jung

Well at least that was an 0-0 cookie that Weiders just missed..guess I won't complain about that one...although Thome owes it to his pitcher to take some time off Karoda...two pitches two outs. Would think Thome would have known better. Would be totally pulling out what is left of my hair over the O's idiotic at bats were it not for the fact that the Yanks totally suck at the plate.

Here we are in the division series of both leagues and the hitters are worthless. I think I mentioned it in the playoffs thread but hitters simply do not hit anymore...they swing. I get on our guys cause I see them the most but they are far from alone. Flaherty goes yard with a classic Matchbox Stadium HR in the 1st. Comes up now with the bases jacked. Takes strike 1 which is fine by me...was not a good strike 1 pitch to swing at. But it was FB, low and on the black inside. Where in Gods name did he think Karoda was going with the next pitch? What a shock..Karoda goes change on the outer third of the plate but it really did nothing. Classic just stick the bat out and keep the head in the hitting zone and trot on down to 1st with your single...only in this case with bases jacked and two outs....it would have been two runs anyway. He takes that pitch and is now down 0-2. Finally hits a dribbler back to the mound and that is the end of that half inning. I am so sick of seeing sucky, stupid hitting by our guys, really by any guys. It makes no sense. What are they teaching these guys or are they simply not willing to learn any longer. Just shocking to me how much thoughtless hitting goes on these days. Pick a location, look for the pitch there with less than 2 strikes and hit the GD thing! Of course this happens on top of Jones and his bubble gum missed catch of the Jeter fly ball that gave the Yanks a run.

Here we are in the division series of both leagues and the hitters are worthless. I think I mentioned it in the playoffs thread but hitters simply do not hit anymore...they swing. I get on our guys cause I see them the most but they are far from alone. Flaherty goes yard with a classic Matchbox Stadium HR in the 1st. Comes up now with the bases jacked. Takes strike 1 which is fine by me...was not a good strike 1 pitch to swing at. But it was FB, low and on the black inside. Where in Gods name did he think Karoda was going with the next pitch? What a shock..Karoda goes change on the outer third of the plate but it really did nothing. Classic just stick the bat out and keep the head in the hitting zone and trot on down to 1st with your single...only in this case with bases jacked and two outs....it would have been two runs anyway. He takes that pitch and is now down 0-2. Finally hits a dribbler back to the mound and that is the end of that half inning. I am so sick of seeing sucky, stupid hitting by our guys, really by any guys. It makes no sense. What are they teaching these guys or are they simply not willing to learn any longer. Just shocking to me how much thoughtless hitting goes on these days. Pick a location, look for the pitch there with less than 2 strikes and hit the GD thing! Of course this happens on top of Jones and his bubble gum missed catch of the Jeter fly ball that gave the Yanks a run.

Jim Joyce does it again.....how many times has this guy created call controversies in big games, oddly enough at 1st base as often as anywhere else. Espinosa was not even close to being out on that bunt play. Just like the perfect game call he missed at first....also not even close. When an ump misses calls by that much, I begin to think he is assuming the call...He has the guy called out or safe in his head before the call is even ready to be made. You just cannot miss by that much any other way I think.

Wow...Jackson picked a bad time to barf up an ugly start for the Nats. He is not only serving up "hit me please" pitches he is serving up "make me go yard" pitches against Carpenter no less.

Interesting thing about A's-Tigers is that if not for that Coco error in game 2, A's would probably be in the driver's seat tonight......another testament to the power of pitching. A's second half is truly about seeing their hitting come around but at the end of the day, the A's live or die on their pitching.

The question of whether you do or don't want to pay for Ells is not the same question as whether Kalish is the replacement for Ells. Whatever Kalish is, he is not the replacement for Ells and given Kalish shoulder, you would not have wanted him to get more at bats in 2012....would not have proven anything. I do believe that Kalish will get a shot at RF either as a platoon RF or some sort of RF and either he will succeed or fail. That is sort of what the Sox have left themselves with relative to RF. Even if they bring somebody in, you could knock me over with a feather if they don't give Kalish a legit shot at RF. That still does not make Kalish the replacement for Ells.

Wow did the A's ever pitch their asses off tonight. Anderson on twenty days rest pitches out of this world.

I swear to God, hitting is almost a lost art in MLB these days. Swinging is what they do now and that passes for hitting. Doesn't even seem to occur to them that while good pitching will always beat good hitting, good pitching will just destroy swinging. That is what we are being treated to game after game after game with little exception this post season.....ala Cespedas in the 8th inning tonight.

I like Kalish but the mistake is in further committing to a player that you cannot even evaluate at the ML level because he is not as yet healthy, and sending the power hitter packing knowing that you face downstream but really pretty near at hand power hitting issues in your lineup. Kalish is not a mistake per-say. Sending Reddick packing under the circumstances was the mistake. However that leaves you with Kalish. As for Kalish being the answer ala Ells...the Sox already know who that is likely to be and it is not Kalish. Kalish does not range in CF anything like Ells but Kalish does have both the glove and the arm for RF. I think the other shoe we will hear dropping on the Reddick deal will be the long term viability of Bailey as a closer here. Don't think we as Sox fans are to thrilled with that end of the transaction either. As for Reddick/Bailey being a BC deal, this FO is infested with the remnants of Theo...it is in fact Theo without Theo. So I for one don't distinguish much between the decisions and recommendations coming out of this version of Baseball Operations and the one Theo ran, especially with LL still sitting on top of the whole deal as Sox President....Mr LL runs the Red Sox.

It is probably tough for folks to think much about Kalish because no matter what he is as a player, based on what is known about him, he represents yet another FO mistake in what has been an avalanche of FO mistakes. While the A's wanted Reddick for Bailey, Sox willingness to send Reddick packing was a clear sign of making an even deeper commitment to Kalish than they had already made. To some extent, Reddick and Kalish are two halves of a complete RFer. Reddick features power and a decent glove. Kalish features speed and well above average defense but is not considered to be that much of a power threat even with a healthy shoulder. So with the very real possibility of needing more power from their OF downstream, the Sox sent the power hitter packing for a guy that admittedly was not as yet healthy. So the Sox made an even deeper commitment to a guy that at best is not really a power hitter and a guy that is not really still able to show us what he has at the major league level. Kalish appears to have been completely honest about his shoulder situation. So it is not like the Sox went into this blindfolded. So, I think people tend to ignore Kalish because we are just all tired of confronting FO mistake after FO mistake. I think the Sox have to give Kalish a legit shot once his shoulder is healthy. What else can they do at this point having invested so much time and effort into him.

Hey I know that O's fans or even I guess late blooming baseball fans in the Baltimore area have been taking a good deal of heat during this post season but some of the stuff that went on in Baltimore is pretty embarrassing. You guys must have heard about the two Maryland State Troopers assigned as security in and around the Yankee dugout that went up to Swisher while the game was in progress (apparently as he was going to the bat rack for his bat getting ready to head to the plate) and asked him for his autograph! That is pretty embarrassing. I guess the two Troopers were relieved of the Camden Yards security assignment and will not be making another post season appearance.

In Crawford's case, his play was completely uncharacteristic of anything he had exhibited during his career in Tampa, at least for the time I saw him there....not the actual numbers or performance particularly but the type of player he became.....completely impatient at the plate.....really pretty terrible in the field....eventually appearing to have lost confidence in anything he tried to do on the field....combined with what finally became a strident plea pre 2012 to be left at a particular spot in the lineup....done in a way that I have never seen from a professional ballplayer before. If that was not a plea for help I don't know what is. That all came after the numerous warnings before he came here that he would have a hard time in any high profile market unless things went perfectly for him, from folks like former coaches etc.... suggesting that he was and is pretty fragile in that regard. By the way...I do not consider Anxiety Disorder and suffering from some degree of anxiety as the same thing and I do not believe Crawford has Anxiety Disorder as it would likely have exhibited itself in some other facet of his life....then again....maybe it has.....I don't know.

In Crawford's case, his play was completely uncharacteristic of anything he had exhibited during his career in Tampa, at least for the time I saw him there....not the actual numbers or performance particularly but the type of player he became.....completely impatient at the plate.....really pretty terrible in the field....eventually appearing to have lost confidence in anything he tried to do on the field....combined with what finally became a strident plea pre 2012 to be left at a particular spot in the lineup....done in a way that I have never seen from a professional ballplayer before. If that was not a plea for help I don't know what is. That all came after the numerous warnings before he came here that he would have a hard time in any high profile market unless things went perfectly for him, from folks like former coaches etc.... suggesting that he was and is pretty fragile in that regard. By the way...I do not consider Anxiety Disorder and suffering from some degree of anxiety as the same thing and I do not believe Crawford has Anxiety Disorder as it would likely have exhibited itself in some other facet of his life....then again....maybe it has.....I don't know.

Actually didn't it look like the Oakland runner's foot got the bag before the tag in spite of what the TBS broadcast crew just claimed. Obviously to hard to really tell but if I had to bet, without seeing multiple replays, I would bet the runner beat the throw to second. Not sure if the tag was maintained as the runner lost contact with the bag but thought he initially beat the throw.

Anxiety killed Crawford....not only do I believe it...it was forecast for him....not Gonzalez...that guy barely has a pulse....I have never seen such an uninspired and uninspiring $20M player in my entire lifetime and that WAS the AGons of San Diego as well. Totally willing to believe anxiety dug a hole for Crawford that he never dug out of....not Agons, not in my, your or his lifetime. As for Grienke....same risk if not more so than Crawford's. If anything Agons might be a boy in a man's body but I don't know and I don't care to know. Sure as hell did not see any signs of anxiety in Agons either before or in Boston. I would not bring Grienke here unless it was at a price that took into consideration the depth of possibilities in his regard. Just not worth it at the kind of money he will likely command somewhere in baseball. But I will be damned if I am going to be wiling to see AGons slime his way outta' town here on some other bushel barrel of excuses that have something to do with Boston created anxiety or somebody make that excuse for him. That simply widens the field of players that might not be able to play here all the way to guys that barely have a pulse to begin with. Willing to accept that there might be other Crawford's out there that should be avoided....not AGons.

Agons San Diego history is pre Shoulder surgery...all of it....every single bit of it. But in truth....Agons has no incentive to fix what is likely a screwed up shoulder...why should he....he does not have to worry about a contract again. He is set through the 2018 season and by then he may just retire as opposed to do anything to rectify this situation. I will never blame a player for taking the contract....if the team is stupid enough to offer it he should take it. However I do not believe for a minute that AGons has been honest with himself, the Sox or the fans of Boston or the fans of LA or fans of baseball in general. He will likely play out this string until the end of 2018 making up excuse after excuse for why his HR numbers have never come back after the all star break of 2011. My problem with this situation is that AGons took the money on the pretense of being a power hitter...something he no longer is and something he is not apparently going to even try to rectify. If he was, why try to revise history after the fact. AGons problem in Boston is that we actually watch the games here and we actually know what a hitter is trying to do at the plate. We might not know why he is doing it but we do know what he is doing. That is the difference between San Diego and Boston. The luckiest day in Boston Red Sox history was the day the Dodgers took those s*** contracts and turned them into a measly $12M commitment to the Sox. The Yanks can only hope there is another sucker born a minute from now that owns a baseball team.

Oh you mean that Monster that Agons aimed for so diligently during early 2012? He started the year hitting line drive after line drive directly at the monster or at least trying to and his approach at the plate was specifically designed to hit line drive after line drive directly at the green monster. Agons made a conscience decision to favor what he felt would be the easy double for him over anything else and that is what screwed him up eventually. Why was that???? Did Agons already know something about his power stroke that we did not know? Agons screwed himself up by making it so obvious that he was willing to swing at anything anywhere near the outer half of the plate because those pitches made it easier for him to target that left field wall with line drives. The swings he took were in the main, line drive swings. What do you expect me to believe.....that AGons thought a line drive hit through the wall would be a HR? It got so bad that he became easy to scout and eventually opposing pitchers would just tease him farther and farther outside until he finally would swing at something a foot off the plate or they would eventually bust him inside with pitches he could no longer handle cause he was looking outside so hard. Agons is one of the true kings of ******** revisionist history...making up one excuse after the other. First the travel and schedule is to much for him and then the Monster screwed him up. What a bunch of ********. I am so glad his sorry ass is outta' here.

In fact he hit 3 HR in 34 games in LA for a whopping 16 per year average....worse even than here. Agons and Crawford were bad fits for the Sox, bad signings and bad contracts and Beckett's was a bad extension....a veritable panoply of contract ugliness went on here from at least 2010 on. To much pushing aside things that should have been real concerns like players with untended injuries or just coming off major surgeries and as yet unproven or even whether a player's characteristics were a fit for the Sox. Like I said above the Sox should really focus their windfall of payroll money on tending to the pitching which is an utter fiasco and should value financial flexibility over long term commitments as much as possible.

Yea, I did not mention the Colorado connection MVP cause his away numbers are not as totally whacked as some of the Colorado guys have had when coming up in these discussions but that is a concern. At this stage the Sox need to spend money on pitching first and if they are going to spend it on an everyday ballplayer it needs to be a big power hitter guy...the guy AGons was not. As good as Tulo is, that is not Tulo. Sox have a severe power outage to consider that is only going to get worse as Ortiz closes down his career. If you want to look at how important pitching is from a practical perspective you need look no farther than NY. Their offense is two pop guns (Jeter and Itchiro) and a real deal hitter in Cano. In truth, that is it! Beyond those guys you have the utterly laughable Mr. K Granderson, the drama queen, Mr. RISP Swisher, the aging Tex, the geriatric ARoid and a bunch of guys you could copy from just about anywhere. Gardener and Martin are probably the standouts of the rest. For my money I would value financial flexibility over a bunch of prima donna everyday ballplayers.

To much injury stuff going on with Tulo for my liking. Missing extended time in 2008, 2010 and 2012. With their pitching as totally screwed up as it is, if the Sox are going to spend that kind of money at this point, spend it on pitching. With any luck at all the benefit to the ARod contract will be seeing a guy being carted up to the batters box in a wheel chair for some ungodly amount of money every year as he and the Yanks are the poster children for these ridiculous long contracts that take players into their mid or even late 30's. I don't see anything in any ballplayer anymore that makes my mouth water signing up to these long, meaning seven year commitments.

I actually think it fortunate that the Sox really do not have anything that they should give up that the Rookies would want. Tulo is on maybe one of the last really long contracts I would hope to see in baseball. Stop the madness please.

ARod is only one of the problems in that Spanks lineup. Granderson, Mr. K, 195 K's on 596 AB's in 2012, Swisher drags his 1-33 RISP to the plate, Tex dragging one leg to the plate and ARod who is just plain terrible no matter how you cut it. Depending on where Ichiro bats, the highlights are the two pop guns, Jeter and Ichiro and then Cano. All downhill from there. Jeter has his seeing eye, inside out swing and Ichiro has his semi-bunt "swing" which is actually hard to call a swing and then Cano....an actual hitter still young enough to employ his estimable talents. Obviously, the Skanks really miss Gardener. While Orioles pitching is not on the same level as Yankee pitching, they might be good enough against the geriatric crew that the Yanks send to the plate these days. The thing I would be looking forward to if I were cheering on the Yanks was a return to Matchbox Stadium. There, you add the cheap HR's component to Jeter and Ichiro's cheap hit techniques and shazam.....you have something of an offense. There at least there is a ghost of a chance that somebody other than Cano might drive in a run on purpose against an Oriole starter, especially a RHer. Even in NY though, who might that be? Mr. K, Granderson comes to mind, if he fills that hole in his bat and actually puts the ball in play.....slumping Tex, maybe Martin? So the Yanks can hang their hopes for the most part on a return to Matchbox Stadium, more RH pitchers in the Orioles rotation and Cano as far as scoring is concerned. I think they will find a way to win one of the first two on the strength of that and this ends up a game 5 showdown to move on. The only way I see that changing is if the O's win the first game in NY and that big apple starts getting caught up in Yankee throats.

Now the series heads back to New York's Matchbox Stadium 1-1. Pettitte pitched a terrific game but in truth the Yanks are living almost entirely on their pitching on the road at this point. Now CC and Pettitte are out of the way until game 5. I would not be at all surprised to see it go 5. Granderson gets to hit again in the band box where one of his pop ups might get out. More likely he will add to his regular season K total of 195 on 596 AB's, a staggering total of K's. Not sure how many he has so far in the post season but it must be something like 6 K's so far in two games. Yanks may well get past the O's because their pitching is better. However I don't see them getting any farther than that. To many holes in the lineup. Swisher brings his 1-33 with RISP totals to the plate. Granderson is laughable bringing his monster K totals to the plate which far overshadow his HR totals and ARoid is simply awful. He is done but the contract is not. Good luck with that one NY. Once you get past the two pop guns, Jeter and Ichiro and the real threat Cano, there is simply not much to worry about in that lineup. Tex is hobbling around the bases and a good example for why Agons is sort of worthless unless he hits HR's. While Agons does not have a leg injury nor recovering from one he is the same sort of barely moving traffic jam on the base paths that Tex is at the moment. Tex has not necessarily done much to cover himself in glory either this year or this post season. Yanks have a similar problem to the Sox. In fact, they are the Sox with far better pitching. To many reminders from the past that are just past it. The Yanks have done a better job putting together a rotation and pen. Pitching will beat hitting every time and it is the Yanks pitching that really distinguishes them from the Sox. While we are on the topic, the Sox should stay as far away from Swisher as they can get. He is a solution to nothing. With any luck, the Yanks will find a way to resign him so he can continue his fabulous career in NY. Nothing better for the Sox than for the Yanks to continue to have to play these stiffs with big contracts. Just keep piling them up NY. Yanks way bested the Sox this year as the Sox had no pitching. But in truth this Yankee team is no WS winner and is not even a likely WS participant. Tigers should get past Oakland and then stomp the Yanks into the off season presuming they get past the O's.

Terrible pitch to Martin. CC just had a great night as much as anything else. O's just could not match him. Had their chances and just had some really Sox like at bats in big spots. Can't count the number of 1st pitches the O's swung at....some that were not even strikes, let alone good strikes...how familiar does that sound.