The 2010 Boston Red Sox Call All Destroyer Tells Us What He Thinks Thread

JD is my fav red sox player

hey at least he's been around long enough to have some kind of relationship to him--i'm lollin at these guys who are affronted that i might not give a fuck about adrian beltre's lucky season.

yeah i think a lot of the disinterest is from all the roster turnover from the past couple years due to injuries and aging

also people tend to unfairly compare every red sox season to the 2004 season which was just about the flukiest hollywood-plot-esque baseball team ever and is never gonna happen again. of course every year is gonna seem 'boring' if that's your benchmark

on one hand, i'm not gonna try and pretend like i can understand what it would be like to follow a team giving so much time to bill hall, daniel nava, darnell mcdonald, kevin cash etc

on the other hand, there is some really dumb... and frankly spoiled opinions expressed in this column

WE DON'T HAVE A PITCHER THAT I WANT TO WATCH EVERY FIVE DAYS. YEAH, JON LESTER MIGHT WIN THE AL CY YOUNG WITH ONE OF THE BIGGEST K/9 RATIOS IN BASEBALL, BUT HE'S NO PEDRO!!!!

yeah that part was pretty wtf to me...lester is awesome to watch

the problem here is that there's tooooons of conflation in the column between "what's good for the fan" and "what's good for the team" -- entertainment value vs baseball value etc

like, when he's talking about the red sox not having a ryan howard type player whose at bats you look forward to... it's like simmons is advocating having a home run derby team or something. that's not to pick on ryan howard specifically, who obv has baseball value, but it just seems like he was vacillating a ton between "this is no fun wha!" and "we're not winning wah!" without acknowledging how those things are so interconnected?

can't verbalize exactly what i'm trying to say, but it just struck me as a really naive column (at least parts of it -- there are some things he said about literally attending games vs watching on tv & stuff like that that he was absolutely otm about)

yeah my basic position on the ratings drop is this--the front office, via the media, did an awful job of selling this year's model to average fans, who can still faithfully repeat the phrases "pitching and defense" and "bridge year." so once the bad start confirmed everyone's fears, and the injuries exacerbated them, ppl had questions (some legit, some not) about why exactly they should care about this year.

i do watch less baseball myself these days, in part because i share a tv with my gf, but also because this year's sox have been about as interesting as last year.

lester is indeed really great to watch, don't understand that criticism at all.

i don't think there's anything inherently wrong about being like "this team is boring, and they make me want to watch less" -- i think the same thing about the padres but they're actually winning so it's a bit different

i guess i'm struggling to come up with a team that's particularly interesting?

well i think there's something inherent about baseball teams that's sort of... uninteresting? like, even the yankees are getting contributions from marcus thames as they steamroll everyone in their path

even the rays -- great young staff to watch, longo, crawford etc -- started matt joyce and willie aybar last night

but that's baseball! idk. the game itself it what sells and is what's fun, which is probably why the mlb has the problem that simmons outlines wrt recognizable stars and what not

imagine being Andy K! you get miggy's potentially historic season, but last night you also had to watch ryan rayburn, gerald laird, "w. rhymes" and "d. worth"

so idk. that's how shit goes.

tru

i think having exciting young players to watch really helps tho, which is part of the problem with the red sox in particular

even tho he's hitting like .225, i def feel that "can't go get food" (lol not really because i have tivo) when a mike stanton AB is approaching

yeah young talented position players enhance night-to-night watchability and we have oh let me check--zero of those right now

yeah, identity-wise the red sox' future is kind of cloudy right now, their old franchise players are on the way out and their farm system's taken a step back this year. we've only got pedroia and lester to fill that role right now, maybe buchholz if he's actually figured stuff out.

i guess i'm struggling to come up with a team that's particularly interesting?

The Giants imo

The Sox had a really nice run with their minor leaguers, but after Ellsbury and Pedroia they've struggled to produce a hitting prospect of note. Suddenly they have an offense filled with the sort of old journeymen that are patently boring to root for. Cameron, Beltre, Hall, Martinez, Scutaro ... not like these are bad dudes, but you're really rooting for laundry when you assemble a bunch of dudes like that, or when you bring up a lot of AAAA guys as injury replacements.

I just read that the Sox inquired about Jim Edmonds, on that note.

What does the future hold for Mike LOL?

they'll probably keep trying to flip him for cheap and get anything back

Keeping barking, Youk.

I basically never watch baseball on TV except for highlights or an inning here and there. I only watch 3-4 hours of TV a week - which is barely one average game!

In person I don't mind the length (given good weather - when it's still 105 at the Ballpark at dusk, time matters), but on TV it's a killer.

^ agreed, especially when the games start at 7:35 - it's like goodbye dinner, goodbye sex, goodbye 8 hours sleep

but i guess that's how you tell the men from the boys

they actually played a fast game last night! i watched most of it.

A game tends to be on whenever games are on -- ideal when the kids are either too loud and/or in need of attention and or napping/sleeping.

If I think I hear Rich Waltz yelling or getting belligerent, I run it back and crank the volume to ear-splitting level, no matter what.

dinner & sex while game is on TV = classic

lol

I really hope Delgado's got a couple of years left. I was looking at his career stats today, particularly at his last year with Toronto. I remember how absolutely convinced everyone here had become--management and fans--that it was time for him to move on. He had 32 homers, 99 RBI, and a .535 slugging average that year. Must...go...NOW. We had to clear the way for that special day when we could get our hands on Lyle Overbay.

he was playing really well with NYM in '09 while he was able to play, so i don't see why he might not be able to play well for another year or two.

That's why I'm hopeful; it's not a case of picking up a guy who's been in steady decline. Health is the only issue. I want him to get to 500; it'll seem like a perfectly legitimate 500, and I'm afraid he'll be bypassed for the HOF without the milestone.

if roster space is tight i'd rather bring in saltalamacchia

he got over the yips?

what was the problem??

he couldn't throw back to the pitcher

supposedly he's figured something out

LESTERIFFIC

BRILL BARD BAFFLES BOMBERS

I will say that when JB came in the game (and lester was on some other-type shit yesterday; dude was awesome) everyone in DNYS was like "the game is over." funeral-level quiet. And dude deals in a way that JP doesn't. when papelbon came in and everyone got excited again.

also, JP is irritating to watch live, whereas JB is clearly interested in going home as soon as possible.

papelbon looked as good as i've seen him in a long time yesterday

when you say JB you mean Daniel Bard right?

his stuff was fuckin SCARY. the YES commentators (ugh) pointed out that at one point he threw what looked for all the world like a 98-mph sinker.

wow i just saw video of the pitch that struck out swisher

yeah that's the pitch

sort of a slide-sinker.. thrown at 98mph

yeah bard. I was thinkiing josh bard lol

accuscore says 14% chance of making playoffs..

but i do think Francona for AL manager of the year would be deserved.