SoxSport

The great irony right now is Rizzo is hitting HRs in Chicago, while AdGon has lost his HR stroke. The deal is looking like a disaster--all engineered by the guy who benefits in Chicago. Theo f*cking Epstein.

Youks just won a game today--singling in the 10th inning to drive in the winning run.

yeah... I believe all this. they don't adjust their hitting in big parks--they are still swinging for the fences instead of playing smallball. That's in part the manager's fault. He has to take charge and get these guys playing as a team--not as a bunch of individuals. That was their problem under Francona, and it hasn't changed. I don't think V has changed the climate at all.

wow. Gomez at 3B. They've got Laroche at Pawtucket. And Lillibridge.Why the hell call up Gomez? 19HRs , but he plays 1B. I guess they think he's Youkilis. The problem with all these injured thumbs is Cherington has his thumb up his ass. Pull it out, Ben, and take the curse off.

They can't score runs against bad teams like Seattle and Oakland. They are just a mediocre team at this point. It's time to break them up and start over. Get those kids up from Pawtucket. And stop kidding yourself that Aviles is a starting SS and Aceves is a closer.

Gonzo has shown no power, and they continue to bat him in the middle of the order. I guess the batting order goes according to salary.

Replying to jung's post about the decline of the all-star game: I think the media--TV-- has killed the all-star game. They treat sports strictly as entertainment--not competition. The competition for the media is Ratings--which determine their advertising revenue. So they try to attract a broader audience than hard core fans. That means phoney HR hitting contests using corked balls and bats, and all the rest of the hoopla which detracts from the game. Selig, in my view, made an honest effort at making the game more serious by making the World Series home field dependent on the all-star game outcome. Ill-founded, because he didn't recognize that it's just entertainment these days, while the World Series is serious competition. They don't mix.

I agree Ells had two freak accidents. I recall Fisk kept getting hit in the cup with foul tips. It became a real problem. Fisk and Lynn were left hanging by Haywood Sullivan, who hated free agency. It was maybe the worst GM decision in Boston's history (Babe Ruth was an owner's decision)--at least until Epstein starting signing expensive FAs--regardless of need-- the last few years.

The guys they want for the rotation are guys that stay off the DL and don't s*** the bed early in games. There's nothing that pisses off the lineup more than a starter who gets them down 4 or 5 runs in the 1st or 2nd inning. Especially on the road. Yeah, yeah, Dice-k had a stiff neck...so why was he pitching? I guess that explains all those meatballs down the middle. Better control with a stiff neck.

Once again, a Red Sox starter is not prepared to start a game. Are Henry/Lucchino noticing this?

It sure is a mystery how the FO keeps accumulating s***** players, keeping better ones in AAA.

The Epstein Curse.

The baseball season is like one of those hourglasses. At the halfway point, you turn it around, and the filled part starts emptying sand into the vacant part. The hot teams and the hot players get cold, and the cold teams and the cold players get hot. It's a new ballgame.

Seems I recall suggesting Ells for Felix quite awhile ago, and now the papers and everybody else are talking about it. Lester has been added to the mix, which tends to even out present salary. Lester looks like Porky Pig these days to me, so I'm all for it. I do like 3 lefties in the starting rotation, though, especially playing the Yankees.

I agree Iggy should be up, and Aviles should play 3B. Poor Iggy may be caught in a power struggle, and he may never get to Boston.

He's gotten two major injuries--the first one was not of his making. the FO dolts moved him to LF for that relic Cameron, and he promptly got steamrollered by Beltre in a collision chasing a pop fly. The second one was a freak. He landed on the ground face up at 2B , and the TB SS used his shoulder for a trampolin. Just bad luck on both counts. Otherwise, he's been durable. The Sox have too too many injuries. Other teams have them, too, of course. But the Sox seem snakebitten. They unload Youks, and Middlebrooks goes down. I hope they are taking a close look at their methods, and making sure they aren't making injuries easier to happen. Why, for example, was MBrooks trying to steal a base when he had previously tweaked his hamstring? Read that somewhere. The other problem is it seems to take forever for the Sox to get players back from injuries. They spend too much time rehabbing in the minor leagues. Ellsbury hit a HR yesterday somewhere. He's ready to play and should be in Boston right now at least pinch hitting. The guy's been out for almost 3 months, and his shoulder was not separated--more strained, I guess. Why so long?

I think V is a better game manager than Tito. But I wonder if he got the players he wanted in the beginning of the season, and how much personnel say he has now. Those are the biggest questions, and you won't find many answers reading the sports pages. Cafardo impies he doesn't always get what he wants. And he didn't hire his pitching coach, McClure, and doesn't get along with him. Nor did he hire his bench coach. I'll say one thing: if the Red Sox don't make the playoffs this year, there will be more personnel changes. And I don't mean players.

hello. ah. this is ben cherington..about youkilis..can i get a refund?

Pretty dumb if Morales doesn't start against NY.

Salty deserved to make it. He's known now, and will have a better chance next year if he keeps hitting and improving his defense.

I suppose you have to give guys like Ortiz credit for having big years after drug testing took affect. The problem is the testing is not transparent. There's even talk the players union tips off the players when the testing is imminent. The Mitchell report said everybody in baseball knew about steroids and did nothing about it. I wonder just how much things have changed. The only guys they catch these days are on screwups the guys have made in their routines. I wouldn't want to be one of those HOF voters. It's a tough call on a lot of these players.

Why are the Red Sox pitchers so soft? You look down the starters, and none of them seems capable of getting beyond the 7th inning. And most are inconsistent. And then there's Bard, who seems to have a mental block about what his role is. In the old days, pitchers took the ball and went out and pitched. If they threw good in relief a couple of times back from injury, they started a game. No pussying around in AAA and no pitch count machines. I can't recall injuries being such a big factor in those days. Today, Doubront looked like a worn out pitcher. They say he's thrown too many innings already. The conditioning just isn't there with these guys. Their durability sucks. Maybe the pitch count machine has affected their arm strength.