Maxbialystock

I went to bed when after Kimbrel threw a few pitches, knowing the Sox had this one in the bag, and I'm glad I did. I know agree with the premise that Farrell probably needs to use his bullpen more, but the reality is it's hard to be sure which among them can be trusted. Indeed, the Cubs had a pretty good bullpen--and a good rotation--before they acquired the big guy from the Yankees, so it's pretty clear Joe Maddon believes you can't have too many good arms in the bullpen because you need to use them in just about every dam game.

Ortiz has definitely be struggling for about a dozen games. f***ing error by Shaw almost caused an unearned run. Porcello got lucky when that liner by Ellsbury was catchable. Helluva game by Pedroia, exactly when we needed one.

I have to give Bradley a lot of credit on that out. Ball took a bad bounce, but he pursued and then threw very quickly and accurately to barely get the runner.

Ortiz has definitely be struggling for about a dozen games. f***ing error by Shaw almost caused an unearned run. Porcello got lucky when that liner by Ellsbury was catchable. Helluva game by Pedroia, exactly when we needed one.

that was one great at bat by Pedroia. Sheer determination--and skill. Holt would never have an at bat like that, in an important situation, in a hundred years. Ditto HanRam. Ditto Shaw, Leon, JBJ. Ortiz might have an at bat like that, but lately not so much. Those other guys are a bunch of pussies.

This is getting to be routine. Sox stink at the plate, regardless of how good or bad the opposing pitcher is. Other teams manages a run here and a run there against any Sox pitcher. Sox are mastering the art of losing--simply, regularly, carelessly (defense stinks too).

Holt loves good pitching. He can stand and watch it for hours. Three straight strikes in basically the same spot, and the bat stays right on that shoulder.

Great hustle by JBJ. He got all the way to first on that double. Clown. And what was he doing standing right next to the CF wall if he had no play? He looks like a rookie out there.

Slow start, but good top of the first for Porcello.

Betts, Pedroia, Ortiz, HanRam, JBJ, Shaw, Holt (SS), Leon, Benintendi. Including Leon, that's 6 lefty bats against a righty starter. Hard for me to root against the Yankees and ARod both because I think ARod helped bring the Yankees down. The first contract, finishing off the $250M for 10 years that started in TX, wasn't all that bad, but did mean moving him to 3B to keep Jeter at SS. But the second contract for another 10 years at $27.5M/year was insane. Then the whole business of the PED's. Then letting Cano go to Seattle followed by another insane contract with Ellsbury. The Sox had the curse of the Bambino, but maybe the Yankees have the curse of the Roderigo, who didn't do much for Seattle or Texas either. A very talented baseball player who succumbed to temptation and his own selfish nature. Clemens went the same way, but after he left Boston. If money corrupts, lots and lots of money corrupts absolutely--especially athletes. At the other extreme was the great Dodger righfielder Carl Furillo, who worked in the offseason and after retirement installed elevators in the World Trade Center among other jobs.

You mean I gotta tell the truth on here?

The definition of "thought he was ready" almost always includes AAA experience with very few exceptions. Can you name any? I agree they hoped he could improve the team, and maybe help get to the playoffs, but the risk--hence my use of the word desperation--is that he would not be ready, would flounder (see JBJ), and would go back to the minors and maybe take longer to get to Boston.

As it is, there are now 34 pages on one little old rookie leftfielder. While I too credit southpaw for making an accurate prediction, I would further say that moving up Benintendi so quickly--skipping AAA--suggests some desperation on the part of Dombrowski. I say this because this has been for most of the season a great hitting ball club. Sure, Holt has reverted to form and stopped getting the big hits, but you can't expect a great hitter in all 9 slots. On the plus side, I freely admit, now that Benintendi appears to have justified this gamble, the Sox now know what they have and so does everybody else. He is the polar opposite of Espinoza, an 18 year old lefty who shows great promise but is still just 18 and years away from the Majors. Is it worth pointing out that the Sox now have three good-hitting outfielders (assuming Benintendi can keep this up) who can all play centerfield with some skill? One of the three could become trade bait. If I had to pick one, it would be JBJ.

A fair question. They have stats, and all I have are observations and opinions. Plus I really like that Warren Spahn quote.

Meh. To me when you can't keep the batter off guard--having to worry about a good breaking ball--you put a whole lot more pressure on the fast ball and especially on the accuracy of your fast ball. Hitting different corners with a fast ball--a pitch that each and every time requires tremendous effort--is not easily done. We are talking about a couple of inches from a distance of 66 feet and you're throwing around a hundred of the suckers. If Price has a great changeup, I mean one that gets either a bad swing and an out or a swing and a miss or even a non-swing on a called strike, I sure haven't seen it very often. What are those stats based on anyway?

Not a very credible OP--sorry, bosoxmal--but a good discussion. I agree with the "no ace" judgment, but also think our rotation right now is the best it's been since the first half of 2014. Despite having watched many, many games on TV, I don't consider myself an expert on pitching. Nevertheless, it seem to this uneducated eye that other teams have starters with good breaking stuff and we do not. Price clearly relies too much on his fast ball and does not have a changeup he can rely on. The same applies to ERod. Wright's success is predicated chiefly on the fact that he has a great breaking ball and on good nights uses his fastball sparingly. I think Porcello mixes his pitches well and haven't watched Pomeranz enough to give an opinion. When Buchholz is good, he throws a lot of different pitches--fast ball, cut fast ball, changeup, curve, and I think a slider--and he puts them in the right spots. Price and ERod both have changeups, but can't reliably put them in the right spots. Kimbrel has a great fastball, but I think he would be hittable if he didn't also have that knuckle curve (or whatever you call it). And this. How many of you remember that time several years ago, before 2013, when Nava, maybe a rookie, faced Verlander with men on base and got a single off a 100 mph fastball, which of course he hit to the opposite (left) field? I am convinced Nava would have had no chance except that he was sure that pitch was going to be a fastball--I think it was a 3-2 count. That's what I think happens to our starters too often--they rely on the fast ball and become predictable. Wright is predictable too. In fact, very predictable. But that darn knuckler is still hard to hit when it is really working. But when it isn't, when it's missing and the batter can bet on the fast ball, then Wright becomes very hittable. I watched Sandy Koufax pitch, once, in Philly. Great fastball, but also a great curve that dropped off the table. And he had, finally, great control.

While I agree Dombrowski replaced LL, I think these days he doubles as the GM, who is largely invisible. I am not so sure Dombrowski is the right fixer for this team. He signed Price to the 3d or 4th highest annual salary in MLB history, and he is nowhere near that value so far. And he traded Espinoza for Pomeranz, which so far doesn't look that smart. Kimbrel and Ziegler and Young and Hill have sort of worked out, but those weren't big moves.

Wrong thread.

I don't know about starting, but Buchholz is looking better and better in relief and is probably right now our best choice for long relief. FWIW, Price has pitched more innings than any other Sox pitcher this year.

Right now the Sox have scored 86 more runs than they have given up--that's the highest margin in the AL and a small factoid that suggests, only that, that Farrell could do better than he has.

While I will defend specific in-game decisions until the cows come home, I do not disagree with the idea that Farrell has overall responsibility for wins and losses and more specifically for whether the team is performing up to its potential. I think right now there is significant doubt they are performing to their potential. I have disagreed endlessly with MVP73, but could not agree more that Farrell should not be back next year if the Sox don't make it to the playoffs.

Buchholz--note spelling--has proven in the past that, despite his speed, he is a horrible baserunner.

You know something. You have a point. He should have brought in Tazawa to serve up a couple of gopher balls. But, of course, if he had brought in Tazawa and he had given up those two dingers, you would be on his ass for taking Price out. He's getting paid $217M, you would say, he should be allowed to work his way out a jam. Plus he's nowhere near 100 pitches and it's only the 4th inning. And so on. The neat thing about blaming managers is you've got them either way if the team loses. And if the team wins, why of course the credit goes to the players. When Francona was managing in Boston,we had fans who truly believed that good managers simply did not lose games. Ever.

So far our first five hitters have 2 singles, 5 K's, and one horrendous, bases-loaded GIDP.

Errors absolutely do count when evaluating pitcher performance. I say again, without those two egregious errors, the Sox are leading right now 5-3.