BrandoFan

It's not the scouting reports/footage or lack thereof -- although you can never put anything past this lame organization. It's the mindset/approach -- you could have a High School pitcher throwing on the mound, and if most hitters are swinging from their heels, trying to uppercut the ball into the corner in LF as though there is some bulls-eye hot babe prize sign there, without really working the count and spoiling pitcher's pitches......guess what, they will be jamming themselves and pitchers will always exploit that. It's also psychological. Manuel's teams were at once complacent and insecure. Half the hitters were clearly trying to do too much. The other half, were mired in existential funks. Neither is particularly conducive to hitting.

Letting Jon pitch the 8th ina 9-1 game was STU-PID. 105 pitches is very different from 119 if studies are to be believed. Whoever said the season is a marathon was damn right. Shingo needed work. Adkins needed more work. Marte hasn't pitched in 3 days.

Konerko is the one hitter who all of the sudden seems to "get it". Last year Walnuts learned his lessons the hard way: if you don't manage the strike zone well, if you don't shorten the swing and don't use an all-field approach, especially against tough pitchers....no matter how quick or strong you are, you'll be lucky to hit .250. The league constantly adjusts to you and will punish the stupid, the greedy and the mechanically unsound -- which let's face it, many Sox hitters were/are. So now he is spraying line-drives all over the field -- even outs are hit hard (it's a matter of time before they start falling in), whereas last year he would roll over the first breaking ball in sight and produce a tailor-made GIDP. Now....if Joe, Lee, Jose and Rowand can emulate Paulie's less greedy approach, you'll see offensive explosion, 1st half of 2000-style as Maggs and Hurt will see a ton of hittable pitches. So, yeah......I'd rather Paulie hit 15-20 homers but with only 15 GIDP, 875 OPS and much better clutch/RBI numbers -- I'll take 90 RBI.

If Friday's game was must-win, this one is MUST-WIN. Yanks are starting a scrub. Sox are starting their ace. Since early 2000, Sox lacked continuity and killer insinct -- they would beat Mussina when nobody expected them to...and then inexplicably take the next day off against some junkballer AAAA'er. Couldn't build any kind of momentum. Beat the Yanks tommorow and there is less pressure on Danny Wright to perform miracles on Sunday; worse-case scenario, we go into the HomO tied at 3-3 and there is a real chance of a triumphant 4-2 trip home -- how many people expected the Sox to survive this road-trip? That's how media and fans are won.

Perez was hitting RHP pretty damn well a year or two ago -- certainly better than Aaron has so far. He can field as well as Aaron, is faster on the pads and has post-season/pennant race experience. Aaron starts versus LHP. Let them fight for the right to hit against RHP. Competitiion is good. Who knows, maybe Reed/Borchard/Gload want to join the fight.

Cheating scumbag.

Well, he certainly showed Rauch what stepping up means, didn't he?

Various Brave morons were putting HR swings when all they needed to win the ballgame was a blooper or a bleeder in multiple innings. :headshake

:headshake I bet you sleep like a goddamn baby, don't you, John? A parasitic soul makes baby Jesus cry. I hope you DO realize that most of the "pansy-arses" posting on this site could slice your throat from ear to ear with a Bic pen. You'd be suprised how worthless those kickboxing lessons can be rendered if need be. Alas, the market for neanderthal flesh is a bit depressed these days.

Once again... If Sox are getting a 2002 Bellhorn, it's a steal that might propel them to the divisional title. If Sox are getting a 2003 Bellhorn, it costs us Wunsht.

If Sox hitters aren't gonna greedily pull off the ball, then the mysterious affliction of not being able to hit rookies will vanish. But if Sox can't work the count, look for their pitch and utilize the whole field with a leveld swings....well, then, expect some jammage more often than not.

Listen, check out Park Factors, this is getting ridiculous. So he hit a wall, big deal. He's been mashing the ball this Spring and has the make-up of a good hitter. Compared to Harris, he is Todd Helton. I've seen him play -- average stick (by ML standards), bad baserunner and terrible fielder. No thanks. It's hilarious the way you're referring to Mora and Roberts as scrubs even though they have actual ML talent while singing praises to a nobody like Miles. HSC much? Willie Harris has a career ML obp of 255 and he hadly faced any LHP, something that shuold fiurther dilute his numbers. I would take Royce Clayton at this point at 2B. It's that bad. Again, the difference between USCF and BOB is not as big as you think. If you think a 250 hitter is going to hit 300 in Zona, you're sadly mistaken.

Big game for Jon Garland. He was pretty damn bad early on but somehow survived and after that was cruising. If shutting down the Yankees as he did in the latter part of the game, in their house, in a MUST-win game for the Sox doesn't get him to BELIEVE in himself, nothing will. Hopefully he builds on this and becomes what Bartolo Colon was last year -- 3.90 ERA but in less innings. I'll take it for now. He does need his curveball big-time. It would set up his change/four- and two-seamers MUCH better.

Death threats? Give me a break.

I have no problem with their demeanors, styles, quirks, game knowledge, etc. My problem is this: when, say, the bases are loaded and the game is close, if a Sox hits a hard-but-routine one-hopper to 3rd, John Rooney makes it sound like it could be a double and gets Sox fans' hopes up that first second. I don't think it's right to play with people's emotions. This guy can do no wrong with Sox fans because he actually criticizes Sox players, which is fine and dandy if you're a color analyst, but his PRIMARY duty is to be our eyes and ears and to TRUTHFULLY and ACCURATELY and IMAGINATIVELY describe the ACTION, espcially when the game is on the line and loyal fans hang on every pitch. I was excessively harsh/vulgar in the thread title and for that I apologize, but this guy has been bugging me for a few years now.

Considering he singlehandly ruined 2003 and continues to ruin** 2004, I'll say Sox fans haven't been hard enough on him. ** - lousy record in 2003 means worse attendance and way less season tickets in the off-season, which financially hinders the team's ability to field a good team; Also, his huge salary this year forced the Sox to let go of Colon/Gordon because they couldn't fit then in the budget, making us worse by default. Finally, he DID give up a huge double to Santiago and helped in blowing a very important game, lest you forget. Although, he could never fix it, he and Konerko could partially atone for their digusting 2003 by having career years in 2004.

No, because he produced when it mattered -- single, SB, good D and an RBI line-out and RBI groundout back when the game wasn't decided yet. Magglio was clearly the player of the game, but Perez-Olivo-Harris trio were not far behind.

Hawk is awesome and under-appreciated by Sox fans.

Guess what? Hawk works in a different medium. Fans can decide for themseleves and not rely on Jon the Blind Squirrel. Just listen to JR next time. His descriptions are bloody awful. His only saving grace is that he is not afraid to chide a Sox player making an error or rag on the umpire.

People, it's NOT JUST ONE PLAY....althought he should have made it clear it was going to be close -- as opposed to pretending it was a sure thing HR. I used to listen to this dork quite a bit and he's like this EVERY GAME, ALL THE TIME. I can forgive him for his INABILITY to PAINT a PICTURE for the LISTENER. Maybe. But when he resorts to misrepresentation/deception, or is too lazy to properly phrase himself and instead gets his listeners' hopes up on every semi-hard hit ball, it's unacceptable. He is playing with his audience's nerves, that scumbag.

JAUGGS, Today was a good example of situational that leads to momentum-swinging: Contreras was cruising and Garland had nothing -- Yanks were just about to bash his brains in the 3rd.......and then BOOM! Olivo picks off Matsui and Sox stay alive that inning somehow. I truly believe had 2 runs scored in that inning to make it 3-0, Sox would have died a slow death as they did Thursday. You can't put a price on what Olivo did, it's invariably gonna get lost in the stat colummn . Suffice to say, he would get the glove award at the very least. He also walked a very important walk with Sox down 1-0.

Thomas hits a monster drive and this POS is yelling as though the ball is hit to LCF and will DEFINATELY without a doubt be a HR..........It's foul. He is pulling this bush league garbage EVERY GAME, MANY TIMES OVER, WITHOUT EXCEPTION. If you can't read the ball off the bat and if can't be bothered to phrase the exclamation so the listener knows it's gonna be close and not a sure thing....then get the f*** out of the booth. To him, foul liners into seats are doubles until very last moment; flyballs that don't even make it to the track are orgasmed over as though they were gonna leave the yard; HR-distance drives that clearly will twist foul by many feet are "hit deep, waaaay back....ooh, it goes JUST foul". Contrast him with Hawk who knows immediately and doesn't play with the viewer.......Either Rooney is incompetent or he intentially tries to generate excitement over nothing Chip Carey style, and considering it's RADIO where fans cannot judge for themseleves, it's UNFORGIVABLE. :fyou

The unwritten rule is he has to get on base first, preferrably after a 7-8+ pitch atbat during which batter on deck can time the ball. I don't care about his speed -- he still needs a 330 OBP. Roberts should have been a Sox yesterday.

Bellhord was terrible last year. But in 2002? Very good, especially against lefties.

How much do you think Arizona adds when you're talking about hitters like Kata and Roberts who don't hit for a lot of power? Check their road numbers. Finally....USCF is, believe it or not, a HITTER'S park. Miles is garbage.