Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you
Al:
Well, so much for having ovah .500 to yak about on Monday.
Al:
Still it was a nice streak of wins.
Mike:
Anyone else a bit concerned about what we might see out of Lester and Beckett the next time out after having pitched into the 120s in April?
Doug:
Meh, the average pitch count for those guys is just over 100, so no biggy.
Mike:
Maybe. But The difference between 100 and 125 can be pretty significant.
Mike:
Ovah the weekend Beckett tied a career record for pitches, and Lester's start was his 5th or 6th most pitches evah.
Al:
Well, you know, the Red Sox aren't about numbahs anymore.
Doug:
Except for the 1's and 0's on the filthy merch lucre, of course.
Mike:
You know, it's the abandonment of the "moneyball" thing that is really at the root of my fan disenchantment.
Mike:
We can point to individual events that give one pause — deciding to go with Valentine, the Septembah collapse, the loss of Theo, Lackey, Crawford — but those are just the symptoms of the disease.
Doug:
Yeah, Massarotti, of all people, really picks at the sore with his weekend column on Crawford:
"Before Crawford came along, the Red Sox believed in plate discipline as much as anything else. Then they spent $142 million on a relatively free-swinging slasher who had never so much as hit 20 home runs in a season."
Mike:
I guess we don't have to wait for the sequel to this one, Mind Game: How the Boston Red Sox Got Smart, Won a World Series, and Created a New Blueprint for Winning
Doug:
Christ, turns out the Red Sox are like Charlie in Flowers for Algernon
Al:
Well, whadya expect, the fucking mouse was a Yankees fan aftah all.
Back in college I took a class called Shakespeare and the Path Among the Passions. We read all of the major plays through the lens of a predominent passion: R&J=Love; Othello: Jealousy; etc. The lens for Hamlet was the oxymoronic "passion of resignation," which at the time I thought was just intellectual laziness on the part of Prof Philip Johnson. Now, however, with the 2012 Red Sox, I truly understand that 'passion of resignation.' I am like meh^1,000,000....
Posted by: Natalie | 2012.04.30 at 09:40 AM
Cliff Robertson not only won an Oscar for "Charly," he also had a cameo in a 1969 TV series called "Bracken's World."
Posted by: Bob | 2012.04.30 at 09:47 AM
Yep. And this is different than just run of the mill malcontent.
After all those years of bullshit, the Red Sox actually had a winning formula and proved it with 2 WS victories.
I don't understand why they'd abandon it.
And for those who say, "What proof to you have that they have?" my reply is, Explain
i) Crawford signing
ii) Hiring Valentine who is proud to admit he doesn't believe in sabremetrics etc.
If someone can answer those two, I have more...
Posted by: h.b. | 2012.04.30 at 09:50 AM
Crawford? In the NFL, it's a reach, best player available, never mind you might not need him. He is not hittin Red Sox pitching any more, now is he?
Valentine? Why just the anti-Theo at work. I've seen lots of renunciations of a regime gone flat, regardless of their results, and the natural and opposite reaction becoming policy, when a new head takes over, with promises of improvement.
Posted by: cmdrflake | 2012.04.30 at 10:01 AM
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Posted by: Bry M. | 2012.04.30 at 10:13 AM
Correction, not that anyone cares. The prof's name was Philip Fisher. And I completely agree, hb. This all feels like a betrayal at some level. I think my feelings overall are too ugly to really talk about, so I either wind up glib (on my bus) or resigned (meh re: above). The only way out as I see it is for them to fire Bobby V and recommit to the winning formula...
Posted by: Natalie | 2012.04.30 at 10:17 AM
Have fun on the cry-baby bus, y'all! I'm about to step on the It's Only April so Quit Your Whining bus...
Posted by: Go Sox, Go Heels, etc. | 2012.04.30 at 10:21 AM
Report from the Cell. Friday night game. Not many Sox fans present. It is an April game with 40 degree weather. But it is their only visit to Chicago. So I think the fans voted with their wallets.
Posted by: yazbread | 2012.04.30 at 10:36 AM
hb, No argument here. But my explanation for the abandonment of the formula is that ownership drank of the forbidden punch and now believes their own press. They never cared or even payed much attention one way or another about how the winning occurred and likely believed it was their savvy hiring decisions of management staff that caused the winning. Thus, if they make a decision to hire or fire, then it is good and winning will result because they are the owners and they make good decisions. I am waiting to see if they have the same stones Steinbrenner had to cut losses when they need cutting, even though it would negate their inherent decision making righteousness.
Posted by: Jeff in NC | 2012.04.30 at 01:02 PM
Jeff,
I think you're probably right. Though John Henry did ask for Billy Beane's help in picking out that fucking scarf.
Posted by: h.b. | 2012.04.30 at 01:09 PM
John Henry made his fortune as a quant. I don't think he would abandon a quantitative management style now. More likely, IMHO, is that he simply isn't paying attention. He has already done it all with the Red Sox, maybe he is bored and mentally checked out. It would explain the football club acquisition...
Posted by: COD | 2012.04.30 at 01:11 PM
COD,
That makes total sense.
But if the owner has checked out, what the hell are the rest of us creeps still doing here?
I see a big sunset in my future... :)
Posted by: h.b. | 2012.04.30 at 01:14 PM
I completely share COD's perspective and if I think too long about it, I get furious. How dare they check out when we are paying so much money for the product across all different mediums?
Posted by: Natalie | 2012.04.30 at 01:23 PM
I would love to see better reporting on the Crawford, Lackey and Beckett signings. Did Werner, Lucchino or Henry drive those contracts and if so, why?...All received too much money, and don't seem like Theo-type players--in salary or performance.
Chip
Posted by: Chip | 2012.04.30 at 01:31 PM
Wasn't it reported in Spring training that Lucchinio was opposed to the Crawford signing?
Posted by: COD | 2012.04.30 at 02:04 PM
what's that?
Posted by: lc | 2012.04.30 at 02:04 PM
Lucchinio was opposed to the Crawford deal after it was evident he wasn't producing.
Posted by: cmdrflake | 2012.04.30 at 02:10 PM
It strikes me as odd that, for a country that abhors the metric system, we sure love round numbers. I've always failed to understand why an even 100 pitches is the threshold. Can't Wake throw more than a 100 when he's zinging it in there at 65 mph? How come Verlander can touch the high 90s in the 8th or 9th inning? It just seems like a dumb standard that applies to everyone equally despite all the individual variables involved. Stupid round numbers. Of course I set my alarm for crooked numbers, but that might be a sign of mental illness.
Posted by: Professional Hitter | 2012.04.30 at 04:22 PM
Ok, I'll swing: I suspect that the top brass think that actual baseball management has little or no effect on the outcome of a game, and that signing Valentine was all about getting some buzz and getting people talking about the Sox. And that sure worked, if you're of the "no such thing as bad publicity" school.
As for Crawford ... it's easy to forget how scary he used to be. I think the offense was bland and unexciting with Manny gone and someone thought he'd be a spark plug. Which Tampa Bay Crawford certainly would have been. He got on base, he was fast enough to hit leadoff and strong enough to hit third. Remember that feeling you used to get when the Sox had a 1 run lead with players on base and Crawford was batting against one of our relievers? Anyway, that guy stayed in Tampa Bay and changed his name to Evan Longoria. Not sure who we got.
Posted by: rolo | 2012.04.30 at 04:31 PM
Go Sox, Go Heels? Natalie appointed me as the driver...so let me tell you about the philosophy of the bus.Re-read COD, Jeff/NC/Natalie and HB today. It's not that we are rooting against the Boys...How about Fitzgerald's last lines from "Winter Dreams": "Long ago there was something in me, but now that something is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more." We're pissed but it's fun to talk about it.Take it...take another little piece of my heart.
Posted by: PaPesky | 2012.04.30 at 05:45 PM