Soxbadger

No it was smart. Ozzie waited for them to announce the hitter and then got the match up. Now its up to Thornton. This was all part of the plan, let Thornton go in after other people have messed up so he knows hes not alone. WE ARE UNITED IN OUR SCREW UPS!

Crain k's Suzuki. Need a double play and we put this behind us.

I can forgive Sale giving up hits, but you cant walk guys in the 9th, you absolutely have to make them beat you.

Need a k or a double play DO IT CRAIN

As long as Sale throws strikes, he should be okay. Just cant walk people.

Lets do it Sale.

Did Anderson throw a strike to Morel? If so, thats foolish.

It looked like a comedy routine to me. Slept under the table at a bar?

Yep if the Sox had an 80mil payroll they would only make good decisions with the money. They definitely wouldnt sign guys like Jaime Navarro Hindsight is 20/20, you have to still believe that there is going to be a good amount of money poorly spent, you just have a ton less options and wiggle room. They could have really improved the team by keeping Kotsay and not signing Dunn, or maybe instead of Rios in the OF we could have that Brian Anderson guy. WALK OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

It wasnt right down the middle, definitely a pitchers pitch and with the way the ump has been calling them, glad Rios said something. I have no problem with it being called a strike, just this guy has been all over the place.

Youre right, the Sox should spend less. Spending more money is what is making this team bad. Prior to 2005 when the Sox werent spending money they went to so many more playoffs, dont you remember the great times of 1983, 1994 and 2000. They were like every year events. Im not even sure what you are arguing at this point, because it cant really be that if the Sox spent less money theyd win more. (its so ridiculous I cant even post it right)

Yeah that same Twins team that is under 500. Im not sure that there is any twins fan who would trade records with us, regardless of how we got here.

im not confusing payroll with wins at all. Run the average wins of teams with highest payroll, Yankees versus the team with one of the lowest payrolls, Pirates. You can get away with not spending, but spending money, makes winning a lot easier. There is a reason why every other professional sport prevents teams from excessively spending, and its not because the teams who are spending lose more often...

You can quote Forbes all you want, but there are plenty of businesses that say: "We made $27mil, id rather make $50mil" My guess is that there is a way to make 27mil per year by running out a team that costs $30mil, having 10k in attendance and getting money from MLB revenue sharing. Say what you will, it seems different this year, I could be wrong, but it seems worse.

I expected a lot more than this. This is really the worst attendance Ive ever seen and its on the heels of the Sox spending a ton of money. Ive gone to a ton of April games, and this year its just way worse (so far). I dont know, its just seems a lot worse (maybe statistics would say otherwise).

Im not blaming anyone, I dont know why the Sox dont draw. Hawks draw, Bears draw, Bulls draw, Cubs draw. It just annoys me as a Sox fan obviously.

You can hope that the ownership is just going to blindly throw money at the team even with poor attendance, but that isnt what I believe. You can make all the excuses you want, but plenty other teams are drawing 20k or so on weeknights. I actually feel like Reinsdorf and the ownership may feel disrespected, they went out and got a good product, and people still dont show. Its just frustrating to watch the same thing every year.

If Santos had more innings under his belt as a pitcher, I think hed be the clear choice for closer if Thornton cant handle it.

2005 the stars aligned, you cant count on that. If you want to compete every year, you are going to have to spend $100mil in todays game.

Im fine drafting any player who is great at something in the first round. I dont have numbers but Id venture to say over 50% of first round picks never make a meaningful impact in the majors (id almost guess that 50% dont even make the majors). MLB draft is way different than NFL/NBA etc

If crowds dont get better I fear in 2013 we are going to be a middle of the pack spending team. Ill hopefully get to 20-40 games this season, but from all reports even on the weekend it was really low attendance.

Correct me if im wrong but havent we drafted Beckham, Sale and Mitchell in the first round? Arent those generally considered pretty good picks? Baseball is one of the hardest things to draft, Tampa had what seems like hundreds of high first round picks and so many flamed out.

Pierre is off the books next year, the only guys who make more than 10mil are Rios, Dunn, Peavy and Konerko, with Konerko only having 1 more year before going down to 6.5 and Peavy also only having 1 more year. In 2013 the Sox only have $51mil committed. Not sure what bad contracts there are. And in terms of farm, since Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura and that crew the Sox farm has been pretty bad, I just never expect the Sox prospects to do well. Thats just how it is, should be thankful we have Beckham, Sale, Santos, etc. 2 years of development, draft and trade is a lifetime for a baseball executive, I see no reason at all to worry outside of the fact attendance is so low. And the overall negativity of a fan base, because that concerns me about attendance even more.

That was a strike, but it fooled the ump because it was terribly located

Yeah one of the most talented teams in the AL is a "mess". Where do you get this stuff?