about us instead of the other way around. There was a little angst earlier before the ALDS from some of our friends here that we would be better served playing the Guardians instead of the dangerous Rays. To me it would have been a better match too but it never dawned on me that we couldn't take care of Tampa even if it had to go five games. Right now the Tigers are beating the A's, 2-0, in the top of the fifth on a Cabrera two run homer while Verlander has retired all 12 batters he's faced. Right now we are going to play El Tigre if this keeps up. If we are ready and well prepared I like our chances.

Sk7, sorry my friend but there is a difference. Farrell will utilize his speed as he did so well last night. We have run more this year, hit and run more, bunted more, and move runners on a more consistent basis that when FrancoMa was in charge. With him it was station-to-station baseball and a total fear of giving away outs which always seems to be counter-balanced by the alarming amount of double plays the team hit into to kill one rally after another. The fact that we had strong hitting teams from 2004-2007 overcame that, but when the power declined starting in 2008 that type of strategy was exposed for the weakness that it was. You only had to contrast last night's game with Farrell in charge with what we saw last week when the Guardians went against the Rays. Despite a large number of base runners, not once did FrancoMa turn them loose, not once did he try a steal, not once did he move a runner, not once did he hit and run......NOT ONCE DID THEY SCORE A RUN. We did some of those things last night in a close game and now we go to the ALCS while the Guardians are playing golf.

I wore my 2013 AL East Division Champion Red Sox shirt all day yesterday. I guess it didn't hurt the cause at all. Tomorrow I call two of my friends in Boston who work in hotels and have some connections for tickets. I would like to attend a game or two in Boston, either the first two or the last one or two. I haven't traveled out of state to see the Red Sox this year. I would like to do that now if I can get tickets, a hotel reservation and a plane flight.

Look Mark, while this might sound like I'm beating a dead horse, the fact is that Farrell cannot make such a strategical mistake as he did with Longoria Monday evening. He himself said that he would not allow Longoria to beat him and guess what? That's what happened. First base was open, we had a three run lead and the question was who would you rather not have to face in that situation......Longoria with two on or Myers with the bags full? I think most of us know what answer we would have given.....even at that time.

Well as you said earlier, none of us know s*** mvp. How in hell can anyone really dope these playoffs anyway? To me teams are so evenly matched that I cannot remember another post-season when it was as equal in strength and weaknesses as this season. That's why I didn't make a prediction. What I wanted I couldn't express for fear to jinx one team and to accept that one that I despise would get in.

Well I suppose it's good to know that we're not the only team that has a manager who get a serious brain cramp as Farrell did Monday visa vis Longoria. Gonzales pulled a rock that destroyed his team's chances to make a real run for the roses. We all know David Carpener; he was with us for a short time last season and he stunk like a sewer at high tide. No surprise he gave it away to the Dodgers, but the incredible thing that outstrips all of this is that Fredi had Gambrel ready to pitch two innings if he had chosen to use him. Gambrel has been near unhittable all season; Carpenter's reputation has been as a complete choker. Well that doesn't mean anything to us anyway so I'm not going to worry anymore about it. The Braves crapped out but what does that mean to us? Only the Red Sox count.

Well Juice you can have everything, but you got mainly what you and the rest of us wanted.....a win and an end to this series. I wouldn't have wanted to risk a game #5 either, Boston or not.

Just thought I'd add the possibility that the Pittsburgh Pirates could actually topple the Cardinals in that series. I mean it is possible---and while I think the Dodgers will prevail against the Braves (damn it), that series could go the other way too. We all know by now that most anything goes in these playoffs. We've seen these kinds of upsets before.

Well said Fred; you make very good points, but there is a difference.....Carl Crawford couldn't play or endure in the Boston cauldron; Ellsbury has thrived in it and if we could get him for five years and $18-20 million I would do it. He changes the course of the game every time he gets on base and don't think I didn't notice how nervous Price was yesterday staring down the guy when trying to concentrate on Shane. His eyes and ball was going all over the place except where it should have gone.

Yee gads guys, why in hell are we bringing race and ethnicity into this? All I said was that in my opinion Jacoby Ellsbury is a very talented player who we need to keep because he is a catalyst that is in my opinion indispensable to our team. Black, white, Indian or Hispanic, the point was that he is better for us than Bradley would be, but Sox Sport made the point that we could have both of them if we are willing to shell out the bucks. David Ortiz is black we all know that but he is of the Hispanic variety so often found in the DR, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean countries and as long as he can produce or any of the other "non whites" they will be cheered and loved by just about all of us. To bring Crawford into this is silly....Carl never felt comfortable in Boston and he most certainly didn't produce. Had he he would have been celebrated too. Some of you may not agree with me on that but I think I am right on this one.

I can't psychologically deal with the Dodgers period!!!!!!!!!! That team actually sickens me. If only the Braves could get their s*** together, I would love to see the Bums try to go out this winter and spend themselves into bankruptcy trying to buy a f***ing title.

You know what we need for a new thread on this board? One poll to see who is the biggest douche bag......Maddon or Showalter. I think that would be a hoot.

They "don't want to lose them". Come on, we should be used to that by now. We had eight years of it with the other guy.