Words.

by Allen Chace on Jul 4, 2008 7:40 AM EDT in Open Thread

You know. I was all set last night to rant for about 4,568,342 of title. I convinced myself not to, sure I'd come off as ridiculously overly negative, and would turn all of you off from this site forever. Then something happened:

via d.yimg.com

Well. Not that specifically, but you get the point. A big positive for us tonight, in the person of Jon Lester. Definitely helped temper the...temper I felt towards/about this team last night.

Lester was excellent. We can't be too down on ourselves with him and Becks in the rotation. This is what he's capable of, ladies and gentlemen, and this performance nor his no-hitter were flukes. He's not going to do this every time out, but I feel awesome about Jon Lester taking the mound these days.
Coco Crisp is hot. .880 OPS in June. Is it going to keep up? I don't know, but he's definitely helping the Sox and himself out if he still wants to be traded.
Our starting catcher can no longer be up when the game is on the line in the 8th or 9th inning. Just can't happen. Sean Casey can hit, and Alex Cora can kind of run if it comes to that. It's silly to continue showing faith in him. And the hit-and-run with Lowell on-base ahead of him has worked a grand total of zero times out of three million tries in the last two days. At this point, I'm ready for Lowell to be a little bit insubordinate when the sign is given.
DP is on pace for 47 2Bs, 17 HR, and 17 SB. I'm dubious about the HR and SBs, but he's looking well past the point of rebounding after a slow start this season. Drew's been keeping it going as well.
I've seen a lot of people jump right off the MDC bandwagon lately in light of his very recent struggles. Let's hold judgement for now. I still prefer him to everyone but Paps in the late innings of games, though the idea of giving Aardsma a shot in some of those situations doesn't bother me too much. OTOH, I don't know what Hansen needs, but what he and we don't need is for him to be having an even worse run recently than MDC has. Where is '07 Oki when you need him? And WTF did Lopez do to piss Tito off. I'm not saying 8th inning, but he certainly is as good an option as most everyone around lately for the 7th and for situations with Inherited Runners. Sure he's liable to walk guys every so often, but he gets GBs from guys on both sides of the plate.
Daisuke. Dice-BB. Whatever you want to call him. I'm tired of it. The Sox need to look into something for him if he can't put together a few straight starts of 6 IP minimum (with all of those starts, of course, coming in under 110 pitches and with less than 4 walks). Trying not to aim too high here.
Finally, Mike Timlin is back. That's pretty much all I have to say about that.

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Well said! n/t

by NG on Jul 4, 2008 8:53 AM EDT reply actions

Use Pap Earlier, If Needed

I didn’t get too upset the other night when Delcarmen came in to pitch, figuring he had his horrendous outing out of his system. Wrong. However, when Hansen came in, I told friends “Goodbye. We just lost the game. It’s the same idiot who cannot deliver in the clutch. Whiy is Francona doing this? Bring in Papelbon; he’s the only guy who can get us out of this mess.” Sadly, I was right on that one. Hansen chokes again.

That’s the novel approach and I wish Tito had the cahones to do it – put in ace closer when they still have a one-run lead and you’re in a tight situation with runners in scoring position and one or two outs…..even if it’s the seventh. He’s most likely to get the Sox out of the jam, he can pitch the eighth and then give way to someone else, like Aardsma.

I'd take my chances with a lesser reliever and still leading heading into the ninth, rather than using the same bums who blow the game each time, and Pap never even entering  the game!

Sound crazy? Hey, you do what you have to do to win, especially when you’re playing the team who’’s in first place, just ahead of you! We blow two big leads in two big games and Papelbon never gets off the bench? THAT’S crazy.

by ccthemovieman on Jul 4, 2008 10:50 AM EDT reply actions

Timlin is back

He’ll hold the place for Masterson, or Bard, or someone not named Fuentes. I hope.

It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.

by MerryGoByeBye on Jul 4, 2008 12:34 PM EDT reply actions

I'd like to see more innings out of Dice-BB

but I don’t care so much about pitch counts. If the team feels he can go 115-130 pitches deep into games, then he should, because we need innings.

by 0157H7 on Jul 4, 2008 9:30 PM EDT reply actions

I was thinking about it

more from the standpoint that if he’s in the 6th or 7th with the pitch count I outlined, then he probably didn’t walk 3,452 hitters that day. I know he’s kind of a freak in terms of how many pitches he can throw in a game/day.

"Are you a real doctor, or a doctor like Dr. Pepper is a doctor?"

by Allen Chace on Jul 5, 2008 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions

I hate walks as much as the next guy,

possibly more, but if Daisuke can throw 6 or 7 shutout innings with 5+ walks, I’m all for letting him. Walks aren’t a big deal if they don’t lead to runs.

by 0157H7 on Jul 5, 2008 1:51 AM EDT up reply actions

I think walks and hits put the defense on a bad situation

And it also means he’ll have to throw more pitches to get out of innings, and that if he gets unlucky we could be in trouble. However, I agree with you. If Dice-K is able to give us 6-7 solid innings walking how many dudes he wants, I’ll take it.

It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.

by MerryGoByeBye on Jul 5, 2008 9:25 PM EDT up reply actions