Dojji

Aviles really doesn't have the bat for corner OF.

Lin might be the least bad option. At least he'll defend well and has some speed off the bench. Realistically we're probably looking at one of Aviles, Punto or Youk in the OF and a backup called up.

I think the plan was to let Papi walk and shift Youk to DH when Middlebrooks was ready. They might have to accelerate that plan. Aviles wouldn't be a terrible everyday 3B, he can play the position defensively. And Middlebrooks is coming sometime in the next 2 years. Send down the least necessary reliever and call up Iglesias, and we can limp along with a better defensive lineup.

I just don't think there's so much need for fan morale to be so far into the toilet. We're letting some things affect us and they really don't need to. If I hadn't learned how to bounce back emotionally from disappointment and frustration I would have committed suicide by now. You need to rebalance yourself with this crap goes wrong. And that includes the disappointing September collapse. Personally? 2003 was worse. By a lot. We were one inning from the World Series in 2003. You have to do a lot of "ifs" to get 2011 Sox to the Series. September showed me that this team wasn't going to win, and any time you don't actually win, you have to deal with the frustration and then move on. Remembering the bad times and dwelling on the disappointments will just poison the relationship between a team and its fans. Instead do what Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Greene said once when he was trying to build a peasant army that could hold off the Evil Empire of his day: "We fight, get beat, rise and fight again." Ladies and gentlemen? Time to rise and fight again.

The 2004 and 2007 teams were among the most flashy, talented, stacked teams in baseball those years. Manny and Papi atoned for a lot of sins both years.

No we haven't. Before 2007, a lot of us were too superstitious to be this openly arrogant.

Pretty much exactly. It's fine to expect to win a given game or series, or even win it all, but to act like you're ENTITLED to a winning team is ridiculous. It's garbage, and it's setting yourself up for frustration. If a man has set himself up for frustration, and then proceeds to come here and spill that frustration over a whole bunch of other people who might have preferred to have the kind of reasonable fact-driven conversations/arguments about baseball that you can generally have on a well-moderated baseball forum, and this happens again, and again, and on and on, ad nauseam ad infinitum, one might expect the more long-view-oriented elements of that forum to get a little testy about it.

I'm getting a little frustrated with the over the top angst I'm seeing from people here, and especially from the media. The fact is that Red Sox fans are in the habit of taking the regular season for granted. Each of the last 2 years have forced us to come to terms with the fact that the roster has deteriorated to the point that the regular season is now fully in play. And people don't seem to know how to handle it. People need to recognize the fact that this is no longer a team that can win at will. For awhile it was, certainly while we still had the best one-two lineup combination in baseball, there were a lot of games that we could just throw a switch and take over. That isn't really the case anymore, and people haven't grasped the difference. It's to the point where any prolonged streak of mediocrity is considered a sign of bad character on the team, whether there's any other outward sign of poor character at all. Which is nonsense. Pointing out that we're flawed and less talented than we were is fine. Impugning the character of a team when they fail to win road series only makes sense when that team is expected to win series against 3/4 of the league at any given time and match well against the remaining, also elite teams. The last time this team could win at will was probably 2008. Since then, there have been cracks showing on the roster, and those cracks have grown and widened into significant flaws. And people haven't adjusted their expectations accordingly. The Boston Red Sox are not an elite team by birthright. No team is. Just ask Yankee fans about the 1980's. They were an elite team because they were well managed by a competent front office, which was a radical improvement over what had come before it. Those who remember some of the bad old times know what I'm talking about. Generally speaking, considering our history, this is still the good times. But you'd never know to hear some of the over-spoiled idiots talking. Now we have people demanding "accountability" for a 1-5 start. We just went through an offseason where we fired our manager and let our general manager go. How much more accountability can we really have? What "accoutability" would you impose when you've already replaced all your leadership and the final analysis is that the team simply isn't as talented as past years? And at some point, isn't there a point where the best thing to do is ride it out and take what comes? Do we really have to have wangst parties every time the team starts the first 6 games cold -- which is every year since '06? Does the fact that the Sox might not make the playoffs every year really need to cause this level of overt dismay and rage in the minds of every Sox fan? Because this really starts to get old after awhile. It's really late, and I hope this is semi-coherent, I just had to get it off my chest. Night.

Scutaro had the same problem, more so because of his age and health problems. Did anyone here really think Marco Scutaro was our shortstop because of his defensive range? Ever since Beltre left, and Adgon came in, that left side has been hideously exposed. Beltre could cover for scoot, Youks can't.

Screw megathreads. Megathreads suck. Megathreads are the evil spawn of satan and a particularly boring history teacher. BREAK THE CYCLE! Anyway back to Bard. I thought he did well tonight. Don't let the box score fool you. There were a lot of positives tonight. He got through a good lineup a couple times and showed that the starting thing was something he has a chance to handle. Through 5 it was 3 ER and 5 IP. Then he gets put out there in the 6th and gets burnt for it. Which I think is stupid on Valentine's part. V never should have brought him into the 6th inning with his pitch count over 80 in his first careeer big league start. That blew up in his face and ruined what should have been a pretty decent effort from Bard. This kid isn't toughened up for 100 pitch outings yet, and should have been brought up to it more gently. Valentine needed to bite the bullet and go to his pen to start the inning rather than letting Bard get knocked around. That said, the stuff looked good, and the command was better than I thought it'd be. This littke experiment could end up working out, if he can refine his command just a little bit more and keep it down and out of the middle of the plate.

What's the wrong with "Ace?"

Very nice game by Prince Felix. Hope he keeps it up. The offense has been resilient 3 out of the 4 games we've played.

Hmm. Maybe Aceves can add to his velocity when he knows he's only going to throw 1 inning. That's 2.

Ehh. For a few years at a time it can. Maybe up to a decade if you play your cards right. You have to have a high batting average with acquisitions or tolerate an infinitely bloated payroll to get the job done indefinitely. Sounds to me like neither is true on Yawkey Way these days. It doesn't take much attrition to the core to end the juggling act. Matsuzaka not panning out was the first slip in a long, slow downward spiral and the FO is overreacting again and again trying to maintain the illusion.

Don't know enough to say one way or the other yet. Talk to me when we're 20 games in or so, that's the earliest I might have an opinion.

I almost hope we fall out this year. It's time the Red Sox fanbase had a good long chance to rediscover their roots and shed some pink hat dead weight. Hint: If you're overreacting to 3 bad games in April, in which we were right there in 2 of them, you're who I'm talking about. Sit down, relax, have a drink if you need to, and learn how not to take the regular season to heart. Some of you guys need to bite the bullet and step away from the game entirely for about 2 weeks, or go follow a perennial loser for awhile to remember what it's like. Just hope it's not us. Point is, d on't start playing the first round of the playoffs on April 9th. It'll be better for your heart. Personally I think the team needs to cool off and stop trying to force a winner. THe pieces are simply not there right now to be a major contender. All that desperation spending, all that "we'll worry about it later," well, it's time to worry about it, so if you can't be satisfied with being a wild card team, then it's time to break things up, let some contracts expire, and spend a few years building from within rather than trading useful players for band-aids.

And you can tell this in 3 games against a major contender.

Sometimes the best response to sarcasm is to play it straight.

Why do we need a closer when we've never led a game yet?

This is not a "hit." This is "give up on starting for the rest of your career." If he goes back to the closer's role now, it's for good.

We did. His name was Andrew Bailey.

WHY ARE WE TALKING IN CAPS, AGAIN?