a700hitter

They didn't need Alex Wilson or Layne on the roster. They were not necessities. One of them should have been sent down and Renaudo should have stayed on the roster to make his next start. Stupid move sending him down.

metrics are not everything. The players will tell you who are the most mentally tough players in big spots. I' ll give way more credence to their opinion than any statistical evidence or lack of evidence. If the players look to other players in big spots, that is good enough for me. Not every good player is good in big spots.

The new batting stance has made all the difference in Mr. Automatic Outs season. 0 for 4 today with 3 more ks. The kid stinks.

Poor planning.

That doesn't make sense.

They sent Ranaudo down?

He needs to improve just to be a bad major leaguer.

Vasquez has done well with the bat so far. He makes consistently good contact. Not a lot of swings and misses.

Mr. Automatic Out doing what he does best - make an out. He not very fast.

That was a HR.

The mental aspect cannot be disregarded, nor can it be assumed that all players of a certain talent level handle the mental aspect in the same manner. Not only is there no consistency of this aspect among players. There is no uniformity with regard to how each player handles the stresses from day to day. Slumps often become mental for hitters-- even good hitters. Some players handle the day to day games fine, but bigger spots they don't handle so well. They are people not robots. Some people are mentally stronger than others --even at the MLB level there are differences.

what they say and reality aren't the same thing.

Maybe if the other 2 are Lester and Scherzer.

yes, and you were right when Daniel Bard walked of the Fenway field a couple of years ago that he was through. You have some strong opinions, but when you are right, you have every right to crow about it.

I think Cespedes will be a pleasant surprise for people both offensively and defensively.

Victorino covers plenty of ground, and he is not going to sit when healthy. Let Betts learn to play CF. He has plenty of speed to cover ground.

Ah, just poking you guys a little. Some of us are just more opinionated than others. I wasn't serious.

I am interested in seeing him.

Yes, those are good points.

BTW, Let me go on record calling all of you out who voted "Too Earl to Tell". Duh! Grow a pair and stop copping out. Of course it is too early to tell. If we got a bunch of prospects, we wouldn't know the outcome for years. This is a current opinion poll, not final judgment.

I think Ben attempted to get some blue chip top prospects, but whe none were available, he decided to fill some needs for next season as opposed to taking a handful of second tier prospects. Prospects in the second tier have a much lower success rate and they have a longer wait time. I think he filled some needs for next season. He got 2 outfielders who are right handed hitters. He added some power. He also brought back a pitcher who who can slot into the back of the rotation. All of the guys that he brought back are reasonable budget items. He also added some prospects in return for Peavy and Miller. In the offseason, he can concentrate on and devote team resources to rebuilding the top of the rotation. I think that the relationship and negotiations with Lester were badly mismanaged forcing the situation. I gave Ben a B, and it would have been higher if his actions weren't forced by the mismanagement of the Lester situation.

Theo got Addison Russell for Samardizja andJason Hammel. The Shark is only in his third full season as a starter and he is having a breakout season. He is not freevagency eligible until 2016. He is a big strikeout pitcher with excellent stuff and he is making $5 million in 2014. There was a lot more value there than with either of our guys.

Unless Automatic Out Jr. does a big turnaround to end the season, he has completely ruined his trade value.

The clutch performer doesn't perform better than his capability. He is able to control his anxiety/fear and perform up to his capability. They will not get hits all the time. They will experience slumps too. Every AB in the ALCS was not a critical AB just because it was the ALCS, but the biggest and most crucial AB was with David Ortiz up with the bases loaded and down 4 runs. That result was just the laws of averages? Nothing else comes into play? Talk to players and most will tell you otherwise. Other players can't control the anxiety and fear as well and they can't perform to the best of their abilities. Players know who those guys are too. Sometimes a guy with overall good numbers folds in the big situation. It isn't often, because it takes mental toughness to become a major leaguer and even more to become a star. Nevertheless, there are variations even at the star level with regard to how they handle pressure. While the training to become a major leaguer is largely robotic repetition, the players are not robotic and the mental toughness and ability to handle stress plays a large part in differentiating performance. There are a lot of guys that are very talented that never make it to the majors,because they can't handle the mental aspects of the game as well and talent is not eniugh. As Yogi says: 90% of the game is half mental.

When a team is successful, it is because a number of players perform well. Those players deserve credit. Likewise, when a team performs like stinking pile of garbage, it is because a number of individual players have played poorly. They deserve to get called out. They earned it. The biggest reason for this year's stinking pile was the underperformance of the following players: Bradley, XB, Drew, Nava, Pedroia, and Buchholz. Honorable mention goes to Middlebrooks who sucked and was injured. Another huge reason for the stinking pile was the prolonged absence of Victorino. Those are the reasons for the stinking pile. Bradley and XB were major contributors or should I say undercontributors. Their performances were probably the 2 biggest disappointments of this season, because expectations were so high and their performances didn't just fall short of expectations, they have been horrible. So why is it that you think they should be exempt from criticism?