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Post by ancientsoxfogey on Sept 14, 2021 6:02:31 GMT -5
This team feels a lot like the 1974 Sox.
They didn't have the horses either, but managed to smoke-and-mirrors their way basically to the end of August, then in September they were snuffed by a really very much better O's team and from there on, staggered to the end of the season.
..... then came 1975 ......
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Post by alexcorahomevideo on Sept 14, 2021 7:13:16 GMT -5
This team feels a lot like the 1974 Sox. They didn't have the horses either, but managed to smoke-and-mirrors their way basically to the end of August, then in September they were snuffed by a really very much better O's team and from there on, staggered to the end of the season. ..... then came 1975 ...... Didn't really think of the 74 reference. Was too fixated on the 78 Sox one. Those 70s teams...could have been much different with some more luck.
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nomar
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Post by nomar on Sept 14, 2021 7:18:06 GMT -5
Just have to weather the storm and beat up on the Orioles and Nats
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Post by soxfansince67 on Sept 14, 2021 8:05:04 GMT -5
Teams that swing for the fences all the time get lots of Ks and solo dingers. Plate discipline not a strength for this team
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Post by DesignatedForAssignment on Sept 14, 2021 8:14:21 GMT -5
Not impressed with Cora ...
Brasier should be 3 batters and out. Didn't pinch hit for Vazquez in 9th Schwarber late inning Dee is an issue
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 14, 2021 8:24:06 GMT -5
At this point all I can say is I hope Toronto kills the Yankees in the Wild Card game. Then I can enjoy the post-season as a baseball fan rather than a crazed Red Sox fan rooting for the Sox to win and/or the Yankees to lose. The Red Sox are still capable of making the playoffs but I have very little faith in them to do so. Why the hell should I have faith in them? What the hell have they done since the end of July to merit faith? They find every which way to lose and have done nothing but disappoint and embarrass. They have managed to combine elements of 1978 and 2011 which is quite distasteful. Much rather they would have started the season out crappy, shown marked improvement, and made a spirited run for the playoffs instead of blowing it the way they have. They might have ended up in the same place, but it would have felt a helluva lot better. Buddy the Yankees might be worse than we are, it’s a race to the bottom. A war of attrition. Could be Mariners-Jays at this pace The Yankees just might be, but they're cockroaches that somehow are still living when they should have been dead two months ago. That probably means something. The Red Sox had everything go their way earlier in the season and the worm has since turned. One of the weakest and flawed and decimated Yankees team I have ever seen somehow won 13 games and then tanked because they're not that good, but my guess is they'll win at least 6 of the 9 games they have against Baltimore/Cleveland/Texas coming up and I know people are saying the Rays will pick them off at the end, but the Rays will be in spring training mode by then so I wouldn't count on that. The 3 game series the Sox play at Fenway against NY will loom large. Either team sweeps the other team is out. Even taking 2 out of 3 represents a 2 game swing which is huge at this point in the season. I suspect the Yankees will follow up their cold spell with a hot streak against crappy teams even though they're flawed every bit as much as the Sox. Now that Toronto has finally asserted themselves I think the Sox and Yanks will be battling for the right to visit to Toronto. The Red Sox have cooled off after their 9-4 stretch. I have a feeling they are going to put themselves in a situation where they're behind by 2 or 3 games and will need to run the table on the road trip through Baltimore and Washington to give themselves a chance (which still might not be enough if they don't get enough help). I'm at the point I don't worry about teams beating the Red Sox. I worry about them beating themselves, like they did last night. As far as the Yankees go, as flawed as they are, they have managed to handle adversity and survive somehow. The Sox haven't really shown that kind or resiliency. They're going to have to.
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Post by sarasoxer on Sept 14, 2021 8:28:59 GMT -5
Teams that swing for the fences all the time get lots of Ks and solo dingers. Plate discipline not a strength for this team The pendulum has 'swung'. Remember when (not so awfully long ago) our team was king of patience....running up pitch counts. Sometime after that it was felt that we took too many hittable pitches and needed to be more aggressive. And here we are. Devers has always been my pet peeve here. The eye test suggests that he is the consummate free swinger. Give him Schwarber's patience/zone judgment and you could Really have something. I'm getting a little tired of his continuously publicly chastising himself too.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 14, 2021 8:38:28 GMT -5
This team feels a lot like the 1974 Sox. They didn't have the horses either, but managed to smoke-and-mirrors their way basically to the end of August, then in September they were snuffed by a really very much better O's team and from there on, staggered to the end of the season. ..... then came 1975 ...... 1974 is a good analogy. A bit of that season, 1978, and 2011 rolled into one. I doubt this team was supposed to be Bloom's masterpiece anyways, as opposed to the 1978 team which was supposed to be the team that won it all. I think Bloom's best teams he puts together will be toward the middle of the decade as I think that's what he's ultimately building toward. This team was put together to hopefully be competitive and was. For some reason the Sox seem to do better in the middle of the decade anyways? I mean what year ending in 0, 1, or 9 did they ever win the Series or even get into the Series? In 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011 the Sox had chances to make the post-season and fell short at the end, so why would 2021 be any different? Haha.
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Post by alexcorahomevideo on Sept 14, 2021 8:56:47 GMT -5
Defense is awful. I could go the rest of my life without seeing Schwarber at 1st base and be happy. I guess you can't just plug and play someone there after all.
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Post by Coreno on Sept 14, 2021 10:50:50 GMT -5
Glad to see we arent overreacting this morning
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 14, 2021 10:52:43 GMT -5
Glad to see we arent overreacting this morning Glad you're so overconfident about things. Some of us get concerned when they don't play well and hand away games in a tight race.
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manfred
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Post by manfred on Sept 14, 2021 11:08:11 GMT -5
Well, as badly as they’ve played, in the end, many of us, certainly me, didn’t think these games would matter anyway. They’d have to go 5-11 in their last games to hit my projected record, so the season will beat my expectations.
Sure, once you think there is more, you want it. And it is still there for the taking. But I am not gunna flip out if they just miss. I expected the East and WC to be long gone.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 14, 2021 11:42:58 GMT -5
Well, as badly as they’ve played, in the end, many of us, certainly me, didn’t think these games would matter anyway. They’d have to go 5-11 in their last games to hit my projected record, so the season will beat my expectations. Sure, once you think there is more, you want it. And it is still there for the taking. But I am not gunna flip out if they just miss. I expected the East and WC to be long gone. Yeah, they played far better than I had them penciled in for although they're playing like that team now. Still, it's the way they're getting there that's hard to take. If the Sox make the playoffs then it's a "great" season even if they get bounced in the wild card game as long as they don't blow the game and the #1 rule, don't lose to the Yankees. If they blow making the playoffs the aggravation will be there but it won't be a forever thing. It's not like this is Bloom's only crack at making a championship team and this team was the best failed chance he had. There will be better seasons. You can see that the organizational depth is moving in the right direction. I think it's easier to take the Sox struggling, finding their footing and improving as the seasons wears along rather than they get off to a great start, put visions of 2013 in your head, and then yank your chain. I mean, I remember in 2015 being quite excited about the future. They were dead last in 2014 and 2015 started off as a continuation of 2015 but by the second half the Sox were much improved, even with their last place finish and improving 78-84 record and showing huge up arrow signs that the future was going to be bright and sure enough in 2016 the Sox wound up in first place. I'm sure fans felt like that in the second half of 1966. They could see the improvement. But this year the Sox played a lot worse as the season wore on. If they wound up at 90 wins but missed the playoffs but improved as the seasonwent along it wouldn't feel as bad. The good news like I said is that doesn't mean that 2022 is hopeless. Just the opposite. There will be better days ahead so even if the Sox piss me off and blow a playoff spot, they'll eventually provide us with a team with legit World Championship aspirations than one whose best hope is to just make the playoffs.
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Post by jimed14 on Sept 14, 2021 11:45:52 GMT -5
Possibly, one could consider having 12 guys out because of COVID at least a tiny part of their recent troubles.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 14, 2021 12:05:44 GMT -5
Possibly, one could consider having 12 guys out because of COVID at least a tiny part of their recent troubles. They were playing poorly before the Covid outbreak. They were intact during that 6-14 stretch. And they're on the lower end of vaccinated teams as they are below 85% so it's not that surprising they had a big outbreak.
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Post by Coreno on Sept 14, 2021 12:07:18 GMT -5
Glad to see we arent overreacting this morning Glad you're so overconfident about things. Some of us get concerned when they don't play well and hand away games in a tight race. Not overconfident. Just optimistic. They are in the thick of the playoff hunt with about 2 weeks to go. That's about all we can ask for. Only 1 team in the league is significantly better than them by record. The chicken little routine around here gets so tiring.
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Post by jimed14 on Sept 14, 2021 12:20:40 GMT -5
Possibly, one could consider having 12 guys out because of COVID at least a tiny part of their recent troubles. They were playing poorly before the Covid outbreak. They were intact during that 6-14 stretch. And they're on the lower end of vaccinated teams as they are below 85% so it's not that surprising they had a big outbreak. And still, having that many people out will affect any team trying to win no matter how they were playing. I'm not getting into yet another stupid vaccine discussion that has nothing to do with baseball.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 14, 2021 12:28:09 GMT -5
They were playing poorly before the Covid outbreak. They were intact during that 6-14 stretch. And they're on the lower end of vaccinated teams as they are below 85% so it's not that surprising they had a big outbreak. And still, having that many people out will affect any team trying to win no matter how they were playing. I'm not getting into yet another stupid vaccine discussion that has nothing to do with baseball. Well at least we agree on something.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 14, 2021 12:30:41 GMT -5
Glad you're so overconfident about things. Some of us get concerned when they don't play well and hand away games in a tight race. Not overconfident. Just optimistic. They are in the thick of the playoff hunt with about 2 weeks to go. That's about all we can ask for. Only 1 team in the league is significantly better than them by record. The chicken little routine around here gets so tiring. Would you like the purple heart for your optimism? When the Sox play in a way that inspires optimism I'll be optimistic. At the end of July I was pretty damn optimistic they were going to the playoffs, but not so much anymore. Still that doesn't mean they cannot do it. I just no longer expect it at this point like I had in July.
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Post by Coreno on Sept 14, 2021 12:41:05 GMT -5
Not overconfident. Just optimistic. They are in the thick of the playoff hunt with about 2 weeks to go. That's about all we can ask for. Only 1 team in the league is significantly better than them by record. The chicken little routine around here gets so tiring. Would you like the purple heart for your optimism? When the Sox play in a way that inspires optimism I'll be optimistic. At the end of July I was pretty damn optimistic they were going to the playoffs, but not so much anymore. Still that doesn't mean they cannot do it. I just no longer expect it at this point like I had in July. What they did through July still happened. It doesn't magically disappear just because they have gone through some struggles since. Teams go through up and downs throughout the season. Not long ago, everyone was crying about how the yankees will never lose a game again and now they've lost 8 of their last 10.
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Post by Don Caballero on Sept 14, 2021 18:22:05 GMT -5
Glad to see we arent overreacting this morning Check page 2 of this thread, I had to leave because it was getting comical lol. I get this thread is where we vent but come on guys, life's good.
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cdj
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Post by cdj on Sept 14, 2021 20:14:37 GMT -5
Hernandez 8 Renfroe 9 Bogaerts 6 Devers 5 Martinez DH Dalbec 3 Plawecki 2 Verdugo 7 Iglesias 4
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Post by Soxfansince1971 on Sept 14, 2021 20:21:13 GMT -5
This team feels a lot like the 1974 Sox. They didn't have the horses either, but managed to smoke-and-mirrors their way basically to the end of August, then in September they were snuffed by a really very much better O's team and from there on, staggered to the end of the season. ..... then came 1975 ...... If memory services me, the 1974 team started September with a 7 game lead and finished 7 behind. It is tough to win when you don’t have a better team. Thankfully these owners have spent the money over the last 18 years....4 World Series wins.
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Post by Soxfansince1971 on Sept 14, 2021 20:29:19 GMT -5
Defense is awful. I could go the rest of my life without seeing Schwarber at 1st base and be happy. I guess you can't just plug and play someone there after all. In 2022 it will be Schwarber or JD, but there is not room for both.
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Post by dangermike on Sept 14, 2021 20:30:22 GMT -5
i'm sure this has been said but wowwie - christian arroyo really does miss more time than you anticipate every.single.time.
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