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Red Sox Thread

hatsbo

hatsbo

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Aug 3, 2006
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Well into the season and yet not sure what to make of this team. For starters, why are we wheeling Buccholz out there for target practice? Seems like the team lost it's mojo when Holt got hurt and Shaw started struggling with the bat. And have you ever seen a more bipolar pitching staff? Wright has been our most effective starter, yikes. Looks like the O's are the team to beat in the east.
 
Long way to go, starting pitching is the obvious worry. I'm not sure how long the lineup can keep bailing out the team but they are entertaining. Good news is the back end of the 'pen is solid.

This will be a very interesting trade year. They won't be the only team looking for a quality arm.

I'm going to really miss David Ortiz.
 
Sullivan looked decent in his first start, and we won a couple series in a row. Holt and Brentz have been platooning nicely in left. Still looking for the starting pitching to step it up, seems like we are coming from behind most of the time.
 
Nice job with the jinx...Kimbrel out a few weeks now. I still feel okay on the back end.

Eduardo getting called back up and will start in the Bronx Friday. We may have to continue to out-slug the opposition. I heard the Pirates have an arm for sale.
 
Signing Groome (top draft pick) I think allowed the trade to happen.

Pomeranz has had a decent first half but San Diego doesn't get a ton of offense and IIRC they park favors lefty hitters. I'm the type of fan that is cool with the front office as long as they try something rational to improve the weakness of a club. Getting a 27 year-old lefty starter gets my approval, at least in terms of the concept.

BTW, Pomeranz salary is only 1.35 million and is under control for 2 more years so it's not a rent-a-player. Sure, he'll get arbitration but who cares.
 
Boston prospect Kopech hits 105 mph on radar gun
Salem righty softens blow of dealing Espinoza in deal for Pomeranz

By Mike Rosenbaum / MLB.com |


When discussing why he was willing to trade Anderson Espinoza, one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski cited the emergence of Michael Kopech, another right-handed pitching prospect, as one reason. Kopech showed why in a dominant outing on Wednesday night, during which he hit 105 mph with a second-inning fastball.

Making his second start for Class A Advanced Salem, Kopech used his triple-digit heater to rack up eight strikeouts, tying his career high, over five scoreless innings in a no-decision against Wilmington. Boston's No. 4 prospect scattered four hits, walked one and also generated five ground-ball outs, throwing 49 of his 75 pitches for strikes in the outing.

Yet Kopech's performance, which extended his scoreless streak to 13 1/3 innings, was secondary to the velocity he exhibited.

"Our charters in the stands actually texted my trainer during the game, and he didn't tell me until after I got into the clubhouse and stretched out and everything," Kopech said. "I just didn't believe it. [I thought] 'Dude, no way.'

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/189739652/bos-prospect-mike-kopech-throws-105-mph-pitch/
 
It has a role, too, thanks DFS! Guys who hit that always intrigue me and worry me. As someone with a long-time history with top athletes, the clock is ticking on this person and midnight will strike in not too long.

Another concern is Pomeranz has already thrown more innings than he has in any year to date. I still like the move, though.
 
Another thumbs up on the trade, now let's hope Rodriguez can get his act together, tonight would be a good start. Let's not forget the Ziegler acquisition, it's already paid dividends, especially with Tazawa on the 15 day disabled.
 
2 of 3 in the Bronx is solid. You got Price, Pomeranz, Porcello, and Wright all at least respectable. Get something of E-Rod or god forbid Buccholz then things shape up nicely.
 
Bosox stumbling now after series wins over SF and NY post All Star game, Ziegler has blown a couple saves, Minny took 2 of 3, Detroit swept us and our hitting has been punchless in most games lately. Will we go after Sale or stick with our five starters{two of which have been unreliable}?
 
Kimbrel coming back at hopefully the right time. The Rangers certainly made a push today.

Sox still in decent shape, the rotation is stabilizing.
 
The west coast trip didn't go as hoped, but at least it wasn't disastrous, save the Abad blown save to Seattle. Price and Pomeranz had decent outings, one can hope that maybe they can continue to put in some decent starts. Barnes saved Kimbrel's ass last night against the Yanks, we can't afford to lose any series to them at this point. Benintendi has done well in his surprising call up from AA.
 
Nice little run now, the one hiccup being another blown game from Abad and Ziegler. The driving force behind the recent surge is starting pitching, not bad considering Wright and Rodriquez have been battling injuries. Price, Pomeranz and Buchholz have turned in solid performances and Benintendi has shined at the plate and in the field.
 
Buchholz with his annual "wouldn't it be great if he could do this regularly?" game...we'll take the W.
 
Yep, we're riding it baby! He's back to his maddening good Clay. Just enough of a teaser...
 
Interesting that he blew a lead last week as a reliever and then excels again in a starting role. Meanwhile, Wright returns and everyone's now solving him, lol. All other starters are pitching well and continue continue to eat up innings. Coaches have got to be pondering perhaps a six man rotation? They call up Moncado, another AA prospect, but he has now struck out an impressive 7 times in a row, mainly on a diet of breaking balls. Benintendi seems to be the more polished hitter as of now. The Yanks are now making a push and suddenly TB is a thorn in everyone's side, the race is tightening up.
 
A sweep of the Yankees! We barely had business wining 1 let alone 3 of those games. Hanley is hot, big series in Baltimore this week.
 
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True on the no business, we got bounces the Yankees used to get before 2004, lol. Ramirez has been solid this year, but he took over this weekend, seven dingers in the last ten games. Been a crazy year, head is spinning from all the personnel moves, injuries, etc. Young, Koji, Kelly all back and contributing. Holt, the ultimate utility player, not even starting. Wright back on IR, but he's already throwing sessions. The bullpen was in a bit of a funk for a while, but has really amped it up and Farrell has plenty of arms to choose from.
 
Plenty of arms is key. We just need to patch together enough to let the bats shine. If one figures Porcello and Price will be solid in the playoffs then it will be tough to keep this team down for 6-7 games because of the lineup. Sounds a bit like Toronto last year...
 
Maybe it's time to put Kelly back in the rotation and Pomeranz in the pen. Pomeranz has pitched a career high in innings and looked dead in his last start. Buckholtz sucks and Rodriguez is so inconsistent, that it makes me nervous in a 7 game series.

Maybe Allen Craig should...wink, wink...drink from the same fountain as Ortiz and Ramirez. His career went down faster than Dave Stapleton's.
 
Rodriquez looked solid last night, and the pen was strong again. Not sure why Farrell has lost confidence in Ziegler as a set up man.

The anti-Yoan Moncado (has a current streak of 9 straight K's, 1 shy of the MLB record for a non-pitcher), Craig Kimbrel had his streak of 7 straight K's ended last night.
 
Mookie Betts is 18/33 (.545 BA) at Camden Yards this year, with 8 HR's (he has 6 total at all other road ballparks) with an OPS of around 2.0, insane numbers, and he had a another possible HR/extra base hit robbed from him the other night as Hyun Soo Kim snagged a shot that would either have hit the top of the left field wall or just made it over.

Does he snag AL MVP honors, or does Ortiz steal votes from him?

Farrell was close to finally losing his job in May, but may now win the AL manager of the year, Betts the MVP and Porcello the AL Cy Young winner.

The way it is set up now, Price will pitch the last game of the season and Porcello will throw game 1 of the playoffs, unless the Sox clinch before the last day and they hold back Price. If that's the case, who throws game 1, Porcello or Price and who makes that call, Farrell or Dombrowski?

Only 19K at Tuesday night's game, and the Sox fans were loud and always draw well in Baltimore (it would actually be cheaper for my wife and I to fly to Baltimore to catch a game than it actually would be to drive an hour south and catch a game at Fenway). The Sox draw well in Tampa, and it's joked that The Trop is Fenway South, and if that's the case, Camden Yards must be Fenway Mid-Atlantic.
 
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Sox breaking out the brooms again tonight. I'm going to the game @Camden,excited to catch another round of the Big Papi Tour.

Pomeranz needs a rest, hoping they can get enough cushion to get him some.
 
Manch. said:
Maybe it's time to put Kelly back in the rotation and Pomeranz in the pen. Pomeranz has pitched a career high in innings and looked dead in his last start. Buckholtz sucks and Rodriguez is so inconsistent, that it makes me nervous in a 7 game series.
Maybe Allen Craig should...wink, wink...drink from the same fountain as Ortiz and Ramirez. His career went down faster than Dave Stapleton's.
Click to expand...

Your thought about Kelly is crossing a lot of people's minds about now, it could very well happen. I get your gripe about Buchholz's inconsistency, got shelled a couple weeks ago against the Jays in a start and lost a game in relief. But his other five most recent starts he's pitched into the sixth, and only allowed 6 earned runs TOTAL. I have a brother about an hour from Camden and I live 2.75 from him. We went to a couple games there back in May, but it's annoying and strange that we only had midweek series there this year, I might have made at least another trip if not for that. Maybe the O's front office requested that to keep down the NE migration for weekend series there, lol. The attendance issue has been puzzling, but I believe they don't blackout the home games, we get them here in Cville via DTV on MASN. That would be the biggest factor imo, maybe the riots there earlier in the year and higher ticket prices as well have contributed in the drop.
 
Hats, I was thinking the opposite, the O's requested the midweek series so that they can inflate the midweek attendance.

Farrell, IMO, is a very mediocre manager and the only reason he didn't get fired in the off-season was because of his cancer. He has made an awful lot of mistakes in managing a game this year, especially with the pinch hitting and relief pitching.

I think that Chili Davis deserves a ton of credit, and the staff has turned around since they brought in Brian Bannister as the assistant pitching coach in July, especially with Rodriquez and Buchholtz, and even Price started pitching up to his $30 million salary. Coach in waiting Torey Lovullo brought life to the team last year when Farrell left on medical leave and I think he has a lot to do with the Sox turnaround this year, I think he has Farrell's ear more than people realize.
 
I can count on one hand how many times I have rooted for the Yankees and last night was one of them, and they almost choked away a 4 run lead in the 9th after scoring 5 themselves in the top of the 9th.

It's not official, but it is, the Sox will win the East and they now have a half game lead for the best record in the AL and don't have to pitch Price on the last day of the season.

With Rodriquez and Buchholtz pitching well, the pen doing their jobs (23 K's combined the other night vs the Rays, including a MLB record 11 straight), Pedroia dancing with the stars, late come from behind wins, winning on the road (the Sox have a better road record than 23 teams have a better home record), things look bright.

The Sox are reduced to Cadillac problems, now. Who throws Game 1 of the LCS, Porcello or Price?. Do they want the 1 or 2 seed, where they match up better with Cleveland than they do with Toronto? Do they give Sandoval the week to regain his timing and add him to the postseason roster (his career playoff and WS OPS and averages are bether than Ortiz's)?
 
Manch. said:
I can count on one hand how many times I have rooted for the Yankees and last night was one of them, and they almost choked away a 4 run lead in the 9th after scoring 5 themselves in the top of the 9th.

It's not official, but it is, the Sox will win the East and they now have a half game lead for the best record in the AL and don't have to pitch Price on the last day of the season.

With Rodriquez and Buchholtz pitching well, the pen doing their jobs (23 K's combined the other night vs the Rays, including a MLB record 11 straight), Pedroia dancing with the stars, late come from behind wins, winning on the road (the Sox have a better road record than 23 teams have a better home record), things look bright.

The Sox are reduced to Cadillac problems, now. Who throws Game 1 of the LCS, Porcello or Price?. Do they want the 1 or 2 seed, where they match up better with Cleveland than they do with Toronto? Do they give Sandoval the week to regain his timing and add him to the postseason roster (his career playoff and WS OPS and averages are bether than Ortiz's)?
Click to expand...

As a Blue Jays fan, I'll say hold off on the Price doesn't have to pitch last day talk yet. You definitely want Home Field, as if the Jays didn't rest the starters for 2 or 3 games last year they would have had it over the Royals (finished 1 game back) and that likely would've been the difference between losing the LCS and Winning the World Series.

Red Sox have work to do to clinch home field and the Jays won't make it easy on them if they don't have the top Wild Card locked up by then (although it's looking like there is a distinct possibility it will be prior to the final 3 games of the season).
 
Sox clinch the east! Albeit in a loss but I'll take it any way I can. Last 2 times winning the division they've gone all the way. 2016 seems as improbable as 2013 was but you never know.
 
Congrats to the boys for bearing down in the stretch! That was a frustrating game last night, not sure what to think of Kimbrel now, hopefully they'll have the sense to put him on a really, really, really short leash, lol. It sure was a roller coaster of emotions, the way Kelly came in and almost pulled off the miracle... sigh. Saw a post in the LR saying the fans are trying to do a mass mooning tonight when Ortiz comes to bat, could be the headline for the game after us clinching and Texeira's theatrics last night.
 
Well I missed the game last night, I literally was on the last flight out of Jax, lol. Looks like Porcello didn't have it if a .180 hitter knocks one out. Wish they had done better the last week of the season and finished with a little more momentum. Will fast forward through the DVR today, just realized they have another game starting at 4 today, ugh.
 
Well, it's looks like it's up to Buchholz to keep things alive, fingers crossed. I'm not giving up hope yet, after all we witnessed the 04' series against the Yankees. This team is streaky though, winning 11 straight then losing 7 of the last 8 games played, Let's hope they can begin another win streak tonight.
 
Today's a sad day for sure. I think the late-season losses affected the rhythm of the team. In the end we just couldn't com up with hits when needed.
 
Well, the swoon continued for another game and that's all she wrote. Napoli, Coco Crisp and Miller all played a part in our undoing, f'n traitors, lol. Seriously though, we scored 2.33 runs per game in this series and with our pitching, that won't cut it usually. Next year we have Farrell back with maybe no extension? and we lose Ortiz. We're in good shape overall, need to reevaluate and tweak the pitching and find a left handed bat to replicate Ortiz's production this year, lol.
 
hatsbo said:
Well, the swoon continued for another game and that's all she wrote. Napoli, Coco Crisp and Miller all played a part in our undoing, f'n traitors, lol. Seriously though, we scored 2.33 runs per game in this series and with our pitching, that won't cut it usually. Next year we have Farrell back with maybe no extension? and we lose Ortiz. We're in good shape overall, need to reevaluate and tweak the pitching and find a left handed bat to replicate Ortiz's production this year, lol.
Click to expand...

Carlos Beltran may be a good fit there. Not as a clean up hitter necessarily, but somewhere from 3-6. Still a very good hitter, but obviously won't replicate Ortiz' power numbers.

Replacing Ortiz' leadership may be even more difficult IMO. Other than Pedroia, not much leadership (this outsider) can see.

Also, very little from the 2013 roster left on the team for 2017 - I can only think of Pedroia, Bogaerts, Bucholtz, Uehara and Tazawa.

That being said, if the Red Sox can add another starter (legit #2/3) to go with Price and Porcello (doubt he's as good in 2017 as he was in 2016), they'll compete for the ALCS. That lineup is as good as there in the AL especially considering the amount of young guys there.

Jays are in a transition (a lot of FAs after this season incl. Bautista, Encarnacion, and Saunders) so that changes the way they'll play (i.e. can't just expect 5+ a game the way they did in 2015) - but their Starters all return (counting Liriano as #5 not Dickey) so that will help. If they can keep one of Bautista or Edwin they'll be able to compete with Boston for the East (or at least a Wildcard) again.

As a Jays fan I'm very happy to not have had to go through both Boston and Cleveland (I felt Texas was the weakest team of the final 4 in the AL). Cleveland won't be an easy ask as that bullpen is nasty. Still like our chances better against Cleveland than I would've against Boston, b/c IMO Boston could beat you with that lineup as well as the combo of Porcello and Price. Those 2 get hot and they can win a series by themselves. Hoping Cleveland doesn't get a hot Kluber and a 2nd guy or the Jays could find themselves in a similar spot to what just happened to the Sox.

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit, sort of rambled a bunch of thoughts into one post.
 
Rishi - no problem at all. Your thoughts are welcome. I think Betts and Bradley offer leadership and the way guys like Benitendi and Holt play offer good consistent models for a ballclub.

I guess we can write off Sandoval as the Ortiz sequel? Not sure...despite this being the last year of Ortiz and his excellent production I felt like the bulk of the club was a year away.
 
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