greg775

I'd rather have anderson in than Erstad but it's not like Anderson is Willie Mays reincarnated. We needed a better offseason upgrade than Erstad don't you think?? And blame Oz all you want, but Jenks sucked. And the offense was pitiful, simply pitiful. Three hits? There's plenty of blame to go around. So what if Pods' defense was a total laughinstock? There are other reasons we lost besides Oz/Pods. It could be closer by committee soon. Poor Bobby. No heat.

We may still have a great season. It still probably will all depend on pitching, but does anybody else think our offseason tinkering stunk? Burn me at the stake but I am not an Erstad fan.

There are TVs in the press room so the media probably is watching it more and more on TV as well being up so high. They'll get used to it. It's a sign of the times like with colleges ripping out press row and putting big time donors right on the court. That's going to blow up in the colleges' faces, however, when one of those fan donors attacks a ref or opposing player. It's going to happen someday. I think a fan taking a poke at an opposing player more likely than popping a ref.

Kong sure looked frustrated after his last at bat, the line out to rf. It's hard to believe one pitcher (Johan) can be so dominant against us. Is this gonna continue all year and for years to come? I hate to be an ass, but for some reason I'm not a big Erstad fan. Just not. At least our pitching was good again today. So there's hope. But I think you all have to admit it wasn't a good homestand.

I think the point of the article was just to say the press now gets the worst seat in baseball at the Cell. Every other park has the press behind the plate. Some of the writers said in the article they'd do the same if they were the Sox. It's OK they point it out to their readers that their seats now suck. No harm there.

Hope we can hit Silva. Our bats were pretty quiet today vs. Sowers who was begging for an early exit with all those walks. Silva is a rag arm and deserves to be battered all over the field. Our bats have not been loud yet. It's time to rough this guy up.

In my opinion, Hawk is great. DJ is OK, too. I wish they wouldn't yell, "put it on the board ... YES" in unison, though. I wonder why DJ started butting in on that. That's Hawk's call and I wish he'd do it alone. As far as blatant homerism, I still think if you watch a full game, Hawk will utter some negative comments about the Sox. Maybe not this early in the season when criticism is stupid, but as things progress he will criticize the Sox some. Except for Steve Stone, I can't think of another announcer who will do so. I challenge you to find me announcers anywhere who will criticize except the old guard guys. Maybe Uecker will do it or Scully. I don't listen to them. But Hawk is great. My only mild complaint is DJ has to also yell "yes" on Hawk's homer call. I don't understand that one. p.s. Anybody who says "I have a mancrush on (fill in the blank) should be castrated. Dumb saying and my new pet peeve.

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't see it. I hope some of our lefty hitters can come up with a similar at bat or two this season, then. Our guys are going to have to start producing. In this division you can bury yourself in a hurry.

If the Sox had a horrific April and you were GM, would you be tempted to go young and tear it up? I know it's early but I think by the second week of May we're going to know if we've got a team this year or not.

The first post says it all. Coop was the darling of all coaches a couple years ago. He hasn't turned into an idiot in 2 years. It's the pitchers' fault. Today's game was a joke because of the weather. We needed to find a way to win and even the series. We didn't. This isn't starting out well. Cleveland already has won the series and is playing with the house's money and a lefty tomorrow. p.s. Thornton giving up a jack in that weather against a lefty??? What's up with that. Our guys certainly are not producing. Get your head out of your collective asses pitching staff!

Time will tell, but how could the Sox be so dominant a couple years ago and be as bad as you suggest now?

Players (mostly pitching and defense) win pennants, not managers. I don't think anybody managing the Sox would satisfy some of the vocal Internet bashers. You wait and see. Piniella will fail this season because the Cubs have no pitching with the Pryor/Wood fiasco continuing. And what will Moronotti write? I guess he'll blame the GM, not the manager since he switches off between those two in his simplistic columns.

A lot of their guys would start for the Sox cause we platoon so much everybody starts a lot. Sox need to suck it up and win this series. 1-2 or 0-3 will classify as a suck start considering we're playing a division rival at home.

One day does not make a season obviously. I wonder if at season's end Freddy will have better numbers than some of our other starters. I'm just wondering if the Sox used up all their good luck during the title season. Should be interesting to see how BMac and Fred compare to the Sox five starters. I hope it was a one day fluke for Jose. Yikes was he bad. Oh well. We need to win Wednesday. It won't be good to have the Tribe come in and win two of three or three.

I'd rather see Erstad way way down in the order or on the bench on Opening Day. Play BA, especially after he had a big opening day last year.

I know you didn't mean anything too negative by this post, but who cares if a few players dislike him? Wait and see how many Scrubs hate Piniella this year. That one Cardinal didn't speak with LaRussa half of last year. The modern day ballplayer hates a lot of things, except the runner who brings him his paycheck.

I hope he starts BA instead of Erstad on Opening Day.Is he going with Erstad?

That is a pretty amazing stat when you think about it. I'd say that record will never be broken.

How come Travis Hafner can hit lefties and our lefties cannot hit lefties? Just take it the other way, guys. Memo to Thome: You don't need to try to hit 50 hrs this year. When batting against lefties defy the shift and dribble some singles. AJ: Bat on ball, baby. Bat on ball. Go with the pitch Pods.

Maybe. I just don't see, it, though. Really, the Rowand trade proved no player is safe on a team, anyway. So really any player on any team should be concerned about his future with any individual franchise. I'm not saying you are wrong, but I don't see this being an issue with as many vets as the Sox have. For some reason, I am trusting Oz to have learned some things and I have a sneaky feeling we'll be complaining about his using too many players this year than having one set lineup. He's going to be platooning a lot to combat this problem of the Sox lineup against tough lefties. I also can't see him going with Vaz as long as he did last year. I would think he'll make the mistake of leaving him in too long once, then it'll be 5 2/3 inning Vaz.

I agree. There's no way of predicting. I, however, think our starting pitching will bounce back (knock on wood) and I think we do have a pretty good bullpen, assuming MacDougal and Bobby will be the anchors. Our defense should be good if Uribe has another good year in the field. I truly believe Oz will play Ozuna and Anderson against lefties and because of our pitching we will win the division. The lack of a backup catcher is scary. If AJ gets hurt and/or hits .110 vs. lefties, that's not a pleasant thought. It's all about our pitching. I like the fact we have two lefty starters.

There's no guarantee Ozuna is gonna hit CC on Monday, but I would definitely platoon Pods at the age of 31. Thome should hit all pitchers and as a veteran, wise up and just make contact against lefties. How many homers did he blast vs. lefties last year anyway? Also Erstad should never play against lefties. It should be Anderson. It's pretty simple to me, and I bet you, aside from possibly Opening Day, that's what's going to happen. He's going to play Anderson and Ozuna a lot.

Fathom, he's talking about Opening Day, not all season against lefties. Thome will hit lefties all year, but no way will he play Erstad all the time vs. lefties. Ozuna will get tons of at bats, maybe even on Opening Day. Why can't our professional lefthanded hitters shorter their swings and hit lefties better this season anyway?? We're only gonna face two lefties in the Cleveland series alone. It's KW's fault ultimately if he thinks our lefties are a problem against lefties. If the division is lefty dominated, then he should have got us an option besides Erstad and Pods. Though I bet you Ozuna and Anderson are going to play ALOT vs. lefties.

Wow balta, as usual thanks for the stat. AJ played in 140 games? Well, he can do it again. As far as him not hitting lefties, he's not as bad as Thome and Pods is he? Our lineup should suck it up and focus more when we face the lefties of our division this year. We need to get on them early and knock them up and out of the game before they get on a roll. This may be blasphemous, but guys like Thome should confound the shift and just try to get bat on ball against lefties and fricking get on base. Pods and AJ too. Just stroke a single or take a walk. None of these power swings vs. lefties when you are a lefty. Am I off base here???

The point of the original post was "small ball." I think we all agree that was in name only. We've not played small ball at all. The Sox are predicated on home runs. We have for the most part slow plodders. The Sox bunting last year was horrible as you recall. There is no small ball.