jung

Not only can they not slide feet first, most of them could not steal a bag if their life depended on it....or... Do we really think these gaudy caught stealing numbers are because the contemporary Catcher is just awesome!!!!

I don't think we will see much of Pedey. I doubt I will even have time to complain even if I had a mind to. I am never going to like playing novice players out of position in the ML's especially if there are some inherent physical risks to playing the particular position in question. Then again if we think the kid is just cannon fodder, meat for the meat grinder, who cares...be my guest.

He almost did get hurt playing 2nd or were you not watching at the moment the ball went sailing into the loge seats. Helped to his feet after that non-play. Happened exactly as I described in fact. He turned into the runner. Though I am sure he has about a zillion ways to get hurt out there learning middle infield in the major leagues.

No face paint on Pearce. I guess .103 does not get face paint. Probably hid it on him.

The replays on the Lin slide look worse each time. I guess the foot first slide is becoming another lost art in baseball. That was ugly.

Hum......did that not look a bit like what i was warning about with Chavis.

atta boy Rafi. Way to come back next day.

You know what I wish? I wish that Catchers were less reluctant to head out to the mound in situations like the one Brasier found himself in last night. If they have the mound visits to burn, screw the coaches. Head out there. Tell him to "take a deep breath, calm down, your stuff is great, I know because I am catching it. JUST THROW THE f***ING THING!"

He has the job. So does Brasier. Myself I much prefer what Cora is doing in giving Barnes the tougher outs between the 8th and 9th innings and giving Brasier the easier outs of the two pitchers. I am pretty well convinced that in most instances where the tougher bats are scheduled for the 9th, Barnes will close.

No weaker than other pitchers in this league. Do we actually want to make the case that the way Brasier reacted last night is some sort of anomaly? Plenty of MLB pitchers, especially those unused to being sort of "mugged" by the team behind them have exactly the same reaction in a high leverage situation. Brasier just kept digging a deeper and deeper hole, pitch by pitch from that moment on up to the point when burying a pitch in the dirt would have brought the runner home from 3rd on a wild pitch. At that point, Brasier was a puddle.

Not sure I would hand Rick more than three years at this point. Do we not see how this year's rocket ship baseball is flying? I am not sure that it will make sense to hand a Rick Porcello the kind of money he might be able to demand in what might the last year of giving pitchers other than the very best of them big money. If we are going to continue to promote a game that includes virtually every piece of s*** fly ball just going and going and going, I am not sure it will make much sense to pay anybody other than the top "K" pitchers in baseball big money. Rick is the Steady Eddy of this staff. He has been the backbone IMO. He has actually been the guy that has stopped the crazy for this team when they needed a start that stopped the crazy. Sale has been great in Boston. But in the rare occasions when Sale blows up, its pretty nuclear. I would have said that last year's baseball was as much of a rocket ship as MLB would try to run past us. Obviously I was wrong! If we don't think this will have an impact on the perception of pitchers and pitching in MLB, I just would not even know what to say to that. At any rate I would be reluctant to give any Starter along the lines of a Porcello more than 3 years till we are able to see where the f*** MLB thinks it is going to take this. As I said, they are way past where I think they would dare to go with rocket ship baseballs already.

Did you watch how Brasier actually threw the baseball from that moment onward? He was reminiscent of Erod when he "breaks down" and edges closer and closer to a period when everything he is throwing is either a pitch the hitter just ignores completely or that has HIT ME written all over it.

It appears that Cora is still judging his 8th and 9th inning pitchers by who is actually coming to the plate. i have no issue with Brasier/Barnes remaining the closers. I also have no issue with Cora deciding to give Barnes the tougher bats to work through in those two innings. The Sox are not likely to blow somebody into town to take that role at this point and frankly I would be somewhat disappointed if they did .....until possibly the trade deadline. If anything, they need somebody to hand innings to earlier in the game with ducks on the pond. Handing Work or Hembree stints with ducks on the pond is like playing Russian Roulette. Glad to see Cora only does it in rare instances. But I would not do it at all if I were him. The Sox infield is swiss cheese at the moment. Brasier will have to learn to absorb the error or the missed or botched play in what is clearly a high leverage situation because he is going to face what he got handed last night again whether we like it or not. Frankly I am only marginally convinced that Barnes would have handled it any better.

Completely agree. Honestly I don't how anybody could think otherwise.

Pen seems fine. As long as they give Hembree and Work clean innings and don't overwork Barnes and Brasier when to cut bait on Thorny and bring up somebody would appear to be the only real issue they have. The infield is another story. They are an error in waiting.....swiss cheese. Amazing that in contemporary ball where hitters are trying to elevate everything our infield could be this much of a glaring weakness.

This game is so hard to play which is why folks here often see me reluctant to see the Sox bring kids up and just throw them into the deep end of the pool. We see so many seasoned pro players play this game and they make it look so easy that it lulls us into thinking this game is easy. Its not....far from it. Rafi is trying...sometimes too hard. Sometimes not hard enough and infielders who are caught either side of perfect make errors. Its just that simple. Don't charge a ball at all and you let the ball play you into an error. Charge the ball too hard and you play the ball into an error. Rush and release your throw from a bad position and you throw it into the ground. Crow hop your way across the diamond and you are late or throw it into the loge seats. It is the most maddening game in the world from all aspects until you learn to prepare, breath and play the game with smooth, measured intensity.

Brasier has been thrown into the deep end of the pool. This is the way the Sox planned it. So we are going to have to live with it. It is a bit much to expect him to deal with closer leverage AND know how to dig himself out of the emotional hole of having a fielder just boot the flying f*** out of a play like that. Hopefully he will get it. Don't see this infield getting much better anytime soon unless the Sox bring somebody in to shore it up. Not recommending that. But this is going to be tough to watch for awhile I fear.

Rafi is talented...that is his saving grace. All he has to really learn (apparently the hard way) is that none of this horse crap he does out there in the field works as well as always being in position to make a play, good footwork and smooth glove action. Never mind the exaggerated scoop. Impresses nobody up here Rafi.

Don't you just wish the Sox Broadcast team would save its ball washing for post game?

No Eck...the ball did not just "come on out" of Rafi's glove. He jerked it out with that stupid exaggerated scoop of his.

Work is OK if you give him a clean inning and dog s*** if you don't.

Isn't it though....I just do not even understand why that made any sense to anybody in Red Sox promotions.

CWS 'must be feeling pretty stupid right about now for sending Abreu

I agree with that. This year's baseball may actually be more of a rocket ship than last year's.

Just to be clear, not implying Vaz had anything to do with that. The catcher does not anticipate the pitcher just not throwing the damn thing which is what happened there.