Eminor3rd

This is a killer book, one of the best baseball books I've ever read. I've got Ben Lindbergh coming to our ballpark for an event on Sunday, I'm excited to pick his brain about it a bit.

QUOTE (harkness @ Jun 6, 2016 -> 09:35 AM) Why keep ventura? What's to lose by trying someone else? Other than the support of the entire baseball team?

QUOTE (CB2.0 @ Jun 6, 2016 -> 07:28 AM) Fire Robin, don't....I don't think that's going to really matter. This team needs hitting - particularly against RHP. No manager in the world can cover up that glaring fact.

If Ventura is fired, the players will clearly start hitting. Obviously Ventura is the problem.

It's miserable watching this team at this point.

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Jun 4, 2016 -> 12:54 PM) If his last start wasn't as bad as it was, would you be saying that? He had a bad start. It happens. Every other game this season that he's pitched, he's always less than 4 runs with the exception of two (four each game). Is he the same pitcher he was 3 years ago? Obviously not. No one gets younger, but "cooked" is harsh. Yeah, I would -- I'm never too worried about ERA. The signs I'm talking about are a dramatic increase in walks and homers given up over the last year and change, to go along with an expected decline in strikeouts in 2016.

I'm not going to feel good about this unless the Sox give up next to nothing. Shields is showing a lot of signs that he's cooked.

Man, wins feel really good, no matter how they happen. Also, Matt Albers is a f***ing ATHLETE. He's just way way out of shape.

QUOTE (He Gawn @ Jun 1, 2016 -> 04:34 PM) Cat Albers is gonna win us this game. *Bat Albers now

LMAO

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 23, 2016 -> 07:07 AM) Boston/ESPN/East Coast media bias, lol? You'd think that Betts, Bradley, Jr., Pedroia, Shaw, Hanley Ramirez, Bogaerts and David Ortiz were a legit threat to the 1927 Murderers' Row Yankees.

QUOTE (SouthSideSale @ May 20, 2016 -> 01:32 PM) Eaton Abreu Frazier Cabrera Lawrie Garcia Avila Jackson Saladino This is a different lineup. I like it and we'll see how it goes tonight. Honestly it just makes sense. Eaton getting stranded after that leadoff triple is a perfect example of why it's pointless to waste an out in the two-hole. As good as he is at getting to scoring position on his own, let's just maximize the at bats with our best hitters after him.

I didn't start paying attention until 1995, but I'm grateful to have logged many Frank Thomas at bats on WGN (I lived in Columbus, OH). Also consider myself very lucky to have witnessed a Frank Thomas homerun live at the Jake at my first MLB game in Cleveland.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 20, 2016 -> 08:05 AM) Sale had an interesting quote after the game: "I'm not throwing as many anger pitches or hate pitches. And rely on my defense. That's the key to all of this. That's the master plan." http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...-and-chris-sale Someone should make a Chris Sale "Hate Pitches" T-shirt

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 20, 2016 -> 09:26 AM) Just as a point of information; Shields actually has pitched better on the road than he has in Petco Park, since joining the Padres. Yeah, I think I've read that Petco has actually been playing more like a neutral park the past couple years, so much so that SafeCo is the new consummate pitcher park.

Dillon Gee rofl

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 6, 2016 -> 09:12 PM) He won't make it out of the first inning. Let's just hope the ump warns him only. I can't believe the Twinks immediately retaliated tonight. That means the new unwritten rulebook in baseball is "retaliate immediately" when your guy gets hit. 10-4 lead I doubt Nate drilled the guy on purpose. If he did, that was dumb. You don't awaken a sleeping dog. Nate's didn't look intentional in the slightest, nor did the situation call for it. The fact that Abreu was so angry, to me, is additional evidence that Nate's was an accident -- he's been drilled in retaliation before, and he's always very calmly taken his base. I've NEVER seen him angry like that about anything at all.

QUOTE (hi8is @ May 6, 2016 -> 08:59 PM) I don't think they'll have Sale do it If I know anything about Chris Sale it's that he'll do whatever hell he wants to do and it won't really matter whether or not it's a good decision. His "emotional judgement" doesn't seem to be the strongest.

Guys I've never seen that look on Abreu's face before and it's been there a long time now.

QUOTE (shysocks @ May 4, 2016 -> 08:45 AM) They only have like 5 games' worth of a sample, but the Red Sox are last in the AL against LHP by a wide margin. Link In other words we shoulda given Danks that start. Ahh but how do they rank vs. a pitching machine? Because Dnaks is closer to that than a typical LHP at this point

Great work, Lip.

QUOTE (shysocks @ May 2, 2016 -> 07:42 AM) I feel like this isn't the first time Sale has done this. Somebody help me out? He hits people on the back foot when they swing fairly regularly, but this is the first one to my knowledge that basically ended up in the center of the batter's body.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 01:39 PM) I absolutely hate this line of thinking. They're already 0-4 in his starts, and in 3 of them he gave them no chance to win. He's pretty much one of the 3 worst pitchers in baseball over the last 4 seasons. We've seen too many seasons derailed over the past twenty years due to incompetent number 5 starters. +1

Johnny Danks Batting Practice ™