Spudboy

Wow. I've said it before ( much to the delight of other members. I'm sure! ). Cespedes is a hack in the outfield. Did he even get charged with an error?? That fly ball was very catchable. It landed about two feet short of the wall. And, XB sucks. He can't even make enough of the routine plays. He belongs in AA ball so he can learn how to play. Those two gaffs contributed heavily to a 6-0 deficit. Horrible.

I certainly agree that baseball is too slow and that this is somewhat of a repellant among younger prospective fans. One problem that no one talks about is the loss of revenue associated with shortening the game. Fans in attendance are captive and spend money while at the ball park. Shorten the game = less money. Shorten the game means less time for commercials. Less money. Advertising done in the ball park will be less attractive too. Does anyone see the rich boys who control the game willingly taking a financial hit? I don't.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2014/08/keith_olbermanns_mlb_commissioner_sketch_is_pretty.html lulz

Of course the biggest problem is the decline in young viewership and fans. The demographics of baseball fans is pretty ugly now. Every year less and less younger groups are becoming fans while the average age of a fan in getting older. That is not a healthy trend.

Interesting idea Fred. I hadn't given it much thought because I don't mind inter-league play. However, the other night Keith Olberman talked about how baseball is ( my word ) dieing. There is a relationship between televised inter-league games and decline in MLB viewership. It seems that each year viewership of these games is declining at a precipitous rate. Right now baseball and the individual teams are benefiting from massive cable revenues. But these are going to go away very much sooner than people expect. When that happens, baseball as a whole will make far less money and only the healthy teams with strong local television ( cable ) deals will thrive. All other teams will suffer greatly. Baseball has many challenges. NBA is about to pass it in overall popularity ( Football is 1st ). Getting rid of inter-league games may need to be considered because it is suspected that viewers miss seeing only the teams that they normally watch ( within their league ) and have little interest in seeing the other league until playoffs and the World Series. I wish I could somehow copy paste the stats because they are quite vivid and alarming. Plus I'm not sure that I've articulated the urgency and nature of the problem accurately.

This off season could be different for the high spending Yankees Fred. The free agent pool of position players is thin. Of course that won't stop them from spending exorbitantly on front line pitching. Maybe they can make some trades but who in their farm system could be used as chips for one or more impact players? Both the Yankees and Sox have several big holes to fill to get back to playoff contention at this point.

Middlebrooks had a hot streak in the minors this year? How did I miss that? I realize that he continues to have nagging injuries that may be holding him back. I just feel at this point he has had enough time to recover and to demonstrate some consistency at the plate. He has not done that. I have been hoping that he could show some discipline and of course his power. He hasn't. I think that Middlebrooks is approaching bust status.

He also made two good throws to third.

Cespedes hurt his hand in an at bat. He wasn't hit. He just swung awkwardly according to Farrell. His hand is sore. Ranaudo did not look great. He could not keep the ball down. He did get the win, however.

Wow. A 3 game winning streak and 5 and 3 road trip. Good stuff! I hope Cespedes's hand is okay. Farrell says his removal was precautionary. Now the Sox come home for 4 games against the Astros so they may be able to run off a few more wins. Who knows? GO SOX!!!!

That was a nice article. It leave Sox fans with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Ultimately it will come down to how much the Sox offer. Olney reported that the Sox offered 6/100 on June 28 ( not mentioned in this article ). I guess ( that is all that any of us can do ) that the Sox will have to offer 6/120 -6/132 to get Lester back. Will the Sox do it? And if they are able to get Lester back, does anyone actually believe that they will spend another $100. mil. to get Hammels? I doubt that but who knows? They did something similar to secure Gonzalez and Crawford.

I don't know if Bradley will ever be a productive MLB hitter. He sure is completely lost at the plate. Take a peak at the professional AB Joe Kelly makes. SSS but wow. A pitcher who can hit and beats it out down the line. Maybe he can give Bradley a few pointers.

I'm not sure why Clay was sent out for the 8th. Hindsight and all but that was clearly a mistake. I stayed up through the 11th but had to get up early this morning so I crashed. I hope De La Rosa can go deep today because that pen in probably gassed.

Go sox!!!!

Yup. another 1/2 hour.

Boston Red Sox Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG B. Holt, CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .300 .348 .415 D. Pedroia, 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .280 .345 .377 D. Ortiz, DH 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .246 .339 .493 Y. Cespedes, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .258 .305 .462 M. Napoli, 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .272 .385 .457 D. Nava, RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .251 .331 .314 X. Bogaerts, SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .235 .300 .357 W. Middlebrooks, 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .198 .289 .326 C. Vazquez, C .254 .324 .339 Los Angeles Angels Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG K. Calhoun, RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .281 .338 .462 M. Trout, DH 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .298 .386 .572 A. Pujols, 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .275 .326 .476 J. Hamilton, CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .271 .341 .424 E. Aybar, SS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .267 .306 .377 H. Kendrick, 2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .279 .335 .373 D. Freese, 3B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .254 .322 .359 H. Conger, C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .232 .300 .343 C. Cowgill, LF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .276 .358 .403

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Werner's first move should be to mandate that all ball girls look like your avatar!!!!!!

I know that I've been a critic of Cespedes since the Lester trade. I think that he is not very skilled in the outfield, especially for a player who is 29 years old. BUT...there is no way to ignore that he has an absolute cannon of an arm and unlike his overthrow of second base last night, he is more often than not very accurate. Bouncing about baseball sites today I happened upon this clip which highlights many of his spectacular throws for assists. Screw the home run derby and batting practice highlights. This man makes some of the most exiting plays in the game. I look forward to to seeing him make these throws for the Sox. "Enjoy".

Buchholz (5-7, 6.20 ERA) vs. Richards (12-4, 2.58 ERA) Oh joy. The Sox send new Ace Buchholz who is pitching like total crap against Richards who is coming off a great start in the second game of a three game series. Buch is under increased pressure now that Webster had a decent outing. I bet he has a fresh case of Brylcreem being delivered to the stadium as I type. Time for some grease ball magic so the Sox can provide a rare series win for the starving masses of Sox Nation. This game starts one hour earlier than last night's game. 9:05 EST. I'm planning on firing up my Keurig so I can remain awake for the festivities. Care to join me? Lineups will be posted when available.

Well he showed some improvement tonight so he will get a temporary stay of execution.

Well the batter coming up had something like a .132 BA against left handed pitching so the change was made after 2 outs.

To be fair he had just cause tonight as about 4 pitches were either really close or were obvious strikes. Even the Sox started to bark about the strike calling.

He makes plays that remove base runners and saves runs almost every game. He's a blast to watch play in the outfield. Probably the best defensive CF for the Sox since Fred Lynn. But when he comes up to bat it's my signal to go to the bathroom. The results are almost always the same. I can't believe that he is a lost cause. He was able to change his stance etc. and show consistent improvement for 3-4 weeks. I see no reason why he can't make those adjustments again and eventually become a decent hitter.

Maybe the Sox will treat us with an offensive explosion tonight?

I agree. The family aspect is never spoken about. Lester mentioned it in a post game interview and I cough onto it. When asked about the adjustment that he would be making playing for a new organization and with new teammates, he said that he was more concerned about getting his family settled and being able to get to the park on time. I think that he's gone for good. Too bad. It all could have been avoided if the Sox had played it smart by trying to sign him after the series last year or even during the 2013 season. Stupid. Just stupid.