cp176

I thought that when I posted this that you might feel this way. I 'm really not arguing whether randomness in athletics exists or not. Of course it does as does luck. We have spun around on this one before- you like to be able to quantify with supportable mathematical statistics. Not me so much. I believe in using statistical data to help my teams improve and be better but I readily accept what probably every coach I have been around truly believes and one of those things is that teams that are better prepared mentally and physically tend to be better when the game is on the line than their opponents are. Many coaches today would not coach if they did not believe this.

I agree with you absolutely. It is an arguement that is hard to win though because we all know that good pitching is a must and some people do believe in stockpiling as much as you can. I think that your comment that you can't have it all is pretty appropriate. It is all about balance. Hard to imagine that some people here can't understand that there are in fact different ways to approach things. (Not talking about you Kimmi I think that you understand this concept.)

Sorry - I might be inclined to buy into this if the teams were exactly the same in addition to the umpires and their calls - the time of day or night of each game was the same - the teams they played in 2013 were the exact same teams and players that they faced last year etc. . etc, etc. There are so many things that change form year to year that I can't buy your theory of randomness trumping skill at all. Randomness of course plays a role but teams that have good players and are also well coached get "lucky" a whole lot more than those that aren't prepared as well. Obviously I don't think that it is all luck. Teams that are better prepared often times make their own luck. I have never thought at all about the concept of winning games in any sport as a repeatable skill. A good coach emphasizes repeatable skills daily that enable teams to win games.

How about a step further - Why is there so much randomness in life in general? Sometimes wish that I had taken the road less travelled like my Father did.

obviously Jd's triple was a lucky break . Often times what we see as simple luck, they don't. it's probably fairly safe to say that good fielders make plays everyday that might appear lucky to an opponent when in reality they are just good fielders. Your theory is interesting but I don't buy it. That's ok.

so start a new thread or not -

Don't give him all the credit. Just gives him a reason to pat himself on the back. lol I was very happy that they brought him up although I will admit that MVP wanted him up as much as he has wanted Pedroia to be someplace else. What did surprise me was the number of people who got hooked on the concept that bringing him up was too soon and that it would certainly hurt his development. Wrong! We needed to give him a chance. Once again it was a case of "my kingdom for a hitter".

Oh boy - Do I hear a can of worms being opened? For the record though, I will always believe that a very well coached team seems to have better luck than others. I have always believed that you don't necessarily have to have more talent than everybody else in order to win. i believe in luck for sure but I also think that what some people see as luck quite often is just a by-product of a better prepared team regardless of talent.

I think that we are good to go from a pitching perspective but not for one minute do I think that DD isn't constantly looking for ways to improve this team. I understand that there are some here who aren't as impressed with him as I might seem to be but I really hope that they understand that he is working. If there are people that think he is just sitting around doing nothing, sorry but they are numbskulls.

I agree with for the most part players need to play. Coaches and managers not so much these days. Bad managing though I think can impact a game greatly. No managing is better than bad managing.

Keep that snow down there!

agree although my tad's worth of luck might be bigger than most.

lol - but I have to say I would have to be the last person to judge anyone based on whether they threw a club or not.

I have watched him just like the rest of us for a number of years now and I think that we all appreciate his defense but I don't think that there is any way that he gets resigned if he rejects an appropriate offer from this club. He very well may not be on the team's list of important players to resign at all. He is replaceable. I f he or his agent creates a situation where we have to choose between him or any number of our pitchers, JBJ will be heading somewhere else I 'm afraid based on what he has done to date in his career.

Hey I give him all the credit in the world but I would hope that most good managers would have done the same things. Regardless of the way he played it yesterday, ultimately we got lucky as we have in a number of games this season. I'm not complaining.

Hey - come on - I freaking loved that game.

Well my concept of randomness occurs as well. As I said before, looking at yesterday's game, I give credit to Cora for coaching a good game but the outcome of that game was not necessarily affected by anything that he did. He certainly didn't get in his own way but I think that a certain amount of random luck came into play as well.

It would be extremely rare for me to ever blame a loss on a manager. To me that is different than a simple discussion as a fan on a forum board of any manager's decision. On the other hand, I recognize good managing and good leadership when i see it and I would give plenty of credit to a good manager for any win. Possibly even if I felt that they had a limited role in the win. Good makers will take all of the blame for losses and give all of the credit for wins to their players.

I remember that so very well!

Ok Max - First of all I am a Cora fan. But (God help me for saying this) what did he actually do that made it possible for us to win that game yesterday? I hate to even use the word random because I do think that a manager's decisions can greatly affect any games outcome but yesterday I didn't see much that Alex actually did that lead us to victory. We got lucky. You or I could have been in that dugout yesterday and we likely would have won the game. Bottom line for me so far this season is yes we have gotten off to a great start beating teams that we are expected to beat but we sure have had some luck on our side if you ask me.

Well I would say that his pitching brother Brian Johnson does a pretty good job of it. Not sure why everybody is super surprised by Poyner - 2017 Sea Dogs pitcher of the year. He is pretty good. Guess Cora knows something!

Haven't heard a soul complain about our record for sure. Outside of what I think is a damn good pitching staff, I choose to withhold judgement on this bunch until we start playing the teams that the sport's gurus think are the good ones.

I am going to focus on the current year for sure but with that being said, there has been a lot of talk about such things as future expenses and some people are expressing concern about not being able to sign this guy or that guy. I say why? We certainly are what we are right now but other than a good number of our pitchers does anybody think that a large majority of these guys aren't replaceable either through trade or maybe even bringing up kids that might show some life on the farm this year. Oh I know - our farm is in terrible shape right - I say what do we have to lose if these guys as a group do not hit better than they did last year? regardless of how well JBJ fields, he is definitely replaceable. Of our everyday players - Betts and Bogaerts for me are keepers - the rest of the bunch at present - yawn. Pay Betts, make a solid offer for Bogaerts and if he wants more oh well. We do have some quality pitchers it seems. I'm going to enjoy this season but before I get too attached to anymore of these guys they are going to have to play better. Forgot to add - keep Devers

Poyner and Johnson - cut from the same cloth. pitchers

I hear you here but you know how the game thread protocol or lack there of seems to work. I can deal with in a game thread not so much on the regular threads.