jung

Napoli has worn down as well. Now most of his hits, what hits he does get are little flairs or soft liners with an occasional reminder that he is supposed to be a power bat.

Well I thought we would eventually see Salty PH tonight but I guess I was wrong about that too.

Most of Napoi's hits are beginning to look like Iggys hits.

Well surely Synder's error sealed our fate. But Ueh gave up three runs before the ball was ever hit to Snyder. Farrell had been threatening to box himself into the corner he found himself in for the last couple weeks. He found himself needing either Taz or Ueh with both having been overused to that point. Sure I have offered that Miller's unexpected injury did not help but Bailey came in and picked Miller up in a situation where you would not likely have used Bailey. So, in truth Farrell still had himself boxed into the same corner, Miller or no Miller.

This game has all the potential to make me sick to my stomach. I am not sure getting into this Angels bullpen does much for us. They seem to be able to roll out guy after guy throwing 95+.

Boy this is another terrifyingly bad ump crew to go along with Crew I and any crew that West is on.

Salty went the whole way last night if I am not mistaken and is catching a ton at this point. So I can definitely see Lavs catching today. Plus they traveled and played with no break right into the 1st game of the series followed by the extras game with Salty catching the last game in Boston and the first two games in Anaheim with a six hour flight in between. I do expect Salty available for late inning PH duty. But I am just as happy to see him get a day off from battery duties. I do expect Salty to play a bunch of games on this road trip with all the right handed pitchers stacked up.

Damn...Shuck sucks again and we still come out of the first inning down 1-0. Not sure how you can lose when you can hit the ball to either corner outfielder and stand a good chance of watching the ball roll around in the outfield endlessly. But we managed to do it. Naps could improve if he gets some scheduled rest. But the idea that the guy is going to go from averaging about 100 games per year every year to something like 130-140 games and rip it up in the dog days is just ludicrous.

They have to do something about Naps. He destroys more rallies than any ump ever thought of destroying.

Another swish of the bat by Naps and another K

Another bad play by Shuck. We better take advantage of this s*** tonight. Still mighty frustrated from last night.

I wish the Sox had already tried Aceves back in his role as versatile relief pitcher, capable of pitching multiple innings. If the Sox could use somebody every third game or every other game to fit into the 5th-6th or 6th-7th inning role it shoves all the other pen guys back up against the ninth inning and maybe then Farrell's propensity to use them one inning per stint or less at a time works out. As it is now, if you have to bring relief in the 6th inning maybe twice per week using guys for one inning or less, you are gonna' go 4-5 relievers deep pretty regularly. Then there are the games when you are using at least 3 relievers to cover innings 7-9. If they had a guy (Maybe Ace) that can take that 5th-6th or 6th-7th inning burden off the rest of the pen, they would be in much better shape to handle innings 7-9. Now, Miller turns an ankle and they are basically f***ed. I think Taz would have been a better choice where the Sox brought Ueh in the Angels game Saturday night but in truth Taz could have had problems as well since Taz is about as overused as Ueh. If they are not going to try Ace there, then maybe somebody the Sox bring in that can pitch multiple innings in relief makes the most sense if another legit closer type guy is just too hard to find or too expensive to get.

Well we know Ueh needs to be protected....Farrell has said as much and he certainly looked out of steam last night. That pitch he threw before Albert crushed the hung slider foul was a very tired looking pitch. He really should not have pitched last night. Hopefully Farrell at least saw that and will back off Ueh. As for Salty, expecting him to keep up this pace through the remainder of the season is the problem. He is not gassed as yet but he will get there at this rate. We should not compare him to Weiters who has had successive years at 140 and 144 and 139 games. Weiters is used to this. Salty is not. It is really the same problem though not quite as exacerbated as I saw in Naps before the season started. He has never gotten within pissing distance of the number of games expected of him this year and he is clearly gassed now. That is sort of the genesis for my concern for Salty. I have already seen how Farrell has used Naps with a ready replacement in the form of Carp just building up pine time. If Farrell is content to use up Naps this way with a ready replacement sitting there, what the heck is he going to do with Salty given that Lavs is not likely to be as solid a replacement for him as Carp would be for Naps. I do think that since he really has not IMO given Naps, Vic, Salty or Pedey enough rest in the first half, he is going to have to deal with it somehow in the second half. As for the bullpen, Paps did run out of gas in 2011. But we only had Paps and Ace. That was it. There was no pen left besides those two guys and Paps just plain did not make it, especially when he was asked to pitch more than one inning AND close. To me our pen issue this year is the one inning or less per stint problem. Can't crank these guys up every day. It just does not work out. Farrell will have to find ways to keep some of these guys down instead of working them virtually every day...whether that means simply resting a few guys or finding a guy that can get across the break and pitch more than one inning. Frankly, if they are not going to bring Ace in to spot start, they should bring him in to see if he can fill the same role he filled in 2011. Ace could actually save the pen AGAIN if they do that. Seems to me that for better or worse they have settled on Webster to spot start. So fine, what the hell is Ace still doing bumping around in the system when he might be the only guy we have that Farrell would allow to go more than one inning in relief out of the pen.

At this point I am more concerned that they will get to September too gassed to do anything. Naps is shot. Salty is soon to be shot. Certain pieces in the pen are constantly overused. The team keeps preaching 25 guys but Farrell does not play them that way. Farrell has got to rotate guys into the lineup more and has got to use better judgement with the pen. Carp should have already had much more playing time by now which automatically would have given Naps more rest. Salty is not going to hold up being played this way and that is a real shame. For all the abuse he gets here, from me for that matter, this is his best year by far. Even Pedey for all his qualities ain't above wearing down. Vic may need a bit more rest through the second half as well. Tito for all his faults gave guys more rest from beginning to end of a season. He did not wait for guys to be on their last legs for the most part. Naps was going to be an obvious problem from day one and Salty is catching way too much at this point. Vic is playing with injury and they are the type of injuries that if aggravated may put him on the pine for an extended period. I would have already preferred seeing less of those three guys in the lineup. I don't think any of the three will make it through the season into post season play like we need them to be if Farrell keeps this up...to say nothing of the way he uses the pen. It is easy to see why Farrell is a giant improvement over V. Just not ready to anoint him as the second coming until he clears up some of this other s***...like Butterfield and the way he coaches 3rd for example. Actually Butterfield fads into the background compared to the way Farrell overuses players.

Well....we certainly gave that one away. Wish I could say Farrell will learn from it but I really think he is one of the most stubborn guys in baseball.

Well that still would have been on Synder. That was a simple force play. Get the ball there and the game is over. Nobody told him to soft toss the damn thing. Christ underhand would have been a better option than what he did.

Salty is another guy that is going to run out of gas on us pretty soon at this rate. Farrell is going to have to trust Lavs more whether he likes it or he might end up stuck trusting Lavs a whole lot more. Gotta' give Salty credit though. He has really hung tough.

Somebody questioned WMB coming back and pushing Iggy to permanent SS not being an upgrade over Snyder and Iggy or Iggy at 3rd and Drew at SS. Without question, getting Iggy to SS permanently with WMB at 3rd would be an upgrade. That said WMB is not a great 3rd baseman either. But he is better than Synder at 3rd and Iggy is better than just about anybody playing MLB at SS.

Really disappointed in this game. Granted when push came to shove, the f***ing error at 3rd got us here. However it should have been pretty clear that Ueh was running on fumes. I just do not understand why Farrell says things that make sense and then does not follow through. Talks the talk but does not walk the walk. "Bailey will be used in low leverage situations". Promptly brought in to f*** up several high leverage situations. "We will have to protect Ueh". Promptly used.... what 7 out of 8 games or something like that?

The other wall hit tonight is Naps. If Mr. Stubborn, Farrell does not get Carp in there starting tomorrow I am really going to be unhappy.

Timmens is f***ing blind. A total embarrassment and vying with West for worst ump in baseball.

What did I say about Synder at 3rd and yes for those who asked a few posts and treads ago.... WMB is a better defensive 3rd baseman than Synder. On the bright side, Farrell has now tested exactly how far Ueh can go. Just went past it.

This game is really pissing me off. Miller goes down with the turned ankle and that f***s the whole pen up. Now we have Ueh tired in walk-offs-ville Get him to chase Ueh

That pitch just before the splitter hit foul was as tired a pitch as I have seen Ueh throw in weeks. Might be time to try to rest him after this game.

I just don't understand laying out big bucks without a plan that has a chance to work. Hamilton was all done as a CF as far as the Rangers were concerned. That was no secret. So the Angels move him to that big RF they have out there. Seems to me that was doomed to begin with. Either they had to have a place for him or turn him into a DH and pay him DH money. Bringing him out there with no place to play him was just dumb.