a700hitter

Rehab assignments cannot go more than 30 days. Maybe he will be at the 30 day mark after his next start.

Impressions of tonight's game: Will Middlebrooks is a big strong kid. He looks as big and strong from the right side as Ortiz is from the left side. Can Middlebrooks play LF for when Youkilis comes back. Our substitute OFers have terrible range and instincts as it is. How much worse could WMB be? Added bonus of finally getting rid of DMac. When Ortiz hits, they score runs, but he can't do it every night. Bobby V is clearly mentally challenged when making the lineup. Was he trying to take the bat out of the hands of his best hitter by putting Ross up in between Ortiz and Gonzo? The walk of Ortiz and the DP in the 6th inning kept the game within stiking distance. My head would've exploded if Ross didn't come thru later. Padilla wasn't thinking when he picked up the infield hit that was clearly going to spin foul.

Middlebrooks could fit Nava in his pocket.

Middlebrooks is a strong kid. I thought that would be a foul ball short of the fence.

More Darnell McDonald. Seen enough of that act.

I never made that statement about Gonzo. I just changed your post to give it the proper context. He didn't merely go hitless for 1 game yesterday. Plus, his XBH power has been nonexistent up to this point.

Fixing this team is a tall order, but it needs fixing. It will not fix itself. As Peter Gammons said at the close of yesterday's broadcast, if they wait for the injured guys to come back, it could be too late. With this current crew, they are likely to be 15 games out of first by July. What do we have currently? We have an offense with only 3 premier hitters (Pedroia, Agon and Ortiz). Spare me the arguments for Aviles, Sweeney, Ross, or Middlebrooks. One is a rookie and the other three are journeyman type players. When you have 3 established offensive players, you will have tremendous inconsistency scoring runs. There will be games where we bludgeon the opponents and others where we look helpless against mediocre pitching. Our rotation can't go deep into games. Beckett and Lester cannot consistently give us quality starts. Our rotation does not have a "big three". Buchholz is a train wreck. If they don't option him to Pawtucket to work out his problems, he will continue to embarrass himself and cost the Sox games. Bard and Doubront are proving that they are unproven. Their performances have ranged from average to awful. The state of the rotation causes greater reliance on the bull pen exposing its deficiencies. Hopefully, Aceves is establishing himself as the end of game hammer, but there is little other talent in that pen and they are already being over-used. How do you fix the team? There is so much wrong. Where do you even start. It was poorly constructed from the start and very thinly stocked. It didn't have the depth to survive Injury.

^Corrected to give proper context. Yesterday, was the equivalent of going hitless for 2 or 3 games. Plus, his XBH ability has not shown up. You don't pay $22 million for a singles hitting first baseman who can't run.

Offer declined. You will stay here and suffer with the rest of us. That will be your punishment. You don't get a reprieve.

Troll mojo didn't work today. Impressions of today's game: This team has plenty of fight. They fought like hell on Friday and Sunday, but they don't have a killer instinct like the great Sox teams did. The Orioles made plenty of miscues during those games. Red Sox teams in past seasons that had the killer instinct would have run the O's off the field in the first 3 innings. Buchholz is lost. He needs to go to AAA to find himself. They can't keep rolling him out there to get treated like a punching bag. Salty is at best a backup catcher. I'd prefer to keep Shoppach as the backup and send Salty away. DMac needs to go away too. The Sox should not have a 33 year old AAA player on the roster. Agon had an epic bad day. He needs to break out. Hopefully, it will be soon.

I agree

DMac needs to be cut. He just sucks in every aspect of the game.

AGon and his $22 million k'ing against a position player. Ridiculous.

U don't think they should've sent the runner?

^ Corrected

Salty couldn't even make contact.

I was wondering the same thing. The announcers are not mentioning it so it must be something they want to address.

Give me a holler when either one of those guys matter.

The guy that we gave up in those moves before last year aren't in the majors yet, and I don't think they will make any sort of impact in the next couple of years, if at all. So, I don't think the acquisitions set them back in rebuilding.

He's having a Lackey type year.

I don't know if we have a chemistry issue on the team yet, but morale is starting to sink like a stone. A loser's mentality is starting to take root, and when i=the payers start to see the team as non-competitive, they will start playing for themselves. They'll be swinging for the fences when they should be trying to make contact to move a runner. They'l be trying to stretch basehits when they are down multiple runs, etc. There will be no regard for team or fundamentals. It will be every man for himself. That will breed the chemistry issues. After the Yankee game, the were embarrassed and angry and they played better as a result. However, these Baltimore games have them befuddled. They are not looking angry or determined. Resignation may be not far off. As far as winning in a year or two, you may be right, but I thought 2010 was supposed to be the bridge year. Theo was reported to believe that the next good crop of young players would arrive in 2012, which would have made 2011 also a bridge year. Now, it's 2012, and there is no crop of good young players on the team. We may be staring at another two years of being non-competitive looking forward to 2014-2015. That's a very long bridge.

Clay needs to step up today. The offense should be able to score some runs off Hunter.

Memo to Ben: By the trading dead;ine or even the All Star break, it will be too late. You be too many games behind and you'll have to climb over too many teams. Sit on your hands now and there will be lots of empty seats by July.

Cheer up. This is the soft part of their schedule.