SoxSport

Did Farrell blow the game taking out Dempster at 88 pitches? Managers can cost you games overmanaging. It's a common practice these days with pitch counts and one reliever per inning. They get a good game out of Dempster and waste it.

How many game tying HRs has Tazawa given up in the setup role? Seems like a lot. Maybe Farrell should be rotating that slot.

Beckett is a symbol for what happened to the Red Sox after '07. Too much hubris and indifference. Sloppy fundamentals and conditioning. And no RHd power replacement for Manny after Bay left.

Watching that play Iggy made at SS last night, you wonder if that trade is going to haunt the Red Sox. He showed some of the fastest hands in baseball on that play. I hear he's hitting about .280 in Detroit. That might make him a steal, if he can keep it up. The Red Sox never gave him a fair shot at SS. First the terrible climate for any rookie last year. This year blocked at SS by Drew. Not to mention the cynical Boston media counting his IF hits.

The "negativity" was there long before Valentine was hired. He has become a convenient scapegoat for the mismanagement and dysfunction that caused the Red Sox downfall before he was hired. That they totally screwed up the hiring process after firing Tito was a testimony to that. The organization broke down. Valentine took the millions and kept his mouth shut, like a good little soldier. He was the scape goat who got paid off for his silence. MLB these days isn't just a bunch of players trying to win games. It's about scrambling any way you can to grab all those millions that TV is dropping on the sport--thanks largely to advertising and our cable bills.

Rizzo actually got a promotion this year after that disastrous decision last year about Strasburg. It was a classic example of the overmanaging of pitching that is rampant in Baseball these days. People doing things to "save arms" without knowing what the hell they are doing. It just shows you how difficult it is to criticize a GM. Managers, sure. But GMs? It's a case of the higher up you go, the more insulated you become.

They should be shooting for better defense than Salty. He hits good for a catcher, but his defense needs improvement. Catching is like SS--it's a defensive position. Unless you have Johnny Bench, you pay for defense.

Carp, Nava and Gomes have done a bangup job at times playing LF and 1B (Nava, Carp). Nava playing 1b is a mystery. Can't recall him playing there in Pawtucket. He did make a key error there a couple of games ago. Carp and Gomes are valuable bench guys. The only thing that bothers me about these guys is they might be blocking Bradley, who is a potential 5 tool guy waiting to happen. Last time in Boston, he hit one over the bullpen against a LHP, then got sent down again. What do they have here? They need to find out in September.

Ben is Henry's boy. The media knows that. Hence, Ben gets no criticism in the media. The media generally saves its ammunition for the manager, anyways. Besides, the FO isn't only Ben--it's a lot of people, plus his bosses. Who is responsible for the Red Sox resurgence? The first place to look is the changes. The coaching and the manager have been excellent. And they have the backing of the whole organization. Which means the players are putting out. And the FO has added some experience (James et al), which they lacked last year. They have made some good signings--and some bad ones. The bad one is Dempster. Waste of money. The others are good--especially Napoli's reduced 1 yr contract. Carp and Breslow have been good pickups. Bailey and Hanrahan have not worked out. Moving Bard to starter was a disaster. Signing Uehara has saved them at closer--for now. The Peavy trade is too early to call. The FO still doesn't seem to sense the same urgency as a lot of the fans--and some of the media. There is a clear problem against LHP--not enough RHd hitting--or guys who hit left handers. So everybody has been waiting for Middlebrooks and/or Bogaerts to get called up. Middlebrooks finally got the call--it should have been a week or so earlier. Clearly, Bogaerts should be platooning with Drew at SS against LHP, but that hasn't happened yet. Bradley has disappeared from view, a guy with 5 tool potential who would improve their OF defense and put more speed into the lineup. I don't yet see a commitment to pulling every stop to win this division. Rather, they still have one foot in the bucket that says "bridge season" on it--let's keep the prospects under wraps. I think the future arrived a bit too quickly for some.

I guess Workman is delegated to cleaning up for Dumpster. The guy has two good starts, and one or two bad relief efforts. You'd think they'd start him, but he is apparently stuck as a reliever. I would have left him to start until he showed otherwise. Dempster should be cleaning up for him. But money talks. The Bogaerts countdown is in progress. When will somebody get the bright idea that maybe he might be better than Drew against LHP? They lost 3 out of 4 to KC, and are still 3 games ahead of TB. Thank you, Dodgers.

The trick is to play .500 on the road and kick ass at home. So far they're ahead of the curve. They need a split tomorrow. Middlebrooks gave them a boost tonite with a couple RBIs.

No longer. Middlebrooks is in the Red Sox lineup tonite, batting 9th.

Ha. more twists to this than a pretzel. It does show how much clout the Yankees have in the media.

Middlebrooks is a lot easier to bring up right now--he's on the 40 man roster. And he's better defensively at 3B than Bogaerts. Why mess up Bogaerts playing 3B? He's their SS next year. They are playing guys out of position, and it's hurting them defensively.

The Globe said the same this morning--Middlebrooks is hitting .316 his last 10 games, and he should be brought up. Everybody's been saying this lately, including some of the players (from Cafardo). Now we know that Ben is a bit sleepy, but there are others in the FO, too. Are they just obstinate?

The Globe says this morning Middlebrooks is hitting .316 his last 10 games in AAA, and it's time to bring him up. What's holding them up--other than everybody has been saying this for the last week or so. This team could well collapse if some of the holes aren't plugged soon. The Peavy collapse last night was disconcerting. They could have had Norris who has been lights out for Baltimore. Meanwhile, they also say ARod was booed last night in NY. I watched, and actually there were more cheers--including some fans with Detroit jerseys. Signs supporting ARod on the Yankees side. So why is the media so negative about ARod? It just fuels the notion that Selig is trying to help the Yankees get out of his contract.

Cafardo just said on MLB TV the players would like to see Middlebrooks back. It's almost a no brainer that he or Bogaerts should be playing 3B. It's not unusual for the FO to be slower coming around than others. Maybe they're waiting for the roof to fall in. The cracks are showing.

Just saw Cafardo on MLB TV from KC. He says they were relying on two big RHd bats--Middlebrooks and Napoli-- at the start of the season. Middlebrooks didn't work out and wasn't replaced. He said the time has come to see Middlebrooks or Bogaerts at 3B. The players would like to see Middlebrooks again.

You really think it's Farrell's decision? No. That's a FO call. Farrell may have an input.

whoever it is, he's learning to pitch left handed tonite.

It just sucks against LHP. They have done nothing to improve their RHd hitting, and took their best hitter out of the lineup tonite. Looks like Farrell made that lineup up like Jimy Williams used to --with a dartboard. At times, the FO reminds me of passengers at the Captain's table having dinner while the Titanic is going down. No sense of urgency.

You can't put a patchwork defense out there on the road and expect to win. I can't recall Nava playing 1B in Pawtucket. Holt never played 3b before Boston. Gomes is a strictly Fenway guy in LF. It's either stupidity or pure hubris. Farrell is just shuffling the cards he's given. At least Lester's line looks OK. 1 ER in 7 innings. Any resemblance between him and Dumpster is fiction.

That wasn't the case in Houston, but KC is a better team.

Yeah, it's too early. Anything is possible. they had an even better record Aug 1st two years ago, and you know what happened then. The one thing that can kill them is hubris--too much hubris.

Yeah it is. That's the point. Nobody else in baseball has gotten that kind of BS treatment. In other locales, speed on the bases is a quality. His offensive analysis in Boston was offensive.