jung

Terrifying to think that you can spend this much in payroll and have a team play this poorly. $90M of it is for SP....if you can believe that. If it were not for the carnival Henry runs down there at Fenway and the dedicated NESN fan base, that $240 odd Million in payroll would be looking pretty scary. That element of this mess sort of makes the "hard to repeat" argument hard to take. They are just stinking up the place, never mind repeating.

1. Ji-Man Choi (L) DH 2. Austin Meadows (L) LF 3. Travis d'Arnaud ® C 4. Nate Lowe (L) 1B 5. Avisail Garcia ® RF 6. Kevin Kiermaier (L) CF 7. Matt Duffy ® 3B 8. Eric Sogard (L) 2B 9. Willy Adames ® SS 1. Mookie Betts ® RF 2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 3. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 4. J.D. Martinez ® DH 5. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 6. Sam Travis ® 1B 7. Christian Vazquez ® C 8. Michael Chavis ® 2B 9. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF

Yup....the answer was Work in July and it will be Work in Aug and Sept or for as long as he holds up.

I would say that the guy that is really in mourning today is Jacko. His Yankmees are a slowly setting sun IMO. Rays did a good job at the deadline. Made good small market team moves. But they are not going to the dance either IMO. I am a little surprised that the Sox did not try to fit some arm or another in before Work, Barnes and Nate just to give the fans some talking points about a new look pen. But apparently they could not even make a deal for something like that without giving up too much.

I just saw the complete mess out of the Pitt/Cincy game last night. Hey I got a way to resolve this whole mess of what MLB is becoming. Just call it MLW for Major League Wrestling. What a freaking clown show. In the first place, why was Puig even on the field. He had been traded to the Guardians by then. Even if the ink was not dry on the paperwork yet since when does the player in trade play stay in the current game? What is Reds Hurler Garrett doing charging the entire Pirates bench when he is pulled off the mound by the Reds stand in Manager (since Bell was at that point already in the Clubhouse). That brings Bell out of his clubhouse to reengage and he goes directly after Clint Hurdle who has had two hip surgeries. Not to excuse the Pirates, Hurdle's team has been throwing at players all year long and as I have stated before this current generation of MLB pitcher can't throw inside. They have no idea where its going. So, what a surprise, if a team of pitchers earns a reputation for throwing at players you should expect some fireworks. Maybe worse than all of it, the two managers would not shake hands at the exchange of lineup cards for today's game. THAT IS RIDICULOUS. They are leaders of two teams of very large, very physical ballplayers. Grow up for God sake. Bell should get a huge suspension. Talking heads say 10 games...I say 20. Get him the f*** off the field and out of the dugout. Let him stew for 20 games. Garrett should get 8-10. Puig should get 8-10. i did not see enough for any Pirate to get anything but one of them at least will have to get something just BECAUSE! Maybe Archer was barking from the bench....no idea. And back to the lack of command by MLB pitchers, Pirates Agrazal has been throwing the ball all over the place...has hit two Reds missing his catcher's location by two feet both times today. Hurdle finally pulled him. But everything is just fine in MLB. Best players and best play in history.....Ah-huh. Meanwhile Manfred is dreaming of midseason games in Europe. IDIOT

I have to admit to being a Cash fan myself earlier in his managerial career thinking he was accomplishing the primary role of a Manager, getting the most he could from his assets. But clearly he has gone entirely off the deep end, utterly governed by whatever nonsense is coming out of the Rays front office data information services department and I simply have little continence for that.

Oh I do ignore them. If somebody could assure me that the people that run our baseball ops ignores them as well I would be blissfully happy. That is likely an unreasonable expectation on my part. I can assure you that using multiple weighted factoring in a single stat line is NOT a statistical process of merit with each added weighted factor beyond one simply reducing the relevance and the value of the stat line developed. Its just the way it is. As for talking about how s***** the baseball is, I would not feel compelled to if people opened their eyes or understood what they were looking at and closed their ears to the MLB PR machine nonsense pumped at us daily. That might also be an unreasonable expectation. Apparently some people will want to believe this is just marvelous until some idiot dreams up a catchy term that suggests a 4 inning start is just wonderful, "openers are rampant, Relief pitchers come in to throw one pitch to one batter, fielders no longer know where the heck they are supposed to be or where they are to throw the ball once they get it and hitters that follow no recognizable approach at the plate are hitting 100 HR's a year. Most of what for some might seem a "utopian" future for MLB won't happen though because if we do not stop worshiping at the altar of pitch velo and spin rate and don't go back to command as the overarching element of pitching, there will be no pitchers to throw baseballs long before any of the rest of that nonsense occurs. Even if we turn pitching around on its heel TODAY, it will take a good five years or longer to backfill MLB and the minors with quality pitchers, guys with talent that know how to pitch. You need 400 pitchers for MLB, another 600 or so for AAA, another 500 for AA and then another 500 in A ball. I would guess that at the current time at least half the MLB pitchers should not be pitching in MLB at all. Half or more of the current AAA pitchers should not ever move up to MLB ball and at least half of the AA and A ball pitchers should be seeking work elsewhere as they should have made a different career decision. You have to cull them from the preponderance of pitchers now broken down before they get out of high school. Its not their fault though really. They have been led down the same velo and spin rate path as the fans have been led down. They are for the most part just accidents waiting to happen. I will repeat an old saw of mine, this from a guy with no love lost for pitchers. Everything on the diamond starts with the ball (now f***ed with beyond all reason) in the hands of a pitcher (a category of player now f***ed with beyond all reason). It will take a good 5 and maybe 10 years to wash through this junk and get back to actual ML level pitching at a reasonable level across MLB. I don't have much to say negative about the hitters because they are just tagging along behind the changes to the baseball, the changes to pitching emphasis, the rule changes and the shift which is as it should be because THE BALL starts in the the hand of THE PITCHER!

Hey at least we might be able to look forward to more hysterically funny, yet interesting and tight games like the Rays game last night. Just wish we had won the thing. But it was a very interesting game, full of Cash idiocy and stat-master idiocy and whacky shifts all over the place, lousy AB's mainly from the Rays and lousy pitching mainly from us. It does make for interesting viewing though. I have resigned myself to the worst as a Red Sox fan for this year and have totally unbridled myself to enjoy what actual baseball there is and laugh at the mountainous pile of MLB nonsense.

The heat and humidity in Boston...poor baby. And what excuses does he have for his other hideous starts. Let me guess. There is an independent and disassociated different excuse for every one of them. He makes ERod suddenly look like an innings eater. In fact, they all make ERod look like an innings eater.....EROD for God sake.

If you can't afford a Closer/relief pitcher with talent, you can't afford a starter with talent. In addition, there are very few starters left any longer that actually pitch like starters. Yet they cost a fortune in salary and trade pieces. At this point based on the cost sellers are asking for pitching and the number of contenders looking for it, I would think the best bet would be to cut out some of the trash sitting under Barnes, Work and Nate and maybe DH. Seems to me that you can't use Stroman and Bauer as examples of starter value because the Mets have all too often looked to PR moves bringing back players with a NY background as a means to excite fans and Bauer may just have worn out his welcome in Cleveland with that toss into the stands, sealing his fate. Get somebody that clearly drops Taylor, Hembree, Walden (he's living on luck) and Brewer out. We hit a stone wall when they have to be brought into a game and with this rotation that happens all too often.

I just have a comment on the staff debate. Both ends of it suck. The rotation sucks and the pen sucks. There are a couple of components of each that have performed reasonably well and the rest of them have been damn near terrible when compared to expectation. As to expectation, the starters as a group have without question been the bigger disappointment IMO. That said, we have set them up for that because we bought into the nonsense of the 6 inning "quality start". It and other "allowances" made to starters has worked its magic just as many of us warned and here we are....guys that can't give you a "quality 6" .....CAN'T give you 6 at all. I caught John Smoltz on "High Heat" the MLB Network show just by accident on Tuesday. He just flat came out and said the same thing I have been saying for 5 years now and he flat came out and said this is an issue that goes back 5-10 years. Didn't just happen. Now if anybody actually cares about this game and not the horse s*** MLB and the media and the stat-mastersons wants us to care about it will not solve overnight. We have really dug a hole for ourselves and over dependence on advanced stats is not helping us one bit. I have one for you right away. Forget this OPS+ and ERA+ garbage. It simply corrupts the data because it incorporates multiple weighted factoring in one stat...an absolute no-no. You want to get close to the answer you are looking for in those stats without corrupting your own data? Every team plays 81 at home and 81 away. Publish two additional lines for ERA and OPS, ERA HOME and ERA AWAY and the same for OPS. You will once again have a solid datapoint without Log functions and multiple weighted factoring and assumptions and you will get as close to what ERA+ and OPS+ try to do without using utterly meritless statistically apparatus. Amazingly, you will find that hitters that play 81 in Colorado have better stats there than for the 81 they play on the road, a real shocker there don't you think? No, it won't take into account the effect of travel on players but it will be a clean number, just a hard datapoint. Frankly, there is a sensible cure for what travel is doing to these guys as well. This would have the added benefit of pulling back some of the power that these stat-mastersons now wield over the game. A good many of these jokers need to get a real job. Their purpose is to be hired as consultants and sell books. Thats it! As an aside, I love seeing fielders spread all over the fields based on these statistical orders of merit allowing balls to drop in between them or turning singles into doubles or doubles into triples, or outright outs into hits because that nonsense is entirely out of control now as well. If it were not for the chance of injury I would even enjoy the occasional bouncing off each other like coconuts out there.

Well you have to credit the Rays for overcoming Cash...quite an accomplishment on its own merits....and then there is our $31M pitcher that can't get 5 innings. Now there is a PROBLEM!

Now there was a useless stat if I ever saw one Spier.

That is really frustrating. Barnes throws a pitch that Sogard can't hit that should be a called strike and the ump calls it a ball.

Well is this game not an example of a good pen vs our Bucket-o-Fried Chicken bums or what. Even Cash is having trouble messing them up.

Cash trying to outsmart himself again.

Barnes and Work will be up every night for the rest of the season...maybe for the rest of their lives.

Thank God!

GD it. Did not want to see this matchup.

Even though it would be same handed hitter/pitcher, I don't want to see Garcia v Nate. Not a good matchup for Nate in this spot IMO.

We need to get something going in the 8th so we can get the top of the order up for the 9th. Still can win this thing. There is the Cash factor. He probably has his nerve back having survived the last inning. No telling what he might try next.

And that pitch is why Nate is not your Closer.

Puig to the Guardians...Tito is going to love this.

Any idea what they got back?....maybe tickets to Six Flags?

So by not making mince meat out of JD, Castillo forces Cash to bring Poche to try go get Beni. s*** rolls downhill.