Spudboy

Old friend Grady Sizemore has signed a minor league contract with the Phillies. I hope that he can get his hitting sorted out and can make it back to the bigs and play well. He sure was fun to watch when he was playing well in Cleveland. I doubt that he will ever be that player again but I wish him well.

Fred your obsession with Drew is boring. The Sox have many problems. The Drew signing is pretty low on the list of problems. What does it matter?

What does Drew have to do with this thread? And what does it really matter one way or another why X is slumping? It is happening and there is nothing that can be done by any of us to correct it. Hopefully the Sox have a hitting coach that can help X.

Welcome to The Rogue State of Red Sox Nation.

I was one of the people who wanted Drew back all along. And I thought it was a reasonable if not good thing to do to bring him back when WMB went down ( AGAIN! ) with an injury. Of course back when that happened I was still sort of confident that the Sox could "turn the season around". I don't see this as likely now. Drew is excess baggage if this team stays performing as it has for the remainder of the season. I have no idea why he is not hitting well. He did have a short time to get adjusted to the timing of live and high level pitching without spring training. But I'm not going to make excuses. I don't think that Drew is the reason why X has tailed off at the plate. I think that it is more likely that pitchers know by now what is the best approach when facing X. That and he may just be in a slump. It may be just as simple as that. If the Sox are not going to TRY to make a run at the post season I see no reason why Drew should not be dealt by the deadline. I just hope that if this is the case that the Sox get something good in return.

Yeah Bogey was just starting to heat up when he was moved to 3rd.

While it is true for the most part that pitching is not the biggest problem for the Sox this year, the guys mentioned may have some market value for teams looking for pitching mid-season for whatever purpose. Those two and Bucholtz are expendable form what we have seen from Workman and DeLarosa, so far. If the Sox can get a decent or better outfield bat, especially RH, the Sox would be irresponsible not to make a move.

I heard today that Tanaka is starting to face teams for a second time and that they have him figured out. I don't know. But the second time that batters face a guy they seem to do better.

This^ It won't happen though, I suspect.

Nava is not the problem.

"ABY" What is that?

So if what you surmise is true, what changes and moves do you recommend to turn it around?

I could not find a dedicated thread to this subject so I'm posting it here because it is topical and particularly relevant to this thread. Bard is History. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2014/06/more_bad_news_for_daniel_bard_as_rangers_release_e.html?p1=Topopage:Carousel_sub_headline What a shame.

I suspected that at least one person would "defend" Poopie. Again, I really do not care what he has done in the past. He's a big name, big money athlete that is paid to produce getting extra base hits, homers, rbi. He is not doing as much as he should be expected to do NOW. He is a crybaby. Maybe David Price was correct. Poopie sees himself as bigger than the game. I don't know. But he sure thinks that he is more than what he is. No matter how many "clutch" and memorable moments he has brought to the team.

Not worthy of a new thread. However, did any of you see the crap in today's Boston.com about Big Poopie complaining about an error being called on Joe Meaur (sp ) instead of a hit for Ortiz? What a loudmouth self oriented, narcissistic, egotistic douche nozzle Poopie is. He is all upset that he has been getting a raw deal by scorekeepers in Boston. Boo f'in hoo! As if 2-3 of such calls will noticeably effect his season BA or OBP. And who cares?? ( By the way, it sure did look like a hit. ) I'll tell you big Poopie what we will all notice. How about raising your BA, OBP, OPS, and Slugging stats up to career averages and help to lift your team onto that huge, strong back of yours???? I'm fully aware of the contributions this guy has made to the Sox. Great!!! How about building on your legacy by continuing to help make your team competitive again? The true great players in sports history would. Fraud.

Yup. And dopes like Dennis and Callahan make this into a "story" during the middle of a disastrous season. I don't see how creating conflict and debate over Lackey's contract now will help the Sox. Just the opposite. This type of thing gets blown out of proportion too often in the Boston media when the emphasis should be on fixing the problems of the current team, not creating new ones.

Boo hoo hoo. Kershaw should trow more games like this to justify his crazy contract. I'm glad that the Sox don't spend this way.

Now that was a Red Sox win! Aside from the dinger that Koji allowed, that is! Off to the left coast to kick some butt!!

I like the sound of many extra base hits. Yes walks are good!!!!! But this team needs extra base hits to be able to score runs in bunches. GO SOX!!!!!!

Yup. But it's like an accident on the highway. We can not keep ourselves from looking no matter how terrible the view is.

I was just wondering if he had approached 30 starts and 200 innings in Japan. I never think that spending huge money on long term deals ( especially with pitchers ) is a good idea. It looks like the Yankees made a good move grabbing this guy.

Yes, I agree. I don't see the Sox becoming a playoff team this year. Everyone seems to be waiting for some wonderful turn around that will get them back into the hunt. I just do not see that happening this time. The Jays are ice cold NOW losing 7 of their last 10 games. The Sox are still quite a ways back. The Sox need to win consistently to make up the deficit. But the have trouble scoring more than 3 runs each game. Unless they can get 5 or so runs each game they will never catch up to a playoff birth. But we have nice little stories like Holt's unexpected production to keep us watching and continuing to hope that things will get better. This is life as a Sox fan. I realize the odds are not good that the Sox will be a playoff team this year. But I never lose hope.

I can watch that play over and over. In a season that has been pretty miserable overall, Holt has been a very good story. I can't wait to see what he will do next. I hope that it includes continuing to hit.

The guy has performed well. I wonder how he will hold up throughout the entire season?

Brian McCann