Boston Red Sox 2008 Season Official Thread

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by myasu

Damn O*tiz...

This might be unfair to him, giving him the F********h treatment (actually, it's now F****w***h; for recent performances, one letter has been restored by us on the Yankees thread). That guy had eight letters to lose where as O*tiz has only three chances to avoid becoming O***z (Oz?). Besides, F****w***h lost many of his letters because he basically was gutless as well as bad. This Yankees fan has never seen that in Big P*pi.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

This might be unfair to him, giving him the F********h treatment (actually, it's now F****w***h; for recent performances, one letter has been restored by us on the Yankees thread). That guy had eight letters to lose where as O*tiz has only three chances to avoid becoming O***z (Oz?). Besides, F****w***h lost many of his letters because he basically was gutless as well as bad. This Yankees fan has never seen that in Big P*pi.

I know, 1998 Yankees.
I love Papi.
I was just kidding, after looking at what you and redsoxford were doing over at the Yankees thread.

I hope Igawa will not become I***a, after his next start. (in a couple of days?)

[The Sox Guy]

is it too late for me to jump on the "get rid of julio lugo" bandwagon?

[myasu]

Originally Posted by The Sox Guy

is it too late for me to jump on the "get rid of julio lugo" bandwagon?

The SS has been a little bit of a problem for the Sox since the departure of Nomar.

But to tell you the truth, I sometimes kind of enjoy watching Lugo doing stupid things now.

[feldspar88]

Lugo always looks jittery and uncomfortable all the time. What's up with that? I also think he is on a personal quest to make us long for the days of Edgar Renteria's fielding.

Even though he is hitting near .300 when was the last time he had a memorable clutch hit in the late innings? He did drop a mean bunt for a hit the other day on a 3-1 count. too bad he can't bunt everytime up.

[myasu]

Boy, if we had not been winning...

Crisp, Lugo, Drew and.....Gange!
At least some of these players here would have had very tough time in New England.

Not that I dislike these players...

As I think of it, it is amasing to see what some of the younger players have been constantly doing for the Sox since 2007.
Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Buchholz, Youkilis (Not that young but) etc.

[The Sox Guy]

Yeah, Youkilis loves playing against Detroit. He's had a very solid career so far at Detroit, and this series was no different. Let's hope he can keep it going for the whole season this time. A 25+ HR season would be exceptional and really exceed a lot of people's expectations for Youk.

As for the pitching, it's been great lately (minus Buccholz and Tavarez last night), but the bullpen still worries me. Hansen looks decent lately, maybe he can step up and challenge Delcarmen for that "late inning" role along with Oki.

[Luis_Rivera]

Originally Posted by myasu

Boy, if we had not been winning...

Crisp, Lugo, Drew and.....Gange!
At least some of these players here would have had very tough time in New England.

Not that I dislike these players...

As I think of it, it is amasing to see what some of the younger players have been constantly doing for the Sox since 2007.
Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Buchholz, Youkilis (Not that young but) etc.

Drew has been a better RFer than Lester has been a pitcher since the beginning of 2007, if that makes any sense.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera

Drew has been a better RFer than Lester has been a pitcher since the beginning of 2007, if that makes any sense.

Yes, it does make sense, Luis Rivera.
And you are right about Lester not being the weapon many of us thought he would be couple of years ago.

But Drew is a 32 year old veteran who earns $14M this year, where Lester is a 24 year old, who had to come back to the field through the battle against cancer, and earns probably less than 5% of what Drew receives this year.

Again, I do not dislike Drew. (I surely loved him in the bottom of 1st, Game 6 ALCS last year! )

I just love watching the kids like Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkilis playing so hard everyday, trying to prove themselves to the world.
It just makes me smile...

[myasu]

Originally Posted by The Sox Guy

Yeah, Youkilis loves playing against Detroit. He's had a very solid career so far at Detroit, and this series was no different. Let's hope he can keep it going for the whole season this time. A 25+ HR season would be exceptional and really exceed a lot of people's expectations for Youk.

As for the pitching, it's been great lately (minus Buccholz and Tavarez last night), but the bullpen still worries me. Hansen looks decent lately, maybe he can step up and challenge Delcarmen for that "late inning" role along with Oki.

I agree with you.
I am worried about the bullpen, too.
We probably have two of the top 10 relievers in the league (Oki and Paps) but just can not depend on them whole year.

[redsoxford]

Originally Posted by myasu

I agree with you.
I am worried about the bullpen, too.
We probably have two of the top 10 relievers in the league (Oki and Paps) but just can not depend on them whole year.

I wouldn't particularly say the bullpen is any worse than last year. There's been a few blowouts by the middle relievers but that's to be expected.

Let's just hope there isn't a July 31st trade with Milwaukee!!!!

[myasu]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

I wouldn't particularly say the bullpen is any worse than last year. There's been a few blowouts by the middle relievers but that's to be expected.

Let's just hope there isn't a July 31st trade with Milwaukee!!!!

G*g*e!

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by myasu

G*g*e!

Now, there's a guy who deserves the "star" treatment.

[Luis_Rivera]

Originally Posted by myasu

But Drew is a 32 year old veteran who earns $14M this year, where Lester is a 24 year old, who had to come back to the field through the battle against cancer, and earns probably less than 5% of what Drew receives this year.

Drew takes a lot of **** for very little reason.

The comparison in salaries isn't really applicable because Drew is beyond his arby years... Lester doesn't have a choice but to earn the ~$400k he gets this year. An average MLB player on the free agent market makes about $11-12M a year at this point so to live up to that contract, Drew would have to be simply above average.

I give him a pass for his first half because he was going through some serious **** with his son's health. Stuff that people in normal jobs would probably take work off as long as it wasn't necessary for them to make that money. The second half of the season he put up about a 280/400/440 line. The average RFer in the MLB last season put up a 273/347/429 (.271 EQA). Clearly he's WELL above average for a RFer.

Even considering his subpar first half which brought his numbers down to a 270/373/423 (.282 EQA), he earned his money last year. JD Drew takes more undeserved **** than any player in this city and it drives me ****ing crazy.

[Luis_Rivera]

Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera

Even considering his subpar first half which brought his numbers down to a 270/373/423 (.282 EQA), he earned his money last year. JD Drew takes more undeserved **** than any player in this city and it drives me ****ing crazy.

Thinking about this, I'm not sure that I'm right. That "average" line also includes backups and anyone who played RF last season. When it comes to starting RF, he was probably about average... maybe slightly above, so he technically didn't earn his $15MM based on my above analysis. Either way, he takes a ****-ton of undeserved flak no matter how you slice it.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera

Thinking about this, I'm not sure that I'm right. That "average" line also includes backups and anyone who played RF last season. When it comes to starting RF, he was probably about average... maybe slightly above, so he technically didn't earn his $15MM based on my above analysis. Either way, he takes a ****-ton of undeserved flak no matter how you slice it.

As I told you, I do not dislike him, Luis Rivera.
I know what happened to his son last year, and I think we should have given him a year for the adjustment he needed from NL to AL. (I did)
To me, Drew being an average RF in 2007 was totally OK.

I am sure 1998 Yankees will hate to see this , but Drew's VORP in 2007 was 15.1, less than half of what he had in 2006 with LAD. (34.9) Yes, he was clearly better than an average RFer in 2007, but as you pointed out here, he should have been "better than an average regular RF in 2007". (better than an average 2007 FA Rfer, maybe)

I know it is not fair to compare Lester (still in arvy years) to a veteran JD Drew (Well, comparing Drew with Lester was not my intention!), but I compared the younger players with Drew, to simply praise the young ones.

BTW, Lester is having another irritating outing tonight!

[Luis_Rivera]

FYI... that wasn't directed at you... me thinking you were "bashing" him or anything. It was just an opportunity for me to point out that Drew takes a lot of undeserved flak.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by Luis_Rivera

FYI... that wasn't directed at you... me thinking you were "bashing" him or anything. It was just an opportunity for me to point out that Drew takes a lot of undeserved flak.

Thanks, Luis Rivera.

It was a tough loss last night.
(I kind of knew something like that was coming though...)

[redsoxford]

Gotta love Manny...

Catching a fly ball, climbing the wall, high-fiving a fan and still getting the ball back to catch the runner tagging up at first!!!

[myasu]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

Gotta love Manny...

Catching a fly ball, climbing the wall, high-fiving a fan and still getting the ball back to catch the runner tagging up at first!!!

I just checked the video of the play, and could not stop laughing for about half a minute.

He looks almost like a 10 year old who plays his first big game.