jung

I don't think the Berry decision is really a referendum on JBJ. The Sox want Berry in place with a very specific task in mind. I don't expect to see Mr. Berry much if at all outside of that task.

The problem is that Farrell has his binkies. Just the way he rationalizes some of his decisions tells you that. He is the Manager so he can have them if he wants. But it does not pay off in the end. Managers who have them more often than not die by them as opposed to living by them. They will eventually trust them in too many completely against the numbers, against the odds situation and will be left with no logical rationalization for the decision they made. "I had a hunch" eventually begins to sound strident and unsatisfying when the numbers really start to fall the wrong way which they surely will in time. That is why they are the "numbers". "We win with player X" is not a number that means anything unless you want to decide that chaos theory is worth considering as meaningful to baseball decision making. Farrell is already a little shaky when it comes to responding to questions about some of his less than sterling decisions. Sometimes it tumbles out of his mouth easily sometimes not but it rarely is based on anything that instills much in the way of confidence. The idea that there is some magic in any of this, that any of them have some sort of crystal ball that makes their hunches better than some other manager's hunches is just laughable though nobody is directly suggesting that here. However if you play this out to its logical conclusion it should be obvious where stuff like this ends up going. Farrell's strengths are his preparation which is quite complete and truly impressive, his ability to build a solid clubhouse atmosphere where he gets and demands respect from his players without coddling them and his underlying understanding for what makes pitcher's tick in an environment where pitching dominates the game. Pitching dominates baseball even more than goal tending dominates hockey. His weaknesses are his tendency to have binkies and his spur of the moment, on the spot, in-game decision making. Giving up on having binkies usually requires that a manager live through some very painful lessons and it is surely a question whether a manager can live through such painful lessons and still end up managing the same team. Maybe some other team ends up benefiting from lessons learned earlier and that is most often the case. At any rate, I expect Farrell to learn this lesson eventually as they almost always do. As for his in-game decision making, I am not sure that will ever improve. Morales for Buch was a staggeringly bad decision. But there ya' go. Farrell's preparation is terrific. But you can't prepare for everything and Morales in that spot was just a terrible decision, not one that I can believe Farrell would make as part of his preparation. for that game. There is a yin and yang to this. I doubt the fact of his preparation being so good while his spur of the moment in-game decision making is somewhat weak is a coincidence. People have strengths and weaknesses. Their minds work a particular way and we all tend to rely on our strengths to pull us past our weaknesses. Will Farrell be considered one of the league's best or at least better managers ten years from now? Probably given his other managerial characteristics, much will depend on how quickly he learns the lesson about favorites or binkies. His other strengths would appear strong enough to pull him through...especially when you consider the competition....other ML managers......hardly a very daunting bunch I would say. Not sure that as a group they could successfully "manage" a tidily winks contest. If I had my choice and having a superlative GM meant I had to have a manager that was no better than average I would take that over the opposite any day and twice on Sunday.

I really don't know why Iggy is such a polarizing figure. He is what he is. Either a team has to resign itself to that or will be stuck perennially disappointed in him. We got a good taste of what life with Iggy turns out being in that series. Every single defensive blunder Iggy makes will be hard to swallow. Iggy has to literally be perfect defensively making every play that he should make and many that he has no business making just to break even. He will be great fun to watch...in truth a pure joy in the field even though he is capable of error clearly. But given his obvious shortcomings at the plate, is that what you really want in an everyday SS. Frankly even with his plate problems I would give up a little spectacular sizzle for a little better every day plain jane SS play from him.

I don't wonder if Prince will ever be allowed to recover from this in Detroit where he has a lotta' years left on his contract. Rarely have we seen a player fail so miserably in big moments and look so much like he could care less all at the same time.....a remarkable multilevel achievement. I would not be surprised if Prince's tendency to look like he cared less was really a reaction masking from the public that he really cared a very great deal...almost the way some folks laugh or giggle at the most tragic of events or circumstances purely as a reaction that masks their true feelings. I just don't want to believe that a ballplayer would care that little even if he is the enemy. That said, nothing less than winning it all may be required for Price to wash the stain of this one away. One encouraging sign is that the fans of Detroit do not appear unwilling to give the Sox their due. They are not happy but neither are they for the most claiming the Tigers to be the better team or more deserving than the Sox in any way, at least it does not appear that way from what I have been reading.

While some of Farrell's in game, in the moment decisions are questionable, his game preparation is meticulous and one of his strong points. Also he commands respect from his players while not being the cuddly idiot that Leyland has become. The edge by a long margin goes to Farrell. Leyland has grown old in the job and would probably be gone were it not for Tigers ownership and its eccentricities.

Tigers board is pretty rational considering the circumstances. "Mumbles" as Leyland is known over there is taking a good deal of heat as you might expect, especially for his slavery to pitch count, for coddling his players beyond comprehension and possibly having the worse base running team in baseball. Did not realize it but their 5 starters started 157 of 162 regular season games....almost unheard of these days and something that will likely be hard to repeat. No matter...they probably have enough talent to continue to succeed in the Central but have not been able to convert that into a WS win. General acknowledgement that the bull pens were a giant dif as we have been saying over here. Biggest ump blunder for them....strike 3 non-call to XB last night. That was missed but again, we know many umps position themselves such that the outer third is mostly a guess...just the way it is.

Bringing in Morales was incomprehensible. Probably the only downside to winning the thing tonight was that Morales coming in there probably gets lost in the shuffle and we won't even get to hear how Farrell somehow parsed that situation out in his head and spat Morales out.

This will be a tough series coming up. We will be seeing Cards pitchers for the first time. They have terrific pitching and seeing terrific pitchers for the first time can be very tough. Home field could really work to our advantage in this series though. Peavey has to get his head out of the clouds and the Sox brain trust has got to get used to the idea of helping him through games. We are stuck with a 5 inning starter in Buch as well. Farrell needs to figure out how he gets to the latter innings especially for Buch's start and maybe for Peavey's as well. I don't see the Cards going down in 5 mainly based on their pitching. I had Sox in 6 against the Tigers and I am going to stay with that for the Cards.....Sox in 6 again.

That is Mrs Gene Autry...Gene's widow and heir and still I guess principle owner of the Angels...I think.

Like I said earlier, how can you deny Koji when you know Farrell built the entire short series pitching strategy around him and he delivered. That is like the manager saying, we are climbing on your back son...that is a little different than the player saying, climb on my back guys. Whole different level of pressure and Koji just sucked it up.

I think it has to be Koji cause Farrell worked the entire pitching strategy around Koji and he has delivered.

I hate to say it but I think you guys are right....there are so many areas to pick at in the Tigers performance in this series that I think that will get a ton of the attention....Fielder, Leyland, the pen, Iggy et al. I think the press is just going to pick it all to death....that is outside of Boston. Fielder especially...oh my God there are all the Fielder AB's, that laughable play tonight on the base paths, his defense..... the press will spend an entire night edition just on him!

I hope we get a couple more runs so that Koji can just party through the 9th. He deserves it.

Not complaining but just askin'...do you guys think the broadcast crew would be this subdued if the Tigers were up 5-2 with 4 outs to go? They sound like they are in mourning.

I wonder if Scherzer was "done" in the 7th here or not. He was struggling but boy the Tigers Pen has been inflammatory in this series. They were talking in the Tigers dugout after he came out.

And that was one spinner too many!!!!!!!

Jeez I gotta' credit Veris for that strike 1. How the f*** do you throw that spinner right out of the pen like that.

I was speechless....and you guys know me...when the f*** am I ever speechless.

Atta' boy Iggy......I knew I used to like you for a reason.

Great play from Drew in the field...little help from the ump....Max gone....time to get it done Sox.

Naps only has one kind of swing in that bat of his....and Salty is well....Salty...tough inning for us. Ortiz was our last real shot to do anything that inning

Naps was dead at two strikes....

I was afraid to say anything...pulling Buch was so right and bringing in Morales was so wrong......ya' know that post game, Farrell will again have one of his patented rationalizations for using Morales there but there isn't one. Farrell is so stilted in his on the spot decision making that I will guarantee you that he is now so addicted to the 7th, 8th 9th lineup out of the pen that he has and was not going to do anything to upset that. But if you think about it, its already the 6th...and you hold Bres out for later...what later.....you have to get out of the jam. Terrible but we are still in the game....Price Hippo bails us out

We may be lucky it is not worse....Good hook Farrell

Everything is up right now