jung

OMG...38 home runs by the Spankees against the Red Sox this season. Eck is totally disgusted. Says this is "humiliating".

Another weak as can be grounder from Iggy. What is killing me is that we are not looking for the sun, the moon and the stars from Lavs and Iggy. We are looking for a glimmer of what Iggy could be at the plate. Just show us you won't be completely overpowered for about 25 at bats out of 30. Show us you can handle a bat and lay down an occasional Sac Bunt. But no, these weak assed grounders are Iggy being overpowered and he is overpowered by everybody. The only thing relevant about Cafardo's comment is that I just do not know how much more work at AAA will get Iggy How much stronger is he going to get in one more year of AAA? Lavs has had far to long a period of failure at the plate as well. Again we are not looking for that much. Hell when you look at how bad this team was even when it had the lineup it expected to have, we would just about take anything to be a sign of hope.

Truth is, the Sox have allowed this team to fall into major disrepairsville, not minor tweaksville as some would hope. This going to take some work to fix at least if "fix" means a real shot at post season success. Please I don't want to hear anymore about how they could be a s*** team tin the regular season and can make a meaningful run by just getting hot in the nick of time. The team this year did not even show signs of getting luke warm let alone hot. As for last year's team, once it started falling apart it never found the bottom. The season ended before they ever found the bottom. If anything the team we had last year found the bottom finally sometime this year. Make no mistake, this year was an extension of the last year.

The Yankees have clearly started to narrow their focus and up their intensity to close to a post season level. While if Red Sox pitchers were pitching at a post season level of intensity, it would more closely match the intensity and focus of the Spankee hitters, I would contend that this bunch of pitchers along with last years staff would have been pounded silly in the post season by hitters exhibiting that much focus and intensity. The whole "anything can happen" argument for getting to the post season is predicated on your team being hot going into the post season not stumbling and bumbling their way in.

At least we look respectable tonight....relative to the last couple of weeks anyway.

I had been posting in the 9/28 thread since we did not have one for 9/29...until. We did the same thing about a week ago I think. It is pretty rare though. Stinks cause I really like the game threads.

Checking the standings....looks like the O's will make it either as div winner or WC. Yanks as div winner or WC and then I guess unless they lose a couple at the end here, the A's look like the team that will get the other WC. No matter how you slice it at this point it looks like the AL east will again place two teams in the mix and would have even if there was only one WC as well.

Hard for Ciriaco to collapse with so few games left. He has given the Sox something to think about at least as a utility infielder if not a bit more.

Heard that the Spanks lost while watching Ryder Cup today. Interested to see how O's react. This would be the third tie for 1st for O's I think.

Stoic Stonewall Showalter probably swearing a blue streak under his breadth. Sox bail the O's out with the DP. Sounds like Baltimore finally decided to wake up and support their team.

What the heck is V talkin' about now? So if I have that story right, V asked Brooks Robinson to position himself past 3rd so that he could try to bunt his way on for a hit and tell his kids he got a hit off the great Brooks Robinson????? Apparently Brooks threw him out. I don't blame him. Probably gunned him down while he was half way down the line. Actually at one point V could run pretty good. He probably made it close.

Funny....Felix still letting this stuff with the home plate umps get to him even on obvious balls and even here in what I think might be his last start of the year.

All of these teams are playing with much more intensity than we can expect to muster.....I guess. I am just so disappointed in this season, this team, this FO, management, ownership, the organ grinder, the hot dog vendors......totally depressed

Blew up Johnson's pitch count this inning for sure.

Not even sure I want to watch this game tonight (saturday night). Refuse to cheer for any team other than the Sox but I can't say I am exactly full throated tonight. Will be much easier to cheer for our Sox when we get to NY.

I guess we can claim to be the same doormat for all the contenders if we lose all these games. Wouldn't you just love to take a couple when we get to NY?

Wow....I was switching back and forth early between Ryder Cup and game...nasty bad game. Should be able to see more tomorrow.

I kinda' think LL does get smacked around pretty good for his part in this fiasco and deservedly so. It does not appear to have any impact in his relationship with his boss because LL fulfilled his primary responsibility...printing $$$$$$.

Not a chance...not now not later....not a chance

I actually think the Dodgers got bamboozled on the issue of prospects. I thought so even before reading the Edes piece. So Henry gets the Dodgers to suck up an additional $63M in salary changing the number the Sox will absorb from $75M to $12M but must get top pitching prospects as well???? I don't think so. Every baseball writer that has offered an opinion since the deal has offered that the Sox would have had to take that deal with no prospects, let along top prospects....just to good a deal to be true. I happen to think the Sox would have needed something in prospects just because of the optics. The idea that you give up prospects to acquire Agons and then get no prospects at all when you off Agons only 20 months later probably did not look to appealing from the optics perspective. We all know how much the Sox care about stuff like this. If there was a stroke of genius on the Sox part it was in having Henry handle chopping away at the Salary commitments from the Sox end and then having BC handle the discussions about which prospects the Sox would get back. By initially asking for LA's top pitching prospect via BC, who clearly could not say yes or no to any prospects package without reporting back to the mother ship, the Sox got far better prospects than they would have gotten otherwise and having Henry handle the salary commitment end of things effectively untangled that part of the negotiation from the prospects discussions. I have to admit, that part of it was pretty slick from the Sox end. However you don't have to read between the lines. Clearly BC was the mouthpiece for the prospects discussion but was not the driving force behind it. By keeping himself out of the prospects discussions while being actively involved in the salary commitment discussions, Henry effectively controlled both ends of the deal without putting himself in a position to be cornered by Kasten or any other LA representative. Henry got to directly handle the part that involved the largest end of the Sox financial commitment while still controlling the prospects end of the deal via BC. In addition Henry was able to "suggest" via BC that the Sox wanted LA's top pitching prospect. Then when LA balked at sending the Sox their top prospect, Henry allows BC to offer that the Sox will "Accept" the guys they got effectively looking like they had backed off their initial desire when in fact I am sure they were tickled pink to get any pitching prospects, let alone guys as highly rated by LA as the guys they got.

Did anybody here BC blurt out this morning that "I do not want to spend as much time on the manager search this offseason than I had to spend last offseason". V is so obviously gone but Geez BC, where is your head? V is going to rip these guys to shreds on his way out the door.

With attractive draft picks that will be used I am sure for pitching plus the guys from the LA deal plus guys already in the system, there is ample reason to improve our ability to develop pitchers. Sounds like there are at least steps in the right direction.

Whatever Buch was or is for however long, he is not a 1 if that is the point. Hell I don't know what the point is any longer. Buch is a great 2 I think but this staff will need a 1 at some point. I don't think 2013 is the issue. There are simply to many holes to fill on this team to expect it to be post season bound in 2013 anyway. As long as it makes 0 mistakes, it should be an interesting team to watch in 2013, even competitive with some of the better teams in the league and could be a contender again by 2014 if some breaks fall their way and again they make 0 mistakes. The only scenario I can envision that might yield a contending team in 2013 would be for the Sox to go all in on the youth movement AND get incredibly lucky in that regard with multiple young players being big surprises. The more they deal for players to come in here, the less likely those deals will pan out producing a contending team. Suggesting they contend also suggests they fix he rotation in one year...doubt that will happen. 2014 gives the young pitchers another year to develop and gives them one more year to work a deal for a 1 for the rotation. It also gives the young everyday players another year to develop. Even WMB is not a complete player at this point, far from it. I would be very happy with competing (as in not embarrassing itself like it did this year) in 2013 and contending in 2014. In fact I would think them pretty darned lucky if it worked out that way...especially if upper management and the FO remains as is. I don't know if folks are looking at this league the way it was and still think that is where we are but that is not where we are. The league is much tougher now. Beating the Spanks is only one issue we have to deal with. None of the teams that have made major improvements are going to stand still and we are going to have to deal with all of them. Heck we can't get past the O's and A's and Rays at this point. They need to build back gradually...gradually does mean making enough improvements in one off season to be back in the thick of it again by spring 2013.

If they are just competitive in 2013 that would be quite an accomplishment and I think they can get there...actually getting into the "real" post season beyond a 1 game play in will be very difficult in 2013. If they make no missteps at all, then they would likely be in a better spot for 2014 I would hope.

Iggy does not get enough chances to rob 10 hits in a month but his fielding has been predictably outstanding. That play he made here in the last home game was magical.