SoxFanForsyth

He's a player man. He's almost the only bright spot so far this year.

Lavarnway heating up down in Pawtucket as well. Solid 3-3 night tonight with a walk. Had a 2 for 5 night last night. Look out, Salty. Lavarnway can catch pop ups and sinkers.

Youkilis: 2 2B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 72 PA Middlebrooks: 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 18 PA.

BobbyV settling him down because he was upset about that 3-0 pitch. Seems to have worked too.

Youk's going to get Wally Pipp'd.

Love this kid!!!!!

WILL MIDDLEBROOKS!!!!!!!

Miller threw 1.1 IP, 3 K's and a weak GB to the P yesterday against the Orioles. He was really really good. Made hitters look silly.

If they exercise the option. They still have to exercise the option. Having said that, they almost certainly will. Even as bad as Lackey was, for $500k, he's a bargain. Not to mention, his AAV goes down considerably. Whereas it was at $16,500,000, it will drop to $11,166,667 for the final 3 years (including the option year). That's a solid $5.33mm in AAV savings. That's huge, especially considering the new LT implications.

Oye. Last year, in 28 starts, John Lackey allowed 5+ ER 10 times. This year, in 6 starts, Buchholz has allowed 5+ ER 6 times. Damn. I didn't think it could get worse than Lackey last year. Even DiceK has only allowed 5+ ER in 6 starts in a full season once (2007).

I'm sure Aceves can go again since his arm is made of rubber. Mortensen didn't pitch yesterday. Miller can definitely go today. I'd say that may be what you're working with though.

See I disagree. This team likely isn't going to be making a PS push as currently constructed. And the problem is that if they don't go out and get some solid pitching, they aren't going to be in the race for a while. Now, if you want to argue that going about it via FA isn't the right way to go, fine, and I can agree with that. But I don't see this ownership seeing 3 consecutive years of missing the PS, watching the stands go empty in an extra innings game, and not make a splash to try to get these fans back.

To be clear, I voted "somewhat disappointed" because, to be honest, since the ASB last year, he hasn't been driving the ball. I think he will turn it around, but for now it's a little disappointing to see him clam up when the team has needed him most this year, especially after the injuries. I do think he stepped it up last September, though. He hit .318 with a .977 OPS last September. Of course, in the last 2 series of the year, when the Sox needed him the very most, he hit .250 with a .673 OPS, but that was clearly because he was expanding the zone and trying to do too much.

Agree with this, but I disagree with your assessment that the Sox won't have much money coming off the books this year (from a prior post). All numbers in AAV. Ortiz (14.75mm) (Replaced by Lavarnway) Youk (10.3mm) (Replaced by WMB) Dice (10.33mm) (No Replacement Necessary - Lackey will be back) Jenks (6mm) (No Replacement Necessary, Obvious Reasons) Ross (3mm) (Replaced by Kalish) That's right at $45mm right there coming off the books just from those 5 players alone. Take out about 12mm in arb, and that leaves the Sox with around $33mm in money to play with. They can easily go get a guy like Cole Hamels and pay him $20-$22mm over 6-7 years, and then you've got a rotation of Hamels - Lester - Beckett - Buchholz - Bard. Throw Doubront into the bullpen as your 6th man. That's a quality rotation, and it slides Lester and Beckett into their appropriate slots.

MVP numbers against Buchholz. I don't care what he says. He's not healthy. His fastballs haven't changed planes since June, 2011. They are flatter than flat, and he has zero confidence in his change. Even if he's not hurt, he needs to be DL'ed so he can rehab in Pawtucket.

I'm not saying you can do anything to change the outcome of the game. I'm saying don't go on NESN and make commercials saying every pitch matters, every strike matters, and every game matters, and then in a post game presser say "nobody cares about this game" I understand he was pissed off, and rightfully so because this team is playing like s*** right now, and because if Salty could catch a simple pop up or if Buchholz could throw to a sub-9 ERA, they wouldn't have had to play 17 innings. I'm just saying that if I care about the losses, and watching baseball is just a passionate hobby, then he should care about them as well. But at some point, when your pitchers just keep getting blasted every outing, I would be thinking "Who gives a s*** anymore. It doesn't matter how hard I play, this team just doesn't play like it cares". Hell, I feel sorry for the guy for being on a team that doesn't play a passionate game. You watch the Rays play. Every single game, every person in that dugout is up for the game. They are passionate about winning. Outside of a few players, this team just feels like a team trying to collect their paychecks right now.

This is my thought exactly. Can Lavarnway be any worse than Salty? Because Salty is painfully bad right now. So, no. Lavarnway can't be any worse than Salty. Same thing goes for Iglesias. Can he be any worse than Darnell McDonald offensively?? Absolutely not. Iglesias at SS, Aviles in LF is the best option for this team right now. Once Ellsbury and Crawford come back, you may have a bit of a logjam, but you deal with that when it comes because there's never a guarantee that a player is going to come back, so you put the best team out there right now that you can.

I don't think this team has the balls to tell Youk he lost his job to a rookie, to be honest. So I won't make that wager. But I think the right move is to let WMB play everyday.

Well, buddy, I mean I love ya and all, but you may want to start giving a s*** about the loss. Because you've lost 16 in the past 27 games. You keep playing like this and your on pace for a 66-96 record. So maybe start giving a s*** about every game. And if you don't maybe you should go watch the NESN commercial again. Remember? Every pitch matters. Every strike matters. Every at bat matters. Every game matters. More s*** couldn't spew out of a horses ass.

The good news is that Middlebrooks is the real deal. The kid can mash, he's been working the count well, getting into hitters counts, and he has put a ton of really good swings on pitches.

There is a huge trickle down effect with the pitchers too. While Lackey may not be an improvement, DiceK likely will be able to go out and give you 6 IP, 3 ER from the 5th slot. You have DiceK, then you can throw Bard in the bullpen. You have Bard in the bullpen, and now you've got a swing and miss guy to set up for your closer, or you have got a closer. If you have Bailey, then all of a sudden the back end of your bullpen looks good. I just wonder how long it's going to take this team to realize that Salty is a huge thorn in the teams side right now. That dropped pop up cost the team the game. His defense is significantly worse this year than it was last year. And he strikes out entirely too much.