jung

They are not making the playoffs because their starting pitching has sucked. Beckett and Lester are simply the worst examples on a rotation that was doomed from the start. Beyond the starting pitching their inability to mount a cohesive offense has cost them to many games. They go from scoring double digits (in games where they are allowed to mash) to can hardly squeeze out a run if they tried.

Everybody acknowledges that the biggest issue on this team is the starting pitching...regardless of that they still do not play as a team. As for playing this year like last....look at the at bats from the end of last year and tell me again they don't look just like many of the at bats this year.....is there any recognizable offensive intent other than trying to mash the ball? No....was there any intent you could discern other than trying to mash late last year....No Did they turn impatient last year.....swinging at bad pitches much more than they had at any time earlier in the season?...they most certainly did. Has that not been an issue this year as well....it most certainly has.

That is very true 700. Management could have nipped this in the bud the very first time V tried to run this team the way he wanted to run it. As I have said many times here....if they wanted V to tone down his act all management had to do was tell him that right at the start. Clearly V was capable of it as he toned down his act as soon as he realized he was being left hung out to dry. All they had to do was tell him the plan. Instead they let him step into the very land mine that you would have guess he would have stepped into and then just left him lay there and bleed. While I firmly believe they hired V for all the wrong reasons, they could have probably gotten what they wanted out of V if they had just set expectations for him. Upper management has created this mess mainly by misjudging how far the players would be willing to go to blow the team apart to get their way. They may well have thought that at the least the players would have played for each other.....that was a huge misread.

They are playing now exactly as they played in September of last year....just happened earlier this year. In fact people other than myself have been saying that for weeks now.

The difference is whether they play together or not....the successful teams of the past with known issues between the players or between players and management played together....played for each other......this "team" has not shown any evidence of being able to play together or for each other across two managers and two seasons....two managers as different as they could be I might add. Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin hated each other but that team played together. Nobody on this Red Sox team knows how to lead or how to follow.

All I have to do is the same thing we would do on the football field when somebody started yapping their mouth. Look at the scoreboard or in this case....look at the record.

Ya' mean the way they didn't let Tito down last year? This team now has a record that is fast approaching epic for its lack of on field performance and off field lunacy. Tonight's game should be a absolute laugh fest. What is next? Protest signs in the dugout. "Put the wrap on V" has a nice ring to it.

There is no way for a meeting being conducted by upper management jumping over and past the chain of command in an effort to try to deal with an organization already awash in failure and controversy to be a "positive meeting". I did not have to be there to make that judgement. Just have to look at the things that have already been publicly acknowledged and the record of accomplishment of the 2012 team.

Oh I think V's fate was sealed long before this meeting making the players comments and request for an audience at this point meaningless. I do think that he will not be the only one shown the door. Unfortunately upper management has empowered certain players to pull this s***. That can't go on either.

Not sure why BC confirmed the meeting happened. Since he was asked to confirm he might have figured that the media already had the story. Trying to put a positive spin on it by claiming that it was a "positive" meeting just tells you how far off base BC is. You would have to think that all of upper management would have put their heads together though and made a decision about whether they would confirm or deny if word got out. Must have decided it made sense to confirm. Not sure I blame them though. If the media already had the story somebody else leaked it. If they denied at that point they would probably have just had to endure more confirmations from others leaving them looking even sillier.

Agons gave evidence of being a whiny little skank last year and has just confirmed it this year.

Easily the most embarrassing Red Sox team in years...maybe decades. Are they serious? Complaining because they think V embarrassed Lester by leaving him in for 11 runs! Gee do you think it might have made sense for Lester not to have given up the 11 runs in the first place? I am sure that in the interest of sound investigative work...either Pedey or AGons interviewed the guys in the bull pen and they all said they were ready to go....not in the least bit in need of some rest and could have come in to relieve Lester without issue. I sincerely hope upper management went to this meeting so that they could take note of the number of idiots they have on this team and incorporate that into their future plans. That said, upper management has encouraged this sort of stupidity. What did they expect?

Last week I posted that it just gets better and better and as much as you want the last bit of disappointing off field bull to be the last of it....then here comes another bit to make your day. In an effort to separate what is known now to have happened from what has been said: Agons sent a message up to ownership complaining about V leaving Lester in the game for 11 on July 22nd. That prompted upper management to allow the players a complaining session and call a meeting between upper management and the players. This meeting has been confirmed by BC. One report out of that meeting was that some of the players decided not to attend at all...apparently protesting players complaining to upper management and suggesting that certain star players had been dumping on V all season long in an effort to deflect criticism for this awful season from them. I don't believe that has been confirmed by anybody. The meeting apparently was led by Pedey and Agons.

To bad their aren't more home dates left this season. Tickets should be cheaper for a change.

All I wanted out of Dlowe is another arm for the pen. When you see V struggling every day to find a way to stretch the starters and keep the bull pen silent, you have got to know another arm there right now would have helped. We have already seen a couple games in this last stretch where the starter exited early and nobody coming in could get a soul out. Do we really like the way those games look?

I would like to see Ciriaco get more time here in 2013. It has become exceedingly difficult to get a read on what the Sox might do based on trying to take the team in some direction or the other. The only definitive trends I can identify any longer are "cover our ass for the last f***ed up move we made" and "lets not do something that will ruffle the feathers of the fans regardless of whether or not its good for the team". Those are two incentives that have success written all over them.

I once saw Rooster make a throw from Fenway left field that was ridiculous. It was on one of those balls that caroms oddly off that section by where the ball girl sits. Every once and awhile a ball goes down the left field line and really takes an odd hop off there. The oddest of them seem to me to be when they just catch the very end of that wall before it starts to climb going farther down the left field line. So the ball really just fires out into mid distance left field and really ends up heading for left/center. Nobody is anywhere near the thing and Rooster has to run like crazy just to get to it. Meanwhile the runner on first knew the ball was a double as soon as it was hit and realized once it banged off that wall that nobody was going to end up anywhere near the thing. So he is pounding around the bases and headed for home. Rooster gets to the ball and as you might expect has got all his weight going the wrong way because of where he started his run. Clearly he knew what he was going to do with the ball before he got to it because he jumped on the ball and came up firing. It seemed to me that the ball never got more than a few feet off the ground and made it home without even the usual one hop. You kept expecting the ball to take that one hop cause it was never far off the ground to begin with. Nailed the runner at home who did not know what hit him. The way he figured it the last he saw of that ball nobody was going to nail him at home and in fact the catcher was waiting for him ball in hand. He just laid there for awhile trying to figure out what the hell happened. One of the strongest throws from that part of Fenway I had ever seen and all arm to boot. Had never seen anything quite like that before then and don't really think I have seen one like it since, not from there anyway. Dewey had made some completely ridiculous throws from RF that I have seen but I have never seen a throw like that one Rooster made from that part of left at Fenway.

I cannot for the life of me figure out Pods especially now that I think dlowe would have just fallen into their laps and they did not take him. On the one hand I guess I can rationalize that they would not have played Kalish every day here under any circumstances, cashed out on the season or not...they would have platooned him at best...whereas I think he is playing every single day in Pawtucket. That is the only way I can figure Pods. I am thinking they thought it best for Kalish to play every day in Pawtucket as opposed to being platooned here. I really don't know about that either. If he could play most days here, would it not do him more good at this point to get as much exposure to the ML club as possible? They have to be thinking he is going to be here for sure next season right from the start of the season....I think??????

I did not see much of Trammel early in his career when he was hitting better. Now that I think about it didn't he end up with some injury that really did impact his hitting later in his career? Can't remember what it was exactly but seem to remember him getting an injury (maybe wrist) that really had an impact on his hitting during the later stages of his career. I have to see if I can find it somewhere. Maybe ir I just Wiki Trammel it will be on his page.

I do think the Sox have cashed out for the season. They are not going to say that they have cashed out but I think they have. Look the bull pen is gasping for air. Dlowe would not have even taken up much grey matter to take care of. You cannot tell me that V would not have welcomed Dlowe with open arms. If this was a situation requiring tons of money or Sox have no room for the player or no use for the player...that would be one thing. But make no mistake about it...this pen is gassed. I know if asked BC would just pull out tape number 3275 "we are happy with the players that we have and are confident they can do the job".

I always thought it was Rooster's hitting that distinguished him among the other SS of his era. Trammel could not hit his weight. Belanger could not hit his weight and he did not weigh anything. That and that incredible arm which of course is a defensive asset.

Concepcion was without question a better defender and while Rooster started with the Sox in 74 I think, the wizard started in 78. The Wiz had a pretty decent glove I think. Rooster in my opinion has a hard time holding his own among defensive SS in or near to the same time he played and really falls off the table all time. He did have a hell of a cannon though...no question about that and he played so hard. I would have loved to have seen a SS iron man contest for that era between Rooster and Yount. The two of them would have probably killed each other in such a contest. I think the question here or the list is all time, Red Sox defenders and Rooster does fair will as the SS in that list but as I was suggesting earlier, I actually think that does say something for the way the Sox have historically considered the position. While this is a completely different FO, I don't wonder if that historical background is in part what allows the Sox to go ahead and justify a utility infielder that is really a terrible SS (Aviles) as just fine as an everyday SS.

Oh c'mon guys....better than Alan Trammel, Cal Ripken, Mark Bellanger. Rooster was not a better defender than any of those guys and those are just SOME of the AL guys. Bring in the NL guys and Rooster falls off of Page 1 even for that time frame never mind all time. Rooster is one of my favorite Sox cause he was to me Pedey before Pedey in the sense of being a dirt dog...but Holy Cow. To me Rooster was always Robin Yount light which is in part why I think we would have immortalized Yount here if he played here. I thought that without Yount around, Rooster would have gotten much more attention than he got but you are talking about an era where there were some pretty good defensive SS around...many that just could not hit...which Rooster could.

Sorry but I just don't buy it. For my money both Beckett and Lester have been regressing in ways that will not just disappear in the off season. Whether Beckett stays or goes he will have work to do in order to be a respectable starter and IMO he will never be the pitcher he was at one time. Lester may be able to once again be the pitcher that he once was but his issues did not arrive on a space ship from Mars and they won't be leaving by that route either. Lester also has issues that he must work on. I do think he stands a chance of returning to the pitcher that he once was but nobody is going to wave a magic wand over him and walla....Lester is back. It is not happening that way. Having seen what this rotation looks like without a legit 1 two years in a row I am sort of surprised that folks want to bring in something less than that. If you really want to make a run at the WS, you need a really solid rotation and it needs a leader. I have said that I for one would not be disappointed if this turned into a two year process because this team is f***ed up enough to need two years of fixing at least anyway. So if it took two years to get a legit 1 in here...so be it. No sense in beating a dead horse farther but as I have stated before IMO they get a 1 in here making for a giant change in the Sox prospects getting to and thriving in the post season or they don't in which case we are very likely to see more of what we have seen already. By 2014 we should finally have the top of the lineup figured out. Ells will be here or gone....very likely gone. I can only hope that the Sox find a way to come to their senses and are able finally to move Crawford around to the places in the lineup that suite the lineup. I cannot stand the idea of paying somebody $21M a year and being held hostage because the guy insists that he must hit in the 2 hole. Once again something that points to the stupidity of the Crawford deal in the first place. We might even have Bradley here playing CF by then. This could be a very different team at that point. But to put it bluntly the Sox really cannot afford to have players dictate where they bat in the lineup. This lineup is hardly a lineup at all as either the Sox mash or they don't score. The lineup needs to make sense from top to bottom with each spot considered important but different. I want the players to be inserted where they make the most sense for the lineup not the lineup jury rigged to suite the foibles of particular players. Then the Sox need to be able to score runs by some other means than just mashing. As the year wears on and the competition gets tougher, mashing gets harder and harder to do and the Sox simply lose to many of these 6-4, 5-3, 7-5 ball games, balls games that are not slugfests but are not really pitchers duals either. We just lose to many of those games. Good teams just do not lose those games in the bucket loads that the Sox lose them in. Again I do not mean to rob attention from the starting pitching but losing so many of these ball games is in part a reflection on the fact that the team is poorly constructed and the inmates have the keys to the asylum. Fixing the starting pitching will go a long way to curing this teams problems. However once we are competing in more of these ball games it will be just as frustrating as it is today when we can't lay down a bunt....don't work a count....don't draw walks to save our skin......have all this speed that is not optimally used...don't hit behind the runners....the list of miserable performances is longer than my arm.

I think that was a decent representation of what he was at least for the short time he was here. My real point was not that he was still the defensive SS that he was but that he still played the position such that he was making plays outside the usual, run of the mill SS plays. We have had so few guys if any that did that. The Sox have simply never thought about the position that way which was my other point. Anybody that comes in here that cannot mash but is a darned good defender even at SS is bounced pretty quickly. For example, I cannot argue with the choice of Burleson at SS. However you would use up all your fingers and toes and still not have chosen Burleson among defensive SS generally.