Yanks vs Rays

[albanycuse]

Woo hoooooooooooo boston!!!

 

[TDTOrange]

Incredible

 

[DeGrozz]

O's celebrating like they won the world series : )

As soon as the Red Sox started to slip I saw that they ended the season with the O's. All I could think about was their scuffle earlier in the season and how the O's didn't let that go. I'm glad they go their payback!

Now I can start rooting for the Yankees again!!!

 

[OrangeXtreme]

MLB is ***ing nuts if they add more wild card teams to the mix.

Tonight was incredible.

 

[Toga]

Biggest September collapse evah

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Even Dick Vitale approves.

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

AMAZING NIGHT... The Rays picked it up and started fighting, maybe they just needed a rant post from yours truly to get em going, GET ME ON SPEED DIAL FOR THE POSTSEASON MADDON!!!

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

Terrible? The guy didn't give up a run in almost 30 straight appearances. As much as I hate the save stat, as it measures a pitcher's luckiness of the situation he's in, he's been very good this year, hasn't blown many saves. I didn't want to resign him before this year, but I definitely do now. He's been dominant this year.

Going back to a previous discussion bnoro, this is exactly why stats like RBI and Saves are foolishly discounted in this day in age. One guy did his job, the other didn't, and in the end these two dark age statistics were what mattered.

 

[bnoro]

Going back to a previous discussion bnoro, this is exactly why stats like RBI and Saves are foolishly discounted in this day in age. One guy did his job, the other didn't, and in the end these two dark age statistics were what mattered.

Still want to resign him, it was a tough game, a tough collapse, but a loss isn't a reason to overreact and completely blow up the team. I'd like to see changes, a new pitching coach would be nice, replacing Drew and Tek with Reddick, Kalish, and Lavarnway instead of high priced FA's, getting everyone healthy, and getting back at it next year.

Lester, while he pitched good tonight, has been horrible mechanics wise this year and has to be hurt. Getting Buchholz back will help, and a healthy Adrian Gonzalez means he'll be even better than this year. We need to resign Ellsbury as well. But life goes on, I'm over it.

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

Still want to resign him, it was a tough game, a tough collapse, but a loss isn't a reason to overreact and completely blow up the team. I'd like to see changes, a new pitching coach would be nice, replacing Drew and Tek with Reddick, Kalish, and Lavarnway instead of high priced FA's, getting everyone healthy, and getting back at it next year.

Lester, while he pitched good tonight, has been horrible mechanics wise this year and has to be hurt. Getting Buchholz back will help, and a healthy Adrian Gonzalez means he'll be even better than this year. We need to resign Ellsbury as well. But life goes on, I'm over it.

Agree, I certainly don't think the Sox are as bad as the collapse would have it look. Crawford will bounce back, Youk will heal up, and Adrian & Pedroia are still among the very best at their positions, and Lavarnway is legit. I think the key to this whole thing for them, is can Buchholz be ready to go for a full season. If so, the staff is still going to be top-10, but to get back to top-5 status they need a full year of the real Josh Beckett and someone to completely get back to the basics with Lackey... or maybe just replace one Japanese import with another by getting desperate and going after Darvish.

 

[bnoro]

Agree, I certainly don't think the Sox are as bad as the collapse would have it look. Crawford will bounce back, Youk will heal up, and Adrian & Pedroia are still among the very best at their positions, and Lavarnway is legit. I think the key to this whole thing for them, is can Buchholz be ready to go for a full season. If so, the staff is still going to be top-10, but to get back to top-5 status they need a full year of the real Josh Beckett and someone to completely get back to the basics with Lackey... or maybe just replace one Japanese import with another by getting desperate and going after Darvish.

No more Japs. I'm done with that experiment. Who knows what we'll get out of Lackey but it has to be something. Losing John Farrell was the Sox' biggest loss this offseason. Curt Young has been a huge disappointment and a big reason some of our pitchers took a step back. Once things went bad with release points and mechanics he couldn't fix them and this whole sept mess happened.

 

[PoppyHart]

Varitek was the most irreplaceable player they had BY FAR over the last 7-8 years.

As much as I despise him, losing the Greek god made the difference this year.

Papelbon is Farnsworth with slightly more movement. In other words, a bum.

Crawford has to make that catch. Hardly lived up to the contract.

Ellsbury can't play better. Baldy and Gonzalez were great as well. Can't see an aggregate improvement from that trio.

Boston Braves and Boston Red Sox on the same night? Wow!

 

[bnoro]

Disagree 100% on Varitek. He knew the pitchers, but his lack of offense the last 2 years hurt us more than a rookie catcher would have. I doubt we resign him, Lavarnway should be able to back up Salty just fine.

Crawford will be fine next year, he was pressing all year, he just needs to relax and be the player he is.

Youk was a big loss but our offense wasn't the issue. The loss of Buchholz was much bigger in the long run, having to go most of the year with Kyle Weiland and Andrew Miller and Tim Wakefield hurt us big time. Big Hoss Lackey didn't help the situation, either.

Papelbon is not a bum, either. He's a top 5 closer in the league, he didn't have it last night. Not even close to Farnsworth

 

[cuseclappy]

Disagree 100% on Varitek. He knew the pitchers, but his lack of offense the last 2 years hurt us more than a rookie catcher would have. I doubt we resign him, Lavarnway should be able to back up Salty just fine.

Crawford will be fine next year, he was pressing all year, he just needs to relax and be the player he is.

Youk was a big loss but our offense wasn't the issue. The loss of Buchholz was much bigger in the long run, having to go most of the year with Kyle Weiland and Andrew Miller and Tim Wakefield hurt us big time. Big Hoss Lackey didn't help the situation, either.

Papelbon is not a bum, either. He's a top 5 closer in the league, he didn't have it last night. Not even close to Farnsworth

i agree with you bnoro..ill miss tek bc of how well he handled our pitchers but he has become a huge liability at the plate.

getting rid of jd drews contract will be nice, i wont miss watching his 240 average and atleast 2 k's a game. wouldnt hate reddick taking over rf next year. i really hope they dont over pay (again) for a fa pitcher in the offseason. cj wilson is probably the only big name out there (as long as cc doesnt file for fa). id shutter if they over paid on him. get everyone healthy and theyll be fine next yr

in the meantime if there is a baseball god.. the tigers will sweep the yankees

 

[690West]

i agree with you bnoro..ill miss tek bc of how well he handled our pitchers but he has become a huge liability at the plate.

getting rid of jd drews contract will be nice, i wont miss watching his 240 average and atleast 2 k's a game. wouldnt hate reddick taking over rf next year. i really hope they dont over pay (again) for a fa pitcher in the offseason. cj wilson is probably the only big name out there (as long as cc doesnt file for fa). id shutter if they over paid on him. get everyone healthy and theyll be fine next yr

in the meantime if there is a baseball god.. the tigers will sweep the yankees

Lol. Not happening

 

[bnoro]

Lol. Not happening

Going to be a tough series though, Verlander starting 2 is going to lower the margin for error.

 

[690West]

Going to be a tough series though, Verlander starting 2 is going to lower the margin for error.

I'll tell you this much, anyone who has Verlander's starts as automatic wins is in for a rude awakening. He's great and the Yankees hitters are great. I'd call it a wash, but the Verlander butt boys of America (aka VBBOA) will say I'm crazy.

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

I'll tell you this much, anyone who has Verlander's starts as automatic wins is in for a rude awakening. He's great and the Yankees hitters are great. I'd call it a wash, but the Verlander butt boys of America (aka VBBOA) will say I'm crazy.

I like the way Detroit's pitching matches up in this series. I say Verlander loses game one to C.C., but then Fister and Scherzer take back-to-back contests. Then Leyland decides to give game 4 to Porcello, in hopes that they can steal a win and save Verlander for the first game of the ALCS. If not, Verlander wins game 5.