Spudboy

I this is what happened to Middlebrooks then why are other hitters not suffering the same failure? I am not so sure that it's a good idea to condemn the organizations philosophy based on the numbers of one poorly performing player. Maybe he just does not know how to read pitches?

Howdy. I just got home at the start of this inning. I saw that Webster had not been scored on and said to myself that this is the 3rd inning. The O's will score a bunch. I'm a prophet!

Is this what you are referring to Station? " The Sox were on the verge of tying the score after Allen Craig led off the ninth by being grazed by a pitch and pinch-runner Jemile Weeks bolted to third on a single by Daniel Nava. The next batter, Will Middlebrooks, chopped a ball down the third-base line that struck Weeks as he tried diving back to the bag. He was called out on runner's interference, Farrell failing to persuade plate umpire Mike Muchlinski that Weeks was not in fair territory when the ball struck him." As if the Sox are not bad enough!!!! Middlebrooks screwed the pooch in a new way that I have never seen. All he had to do was drive the ball fairly deep to center or to right field for the sac fly and to tie the game. What a complete F-up. Disgraceful.

Oh but he's aggressive!!!! Ignore that he swings at first pitches and grounds out to the infield. He's ripped! He is raw! He is twitch! Lol! I suppose that I should give the guy a chance. It's not like I have a choice! I remain skeptical. if any team can get it wrong in pursuit of an international free agent this year it has to be the Sox.

I would like to see Betts at 3rd or in RF. For now, anyway. I just have this sour feeling in my gut that it makes no difference because Betts will be traded in the off season. I'll go nuts if that happens. Betts is probably the only visible bright spot among the Sox prospects.

Hopefully Clay will have an opportunity or two to bunt tonight. Let's just hope that he can do a better job than the two starters last night. I wonder how much time teams in the AL devote to bunting practice for all players and in particular for pitchers. If I were coaching a team I would emphasize it by making it a normal drill throughout the season.

Boston Red Sox Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG M Betts 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .283 .362 .434 X Bogaerts SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 .243 .305 .372 Y Cespedes LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .258 .301 .454 M Napoli 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .248 .366 .419 A Craig RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .133 .257 .233 W Middlebrooks 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .186 .253 .266 R Castillo CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 C Vazquez C 0 0 0 0 0 0 .208 .274 .262 C Buchholz P 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 Pittsburgh Pirates Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG J Harrison 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .317 .350 .505 G Polanco RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .241 .315 .342 A McCutchen CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .307 .396 .529 N Walker 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .279 .352 .469 R Martin C 0 0 0 0 0 0 .297 .411 .437 S Marte LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .287 .358 .453 I Davis 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .230 .345 .364 C Barmes SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 .232 .315 .274 F Liriano P 0 0 0 0 0 0 .079 .125 .079 Castillo is batting 7th. Ortiz is not playing. Napoli is at 1st and Craig is in RF. Awesome!

Batting performance can be cyclic. Putting up 3-4 0'fers is not uncommon. But in his case it should not surprise any of us! I'm surprised that he is still in MLB.

Or, and it won't surprise me, they may hold onto him and see what he does in spring training and go from there. That could be justified in their minds because WM has been hurt so much over the past few years. I keep saying that power ( or in Wm's case, the promise of power ) is intoxicating. Who knows what they will do?

Buchholtz has been pitching well recently. It would be nice to see him dominate tonight. That would help give the slumbering Sox bats a chance to put enough up to win. I, like many here, am anxious to see Castillo play. It will be good to see him up against major league pitching. I don't care who plays the Sox outfield for years to come or where they come from as long as they can play decent defense and hit better than what we have witnessed this year. a700 has said that in essence what players do in September is a lot like what they do in spring training. It does not necessarily mean much. But Pittsburgh is in the playoff hunt so I expect them to play their best. The Sox? Who knows? I would expect most players would want to perform well because of pride if nothing else. A bunch of players have to put out now because they are trying to secure spots on the roster next year. I guy like Craig has a lot to prove since he has done zilch since being acquired. XB has been hitting much better since he got beaned. Maybe Craig needs to take one off the gourd to get back on track! I heard that Papi will be starting at 1st base tonight. I find that curious because he is dealing with a bad foot and playing the field certainly won't do much good for that! Oh well. The season is almost over so it does not mean much, anyway. As miserable as this season has been, I am lamenting it ending. Even with the Sox playing so poorly I have been watching my team closely each day. All of a sudden they will not be around to follow. I guess that I'll have to watch the other teams play in the playoffs. It's hard for me to get very excited about that even though I love the game. I am looking forward to the Hot Stove season very much. In particular, I am very interested to see if the Sox make a run at Lester and if so, how serious their efforts will be. Sometimes I have to question the ability of the Sox brass to get the job done. They have botched the Lester situation royally so far. If they don't come in with an opening offer of at least 5/125 they are really stupid and deserve our wrath. I'd also like to see them make a run at Schields. One way or another they need to open the wallet wide in pursuit of front line pitching. If they don't and only grab a couple of middling arms instead I will really be pissed. Call me entitled but I expect more from the Sox. Thunder mojo rules! GO SOX!!!!!1!

Boston Red Sox Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG M. Betts, 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .289 .365 .444 X. Bogaerts, SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .240 .303 .371 D. Nava, RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .263 .339 .355 Y. Cespedes, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .258 .302 .453 M. Napoli, 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .367 .422 W. Middlebrooks, 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .185 .254 .262 J. Bradley Jr., CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .207 .277 .278 C. Vazquez, C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .207 .274 .255 A. Ranaudo, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Totals - - - Pittsburgh Pirates Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG J. Harrison, 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .317 .351 .508 T. Snider, RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .261 .334 .425 A. McCutchen, CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .310 .399 .533 N. Walker, 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .279 .351 .468 R. Martin, C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .295 .410 .428 S. Marte, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .285 .356 .446 I. Davis, 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .231 .344 .365 C. Barmes, SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .228 .314 .272 C. Morton, P 0 0 0

The Pirates are one of the few teams that I can say that I hope will make the playoffs. The Sox can really hurt their chances in this series, though. It sounds as if we will see Castillo tomorrow. That should be interesting! I wonder how Holt is doing? It's a shame that he sustained a concussion but it has given others more playing time. GO SOX !!!1!1

Yes, the potential to grab real talent is there. But it won't be talent that will impact the team for a few years. For that the Yankees will have to spend even more money or trade away some of their current talent.

He sure does. I just hope the Sox don't trade him off.

I can't understand why anything at all has not been coached out of or into Bradlee at the plate. I seriously doubt that he is lacking in the physical tools to be able to hit in the majors. The whole thing is inexplicable to me. I see this as an organizational failure. What do coaches do? Bradlee does not seem to be dumb. Is he though? How the hell did he gets so far up the ladder and not be able to hit????

Oh. Spitball I did not intend to interrupt your conversation with Fred. I just wanted to help get the conversation back to XB and avoid acrimony.

Who the hell cares about the guy? I will say this. While I will gladly concede that XB was over hyped and may not ever become the "player I expect him to be", it is still too early to tell what his ceiling is. He is 21 and obviously a talented athlete. He also appears to have a brain and drive. I don't believe that he is a "choker". He just needs to learn how to hit better ALL OF THE TIME. 12 months from now if the kid has not much better than he is now then I say he is closer to being a bust and go in another direction. We don't need another Middlebrooks.

I would have mentioned Holt as a choice for 3rd base but I had mentioned it before and no one cared for the idea because of Holt's lack of power and his value as a "super-sub". I think Holt would be a great 3rd baseman. But people are hung up on deriving power from heavier, lumbering players at the position. This is why I suggested Craig since he is under contract and his positions are either locked down or crowded.

Only if they had information that said that he would not be the same. Of course they now take the risk of Stanton's value plunging if he comes into 2015 flailing at the plate. If that happens the Marlins will get next to nothing from him unless some team just wants to take a chance that he somehow regains his form and production. He is still young so he has that going for him.

Let's all just hope that a couple of the Sox young starting pitchers can outproduce Peavy next year!

Obviously a lot depends on his ability to use his repaired hand to follow through in his swing and drive the ball. One way or another, assuming that his surgery is "successful", Pedroia will start 2015 as the #3 hitter because of who he is. If he fails to produce at least as well a in 2014 then I see him moved down in the order. The Sox brass won't want the PR nightmare of bruising his ego in the fans eyes.

I'm in favor of bringing him back, of course. What will it cost?

Even if XB continues to hit and not make so many stupid plays at SS during September "Garbage Time" I doubt that the Sox will move him if there is any interest. He's most likely going to be the starting SS for our team coming out of SS in 2015. So get used to it! I wonder about 3rd base. Are the Sox going to keep WMB and hope that he starts 2015 playing well enough to be the starter going forward???? If not, who will be the chosen one? Can Graig play 3rd at all? He plays 1st okay. Although a sub .100 BA is not going to get it done. Can the Sox move him to another team with the way that he has been failing at the plate? It's nauseating to consider all of this. What happened to our Sox???? The Sox have 7 outfield candidates for 2015. Can some of them be moved to upgrade pitching or the left side infield? Are any of them worth anything other than Cespedes and Betts? What a mess.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11512445/baltimore-orioles-first-baseman-chris-davis-suspended-25-games-mlb Jeez! This is really strange. One would think that a player would not be caught at this sort of thing now a days. I have been vacillating about which AL team to root for in the playoffs. I was rooting for the A's and had began to root for the O's. Now I have no idea who will take the Pennant. I'd like to root for the Royals but they could not beat the Sox last night and have lost four in a row. What a season!

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/11510777/giancarlo-stanton-miami-marlins-hit-face-pitch-exits-stretcher This is pretty gruesome. It reminds me of Tony Conigliaro. I hope that there is no damage to his eye. It looks like it will be a long road to recovery for Stanton. I doubt that the Marlins will be moving him now in the off season. I hope that he makes a complete recovery. I know that it's part of the game. It's just awful to see someone getting hit in the face by an 88 mph projectile.