illinoisredsox

Damn the Cardinals and their effing blackout territory. I knew last night would be blacked out here but I figured an ESPN broadcast wouldn't be. Hasn't been anything that carries around here in years.

Give it up moon, his mind is made up. Nothing will change it.

Don't like using Hanley here; I would consider having Pomeranz ph and sacrificing.

Okay, who pitches the 8th? Do you trust Barnes? Dare to use Kelly back in STL? Leave Hembree in? My guess is Barnes.

JBJ has always been an outfielder; outfielders tend to have a longer throwing motion. Betts has a quicker release because he used to be an infielder.

Rodriguez needs to bear down here; they will probably ph for him next inning.

Doesn't Sale usually pitch to Leon? Also, Sale knows what he wants to do. Every pitch has a purpose. He's pitching, ERod is throwing.

So he can 't shake his head side to side?

The Impossible Dream year of 1967. I was just shy of my 9th birthday and started listening to games on the radio that summer when the family took our annual vacation to Cape Cod. My first visit to Fenway was 2-3 years after that against the White Sox.

Not so sure I would say Ortiz isn't a student of the game. But Williams managed a decade or so AFTER he stopped playing, not a few months.

Benintendi also played a couple years of high level major college baseball where he had 550 or so PAs. SEC baseball is probably equivalent to A ball, so it wouldn't be a big stretch to say AB was over 1000 PAs against competition that would mirror a minor league baseball track when he came up (obviously not all of those 550 PAs were against pitchers who would merit pro consideration but a lot of them were). He's also 2 years older; there's something to be said for physical development.

Bad idea: 1. There is far more to managing than being able to "light up a clubhouse". Baseball being an everyday sport, that will wear thin very quickly. 2. We have no idea if he can manage. He's never done it before. How does he handle a pitching staff, starters and pen? 3. As a recent retiree, he is waaaay too close to the current team. If he were going to or coming from another team, it MIGHT work. When 80% of your roster was his teammate 9 months ago, they aren't going to see him as a manager, they are going to see him as a teammate. 4. Why in the world would he WANT to manage? It is a thankless task where everything you do is criticized, and in Boston, that includes how you have a bowel movement (okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit here). He has a young son, doesn't he? I'm sure he wants to be around to see him play youth ball, etc. And at some point, he would have to be fired; almost all are. I'll say the same thing I said when Varitek was the popular ex-Sox that people wanted to see as manager. Maybe someday, but not this soon.

They can't send him down. A player gets 3 option years, after which he cannot be optioned to the minors without exposing him to waivers (which I really doubt he would clear). JBJ was first placed on the 40 man roster in 2013, but was optioned to Pawtucket in each 2013, 2014 and 2015. He is out of options.

So why did you leave out the Brewer's #6 hitter? Oh, he went 0-4. I guess it didn't fit the narrative. Why leave Pomeranz in? Many just don't get the fact that you can't always manage for today this early in the year. You honestly expect the pen to get 8+ innings? With Kendrick pitching tonight? Sometimes the starter has to eat innings. As for Hembree, he only threw 13 pitches. I'm amazed Scott was actually able to get ready that fast. Oh, and the Brewers have virtually the same record as the Red Sox, and the same record as the defending champs, all of which means nothing at this point.

Okay, you're fired.

There are 130 games left, roughly 20 weeks. Make up 1 game a week and you win the pennant by 15 games. Heck, make up 1 game a month and you have a tie.

So on the triple play, please expound on what they (Moreland and Pderoia) should have done. How many times have you not seen a ball like that NOT called the infield fly. And even if it wasn't, how were they supposed to guess that one Hardy or the left fielder wasn't going to catch it? Once the IF wasn't called, the O's were going to get 2 out of that no matter what. It was just one of those weird plays that happen. Of all the baserunning issues this year, this one is way, way down the list.

The game is simple, hit the ball, catch the ball, throw the ball. So far none of the guys who have played 3rd this year can do any of them with regularity. If Marrero can come up and do the last 2 of those, it's an improvement.

The Red Sox have had 5 guys play 3rd this season. The ONLY one who has not committed an error is Selsky, who managed to make the play on the only chance he got in the 3 2/3 inning he played there, The sorry stats are: Sandoval 16 games, 139 1/3 innings, 36 chances, 4 errors Hernandez 9 games, 72 innings, 25 chances, 5 errors Rutledge 3 games, 27 innings, 9 chances, 2 errors Holt 1 game, 8 innings, 2 chances, 1 error Selsky 1 game, 3 2/3 innings, 1 chance, 0 errors That doesn't even account for balls that get by through the hole for hits that most 3rd basemen make. I don't understand all the advanced fielding metrics, but there's not a single one of the ones listed in Baseball Reference that's a positive number, which can't be good.

They had 13 pitchers on the roster last night; that's too many.

BTW, Bogaerts did exactly what he was supposed to do on his RBI single last night. It was a play you will see a couple dozen or more times this season; he forced the cutoff and allowed the second run to score. The Oriole's screwed up the run down, but Bogaerts (and the coaches) did nothing wrong on that play.

There wasn't a darn thing either Moreland or Pedroia could do on that play. If they go halfway and the ball is caught, one of them is going to get doubled off. If they hang near the base and the ball drops, well, you saw what happened. I think everyone though an infield fly had been called. The triple play is on JBJ, who despite everything could have avoided the whole thing simply by stepping on first base instead of peeling to the dugout. That was just a weird play that sometimes happens. What the team lacks is overall baserunning instincts. Some players have them and some don't. Lowell, Napoli and Ortiz had them. Even though they weren't fast, they could read a ball and knew when they could try for the extra base and when they shouldn't. When to draw a throw and allow a runner to score. Most of the time they were right. Hanley is still faster than those guys ever were, but he runs into an awful lot of dumb outs. His instincts are lacking. Daniel Nava was a terrible baserunner. I'm not sure Benintendi is a good one, he's at least cautious though. When he gets on, JBJ should be able to steal a lot more bases than he does; he just doesn't seem to be able to read a pitcher. Part of that may be on the current coaching staff but a lot of it is on every coach these guys have had since they started little league.

Workman has started exactly 1 game since 2014, a 2 inning stint in the Gulf Coast League last year (which I suspect was more of a rehab start). He had only appeared in 4 games with Pawtucket this year, going 8 total innings. There is no way he is stretched out enough to start in Boston right now.

I'm not talking about a kumbaya type thing. I'm talking about a 2013 World Series type that Ortiz held in the dugout during one of the games. It lasted about 30 seconds and he was the only one who did any talking, er, yelling and essentially telling them to get their heads out of their collective rear ends. Unfortunately no one on the team has that kind of gravitas. Varitek led his teams in a totally different way but there was no doubt he was the leader.

As the Fonz would have said, exactamundo.