S5Dewey

Barnes gets it done, Kimbrel doesn't.

Emphasis on WILD

If you have a closer you can't bring in with a three run lead when is it appropriate to use him?

Update: Make it SIX

How many million dollars for this?

Kimbrel has now gone to a 3 ball count to every batter he's faced. All five of them. This is ridiculous.

Does anyone other than me get tired of Kimbrel's repeated wildness? This game is an extreme example but it seems like every time I see him pitch he goes 2+ balls to every batter. I thought a good closer was supposed to be able to throw strikes! Or is it all ok because he usually gets out of it?

It seems like at least twice a week I have to shake my head and wonder why some posters talk about trading Bradley. Edit: And Bradley's throw saves a run on Shaw's error.

This is the internet. Everyone tells the truth here... don't they?

I'm beginning to see Free Agent signings in the same light as sitting down at the blackjack table. Most people who are serious about it (and are ALLOWED to sit at the table) think they know what they're doing. There's a word for those people and it's "losers". Those who win do their winning in spite of their system. At the same time, and in defense of GM's, it's easy to see how tempting it is to sit at the table because one BIG win can offset several smaller losses. The problem for the GM's is that some GM's keep raising the stakes and some other GM's aren't willing to walk away from the table. Free Agency is the best thing to ever happen to the MLBPA. The players have GM's bidding against one another with little-to-no fiscal responsibility. The only way I could enjoy this more would be if I didn't know I was footing the bill for their largess.

^^Profound^^ {with just a touch of good-natured sarcasm} That may be the understatement of the week. The Red Sox weren't built to win with this year's pitching staff just like they weren't built to win with last year's pitching staff. Price is a nice addition but he's only the first step. Porcillo and Wright are both #2 1/2's. What the team needs is a real #2 and then fill in the gaps at the bottom. Note to John Henry: YOU CANNOT GIVE UP YOUR ENTIRE PITCHING STAFF AT THE END OF ONE SEASON AND EXPECT TO BE COMPETITIVE AGAIN IMMEDIATELY.

Not without better pitching than we've gotten this year. At the end of the day it's the W's that put the fannies in the seats.

The fact that Dempster retired has nothing to do with his performance in 2013. While I know you don't like signing #5's this #5 was exactly what the team needed. He gave us almost 6 innings per start with an ERA If you want to say that at 37 years old he probably wasn't going to be any better in 2014 I'll agree so in that regard we were "lucky" he retired, but IMO he doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Masterson. Ryan Dempster will never buy beer in the same bar I'm in - but what are the chances of our being in the same bar?

Here's the problem with signing or not signing the high priced FA's. The FO has dual goals. Goal #1 is to make money and goal #2 is to win. As a short term solution signing the FA's solves goal #1. If the fans think the Sox are going to be winners they'll come to the park and spend the money. However, it may not be a good long term solution because if these FA's don't play up to their contracts the FO is stuck with those contracts - and as Moon has pointed out, most FA's don't. OTOH, if they don't sign the FA's much of the fan base will think the Sox aren't trying to win and they'll stop showing up at the park, especially if the team gets off to a slow start. Which costs the organization a lot of money. Right now the FO is trying to lure fans in after two straight last place finishes by not raising ticket prices and making promises that the team will be better. It's still working, but for how long? Those two goals aren't mutually exclusive. There's more money in winning than there is in losing, by far. BTW, watching the Olympics & the men's 100M backstroke. A great quote from one of the announcers after Murphy won the gold and the US won the gold for the sixth consecutive time. "Welcome to the club my friends''......... for the show that never ends! GO USA!

This may be the most frustrating thing about this team. This team could be a WS contender in spite of our pitching - if everyone in the offense would start hitting at the same time.

Sure, but with all the scenarios there are yours is the only one that works out for the Sox. It's like trying to draw to an inside straight. (Well, it's not quite that bad, but you see what I mean. ) Boston is taking on all the risk here hoping that Price pitches well for three years and flops in the fourth. What kind of odds would 'Vegas give on exactly that happening?

Thank you. I guess I'm not going crazy then. I'm sorry DD, but that's just stupid.

True enough. But our problem isn't position players. We've got position players up the ying-yang. Three OF's signed at cheap money, Shaw (?) Bogaerts, Pedey and Hanley with Hanley being the only big $$ guy, and at least three cheap catchers. What we need is Pitching, and in a more perfect world the Sox would have lots of money to spend on Pitching. The fly in that ointment is that we have The Fat Man, Castillo, and Craig who are eating up our pitching money and not contributing. I know this doesn't solve anything - it's just me voicing my frustration.

Will someone please point out the fallacy in my thinking: If Price DOESN'T pitch well he's not going to opt out because he's got a good thing going. He's guaranteed to get paid $30M for pitching poorly. If Price DOES pitch well he opts out and the Sox get the "opportunity" to lose a pitcher who's pitching well and go and take a gamble on someone else, probably at even more money. How is this a good spot for the Sox to be in?

I don't think we know the answer to that. Being an old guy, I can remember when Joe Rudi & Rollie fingers were supposed to come to the Red Sox and the Commissioner vetoed the sale because it wasn't in the best interest of the game. I'm now wondering how long the Commissioner's arm is in regards to trades or sales. If I'm the Padres my concern is that other teams may now be reluctant to trade with the Pads because they may be developing a reputation for dealing with "damaged goods".

I'm not sure I'd hang too much of that loss on Farrell. With both Pedey and Hanley out and without our "regular" LF'er and 3B'man (if we actually have either of those!) I thought going into the game that it was going to be a throwaway game. Maybe the most important factor in that game is that we were facing the best pitcher the M's could throw out there. Porcillo did a better than respectable job only giving up three runs on four hits although he did prove Eck wrong ("solo home runs don't kill you"). As they say, tomorrow - or rather today - is another day. We need to get our regulars back on the field. Then we can blame Farrell for losses again.

What??? You haven't even SEEN my pickup truck!! (or my big boat, or even the size of my hands!!)

You understand that those five words destroyed any credibility you may have had in posting this, right?

Yes. I agree. I was only talking about what we CAN do, and not what we SHOULD do.

Moon asked: How many days can Beni stay with the big club and not lose the year of control? Here's what I've got: Once a player is put on the 40-man roster, the option countdown begins. A player is assigned three options as a rostered player. Each year, when a player who is on the roster gets sent to the Minor Leagues for a stint of more than 20 days, it counts as an option. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/17188016// Here's a simplified version of how I interpret that: If a player is optioned to a minor league team and spends less than 20 days (cumulative - a player can be optioned more than once in a season) on that minor league team it doesn't count as an option year. This means that if Beni is sent back down and he is there for fewer than 20 days it doesn't count as an option year. That 20 days would start as soon as he's sent back down and IIRC once a player is sent down he has to remain there for 10 days, but after that 10 days he could be called back up again - and sent back down again - and as long as he doesn't accumulate more than 20 days on a minor league club 2016 isn't counted as an option year. There are 36 days between when Beni was called up and when the Sox and the Pawsox are both playing so Beni has to stay with the Sox for at least 16 days. Those days may or may not be consecutive. Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer and I don't even play one on television. If someone interprets this differently I'm more than willing to defer to them.