Official Rant and Rave Red Sox thread

Ya, the Red Sox have an extremely good bullpen and with Gagne added to it, it doesn't get much better. I just wish they wouldn't let the Yankees get so close again. I hate when we do this....we get a huge lead, then towards the end of the season near playoffs, we blow it. But ya, Okajima is amazing, and I am glad we utilized him. He has been a key player on the team this year, and I kinda think he is worth more than Dice-K in my opinion.
 
Swept by the Yanks. But still 5 games up in the division, if the Sox go 14-14 over the remainder of the season (vs. the Rays/Jays/and O's), Yanks still need to go 20-8 to win the division.
 
Has Red Sox Nation upgraded to Defcon 3 yet? Maybe even Defcon 2?
 
yeah its defs code red right now. a sweep? after hitting 46 runs in a series? JOKE! our pitchers got lazy, francona got too comfortable.
 
kennedy said:
yeah its defs code red right now. a sweep? after hitting 46 runs in a series? JOKE! our pitchers got lazy, francona got too comfortable.
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Please. The pitchers didn't get lazy, the Yankees offense is the best in baseball and makes good pitching look average. The Sox didn't play well in this series period. I refuse to blame Francona for that, I don't get why everyone always jumps all over Francona when the Sox start to lose. I will say that I thought he left Daisuke and Beckett out there too long and it cost them. That's what I didn't get. It's really one of my few complaints about Francona this year aside from not bunting in a few situations but the Red Sox rarely sacrifice so...who knows.

I will say that I thought the Red Sox lacked passion for this series. They didn't really seem like they were that into it. It looked like they were going through the motions. The offense isn't good against good pitching. They beat up on the White Sox who have totally given up and their bullpen is one of the worst I've ever seen.

Personally, I'm not at Defcon 3 yet. I still (as I always have) liked the Sox to win the division. I'm not too confident about their chances in the play-offs though because their offense is anemic. If they can get some timely hitting, their pitching staff is good enough to carry them but the offense needs to step it up.
 
Francona being comfortable is bringing in rookies who, albeit good, haven't entirely proved themselves outside of the farm system. Against a very worthy (even if they record doesn't agree) opponent. He thought he was fine for the season, or at least a little while, after the beat CWS.
 
kennedy said:
Francona being comfortable is bringing in rookies who, albeit good, haven't entirely proved themselves outside of the farm system. Against a very worthy (even if they record doesn't agree) opponent. He thought he was fine for the season, or at least a little while, after the beat CWS.
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I don't get what you're talking about. Which rookies outside of Pedroia, Okajima and Matsuzaka (who aren't really rookies) are you talking about?

No rookies played in that series against the Yankees. I assume when you wrote "a very worthy opponent" you meant the Yankees and not the Orioles who we just played. If you're talking about the Orioles, Drew got hurt and Manny was out so they had to play Moss and Ellsbury is going to be playing more anyways with Drew sucking as bad as he is.

So again, which rookies did you not want him to play?

(After this weekend, it seems everyone has stepped down off the ledge...at least for now.)
 
Clay Buckholz almost made me cry with that no-hitter! Simply amazing, I am loving the Sox this year. And as for our lead, I am not worried at all. We got a good schedule coming up, and we will keep winning, with a few losses here and there, but as long as we keep a 5 game lead over the Yanks, I'll feel great. Right now this 7 game lead is great, we just gotta finish off the Blue Jays this week and then soon enough we will be playing the Yanks here at Fenway, and I know we will stomp them! I am confident in them this time, they will do great, especially since we aren't at Yankee Stadium taking crap from those jackasses. Anyways I could not be happier with the team right now, we got a lot of young talent, and our hitting is on fire. We got one of the best defenses in the AL, and we got the momentum and confidence to win it all this year. GO SOX!
 
Soooo... how about Randy moss today? The next 16+ weeks promise to be lots o' fun!
 
Ya, Patriots did awesome today. Ellis Hobbs set a new record! 108 yards! DAMN!

Why are all of New England's teams so stacked this year?
Red Sox are amazing, the Pat's are beastly, and the Celtics are stacked too! What is going on? Could we see 3 championships this year? :wink:
 
That would be so diculous, it would be RI-diculous.
 
Eric Gag-me is officially the worst thing to happen to the Red Sox since 2003.
 
I'd rather be cell-mates with O.J. than see that ass-clown take the hill again an a Sox uniform. Worthless.
 
This offense isn't good enough to overcome pitching like that. They should only put Gagne in when they're down or up by 6+ runs. I really liked the trade when they did it, but Gagne keeps shitting himself on the mound.

This team is done. The offense is pathetic against good pitching, and it looks like they're getting Cleveland in the first round. Sabathia/Carmona 2x each doesn't look like a good match-up for the Sox.
 
This team is far from done. Magic number is 3, Yanks are back 3 with 5 games to go...

The Sox went without Manny for 24 games. During that span, the Red Sox were 12-12. NINE (9) (Neun) (IX) (nueve) of the 12 losses were by 1 or 2 runs. With Manny Ramirez, who has averaged 133 RBI-per-season in his career (just under 1 RBI per game), and Kevin Youkilis in the lineup, we win at LEAST 3 of those nine games, making their record over that stretch 15-9, and the division would be clinched by now.

Also consider Manny's .359 batting average over the last three years vs. the New York Yankees (and .392 BA this year), you can make a significant argument that a couple of the the 4 losses within 1 or 2 runs vs. the Yankees (3 of those within 1 run) since his injury might have gone the other way.

Without Manny Ramirez, the Red Sox have, like every team entering the playoffs, a 1-in-8 chance of winning the World Series. We've seen teams barely over .500 win the world series. We've seen teams with 100+ wins get knocked out in the first round. I'd like to think our chances with Manny in the lineup are pretty good.

Fausto Carmona is not proven in the playoffs, and one good 8-inning shutout of the Sox in his only career start vs. the Sox is far from proof that lightening will strike twice. In 2 save opportunities versus the Boston Red Sox in 2006, he blew both saves. Which Carmona will we see? You can't be sure.

I'm not arguing that the Sox will definately win the World Series by any means. I am, however, arguing that this team is not, as you say, "done."
 
castevens said:
This team is far from done. Magic number is 3, Yanks are back 3 with 5 games to go...
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When I wrote they're "done" I didn't mean the playoffs, I meant in terms of having a chance to win the WS. They had already clinched (basically) at least the Wild Card spot when I wrote that.

I understand they went without Manny, but let's not think that this year's Manny Ramirez was even close to past years. He didn't have the pop in his bat from the get-go. He was going to drive in 100 runs, sure. But he wasn't going to put up his usual .300-30-120 line by any stretch of the imagination.

And Kevin Youkilis is the most over-rated player on the Red Sox. Everyone preaches about his great at-bats and his patience at the plate. If you've watched the second half of the season, he's been flailing away at pitches down and away, he's had trouble on inside fastballs (which is why he's hit so much, because they're gonna pound him inside until he learns to hit that pitch).

Also consider Manny's .359 batting average over the last three years vs. the New York Yankees (and .392 BA this year), you can make a significant argument that a couple of the the 4 losses within 1 or 2 runs vs. the Yankees (3 of those within 1 run) since his injury might have gone the other way.
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This I'll give you. The Yankees games could have and probably would have turned out a little differently. I'm not saying that in the last six, instead of going 1-5 they got 5-1, but they at least win one extra game. Manny was a shell of himself this year (pre-injury) but he still had huge numbers against the Yankees.

Fausto Carmona is not proven in the playoffs, and one good 8-inning shutout of the Sox in his only career start vs. the Sox is far from proof that lightening will strike twice.
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I always hate that logic. "This guy isn't proven in the playoffs." How proven was Felix Rodriguez when after exactly one month on the Angels he dominates the playoffs and helps them win the World Series? How much playoff experience did Josh Beckett and the rest of the young Marlins pitching staff (Willis, Penny, Burnett) have when they completely shut down very good and great (the Yankees) offenses to win the 2003 World Series? Experience is over-rated, give me the guys with the best stuff and I'll take my chances.

In 2 save opportunities versus the Boston Red Sox in 2006, he blew both saves. Which Carmona will we see? You can't be sure.
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Please. Have you seen Carmona pitch this year? He's added a pitch since he was a closer and it's totally different being a starting pitcher and being a closer. Ask Derek Lowe. Derek Lowe pooped his pants the same way Carmona did, on many occasions as the Sox closer, and he turned out pretty good in '02. I think he won 20 games that year.


I don't think the Sox are "done", that was probably a bit too reactionary to what was going on at the time. I think though that to have any chance of winning the World Series their hitting is going to have to actually pull it's head out of it's ass. Even with Manny in the line-up the Sox were struggling to hit good pitching. They need to change that because in the playoffs there's plenty of good pitchers. Drew looks to be coming around and if they can get anything out of him like what he's been doing lately they'll be in good shape.

They also need a pitcher to start the third game. Right now I wouldn't want Dice-K pitching the third game of a Tampa Bay series in April, much less a series in October. I'd think of starting Bucholz, the teams they'll play have never seen him and that's an advantage for the kid.
 
Over rated is a description. It doesnt mean that Youkilis would, or WOULDN'T have driven in the game winning run in any of those games we lost. Just because he's overrated doesn't mean he wouldn't have contributed more to the team than Hinske did in his absence.

Just because you hate my logic, doesnt mean it's wrong. For every Felix Rodriguez you give me, I can give you 10 pitchers who were killer in the regular season and failed miserable in the playoffs. That argument works both ways, it's just that we remember the "unproven" guys that are lights out in the playoffs for longer. Why? Because they were unproven in the first place.

I'll tackle the rest later. I have work
 
castevens said:
Over rated is a description. It doesnt mean that Youkilis would, or WOULDN'T have driven in the game winning run in any of those games we lost. Just because he's overrated doesn't mean he wouldn't have contributed more to the team than Hinske did in his absence.
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No, it doesn't mean he wouldn't have driven in more runs or done more to help the team than Hinske. You could say that about any player though. What if they used Cora at first base? Who's to say that he wouldn't have done better than Hinske? That's second-guessing and I don't think it really applies. If David Ortiz goes 0-10 in his next ten AB's would you say "Well if they used Moss or Hinske as the DH, they COULD have won more games". You play who's healthy, you play who's better.

The Yankees and plenty of other teams could say the same thing when the Red Sox faced certain teams that didn't have their best players playing due to injury. That's baseball. For every team you get when their star or valuable player is injured, you're going to have games when you in the opposite situation.

Would Youkilis normally be an upgrade over Hinske? Absolutely. Would Manny be an upgrade over Moss on those games? Absolutely. It doesn't mean that you can just take their stats and put them in the place of their replacement. They could have done worse, they could have done better. You'll never know. I don't like to use "we didn't have XYZ" as an excuse, it's part of the game. However, I will in this instance say that I believe Youkilis would have done better over Hinske who's batting .118 in September. I'm going to ASSUME Youkilis would have hit much higher.


[quoteJust because you hate my logic, doesnt mean it's wrong. For every Felix Rodriguez you give me, I can give you 10 pitchers who were killer in the regular season and failed miserable in the playoffs. That argument works both ways, it's just that we remember the "unproven" guys that are lights out in the playoffs for longer. Why? Because they were unproven in the first place.[/quote]

Okay, name me the ten. I can think of another guy off the top of my head: Bobby Jenks. The closer from the White Sox was a huge part of White Sox winning in '05. Using your logic, you must be nervous about Papelbon this postseason. He's never been a closer in the post-season and has only pitched 4 innings. Pedroia and Ellsbury must also worry you, since they've never proven themselves in the post-season.

My point is you'd take talent over experience all day in the playoffs. There are some exceptions where veteran pitchers (Schilling, Wells) seem to come alive and pitch out of their minds in the play-offs and there's also times when guys without much experience don't fare so well. More often than not, the guys with the best stuff, do well whatever the situation. Kenny Rogers made 9 starts in the postseason before his incredible run with the Tigers last year, and basically sucked. You wouldn't have said "I'll take Kenny Rogers over Carmona" before last year because of experience.
 
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