S5Dewey

Note to Cora: Please stop sending different people out to pitch. Sooner or later you'll find one who can't do the job.

I'm just asking, but is anybody else getting sick of these guys making excuses for the Yankees?

And the ump saved the Ys a run.

Sev walked two guys in a row but the ump bailed him out on the first one

I'm not usually one tonsecnd guess a manger but I wouldn't do this. S

Hmm...This reminds me of Sale's last start. Not the time to get overconfident.

Yes,. I thought it was SundayNight baseball I hated when in reality it's ESPN whenever they broadcast a game.

I was ready to turn the tv off after the first inning. According to those guys the Sox didn't have a chance against the superior Yankees.

Speaking of why's, why are they spending ten minutes talking about Bucky F Dent??

I've had only one exposure to 95+ pitching and it was as a spectator. Here's my take experience. Back before the days of the Super Regionals UMaine was hosting the Northeast regional and since it was only an hour's drive away my son and I spent a couple of days there. Umaine was playing along with Villanova and several other teams in the tourney at at one point the PA guy said, "Now pitching for Villanova, Bill Bliss", and the scouts rushed to their radar guns to watch him pitch. Thinking that Bliss might be something special my son and I took seats in the first row behind home plate but slightly off to one side where we could see the ball coming to the plate. I found that I could follow the ball until it was about half way to the plate and after that it became a blur about a foot long. After Bliss' inning I went to one of the scouts (one of the great things about UMaine back then was that you could talk with ANYBODY!). I asked how fast they had Bliss on the gun and he said between 94 - 96 mph. I then did a little research and learned that the human eye doesn't move in a sweeping direction, it moves it steps. Very quick steps, but steps nontheless- and it can't catch up with the ball at about 94+. That gave me a whole new appreciation for those hitters who can make contact with the 100 mph pitches, not only for the bat quickness to hit the ball but also just to see the ball. That's my experience... yours may differ. And BTW, I still want to be included the day you pay off that bet to Bell. :-)

Thanks. I also saw Erod in Portland on a rehab a couple of years ago. He didn't appear to be sharp during the first four innings, giving up some walks and hits. Then he came out for the 5th knowing it was going to be his last one and pitched one of those "immaculate innings". These guys know what they're doing, whether they're working on their location with certain pitches or wanting to be sure they can still pitch at a ML level when necessary.

This^^ Remember when we hit The Cliff? And there was considerable hang-wringing that the Sox wouldn't be able to (even) compete for 3-4 years? Well, it's now 2021 and they're leading the AL East and are probably looking at a PO spot. We need to remember that Bloom has said that he's building a team for the long run. IMO everything we get this year is a bonus. But.. that's just My Opinion.

FWIW, I saw Sale pitch his second game in Portland. At one point he loaded the bases with nobody out after a HBP, & (IIRC) a couple of singles. The manger them came out to talk to him and told him that he had to pitch his way out of it.... and he promptly K'd (overmatched) the next three hitters. I don't understand why he's getting one more MiL start either but I'll trust Sale & the FO to do things right.

Bell said.... If you want to make an absurd comparison, here's one: Mookie vs. Ted. Ted would probably have fine being a DH, based on the stories about his attitude toward fielding. Blasphemy! It's a good indication of how the game has changed since Williams' time. It tales no special skills to play LF in Fenway - one doesn't have to have good speed or a great arm. Yes, it's tricky in its own way but it's things that can be learned. Williams wasn't a 5-tool player. He ​earned his reputation mostly with his bat. I would posit that if the Sox had been able to put a 3-tool defensive player in the OF with Piersall and Jensen and been able to use Williams as a full-time DH those teams of the mid-50's would have been even better.

Life has gotten in the way of my Sox time this year and unfortunately Saturday's and Sunday's games are the first I've seen this year in their entirety. A few observations: - It's easy to decide that the Sox can't hit when they face one of the best pitchers in the league. Maybe it's not us, it's them. It's the nature of baseball. - The game threads are just as I remembered them, and that's not a good thing. - While I plead guilty to having Red Sox colored glasses on, last night's broadcast reminded me of why I hate those ESPN games. I used to think it was ARod's fault that the Yankees were so revered on those broadcasts but it's not. All of those ESPN announcers have a sickening, almost perverted man-crush on the Yankees. Yuk.

Haha. I've been away from this site for over a year and posters are still arguing about "clutch". Some things never change! IMO "clutch" isn't a 'he is or he isn't' situation. Some people are more clutch than others and professional athletes are all near the top of this 'clutch' spectrum or else they wouldn't be where they are. However, there IS a spectrum even in the major leagues as well as in amateur leagues - or any sport. In fact, it's entirely possible that many talented baseball players aren't in the ML's simply because they choked during tryouts.

I'm paraphrasing in this first paragraph, but this is the way I understand an email I got from the Red Sox today: Due to the Corona virus the Sox are allowing ST Season Ticket holders to purchase their tickets for 2021 and then during a pre-registration time during February designate which games they want tickets for. The cost for any unused games will be credited toward the 2022 ST season. They are also allowing ST Season Ticket holders to completely "opt out" of buying their tickets for 2021 and still maintain their ticket eligibility for 2022. (that's me ) According to what I've read/heard there MAY be no tickets available to the public, depending on social distancing seat availability. Because of Social Distancing STST holders may not be able to sit in their usual seats with since all seating will be in 'pods' of 2-4 seats with at least 6' between seats.

I only see one major flaw in that reasoning - Mookie Betts. IIMO they couldn't have signed him regardless of the salary implications. They couldn't have signed him for just one reason. He wouldn't have signed! Betts had said all along that he intended to go to FA and his agent is probably the biggest proponent of FA. The Sox took him at his word, as they should have. At the end of the day the Sox had every reason to believe that he couldn't be signed so they traded him rather than have him go to FA in another year. And BTW, the next time we have a salary crunch and a star player let's not say, "We can let him go and then sign him next year". Once a marquee player leaves he's gone. Accept it and go to Plan B.

Without a doubt good defense at all positions helps. However, the old maxim of "solid up the middle"is an old maxim for a reason - it's true. Nearly everything I've read agrees that the defensive spectrum is C SS 2B CF 3B RF LF 1B DH, with the top four being 'up the middle'.

Do I need to say this again?.... "Solid up the middle". Obviously your 'middle' people can't be black holes offensively but anything you get from them that's slightly better than average is a plus. Power and offense from the corners.

Take it from me, one could do a lot worse than catching a game with a700. He's knowledgeable, good company, and will even buy you a beer on occasion!

This^^

Why would JH hire Bloom to be GM and expect Bloom to do something different than what he's done in the past? If JH wanted someone to do things differently than Bloom did in TB wouldn't he have hired someone else? After all, JH hired DD to do what he'd done in the past and that's exactly what DD did.

Whoa, there Pardner. I never said that the teams would have been better off without them. The teams would have been worse without them. Now let's look at the Dodgers and why they signed Mookie to a long term contract: It wasn't because they have $300MM kicking around that they didn't know what to do with. They have the nucleus to make a strong run at a WSC and they see Mookie as the player to put them "over the top". From the perspective of the Red Sox, if an owner's goal is to win the WSC and they don't have the second tier players or the economic latitude to sign them it's logical to say to a high priced player, "We didn't win WITH you and your salary we probably also won't win without you - so we're no worse off", and move that player. See ya Mookie. Yes, they'll probably take a negative hit at the box office but they'll also take a positive "hit" in their salary structure. Some of it really IS "all about the money." It's cold out there in the real world.

Mostly @ Kimmi and her previous 7 posts I've wondered for some time about the wisdom of giving one position player a big money multi-year contract. IMO there's no doubt that one player can have a big impact on a team, but only if he has solid 2nd tier players around him. The Red Sox didn't win any WSC's with Ted Williams, the Marlins didn't win any with Stanton, the A's haven't brought home any hardware with Trout, and baseball is littered with teams who had one of the best players in the game and didn't win it all. So you have to wonder about the value of one player. One player who comes up every 9 AB's and statistically has I'm with Kimmi on this. It would have made no sense to have paid Betts what he got without keeping the core they had and improving the pitching staff - something that the economics of baseball wouldn't support. JMO!