illinoisredsox

As has been alluded to, there are between 6 and 7 million additional reasons why releasing him would be a luxury. That's money that could be used for more productive purposes. For example, I think Bogaerts is eligible for arbitration after this season. If so, he's going to get a rather substantial raise. I think I'd rather spend some of those $ on Xander rather than making a luxury tax payment. Right now, Craig's played 6 games for Pawtucket and has spent a good portion of the year on the DL. He's not blocking anyone at the moment. I don't think the FO cares whether he plays another inning this year or next year. The only way he leaves is if they can swap the contract for somebody else's bad contract.

So what? Doesn't matter if the ball hits the dirt first or his foot first. It's still a HBP.

Yes If he signs a new contract, the Sox would be on the hook for the difference between the two contracts. I think he is due $9M this year (well, 3/4 of that now) and $11M next season. If the Sox released him today, he probably could sign a deal with another team for the minimum, which is around $500K (if I'm another team that's all I would sign him for) and Boston would be on the hook for about $6.5M this year and around $10.5M next year. The only saving grace is since he's not on the 40 man, he doesn't count against the luxury cap. Not sure what happens there if he signs with another team and goes on their 40 man roster.

True, the pitching was in shambles. Bard started down his road to oblivion. Lackey may have been the best starting pitcher that month and he was pitching with spaghetti in his elbow (remember, he missed the entire 2012 season). As I recall, Theo even tried to get some has been from the Royals (Bruce Chen?) to pitch one of the last couple games but couldn't get agreement on a deal. But I can't blame Francona; the collapse was a total team effort. The offense crammed a couple weeks' worth of runs into about 5 games spread out over the month and did nothing the rest of the time. The defense was putrid. That being said, it was probably time for Terry to move on. 8 years is a long time for a manager in any town, let alone Boston. Want to know how bad the collapse was? These numbers really tell the tale of the tape: http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/7036912/boston-red-sox-ugly-september-shows-numbers Warning: Numbers are rated R.

That's understating it. 1968. Bob Gibson posted a 22-9 record and a 1.12 ERA. Nearly 50 years later, I'm still trying to figure out how he lost 9 games. Denny McLain of the Tigers won 31 games. Yaz won his second straight AL batting title that year as well, batting a robust .301. The immortal Danny Cater was second at .290. Definitely a different era.

Oh, I don't know. Bill Carrigan skippered a couple World Series title teams as well. Somebody named George Ruth called him the best manager he ever played for. Should he be in the discussion? Of course, he wasn't quite a successful the second time around, so maybe not.

Yeah, that's what makes this a great and funny game. The homer was hit well, but it was a Pesky Pole homer, and would have hooked foul almost anywhere else (probably stays fair in Yankee Stadium). Major league pitcher give up home runs. They just do, they are facing major league hitters. It's the type you give up that matters. One of the great stats I've ever seen was about the old Orioles pitcher and noted hypochondriac, Jim Palmer. He allowed 303 homers over his 19 year career. In his prime, you could pretty much put him down for giving up around 20 a year. His totals were 193 solo homers, 83 2-run homers, 27 3-run homers and 0 grand slams. Think about that, 276 of those 303 were 1 or 2 run homers. That is minimizing damage. By contrast, Buchholz this year alone has allowed 2 solo homers, 4 2-run blasts, a 3-run homer and 2 grand slams.

That makes no difference, options go by years. You can be brought up and sent down any number of times in a year. Heck, how many times has Noe Ramirez taken the I-95 shuttle this year alone? Per Wikidpedia, "Once a player has been placed on a team's 40-man roster, a team has 3 option years on that player. A player is considered to have used one of those three option years when he spends at least 20 days in the minors in any of those 3 seasons. A team may have a fourth option year on a player with less than five full seasons of professional experience, provided that both conditions below are met. A player has not spent at least 90 days on an active professional roster in a season. Minor leagues that play below Class A Advanced have seasons that are shorter than 90 days, and as such, any player who spends a full season in a rookie or Class A (short-season) league will receive a fourth option year. A player has not spent at least 60 days on an active professional roster AND then at least 30 days on a disabled list in a season. Only after 60 days have been spent on an active professional roster does time spent on the disabled list count towards the 90-day threshold. As with the prior example, this cannot occur with players who spend a full season in a rookie or Class A (short season) league." The latter does not apply to Castillo.

I think that one is all on Pedroia and I think he was bunting for a hit; he didn't square around like you would normally see on a sac bunt, and with a man on second, the normal sac is to try to make the third baseman field it. He pushed it up the first baseline. I don't see any manager doing that in that situation, even ones who love the sac but (and given that the Sox have maybe 2 or 3 all season, Farrell isn't one of them).

Pesky Pole homer as well. It was hit pretty well but it hooks foul in almost every other ballpark. Kluber is a good pitcher and he looked a lot like his Cy Young year last night. It was going to be tough to beat him.

Yeah, I figured that but I saw your post after I typed it. I've pretty much made it a ritual every Thanksgiving to pull that episode up on You Tube and watch it.

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly" - Arthur Carlson, General Manager, WKRP

Well said. Schilling was Drysdale with Johnson being Koufax. Bob Lemon to Bob Feller. Not quite as good an analogy due to longevity, but Bruce Hurst to the Sox Clemens.

For Swihart to improve behind the plate, he needs to be playing 60-75% of the games, which of course with Vazquez, he isn't going to. Defensively, Swihart has a lot to improve on regarding containing balls in the dirt. I don't get the impression pitchers are especially trusting of him when it comes to throwing a low slider or splitter. Remember what Hanigan's role is on this team. The 40% he's playing is catching Wright (which physically has to be like catching 2 games) and babysitting the Kelly/Owens/O'Sullivan slot in the rotation. Not sure that's the slots you want throw Swihart into. As for the Globe article, I made the mistake of clicking on that one. If I remember correctly, it was an Eric Wilbur piece. When it comes to that "journalist", if you take what he says and do the opposite, you'll come out ahead almost every time.

I've got to wonder. I've seen him get his dander up before, but I've never seen him that over the top, and all in such short order. Might consider a short suspension; as I tried to say in the locked Schilling thread, he's got a lot of good insights to share on the Sox. Given what went on tonight, I can't blame you for your action though.

This series is reminding me a little of the Red Sox horror shows in KC back in the 70s. Sox seemingly used to go 1-5 in KC every year and had a lot of trouble scoring runs.

Cmon RSDD. Calm down. You're too good a poster and you've got way too many good thoughts on the Sox; I don't want to see you banned from here. We're the new guys, got to earn the benefit of the doubt. This isn't worth it.

I find Herschiser does a lot of the same things (how to attack a batter, etc.) and I like listening to him. The ESPN weekday guys are better than the weekenders IMO. I've found most color guys have a shelf life, no matter what the sport. McCarver was good when he first started out. So was Morgan. Madden was like that in football. All faded after several seasons and stayed well beyond their useful time.

Yup, and the worst thing is, the price just went up.

All that says is that the company filed for bankruptcy. You very well know that's not the same as filing personal bankruptcy. You mentioned the phrase "golden parachute", which I believe is what you were challenged to provide a link for. Since I know you are extremely thorough in link searches, I'm guessing none exists and you are now attempting to move the goalposts.

I can't see the game tonight, and I realize Porcello has allowed one solo homer, but have the base hits been line drives, ground balls or a mixture?

A very poor reason. One need look no further than the relationship between Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the late Antonin Scalia, who were about as opposite as you can get in regards to judicial philosophy and political opinion, but who were from all reports very close friends, because they actually knew each other as people.

You know him personally? You've actually met him and spent some time with him? If not, you have no basis for this statement.

From the Herald, ERod will miss his next rehab start due to knee soreness. I would not count on him anytime soon. http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox/clubhouse_insider/2016/05/farrell_rodriguez_to_miss_next_rehab_start_due_to_sore_knee

Fully agree he would have been fine had he had to play 1B every day. He never embarrassed himself when he did play and made some pretty good plays at times (ask Jeff Suppan). He just happened to be on teams with good to great first sackers. Meinkiewicz when he was with the Twins, Youkilis, AGon and Napoli with the Sox. All but Napoli were GG caliber in the field, and Nap was pretty darn good. Only Kevin Millar would have been considered average during Papi's tenure..