Not as Good as the Record Shows

by 75bandwagon on Sep 30, 2009 2:41 AM EDT

It's the small things that win games and we aren't doing them

Why would you not intentionally walk Lind after he had hit two homers off the starting pitcher? What was Riddick (a rookie) doing out there as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning? And why wasn't Ellsbury running with Pedroia at the plate? Tito had no problem sending Roberts in 2004. And Youkilis looking at a called third strike after doubling his last time at bat?

And let me go back to Sunday. What in God's name was Woodward doing in at SS in the bottom of the eighth? We all saw what he did. And bring Bard in to pitch to Texiera? What a great idea.

We are going to end up losing our way into the post season. And the only reason we're going to Anaheim is because of a weak September schedule and a complete implosion by the Rangers. And the collpase of the Jays and Rays turned it into a two team race as well. I really believe that this could be the worst post season-bound team that we've had since the inception of the wild card. We have been embarrassingly bad since we swept the Orioles.

I love this team and I've rooted for them nearly my whole life. I really want us to do well in the post season, but based on prior seasons I just don't have a warm and fuzzy going into the playoffs. Our biggest asset, our bullpen, has become an Achilles heel for us now. As far as playoff teams are concerned we are just not that good.

I'll be waiting for the usual lambasting that I know I'm going to get, but we are going into the playoffs with no kind of momentum and I just don't like that. I hope I'm wrong.

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Hey! It's 75Bandwagon!!

We must have lost last night.

Perhaps I’ll bother reading this later on.

Goddamn that DeMarlo Hale.

by Bloggy on Sep 30, 2009 7:12 AM EDT reply actions

Please don't acknowledge him

It’s become obvious to me that the motive behind each post is to get a reaction. Whether he is a rival fan trying to stir up trouble or it’s simply a plea for attention, ignoring the action is the best course of action. This is my first and last comment on the subject.

by mg050369 on Sep 30, 2009 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Sep 30, 2009 7:22 AM EDT reply actions

... Speechless?

@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation

by bdalebs on Sep 30, 2009 6:12 PM EDT up reply actions

So we become a postseason team

Something you thought wouldn’t happen so long ago and you find a way to complain even though you were wrong, something you should be happy about? Listen, we’re playing October baseball, does that hurt your soul or something? Are you incapable of joy? Because that’s what I’m starting to think. All bets are off in the playoffs, anything can happen, a team can go down three games to one of the best teams in baseball and still win the series. Whatever happened last night or the several nights before that have no bearing on what is going to happen next week. We had a really hot streak going up until last weekend, we faltered a little, maybe it’s just clinching game jitters, either way we have a lot of players on this team with proven post season resumes. Also, the game is different in the postseason, we aren’t going to see a lot of Wake (assuming he makes post season roster) or Byrd. It’ll be Beckett, Lester, Dice-K, Buchh most of the way and in the postseason, I feel pretty darn good about it.

Rejoice! Tomorrow is October!

"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.

by Rogue Nine on Sep 30, 2009 8:07 AM EDT reply actions

Hey

I have a suggestion-don’t watch the playoffs. Seriously, if you have a bad feeling maybe you should sit this one out.

by Buzzy on Sep 30, 2009 8:35 AM EDT reply actions

I agree

I’ve not been able to log on as much as I want to since school has started, but it seems like every time I do. I see a post like this…..or “Response to:” (which just needed to be a reply), or “Bad Decision”, or “Show of Hands”.

There was about a 25 day span where I didn’t see any negative posts from 75bandwagon, or any posts at all for that matter……………….oh, wait, we were dominating during those 25 days! oops

by Brad West on Sep 30, 2009 7:49 PM EDT up reply actions

In defense of this position,

you must know that a championship caliber team does ntotfinish out the season like we are now doing. A championship caliber team does not perform as badly on the road as we have this year, and now we are not performing well at home. You must know if you watch this team for any amount of time, that this is a disappointing team this year and getting worse daily. I would be shocked if they make it through the first round of the playoffs.

by NG on Sep 30, 2009 8:04 PM EDT up reply actions

you are full of shit.

did you know that of the last 9 teams to win the world series 4 have backed in, 3 have been blah down the stretch and 2 have been a hot-NG caliber team. Of the 4 that backed in, the 2000 Yankees lost their last 7 straight games+the first 2 in the playoffs before turning it around. The 7 straight losses in the regular season were to the 2 worst teams in the AL. In 2002 the Angels went 5-8 in their last 13 and lost their divison lead in that short stretch. The entered the playoffs as a wild card and won the world series. If you go back even further you will see the same thing in 95, 97, and we have already mentioned 2006 and 2007. So history shows, once again, that you are wrong.

by Buzzy on Sep 30, 2009 8:59 PM EDT up reply actions

There is no definition anywhere of a “championship caliber team”. No where. As far as I’m concerned that once day one of the playoffs start all bets are off. You probably climbed far far under that rock in 2004 and every sentence you said probably started with “a championship caliber team doesn’t lose the first three games of a series” however that team went on to sweep the main event. The Yankees sucked it up the first half of the season yet are a championship caliber team, the Angels also looked out of it for a while. The Dodgers were once easily the favorites in the NL now I’m not so sure, then it was the Phillies, and now I think the Cardinals are easily the favorites with that crazy offensive lineup of theirs. But you know what? Anyone of them can flame out in the first round. Did you think the Rockies were going to play us in 07? Sure they were hot but sweeping until the WS? Our odds of making the World Series are exactly the same as the Yankees, Angels, Tigers, Phillies, Dodgers, Rockies or Cardinals right now. How players play in the post season doesn’t always reflect the way they are in the regular season. Papelbon hasn’t been scored on in about half a season’s worth of relief in the playoffs, has he gone 25 innings in the regular season without giving up a run? I’m pretty sure that’s a no. I’m glad we’re getting a lot of crappy play out now.

We’re in the playoffs! Look at that glass half full for the first time in your lives and quit trying to find the team’s flaws in spite of all the bright spots. And also, after all your doom and gloom in August can’t you admit that maybe your opinions of baseball are wayyy off base considering both you and bandwagon were saying something to the effect of “we aren’t a playoff caliber team”? Funny thing there is that WE ARE.

"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.

by Rogue Nine on Sep 30, 2009 9:06 PM EDT up reply actions

And yet the barely .500 Cardinals destroyed the Tigers in the 2006 World Series. And the 2003 Florida Marlins, 38-43 on the road in the regular season, won the World Series. And the MFY won the 2000 World Series despite only winning 87 games. And the 1997 Florida Marlins, a team that won 40 games on the road, overcame an Atlanta squad that won 50 at home and 51 on the road to get to the Series, where they beat a Cleveland Indians team that won just 86 games and upset the MFY (96 wins) and Baltimore Orioles (98 wins).

And then there are teams like the 2001 Seattle Mariners. 116 wins, 57-24 at home and 59-22 on the road. They barely survived a far inferior Indians team in the Division Series, then got smoked by a good but not great MFY team. Or the 2007 Colorado Rockies. No team has ever been hotter going into the World Series — they won 13 of their last 14 regular season games, then won the wild card in a tie-breaker, then swept their Division Series and the NLCS. So they’d won 21 of 22 games when they came up against the Sox and got destroyed in four straight.

So it would seem that there is only one thing “championship caliber teams” all have in common when it comes to the regular season — they all win enough to get to the postseason. After that, it’s anyone’s ballgame.

by RSNexile on Sep 30, 2009 9:29 PM EDT up reply actions

You could be right in the past, but not this year.

The team playing the last 6 games will not reverse the trend like the ones you are talking about. No team IMO has performed as poorly as the Sox have the last 6 games and come back to win. The game tonight sealed their fact IMO, as the most embarrassing major league performance in regular season that I have ever seen. Maybe the playoffs are not even that important if such embarrassment and lack of pride to the franchise is now on record.

by NG on Sep 30, 2009 10:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Wow

So you just sit there, look at the evidence that performance going into the playoffs doesn’t really matter and just say, that’s not going to happen this year? Are you Nostradamus reincarnated? Can you please write up a few cryptic haikus about the future that in 50 years I can say “Oh yeah he was definitely talking about that.”

"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.

by Rogue Nine on Sep 30, 2009 10:37 PM EDT up reply actions

This comment abslutely convinced me that NG is someone playing a joke on us all. It is really that absurd.

"Ninety percent [of my salary] I'll spend on good times, women, and Irish whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
-Tug McGraw

by BTLove on Oct 1, 2009 1:22 AM EDT up reply actions

I have suspected that from time to time...

by Buzzy on Oct 1, 2009 8:08 AM EDT up reply actions

I take jokes seriously all the time.

If nothing else, it makes it funnier.

@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation

by bdalebs on Oct 1, 2009 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions

You really are a farce

The only thing that shows embarrassment and lack of pride is you. You’d be calling for everyone’s head if the Sox had won 120 games this year and took the last 10 off. If the Sox win the World Series you won’t enjoy it because you’re too invested in their failure, and if they don’t win you’ll be celebrating because you’d rather be right for the wrong reasons than watch your team win it all. You’re the worst kind of fair-weather fan.

by RSNexile on Oct 1, 2009 5:28 PM EDT up reply actions

I think there are lots of potential fans

that feel basically as I do about what is happening with this team this year and especially the last few games, but they don’t say anythng here because of intimidation by you rose colored glasses fans that have a broken record mantra that this team can do not wrong.

by NG on Oct 1, 2009 7:41 PM EDT up reply actions

None of us are wearing rose colored glasses

We all recognize that this team has deficiencies. Your problem is that you consider it the gravest of personal insults when the Sox don’t score 20 runs and the pitchers don’t no-hit the opposition. You revel in any problems the Sox have and bad mouth whatever success they have. And so I repeat: you’re the worst kind of fair-weather fan.

by RSNexile on Oct 1, 2009 8:08 PM EDT up reply actions

I expect success; otherwise, I would not be watching.

It is the default position for my involvement, so of course I express displeasure when that default is seen as failing. I especially go ballistic when the team loses intentionally, a mistake that should cost the manager his job. A public apology to all fans, espeiclaly those attending the game, may suffice, but it better not happen again.

by NG on Oct 1, 2009 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions

What does winning any of these games mean? If we win, really nothing happens, the wildcard was locked up and we didn’t have any realistic shot at getting the division. If we lose? We’re still in the playoffs, we just had to win one game or Texas had to lose one. What if we throw the starters out there and Youk gets hit or AGonz pulls a muscle or say Jon Lester gets hit in the knee with a ball. Throwing the b-squad out in a meaningless game makes sense at this point, give the starters, the guys who probably could use a day off just that, it doesn’t hurt the team’s position in the grand scheme of things. If I was a rational human being attending that game? Awesome, I just got to see the Red Sox play in Fenway! And I got to see one of the best pitchers of this decade pitch a great game against a few Boston players who in the coming years I’ll be cheering for (Reddick, Lowrie). If I was a rational fan at the game I probably wouldn’t be too upset because I would know that the players are being rested for something bigger.

"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.

by Rogue Nine on Oct 1, 2009 10:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Fire Tito!

That good for nothing SOB has failed 42% of the time this year! Would you want a doctor who failed 42% of the time? How would you feel if the guy you hired to repair the brakes on your car failed 42% of the time? What if you failed to do your job 42% of the time? You’d get fired, wouldn’t you?

Dammit, Theo should cut every hitter who has failed 42% of the time or more, too! You can’t possibly win a World Series if your batters only get hits 58% of the time! And don’t even get me started on the pitchers — those incompetent morons haven’t won even once this year by striking out all 27 batters on 81 pitches!

by RSNexile on Sep 30, 2009 3:13 PM EDT reply actions

I would fire him, seriously, for the performance tonight, Wednesday night!

by NG on Sep 30, 2009 10:12 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm glad you're not running the Sox, NG

I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.

by Drugs Delaney on Sep 30, 2009 10:31 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

Rec'd.

@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation

by bdalebs on Sep 30, 2009 11:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Me as well

The “joke team” put out there by Tito was the best thing he could do.

by Ben Buchanan on Oct 1, 2009 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions

I Live in New York...

…in the heart of MFY-land, and I almost hate to say it, but even Yankee fans generally don’t call for their manager’s head because of one game—especially a game in which said manager did nothing wrong.

"Three-pointer from the parking lot...YES! The Golden Griff!"

by Dr. Dunkenstein on Oct 5, 2009 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Don't take NG as a representive of OTM.

@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation

by bdalebs on Oct 5, 2009 7:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Do us all a favor and get a job with the MFY

You’d fire him for playing scrubs in a game that the team is best off treating like spring training? If you’re serious, I will make it my mission in life to get you put in charge of all personnel decisions for the MFY because you’re too ridiculous to make a good decision.

by RSNexile on Sep 30, 2009 11:14 PM EDT up reply actions

I think CC would make a great SS.

"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.

by Rogue Nine on Oct 1, 2009 12:41 AM EDT up reply actions

I would like to see a lefty play short

by RSNexile on Oct 1, 2009 5:28 PM EDT up reply actions

I had totally never consdidered how difficult that would be.

@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation

by bdalebs on Oct 1, 2009 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

I played a little SS in slow pitch softball

It can be done (in rec leagues) but it’s hard as you have to take round about angles to get at the ball. Third base wasn’t that bad, second base (especially turning a double play) is horrific. I think you would need to be a very gifted athlete to be a servicable lefty handed SS in the pros.

by mg050369 on Oct 1, 2009 7:47 PM EDT up reply actions