94 replies to this topic

[Foulkey Reese]

Fun season

Source: Will Middlebrooks has a broken wrist. #RedSox will call up Danny Valencia for Saturday's game.

https://twitter.com/PeteAbe

Edited by Foulkey Reese, 10 August 2012 - 11:33 PM.

[bosockboy]

Danny Valencia.....come on down.

[StuckOnYouk]

What an epic disaster of a year. What the hell else could go wrong for this team. The injury bug even hits the guys who replace the veterans who get injured.

Out the year?

[Savin Hillbilly]

Well the good news is that with a wrist injury, you don't have to worry about it lingering and fucking up his career......

[Rasputin]

The Red Sox are going to go the entire season without putting their anticipated best lineup on the field in a single game.

The Red Sox are going to go the entire season without putting their we-replaced-Youks-with-Wombat lineup on the field in a single game.

What the hell is Danny Valencia? It sounds like a knockoff orange or something. Like if the cast of Grease were trying to capitalize on ancillary incomes by making a cartoon starring citrus fruit and making little plushy versions. The star would be Danny Valencia.

Just shoot me now.

Edited by Rasputin, 10 August 2012 - 11:41 PM.

[StuckOnYouk]

Well the good news is that with a wrist injury, you don't have to worry about it lingering and fucking up his career......

Nomar?

Can we now please shut down Crawford, get him his surgery and try to field a 100% healthy lineup to start 2013? Enough with this 2012 nonsense.

Oh, and try to get a prospect for Cody Ross.

Edited by StuckOnYouk, 10 August 2012 - 11:52 PM.

[maufman]

Someone call P91 and wake him up -- I want to hear him rant about the Youk trade again.

Seriously, just play Nick Punto at 3B and see what happens. If he can regain his form (such as it is) with regular ABs, perhaps someone will relieve us of our obligation to pay him next year.

[Beomoose]

Whoever has the voodoo doll: we give up. Stop, please.

[Nomar813]

This team can't buy a break (sorry). You can't even ask how it can possibly get worse because it always manages to do so. Gonzalez, Aviles, and Saltalamacchia are the only lineup regulars who haven't landed on the DL and those who did lost significant time or effectiveness.

[crystalline]

Incredible.

This was a possibility based on his reaction to the HBP, he looked like he was in serious pain.

Also it looked like he got hit in the forearm. If we are lucky it will turn out to be a small fracture in one of the forearm bones, he will be in a cast for a while and then entirely back to normal. Contrast to Nomar who had tendon damage inside the wrist itself.

[Manramsclan]

Wow.

Unbelievable news. I was going to try and list the position players who have lost time to injury, but I am sure it's easier to list those who haven't.

Salty
Shop
Adrian Gonzalez
Punto

Time to shut a bunch of guys down, and call up a bunch of guys who can audition for next year.

[Hendu's Gait]

Good news is we can see the Futures of Fenway every day the rest of the season and not just next Saturday.

[HriniakPosterChild]

Wow.

Unbelievable news. I was going to try and list the position players who have lost time to injury, but I am sure it's easier to list those who haven't.

Salty
Shop
Adrian Gonzalez
Punto

There are 48 games left; give them time!

[Grunherz54]

From WakeAndRake to JakeAndBreak...

[mauidano]

No more, no less.

[Dogman2]

The Red Sox are going to go the entire season without putting their anticipated best lineup on the field in a single game.

The Red Sox are going to go the entire season without putting their we-replaced-Youks-with-Wombat lineup on the field in a single game.

Just shoot me now.

You are going to be screaming this all offseason as your reason for not winning 100 games.

Just shoot me is correct.

Edited by Dogman2, 11 August 2012 - 02:17 AM.

[mabrowndog]

This is what happens when you let a rehabbing pitcher strut around the clubhouse with a beer in each hand.

[CaptainLaddie]

This is what happens when you let a rehabbing pitcher strut around the clubhouse with a beer in each hand.

[YTF]

Silver lining? At least it happened THIS year. Guessing Bobby is expecting that Middlebrooks will be back for the playoffs.

[JimBoSox9]

Not just another injury, but an injury to one of the few reasons left to keep tuning in to this trainwreck, and an injury that will keep me petrified about his career until and unless I see him wakin-and-rakin in April.

If I hear one goddamn word from one goddamn team official about a possibility that he could work his way back before the end of the season, I may snap like Milton in Office Space when they ask him to take care of the pests in the basement.

[Robert Plant]

[El Tiante]

Did John Lackey steal Jobu's rum?

[Philip Jeff Frye]

Wait, everybody said if we were just patient, the team's health would improve as the season went along!

[BosRedSox5]

Fun, fun, fun...

One of the silver linings on this team is gone. I was worried about his total lack of plate discipline, but at least he was slugging .500. I was looking forward to him ending the season strong. Instead it ends with a smashed wrist from a 96 MPH heater.

Is there anyone worth getting in the top half of next season's draft?

[Plympton91]

[Shakes head]

[DaveRoberts'Shoes]

It is obviously very difficult to tell from watching on TV (not that it's stopped me from trying to diagnose things from my couch before) but it looked like it hit him on the distal ulna - hopefully just a non-displaced ulna fracture, which would be 4-6 weeks in a cast with a transition to a brace. I think it's probably pretty unlkely he'll need surgery based on where it hit him. Also, a broken bone is VERY different from the Nomar situation, which was a tendon issue.

[drtooth]

Given the teams's current situation and the 4-6 week time-frame, I am not sure it's worth trying to get him back until next year. Let him heal

[Joe Shlabotnick]

This is about par for the course, given this team's luck this year. Hopefully, it is just a non-surgical 4-6 weeks, but I would end his year his year now regardless.

[RoDaddy]

No problem. Call up Xander and move Aviles to 3rd

[ShaneTrot]

No problem. Call up Xander and move Aviles to 3rd

2 games in this plan is working for the Orioles.

[Savin Hillbilly]

Iglesias is batting .310/.356/.381 over his last ten games in Pawtucket. For him, that's a Ty Cobb line. Maybe they should bring him up.

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Whoever has the voodoo doll: we give up. Stop, please.

That would be Josh Beckett, and I think he's having too much fun.

[Snodgrass'Muff]

You are going to be screaming this all offseason as your reason for not winning 100 games.

Just shoot me is correct.

It's certainly one of the major reasons (along with under performance from several key starters) that they're not going to make the playoffs.

In 2010 I said the injuries were unreal. They had to get better in 2011 and the team would make the playoffs because of it. In 2011 I said the injuries were unreal and that it was an incredible anomaly that they happened like that two years in a row. No way they could happen that badly again 2012. So the team would be healthy and they'd get back to the playoffs.

And here we are. The injuries have actually managed to get worse again... despite the odds. I'm not superstitious, but holy shit. If ever there was a reason to believe in a curse...

[dbn]

Of course he has a broken wrist. Of. Course.

(hey, look at the bright side, now we can add WMB to the list of "we'll be better next year just by getting a healthy X back!" players)

[bankshot1]

This year long celebration of the 100th year of Fenway keeps on getting better

[Dogman2]

It's certainly one of the major reasons (along with under performance from several key starters) that they're not going to make the playoffs.

2nd in MLB in runs scored. It isn't a reason at all.

Edited by Dogman2, 11 August 2012 - 12:50 PM.

[Section15Box113]

2nd in MLB in runs scored. It isn't a reason at all.

What that stat never accounts for is the feast-or-famine nature of the offense. Sure, we score runs. In bunches.

[Snodgrass'Muff]

You're assuming the team wouldn't have scored more runs if they were healthy and you're ignoring that we haven't had our closer at any point this season, we lost Hill again, we currently have Atchinson and Padilla on the DL, have gotten almost nothing out of Matsuzaka this year and have Lackey on the shelf. I don't care if Matsuzaka and Lackey were hurt to start the year. They're still injured and we're still getting nothing out of them. That's part of the injury calculation.

[HillysLastWalk]

Someone call P91 and wake him up -- I want to hear him rant about the Youk trade again.

looking left, looking right ... just minding my bizzness.

Agreed with the sentiment that he was one of the few worth watching. Ortiz, I need you back!

[Dogman2]

What that stat never accounts for is the feast-or-famine nature of the offense. Sure, we score runs. In bunches.

6th worst in runs allowed. It's not the offense.

[Dogman2]

You're assuming the team wouldn't have scored more runs if they were healthy and you're ignoring that we haven't had our closer at any point this season, we lost Hill again, we currently have Atchinson and Padilla on the DL, have gotten almost nothing out of Matsuzaka this year and have Lackey on the shelf. I don't care if Matsuzaka and Lackey were hurt to start the year. They're still injured and we're still getting nothing out of them. That's part of the injury calculation.

I haven't assumed or ignored anything. You are now telling me I am. The team may have scored more runs. The team may have given up more runs with Lackey and Dice-K. Either way, when you are 2nd in runs scored, the 2 games under .500 is more than expected when you give up as many runs as this team has.

[pjr]

@https://twitter.com/PeteAbePete Abraham‏@PeteAbe
Will Middlebrooks will see hand specialist Dr. Thomas Graham in Cleveland today to determine if his season is over.

[Snodgrass'Muff]

I haven't assumed or ignored anything. You are now telling me I am. The team may have scored more runs. The team may have given up more runs with Lackey and Dice-K. Either way, when you are 2nd in runs scored, the 2 games under .500 is more than expected when you give up as many runs as this team has.

If you're dismissing the injuries to the offense as part of the problem, you are in fact assuming they wouldn't have scored more runs. No one is arguing that the offense is a bigger problem than the pitching. It's not. But win/loss records are a function of run differential. Scoring more runs, even with the same pitching would have led to more wins. The injuries to the offense can't just be dismissed like that.

And you argued that the injuries are not a major reason for their record. I've pointed out injuries to the pitching. If you're holding on to this moronic idea that injuries are not a major problem for this team, then you have to be ignoring the injuries to the pitchers I mentioned above.

Injuries are a major part of what's gone wrong this season. Again, they're not the only thing that's gone wrong. But they are absolutely a major part of the problem.

[mauidano]

It is obviously very difficult to tell from watching on TV (not that it's stopped me from trying to diagnose things from my couch before) but it looked like it hit him on the distal ulna - hopefully just a non-displaced ulna fracture, which would be 4-6 weeks in a cast with a transition to a brace. I think it's probably pretty unlkely he'll need surgery based on where it hit him. Also, a broken bone is VERY different from the Nomar situation, which was a tendon issue.

Here's my co-payment up front...

So closer to maybe what happened to A-Rods wrist you think?

[barbed wire Bob]

Here's my co-payment up front...

So closer to maybe what happened to A-Rods wrist you think?

I thought he only charged $10.

[pjr]

I thought he only charged $10.

After hours and weekends are more.

[koufax32]

The extra $5 is to get him to warm his hands first.

[Eric Van]

No one is arguing that the offense is a bigger problem than the pitching. It's not.

Actually, I've been pointing out (and others have verified by looking game-by-game) that the offense has been the worse problem, when you factor in the timing of the offense. The pitching is 8th in the league in WPA, the offense is 11th. They've scored a ton of runs in blowouts and have been inept at coming from behind in lower-scoring games.

The Rangers lead the league with 2.54 WPA from their starting pitchers; we're 8th at -1.39. So the SP has been 4 wins worse than the best of the league. Well, the offense has been 5 wins worse than it ought to have been given its wRC+. Repeat: starting pitching 4 wins worse than the best, offense 5 wins worse than what it ought to be, given average clutch performance.

I'm not sure whether injuries or offensive inefficiency have hurt the club more (since I haven't yet tried to put a number on the former), but I'm pretty sure that starting pitching is the third of our problems. It hasn't been good, but it's been astoundingly visible, which is why everyone is focused on it. Whereas the failure to rally when down late is much harder to notice, because it is the absence of a good thing. But for a club with hitters this good to have hit so miserably when trailing late in the game is fairly much astounding. If that had happened properly, they'd be in the thick of the WC (1/2 game back) and people would be debating SP vs. injuries as the reason we were behind the Yankees, not the reason we were missing the playoffs.

[Rasputin]

2nd in MLB in runs scored. It isn't a reason at all.

You just said you don't think scoring more runs would help win games. I hope you realize that.

[SMU_Sox]

WPA is masking a problem. It's a circumstancial stat. Our offense is allowing our SP to have that WPA. If our offense was producing 4 runs a game or so the SP would have the bad WPA (obviously our offense would have a bad WPA there too).

The rallying stats are based on a highly volatile small sample size. Unless we have historical data to show these players can't hit closets I'd be hesitant to make any conclusions about it.