dannycater

One thing I noticed about Chavis was how fast he can turn a DP. He can turn it over pretty quick for a more solid type body frame guy over some of the stringy middle infielders you see a lot.

Great post, denny galhouse rocks. This is exactly what has occurred about the confidence and the losing mode. It's contagious as much as it is when you win, and win. Your confidence level sky rockets and everyone can't wait to grab a bat, can't wait to come into pitch in a big situation, SPs ready to start big games. All of it starts with confidence. But if you go into these losing spells, everything starts to come out. Guys are questioning themselves. You look at Bradley or Beni or even Mookie, and you get this impression that when they get out, they shake their heads or wonder why aren't they hitting on the screws. On the mound, to me, Sale and Porcello in particular just are almost afraid to fail. They really don't know why they are getting knocked around, and then it's like they can't stop it. They are gasoline on the fire. Look at the Yankees, everything is about confidence for them. They know they are going to get a big hit, they get the big HRs the same way the '18 Sox would generate the big rallies, big innings. On the mound, German looks like an ace with no worries. It's bizarro world between the confidence of the '18 Sox and the lack thereof of the '19 Sox. Include Cora as manager also in that mode of what the hell are we doing? How do I stop the losing? Answer, you can't until something good happens, really good, or in this case one trip around the rotation where Sale and Porcello go 7 and are lights out. That would change things nearly immediately. If you have guys who are leaders questioning themselves, then everyone does.

oh no, you don't, ill-I-ni, the batboys and ballgirls are damn sure part of the problem. Do you see them diving for balls lately? How bout the complacency when a ball is hit on a bounce? Notice how the 1st base girl doesn't hand out foul balls to young kids anymore? Bunch of entitled brats, those bat/ballgirl/boys. Punks!!!

Agreed

8 hits in 2 days, that's quitting time.

I'll add to my thread that right now is pretty wicked bad for all of us. The team has literally quit before our eyes, the manager doesn't know what to do (and honestly he's had to deal with what kind of adversity as a MLB coach--dealt with great success of Astros, 119 wins last year with Sox, and all he knew before this year was everything he does turns to gold. Now it's actual managing, and it's like Tito in his last season--when the pumpkin is driving the coach, nothing you can do to prepare for the trainwreck). So again, I savor last year, I expected a letdown but not this monumental failure (thought maybe wild card, but not looking good there). I savor all the titles, and know this is the David Price we pay for this. Go Sox!

It's over, boys. I'm calling it. Time of Death. 1 pm EST, August 3, 2019

No question this team is the worst at timing. Different team when it chases the score, which is often. Seem to be the first to crack almost every time, and especially at Fenway. They just fall behind immediately at Fenway. On the road, they seemed more relaxed, pitchers too.

Also inexcusable was Lynn's 76 injury-filled campaign.

The last time a farm got emptied, O'Leary's cow tipped over a lantern and all hell broke loose.

This is all you need to know about Xander's Performance Thread...He may never have a better season than 2019. That is all.

Holt likes playing in YankMe Stadium. Let the lefty hitters get some at bats in that bandbox.

He brought in Pearce, Eavoldi last year, the price you pay to win it all. DD has been terrific, and standing pat was probably the best course of action.

Even '03 was a monumentally tough defeat (Pedro/Grady). So many epic failures in Baseball history surrounded the Sox and now we got our cake, ate it, and then left AROD's b-day cake to be eaten by the Sox press corps. I nearly broke my brother's TV set in game 6, 86. That was my coronation into the abyss, even though I was crushed in '78 and '75 7th game. I had hope then though, and was wide-eyed. 86 sent me into a tizzy that lasted until 3 games down in '04. I sat there after the 3rd loss thinking "this is just getting ridiculous." So I relaxed, watched game 4 win, and thought what the f***, go Cowboy Up it. When it was 3-2, I really was in Millar mode. You kind of thought this is silly, so finish these f***s. And they did!! Go Sox!!!

Some of the Sox over the years, short-timers but guys who were big stars for brief moments--Bellhorn, Roberts, Foulke, Kapler, Ross, Gomes, Nunez...the little guys who helped make the titles happen.

This is one of the saddest posts I've ever had to make because I think I'm becoming soft as a fan. I used to be hardcore and typically critical Sox fan of the 1990s, the old Globe "Click The Cans" forum that existed there for years, then turned into the BDC where several of you started and moved over here to this really well-done talksox.com. I'm usually on the B's side (:-) ) talking Bruins. What I learned really hard was what happens when adversity hits as a fan? This happened in game 7 of the B's/Blues Final. The B's were supposed to keep the duckboat parades coming and it should have been our TitleTown #3 in a row--Baseball-Football-Hockey championships. But the mauling Blues, led by ultimate fan in Sox LF, ruined the party. The line of people wanting people gone were endless--fans on the chatboard were wishing for Marchand to be banished for his mistake shift change late in the 1st period, they wanted people's heads on a platter. Well, there really wasn't much you can do. Players were injured, but bottom line even with the best goaltending of the playoffs in Rask, it wasn't meant to be. The Bruins lost 3 of 4 at the Garden. It was tough, very tough to not get that Cup. Everything was set up for that win. Now I fast forward to the 2019 Sox. This is the follow-up of pretty much the Greatest Sox Team In Franchise History..119 total wins with playoffs. Staggering, incredible success that culminated with myself actually getting to sit in the stands at Dodger Stadium and watch Sale and the Sox celebrate a title. It was surreal to be there. And then it dawned on me. We just win and win and win. The Patriots and Sox in particular (with that B's 11 Cup and the Big 3 Celts win sprinkled in). But 2004, 2007, 2013, 2018...it's insane to win that many WS titles in that short of period of time. Then the Pats and the countless Super Bowls with 3 straight SB appearances and 2 SB wins and one ridiculous (think Bruins-Blues) loss when it should have been 3 straight. So what about the '19 Sox? You know what, I'm disappointed the team has woefully underperformed despite complete monster seasons by Xander and Devers, with the best season ever by Vasquez, a pretty good year from JD despite all the cries of he lost his video/batting coach, and then yeoman stat runs by Chavis, Holt. The offense has been mostly pretty damn good. The Bullpen imploded the first few months and the SP has been the Star of the Season as the most consistently poor staff despite Cy Youngs all over the place as the non-Cy is the team's best pitcher--EROD. Cora getting heat for the first time after Camelot last year, and DD getting a lot of the same grief for doing the same non-action things he used to do in Detroit. You know what, what's the point of complaining anymore. We win, we own Championship Central in the USA. We own it. We can brag and we can go on and on about our 2000s titles, many of them as they have been collected. Boston is the Hub of Success. So we suck in 2019, the Sox may not make the postseason--of course this is the franchise that managed to win in '13 between last place finishes...it's as up and down as it gets in SoxLand. But I'm not going to beg for Cora to be fired, DD to be fired, Porcello to be tarred and feathered, Sale to be sent to a shrink, Price to apologize to Eckersley, JD to make clandestine meetings with the Dodgers batting coach, Bradley to be traded for being a generally poor batter despite being the best CF I've ever seen...ever on defense (and I've seen many greats). Betts getting abused because he too had his career year last year (wait til people ask for Xander's head next year when he doesn't live up to '19 stats). I read the threads, I didn't come here much for a long time, especially last year when all we did was win, win, win some more. Had to be the most boring chats ever. "Hey, we have 108 wins!' " "Yeah, but we should have 117 if not for some stupid bonehead moves!" and then we got to roast Kimbrel, finally something to criticize in the postseason. People cried to re-sign him? WTF? Anyway, I wrote in the titlehead perspective, and now I'm going to address greed. We are greedy f*** fans for sure. We want more, more, more. Well, it doesn't happen every year (ask the Blues, it just happened after nothing becoming a franchise in 67) or ask the Guardians...yikes. We have last year's title to savor and the Pats SB, and B's getting to a 7th game of the Cup Finals. I'm pretty f***ing satisfied to be honest. What the hell, it beats being in last place, 30 games out of contention. We are greedy fans. Period. Carry on, I do not want to dismiss some very intelligent threads by long-time fan Moon and many of you very loyal, passionate fans. I was more passionate and crazy prior to 04, that's for sure. I was bloodthirsty. Well, I'm no longer that. I'm a fat cat from Puss N Boots. I'm content. I root for the B's, Pats and Sox just like everyone else, but I'm not naive. The chances of a major letdown after last year were extremely high. So it happened, and maybe the Sox can still pull out a WC spot. Who knows, but just because the '19 season has been a letdown doesn't mean you blow it all up. No reason to blow it up. Just make some salary moves, and get back to work in 2020. Go Sox!!!

Cora did very little managing in the regular season last year to win 108. Everything worked, everything. In the playoffs, he pulled all the right moves and several of his moves helped the Sox win it all. This year was a fear factor as to what would happen when he faced adversity. Not much you can do. The team has underperformed and the pitching staff, in particular the Starting Rotation save for EROD and some glimpses of Price has been an all-time joke. It's just one of those years, it's not Farrell last place type, but it's a bad season. If they make the wild card it will be because the SP get it together. Still waiting after all the excuses of not enough ST reps.

Well actually the Sox didn't get through it once pitching well, more like 60 percent through, but most of the time it's 20 percent good.

Rock The Cashner is certainly pretty f***ing far from the only pitcher "that mattered."

In the immortal words of Charles Barkley, "We got a bad team man, we got a bad f***ing team."

Sale, Porcello, Price (and Eavoldi) need to have a pow-wow and basically will themselves into the right frame of mind. Basically get rid of the negativity in their minds, and clear the air and then go out pitch to their capabilities. If they all get it together and then combine Rock the Cashner and EROD, the team will flourish. The offense is good enough, they just need to not have to always chase the score. It's a different Sox offense, and what's sad is that the Sox are one of the MLB leaders in rallying from deficits to win--except that cup is/has run dry. Yesterday, 5-0, then 6-2, then 8-5. Chase, chase, chase. Can't have it, and the buck starts with SPs getting quality to better starts, and all of them getting 18 outs minimum, hopefully 21 to 24.

But this is also why I don't think Price belongs being lumped in with the woes of Porcello and Sale. Price has not gone distance enough, but his performance has been mostly good enough to win.

You make a really good point, only 33 runs were scored (3 per game) in the 11 losses that Price started. So correct, the offense did not help him and the pen wasn't as bad during those Ls.

The team is a disappointing 9-11 overall when he starts, but 6 of those losses were 1-run games, so really the Pen hasn't helped him.

To be fair, he has 11 of his 20 starts that he did go at least 6 innings (18 outs), but only 2 of 6 in July.