oldtimer

Farrell may succeed in that without any contribution from Pablo.

I'll secod that.He was supposed to be a setup man for Papelbaum. He had good velocity but it was the straightest fastball I have ever seen and he liked to throw it down the middle. I think he was the most disappointing when one remembers the hype he was given coming in.

Maybe we need more enthusiasm in management. When we had the cowboy up attitude on the team we seemed to overcome obstacles. On today's team we don't have that kind of flamboyance and grit.

Ouch. We lost with our ace on the mound when our ace had a very solid outing.The cry will go out to add a player who can help us. Will we stay internal with Devers? If not, will we go out and get that meaningful power hitter and perhaps make further impact on our salary cap position?

The lineup tonight will have Beni on the bench and Young in the game. Perhaps a little time off will help him get his confidence back.

Don't overhype the kid. Remember when Moncada came up last year. There is a need and he may be able to fill it but the FO has to be careful with timing.

Funny how it was the Cardinals who self destructed in the first game not the Sox. I find Farrell to be impassive and some of his moves seem off the wall, but he is our manager for this year. I doubt it will go into next year if the team doesn't perform well this year. As far as Ortiz being manager, he would be a great person to motivate some of our players but is definitely not a man who has trained to be a baseball manager at any level. I find it hard to bellieve anyone would seriously suggest that move.

Francona also saw JD as having incredible talent but his comments about his passive and uninvolved temperment took away from what he added to the team.

I think we all have to have patience with Beni and keep our expectations within reason. He got placed into the cleanup spot and is really not a cleanup hitter, although the Red Sox don't have one now. Perhaps the closest being Hanley. Another move by Farrell that may have backfired. Now Beni may be losing a little of the confidence that bouyed him through the early season. Beni will be all right but should be moved in the order. It might relieve the pressure and get him restarted.

When i was a youngster, I remember how I idolized Ted Williams. I remember scoring a game where the were way behind in the ninth and they scored something like 7 runs to win it. Williams of course has a big hit in that run. That kind of thing stays with a kid. Even recently I read his little book on hitting and found it interesting. The guy was my hero even though I realize today he wasn't the best fielder. On the other hand, I was in the sky box seats with my dad when Yaz and Smith came up back to back and struck out with men on and maybe one run behind. It looked to me that they were both trying to be heros with their overswings. Yaz was a greaat player but i didn't think of him the same way as Ted.

Francona's book implied many problems could be attributed to Lucchino.

Our recent history with FA and traded for field players is poor, while our home grown players has been good. Maybe we need to stay on our strength and bring up Devers instead of bringing in some has been star. Beltre was probably still capable and I am not knocking him but if I was selling the Brooklyn Bridge, I would look to the Sox front office for interest.

In retrospect, the FO made terrible decisions and JH is living with them. I don't blame him for not being reassured by the new fo's likelihood of getting it right the next time. Craig Catillo Sandoval Rameriz (at least he had one good year so far) Price (7 years at $30 million, come on!) Then we have the dismantling of our minor leagues which has to be considered a big loss in many ways including financial. Pomeranz, Thornburg, Smith) If not for Sale and Kimbrel, I would say our FO doesn't have a clue.

Last night he played a ball off of the wall but hesitated in his throw. He also lost a ball in the lights. It is true, that he is young and will get better. He has the tools and we have to have the patience.

My dad was a newspaper man in Boston. He lived an Cambridge in 1896 and remembered some of the oldest days of the Sox and the Braves. Kind of a knothole gang kid. I was sorry he didn't get to see the later days when the Sox finally won after so long a drought. He passed in 1978. At any rate, we listened to the Sox on the radio and we scored the games.In my case I started listening in 1946 and it was a great year as the team was excellent, but of course couldn't quite get it done. We finally got a car in the early 50's and TV came in the late 50's. My dad could get sky box seats on occasion and it wwas a great treat to visit the park for us. Much later in my college days I could walk over and sit in the bleechers for day games. It was inexpensive then.

It's hard for me to believe a 7 year high cost deal for a pitcher with a lot of mileage will work out favorably. More likely we will get diminishing returns or outright injury prone years going forward along with the $30 million salary. Not Price's fault but the decision makers. I hope he can come back and pitch decently this year as we really need a 4th starter now, let alone a 5th sarter. DD is to some degree encumbered with some of the prior and expensive deals. Pablo and Hanlley do impact the salary cap while Catillo and Craig are more omens of what can go wrong with signings. Hanley seemed to be comfortable with his role last year and performed well while Pablo did not and may not goiing forward. Hard to criticize DD a lot for trying to stay below the salary cap with resignings of some of our best young talent on the horizon. I wonder though about our program with pitchers where we seem to have an inordinate amout of injuries and underperformances. Is there something going on there with the coaching staff where our hoped for starting and relief pitching is oft injured and/or underperforming? Individual players also have to be accountable but we appear to be coming up short after three starters and one reliever.

I thought this thread was about the rotation. It appears to been hijacked to talk about potential hitters for the Red Sox. We have three solid starters with a hope that Price can come back and be the 4th. Who the 5th starter will be is illusive at this point. Our bull pen has been weak, with Barnes and Hembree having very poor appearances of late.

My impression of Farrell is a person who is impassive. It is hard to know what goes on in the dugout or the locker room, but he has given me the impression of a sitting Buddha. Francona was more a friend of the players and his approach certainly worked although he might have had trouble getting along with some in the front office who has now gone. I wouldn't think of Ortiz as someone who would manage a team day to day, but one who could be a motivator.

Marrero has looked very solid defensively at third. I doubt he can hit enough to be a regular there.

I wondered about whether Beni's early success has resulted in him trying to do too much. When the team had the bases loaded with one out I believe, Beni appeared to be swinging for the fences and so did Moreland. Maybe a fly ball would have brought a run in. It could be he just has to adjust his thinking as he has excellent form now.

Hembree sucked again today. We need to get Thornburg and Smith healthy soon as our bull pen appears to have some serious holes.

Beni is a 0 for 5 games now. Have the opposing teams found something to exploit? I don't know but a cleanup hitter that doesn't get a hit in 5 games is not where the team wants to be.

Overall record for a pitcher with a lot of innings may not be the best view of present and future capability. The track usually is downward in velocity and effectiveness. If he can be reasonably effective as a #3 starter and eat a lot of innings he will help the team. Doing that is by no means certain for a guy coming back from arm issues. He is our $30 mil a year man and will be for years to coe so I hope he can still be effective.

Beni's gone into a mini-slump. He is still making contact most at bats but without results. Hope his luck improves as a long term slump might impact his confidence.

We have used 6 third basemen this year and it is only May 12th. So far our players have been error prone and are collectively hitting near the bottom of all ML players at that position. There is only one reason for not bringing up a young player like Devers and that is the concern that early exposure might hurt his confidence going forward. By accounts i have read he is a decent fielder with a strong arm and he hits with power. The major league pitching might be too much for him at this point and we have a lot of players on contract but if he could succeed, we would be a better team.