S5Dewey

Agree. He looks like a cat with mange.

I'll say this. They were a lot more fun to watch - as well as being more likeable- after JF left the team. And I'm not assessing blame on Farrell.

Sometimes you're better off being lucky than being good.

Wow. This could turn into a long discussion about the economic state of baseball as it pertains to teams, players, and fans. It's difficult for me to visualize "those poor players" or "those poor owners" as being a potential victim in an salary dispute when the Major League minimum salary is ~$500,000/year. I'm torn on the issue of player's salaries. IMO it's ridiculous to even think that if a person today discovered a cure for cancer that he/she still wouldn't make as much money in their lifetime as David Price will make in one year. However, on the flip side of the coin, there's an obscene amount of money out there in major leage baseball, so why shouldn't the players get their slice of the pie? I agree with you to a point about agents. However, players hire agents for the same reason you and I hire doctors, lawyers, and accountants - to give them sound advice. That means that a player should believe that their agent is acting in their best interest, which isn't always the case. The best example I can think of that is Jason Varitek and his relationship with Bora$$. "Tek" was advised to turn down a Red Sox offer and instead go to FA, advice 'tek took, and eventually went crawling back to the Sox - where he wanted to be anyway - for a small portion of what he'd been offered originally. Jason says, thanks, Scott. You *******. :-( While we can say that at the end of the day it's the player's choice as to what they sign for, at the same time they get a lot of pressure from their agent - whom they're paying so they are likely to believe them - to sign for the most money possible. Could that be because agents operate on a commission basis and the more money they can get for a player the more money the agent gets? Naw.

I watched that and wondered the same thing - why pitch to Betts in that situation? Then I realized that Asmus knows how badly our BP sucks and he knew the Tigers weren't done scoring runs. Then after Mookie reached base Asmus made the change rather than risk being two runs down.

I'm with you on this, Slash. I'm usually firmly in Kimmie's court, that the manager knows his players better than the fans know them. I didn't think Taz was a good idea when he came in but I was hoping for the best. After he gave up the first hit I said, "Go get him, John. Don't let this game get away". After the second hit I was saying "FOR GOD'S SAKE, GO GET HIM!"...and we all know what happened after that. I have no problem with seeing what Taz has left in the tank, but putting him into a 'save situation' game was crazy enough, but leaving him there as long as he did was bizarre. If you're going to find out what he's got left it's done in a blowout game. And don't get me wrong, I like Taz (as much as any fan 'likes' a ML player he's never met). He was a huge part of 2013 and I'll always be grateful for it. He just shouldn't have been put out there in that situatino and then left out there to embarrass himself

Was I just accused of being cynical? Guilty as charged, I guess. LOL

I agree with you.. .to a point. My issue is that they jumped to sign "the flavor of the week" regardless of the cost. Sandoval never had regular season numbers to justify the money he's making. The moral to the Sandoval signing is to NEVER sign someone based on one good WS or based on post-season play. Sign the guy who will get you there. Which is exactly why I preferred the Price signing to the Sandoval signing. Price doesn't have great playoff numbers but he'll at least get you there. And I can promise you that if you don't make the playoffs you won't win the WS.

I agree with what you say, were the team operating in a vacuum. IMO this trade was done for the same bad reason Sandoval was picked up - to "prove" that the Sox want to win NOW. There is a fan base in Boston who's clamoring for some success from this team and after two big signings the FO can't afford to allow the team to fall out of contention. I've been preaching for some time that for the Sox FO it's all about money and the money ultimately comes from the fans. After two dismal seasons the FO needs to keep us fans believing that the team has a chance in the playoffs. If that means taking a chance that a certain starting pitcher won't be as good as he looks now it's a risk they're willing to take to keep the fannies in the seats and the $9 beers flowing.

Re this business of the day game on Thursday... Although it screwed the Sox this time it's not the worst idea in the world, if it were played as part of a day/night doubleheader. If every team were required to play 2 day/night DH's a month it could shorten the season by 10 days and still maintain the 162 game schedule. Separate admissions would insulate the FO's from taking a financial hit - if there actually were a hit, because more parents would be tempted to take their kids to the day games - and it would insulate the players from having to take a pay hit because of a shorter season. And the WS is over by mid-October, which is still too late in the fall but it's better than late October. Other than a really freak occurrence like what's happening today, what's the downside?

He proves that not all baseball players are rocket scientists. Somehow it seems unfair that someone with all of that talent has ZERO social skills.

If you've ever spent any time around cattle you know that can be a lot of water!

FWIW, I was at The Jake (yes, it was that long ago) when there was a lengthy delay because a transformer that provided power to the lights got hit by lightning. It was pouring rain and IIRC there was only one bank of lights working. Kind of eerie. (Do you see what I did there? )

I hope it either holds off or starts to rain like a cow pissin' on a flat rock so they call it immediately. One or the other.

Oh, I understand that. What I don't understand is why he thinks he has the leverage to get it. Does he think that some owner is going to do him the favor of giving him more than they absolutely have to just so he MIGHT boost his value? Of course, owners do stupid stuff sometimes.

Does MLB have rules about lightning? My experience comes from HS and college baseball and while it varies from league to league once a lightning bolt is seen or thunder heard the games have to be suspended for a predetermined length of time, usually at least 20 minutes.

If they decide to suspend this game it may be over. Weather.com is predicting scattered thunderstorms until 4:00 am.

yep. 3 quick ones and let it rain! I have no pride. I'll take a win any way I can get it!

Someone want to help me here? What is a "Sandy Leone"? And where did it come from?

Amazing. He's been essentially released from baseball. Does he really think that he's in a position to be making bargaining demands? If he has a team who'll take him he should shut up and jump at the offer.

Ugh. As little as I like getting involved in this thread being an old BDC guy, unnecessary threads, guilt by association, and all that, I just have to throw my $0.02 in here. IMO you should have thought about it a little longer before you posted it. I agree with a lot of what you said - see my post from Monday night in the Kimbrel thread regarding throwing strikes - but at the same time Kimbrel has the track record of being able to get it done, and that cuts a lot of ice with me. He drove me nuts in two straight outings by throwing no fewer than three balls to every hitter he faced, but his history says this is just a blip. Before I replace a closer with his track record I want to be darn sure that I'm replacing him with someone better, and Barnes doesn't strike me as being that someone better. I'm not super-comfortable with either of them at the moment but I still think Kimbrel's ceiling as a closer is a lot higher than Barnes' is.

Well mal, I was in the Chatzy room last night (Tuesday night) and remarked that "I'll bet mal is grinning from ear to ear".

This may be a poor comparison, but whatever.... After what I've seen in left field in recent years I actually LIKE having Benintendi out there. When Gomes was there every fly ball was an adventure but Gomes has the personality and hitting to pull it off and not have the fans get down on him. He also usually made the play although it was far from pretty. Last year with Hanley out there every fly ball was a potential disaster - and often lived up to that. Now when a fly ball is hit to LF I at least think, "Yeah, he'll catch that", which is a lot better than holding my breath like I did when we had those those other two defensive clowns out there. Sure, he's got some learning to do about the wall, the scoreboard, and the angles of the ball coming off the wall but IMO he's going to be better than "fine" out there.

Grrr. I was optimistic that possibly ERod's problem was related to dehydration - hot temps in Baltimore, high humidity, etc., until you reminded me of the FO's assessment of his knee injury. That brought me back to what they said about Young's injury (shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks) and then to Buch's mysterious neck injury that 'shouldn't be more than a few days' and turned into a half season. I can't decide whether the Sox medical staff is incompetent or if they're intentionally blowing smoke toward the fans, but whatever it is I have no faith in what they say. It's always "wait and see" for me now.

You have my sympathies. Gary Thorne got his start here in Maine doing various sports in high school and college games and writing a column for the local newspaper. Somehow along the way he got the idea that he's a lot better than he is. His forte is name-dropping. If you listen to his broadcasts it's full of references to the people he knows and the people he's met. But thanks for reminding me how fortunate I am that since he hit 'the big time' I don't have to listen to him.