a700hitter

Maybe that biased thing would be true of some fans, but not all.

So Farrell will bat him 5th tonight.

I think that there is a tendency by north-easterners to assume that anyone with a southern or Louisiana accent is a dumb hick. I am not saying that Paps was a rocket scientist, but it is my understanding that his parents were educators at a University. His dad was not Jed Clampit who hunted varmint for dinner. Also, I remember Paps as a stand up guy with the Red Sox who never caused any problems. After he left Boston, he said a few derogatory things, but I can't blame him for being bitter. The Red Sox FO never even gave him a courtesy call when he was a FA. That would have rubbed me the wrong way, and there was a fair bit of negative sentiment from the fans directed toward him too after he had been nothing but a good player for the team. I think I might be bitter too. He certainly wasn't the most bitter ex Red Sox player. Clemens, Boggs and Nomar come to mind as being very bitter. I don't blame any of them as their exits were all accompanied with hit pieces from the media with the tacit consent of the FO.

I liked Drew a lot. At the time, I thought his contract was too big. In that big contract, there were 2 seasons where he didn't come close to earning his money. In retrospect and by today's standards, his deal was not at all unreasonable. The only problem that I had with Drew was that I was always fearful when he would grimace that he would miss a month of games. He is still the only player I know who missed a month of games injuring himself on his Home Run trot except for Kendrys Morales who broke his leg stomping on home plate after a game winning GS.

They are wrong in this instance.

They owed him at least one game like this.

If the metrics don't rate him highly, it is one of those examples of why the eye test is more reliable than metrics when it comes to fielding. He is not deceptively good. Get a bleacher seat and watch this game every night and compare him to the opposition's centerfielders, then you can appreciate how good he is.

That has definitely been his pattern.

Pedroia played the next night. When JD took himself out of a game, he was gone for 2-3 weeks.

We have been spoiled having Pedroia hold down second base for 10 years providing All Star quality performance. The guy has been a key contributor to all of the team success since he has been here. No one fields the position better, and the guy can really spark the offense when he is hot. Let's not forget how many people wanted to send Ortiz to the glue factory in 2009 and 2010 when he was banged up. And I also believe that both the FO and the fans badly estimated the blow that the loss of Ortiz cause to our offense.

I can't recollect any instances of Papelbon being either a clubhouse problem or being a dick on the field or in the media while he was with the Red Sox. My recollection of the dugout encounter with Harper is that Harper had previously had gotten on Papelbon about something. I could be wrong but I think he criticized him for not drilling an opposing batter. Then Harper half-assed it so Papelbon let him hear it and I guess that he didn't like his response. Harper is a punk and he had it coming. He didn't look so tough when big Paps had him by the throat.

Di the metrics indicate that Bradley is not that good?

He has such an impressive swing and he tracks the ball so well.

He has not matured and he is a douche and that is the reason why Papelbon grabbed him by the throat in the dugout for all to see.

It is not Sale's night. I wouldn't send him back out for the 5th.

He can hit.

7 run rule in effect.

DFA Pablo. We have Marrero!!

What is it the dweeb inning?

Pitch count is high and he is allowing a lot of base runners. I thought this would be a laugher when we put up the 4 spot. I thought Frazier hit that one out. It sounded good.

Quintana is not fooling anybody.

Travis has a really nice swing.

But every team needs a manager to keep the clubhouse entertained and answer questions by the press?

The responsibilities for Clubhouse management and the Press could be easily handled by others in the organization. You do give them a pass for poor base running a stupid fielding, because you are assuming that they were not taught the right way at the lower levels. It probably was taught, but it needs to be constantly reinforced even at the MLB level.

He looked fine, and no arm issues afterward. He just needs some fine tuning.