cp176

he is one of my MA heroes

Farrell is "a player's" manager which to me means a weak manager. I also get all the Eck love. I love the guy too and I don't like Price. I still think that in his warped way he feels as though he was defending his teammate and if anybody cheered him on, it is likely that they felt the same way. If your job is to report objectively what you see in an athletic contest and somebody sucks and that is what you kind of say, what the f*** do people think is likely to happen when that reporter hops right on the team plane? This is a ******** story that should have been handled differently.

seriously Devers? good for you!

Nope - me too . Looks like he can hit. We need anyone that can hit just a little bit better than a little. Hitters needed!

Unless I can see something different that makes sense, i really just see it as a move to give us something coming off the bench that could help us offensively. I also think that Bogaerts recent injuries probably helped to lead to the making of this move.

Yup. He's got a lot going against him. I don't think it would make any difference at all whether he was playing well or not. There would still be a loud vocal outcry (maybe justified) against him.

Doesn't confuse me at all. He provides us with an upgrade over Holt, Marrero, and Lin. He is a utility player.

I saw that and read Bradford's article this morning. We live in a different time. Everybody knows or wants to know everything about everybody. Personally, I do not care what happens on the Red Sox plane. It isn't something I need to know. Is it a story that even needed to be reported? It was I guess so that's it. Price comes off looking like a boob and he won't be able to recover from this one. It might not even make a difference whether he pitches well or not. He has clearly angered the Media.

That's the thing. A utility player that can run and hit a little.

It is very possible and maybe even predictable I guess that Price doesn't help us in the playoffs but if he doesn't pitch well for us for the rest of this regular season it is quite possible that this team won't get to the playoffs.

I agree with you in general. I was a History/English guy so I know that I am guilty of over reacting when I focus on words. It is obvious that they aren't hitting as a group like they did last year. I'm just not all that surprised. I truly felt that they were apt to be substantially less productive this year than last. I felt the new influx of pitching could very well make up for it. The choice was made to not bring in bats capable of at least coming close to replacing Papi. I don't think that anybody could have really predicted that this is the most that we were going to get from third to date (that might change).

I'm focusing on career stats and I'm seeing Bogaerts and Bradley outperforming career norms. It is a matter of perspective. There is no question that a number of these guys aren't hitting like they did last year. Maybe for some of them it just isn't who they really are. I like career averages. Down for sure but as a group, I don't see it as massive under production.

Are they really that far off their career norms? Of the guys that are in there daily for the most part, yes it does look like Ramirez is off the mark but recently has been able to on occasion hit it where most of our other guys can't .

I've go no argument I guess- Are you surprised that Leon is down? What are Hanley's career numbers? I'll Pedey as is. Bogey down that much really? What did people expect? Beni - Who really knows where he should be just yet? JBJ - just doesn't seem all the off to me Betts - yup - I guess Young - infrequent player - Holt - pretty much same as Young Vaz - doesn't matter still can't hit

I don't think that things are really all that bleak but I will say that I'm not sure I ever understood where the euphoria was coming from with this team's future hitting prospects. Betts - I still like but maybe he won't be quite as good going forward as last year made us think he would. Third base is what it is and maybe it is about to start to be straightened out. Moreland was never meant to replace Papi. Ramirez's career has been an up and down one. I like Benitendi but once again he is a lot smaller than the stats say he is. He will have a good career just not Fred Lynn like. JBJ is playing like he always has. I'm not sure where the power projection for Bogaerts ever come from. A lot of people hoping I guess. We have known for years really that we have two pretty good catchers who really aren't likely to hit much and Pedroia just keeps on going. If we move along this year it will be primarily due to our pitching which is not a bad thing at all. We still are on top in the east. I still think that DD has a plan. You can't solve every problem in a heartbeat.

Hey - you should know by now that batting average is a uselessly outdated statistic - lol

#3 works for me - in general, I don't think that collectively they are as good as most of us think they are.

I agree with everything here. My guess is that Eck does even fewer road games now.

animal lover=can't be all bad

There is something about this story that bugs me. What we know is that Price runs his mouth. I'm not sure that that bothers me all that much. When Shaughnessy alludes to others applauding Price for defending teammates (I guess) is he talking about one, two, or 10 other guys. I love Eck but hey I like Johnny Miller as well. I'm not uncomfortable at all with their outspoken comments. They entertain me but I'm not the one being talked about. I'm not sure that this story is even news worthy. We aren't talking Watergate here. If the point is that this team lacks leadership, maybe it isn't telling an accurate story. If the team in general is behind Price (which I have no way of ever knowing), we might not like his style but maybe he is their leader. I would think that if you are asked to accurately and honestly comment on team or individual play and the team or individual plays poorly, you would not be expected to lie about it. Having these guys travel together doesn't make any sense to me. I would also think that if I was the teammate being criticized, regardless of how poorly I had played, I would probably still appreciate my teammate's support - right or wrong. Ultimately I guess I think it would have been nice if Farrell had done or said something. Maybe he did, I don't know.

hope that you are right - I don't necessarily think that almost everyone is under performing though. Anyway keep the faith I guess.

yup - anybody who actually pays to go see them play. When real fans go to fenway, they will be ok as long as they understand that most of the people there are just going for entertainment purposes. Who cares about the outcome of the game.

somehow i'm going to catch hell for you saying this - lol

Although I do agree with you about the pitching - particularly the starting pitching, I think there needs to be a balance. I think we lack that balance with this team. I also think that doing anything too drastic this season really isn't called for. Maybe Devers will give us a little more of what we lack.

A lot of truth in what you have said here. Being a player's manager doesn't mean that you let the players do all of the managing.