jung

Those are just the kind of ground ball outs that make it hard to see where Iggy is going. I have never seen so many weakly hit ground ball outs in my entire lifetime.

The Astros.....The Razor blade drawer now beckons

Another year of the NESN broadcast crew introing the broadcast team so they get to take their final waves here in September. Very depressing....heading for the liquor cabinet now and hoping to avoid the razor blade drawer.

Unfortunately as the period of time between the end of Pedro's career extends and most of us are just left looking at his stats, what he really did over the coarse of his career will be lost on many. At least for my money, nobody that pitched in his era or since can hold Pedro's jock.

Interesting comments from the booth regarding the Rays bullpen. True enough...if we remember, at the start of the season they were just terrible. They rounded into form and end up with one of the better closers in baseball in Rodney. Sort of discounts all of this hubbub and stir we create in Boston about our bullpen is and the need to spend big bucks on a closer. The Rays are paying Rodney $1.75M this year with a team option at $2.5M for next year. Not exactly breaking the bank. Basically the Rays rebuild their pen every year almost from scratch. Frankly more teams are closer to that model than the model we seem to emulate here in Boston. Maybe better choices are are in order and better coaching. Obviously having better starting pitching is a big benefit to the Rays and is likely the real key to that formula. If we had better starting pitching we could likely do something similar to what the Rays do with our bullpen.

Iggy already has one I hear. He has grown tired of it as it also punches him out regularly.:D Sorry, could not help myself.

That 1-0 pitch is a pitch that Iggy has got to learn to do something with. He will see that pitch before he has two strikes and if he can do something with it, he will save himself getting punched out by..... curve balls, change ups, sliders, sinkers, cut fastballs and just about anything they seem to throw when he has two strikes.

Pena...Geez Pena.....Amazing what a hitter can do when he is so confident against a particular pitcher. That was not a great pitch but it was not terrible either....crushed. Anything on that plane regardless of whether is on the inner half or outer half is dangerous to the LH hitter and in that respect it was not such a hot pitch. Then...Jon just about hangs one to the RH hitter.....suddenly finding all the wrong spots to pitch to.

That was a hell of a play at SS by Iggy. No idea how he got the ball to 1st in time.

Anybody seeing this stuff since the replacement refs flak in the NFL? People calling MLB the best run of the four major pro sports. Scary huh? In truth the NBA and NHL immediately fall out of the running for that title leaving the NFL and MLB. MLB has avoided work stoppages longer than the other leagues although they have done so by not trying to redress the issues from the early days of CBA negotiation when the league got its head handed to it by Marvin Miller. To its credit MLB has not tried to get to much accomplished in any one CBA negotiation and has avoided work stoppages because of it. Who woulda' thought it. Uncle Bud....the best of the major sports league commissioners....I have definitely seen it all now.

I think Nava is done here unless the Sox run into the same sort of scenario that kept the "dime" coming back year after year after year like a bad dream that would just not end. "Oh no...here comes the dime again." Smack...dribble...dribble...dribble....6-4-3....back to the dugout.

Nava with an RBI hit. Another example for why the straight change is a terrible pitch if not thrown in the exact location where it is effective. Either the hitter creams it if expecting it or can just drag the head of the bat through the hitting zone if fooled and dump it into the outfield.

A teeny, tiny little smile from Lester on that DP. I thought big chunks of his face were going to crack off leaving him to try to catch them in his glove.

I don't know how many caught V but he was making precautionary farewells to the Boston Media just in case he was all done. Not something I would expect the Manager to do unless he actually knew he was all done. There is plenty of time for farewells if it actually happens. Thought that was real odd and a tip I think that he is in fact all done and soon to be let go.

Funny how much is coming to a head for a number of the younger Sox guys. You would like to give Iggy more time but he has somebody climbing right his backside. So it may well be now or never next season for Iggy. I think they really need Kalish in RF. If cannot do it, the Sox probably end up trying to find somebody that can. I have so many fingers crossed on some of the young everyday players that I don't have anything left to cross. Kalish, C'mon kid...ya' gotta' know we are pullin' for ya'. Set as a fielder.....please hit enough to be here WMB, locked into 3rd but honestly still needs to develop as a hitter and as a fielder Iggy, please God just hit him with a lightning bolt or something. Just hit a little Iggy. He has to learn how to bunt Lavs, wide swings in hitting performance, does seem to have come along as a fielder. I don't doubt he will be here in 2013. Question mark but I think he will hit. Ciriaco, honestly doesn't he have to be here at least as the utility infielder? Might share time at short with (dare I think it) Iggy Nava, I doubt we see him even as a sub. Depends on how the OF shapes up and if there is a spot. The "dime" seemed to find a way to get here every year. Gomez, I think this is the kind of guy you have got to gamble on. I don't even want to pay short FA money to Loney although he has a great glove. We need more hitting from 1st though. If he keeps fielding decently, ya' gotta' try him I think Man o' man, that is a lotta kids to depend on even excluding Nava. I can see the Sox trying to bring somebody in for SS, possibly 1st, possibly Napoli for additional catching and 1st. The rest again other than Nava probably play in 2013. In a perfect world, the Sox spend some of that cash on a first rate SS but I don't even know who might be out here for them. At the very least, I think Iggy comes up late in the year or starts the year here or gets traded. Not sure they have an choice. Probably time to live with his hitting for awhile and see if he can develop more as a ML hitter here. I could live with that decision with Ciriaco here as well and getting time at SS.

I think the team would love to see Kalish show signs of his bat coming around and if he does show signs early next year that his shoulder has come around and he is hitting, I think Kalish will make the team and get playing time in RF. I really don't think they want Ross playing much in RF. I think they want Ross in LF and in that regard I agree with them. Assuming they bring Ross back I want him playing in LF, not RF. If Kalish can hit enough to hold down the spot it would be great for the Sox to have him in RF for significant playing time.

It would be hard to argue that the Sox FO has performed step for step with the Spanks FO. The Sox have spent plenty of money. However they spent it foolishly on players that have not added enough horsepower to the Sox overall ability to produce wins. In many cases they have not even been adds that have complimented the existing players that were already here. A baseball team is not a compilation of stats. This is not some rotisserie league. It almost has seemed like the the Sox FO has approached team building like they are in some rotisserie league. In addition, the Sox have seemed reluctant to bring players from the farm system up to the ML team choosing to fill spots with costly FA and or trading players from the farm system away that would likely be good adds to the ML team. this is something LL has even talked about recently. Where I think both organizations have run afoul is that they have relied to heavily on older stars under long term contract and to some extent both are paying a price for that. The older stars break down more and are not as capable of coming back from injury. Still and all, the Spanks have in my view done a better job of mitigating that particular issue.

Well I know I have expressed some concerns for Lavs hitting. I keep waiting for him to break out and he almost looks like he was about to break out the end of last week and then...not so much. However I still believe in Lavs. I think he will hit and deserves more time given the fact that he has in fact hit.

The Sox did commit huge dollars to the wrong players. They were the wrong players, the wrong types of players, they just could have done worse in that regard. They compounded the problem by trading away prospects that were close to being ready to perform at the big league level leaving a big hole in the train of cost controlled players that should have been working their way up to the big club. LL made comments recently acknowledging that the Sox have not been aggressive enough about bringing players up through the farm system in a timely manner leaving them to languish to long at AA and AAA. I agree with those sentiments as well. Instead of always viewing risk in terms of some big FA signing the Sox need to sustain more risk in the form of moving players through the farm system and up to the big club before they are cold-locks for rookie of the year honors mainly because they are the most polished rookies of any given year. They tend to spent ungodly amounts of time being groomed in the minors before finally being allowed up here, that is unless they get injured in the process down there.

Doc, I was thinking about some of the prominent Sox pitchers that have appeared to use the cutter to frequently. Surely Lester takes some heat for the number of cutters that he throws. In his case, although he is a seasoned pitcher, I wonder if he started to feel like he was having trouble with control and started going to the cutter more often because it also gave him a pitch he could throw inside with some confidence that it would not end up drifting back out over the plate or into the hitter. I have to wonder about pitchers going to the cutter because of Rivera's success with the pitch. It would seem obvious that if you are a starting pitching, guys are going to see your pitches through more at bats than if you are a closer as you have pointed out. I am not sure that if I were a starting pitcher I would try to emulate anything that a closer is doing because the roles are so different. Three outs and goodnight is a way different deal than three outs and see ya' next half inning.

I forgot to add that according to Martinez the other reason pitchers like to use the cutter if they really do not know how to pitch inside is because they can use it to both LH and RH batters. The pitch will not drift either out over the plate or into the hitter.

What the hell has gotten into Gomez tonight. Making plays over at 1st like he would like to stay there next year. Was hoping he would show something at 1st cause that would be his position here anyway I am sure....if not DH on occasion.

Very interesting comments from Pedro Martinez with regard to the cut fast ball and why so many pitchers, especially young pitchers use it. I am assuming that you folks in the game thread heard it. Maybe some folks did not. According to Pedro, many young pitchers do not know how to pitch on the inside part of the plate and use the cutter because they can control the movement of that pitch better, giving them a pitch they can use to throw inside. Whether you are intending to throw a pitch for a strike or throw a pitch off the plate inside, you really do not want to miss your location. Your margin for error is pretty small on the inside part of the plate or even off the plate inside. if you miss and get to much plate you are giving pull hitters especially a chance to hand you your head. If you come to far inside you are likely in some cases to hit the batter when not intending to do so. Sort of makes you wonder if pitchers other than young pitchers use it when there control starts to go awry for the same reason. I think I heard Pedro also say something about seeing more of it from young pitchers in the majors these days because so many of them come up before they are really ready.

Buch dug his own grave that time. Was Keppinger ever waiting on that thing. Yuk

The officials thing is not overblown. The officials in tonight's game have no idea what a penalty is in the NFL. You can tell that guys on the broadcast team are so lacking in confidence that they are questioning the few good calls that this crew is making. The flag on the Brady slide was totally justified as the rule has nothing to do with whether a big Defensive lineman can stop his momentum or not. If the QB slides feet first its hands off...period...it is not a judgement call. However holding on Gronk was a ******** call....the offensive pass interference call on Julian was a ******** call. Either that one was a no call or pass interference on the defender. These guys are totally, totally clueless. I think the issues that does have traction is player safety and even ref safety for that matter. Somebody is going to get badly injured and games like this one are classic examples for games that these guys are just incapable of handling.