Spudboy

As long as he continues to hit directly at defenders in the shift his BABIP will remain poor or worsen.

Owens has straightened himself out from what I read. Cechini and Brentz have gone south big time.

Unfortunately he ran into Chapman. He faced 3 batters and got 3 Ks. He busted a couple at 103 MPH. The AL bench was laughing.

I'm down with that. Kazmir is 32, I think. How long a deal can the Sox offer to keep him?

s*** is a noun but it is used as a verb a lot. "he s*** all over himself" or he "s*** the bed".

No UN. He was correcting iOrtiz's grammar. as in "dead wrong" as apposed to "death wrong".

And "s*** the bed".

Obviously he is on the Sox. I don't know how else to answer. I think he can play every day. But he should get some more blows now.

Who is this non-talent bitch singing our anthem?

Pete Rose voted Franchise Four. MLB had to trot him out there. Good stuff.

Yup.

Hmmm. Could be. Ultimately this is all Ben's responsibility. Note I did not use the word fault. He is a mid manager and has a staff that makes recommendations to him. Ben is a smart young man but he is in no way an "expert" in talent evaluation. He has people who do this for him, I think. I say that the Sox need a better staff of scouts at all levels. Amateur, International, MiLb, and MLB. I also suspect that this team may need to revamp it's MiLb coaching staffs. There must be a reason why the Cards do such a better job of developing players and building a MLB roster. I do hate those Stepford Fans in St. Louis. But I can not fault the team in what they do. I see Ben and Farrell back for another go in 2016.

Beane.

I don't know. Aside from Porcello I could have envisioned what we have seen now. Masterson was a flier and I get that. An expensive one. He is probably cooked. Kelly showed a lively arm last year so I was tantalized. But I saw no command and no poise. So I am not at all surprised that he has sucked ass. Miley I knew absolutely nothing about until the trade was done. At that point I looked at his stats and said, okay, decent arm that can go 30 /200 + with a slightly elevated ERA in the AL. Buch I have never been sold on. Even in the first half of 2013. He just gets broken too often and he is a giant lunkhead. With all that, I could have imagined this level of sucktitude from all but Porcello. Who I believe is much better than what we have seen. Read, not a 1 or a 2 but a 4 or maybe even more with further development ( which will happen ).

Buch going down has forced the Sox hand with Johnson. Now we will see if he can contribute. Of course I do hope that he does but even if he and ERod can start enough, pitch enough innings, and win more than lose I can see no way that this team even sniffs the playoffs. Of course if they decide to go out and snag two top starters ( possible, not likely ) at the deadline all bets would have to be off. I think even iOrtiz would have to agree! Detroit and Cincy are going nowhere this year. Ben could go big and snag Price and Cueto!!! Go big or go home I say! Of course this would necessitate unloading several top prospects. I'm not keen on that. But if both pitchers would sign extensions I'd do it. f*** the Cap. Go all Yankee on the league!

I agree completely. Kimmi you came on board after I said that the Sox should sign Lester as soon as the 2013 season ended. I think the Bailey money is nuts. Lester is still worth more so 100-110 should have gotten it done over 4-5 years. Oh well!

The "Experts" have the Sox with a 14%-25% chance of making the playoffs. This was said no later than June 5 witch was before Buch went down.

I wonder if Swihart is available. We take this for granted that he is not going to be traded. But it is still a possibility. Especially if the Sox are intent on acquiring an upper tier arm like Cueto.

Yup. This is what I suspect as well.

I agree. I wonder what package the Reds would require. What do they need?

No. Of course not. The Sox would get all the necessary reinforcements at the deadline. Don't you believe in Devine Intervention??????

It means that he knows that the Sox need to buy more pitching. "“to add some arms to the group that we have … would go a long way to stabilize things.” And that is his way of diplomatically saying that the Sox pitching sucks donkey dicks.

I don't have a lot of faith in "experts". I find no solace in knowing that so many of them have been wrong. I'm not surprised either. Predicting the performance year to year of any athlete is dicey whether you use stats to substantiate your opinion or not. Too many of these experts get it dead wrong in every sport. I'll listen to guys like Shilling or Rice because they both were very good at what they did. But I only listen to them about pitching and batting. That is what they know. I also believe that the Sox idea of stocking the rotation with schlock was a flawed one. Expecting this rotation to remain competitive even when the offense was "under performing" was a really dumb idea if that is what the FO was thinking. So the idea that the best offense in baseball would carry the team was just dumb. It is common sense. Even if this offense was to be strong, there was always the chance that Bogey would continue to be below average, that Betts would struggle, that Vasquez would struggle, that Castillo would struggle, that Victorino would contribute little or nothing, etc. Deliberately disassembling a pitching staff and then restocking with mid to bottom of the rotation guys and reclamation projects was just not a good idea. The results prove this. The key problem seems to be talent evaluation. The Sox have sucked at it, overall, for a couple of years at least. Whose responsibility is that? The GM's. Projections are fine. But they are only as good as the people who are doing the evaluations. In this case, they failed.

Betts is my favorite player and I like Boagerts too. Only a moron would would ever compare them with Lynn and Rice ( to date, any way ).

Maybe folks here can suggest ways to resolve the Sox problems? Not stuff like "trade nap". or "trade for a #1". I very much doubt that the Sox will make the playoffs this year. Although like many I have softened with the Sox recent success. I think that they need to win the AL East to make the post season and they just do not have enough quality pitching. When the Sox came up short building a quality rotation last winter, I suggested that they were aiming for the seeming abundance of SP in free agency after the 2015 season. With Buch going down and the likelihood of the Sox taking the East as constructed pretty much nil, I see the Sox doing as I suggested. Why trade what few good chips we have in the system for a rental when the season is toast anyway? Maybe the Sox will be sellers. But who do they sell? Victorino is 4/21 since returning and is owed about $6. mil for the remainder of the season. Nap is completely lost ( although he has some better numbers than Sandoval ) and is owed about the same as vic. Craig is hitting a blistering .276 with a ton of Ks in AAA. Do other teams even remember when he used to be able to hit in MLB? While his contract is viewed as a bargain by some on this site, I think that another 4 years may be a hard sell. Sox would pay to jettison this stiff. Can we discuss trading Castillo? It may be too soon to label him a bust for some. And that is good! Maybe some other team would like to take a chance on this Cuban Carmen Fanzone? Again, the Sox eat this deal too. Koji??? What teams that believe they are in contention actually need 40 year old closer for $13. mil? And why dispose of an asset that may be useful next year if we are not in it this year? I think the Sox stay the course and look to build the rotation in November. I hope so anyway. Above all, I hope they do not trade prospect chips at the deadline.