dgalehouse

I have been watching baseball for a long time. I can say , without exaggeration, that the Orioles are one of the worst MLB teams I have ever seen. It borders on unwatchable. If this was soccer , they would be relegated to the International League. It is a shame what has happened to the American League. The imbalance is unreal. And the dumb commissioner thinks the answer is increasing the number of batters a reliever must face . Yeah, right . That should help.

I will give the A's and Rays a lot of credit . But the Rays have never won a championship , and the A's have not won one since their glory days when they had big time players . They are not the franchises that you want to model yourself after . This is not fantasy baseball . It's big business , and money talks .

Every free agent signing is a gamble , especially pitchers . But if you don't take the chance , you won't get the top tier players . No guts, no glory .

Sorry to hear that . Best wishes to you .

The Ancient Greek jabroni, Pythagaras , was the originator of the expression " Gee , I wish we could save some of these runs for tomorrow." Sorry Pyth , it doesn't work that way in baseball. Every day is a new game .

What needs to be done this off season is just what should have been done , but wasn't, last off season . Free up enough bucks to spend fixing the bullpen. We are 17 games behind the Yankees . Their owner is no better than ours . Their G.M. is no better than ours . Their manager is no better than ours . Their offense is no better than ours . Their rotation is no better than ours . The one , glaring difference is the bullpen. The way the game is played today , that is vital .Certainly, losing guys like Porcello, Moreland and Cashner can help free up money in that regard . But a major overhaul is not needed. And giving up is definitely not needed.

You're damn right the Sox still have a chance . They have the talent and experience to play well down the stretch . And the Rays and A's are flawed teams that will stumble a bit . I'm not a fool . I know the division is lost . But a wild card is still very possible. It is ironic how some of the same people who were so cocky and overconfident on opening day ( greatest team ever assembled , best manager in history, D.D. did everything right , the bullpen will be fine , we may be even better than last year , etc .) are now the first ones to jump ship when the going gets a little rough . ( Cursing the players , this guy sucks , that guy sucks , Cora sucks , D.D. must go , trade this guy , dump this guy , break up this team , etc. ) This whole site is starting to resemble the game thread , with all the negativity, hating , vitriol , doom and despair . I will not be posting here as often because it has become a major turnoff and gets in the way of enjoying the games and the season . Of course the Sox still have a chance . Just do it .

She has not given up . Neither have I . But many have . And I think I need to take a break from this .

Now we are claiming to know how the team was constructed. The bullpen was an afterthought because we had a highly paid rotation . That would be enough . If true , that is not very smart to begin with . But what I really want to know is , why is it that the fans who insisted that everything would be fine , are now the first ones to throw in the towel and quit on the season ? The season still has plenty remaining. In the ( hokey ) second wild card , we are chasing two overachieving, but flawed teams that could well stumble. But these fans have already given up . It is crazy.

That is a faulty premise . The starters can lose a game without the bullpen even getting a chance to . But the starters can pitch well and have a chance to win , only to see the pen blow it .

Theo won a championship with the Cubs , ending a 71 year curse . Currently in first place in the N.L. Central .

Trying to convince people of something they didn't ever want to believe is a losing proposition. It was the same thing after the 2013 championship. People , to this day , refuse to believe that Cherington blew it through complacency and standing pat . Nothing can change their mind . Deja vu . Nothing more to say . Just leave you with two easy to answer questions. 1 - How many games are we behind the Yankees ? 2 - What is the one , obvious difference in the two teams ?

I'm not kidding . I said from the get - go that the bullpen was going to be a problem. And it has . Others said that it would be fine . They were wrong. But they are not about to admit it . So , they are blaming " overwork " due to the rotation failures . ( Maybe the rotation is demoralized by the blown saves . ) Who knows ? If you mention saves and blown saves , they talk about flaws in the save / blown save rule . Anything but admit what has been obvious from the start . What about the Yankee' s rotation ? Has that killed their bullpen? Bottom line : You ideally want a good pitching staff , both starters and relievers . But the bullpen is very , very important in today's game . Some folks ( apparently including Dombrowski) have still not realized that . No , I'm not kidding. And I was not kidding during the off season .

I do not exonerate the rotation at all . But the idea that they are the main problem is something that has been promoted by some of the more influential posters as a means of deflecting from the predictable failures of the bullpen. Then , others pick up on it .The bullpen struggling because they are overworked is a myth . The struggles are due to the shortage of quality arms . This was apparent from day one . Is the Yankee's rotation any better than ours ? I don't think so . And , Tampa Bay doesn't even have a rotation to speak of .

The Sox struggles this year has spawned a host of deep thinking , excuses and possible solutions , finger pointing , explanations , alibis , pages and pages of stats , sample sizes and time frames and numerous crazy ideas and proposals. Old Occams's Razor would be laughing and saying " It's the bullpen stupid." Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one .

Too many geeks , plus too much time on their hands , equals this sort of nonsense .

Are the Sox going to " reset " their ticket , beer and hot dog prices ?

Upsets are always possible. That does not change the fact that the Royals are one of the worst teams in recent memory . A sweep should be expected. Anything less is not acceptable.

Hernandez has a live arm and strong potential if he can get it together . Johnson does not .

Basically the same team , but minus Kelly and Kimbrel. People tend to shrug this off by saying that Kelly was erratic and Kimbrel struggled in the post season . But that ignores how important they were to the success of the team for three years and three A.L. East titles . Losing them was probably inevitable and unavoidable, but doing absolutely nothing to fill the void was a glaring omission. Especially while the Yankees bolstered their already strong bullpen. And it has definitely hurt all year .

You said , " I think we may be even better than last year." That was way back when . Now , you are giving up .

Kind of hard to finish worse than third with Toronto and Baltimore in the division.

It's not over yet .

As someone who warned during the off season that we were asking for trouble , and was scoffed at for it , I now say this : Why are you all giving up when we are six and a half back with forty eight to play ? While coming back is difficult , it is certainly not impossible or unprecedented. How can you give up now ?

Beaten by the Yankees farm team . Doesn't get much worse .