jung

Bailey was a stab at appeasing the fan base. Having opted out of Pap, the Sox could have done what most teams do for a closer when in the same situation and would not have done worse this season. But of course doing what most teams do does not have the right optics from a Sox perspective. So Reddick plays in somebody elses uni now. So many Sox solid prospects have gone by a similar route. Sox are always so concerned about appearances, what has the right optics, what likely puts fannies in seats in the short term and in truth it has finally all come home to roost. While the fans are not at fault, our inability to see this s*** for what it is and value these s*** teams realistically does not help either. Hopefully this season has been a big eye opener but I doubt it.

Lester doing everything he can to sink the Skanks. Way ta' go Jon. I am not sure if Jon is tiring quickly so much as I still believe he is concentrating so hard to keep his mechanics from blowing apart. While his motion does not look as ugly as it looked a couple months ago, I don't think he is throwing naturally at all. I still think it will be an off season before he really gets a chance to work this out.

Sox going out the season the way they came in....with some sort of promotion every 5 nanoseconds. Now we will have the 2004 championship team commemoration followed by the all time best of Fenway players. So lets see, we can have the 2004 commemorative jersey, the cap, hell the jock for all I know. Then we will have the All Fenway team Jersey, cap, Jock....you get the picture.

I might be wrong on this but I think Iggy has tried four bunts since being called up....all unsuccessful. When a guy his size cannot bunt at all, which is the case here, that is a tough one. You want him to be able to execute sacrifice bunts successfully and you want him to bunt for a hit on occasion. Since the technique he is using is a bunt for a hit technique even when they want him sacrificing, it looks like he will have trouble bunting for a hit as well. I hope we see him taking a few swings tonight. Want to see if he at least continues to swing tonight as he was swinging last night.

NESN talking heads talking about Loney at the moment. While I am not voting for giving him the job at 1st next year, the 1st baseman we got in "the trade" currently has a better BA since the trade than the 1st baseman that they got in "the trade".

Lavs at least swings like like a professional hitter and we know he can hit and I think he will hit not only to an acceptable level but to a much more than acceptable level. The mistake the Sox made with Iggy is not giving him enough at bats up here this season so that they actually, finally see what they have. This is the last year of his deal so it would have certainly been to their benefit to figure it out this year particularly since this year died pretty early. The Sox might have done some things the last few days to convince Iggy that he is literally playing himself out of a position and I don't mean sitting him for a pinch hitter with a 2-2 count. That was just plain stupid. They might have had him looking at some film....who knows. The swings he was taking in the last of the Rays games was not the swing he has been taking for the last few weeks up here. Last night's were the best swings Iggy has taken while up here by a wide margin. It was also the second of two straight nights that he has exhibited some knowledge for the location of the outer edge of the plate. They should have brought Iggy here sooner and once here should have had him in every game. He MUST play every game out the year. However if he continues to hit as weakly as he has hit up till last night and continues to employ that slap hitting style, then that would be pretty tough to take. Really interested in seeing if Iggy carries last night's success forward at least to the extent of not taking that damn defensive swing.

Atrocious is one thing but Iggy has exhibited a tendency to be completely overpowered and that is just to far downstream to be acceptable. To be honest I just wish V had not been playing him once every three days or every other day when he did have him in the lineup. The season was already long gone and Iggy really needed to be in there every day I think. That decision to pinch hit for him on a 2-2 count looks doubly foolish today although it already looked about as bad as it could look when V did it. I would be happy to see him toss in a few base hits, a successful sacrifice or two and just look like he is not being overpowered so easily out the season. If he can do that we might have something.

The HR is one of the very few times I have seen Iggy actually shift his weight and turn on the pitch. Now V has got to leave Iggy in the lineup and see if he can build on this. Not saying he needs to or even can suddenly become a "hitter" but if he just even can somehow not be taking that stupid, weak-assed, defensive slap swing at the ball, that will be a massive improvement by itself. Still bunt's like s*** which is tough to see from a guy that hits like he does.

I guess we can wonder what V would have done if this was a really meaningful game to the Sox...although V has been the kind of manager that does not hook relievers quickly. Bailey sucked from the minute he walked to the mound and was wild both in and out of the strike zone. To be honest I expect that V would have left Bailey out there regardless.

Bailey you stiff....what an outing. He does get a save though....might have just saved the Rays season. Although tonights performances highlight something I mentioned recently. While many are thinking we have the makings of a really good pen for 2013, we still have nobody that can actually come in and put out fires.....Padilla certainly did not do it tonight. We have a bullpen chock full of guys that can come in and start fresh innings but we really have nobody that can come in and be a true fireman.

The irony of baseball. In reality they are falling apart...although not with the resounding thud of the Sox last year, they are falling apart.

Oh my God......I can die a happy man now....I have seen an Iggy HR. How many of us are there....about 5....?

Damned Echo-dome almost struck again on Pods

Thanks Taz!

Well know I see why V has been reluctant to use Aviles at 3rd this year even though he has had numerous opportunities to do so

Man while the Rays fan base appears to have given up, so have the Rays appeared to have given up. They could not field their way out of a hat right now. Did anybody see Iggy's hits...hit hard and driven someplace or seeing eye variety?

Damn...I wish I had seen that. Was not even able to listen on radio to much tonight and just got home. What kinds of hits were they....seeing eye variety....anything driven hard?

Just got home. Was listening to the game on radio. EEI radio broadcast guys were commenting that Ells fake bunts so often because he does it on pitches that he is taking. Where do these ball players learn this s***? There is nobody out there in his right mind teaching that you fake bunt when you are taking. When you take you are taking with a purpose. 1) you often take because the pitcher is struggling with his control and you think you can get him in a hole 2) you are often taking on an 0-0 count because it is the worse count in baseball from the batters perspective. Many will only swing if the ball is middle middle, as they should 3) you take so you can get a look at the pitchers arm angle, his motion, get an idea of what he is going to try to do to get you out, especially helpful early in a pitchers stint if the hitter has not seen him in awhile While you can accomplish 1 and 2 fake bunting, you can't accomplish 3. You will not learn anything about what the pitcher is doing if you are turning to fake bunt right in the middle of the pitch, nor do you have the correct angle on the pitcher to see much of anything helpful that can be used during the rest of the at bat. I am so sick and tired of guys having their "styles" from nowhere....because for the most part they are some ******** thing with no positives and plenty of negatives. In Ells case he does not bunt worth s***, nor does he do it that often. So the fake bunt is nothing but a negative as nobody believes he is bunting anyway.

Sell out streak is still going. Although I have not checked to see if there are any weekday afternoon games left in the remaining home schedule. I have to think that if there are any in the remaining home schedule it might finally kill this damn sell out streak.

Well for one thing, I think the ML ballplayer is well past using steroids now. There is a whole basket of offerings under the heading "Performance Enhancing". That is one of the problems with baseball's testing regimen. They test a whole bunch but the testing is not very comprehensive. I will offer this one thought with regard to Ells...his home run in the Rays game was very similar to his home runs of last year. Ells hit that ball as perfectly as he could possibly hit it. That is about what it takes for him to get the ball out. He is clearly not as strong as even Granderson for example. When Ells is recovering from or going through injury it appears to me that his hitting stroke really does suffer. So if I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, I would say that when he is really going well and in perfect health Ells has a really sweet swing and appears able to drive the ball out. When he either is not going well or recovering from injury or playing through injury, it is an entirely different deal with Ells. It is one of the reasons why I think Ells power numbers for 2011 are a one off. I don't think he can maintain that sweet swing for a long enough period of time to ever duplicate that performance again. But hey, Pal may be right at least with regard to some sort of Performance Enhancement Drug.

I am a little surprised that AGons has not done better in the NL. I still think he will ultimately do better there but I can't say that his performance in LA could not be expected. The LA press is already starting to pump out stories about the fan base growing quickly tired of the same sort of stuff many of us did not appreciate in AGons. I cannot tell yo how happy I am that he is gone...I will not be looking back no matter what he does in LA.

I just don't think the Sox get much for Ells under the circumstances. I would agree with Pal though. If the Sox could get a Sox favorable deal trading Ells, I would absolutely do that. The depth at CF in the FA market coming up is a double edged sword though and it will cut both ways. While the Sox would have ample opportunity to replace Ells there are plenty of alternatives to Ells out there, which will likely depress Ells trade value.

I am sure the Sox realize that a power pitcher is a real need. They may not pull off getting one for 2013 but I would be surprised and disappointed if finding and getting one was getting one was not the top priority for the FO. By 2014 the Sox might have a power pitcher not yet known and DeLaRosa in the rotation. If Buch is still cooking along and Lester comes around that could be a hell of a rotation. Does that sound radically different from a rotation with dice and Cook in it or what?

I don't think the Sox will trade Ells. They are boxed I think. Ells will end up playing out his contract, testing the market and if he does have a full 2013 like this last week or two of 2012, he will substantially recover his value. I actually don't think he will hit for anything like the power he exhibited in 2011 and really don't think he will have enough of a 2013 to turn into a monster contract guy. That at least gives the Sox a shot at signing him. I don't want the see the Sox spend a fortune on Ells. He is not a $20M per player in my view although somebody might give that to him.

Really with the posting fee, dice ends up costing us $110M for six years. Yea...you can argue about whether the posting fee should count or not but it is still money spent. So OK, his first year was pretty good as well. But he was not the cornerstone of that championship team. I suspect the Sox could have found his 2007 numbers someplace without sucking $110M out of the payroll budget. How many pitchers in 2007 were costing their teams that much money out of the payroll budget? Would not have expected much more from dice for that kinda' money. Hasn't starting pitching been the biggest problem this team has had in recent years? Has dice been part of the problem or part of the solution? Dice was another of the glitzy, high profile moves that the Sox just loved for a period. To me he exemplifies the things that have been wrong about the Sox, not the things that have been right about the Sox.