You Know You Have Bullpen Issues When You Do This...
The Red Sox must be desperate...take a look at this...
How bad are the Boston lefties that you make this move? Stanton has been god-awful all year. Why give up a couple of young arms for this dead arm? Unbelievable. Does any Red Sox fan want to see him in a spot in the late innings versus Giambi or Matsui this weekend? The Yankees would salivate at the opportunity of taking it deep against Stanton.
The White Sox, btw, just clinched the AL Central with a 4-2 win over Detroit. That means that the Indians will be playing a Chicago team with nothing to play for outside of homefield advantage. That puts even more pressure on Boston and New York now. They might be playing for one postseason spot this weekend. Ozzie Guillen says that he plans to have his full lineup, but how hard will they play? And will it make any difference against a young team fighting for their season? This is the weekend to have MLB Extra Innings. Either that or apologize to your liver and head to a local sports bar.
Watching Mike and The MadDog on YES right now. Earlier they had Tom Verducci from SI on and he talked about the possibility of Terry Francona getting fired if they don't make the playoffs? I don't know if this is just columnist/talk show fodder to make news where none exists, but if that were to happen, it would be a borderline felony.
How do you fire a manager that won you your first World Series in 86 years? Is he the best manager out there? Not even close. Has he made some moves that you make you scratch your head? Most definitely. But he deserves to come back. He has had to deal with plethora of injuries to his pitching staff and Manny's foolishness. Yet he's had his team in the lead for much of the second half and right in the middle of it on the last weekend of the season. You can't fire him. If they lose out this weekend (and if the baseball gods are kind, they will.), it's not because of Terry Francona.
But the sad thing about it is that if he were fired, the infidel fans would probably cheer the move all across New England. I've never seen a championship manager who was more disliked in his hometown. The only coach in any sport who I think was as disliked was George Siefert in San Francisco. Fans in Infidel Nation think that the man behind the Sox curtain pulling the strings is Theo Epstein. That a manager is inconsequential to winning.
When you look at all the bad managers that they've had that have cost them in big games you'd think the same thing. Johnston in 1975, McNamara in 1986 and Grady Little in 2003. But Francona got them over the hump and they're still not happy. Wow. And you thought New York was a tough sports town.
The problem was Francona has always been perceived as a caddie for Curt Schilling and a yes man for Epstein, Lucchino and sabermetrics posse. The perception was that they never wanted a strong, independent presence managing their team, i.e Lou Piniella or Ozzie Guillen. So when Francona would make a smart move, he'd never get credit for it. Plus he never got credit for his people skills that have enabled him to control (somewhat) a very tough clubhouse. He has some real headcases in that lockerroom. Yet he has been able navigate through it all for the most part.
But being a manager is gig where you get too much of the credit and too much of the blame for your clubs success/failure. I guess this is another case of that. But I think part of it is the fact that New Englanders love being miserable. They have an addictive need to complain about something. Everyone wondered what they would do once they won. Now we know. Bitch and whine like they always have.
That region is 24/7 Red Sox. And part of that passion is complaining about every little move the Sox do or don't make. Some players like Ortiz and Schilling thrive in that environment...others like Foulke and Manny chafe under the hourly scrutiny. Boston isn't like other big cities. It's actually like a very, very big college town (Fenway is a stone's throw from Boston University). In NYC, the fans love their teams passionately. But New York is so big, that there are other things to occupy your time. Boston is very different. Boston is actually more like Philly than New York...only without the Black people. Two big college towns who are psychotic about their teams. Both have huge chips on the shoulders and despise NYC teams. Does that mean that they love their teams more than NYC. No, it just means that they express their love a little differently than we do.
If the Sox don't make the playoffs, it's going to be very interesting to see how Boston and the rest of New England reacts? Will cooler heads prevail? Or will everyone froth at the mouth and want everyone traded and the manager fired?
I hope I get the chance to find out....
--Nationals-Red Sox Trade,0211
^Red Sox acquire Stanton for final four games
BOSTON (AP) The Red Sox acquired left-hander Mike Stanton from the Washington Nationals on Thursday for right-handers Rhys Taylor and Yader Peralta.
Boston's trade means Stanton could wind up pitching this weekend against his former team, the New York Yankees. If the Red Sox advance to the playoffs, Stanton would not be eligible for the postseason roster.
Stanton, who is 38, started the season with the Yankees and was cut June 30 after going 1-2 with a 7.08 ERA in 14 innings over 28 relief appearances. He signed with Washington on July 13 and went 2-1 with a 3.58 ERA in 27 2-3 innings over 30 games.
``We'd like to thank Mike for the fine job he did not only in our bullpen, but with the knowledge and leadership he shared with our young pitchers,'' Nationals general manager Jim Bowden said. ``We are pleased to acquire two young pitchers with good arms.''
Taylor, 20, was 2-2 with a 1.49 ERA in five starts and six relief appearances for the Gulf Coast League Red Sox. Peralta, 19, combined to go 2-3 with four saves and a 4.57 ERA in 27 relief appearances for Greenville, Lowell and the Gulf Coast League Red Sox.
How bad are the Boston lefties that you make this move? Stanton has been god-awful all year. Why give up a couple of young arms for this dead arm? Unbelievable. Does any Red Sox fan want to see him in a spot in the late innings versus Giambi or Matsui this weekend? The Yankees would salivate at the opportunity of taking it deep against Stanton.
The White Sox, btw, just clinched the AL Central with a 4-2 win over Detroit. That means that the Indians will be playing a Chicago team with nothing to play for outside of homefield advantage. That puts even more pressure on Boston and New York now. They might be playing for one postseason spot this weekend. Ozzie Guillen says that he plans to have his full lineup, but how hard will they play? And will it make any difference against a young team fighting for their season? This is the weekend to have MLB Extra Innings. Either that or apologize to your liver and head to a local sports bar.
Watching Mike and The MadDog on YES right now. Earlier they had Tom Verducci from SI on and he talked about the possibility of Terry Francona getting fired if they don't make the playoffs? I don't know if this is just columnist/talk show fodder to make news where none exists, but if that were to happen, it would be a borderline felony.
How do you fire a manager that won you your first World Series in 86 years? Is he the best manager out there? Not even close. Has he made some moves that you make you scratch your head? Most definitely. But he deserves to come back. He has had to deal with plethora of injuries to his pitching staff and Manny's foolishness. Yet he's had his team in the lead for much of the second half and right in the middle of it on the last weekend of the season. You can't fire him. If they lose out this weekend (and if the baseball gods are kind, they will.), it's not because of Terry Francona.
But the sad thing about it is that if he were fired, the infidel fans would probably cheer the move all across New England. I've never seen a championship manager who was more disliked in his hometown. The only coach in any sport who I think was as disliked was George Siefert in San Francisco. Fans in Infidel Nation think that the man behind the Sox curtain pulling the strings is Theo Epstein. That a manager is inconsequential to winning.
When you look at all the bad managers that they've had that have cost them in big games you'd think the same thing. Johnston in 1975, McNamara in 1986 and Grady Little in 2003. But Francona got them over the hump and they're still not happy. Wow. And you thought New York was a tough sports town.
The problem was Francona has always been perceived as a caddie for Curt Schilling and a yes man for Epstein, Lucchino and sabermetrics posse. The perception was that they never wanted a strong, independent presence managing their team, i.e Lou Piniella or Ozzie Guillen. So when Francona would make a smart move, he'd never get credit for it. Plus he never got credit for his people skills that have enabled him to control (somewhat) a very tough clubhouse. He has some real headcases in that lockerroom. Yet he has been able navigate through it all for the most part.
But being a manager is gig where you get too much of the credit and too much of the blame for your clubs success/failure. I guess this is another case of that. But I think part of it is the fact that New Englanders love being miserable. They have an addictive need to complain about something. Everyone wondered what they would do once they won. Now we know. Bitch and whine like they always have.
That region is 24/7 Red Sox. And part of that passion is complaining about every little move the Sox do or don't make. Some players like Ortiz and Schilling thrive in that environment...others like Foulke and Manny chafe under the hourly scrutiny. Boston isn't like other big cities. It's actually like a very, very big college town (Fenway is a stone's throw from Boston University). In NYC, the fans love their teams passionately. But New York is so big, that there are other things to occupy your time. Boston is very different. Boston is actually more like Philly than New York...only without the Black people. Two big college towns who are psychotic about their teams. Both have huge chips on the shoulders and despise NYC teams. Does that mean that they love their teams more than NYC. No, it just means that they express their love a little differently than we do.
If the Sox don't make the playoffs, it's going to be very interesting to see how Boston and the rest of New England reacts? Will cooler heads prevail? Or will everyone froth at the mouth and want everyone traded and the manager fired?
I hope I get the chance to find out....
posted by Darth Marc at 4:37 PM
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