a700hitter

It is an optical illusion.

Ben is not a victim, nor is he any more of a puppet than any other GM. He is simply not a good GM. He is a great example of the Peter Principle. He was a great understudy, but he can't handle the job. maybe Theo can use him in Chicago to get his coffee.

Not Ben's fault. The fans made him do it! LOL!! He is the victim of terrible horrible luck. Who could have predicted that Masterson would be this bad after losing 7 or 8 mph of velocity or that Buch would get injured or that a guy that never played the OF would be a bad Outfielder, or that Ortiz really is closing in on 40 years old? No one could have foreseen these things. It's an enigma wrapped in a riddle inside a twinkie that Panda ate.

Sometimes the most obvious solution is the correct solution. Even if Ben is not the cause, firing him can't have a worse result than finishing last.

He is an awful manager and he is on his way to his 4 last place finish in his 5 years of managing 2 different teams.

When do we start the hot stove thread?

We are getting annihilated. Terrible team.

Growing pains. Also, it didn't help him that Hanley can't play the outfield at all. He let a catchable ball get over his head in that big inning with men on base. How long is this Hanley OF experiment going to last. I guess they have no options this season, but they cannot have him out there in 2016.

I'd agree to blow up the team, but is there anything to blow up? No one will want Napoli. We will get very little for the brittle Vicorino. They want to keep the most valuable assets in Betts and Bogaerts. Hanley is a huge financial commitment and he has not defensive position. Ortiz will die a Red Sox and Pedroia is still the heart of the team. He is probably the most valuable trading asset, but Ben doesn't have the cajones to trade him. Hanigan will not bring back much. No on wants Castillo for his contract. Panda might be a tradeable asset, but we would have to eat a lot of his salary. As for our pitchers, the kid ER is a keeper. Of the rest of them, probably only uehara has trade value. No one wants Masterson or Kelly for a stretch run, unless they want to miss the playoffs. Porcello's contract is a non starter. Maybe Miley's contract is reasonable enough to not be a deterrent to a trade.

I would be hanging my head too if they were hitting me that hard.

7 run rule.

I don't think Owens has the quality breaking ball that Hurst had. That was Hurst's weapon.

They have the best climate (average temperature 74 and no humidity and no mosquitos) in the country and they are always bitching and moaning about something. And when they don't have mudslides, drought or wild fires, they remind us of the threat of earthquake. When is the last time that they had a really good earthquake, They should try living through a New England winter, whiners.

Game rained out. First rain out at Anaheim in 20 years. At least this should help their drought situation. It's only a matter of time before they will be whining about mudslides.

Like a peach, Buch bruise easily.

Has this game been postponed?

He's delicate, which is why he converted his charity bowling outing to nerf bowling.

Pitching was an obvious flaw going into the season. Everyone started to get optimistic at the beginning of the season that the staff would be an inning eating group where the whole would be greater than the sum of its parts. Even Fred picked us to win the division. I never drank that FO kool aid. This staff had trouble written all over it without a number 1 or 2 and delicate inconsistent Buch as a #3. I couldn't convince myself that Porcello would be a #2. And he isn't and never will be. He is rotation filler. Good solid filler, reliable filler, but back of the rotation back fill. I marvel at the argument that Ben's plan was sound, because the mediocre pitching was supposed to be offset by a high powered offense and a plus defense. What was that assumption based upon? Adding Panda and Hanley to the terrible lineup from last year was not going to convert the Red Sox offense into the Big Red Machine. Panda has had 2 seasons out of 8 where he OPSed more than 800 and the last time was 2011. He can't hit right handed at all anymore. He has never been a onbase powerhouse either. Hanley is a stud, but he has a history of injuries causing him to miss a lot of playing time. Nevertheless, he was a big addition, but there were signs last season that Ortiz was declining and Napoli too. Those declines due to age were likely to not reverse. Adding one big bopper was not going to turn this lineup into the 27 Yankees. It was unrealistic to think so. The offense is talented and much better than our shitbox pitching, but it is not topline. It will be at seasons end top half, and that too was foreseeable. We have had pleasant surprises with Betts and XB, so not everyone is underperforming. After last season, no one was projecting a .300 season for Xander. We were also prepared to have a light hitting catcher. As for the defense, why did anyone think it would be plus D? Was Panda so much better in SF? What made us think that Hanley would be good in LF without ever seeing him in the OF for an inning? Baseless faith. One game was all I needed to see to know that he is not an outfielder. Xander has been fun to watch at SS, but we had no basis to know that his improvement would be so great. Mookie is a second base convert to the OF and his arm is on the weak side. All in all, Ben put together an offense that just cracks the top half. Pitching that has nothing below it except the black line at the bottom of the chart and an okay defense. None of this is due to some enigmatic underperformance. It is who this group is. We have guys performing at career levels some above and some below. You will have that on every team. We might have a little more underperformance than usual in the first half, but that should correct itself and when it does, we will be a team with better than average offense, the worst pitching and okay defense. That adds up to being noncompetitive. Good job, Ben.

The good news is that Porcello is regressing to the norm. He lowered his ERA tonight to 5.79. He could not up a 6 ERA.

Porcello has mastered the Home Run pitch. That is always a good sign.

It was a big let down after the day game which was Buchholz's mlb debut. We won the day game, and it looked like we were on our way to a swep until Gagne took an axe to the game. That game was essentially the end of any hope that Gagne would a productive late inning reliever for us.

Not with his contract. They can get pitchers like him (e.g. Dillon Gee and Mike Leake) for next to nothing.

I was at Fenway in 2007 when Gagne blew game against the Angels. It was the nightcap of a day night doubleheader. Gagne was so awful that the entire crowd was all over the guy. Some one from the third base side if the field just past the dugout threw a full water bottle and it landed right next to the mound. Gagne looked like he was in shock.

17 Home Runs allowed by a sinkerballer means he doesn't have a good sinker. We are watching $82 million circling the drain.

I'll take .500, even though I am entitled to more. Lol! Seriously, I would be happy if they play .500 ball and play the game the right way.