jung

How I would love to see Petey be Petey.

Yea I would not get rid of Crawford at this point either. Contract is too big and they can't eat that one and Lackey's. Besides, I get the feeling that they left Crawford for the most part to try to work this out on his own. When a guy can't lay off of high heat that is one thing. Those are balls that are going to keep rising. But sliders that are good pitches are down and keep breaking. Crawford has not gotten that figured out all season. It might be that he defies fixing but I would at this point take the chance that he can at least be a "good" player for this team. I think great is off the table and was never even a possibility. Now back to the task at hand. Sox got one back. Can Lackey continue from the 4th and keep that slider down and keep the fastball off the plate in fastball counts? The Sox are like a Sherlock Holmes mystery. "Watson, my lineup card please."

I stand corrected....he is actually getting some movement on that slider in the 4th and I don't even think he is trying to throw the FB for strikes in FB counts......Thank God.

Oh Carl oh baby the wind from that swinging strike (down and breaking away again) just made the hairs stand up on my arm. You are the man Carl. Nobody gets KO'ed like you Carl. The excitement of wondering whether your bat is going to get within a foot of the ball is more than I can take. That one broke away but low and over the middle of the plate since it started inside and he still missed it by a foot.

Here is what I have struggled with all season. When Lackey is throwing that slider that does not break (or maybe its a cutter) and it just hangs there over the plate, like the almost homer and the 0-2 that Grandyman fouled off, why does anybody in that dugout think that thing is suddenly going to start to break down or down and away or at all. All the history on him is the other way. I don't know if that not so fast fast ball is worse than the not going to break slider. However so far tonight the not going to break slider has been more of a problem. Will wonder's never cease. He got one down and got somebody to swing at it.

See the 0-2 pitch to Granderson. That thing should have been in the right field stands and Granderson knows it. Lackey gets out of the second but only because Granderson missed that BP pitch. I would say Lackey would go first but the Sox will probably try to limit the amount of his contract they have to pay going forward. If it were me I would release him outright and eat the whole damn thing. I will never blame a player for taking the money but Lackey so badly and has been a jerk to boot. So I can't stand the guy. Wake will likely be told that he is going to be traded and asked if he would like to announce his retirement instead. They owe Wake. He does not deserve to be treated like he is being thrown on a scrap heap. This team as constructed today is not well mated to Tito's style as a manager. Given the old axiom of not being able to fire 25 guys combined with Theo's golden boy status with Henry, I would not be surprised to see Tito the first to go.

In a word....No. But I finally now see Tito's grand plan. The Yanks are going to run into outs on the base paths allowing the Sox to stay in the game. GET HIM OUT OF THE GAME! FOR GODS SAKE WHAT DOES IT TAKE? Retraction, they finally have somebody up after that last hit.

Lackey is still being run out there every fourth day because he is the highest paid pitcher on the team! Yet another of Theo's "I am going to over pay this guy because he is that last piece to my championship puzzle" syndrome. The worse thing about this Lackey mess is that Theo has done nothing to replace him hoping we would let him off the hook if Lackey just made a good start somewhere and I have finally concluded that Tito has continued to run him out there because he does not want to incur the wrath of Theo and Henry. What a screwed up mess. See that SO pitch to AGons? That is why Crawford will go 0 for a lifetime against this guy.

Oh my God. That is it. Get Lackey outta there. If Tito does not even get somebody up in the pen I am going to go nuts. I don't care that it is the first inning. One more base hit and I want to see somebody up in the pen! Lackey has had an entire season of leaving these nothing balls right over the heart of the plate. That was a batting practice pitch. Are you blind Tito?

Jesus I am so tired of seeing Crawford ground to the left side on balls down and away. He just cannot lay off of them and since he is batting from the 2 hole why not try to bunt for a base hit. Just trying might have had a positive effect on this woefully downtrodden team. But no not Carl. Why do something like that when I can just take my usual lame ass swing at another ball down and away. Unless this guy leaves one out over the plate to Carl I suspect he will get Carl out every time because of the way his ball breaks.

I really do not see Drew finding some magic at the plate. I guess if I were Tito, seeing my team bleeding like this defensively I could convince myself that Drew will plug one defensive hole anyway and he "might" find something at the plate. While that might sound like pretty thin logic, given how the team has played defensively of late and even in game 1 today and seeing how easily this team has folded its tent when things go badly, preventing a ball from dropping into right field could actually be a big deal for them. That said, just watching Lackey warm up out there scares me to death. Tito did not say anything along these lines in his pre-game and he might be protecting Lackey's delicate mindset. However I would have Lackey on the shortest possible leash tonight whether he likes it or not. Watching how Tito handles Lackey may make this one of the most interesting games of the season since I simply no longer believe Lackey can even get through three innings without getting into serious trouble. That means Tito will have to make very important decisions very early on. Do I get somebody up and throwing? Do I get somebody up and throwing and pull Lackey at the first sign of trouble? Do I chance leaving Lackey out there in a game that I must win at all costs?

A good bloodletting might be the only thing that might shake these guys up. However, I don't see anybody on this team including coaches as the flip over the buffet table type. In fact if that happened I am sure the only guy you might hear from would be the guy that did not get his shrimp cocktail in time.

This Red Sox team has laid down here at the end of the season. I never ever thought I would see something like this ever from a Red Sox team. I think the demise of the starting pitching was the catalyst but it is no excuse for professional athletes to lay down like this. It does start with John Henry (the guy rumored to have wanted the Crawford deal) for having given Theo too much money to play with and Theo's many years of "we will overpay this guy because he is going to be the last cog in our championship juggernaut" syndrome for putting together an overpaid, s*** team. Then we have to thank Mr. "we have to find a day to give So and So a blow" Tito for coddling them to perpetuity. As for the players themselves, with a few exceptions they have the integrity of a wet noodle. There are some really stand up guys and a bunch of chumps......very little middle ground on this team. They are literally standing around out on the field day dreaming. All that is missing is for the camera to pan over, finding one of them chewing on his glove. Patience at the plate?.....they can't get back to the dugout fast enough. Batting must be interfering with their text messaging. They are not shell shocked. They are (again with notable exceptions) heartless, gutless and toothless. The team for the most part has taken on the persona's of Mr Drew, Crawford, Lackey and the league's most unimpressive 300 hitter, AGons. As Red Sox fans we can no longer point at past Steinbrunner excesses as we now have the most excessively asinine ownership in baseball. At least Steinbrunner was a fire breather. Henry floats over this team like a cloud, a tasteless, odorless gas of misguided money. A pox on MR. Henry's house.