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10/20-10/21 Red Sox vs. Cardinals World Series Offday Thread
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Post by James Dunne on Oct 20, 2013 10:04:48 GMT -5
Lester is totally useless with a bat in his hands (though it's not like Lackey is Don Robinson). I wouldn't mind seeing him go Game 2 and line up for both Fenway starts.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Oct 20, 2013 10:26:59 GMT -5
I would think that the Sox would keep the same rotation order based on Buchholz being a question mark for innings pitched - in other words putting Buchholz in Game 3 might place a burden on the bullpen that has to potentially pitch 3 nights in a row. If he starts Game 2 and 6, there's a day of rest for the pen after and before, respectively.
I would hope/pray that Franklin Morales is taken off the roster - please. I'm no fan of Matt Thornton, but to be fair to him, the Sox never really treated him like the LOOGY he should be. I'd go with him. I like Britton's arm better, but he, too, hasn't pitched in awhile, and his command could be a bigger question mark.
Another option is using Doubront in the situation they had last night, too. but I like him in longer stints.
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Post by soxfan06 on Oct 20, 2013 10:29:23 GMT -5
I would think that the Sox would keep the same rotation order based on Buchholz being a question mark for innings pitched - in other words putting Buchholz in Game 3 might place a burden on the bullpen that has to potentially pitch 3 nights in a row. If he starts Game 2 and 6, there's a day of rest for the pen after and before, respectively. I would hope/pray that Franklin Morales is taken off the roster - please. I'm no fan of Matt Thornton, but to be fair to him, the Sox never really treated him like the LOOGY he should be. I'd go with him. I like Britton's arm better, but he, too, hasn't pitched in awhile, and his command could be a bigger question mark. Another option is using Doubront in the situation they had last night, too. but I like him in longer stints. I think you gotta set it up so Buchholz and Peavy get to face the NL lineups. Or should I say the "weaker" lineups. Both have been inferior to Lester and Lackey. I think it should definitely go Lackey, Lester, Buchholz, Peavy, Lackey, Lester, Buchholz.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Oct 20, 2013 10:42:55 GMT -5
I would think that the Sox would keep the same rotation order based on Buchholz being a question mark for innings pitched - in other words putting Buchholz in Game 3 might place a burden on the bullpen that has to potentially pitch 3 nights in a row. If he starts Game 2 and 6, there's a day of rest for the pen after and before, respectively. I would hope/pray that Franklin Morales is taken off the roster - please. I'm no fan of Matt Thornton, but to be fair to him, the Sox never really treated him like the LOOGY he should be. I'd go with him. I like Britton's arm better, but he, too, hasn't pitched in awhile, and his command could be a bigger question mark. Another option is using Doubront in the situation they had last night, too. but I like him in longer stints. I'd rather see Britton that Morales or Thornton. Britton had a few games where he was looking very good. We're probably stuck with Morales again though.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Oct 20, 2013 10:49:44 GMT -5
Oh yeah. He might just be the next Masterson type for the Sox, lets just hope this one doesn't end up getting traded away until a rotation slot opens up. Could it be possible that Bogaerts and Middlebrooks are the SS/3b during the WS and Drew sits finally? Watching his struggles at the plate has has gone on long enough. Bad enough with Salty, but Drew the team could sit with options that have the ability to do better. Does Farrell get atta/ boys for warming up the pen during the 6th when Bucholz 1st got into trouble? I have been praying for this. Its unlikely though against righty starters and in the World Series. I don't see Farrell "turning away from Stephen Drew" as he calls it. If Drew goes hitless for another game or three then Farrell might have to sit him though.
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Post by johnsilver52 on Oct 20, 2013 11:01:24 GMT -5
I understand there. reason though, team is already going to be short 1 bat at St. Louis for games 3,4,5 anyway and Drew is going to be a drag if he's still not hitting, not saying WMB will do any etter, but his bat could at least give the team a chance to do what Gomes did last evening.. Pop a ball hard that nearly went yard.
Drew's defense may be better appreciated at SS at St.Louis is the plus with him on the flip. So a reason to not go with WMB either. Farrell has a reason to not go that route, but I see no excuse to not go with Bogey at 3b now.
Chris made an interesting tweet on the feed also..
Lets hope they show some feeds of game 6, '67 series, when Petrocelli went deep 2x and Yaz once to tie that one up at 3 all vs the Cardinals.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Oct 20, 2013 11:32:25 GMT -5
For other guys I might hesitate to put a rookie at short in the WS but Xander is cooler than the other side of the pillow. He just looks so damn calm out there. He has gone down 0-2 and drawn walks multiple times this post season. I think this guy is going to be our best hitter very soon.
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danr
Veteran
Posts: 1,871
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Post by danr on Oct 20, 2013 11:33:04 GMT -5
I don't understand why Morales is even on the team. Britton is a much better pitcher even with his lack of experience. Even Thornton probably is a better choice. Or, just have two LHPs and bring in a better RHP. What has happened to Dempster?
The handedness thing only makes sense when you have a good pitcher to use. Morales is not a good pitcher and he offers no advantage over having a better RHP.
And since Fielder was having such a bad series, it really didn't matter. He wasn't going to hit anyone.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Oct 20, 2013 12:03:32 GMT -5
Also, the importance of starting pitching in playoff baseball continues to be vastly overrated. Kershaw, Verlander and Price will all be golfing next week.
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Post by pedroelgrande on Oct 20, 2013 12:58:25 GMT -5
I have a feeling Drew will get a couple of big hits. He doesn't suck THAT much with the bat so at some point the hits will come. I like it just like it is for now Drew at SS, Aruban God Of Walks at 3rd. He just puts better plate appearances than Middlebrooks and you need that right now.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Oct 20, 2013 13:00:39 GMT -5
I have a feeling Drew will get a couple of big hits. He doesn't suck THAT much with the bat so at some point the hits will come. I like it just like it is for now Drew at SS, Aruban God Of Walks at 3rd. He just puts better plate appearances than Middlebrooks and you need that right now. And Middlebrooks will at least get work as a PH at Busch.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Oct 20, 2013 13:15:31 GMT -5
Also, the importance of starting pitching in playoff baseball continues to be vastly overrated. Kershaw, Verlander and Price will all be golfing next week. True, true... but the quality of the relief corps may be vastly underrated. That's what won this series for the Sox: how bad the Tiger relievers were, versus how good (most) of the pen was for Boston. That and a near-surreal ability to pick the right spot for timely hitting. The Red Sox killed the Tiger relievers and did very little against the starters. If you get a team with both, you're on track for a clear shot at the World Series. You don't need to look any further than this iteration of the Sox and the Cardinals so see how that works. It's hard to tell exactly who should be favored here. The Dodgers, without Kemp and with Ramirez hurting, offered very little challenge to the Cards, with bad at-bat after bad at-bat. Ethier may have leg problems, but that doesn't excuse his near-useless plate appearances. Uribe is a classic all-or-nothing swinger with minimal plate discipline. The Ellis twins have a plan but Mark isn't a major power threat at this point in his career, and Gonzalez can still crank em' but he's not the same hitter he used to be and is vulnerable to being setup. Puig has holes that the Cards' pitchers easily exposed, constantly chasing bad pitches. I've been watching him try to modify his approach over the last month or so, but that's not OJT you want to be taking on during the playoffs. He, Mark Ellis, and Crawford, the LA leadoff hitter, had two walks between them over those six games I believe. It would be nice to think Boston can do better. The Cards have some arms, but given the number of swings and misses on pitches outside the zone against LA, it's hard to know exactly how that stuff will play out in the Series. My gut feeling is that Kelly will have less success than Wacha, but that the latter can be had also if forced to make pitches in the zone. But make no mistake, both have good stuff and when they're on it can take a while to reach them.
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Post by Gwell55 on Oct 20, 2013 14:27:57 GMT -5
Also, the importance of starting pitching in playoff baseball continues to be vastly overrated. Kershaw, Verlander and Price will all be golfing next week. But very solid starters plus a lights out pen > starting pitching with mediocre pen ... any part of any season.
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Post by brianthetaoist on Oct 20, 2013 17:53:10 GMT -5
One (minor) factor that makes it good that Peavy will pitch in St Louis is that he's not completely useless with a bat in his hands. I mean, he's not Miguel Cabrera back there, but his last two years in the NL he had better hitting stats than any Cardinals pitcher this year ... we're talking about the difference between horrible and completely useless, so we shouldn't make too much of it, but he may steal a hit in his start.
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Post by rjp313jr on Oct 20, 2013 18:40:32 GMT -5
Relief pitching is very undervalued in my opinion because of the number of innings they pitch. That's certainly a valid way to look at it, but you can also look at number of games impacted. Unfortunately for relievers they are fairly inconsistent from year to year. Of course, that may not be as true as the variances in numbers suggest due to one bad outing having an effect on numbers. Needless to say, you need a strong bullpen to win a WS. However, it only needs to be good for03 weeks. See Giants 3 years ago.
Bogaerts, needs to get moved up to the 6 spot for the WS. How painful has it been watching guys on base, smelling a rally then seeing Napoli, Salty and Gomes coming up and just knowing strikeouts were coming. I'm not going to get greedy and suggest any higher then 6 but that's a good spot. Bat Drew 8 in front of the pitcher so he has a greater chance of walking.
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Post by brianthetaoist on Oct 21, 2013 5:49:24 GMT -5
It's such a little oddity that in the 7 World Series appearances for the Red Sox since 1918, the Cardinals have been the opponent 4 times. I mean, they've been good, but it's not like they've dominated the National League over the last 100 years ...
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Post by knuckledown on Oct 21, 2013 7:33:51 GMT -5
The Cards have won the NL title 19 times in the last 113 years or 16.8% of the time. Dominated might be too strong a word, but not by much.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Oct 21, 2013 9:06:30 GMT -5
How does the Cards rotation compared to ours? I've heard their pitching staff is better per the talking heads but honestly pitching against the Cubs and brewers in the NL for 1/4 of your regular season games seems to inflate their numbers a bit imo.
Wainwright and wacha have been dominant, but Kelly and Miller compared to Lackey and Peavy? Lester has also had a great post season. Buchholz has been OK but not any better or worse than that.
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Post by rjp313jr on Oct 21, 2013 9:32:10 GMT -5
The top 2 are great, but they are more like Scherzer than Verlander with regards to pitch counts. Sox will make them work and could drive up the pitch counts. The big issue, is the Cards have a great pen. Miller won't be starting. It's Kelly and Lynne. The Sox could get both out of the game by the 5th and help work that bullpen for later in the series.
Wacha is still a bit of a wildcard. Can't deny the results and talent but he's never faced a lineup quite like this in a park like Fenway. He's got balls of steel though and is a no hitter waiting to happen.
This is a very good team and with Craig back, not your typical NL team who's at a disadvantage when playing with a DH.
Sox are a better defensive team and a better baserunning team, However, Molina neutralizes the run game on his own. Maybe we an assault him like we did Avilla. Don't be surprised if Cards D loses a game for them even in a subtle way.
Worst possible matchup for the Sox. I picked the Cardinals to win the WS weeks ago. I hope I'm wrong. This Sox team has played better then its parts all year. Different guys stepping up.
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Post by bosox81 on Oct 21, 2013 9:32:28 GMT -5
Is this kid really 21? Like the article says it is now not a question of whether Xander should start in the WS, it's how high he should bat in the order. link
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Oct 21, 2013 10:08:27 GMT -5
The top 2 are great, but they are more like Scherzer than Verlander with regards to pitch counts. Sox will make them work and could drive up the pitch counts. The big issue, is the Cards have a great pen. Miller won't be starting. It's Kelly and Lynne. The Sox could get both out of the game by the 5th and help work that bullpen for later in the series. Wacha is still a bit of a wildcard. Can't deny the results and talent but he's never faced a lineup quite like this in a park like Fenway. He's got balls of steel though and is a no hitter waiting to happen. This is a very good team and with Craig back, not your typical NL team who's at a disadvantage when playing with a DH. Sox are a better defensive team and a better baserunning team, However, Molina neutralizes the run game on his own. Maybe we an assault him like we did Avilla. Don't be surprised if Cards D loses a game for them even in a subtle way. Worst possible matchup for the Sox. I picked the Cardinals to win the WS weeks ago. I hope I'm wrong. This Sox team has played better then its parts all year. Different guys stepping up. Dodgers would've been tougher I think. Kershaw and Greinke would've been real tough.
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Oct 21, 2013 10:31:37 GMT -5
We need a World Series Thread!! Boogity, boogity, boogity!!!
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Post by semperfisox on Oct 21, 2013 10:47:13 GMT -5
I'd like to see Xander move up in the order a bit. I think he could handle it. Would be nice to get someone on base when he's up to hit.
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Post by rjp313jr on Oct 21, 2013 12:39:02 GMT -5
It's true that we need a WS thread so here it is.
I think the first question is roster composition. Does anything change? Do you stick with what has worked?
I think the answers are Yes and Yes. The only thing that needs to change, in my mind, is Morales needs to take a seat in favor of Britton or Thornton. Morales didn't look good in any of his outings and he couldn't throw a strike in his last appearance. With Dempster, Workman and Doubront on the roster, the fact that Morales CAN go multiple innings is irrelevant. He's not going to be used that way and even if he were there are other, better, options. In choosing between the two replacement options, I would go with Britton. I understand he's young, unproven and was up and down performance wise, but I like his stuff a lot better than Thornton's and it's not like Thornton was good himself. He didn't get squeezed off the roster.
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Post by godot on Oct 21, 2013 12:46:37 GMT -5
Egad, the Card's line up looks very imposing and will like Fenway They seem to have a lights out closer also. Sox are going to have to be at their best. and Drew's bat better wake up.
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