jung

Thank God Hughes sucks

Way ta' go Pedey....if we could only get somebody on base in front of somebody that could actually do something.....

Oh my God Carl...protecting the plate is one thing but that was way off the plate.....much like last year...only dif...he reaches more of them now and puts a bat on the ball but that is about the only dif.

Man have we seen a bunch of pop ups lately...almost like we are trying to hard to lift the ball...even guys that should not be trying that to much.

"The Sox will be cautious buyers". Oh c'mon BC....who the hell do you think you are kidding? Cautious buyers....what the hell does that mean....a utility infielder to replace Punto? Cafardo mentioned something about the Sox maybe being interested in a pitcher one level below Grienke or Johnson.....Holy Cats....just don't....I guess if you can toss off one of your guys from the dregs squad fine....any sort of good prospect...forget it....just stop....the pink hats are not even going to know who the hell you are talking about and the rest of us won't care. BC should just shut up at this point. It is hard to take any of them seriously...the whole miserable bunch of them in that upper management and FO, Baseball Operations group.

Remy saying all the enthusiasm in Yankee Stadium is over their newest Yankee..."the gap is so big between the Sox and Yankees that there is not much thought given to that". I just wanta' be sick.

Although I think Crawford should be the DH tonight, having him bat 2nd even after going 0-17, maybe shows us something about how the lineup would work against a good team. That is if he hits tonight. Even with Ortiz out at least most of it is there. That said, if they are truly this feeble without Ortiz, well that does not give them much to look forward to. That is really one of the things I was saying in the spring. Is this really a 1st rate offense if you can't take a guy like Ortiz out of it without having the thing fall apart? Now Youk is already out of it and that was not the plan in the spring. Was Youk going to be the force from the right side that he had been in years past? Sox really do have a very tough time against LH pitchers. Either the league knows that and is setting up their rotation's to put as many LH pitchers in front of the Sox as they can or just the luck of the draw. We have gotten a lot of them lately. We don't have one tonight going against us. Hope that helps. The list of teams ahead of us for either of the WC spots looks enormous.

God I don't want to get swept. I just don't care about the...."really let it all go so that Management realizes they have to make serious changes" thing....I cannot believe an outcome other than getting to and through the divisional round of the post season saying anything but we really have some issues here and changes are needed, not just window dressing. Whenever we come up to a series, I cannot get myself to want to see them nose dive more than they have even though that might be the best thing for them. I just can't do it. Cook tonight....if he can have a good night then maybe we can at least take two games here. If Cook gets hammered tonight then all bets might be off. You really want every series to start with Buch if possible cause it is really getting to a point where I worry that getting pounded in the 1st game of a series may set a tone that is hard at this stage for this team to overcome.

Cafardo saying that BC says the asking price for Grienke or Johnson is three top prospects. I find that hard to believe especially for Grienke but the Sox would not be in a position to do that. Maybe two and a lower level guy but three????

Well if you notice I was not really trying to make a major case for there being a big spread between Ells and Crawford in power numbers except as a "maybe" but I think Ells has exhibited more of an ability to hit with "some" power to all fields. So I think he would have or will do better than CC will in Fenway. Outside of Fenway, I am not sure either guy is going to get much done with the exception of places with a short RF porch. At any rate it is the Fenway factor that makes me suspect that Ells would always end up with somewhat better power numbers than Crawford. Ells numbers are all better in Fenway than away from Fenway and his power numbers are better there. Wish 2010 had not been such a mess for him. While I would be surprised if he could repeat 2011, It would have been nice to see if 2011 was at least a progression through 2010 from 2009.

Really I think you could read into my earlier post that I think incompetent hirers is closer to the truth. Why would you sort of punt the decision if that is what they did? There must have been somebody good that would have wanted what should have been one of the truly sought after jobs in MLB. With all the pub that has swirled around LL and his control over Baseball Operations, it does make you wonder if a really upper echelon GM candidate would have queried the Sox on just that subject looking for some assurances that he actually would have some elbow room in the job.

Well not trying to explain it for E1 as much as making a general comment....but many of have wondered about Carl's game and how it was supposed be a fit for the Sox. It also makes you wonder about Theo's thought process if in fact he was simply trying to protect against the departure of Ells. Regardless of whether or not Ells was going to be able to repeat his 2011 power numbers he was always IMO going to produce somewhat better power numbers than Crawford and maybe even much better power numbers then Crawford. I don't think there is even a question any longer about whether Crawford is Ells equal defensively in the outfield. Neither have great arms even even when Crawford is healthy but Ells simply gets to more balls out there and is more likely to complete the play and catch the thing when he gets there. Maybe Crawford has better speed than Ells but until he starts getting on base more, it is hard to see that as anything to write home about.

Crawford is playing in left and the guy that has come in as a late inning defensive replacement, Nava, is the DH tonight. Why not just put Nava in LF and have Crawford DH?

Really have to wonder what Ryan would think of Beckett. Last start against Texas probably did not hurt chances of moving him there. Texas is looking for a way to win it all.

As far as Beckett is concerned unless it is to some team that Beckett thinks really favors him, he will force a Texas team down the Sox throat.

I will take the money diff as well. CC is just never going to work here and still likely has TJ to look forward to.

I could definitely buy into a Werth for CC deal. Werth would at least be a fit for the Sox. That to me would be a gamble worth taking.

I don't know if the "does not try hard enough" description fits CC that much. He may in fact try to hard...be to keyed up. I really don't like CC's game that much and never did. His defense is not that great...awards not withstanding. Carl has to get on base in order to make his game work. He does not hit for power. His RBI totals are good but not great. He must get on base and bother the hell out of the opponent with his ability to steal and must make his general speed relevant going from 1st to 3rd on hits, making it home as well on occasion. If Carl does not get on base he really is not able to make his game work at all and getting on base has been a problem for Carl of late. It may be to late for Carl to make major changes to his game but I would like to see a guy that wants to bat so high up in the order walk much more than Carl walks. His Slugging numbers are not great so a walk is as good as a single and once on 1st he can start to do his thing. But if you look at Carl's career numbers, how on earth that translates to a $20M ballplayer even if you got the Tampa numbers out of him is a mystery to me. Either the Sox needed to cut the term of the contract offer for CC down to something like 5 which might have made a good deal of sense for a guy that makes money with his legs or they had to cut into the per year salary and for seven years, I don't think I could have convinced myself to get past $13M per year. maybe a little more. I figured him to be something like a $90M player for a seven year contract. Maybe a $100M player. That probably would not have gotten it done but I would have been fine with that. What about CC's game was so attractive to the Sox FO that they were wiling to go balls to the walls for him. How does his game work so well for a team playing 81 games in Fenway Park that you are willing to go way beyond max money to secure the player? Where was there any understanding of what spending the money that way would mean to the rest of your effort? How much more freedom would the Sox have right now if that contract was not slung around their necks? Another $21M per year to play with...could be two really good ballplayers....could be a really good pitcher and decent ballplayer.....could be the superstar hurler that you want to lead your rotation for the next 4-5 years if you want to go down that road.

Crawford for Reyes would have been an interesting move....sort of says a lot about the Sox thinking on guys like Iggy and maybe Ciriaco as well and of course Aviles although inserting Aviles as the everyday SS was another dead and to stupid to fall over move.

I don't know that the Sox would make a deal that did not allow them to move salary either. I don't think they can afford to take salary. Seeing some comments on what BC said this morning on D&C but not sure if he actually said "I am standing pat" as in expect no trade deadline moves or if he said something else. No moves sounds more right for the Sox this year but contradicts LL's "bold moves" comment.

I think they might have made something of a stop gap measure kind of a decision on BC. I don't know why they would have done that but it seems that they have him on such a short leash that it does not even appear that he really has a GM job. Granted LL does not appear to give anybody much rope but Holy Cow....hard to see that BC has any rope at all. So I suspect that there is the possibility that BC is in something of a similar position as V, something of an interim GM much like V is in some sense an interim manager. As for Kalish vs Redick, I actually thought that at the time, if you queried GM's around the league a number of them would have thought Kalish a better prospect long term than Redick so I think dangling Kalish generally would have attracted more interest than Redick would have if both were healthy but I could be wrong on that. Again I stated at the time that I had not seen enough of Kalish to rate the two players. So, I was just relying on the Sox to have gotten that one right. I think what was an eye opener was how much more time Kalish would need to truly be a ML level OF for the Sox or anybody else for that matter. I think we can say with some confidence that the Sox thought for whatever reason that Kalish was ready. They had enough retread OF around to keep him in Pawtucket if they wanted to. So I have to believe the Sox thought he was ready to come up. Clearly he was not ready...maybe needing even more than another year to be ready. Maybe the amount of time he has had to spend in rehab just robbed away to much developmental time from him but clearly Kalish was not ready. I thought the Sox would have known enough about Kalish and his situation to be able to judge him accordingly. So that is really what worries me about the decision making process on Kalish. It seems to me that the Sox thought he could contribute this year. There was no reason to bring him up with so many retread OFer's available to insert into the lineup unless they thought Kalish was ready. On another level looking at the Sox outfielders, you would have thought keeping the guy with the better power numbers would have been a better fit for the Sox particularly if you thought either player could contribute in 2012. The Sox outfield really does not have much in the way of power. I don't think many believe Ells could repeat his power numbers from 2011 even if over a full 2012 season. Crawford is not a power hitter in the classic sense. Ross is a dead pull hitter and being platooned so you get what you get from him. Sweeney is not a power hitter and neither was dmac. Sure it is nice to have speed in the outfield but I would have thought the guy with the better power numbers would have been a better fit for a Sox team that just does not have much in the way of power overall, especially from its outfielders.

I have to admit that while one could excuse BC's early comments just after getting the job, he has not gotten a lick better since then. He still says nothing....does nothing. We can counter with "Management has not given him much money to work with" but would you give him much money to work with? I think the only justification I can give for BC getting the Sox job was that the Sox simply did not feel that they could or would make a good choice at that specific time and simply installed BC as something of an interim GM. I believe he will be replaced by somebody that actually has a shot at doing the job. It should therefore come as no surprise when there are no big deals on the horizon. I don't believe Sox upper management has any confidence in this guy and neither do I. One other player situation that I am beginning to wonder about is Kalish vs Redick. I was willing to believe that the Sox had the Kalish vs Redick thing figured out cause they were so familiar with both players. But now I am really wondering if even keeping Kalish and moving Redick was the wrong decision. Redick has not really slowed down and look at where Kalish is now. I could see us fans not getting that right but how could the Sox themselves get that wrong. I did not offer a comment one way or the other at the time and said the same thing then as now....I had to believe that the Sox had seen enough of both players to make the right move...I certainly had not seen enough of both players and said so. Hard to make the case that the Sox made the right move here. We have Kalish, a guy that has had injury problem after injury problem and kept him over Redick because of his potential to be a better player than Redick. Redick is doing very well, has not exhibited the injury history that Kalish has while Kalish was both clearly not ready at least this year and has done nothing to show people that he has the potential of Redick as a hitter. How the hell did they screw this one up?

Crawford seems to be able to reach the low outside pitch a bit better this year with his new stance but he does not seem to see it better than he did last year. This is I think a real test of what ownership wants to do at this point. In reality it looks like the only way to really dig out of the hole they are in will be to east a substantial amount of the Crawford salary but that does not help them with Ells because eating Crawford salary takes funds away that they would need to sign Ells. That amounts to an enormous double gamble. If you eat salary to get Crawford off the team, then pay Ells what he will cost, you have Ells injury potential hanging over your head and are still paying on Crawford. As unsettling as it seems, I am inclined to think the Sox will try to move Crawford if they can find a way to do it without absorbing to much of his salary as their commitment is so long in term. Baring that I think they will let Ells play out his current contract and just let him go if it comes to that. If I had to bet I would bet that Crawford remains a Red Sox player and eventually Ells is just gone off the team. I know that is not the option anybody is interested in but I think it unlikely that anybody will take enough of the Crawford contract to give the Sox a way out and I do not see any chance of them paying Ells and Crawford at the same time. How can we even think at this point in terms of the Sox being a serious player in the Ells sweepstakes when we know full well that his agent is going to demand the last pound of flesh from any team bidding for his services. Of course Crawford could be a little bit more accommodating and play a bit better having spent such a long period in rehab. As soon as the pitchers started going back to the low and outside slider from the LH pitcher or change or cut fastball out there from the RH pitcher, Crawford started struggling again as he did last year.

The Crawford contract gets so much attention because it is the very symbol of drunken sailor management and wretched excess on a grand scale. It is unfortunate that CC seems like the type of guy that is less likely to ever succeed under these circumstances regardless of the fact that Sox fans cut him an enormous break last year all the way up until other pieces of the team started to fall apart and we all grew tired of CC and his complete fail. But until then, there was barely a peep out of anybody....we wanted him to succeed so badly. I also remember when the deal went down, the utter and complete shock from the entire Red Sox community of reporters and fans. it was like....what....we got who....did not even think we were in the running....and we signed him for what!!!!! Some of us were overjoyed.....others saw it as a very problematic move from the very start and even wondered allowed that the very shock of it was suggestive of a organization at odds with itself way before JH ever uttered a word in public. That deal broke the mold in so many ways. That is the kind of money reserved for guys that are going to dump the ball over the wall on a regular basis...whatever Carl Crawford is or was, he was not that.

Can't blame CC for taking the money...why shouldn't he? The Sox were beyond stupid for offering way beyond what the pub at the time was saying anybody was or would offer Crawford. Apparently his elbow issues were already known....people were already warning that he would have trouble in a big market and still the Sox gave him huge money....beyond stupid.