vilehoopster

Yes, he did !!

Agree with this guy 100%. He has been killing us. IL him or whatever, but you can't put him in games we're trying to win. Let Burr or Fry or both replace him. If we're really trying to win the division and hang on until we get our outfielders back, you can't put him out there in a tight game. He's had more than enough chances to show he's coming around to his old form, and it obvious he's NOT coming around. So go with someone else, anyone else.

Does anyone have video of the Yoelqui homer tonight?

Thank you for agreeing with me. Eloy and Robert get hurt and we throw Vaughn into LF with almost no minor league experience anywhere on defense or batting and zero outfield experience and expect him to perform there and also bat at the major league level, (Hell, we've thrown Mendick into the outfield too) but somehow we HAVE to let Yoelqui get, at least, a week of at bats a DH before this 5-tool player can handle actually playing the outfield AND batting. OH MY GOD !!! We're putting too much pressure on this 5-tool (according to MLB pipeline # 1 prospect) to expect him to hit and catch some fly balls, you know play a position he's played his entire life, a position Marco Paddy said he was major league ready to play. Oh wait!? He's only been with the Sox organization since spring training, I guess he hasn't seen a fly ball hit to him or drilled any on outfield defense in the last few months. That must be the case why it's so ridiculous to expect him to ACTUALLY bat and field at the Single A level. My point is, removing all the sarcasm, is that it's a legit question to wonder why he still hasn't played the outfield yet with WS, and I was trying to have actual conversation on the the MILB forum of my favorite team. To ask the question is not pissing my pants, it was an attempt to get answers and start a conversation on a forum board. So don't act like I'm the one overreacting.

It seems like every box score I’ve checked, Yoelqui has been the DH. Is that correct? Why is he only DHing? I thought he was this 5-tool player? In fact, wasn’t the concern that he was very good defensively and was only so-so with the bat? Why isn’t he in the outfield for WS? Does anyone have any insight or understanding on this?

Yes, put Lamb behind Abreu. I think that some real protection would help Abreu more than anything right now. If he believed he could take a walk, maybe he'd quit swinging at those terrible pitches low and away. I know Lamb isn't great, but against a rightie, he's way better (or less bad) than Yermin.

Sox have to be getting to the point where they realize that Rutherford just ain’t worth a damn. He was below average in AA, not sure what Sox expected to see when they moved him to Charlotte.

Also gonna be there. As a teacher off for the summer, love during the work week day games. Gooooo Sox.

Reality has caught up with Yermin. It has nothing to do with LaRussa calling him out. To blame his decline on TLR is just silly.

Eloy is not gonna happy if he’s not playing LF. He has stated that more than once. Sox might be able to get him to DH while he “rehabs” for a week or so, but he’s gonna want to get back to LF and I would bet the Sox will do that, if for no other reason, just to keep him happy. I might be wrong, but I would bet, if he’s back in early August, he’ll spend most of his games in left field by September. And, I would agree with that decision.

The way Lamb continues to kill Righties, it seems to me Sox should absolutely get him in the lineup any time they can. In only 58 at bats, vs 196 of Yermin, Lamb has 4 home runs versus Yermin's 7. Plus Lamb's OPS is .877 and Yermin's is .793. There should be no question of whether Lamb should be in versus a Rightie.

Yes and no. This isn't some couple in Berwyn trying to bring Grandma up from Mexico; I could see that taking months and months. This is a prospect of an organization worth 100's of millions of dollars, a million dollar prospect with his own agent who has to have a lawyer or two. Somebody has to have someone, somewhere in all of this hundred of millions of dollars of agents, lawyers, and organization who has dealt with this before and who has the knowledge and experience; who can somehow expedite this Visa situation in, it seems to me, at most a couple weeks. But nothing after five weeks, at least??? Again, it makes no sense. Yoelqui is here? In America, in Arizona if I read it correctly on this site? Why can't this be fixed? Why is no one from the Sox organization talking about this? Again, it seems like something else is going on. I wonder if the Sox want it fixed. I am starting to think that maybe where ever in Arizona, is now Schaumburg West. That the Sox have no intention of Yoelqui playing minor league ball. I think there's a possibility that the Sox plan to Vaughn and Crochet him, bring him right to the majors with no minor league experience. It's worked out pretty well twice.

Has Hahn or anyone come out and discussed or explained what's happening with Yoelqui Cespedes? From continually checking this forum, I have read over and over it's Visa issues. But others have stated that he's in Arizona doing workouts, but his Visa won't let him travel or something like that. I could see a Visa issue taking five days to clear up, maybe even two weeks. But it's now five weeks into the minor league season and still no Yoelqui playing minor league ball. This is a huge prospect. How is this still going on? Again, he's now missed five weeks of minor league ball. This is the guy who was rated the # 1 international prospect by many services (I know other disagree). What is happening with this guy. I want to get excited about him, and I keep checking here expecting to see that he's playing, but it never happens. Can Hahn or someone in the Sox media come out and clarify what is happening with such a highly valued prospect? Are the Sox going to piss away an entire season of minor league ball on "Visa issues"? It makes no sense to me, and makes me think something else is going on.

Another game where Abreu gets zero protection, and he'll have to flail at pitches near the strike zone to try and make something happen. I don't understand why Lamb isn't batting 5th.

Did Abreu go a entire week, a week that included two double headers without a hit?

He hasn’t had a hit since last Thursday, Thursday. If not excited can we get worried, concerned, piqued, maybe even peeved? With Mercedes following Abreu, and then Grandal after that, if I was Detroit, I wouldn’t throw Abreu a strike all night.

Am I correct? I heard this on the game last night: Yermin hasn't had a hit since last Thursday??

Nicky Delmonico, Daniel Palka, and now . . . . Yermin Mercedes. We've seen this show before.

I don't start to see how anyone can't see the value of keeping Lamb. He has to stay; I think he has been great as a fill-in. Well . . . except at 1st base.

Can we send Bummer down to Charlotte to try to get his Mojo back. He is terrible and killing the Sox. Is sending a player of Bummer's stature down just not done. But he needs to be in a low pressure situations where he can work on things. He's really is hurting the Sox, there's no safe time to put him in anymore. If the Orioles didn't totally suck, he probably could have or would have lost that game today. He's getting paid big bucks for a reliever, can't the Sox explain to him that he needs this? Again, is this sort of thing ever done with today's modern players?

Isn't that three straight at bats for Garcia where he been up with two on and in all three at bats, NOTHING!!!

Is it subjective, or is it people manipulating fact in a situation to prove a erroneous point? What the term for people like that? So, your point is that people weren't purposeful in their inaccurate description of what happened, that they just saw it that way and are therefore not liars. I think you have some validity here. But the point is that they continue to repeat something that is not true. How does one deal with that?

Unless his coach/ manger tells him not to. So a .197 hitter in the 8th of a tied game with a man of 1st, he gets the take sign. According to your post that batter can swing away. Your exact quote was, "A hitter can swing at any pitch he wants." Come on you guys, think before you post.

This is what bothers me with posters who make "absolute" statements as fact. How could he or "should" have absolutely been swinging there when no one, not a few, not some, NO ONE had done it in 20 years. Your opinion makes it an absolute? 557 previous players in that situation disagree with you. It was zero for 557. I don't think you can say "absolutely" here.

How can you say that this stat is not relevant?? This stat proves absolutely that, unwritten or not, everyone was aware of it and followed it. Look at the stat, zero for 557 pitches not broken in 20 years. So it was an idea of sportsmanship that everyone was aware of. So that does give validity to LaRussa being upset. Even if Mercedes didn't know, he was told to take by McEwing. McEwing has said that. I'm tired of people on here lying and saying that Mercedes didn't get the take sign. Here's another repeated lie on this topic I'm sick of reading on this post and site. It's the people that claim that LaRussa thinks it's okay for the Twin to throw at Mercedes, to hit Mercedes. These liars claim that LaRussa is more concerned with the unwritten rules than if one of his players getting injured by being hit by a pitch. Mercedes wasn't hit by a pitch, and he wasn't hit by a pitch because the pitcher didn't throw at him; he threw behind Mercedes. There was no chance of Mercedes being injured, and it's a lie to say there was, a lie continually repeated on this site by people to reinforce a ridiculous point. What LaRussa was okay with is that the Twins made their statement about the 3 and O swing without any chance of Mercedes or any other Sox being hurt. That's what LaRussa was fine with, that the incident was over and the Twins made their statement and, again, no chance of someone being hurt from either team. So stop repeating that lie that LaRussa was okay with Mercedes being hit: LaRussa isn't okay with that and no one was hit. As a former high school basketball coach who has had to sit players down for taunting the other team, I agree with LaRussa about respecting your opponent and the game and not embarrassing your opponent when they're down. I know showboating and showing another player up is common now, but I still have problems with it and I think LaRussa had a right to be angry, especially when Yermin was told to take the pitch, just like he has the right to be angry that Moncada ran through the hold at 3rd sign and got thrown out at home during the gamed the night before. Sorry, make your old man yells at kids to stay off lawn jokes, but I still believe players should do what their coaches tell them to do and players should respect the game and their opponents. Now, if you want to complain about LaRussa on this, there are couple points you could make: First, this stuff never should have gotten out of the clubhouse. I guess the media today makes that all but impossible. Still, I would have like Tony to really, really tried to avoid any questions on this and try to keep it in house. And now the thing that really bothers me and has anyone brought this up? When LaRussa was hired, he was told that stuff like this was gonna happen, excessive celebrations, bat throwing, taunting and showboating. He was told this was gonna happen with this team. Tony made it clear that he understood that players have changed and he's would have to be understanding on this sort of thing. Now, I'm sure this isn't the first thing that a Sox player has done that rubbed TLR wrong, but the 3 and 0 swing was exactly the type of thing he was told would happen, and he replied that he would be, I don't know the right word, "accepting" or and that he could ignore it. And he didn't. This is what bothers me: he is doing exactly what he was told he couldn't do because it would alienate his players, and he said he wouldn't do it, but he did. I hope he can learn from this, and I hope he and the players have talked this out, but that he did what he was told not to do and said he wouldn't do, that is cause for concern. So let's deal with that not all the BS made up stuff that's not true.