the OFFICIAL this team is really frustrating me thread

[The Ginger Kid]

as soon as I win the mega millions jackpot tonight, none of this will matter to me.

[ThunderBolt]

Hey, hey, guys! Let's all get pissed off at each other! YEAH!

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

as soon as I win the mega millions jackpot tonight, none of this will matter to me.

You can't win it I'm going to !

[kapkomet]

as soon as I win the mega millions jackpot tonight, none of this will matter to me.

DAMMIT. I was going to buy a ticket too. That bad boy's getting big.

 

[ThunderBolt]

I know there are more mature posters on this board who don't play fantasy baseball or know the latest sabermetric stats but who's heart and eyes follow the Sox religiously without posting a hell of a lot may be a bit afraid or cautious about posting because, seriously, no one wants to be ripped to shreds because they don't know every little detail of a players contract or what his UZR is. But I know they're out there because whenever I see the "are you in or out" they show up.

I’m sorry. I know there’s a difference between being a fan of the game and a student of the game, but taking issue with both these things is both petty and absurd.

[Molto]

The Linebrink hatred is simple: it's always easiest to blame one guy then blame 10, because if it's one player, it's a quick fix... unfortunately, it isn't. We would be very happy fans if Linebrink was this team's only problem. This team is .500 and has a payroll close to $100 million ... their failures don't fall on a relief pitcher.

[SoxAce]

People better get used to him. We still have him for a couple more years with a no trade clause contract.

[SoxFan562004]

People better get used to him. We still have him for a couple more years with a no trade clause contract.

if he's like this next year and KW thinks there's viable options he may get DFA'd and the Sox just eat his money

[greg775]

Sox players who are frustrating me to no end lately. ... I said frustrating me, not me hating them as people:

 

Pods: The pickoffs have really hurt the club.

Dye: How the hell can you go from unstoppable to nothing? That's baseball.

Liney: He's gotta go in the offseason.

Dotel: Please dump him for scraps in the offseason.

Mark: Love you, Mark, but what is up since the perfect game? What is up?

Jose: His name says it all. What is he 5-12?

Rios: Off to a s***TY start at the plate in a Sox uniform. Way to give us a spark, sir.

 

Not frustrating me:

Bobby - Still doing well when we get it to him.

AJ - Love the guy. Has hit all year.

Beckham - He's not hit well of late, but oh well.

Alexei - Really bad ss but at least he got some big hits of late, unlike say, everybody else.

CQ - Doing well since coming back.

 

Obviously Peavy should be shut down if we go 2-8 or worse on this trip. No need for him to pitch.

Offseason: Revamp the bullpen again. Get rid of some of our aging slow guys. Make a GOOD trade or 2.

Pray for some luck in close games next year.

[Paint it Black]

If you want to say that he's been pitching badly, fine. If you want to criticize Ozzie for pitching him, fine. But we don't want threads here titled, "X player SUCKS!!!!".

Nah man I totally understand. I mean I get tired of those types of threads as much as you. But my greater point was that I think it's time that a "Linebrink Sucks" title is accurate and deserved.

[Paint it Black]

Also to a greater point, nobody should be surprised as to how these last two games have gone. They're an awful team only in contention because of the awful division in which they play.

[Milkman delivers]

I took a night off of punishing myself by watching this team, and went to a movie. It was nice.

 

I am going to thoroughly enjoy getting rid of even more players from the 2005 team this offseason. The more we distance ourselves from those aging, ever-deteriorating players, the better it will be for this team. We can be assured that Contreras, Garcia, and (hopefully) Dye are all history very soon. We need to stop keeping these scrubs around because of something they did years ago. The sole purpose of the team is to win, and replacing some of these guys will help towards meeting that goal.

[PeavyTime]

Linebrink is awful and it seems to be his MO from the 2nd half of every season. Maybe we should bench him the first half of next year so he is fresh after the AS break.

[GreatScott82]

The Defense

Infield-after watching Alexie at SS this year i realize how much of a better 2B he is. He makes waaaayy to many mistakes out there. I could care less how good his arm is or how athletic he is. Move Beckham back to SS. That would reduce this teams defensive blunders IMO.

My solution for 2010- Sign Figgins for 3b. He plays solid defense there. This would make 1 of Getz or Ramirez tradable this offseason. Perhaps for some bullpen help? Or a young starting pitcher such as Zach Duke?

 

Outfield- Dye has regressed tremendously out in RF, and Quentin seems to be misreading some of his balls (could be his foot issue) Rios will be solid out in CF. Pods shouldn't play the OF period. There has been too many defensive mishaps out in the of this year. Rather its mis the cut off man or misread a flyball.

My solution for 2010: CF-Rios, LF-Quentin, RF- Mitchell. Call me crazy but if this guy hits in the AFL and performs over his head out in ST, he could make an immediate impact kind of like Beckham. Jordan Danks could be another opton.

 

Bullpen- Jenks has had a shaky season, but finding a successful closer is hard to find. He seems to be coming back around. Dotel and Linebrink have been disappointing. Its either Jekel or Hyde with these 2, we cant afford that down the stretch. Thorton has been the most consistent. Pena has nasty stuff but never knows when to throw it- everytime out there the guy gets hammered. We traded Allen for this guy? Carrasco has been pretty solid this year- probably one of the better long relievers in the league. The jury is still out on Randy Williams.

After the last 2 games vs Boston I became aware of what a really good bullpen looks like.

My solution for 2010 Keep Jenks, Thorton, Carrasco and Pena (maybe coop could fix him?) let Dotel walk, attempt to trade Linebrink and his bad contract. Bring up Hudson let him adapt to the big leagues in the pen. Sign Rafeal Bettancourt. The dude is ripping it up for Colorado.

 

Offense- I like this offense more than last season's. However for whatever reason we haven't come up with that clutch hit very often this year. Dye has been underperforming, Rios hasn't truly arrived yet and Quentin still isn't the same. With this offense there is no reason to be .500.

My solution for 2010- Let Dye and Pods walk via free agency. Bring over Figgins, re-sign Thome to a cheap 1 year deal and HOPE they can stop leaving as many runners stranded as they did in 2009. BEcause 1-9 our lineup should be pretty scary.

 

Starting pitching I love our starting pitching. They've been alittle inconsistent at times but Peavy, Buerhle, Floyd, Danks. . doesn't get much better than that. Buerhle, Danks and Floyd needs to step it up and Peavy needs to arrive. But they aren't the reason why we are .500.

My Solution for 2010- Leave it alone and add a 5th starter. Trade for Zach Duke to add even more depth to an impressive rotation.

 

 

[son of a rude]

Beckham wasn't raw like Mitchell. no way will mitchell be ready.

[Paint it Black]

I took a night off of punishing myself by watching this team, and went to a movie. It was nice.

 

I am going to thoroughly enjoy getting rid of even more players from the 2005 team this offseason. The more we distance ourselves from those aging, ever-deteriorating players, the better it will be for this team. We can be assured that Contreras, Garcia, and (hopefully) Dye are all history very soon. We need to stop keeping these scrubs around because of something they did years ago. The sole purpose of the team is to win, and replacing some of these guys will help towards meeting that goal.

 

Did the movie thing tonight as well. Feels good man.

 

Y'know 2 weeks ago I would have said bring back Dye as a DH. Now I'd rather have Thome if the contract is 2 years or under.

[ThunderBolt]

Beckham wasn't raw like Mitchell. no way will mitchell be ready.

Yep, Beckham was pretty much always the player he was gonna be right out of college. I think Mitchell has about two full years in the minors before we can make any true statements about his big league future.

[T R U]

Sox players who are frustrating me to no end lately. ... I said frustrating me, not me hating them as people:

 

Pods: The pickoffs have really hurt the club.

Dye: How the hell can you go from unstoppable to nothing? That's baseball.

Liney: He's gotta go in the offseason.

Dotel: Please dump him for scraps in the offseason.

Mark: Love you, Mark, but what is up since the perfect game? What is up?

Jose: His name says it all. What is he 5-12?

Rios: Off to a s***TY start at the plate in a Sox uniform. Way to give us a spark, sir.

 

Not frustrating me:

Bobby - Still doing well when we get it to him.

AJ - Love the guy. Has hit all year.

Beckham - He's not hit well of late, but oh well.

Alexei - Really bad ss but at least he got some big hits of late, unlike say, everybody else.

CQ - Doing well since coming back.

 

Obviously Peavy should be shut down if we go 2-8 or worse on this trip. No need for him to pitch.

Offseason: Revamp the bullpen again. Get rid of some of our aging slow guys. Make a GOOD trade or 2.

Pray for some luck in close games next year.

 

Dotel has been better this year than EVERYBODY in the bullpen except Thornton.. I think that will be apparent when he is most likely not brought back next season and we got some scrub in his place.

 

Dump him for scraps, man get the hell out of here. Its one thing to be frustrated with this team, its another to ignore performance.. OVERALL performance, regardless of if you have a selective memory of the negative.. If Dotel was that worthless, his overall body of work would look much worse than it is..

 

EDIT: He gave up 3 runs vs Boston in the first game of the series 8/24.. He had only given up 3 runs total since 7/04, that was a 16 appearance span.. No one talks about that, only that one game and he is garbage and needs to be released.. come on man

Edited August 26, 2009 by T R U

[rangercal]

Dotel has been better this year than EVERYBODY in the bullpen except Thornton.. I think that will be apparent when he is most likely not brought back next season and we got some scrub in his place.

 

Dump him for scraps, man get the hell out of here. Its one thing to be frustrated with this team, its another to ignore performance.. OVERALL performance, regardless of if you have a selective memory of the negative.. If Dotel was that worthless, his overall body of work would look much worse than it is..

 

EDIT: He gave up 3 runs vs Boston in the first game of the series 8/24.. He had only given up 3 runs total since 7/04, that was a 16 appearance span.. No one talks about that, only that one game and he is garbage and needs to be released.. come on man

I have to agree with this. Maybe he thinks it's still 2008?

[nitetrain8601]

Agreed as well. Dotel has been much better than last year IMHO. Jenks, not so much.

[hogan873]

I have to honest. After Boston went up 6-3 in the 8th I wanted to jump on SoxTalk and start a thread about how bad this team is. But I didn't. I calmed down, drank an Abita Purple Haze, and actually found everything to be pretty laughable.

 

This team has played like this since day one. Flashes of greatness tempered heavily by bad baseball. The AL Central is a mess. No one wants this division. The Tigers have tried to give it to the Sox and the Twins, the Twins said they didn't want it, and the Sox have seemed to side with Minnesota.

 

I think the most frustrating part for me is that the Sox are still in it. What I mean by that is if the Tigers were 10 games up, these losses wouldn't sting as much. The first two games of this road trip have hurt greatly because Detroit has decided to play good ball. Now the Sox are 4.5 games out, tied with the Twins. And still, the Sox are in it, albeit much less so than on Sunday.

 

Yes, Linebrink did not pitch well last night. He has not pitched well as of late and has given up some key runs. But the offense has been absolutely brutal lately. First and third, no one out, and they blow it. That half inning should have ended with the Sox up by at least one. And that's just one example. Maybe we should start a thread where everyone can post an example of when the offense let us down.

 

To myself and anyone who was in the room with me the past two days, I have said I'm done watching the Sox. But that was just the frustrated me venting. I'm not going to stop watching. I love baseball, and I love the Sox. I want to see Freddy pitch well, Beckham win the Rookie of the Year, Dye turn it around, Rios start hitting, and AJ continue to tear it up. It's just very frustrating right now because these games matter...a lot.

 

There are 9 games left on this road trip, and if the Sox get their collective heads out of their asses they could play themselves right back into contention. However, they can also play themselves right out of it, too.

[BigSqwert]

Woke up to see that Detroit is finally starting to hit their stride. Twins as well. Oh well.

[Kyyle23]

The worst part about Linebrink is that it seems like everything happens when he has two outs. He simply cannot close out an inning, and when you put him in high leverage situations, he just goes to the same pitch over and over. Bay saw 3 consecutive forkballs(all rollers) and sat on the third one. I cant imagine that is AJs call, I just cannot see him calling the same pitch 3 times in a row, I may be wrong, but I was really pissed at Linebrink last night.

[buckweaver]

Add some preseason perspective to this thread to keep yourselves from pulling the rest of your hair out. Experts picked the Sox to be about 10 games under .500 (I truly thought .500) and the the Cubs to be one of the best teams in baseball...make it to the World Series...one of the top two or three teams to win it.

 

August 26: Sox are at .500, organization on the upswing, feeling good about the years to come, and have the opportunity to put the young team and some revered veterans through an actual pennant race b/c they're in a mediocre division. The only reason we're gnashing teeth is because they've stayed in the race...not a bad place to be.

 

On the North side, Cubs are in a free fall, just a game over, no realistic chance at making the playoffs, just saw their ace (hole) pitcher get blown out by the worst team in AAA, have a bunch of malcontents signed to really bad long-term contracts, and have no young players to really hope will turn into stars (the riot's probably the player he will always be and Soto saw his rookie season as his MVP year). The only thing they have going for them is a new owner.

 

Always true regardless...but it's REALLY better to be a Sox fan today.

 

Drink well, my friends.

[RME JICO]

The worst part about Linebrink is that it seems like everything happens when he has two outs. He simply cannot close out an inning, and when you put him in high leverage situations, he just goes to the same pitch over and over. Bay saw 3 consecutive forkballs(all rollers) and sat on the third one. I cant imagine that is AJs call, I just cannot see him calling the same pitch 3 times in a row, I may be wrong, but I was really pissed at Linebrink last night.

I don't think it is just Linebrink. Almost all of our pitchers have been brutal with 2 outs, and even worse with RISP and 2 outs. I don't know the stats, but I know it is bad. Also, I know our bullpen has been pretty bad with inherited runners. Those two are recipes for disaster.