jung

I have seen this posted here and elsewhere before and it simply makes no sense. You cannot have average starting pitching and make it up in offense. That has worked on occasion especially through the Steroid era but even if it gains you success in the regular season it almost insures failure in the post season. In addition, aiming for average starting pitching will almost insure below average starting pitching and with that you are not only insuring failure in the post season if you get there but you put in great jeopardy any chance that you will get there. What are these proponents of offense suggesting? Are they suggesting that the Sox would have to score on an all time record setting basis in order to succeed using such a formula? I don't think they really mean to imply that but in fact that is what you are implying when you suggest that the second best offense in baseball tied to the 27th best starting pitching in baseball needs more offense to win. I will acknowledge that timely hitting as opposed to hitting in general has been a problem for this team. However when your starting pitching which is without any question the most important facet of baseball is 27th out of 30, you are going nowhere. If you have such feebly starting pitching and such porous defense, you are going nowhere. Never mind the error totals, this team gives up extra outs like they were Easter candy.

The problem this year is that ownership did not do one single thing meaningful as an effort to begin to redress some of the wrongs done to this team....so this season is a reflection of that....this "team" is the same mess it was last year only some of its players are even a little more "sour" for having one more year to stew in their own juices. Just like it brings in glitzy stars as window dressing it brings in a manager to "straighten things out" and then ties his hands. I fear that the only thing that will work at this point is for Red Sox nation to reject these idiots to the point where they conclude that it is time for them to turn their paper profits into liquid assets and get the hell outta' town.

I assume we all saw that schedule NESN just put up. No Mariners or Athletics or Twins comin' up for these guys. Blue Jays are the soft spot for the next month because their starting pitching has been gutted.

I am so disappointed in this organization for the way it has treated what is a baseball gem....the Boston Red Sox. To them it has become a brand and they don't even know how to protect it as a brand. I hope people start returning those damned bricks and bats right through their office windows. I am to the point where i would just as soon they bring up all the kids so that I can watch them play. At least I won't be forced to look at the results of their oddball ideas about team building and a result of millions of wasted dollars in payroll spent in an effort to dazzle us with star quality as opposed to impress us with solid team play and just plain good baseball. While in my history as a Sox fan the Sox have fielded worse teams....some of them much worse, they were not embarrassing teams....this team is embarrassing. The Sox have had owners that were not nearly as smart as these owners, not nearly as well heeled as these owners but they would have sooner hung themselves than do what these clowns have done to this team. Sorry for the rant. That vision of those goons sitting up in the owners box the other night, fat dumb and happy is stuck in my head and I am having a very difficult time getting it out. I know it was their shop when we won two WS but that does not excuse them for what they have done since.

Well it looks like there is little doubt that we are going to lose 3 out 4 here after losing 5 out of 7 on that west coast swing. Worse than that I cannot point at anything with reasonable expectation that it will spell a turnaround. I don't care who is coming off the DL when the starting pitching is this bad and I have no reason to believe it will get better from a practical perspective. Have said for weeks that our starting pitching was much worse than the numbers generated from playing teams with no offense suggested. We had this stretch coming against teams that actually had some offense and thought that would leave our starting pitching with its pants around its ankles. Did not think it would be so evident just in the very first of these series. Anyway they are going to be left contesting for this year's gimmick of a WC system for whatever that is worth. It is a total crapshoot and not worthy of a team with their player payroll. It is what it is. Not at all convinced they will even make it into the 1 game WC play-in. Angels and Rays seem to have the inside track on that.

ESPN guys talking about the two WC system. There have been so many rationals offered for this screwed up two WC system we have this year. First it was help make the races more interesting as being the main reason for doing it...since I hear more about making winning the division more meaningful and making it more difficult for the WC team to go forward in the post season. To be honest that one makes no sense to me. Often the one WC team ended the year with a better record than one of the division winners. So why should that WC team be penalized just because they play in a tough division? Seems to me that they had earned their way into the post season just as much as the division winner that finishes with a worse record than the WC team. Why does the division win have so much "integrity" to begin with when in fact you have some teams playing in relatively weak divisions? I think they had it right with the one WC and anything else is just some sort of gimmick. This two WC format certainly seems like a gimmick to me.

Lester and Beckett are both to inconsistent to be considered aces. For the most part, not wanting to put words in peoples mouths but I think those of us that questioned the ability of 1,2, 3 in the rotation to hold up their end was as much based on concerns that they would not pitch at their peak potential when they did pitch as on injury potential which was probably greatest with Buch. Buch came on gradually but really did show as the best of the three of them with Lester to up and down from a performance perspective and Beckett spending to much time missing starts and then unable to come back and pitch well after being down for a period.

Geez Lester is frustrating to watch when he pitches like this. Amazed to see McClure out there. That is two nights in a row he actually moved his useless ass off the bench.

By the time Lester is done the starters will be 30th out of 30 in ERA. Felix was the only guy that helped get the number to dip a tiny bit since the Yanks came to town. Three LH pitchers in a row in Fenway to what is a very strong RH hitting lineup has worked out real good too.

Oh Christ out goes Sweeney with another concussion.

Aviles might be a bottomless decline as well cause this is about pitchers figuring out how to pitch to him. Unless he finally starts beating them, they are just going to keep feeding him those same pitches until he proves he can hit them.

Why is Salty swinging at curve balls....he is not going to hit them. Just sit dead red especially if you are going to swing for the fences which is still I think the best way for him to hit. But, swinging at curve balls is not going to get anything done but add to his K totals. I suspect everybody notices that those are skyrocketing lately. Sit dead red, if you have to protect with two strikes try to foul it off but SWING at fastballs.

Geez Salty you work yourself into the fastest 0-2 counts of anybody I know of

You are so right about that. I am so sick of hearing that somebody is an outstanding fielder because he has such and such many GG's. That award is a complete sham.

I wonder if V took AGons out of the game. I have seen him have so many at bats this year where he simply waved at the ball usually late in games when things had not gone well for him that night.. He certainly did that during that first at bat.

As I understand it Crawford is committed to try to play out the year with the injury. He would have to soft toss the ball to SS from left field. That should scare the s*** out of opposing runners. Hopefully Crawford will be able to produce enough offense to make up for what will be yet another defensive liability. Since he is an everyday player the surgery is not mandatory like it would be for a pitcher and the decision boils down to how much discomfort he is in and what it the most optimal time to have the surgery done.

I am so sick of seeing that grinning idiot Lackey on the bench

What is up the Agons....the ever popular upset stomach?

Is it possible that the ESPN knuckleheads could be even more oblivious than the Fox knuckleheads from last night?

I would not mind Jeter getting in this year if it were not for the fact that he has been given a free pass in the damn thing for an entire career when he often did not deserve it.

Nova has got that f***in' curve workin though...Salty will have to get lucky I think

All star SS my ass. Talk about stuffing the ballot box

So according to these ESPN knuckleheads AGons eighteen games of hitting singles is the beginning of busting loose and hitting for power....I don't think so.

I would put Pedro at short once Pedey is back as he can clearly play the position at a skill set somewhere between Iggy and Aviles leaning toward Iggy.

Why do we always give up 1st inning runs? Well the first inning tends to be tough for all starters and our starters suck more than most....hence we lately almost always give up runs in the first inning.