GAME #70, THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019, TEXAS RANGERS @ BOSTON RED SOX

Started by Schloicka, June 13, 2019, 08:31:19 AM

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SeaBeachFred

Quote from: elktonnick on June 13, 2019, 10:21:47 PM
Great comeback win! That is the most enthusiasm I've seen all season.

The screen on the plane was so small that you could hardly see the numbers on it, but I did see we were behind 6-4 when I first looked, then 6-5 and then 6-6 and then 7-6, and said I wonder who will come in the ninth inning and blow it up for us.  Didn't happen and it turned out to be a very good comeback win.  The problem Elk?  We've had some of these type wins this season and it did nothing to get our team aroused and we went back into our usual slumber the next few games.  I would like it to be different this time but I now have such little confidence in Alfred E. Cora  that I just feel he will fine a way to try and outsmart himself once again.  HOW THE HELL CAN A MANAGER GO FROM BEING CLOSE TO A  MASTER ONE YEAR AND A TOTAL DUNCE THE NEXT, stubborn to sickening with his half-ass moves?

longgame

Quote from: SeaBeachFred on June 14, 2019, 10:12:13 AM
Quote from: markj on June 13, 2019, 10:01:48 PM
A rookie as closer in a one run game? WTF?

And that's another thing with Alfred E. Cora at the helm this season........he still has not named a closer and every game we go trough this crap of moving the chairs on the Titanic trying to find some guy who can consistently get three outs in the ninth inning without barfing up the game as Meatball did on Monday, which, swear to Heaven, I just knew would  happen in the ninth inning.  He is one guy who simply cannot be counted on to be that man consistently time and again.   Them again, DD refuses to try and get some relief help and simply bringing some guy up and sending some guy down and making this whole farce something resembling a rinse cycle played over and over again.  WE HAVE A SHITTY BULLPEN DUMBO; CAN'T YOU SEE THAT.  If we want a Wild Card this season we have to get some relief help via trade, AND BETTS HAS GOT TO GET OFF HIS ASS AND START HITTING ALONG WITH JD.  We  go nowhere unless they also come on strong.

You'd think we lost last night's game.  He did all he could with the pitching staff and what he said made sense.  When Hembree's arm tightened up they had to play to have their long guy in their last since the game was tied.  That was Smith.  And Smith got the job done as did the rest of the pen.

Bogey is having a great year.  He hit the game winning HR.  He's got an OPS of .910 and is 10th in the league in WAR.  Amazingly Betts is even higher in WAR and I don't get it as he's had a very disappointing season to date.  They made the right choice in signing Bogey to a long term deal, but I don't think that Betts is doing himself any favors in that department.  I'd like to see him tighten his swing up and keep his head down on the ball.  Martinez has an OPS of .911 and is hitting .299.  He isn't driving in as many runs because the two guys in front of him have trouble getting on at the same time.  If Betts gets on more, Martinez gets more RBI's.

The problem with this team is going all season so far without a full starting rotation, not having a closer and not planning for Pedroia's departure.  None of those fall to the manager.


elktonnick

While DD and John Henry bear responsibility for not having a closer.  MGR What me worry bears a huge responsibility for the awful spring training and the 3-8 starting road trip.  If MGR Neuman had run a normal spring training the Sox team should have returned to Boston with a winning record in view of the quality of competition and not the hole they have been in since opening day. 

Furthermore this manager laid back approach has allowed this team to play incredibly sloppy distracted baseball.  The number of mental errors which don't show up on the scoresheet has been exceptional.  Team morale looked so bad at times despite protestations to the contrary that the ball players looked beaten before they took the field. 

Finally Mgr Alfred E Neuman's constantly juggling lineups, resting players and admittedly not chasing wins has resulted in the team playing well below its potential all season despite whatever shortcomings have come about from DD's failure to secure a closer.

longgame

Quote from: elktonnick on June 14, 2019, 12:02:52 PM
While DD and John Henry bear responsibility for not having a closer.  MGR What me worry bears a huge responsibility for the awful spring training and the 3-8 starting road trip.  If MGR Neuman had run a normal spring training the Sox team should have returned to Boston with a winning record in view of the quality of competition and not the hole they have been in since opening day. 

Furthermore this manager laid back approach has allowed this team to play incredibly sloppy distracted baseball.  The number of mental errors which don't show up on the scoresheet has been exceptional.  Team morale looked so bad at times despite protestations to the contrary that the ball players looked beaten before they took the field. 

Finally Mgr Alfred E Neuman's constantly juggling lineups, resting players and admittedly not chasing wins has resulted in the team playing well below its potential all season despite whatever shortcomings have come about from DD's failure to secure a closer.

I clearly blame him for the spring training fiasco and slow start.  After that, he's done everything the same way he did in guiding them to 108 wins.  As for juggling lineups, as George pointed out, most people wanted Mookie moved up because he didn't respond well to hitting somewhere else, just like when Farrell tried to do the same.  He likes batting first and Beni is batting second.  The rest of the lineup has been fairly consistent but has had to move around due to injuries.  Moreland was batting in the middle of the lineup and is now out.  Devers and Bogey back up Martinez in the order quite nicely.  Get beyond that and do you care if Chavis or Marco Hernandez bats 8th rather than 9th? 

I'll also go to the closer situation specifically.  They have 15 saves and 11 blown saves.  Is that the manager's fault?  He's got to figure out who won't crap their pants in the 9th inning and hasn't had much luck finding anyone.  Half of the relief staff didn't have MLB time until this year. 

Come on nick, Cora is not that bad, he doesn't have a full rotation or a closer and that's why they're so far out.

elktonnick

Look he should have been 8-3 not 3-8 after those opening two weeks.  That's a ten game shift in my book.  Part of the reason for a crappy bull pen is his position players were in a funk and not motivated.  The guys were always pitching with no support in the big games unless they were playing the dog sh*t teams like the Os and Royals.  Moreover because he refused to have his starters ready, he burnt out the pen.

The  principle reason for the lack of motivation were twofold one his message from the outset was, and still is, don't worry we're so good that it will get it together.  BS that's a prescription for winners to become losers.  Secondly, despite statements otherwise he stupidly brought politics into the clubhouse and potentially a racial and ethnic divide. These guys aren't relating to each other the same way they did before. That was both selfish and dumb on his part.  BTW When I was working and in a senior leadership position there were a lot of people who I detested with whom I either had to socialize with, entertain or just do business with.  You just hold your nose don't embarrass your boss or the organization and do your job.  That's what you do when you are in a leadership role.  He isn't a second stringer he shouldn't have acted like one.

I fully admit I don't like virtually anything he has done this year and won't cut him a break at all.  Like I said before if they don't make the playoffs this year with this talent I'd fire Manager Neuman 30 seconds after they are mathematically eliminated when ever that would occur.

SeaBeachFred

Pretty much agree with you Elk right down the line.  It al started in ST with the players being told to take is easy because of a long post season.  Well, hell, the season ended on October 28 and when they reported to ST they had four months to recover.  Even the pitchers could have been brought along more than were.  Some has seen only sporadic action before the gun sounded.  If you needed proof just look at what Seattle did to Chris Sale in the opening game of the season-----and it continued almost unabated for the whole dismal road trip and, what's worse, we still haven't recovered from it.  Our friend Ted makes some good points; he always does, but to make a big thing of last night's dramatic come from behind win isn't something that happened in a  vacuum. We've had some dramatic wins this season but  have never been able to go from there and run off with a sizable winning streak that lasted more than a few days.   That's what I've been looking at Elk and Ted.  Do we this time take advantage of this great comeback win and go on from there to run up a sizable win streak or do we decline once again into the hot and cold mediocre team we have been this season.  Bill Parcells said it best..YOUR RECORD TELLS YOU WHAT KIND OF TEAM YOU HAVE.  Can e finally change that at long last?

One more thing.  Our team never seems to hit in sinc.  Four or five guys seem to take a night off while three or four try carrying the load.  How about most of the guys hitting together so we cam win more games in a row and start punishing those teams that have taken advantage of our sour season so far?

elktonnick

The team not being in sync etc are symptoms which indicate to me that these guys aren't functioning as a team.  Call it team spirit, morale, whatever these guys have something amiss going on in that clubhouse.  I am convinced of it.

SeaBeachFred

Quote from: elktonnick on June 14, 2019, 03:46:27 PM
The team not being in sync etc are symptoms which indicate to me that these guys aren't functioning as a team.  Call it team spirit, morale, whatever these guys have something amiss going on in that clubhouse.  I am convinced of it.

Well I also brought up tht morale thing before and was as convinced as you were that Cora's politicizing that event sent the team spinning into various and sundry directions.  We had been playing better at that time, not world beaters by any means Elk but better than we played after that episode. Tonight we blasted the Orioles and we all hit in sync but here's a red flag too.  How many times has this happened in a game this season where we went bonkers in a runaway only to come out flat as a board the next day..  We must make sure this kind of play ends this weekend and never happens again.  Besides, we have Chris Sale going tomorrow and he got screwed Monday when Meatball Barnes blew the save opportunity and deprived Sale and the team of a win.  And how many times has Chris been cheated because of lousy batting support.  Come out swinging tomorrow and give the lefthander some solid batting support and maybe that sad episode ends too.  We need to get going and keep going this time around.  It can be done if they're all on the same page, and for pete's sake Cora no more resting players for awhile.  We need our best in there because we still have a very long way to go.