Navafan29

I don't think the pitch to Arod was that bad. A hitter can hit anything in the zone no matter what you do if they predict it perfectly. Unrelated, I really, really hate it when they put electronic strike zones in the game. For crying out loud, the strike zone is different depending on the height of each batter. What's the point of having it on the screen if it isn't accurate? If you don't adjust the zone for the height of each batter, the top of the zone is gonna be belt high for some hitters and 40% up the torso for others. The Amica strike zone drives me crazy, but at least it isn't freakin CGI'd in front of the catcher like ESPN is doing. They should just have 2 lines that show only the left and right borders of the zone. At the very least, have some mathematical formula that decides where the top and bottom of the zone is and automatically adjusts the electronic zone for each hitter (though even that would be inaccurate because according to the rulebook, the top and bottom of the zone depends on the batter's stance as they prepare for the pitch).

Our offense has some work to do.

We really want to win this game because we're likely going to lose the series against the Nationals. Though the supposed world series favourites are 1 and 4...

3 and 1 to start the year!!!

I'd still keep Wright in as long as possible. You gotta give your team a shot at being 3-1 over 2-2.

Napoli's bat speed is too slow. I remember him doing better for a stretch last year or something when he tried out a lighter bat. But our monster offense can afford a Nap slump as long as he comes out of his to cover for guys when they go in slumps of their own. Knuckleball closing time.

That's what I'm talking about Ortiz!! If the Sox win, it won't be hard to power through tommorrow with little sleep. Glad I got to see Ortiz's homer and Wright pitch.

The amount of sleep I will get before a hard day of work tommorrow = 5 and a half hours - the time the rest of this game takes

Bogearts with an opposite field bloop and Leon with his first career sac bunt. Let's drive in that run Pedoira!!

The hilarious thing about this delay is that MLB Network can't start MLB Tonight until this game ends.

On pace to finish 108-54!! It's hard to picture this monster offense getting shut out. Let's break the all-time record for least times being shut out in a season, whatever that is.

Heard about this on The Five today. Big government ideology is affecting baseball and supposedly made lines ridiculous today. Obviously it's opening day, so things were bound to be crazier than usual. But for teams (like the Red Sox) that sell out all the time, or during the playoffs, this could continue to be a big deal. MLB's new rules about metal detector usage are making the long process of getting into a game even longer. One article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2421967-new-mlb-metal-detectors-causing-long-lines-and-delays-for-baseball-fans#articles/2421967-new-mlb-metal-detectors-causing-long-lines-and-delays-for-baseball-fans

On NESN they were talking about how Buchholz used to be a great hitter and outfielder as well as a pitcher in college. During double headers, he would pitch for the first game and come back as an outfielder for the second game. It's kinda too bad he isn't in the NL.

Our offensive lineup this year is ridiculous. Hoping we break the idea that only teams with a solid ace etc. can make it far. We're going to slug our way into the playoffs with lots of 8 to 7 wins. We have right handed power, left handed power, guys who are great at working the count... Our bench is just stacked as well; a guy making 70 million/4 or whatever is in the flippin minor leagues. Allen freaking Craig, who usually hits .310+ might be a bench player for us. When one of our sluggers gets injured, we'll have 4 guys with good OBP on the bench just waiting to step in. If Ortiz can do as good as last year, we'll have the best offense in baseball. Can't wait to see us play the Nationals (best pitching in baseball right now).

Why the fudge are Don and Jerry calling spring training? They already call 162 games a year. Give other announcers a turn. Keep Don nice and fresh for opening day.

Fenway is not only a necessity for Boston, but a necessity for baseball. If we lose Fenway, then it will be a big step forward in the boringization of baseball stadium shapes. With Fenway existing, at least it's still possible for a new stadium to justify having interesting features, like a really low CF wall or a huge wall in RF.

New York City has a new MLS team this year, uncreatively named New York City FC. Their home games will be at Yankee Stadium. I think the grounds crew will have to get rid of the infield dirt to make room for the soccer field before every soccer home game, and rebuild it for baseball afterwards. 22 Soccer players running around is gonna wreck the field.

The Sox will have a lot of high scoring games and just manage to hang in the wild card race until the trade deadline. Then, they trade for a good pitcher and manage to make the wild card game. Red Sox lose the wild card game to a division rival, but then something stupid happens to the rival in the next round and they get eliminated as well.

Why the Red Sox have a better chance of winning in 2015 than 2014: The 2014 season has already happened, so there is a 100% chance they will finish last. The 2015 season on the other hand, hasn't happened yet; who knows the probabilities. Mind blown. But I have a felling we will finish 3rd...

Lester going to the Cubs was the worst possible outcome for the Lester situation. If he went anywhere else, we could tell ourselves that he's going there because he likes the culture of said city, has family there, wants to compete in an exciting division etc.. But the only reason he would want to go play under D'oh Maddon for the worst team in sports history is money, money, and money alone. I can't wait to see Lester in his dorky Cubs uniform at his first press conference as he makes up stuff about how excited he is to play for the Cubs.

Why don't the Sox do what they did before the 2013 season? They got lots of established talent like Napoli, Victorino, and Gomes at a reasonable amount of money/years. But before the 2014 season, they didn't follow up with that strategy and relied too much on prospects. Now they're doing the opposite and spending tons on a couple long contracts. Adding superstars would be good for a less popular team that needs to boost ticket sales, but that's not us. If we weren't using up all this cash on Sandoval, then we could be trading prospects for established talent.

325 million dollar deal? Are you kidding me?

Game 7 of the WS tonight! This is bigger than the superbowl! Too bad most americans have too lame a taste in sports to care.

I didn't even read the article, but I feel like I could use this thread as an excuse to deliver my argument about why there NEEDS to be a minor leagues for the NFL. It's ridiculous how little NFL players get to play. Kids dream of being NFL players, but what happens when you make it to the NFL? There's only 16 freaking games and you're usually benched. I can't stand how it just goes from college right to the major leagues. You can only stay in college as long as you need to academically, and then the extent of your professional career is over because there's no minor leagues and it's too hard to get into the crammed NFL. There should be a way for rookies to get payed, not just pay to take classes just so they can play football for a few years. I don't care much about random colleges playing that I have no connections to. I want to see teams representing my GEOGRAPHICAL area.

Doubt anyone cares, but I went to the final regular season Revs game of the year on Saturday. Another good game. They won 1-0, however it really should have been 2-0 because the Revs came extremely close to scoring about 3 times amid their scoring chances. An exciting game throughout even though only 1 goal was scored because of the closeness of the game. Lee Nguyen scored the goal. He scores seemingly every game winning goal; it's ridiculous. Revs finished 2nd in the eastern conference with a 17-13-4 record (55 points). They will not have to play in the wild card game and will face the Columbus Crew, which is a team they are pretty evenly matched against, in their opening playoff round. It will be a two game aggregate-goal series, which means that the teams play two games and the winner is the team that scores the most goals total across both games. You could think of it as a giant 180 minute game where the first 90 minutes are played in one team's stadium and the last 90 minutes in the other team's stadium. The Revolution will play the first game of what I just described away this Saturday (November 1st) at 4 PM, and then host the second leg on Sunday November 9th at 5 PM. Games should be on Comcast Sportsnet or ESPN 2.