Maxbialystock

Last night I was torqued with Farrell because he waited too long to take Porcello out. Tonight it seems so obvious that with this pathetic bunch of bums managerial moves are completely irrelevant. Indeed, one could make the argument they have been doing this all season long--taking the manager out.

I lucked out and fell asleep. Here we are in the 6th and I can't remember watching a more pathetic Sox lineup. This is exactly the same lineup--with tweaks here and there--that basically could not hit 10 or 11 straight starters, including tonight except for that one win which now seems to have been made possible by stealing signals.

Nice hit, but Bautista's terrible throw made that double easy.

Nice K, Erod. Why the heck didn't you do that with the man on 3b? Wake up.

I'm serious. I can think of no better reason to fire a manager. The fact that Farrell might also be inept just makes it easier.

That was a great changeup ERod threw for that single. Bad luck. But then his very next pitch was a fast ball right down the middle for the sac fly. That was a terrible pitch. thoughtless.

Nice double by Pillar. Too bad our righties can't or won't do that. Nice work by the ball girl getting out of the way.

I'm joking about it because it's so painful. You are absolutely right. If Farrell knew, he should be gone tomorrow.

OK, so maybe the ump ain't giving Estrada nothing. He just has a problem seeing the strike zone. Beni GIDP after the Pedroia single. This is good because otherwise Betts would have again gone 0 for whatever with RISP.

I sure hope the Sox told the Orioles about how to use those apple watches because they could use some help.

Maybe the home plate ump decided to even things about against those lowdown, no good, rotten signals-stealing Sox. Give the Jay pitcher the corners, but not ERod. works for me.

That was ERod's best first inning in the last decade or so.

Excellent first out by ERod, but he barely beat the batter to 1b because for him going there is always an afterthought.

I never thought deflategate was real. Are you saying it was, that the Patriots deflated footballs and nobody noticed?????

This is getting hilarious. On mlb tv they are talking about nothing else and generally acting as though this is deflategate only much, much worse. No one, as far as I can tell, is saying, "but it didn't any good. The Sox can't spit." I am fine with whatever punishment MLB thinks is fitting because the Sox deserve it.

The Sox have admitted it but also filed a counter complaint against the Yankees for using one of their Yankees network cameras to read our signals. I'm completely opposed to this kind of cheating of course, but the good part is that getting the signal and then passing it to the batter is tricky and time-consuming. Put it this way, if we were stealing Yankees signals in NYC, it sure as heck didn't help much.

I doubt it. His last dinger was August 20 and his last rbi Aug 30. His Sep OPS is .500 (small sample,however). He seems to have a mental block on his throws to 1b, which is why he keeps hesitating. Right now Nunez is a much better choice at 3b--hitting and fielding. This also gets Pedey back in at 2b. Me, I would probably have played Devers at 3b tonight and Nunez at SS--no Bogaerts.

We are all with you, but couldn't you at least have put some good bats in the lineup?

That's me--influenced by short streaks. But let's not forget that you regularly refer to the 16-4 streak in August as evidence this team is basically sound. Me, I look at 4 of our 5 starters--in a row--pitching poorly and am ready to call Houston to say we have a problem. Worse, the hitting has been sour--at least against opposing starters--for the last 10 games with the notable exception of the 3 dingers in the one game we did take in NYC. That lousy hitting has been with us all season. It is not a short streak. You yourself have noted noted how bad our hitters are compared to last year and even how bad post all star game vs. before. Plus it's September, for crying out loud. Patience is a virtue with limited value this month. Even though all wins are equal, to me wins and losses in September are more important simply because the team and the manager have lost the element of time to put bad streaks behind them. I have defended Farrell because I think all managers deserve that, but also because I just haven't seen any of his decisions hurting the team--until last night. I have also said, however, that the best yardstick for all managers is wins vs. losses and whether FO believes the manager got the most out of his players. Since I don't think I'm qualified to say whether a manager got the most of his players, I go pretty much by wins and losses. You win, you stay. Not, you go. Thus I don't want to fire Farrell now because the season isn't over. But I absolutely want to vent a little bit right now because I watched last night's game very intently and I honestly am not sure Farrell did.

You got fed up sooner than I, but I am now on that bandwagon. To me won-lost record is a big deal when evaluating managers. Plus last night I truly thought Farrell mismanaged the game and an important one at that. If he had pulled Porcello sooner, the Sox would have tied it and used their good bullpen arms in the 8th and 9th innings. I defend managers in general because I think most of them do a decent job. That is, great managers can't have the same effect as great coaches in the NFL, NBA, etc.

Just my opinion, but I put Betts even with JBJ (as great as he is). JBJ has the better nose for the ball, runs great routes, and seems to have a very good feel for where he is and what is possible. Betts is nevertheless faster, which helps compensate for not as good instincts. JBJ might have the stronger arm, but Betts has a strong one too and is I think more consistent and accurate. I think Beni will complete our outfield trio nicely because he too is fast and has a good (not great) arm. And right now he is the best hitter of the three.

Rarely done in September. Were I DD or John Henry, I would rationalize that a new manager--probably the bench coach--would be unlikely to right the ship. The only way to right this ship is for guys who hit last year to start hitting this year and it's September for crying out loud. And what is the new manager going to do about the now struggling rotation? Of the 4 games against the Yankees and 1 last night against the Jays, only Fister pitched well--none of Sale, ERod, Pom, and Porcello had a quality start. That said, I think it now unlikely Farrell will be back next year.

I honestly don't object to any lineup changes Farrell made last night. Moreland, for example, has been hitting righties well lately and he is definitely a better glove than Travis. Besides, we lost 10-4 so to me all those concerns are irrelevant. On managing the pitching, especially Porcello, I completely agree and said so at great length last night. Farrell waited too long, especially given how important that game was. He acted as though he thought we were back in April. Moreover, Porcello had already given up 2 dingers and 4 runs in the first 5 innings. In the 6th he was throwing everything in the middle of the strike zone, a clear sign he had lost it.

It's out of whack because of the way he is pitching. There is no great mystery, at least not to opposing lineups. In a normal start this year, Porcello keeps the ball up in the zone. Last night there were times when he could keep it low, but in the 6th everything was up--in the middle, actually. This is in an era when those shifts have optimized keeping the ball low.

One last tiny thought. If the Fenway fans haven't booed yet tonight, they are sheep. They pay a steep price for seats, parking, food, etc, and the players paid a ridiculous amount of money. And the ones over 30 with the long range contracts don't even have to play to get paid a ton. Look what the fans are paying Sandoval not to play for us. Price and Porcello between them are together getting paid $50M this year for basically hurting the team. How much is $50M? Billionaire Michael Dell just gave $36M for the victims of Harvey and is being lionized. Half of $50M is enough to live on comfortably for a lifetime and raise a family and send kids to college. And it's just one year and, this year, not even earned.