jung

I just saw that darned home plate play for the first time. I was still in the car and heard it on the radio live. No excuse for missing the call but I wonder if the ump saw the runners hand cut across the white line around the batters box and thought it was the white of the plate he was catching with his fingers. That is all I can take from that as in slow mo it is clear that the runner does catch the white of the batters box with his fingers.

If you look Elk they are still one of the more patient teams in baseball. I know it does not look like it at times but believe it or not, it is true. THEY DO NOT ADJUST. That is what I have been trying to explain and I apologize for my tendency to try to explain but I sort of think that is one of the fun things about this site.

This is actually the second time Laffey has embarrassed the Sox. He went 6 complete shut out innings last time and has just turned in 6 more. So he had shut out the Sox for 12 innings! Laffey for crying out loud. I really think this team needs to decide what it wants to do. I'm sorry and I know nobody wants to hear this but this is not a baseball team. I know that is terse and probably requires some explanation but there is much more to being a baseball team than cheering and ripping shirts at home plate over a regular season win.

Some of the best pitchers in history are junkballers but the Sox can't hit ANY junk baller. Look at the record this season. I have watched every game and every junk baller has laid them out.

Nice swing Carl join the club.

While I have a great deal of empathy for a baseball team that is always playing from behind (my last organized baseball team had no pitching so I sort of relate) there is still no excuse for not being willing to take what the pitcher gives you at the plate and insisting on trying to do what you want to do whether it is possible or not. This IS the genesis of their problem with junk ballers.

Lets see...Beckett is working on a 9.00 ERA for tonight and he has nothing to do with this loss? Interesting perspective but I understand the frustration with the Sox failures with regard to timely hitting and beating junk ballers. I will say that it takes quite a bit of intestinal fortitude to stand up to being behind every game before you have your shoe laces tied. I don't think the Sox are a particularly tough team along with all their other "qualities". They have some tough players but they sure don't play like a tough team. Ultimately it does become hard for a baseball team not to start to crack from the pressure of constantly playing from behind. Your opponent always feels free to become more and more aggressive in their pursuit of insurance runs while the Sox pull their horns in farther and farther.

I just don't know what else to say. Are these guys uncoachable....I refuse to believe that a guy as gifted as Dave Magadan does not see the Sox hitters pulling this same s*** junk baller after junk baller.

That was a great example of Aviles trying to pull a ball that just could not have been pulled even if he had hit the damn thing

Now that Shop has a hit maybe having Aviles hit here will work. Aviles should be killing this guy

I should point out that very very few hitters are good enough to simply go on up to the plate with an approach that is somewhat disdainful of the pitcher. The Sox have one....Ortiz. However a whole bunch of the Sox hitters think they are good enough to approach their plate appearances that way. Most hitters are smart enough to know what they can and cannot do. There is no reason for the Sox to be such easy meat for junk-baller after junk-baller.

No I do not think their dependence on the HR is the reason they are losing games. Primarily they lose games because their starting pitching stinks and they allow the opponents to many extra outs to play with. They do lack timely hitting though and they rarely are willing to take what the pitcher is giving them. For the most part they are hitters that do not adapt to what the pitcher is doing insisting on doing what they want to do instead. They are for the most part just not good enough to approach their plate appearances that way. The guys that are pull hitters in the main will try to pull regardless of the situation and the pitch just as an example of that. How many times have we seen Aviles insistent on trying to pull even when he does not have a pitch that he can pull. Waste the pitch if you cannot do what you want to do with it but for crying out loud don't try to do something with the pitch that is just going to be a fail. Just using Aviles because he is a good example but they have a number of hitters that are very similar in that regard. Junk-ballers really do force you to take what they are giving. What is galling is that junk-ballers give you a lot to work with if you are willing to approach your plate appearances that way. The Sox are in the main not and that is why so many junk-ballers eat them up.

Frankly I think the Sox lack of success against junk-ballers is similar to their inability to manufacture runs....both take some effort beyond just trying to batter down the outfield wall. I have not seen much effort from the Sox offense outside of trying to batter down the wall.

Next on the immediate horizon will be watching for Beckett to tire out. When he has stayed in these games he starts crummy, peaks in something like innings 3-5 and starts to struggle again in the 6th. Sox cannot afford losses to teams they should be beating.

I really would have preferred Aviles batting after Ciriaco. Does not look like it will hurt the here but Aviles should own Laffey. Then again a bunch of them should own Laffey

I might give Beckett the first hitter of the next inning but even the last pitch of the inning was a cookie. He is throwing nothing but balls and batting practice strikes.

And that 3rd out pitch was a complete mistake that should have been creamed leaving the Sox in an even deeper hole.

The Sox will have to get this useless sack of s*** out of there if they want to have a chane to win this game.

There was zero chance of V bunting in that situation

I actually think that the Sox could get away with trading off pieces that will not hurt that much to get Garza. I would bet that they could trade away pieces that are to some extend duplicitous even as prospects plus one painful prospect. That could be fine since the Sox would in Garza get a pitcher that would still be able to help them next year as well and when you are as far down on starting pitching as the Sox are, it likely takes more than one move to bring their starting pitching up to speed. Make a move for a midlevel guy this year and try to get an ace in the off season. Sure I would love to see them get an ace this year but the options are limited, the cost will be high and there may not be as much opportunity to move some of the other pieces (like Beckett) around. I know that a midlevel 3-4 type as a starting pitcher might also seem duplicitous but Felix for one is going to run out of innings. Morales probably does not have that many innings in him. Cook is fine but there will be no middle road games with Cook. Any game where he is up in the zone he will get crushed....any game where he can stay down the whole game, will likely be a "quality" start.

Well Shop is a much better defensive catcher than Salty and frankly he does not really give up anything to Salty at the plate against a LH pitcher. More importantly, if you want to consider handling the pitchers a separate category from pure defense (which makes sense) there are things that you can see that Shop does better than Salty. I don't have an opinion on how either calls games. How they call games would be a matter of how often the pitchers are shaking them off at least as far as looking for something visible. I must admit that I have not been as diligent as I need to be to comment on how well either Salty or Shop call games.

I would like to see them take a shot at putting Aviles behind Ciriaco in this game just because it might give Aviles somebody to drive in. Aviles has a chance at having a big game against Laffey. If they are not going to put him higher in the lineup which I can understand then I would prefer to have him hit behind somebody likely to get on. A dinger from Aviles with somebody on would be more meaningful and a base hit from Aviles with Ciriaco already on really sets the table for Ells.

I think chances are good that they can sweep the Jays this weekend. This series is not remotely about pitching. However the Jays are likely less capable right now in a slugfest than the Sox are and it may not even be close. Laffy for one should not have been able to do to the Sox last time out what he was able to do. If he can actually do that again....I would say the Sox are an even less capable team than we think they are and you can just about seal up the coffin on the 2012 season. Aviles should have a big night tonight against Laffey and Ross may have yet another big game in him against Laffey. If Aviles does not step up against a guy he should own I will be even more disappointed in him than I have been so far this season. The Sox should get the sweep and in fact need the sweep. Unfortunately, I just don't think this group of players thinks that way. I can just about guarantee you that the Yanks think about opportunities like this just like they should (Yanks just swept the Jays by the way). The Sox need to build on the 3 out of 4 they got over the WS before they get back into teams that have some pitching. A sweep here gives them 8 out of their last 10 and half way to a genuine run. Something like a 17 for 20 which they desperately need. It would put them in very good shape for the WC and would even keep the very very slim thread that still links them to a division win from snapping on them. I want them thinking there is still a shot at the division although I just said this team seems not to think the way I think a championship team should think. It has no killer instinct because it simply does not even see the benefit of killing somebody off. It just does not think that way. Hell it does not do very much like a team to begin with, never mind think about killing off another team. So more than want it....I think the Sox have got to sweep the Jays this weekend. Might also give Management the impetus to get another pitcher for the rotation.

Unfortunately I don't see Beckett and Lester turning it around. I would bet that at best Beckett remains inconsistent for the remainder of the season while missing at least one and possibly two turns in the rotation. Lester has so many mechanical issues plaguing him that even talking about him turning it around mid season this season is simply not realistic. It is so bad at this point that if he comes out again and cannot even find parts of the plate while not even being able to get squared up, they may have to shut him down. If he actually throws again like he threw in the last start he could actually hurt himself and I am not trying to be facetious. If that happens, they need another starter and guys that are really supposed to be back of the rotation guys are going to have to step up like they are front of the rotation guys. If the season ended today and the Sox had to win one game, Buch would in my view be the choice. If they got in to a short series, they would be stuck with Beckett and pray for rain.

Even trying to get in under Ross's hands I think a pitcher would have to be off the plate inside. Although I have not seen any evidence that Ross can do anything with pitches on the outer third from a RH pitchers even if the pitcher has made no effort to get any strikes inside to set him up for it. Unless I felt very confident that I could get the ball inside off the plate and under his hands, I would just not go in there. The pitcher risks seeing the ball leave the yard vs worst case for him, a weak seeing eye single.