jung

Just s note of warning guys...the site seems to be bogged down in traffic or more likely the server is acting up. Ya wanna' give your posts some time before trying to post again because it is just slow right now.

I don't think it likely that they would or even should give up on Youk in 12 games. I would want to see where he was in 10 more games. At 22 games you are well past 10% of the season. If he is still where he is, given the way Middlebrooks is hitting and the way Youk is not, and combined with the way Youk has slowed in the field, I would be thinking today about how I can get Youk some at bats, how I can keep him active enough to try to work him through this while having somebody else playing 3rd most of the time and then be ready to act on some plan by game 23 of the season. Maybe that is Middlebrooks, maybe you move Aviles to 3rd for some games. However this team was constructed to win games with offense and it currently does not have nearly enough offense to do that.

And while Middlebrooks only has 2 BB, Youk once the king of the walk only has 3!

That s*** is burned into my memory banks thank God. Hopefully as advancing age robs me of some of those brain cells, Dave Roberts will still be imprinted up there someplace. As for Tito, this is another PR screw up. Once he said no the Sox should have left it alone. None of us are going to believe that Tito woke up one morning with some light bulb over his head telling him to go and does this make it easier for the Sox to move on. On top of that while Theo has now been invited to the Friday game, he was not invited to the ceremony and the invite to Theo for the game came today...the Thursday before the game and right in the middle of discussions about why Theo was not invited.....ridiculous.....just don't invite him at all....better than once more trying to cover their ass in that Red Sox FO.

This is a straight business situation and a text book example of how leveraged transactions work. Once you have increased the value of an asset to the degree that the Red Sox value has been increased, you simply cannot leave all that money on the table....you can't. You have to realize your profits and you have to move on to the next transaction. Every ownership group comes into a new transaction with an exit strategy. For the senior managers of the organization it is always right in front of them even if in terms of time it is not right around the corner. I find it hard to believe that FSG is not very close to being right there and in fact I would also not be surprised if the whole Theo thing did not result in a determination by FSG that they would even wait a bit longer in an effort to make sure that there were answers for any issues that were a result of Baseball Operations screw ups of recent that would end up in the Red Sox Book that would be constructed at the time when FSG began an active campaign to sell it. As for JH not knowing that only uniformed personnel would be invited to the anniversary....I was a senior manager for years. The guy at the top or the pyramid may not know specifics of who and why for an event like this but for the top guy not to know that the cut was uniformed personnel is highly unlikely. I think that the Sox are taking advantage of the fact that Theo would have been the only exec still standing that would have been invited back anyway. I think the "story" of Theo leaving to pursue other ventures was as concocted as the story about Tito's mutual separation from the Sox. Theo is gone from here because he made decisions (all be it with LL's approval I would wager) that were woefully bad....incredibly bad....decisions that went right to maximizing the value of the asset and may have even changed even if marginally, JH's plans for an exit. That is why Theo is not coming back in my estimation.

I agree about the platooning business because the guys that are coming in to effect the lefty/righty change are not hitting well enough even against the pitching match up that favors them. Salty is batting .083. Who gives a damn what he is doing against right handed pitchers. Most of his at bats are against right handed pitchers to begin with and he can't manage better than .083 In my view Sweeney deserves to play and should not be platooned for basically what is the same reason. You are going to bat d-mac with his whopping .095 instead or Repko with his monster .143?

woulda....coulda....shoulda...an inch there a foot here c'mon. You want to tell me this was hitting you thought would win games for this team? OK so here are the team batting avg. to date Our regular catcher is batting .083. One of our current everyday OF is batting .095. Youk who you would have to believe HAS to hit because we are so weak from the right to begin with is batting .176. Avlies is a stand out in this offense so far with a whopping .256. Punto is batting .333 and Shoppach is batting .357 but they don't get enough at bats to effect to many outcomes at this point and if you tell me we need to depend on those two guys for offense I will tell you that will be pretty tough road to go down. Ortiz is ripping the ball but again he is a guy that was expected to hit. While we can say that we have injuries to a number of offensive players that simply does more to make my point. Of the three elements it is the offense that has performed least like it was expected at least to this point. Saying that the pen does not hold down the competition when it is regularly handed the game when behind is a little like saying the horse has already left the barn and these guys aren't getting the horse back in there. If they are not going to change the way this team is constructed, then it needs more offense than it is getting because it was constructed as an offensive team and it is not getting enough offense to win that way. I mentioned the SP vs the Pen because we seem so focused on who closes and who is the middle reliever and that is not where we are losing these games so far based on the way the team was constructed. If it were me I would likely try to keep as many bats on the roster as I could and stiffen the defense somehow because I still think this team is going to bleed runs defensively. It's pitching staff simply does not prevent enough contact to have poor defense behind it. Youk is starting to make headway. However if he is still exactly where he is in ten more games, I would likely try to find a way to still get him some at bats while trying to fill the hole he is leaving and as I said earlier, if Lavarnway can continue to hone his skills as a catcher up here as well as he can in Pawtucket, I would get him up here pronto to catch. Ryan Sweeney .406 David Ortiz .395 Kelly Shoppach .357 Nick Punto .333 Adrian Gonzalez .318 Dustin Pedroia .295 Cody Ross .270 Mike Aviles .256 Jacoby Ellsbury .192 Kevin Youkilis .176 Jason Repko .143 Darnell McDonald .095 Jarrod Saltalamacchia .083

If you look at the three posts I just made, that is what I have been trying to imply. Not saying that the starters have pitched badly. They have to some extent been out-pitched to this point in the season but that does not mean they have pitched badly. As I said above the one element of the game that is performing least like it was expected so far to me is the offense.

OK so we want to focus on the fact that the pen allowed the Rangers to extend a lead that they already had when Beckett (who pitched a fantastic game tonight) gave up the ball and we could be looking at a walk off win but for that. That hope rests on Salty with is monster offensive production? Not sure that hanging this stuff on the pen makes much sense. It was always going to be a team that was going to give up many runs this year. Our hope was always going to be wining enough 10-8, 8-6 games. We were never going to be 2-0, 1-0 game winners very often. The pitching overall is not strong enough and neither is our defense. I would say the one element of the game that was expected to play better so far that has not is the offense.

I know I have to look to be sure but I bet our starters have not handed off the game with a lead nearly as many times so far as they have handed off a game with a deficit. Schedule has had us up against the iron of the league for one thing. Our Offense has not been that great for another and we have run into some really good opposition starting pitching as well.

I really have to go back and check but I think if you take the three pitching elements, starters, mid-relief and closer, more of our losses have come from starters being out-pitched by the opposing starters than from the other two elements. Our starters have pitched will for the most part but have been out-pitched a few times already so far this year. Tonight is another example. To some extent our own lack of offense must be contributing but we have not lead many games at all as yet. I know it really stands out when our pen or our closer does not perform but I don't think that is were we have had the bulk of our losses so far.

Oh s***...now they are taking like that groin is hurting Padilla worse or like something else is wrong.

Albers tosses a DP. Gonna' go into the clubhouse and call Daddy to tell him he survived the inning.

They didn't send Albers out there with a flak jacket on? must not like the kid

Well that was easy to see coming

I do not want to even look at this Napoli at bat

Geez Morales...ya' hit him!!!

Morales has actually made some good pitches here and Gentry is really pissing me off

Punto for Repko....is that a different texture of s***?

That was a dMac blast!

Honestly I am to the point of putting him there. His defense is much better and as bad as he is against righties, Salty is not doin any better

Oh my God...Shoppach still bidding for #1 catcher...can't hit righties though

No reason to take Holland out. Pitch count is up but he was throwing better last inning than the ones before. I would be pissed if I was Holland taken out of this game here. He will get one more inning anyway I think.

This has been a great pitching performance by Beckett...don't get lulled to sleep by it though. That is why I would prefer not to see a pen guy here. These guys could explode on some unsuspecting Albers or Thomas who will end up crying for the mommies after about three batters.

I think this is a case where your starting pitcher might be your best bet for the 7th...the way he has pitched tonight. I would send him out there and start somebody up in the pen if anybody gets on.