jung

Sigh....makes you wish you could fire pitching coaches midseason and make that work.

So I just looked and it is 1 run at the moment. Unless Texas is having a crazy night, it would seem that the Sox will come out of tonight's game with the #1 offense in baseball.

I actually think that while the Sox have been second in runs all season sometime late last week or maybe even now (i should go look) the Sox were only 1 run behind Texas. So the Sox are that close to the top of the league in offense with a 2 games over 500 record (assuming they win tonight).

I agree 700.....when the game is about hitting, we have won more than our share. Not sure we have really been out-slugged in anything other than that Detroit game and that Texas game that came soon after.

Well we have certainly proved over and over again that we can win these kinds of games. Everybody is nice and loose....big lead....the bats doin' the talkin'.

I would like to see more of Shop. I have to admit that for whatever reason I have not really paid much attention to Shop when he is back of the plate. I would like to see more of him catching just for comparison sake. Then again a catcher might take that as a compliment.

I bet he does stick and we see some of Pedey at DH until Ortiz gets back

Late again tonight folks but if it were me I would pull Hernandez unless WS bullpen is shot

Selling high or low may not matter as much as it normally would if Management has decided that they have truly, finally seen enough. I would be willing to believe that although I would not expect them to go down that road just to avoid the PR hit of an obvious 2012 season white flag with resultant impact on ticket sales, NESN ratings etc. There is so much disfunction at the field level with this team and the HR pitch to Youk after looking like Lester was pitching around him speaks volumes to the mess this team is from top to bottom. Lester could not hit the outside part of the plate....just could not. What do we think....that Youk could not see that. There were only two options for that pitch and Youk knew it...ball four or an attempt to get the ball over which defacto meant a pitch over the inside part of the plate cause Lester could not hit the outside part of the plate. So what do the Sox do....let Lester try to get Youk out with a LH hitter in the on deck circle. I could absolutely see management deciding that they have seen enough with the one exception that they would try to avoid the PR hit for raising the white flag.

I think the only thing you take from this if true is that the Sox are leaning toward Sellers not Buyers at the deadline and nobody is safe.....which is what you would expect from a team that is leaning toward being a Seller. Beckett would likely be at the top of the list but I think the Sox may seriously be considering that they are going to be Sellers and nobody is safe.

Well done for season may be but that is not done for a career here in Boston. He needs help that he is just not going to get this year. So I can see him being done for the season. The Sox have made enough mistakes of late. I think sending Lester packing unless the Sx get some great deal coming back would just be another.

Boy I don't know....by deadline???? who the hell pitches for this team then? I understand believe me cause I did not think they had the horses in the rotation before spring training started and said so.....but who do they have that can start if they dump Beckett now?

Like somebody said in another thread.....all these media guys that are "closely" attached to the team have their guy that is their source. Sometimes the guy knows something...sometimes he does not. When the source actually knows something the media source looks prescient when the source is off or is saying something to further his own agenda, the media guy looks not so smart. They are all sort of right and sort of wrong these days. If I can see something with my own eyes I trust that. If not, I take everything and everything as likely inaccurate until proven otherwise. This one is so typical....Sox shopping CC turns into an off handed comment buried as soon as made.

Well I really do wish Ortiz could have avoided the DL. It goes give Crawford and Ells a chance to see if they can actually move the team to a more speed oriented offense. Team cannot continue to just live on Papi bombs and extra base hits. They cannot continue this win one lose one thing that has gone on day after day, month after month.

While a Garza type would seem pointless from the perspective of actually going anywhere this year, the Sox are clearly having trouble figuring out how they are actually going to get through the entire year with enough starters. Bard is done...Felix will surely run out of innings as will Frank....that leaves them with Beckett, Lester, Buch and Cook....one short.

Well I would be willing to bet that CC may not like it but if so he should not have agreed to come to the caldron that is Boston Baseball. Interesting that he is specific about not wanting anything to do with the Yanks. Did he somehow think Boston was going to e a cake walk. If it is true it is sort of the organization admitting that bringing CC here was the misfit blunder of blunders. I have basically gone on the assumption that CC's contract can't be moved but then again I guess I should not discount the possibility that there are teams that have contracts on their books as bad as CC's and for whom CC might be a better fit. Take anything you hear going into the deadline with a big grain of salt though.

Pitchers should without doubt do their own homework and be prepared for their starts. Hard to imagine they are preparing well given their early innings performances. But Lester is not a leader he is a follower. Every rotation needs a guy that the rest of the guys follow to some extent and the Sox just don't have one. That is one of the benefits of having a true 1. Like I said earlier I am tired of Lester's protestations of being a grown assed man. he does not act like a grown assed man in any aspect of how he carries himself and what he does. He is a grown assed follower. He and the rest of the staff need a legitimate rotation 1 and the Sox should can both pitching coaches and get somebody that knows what the hell he is doing and that the pitchers respect. As for Salty, I don't know what else he does wrong as far as handling the pitchers goes. I can only go by what I see and what I see is a catcher that does not set up properly behind the plate and there is nothing the pitcher can do to mitigate that....nothing! I am not disagreeing to the extent that these pitchers should not be responsible. My point really is that $180M does not insure you that you don't have a bad team. It may have some good individuals but you may still have a bad team. Maybe I would not go so far as to call it a bad team but IMO it sure as hell is not a good team.

It would be pretty easy for me to hammer V because I was not a V guy from the start. However as much as I have not liked some of the things he has done, most of my wrath would without doubt be saved up for upper management and the players. Even BC does not bring out the worst in me. But I have little to no use for upper management and the more I see of the players, the less I like. Just hard for me to blame BC when in reality I think Theo and LL have much more to do with what this team of players is than BC ever thought of having. It is a bad mix...a poorly constructed team that not only does not result in the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, but I actually think the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts.

When you pile up the things that are just wrong about this team that is what makes it difficult to see how they are actually going anyplace. They have failings in critical areas of concern. They have failings in areas not so critical. I hope Sox Management does not end up convincing itself that this year is all about the injuries cause while you could also make a case that Sox conditioning and med staff changes have not had any meaningful positive result, the issues the Sox have go way past the injuries.

Geez V can't afford not liking a player a players. This team is in chaos and is quickly getting to the point where they are just running out of games........win one....lose one....win one....lose one

Seems to me that while Beckett should go either during or after this season, the Sox must find a better catcher to catch the bulk of their games than Salty. That said in developing Lavs the way they have and in choosing Salty to be their guy, they seem to have institutionalized poor defensive play at catcher as a Sox mainstay now. Sure they have not had many great defensive catchers but now they seem to be simply not viewing defensive characteristics as meaningful in any sense for a catcher. It is very hard for me to just accept that seeing pitching stats for starting pitchers fall off a cliff edge is all tied JUST to the annual trends going that way to begin with when this is so clearly the first year that Salty as been the guy behind the plate. Neither Lester or Beckett are likely to get back over 8 this year I think for a k/9. I have not seen anything of Lavs this year. However I am beginning to think the Sox may just not be able to afford the added burden of Salty even this year.

While I noted Lester's k/9 as having slumped perceptibly last year and now this year as well, Beckett's k/9 has also been headed south since his high water marks early in his career. Beckett's reduction has been much more gradual over time up until this year when it has fallen off a cliff edge but the reduction over time is still there and Beckett has not shown signs of even approaching 9 as a k/9 since 2007 and has not actually gotten it to 9 or above since 2002. While innings pitched are truly the most important stat for starting pitchers, I tend to look at k/9 next after innings pitched for starting pitchers in the hitting rich AL East. for both Lester and Beckett while their k/9 numbers represent a big reduction, the trend for both has been the wrong way now for years. I do think the Sox while having two hitting coaches don't seem to have any pitching coaches that can help guys get through tough times especially if they involve regaining some aspect of their mechanics. I suppose you could argue that k/9 is not that big a deal but I think it really is a big deal for starters pitching in the AL East, particularly if they have relied on pretty sporty k/9 numbers in their careers on the whole. What is the other thing you could point to and say could definitely be helping drive those k/9 numbers south.....SALTY. This is the first year the Sox have relied on Salty to catch the bulk of games and while he has made some progress defensively in things like throwing, he still gives pitchers the worse targets on average of any starting catcher I have ever seen in the bigs and the target is just one aspect of handling pitchers. It is however one that I can look at every single game that Salty catches. Many of us have pointed to the Sox continually using poor defenders in the most critical defensive positions on the field as one that really has an impact on their ability to win close, tight baseball games. At the end of the day Salty may well be an added burden to this pitching staff that it just can't handle. While k/9 for both of these guys has been falling annually, this year it has fallen off a cliff edge and I have to think that Salty has a part in it when I constantly see him pushing his pitchers closer to the middle of the plate and farther away from the corners and the edges.

Well like I said there is no question in my mind that Ells and CC's speed on the bases will generate more runs but I just don't think their speed as it relates specifically to stolen bases will yield more wins in close, tight baseball games. Tracking the runs should be fun but without question the Sox will score more runs and without question they will score some of them off steals. I just don't think that will translate to more wins in close tight ballgames because: a) the Sox don't do much other than actual base hits to get runners home and by definition, base hits are harder to come by in those kinds of games the other part of the equation (our own pitching) generally breaks down in those kinds of games and our defense tends to give the other team to many extra outs. Even in close tight games where are pitching does pretty well, ultimately, the other team's pitcher seems to get the better of our guy more times than not. plus the extra outs our defense gives up really seems to come home to roast in those kinds of games. If you notice the teams that really depend on those skills to win close tight ballgames tend to have the whole package in that regard...they have some speed, they do sacrifice well enough and they do hit behind runners, they play sound defense and have good pitching. They also tend to live in some of the larger ball parks around the league which tends to optimize those features of their team. In my view anyway, we just don't do enough of those things to change the dynamics overarching a typical pitchers dual....that being that the pitchers don't allow you to string together hits. I actually think that the one feature that Ells brings to the table that will help the Sox truly win a close, low scoring pitchers dual is his ability to roam around CF. He does not have a great arm but he is without question head and shoulders better at ranging around CF than any other OF we have at present.

If for one game...Pedro without question....good pitching will beat good hitting just about anytime so I would have to bet on Pedro for the same reason that for one hockey game I would take a goalie instead of a scorer

Even tonight SoxSport how often did the steal simply mean that the runner was stranded one base closer to home? The point is that again since the Sox don't sacrifice well and don't hit behind runners well, they actually need more base hits to score than teams that do sacrifice and hit behind the runners. This is why it is my view that CC and Ells will help the Sox win more of the games that are played the way the Sox like to play baseball but they will not help the Sox win more of the close, tight pitching duals because the one dynamic that Ells and CC do not change is the need the Sox have for generating base hits to score. If the opposing pitcher does not allow the Sox to get enough hits bunched together, they don't score and CC and Ells are not going to change that to any significant degree. However CC and Ells will help the Sox win more of the games that are played the way the Sox like to play...ala slugfests.