Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Killing Me Unsoftly

Not much to say about tonight's game. Except for a bunch of stuff. Starting with Aaaarrrrggghhh. Freakin' seriously, dude. When Papi tied it (Leyland hasn't heard the news that David Ortiz is an above average player, who will occasionally get a big hit in a semi-important point in games) I thought we had it. Then we go and eff it up.

If we had Bronson Arroyo, we'd have so many more wins right now. Replace all those Snyder/Johnson starts with Bronson. Then replace either Seanez or Tavarez with Bronson. Lots more wins. Instead we have a dude who's so inexperienced, and who apparently would've been good by now if he'd had more time in the minors, so instead of putting him there, we put him in the majors in a pennant race, starting in right field. His really long homers still only count for one run. We used to have this kid on our high school team named Matt. He struck out nearly every time, but when he hit it, it went a mile. Does that mean he A. could field? or B? should be in the starting lineup? No and no.

It's not Wily Mo's fault. The guy is trying. He can hit Sam Horny homers. But you can't just assume he's good when he hasn't proven anything yet. And they said Adam Stern needed more time in the minors!

I'm not a stupid fan. I'm not some guy who half-heartedly follows the team. I wasn't against the trade simply because "I like Bronson" as a dude. Because "I like Wily Mo" as a dude, too. I am a person who watches the games with my two eyes, and I tend to believe my eyes, except when it comes to the regular miracles Papi performs. We should have won that game tonight.

As the Wily Mo fiasco unfolded (for some reason it wasn't called an error), I flipped to the yanks game between replays, to see the ball flying out as Johnny "Will burn for eternity and Jere hopes maybe ol' Devil McGee will let him run the incinerator for a few minutes" Damon had homered to tie the game. A game in which the O's had had a two-run lead with the bases loaded the inning before. Now I'm watching (sound down, Kay is NOT allowed to speak in my home right now) as the Yankee Stadium doofuses cheer on Mariano, acting like they are somehow responsible for any good that happens on their watch, with two outs and two strikes in the ninth and a 3-run lead. Now it's over. F them. After all this, we're three back. God damn it. Hey, that should be our slogan for August: "The Red Sox. God fucking damn it." (I audibled there at the line.)

Check below for some funny stuff I taped from tonight's broadcast. You probably need a laugh right now. And later I'll post my pics from the Cyclones game.

Comments:
Gedman, Schmedman. Butch Hobson's my favorite Can-Am coach.
 
Ouch!

A piece of trivia on my calendar recently told me his real name is Clell.
 
I'm going to sound like a complete homer on this post, but as bad a mistake as Wily Mo made, he didn't cost us the game. Timlin did. Even if Wily Mo catches that ball, that run still scores. If Dmitri Young was on third, I'd blame the loss on Pena, but Carlos Guillen is quick and would have beaten a throw to the plate. Even if Kapler had been out there, they would have gone ahead on that fly ball.

Pena is not Rob Deer or Pete Incaviglia. I think his .320 AVG is a bit over his head, but .280/.350/.550 is not out of the question for him next year.

Arroyo is pitching like Johnson and Snyder right now - the guy they probably should have gotten is Lidle.
 
We'll see on the .280. On Wily Mo's behalf, but yet on my point's behalf, I think he has a definite shot at throwing the guy out if he catches the ball. That's a 260-270 foot throw. What I did was I took a pen and put the tip at the plate on a map of Fenway, and marked where the ball landed on the pen. Then I swung the pen out toward center. And I could really see how shallow it was compared to if it had gone to center field.
 
Jere, you don't really believe having Bronson would've given the Sox many extra wins, do you? His ERA was 5.45 for July, and it's 6.27 in August. And this is against crappy NL teams, and facing a pitcher every 9th batter. He had a nice-looking start in the NL, probably because they didn't know him - once they saw him enough, they figured him out. AL East hitters had seen him already, so it's unrealistic to expect he'd have had the same start in Fenway. But even if he did: what do you think a 3.54 ERA in the NL Central translates to in the AL East?...
 
No, I don't realy believe it. I was just doing a psychological experiment to see how many people would catch on. Only a STUPID person wouldn't want Bronson Arroyo over, say, the great fucking Rudy Seanez of future HoFer Julian Tavarez. And Jason Johnson and Kyle Snyder have obviously stepped in and made us all happy, so we had no use for Bronson.

Of course I'd much rather have an inexperienced, poor fielding, striking out all the time platoon outfielder who gave up the game winning run by dropping an easy fly ball and struck out to end the game LAST NIGHT.
 
Wow, never mind then. Was just trying to have a conversation. Didn't expect a reply in which I basically get called stupid. Thanks.
 
"Jere, you don't really believe having Bronson would've given the Sox many extra wins, do you?"

That's what you wrote to me. I've been getting called stupid by everyone since the trade happened, and then you come in and do the same thing. You were calling me stupid, and I'm so sick about being thought of as being on the "stupid" side of this argument, that especially now, when I've got last night as proof of the problems of Wily Mo, I just refuse to take it anymore.

If you really wanted to "just start a conversation," OF COURSE I would have had one with you. That's what I'm all about. But it certainly didn't appear that way, what with you asking me if I believed what I was saying.
 
Sorry, I suppose I worded that wrong. After terrible losses, like the one last night, I end up saying things to myself that I don't really believe. Like in 2005 when I'd say "I hate Keith Foulke" (despite his ridiculous heroics just six months before). My intention was to ask you if that was the case here - because that game sucked. No, I don't think it's stupid to hate the trade, and I definitely didn't mean to imply that.

Anyway, I was against the trade when it happened. Now, I personally don't think it makes much a difference either way. I honestly think Arroyo's ERA would be around 4.5-5.0 if he were with the Sox this year - marginally worse than Seanez, marginally better than Snyder. It's impossible to say, but I just don't think it's clear-cut in either direction. But I don't see it as any sort of difference-maker.
 
It's okay.

I don't know how often you read this blog. I guess I should't assume people are following along on a daily basis. And I just want to let you know I wasn't coming out of nowhere with this. It's been an ongoing thing with me, arguing this trade here and on joy of sox and on BSM back when it existed.
 
But I still think he'd be doing way, way better than Rudy Seanez, and I'd take him over Rudy 100 times out of 100.
 
Yeah, I've actually been out of the loop with blogreading most of this season. I stopped by yesterday since I remembered you had been strongly against the trade back when it happened, and was wondering (after the painful WMP gaffe) what your thoughts were.
 

Post a Comment

If you're "anonymous," please leave a name, even if it's a fake one, for differentiation purposes.

If you're having trouble commenting, try signing in to whatever account you're using first, then come back here once you're signed in.



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

My Photo
Name:
Location: Rhode Island, United States