Re-watch the Sox bat in the top of the 1st inning. All three batters trying to hit a solo shot.

it’s so appropriate that a bad defensive effort by Dye leads to the game-winning run crossing homeplate. Really, Dye didn’t even need to catch the ball… if he keeps it in front of him and doesn’t boot the ball ten feet to his left, I doubt Hunter is getting into third (admittedly I could be wrong on this—on WCIU they only gave the shot of Anderson figuring that ball was getting caught, and as Cheat notes he was walking out of the box).

As far as the Walker saga, it’s pretty ridiculous… I’m not of the camp that hiring a new hitting coach would do a whole helluva lot, but if you can’t fire the hitting coach when the offense has basically been stagnant for close to two years (going back to the second half of 2006), when can you fire him?

I’ve tried not to get caught up in the anger that’s been flowing - I’m sort of with JRE in the sense that average-ness was to be expected - but it was tough to not get angry tonight.

It’s interesting that before this series the two principals of the OCab/Garland trade gave some unusually candid (for cliche’ spouting baseball players) comments about the Sox coaching staff. Garland says he just completely tuned out Ozzie’s bullshit, and OCab takes a backhanded slap at Ozzie & Co. by talking about how well-prepared the Angels were (left unsaid by him was the contrast to the present Sox staff).

The way this team plays it seems like they could care less about fundamental baseball. To mix sports analogies, offensively and defensively we’re seeing the equivalent of the coaches just rolling the ball out on the court and letting ‘em play. How Cooper stays in this mix is incomprehensible.

If you want players to listen to you, first the players have to respect you. I imagine it’s pretty hard to respect Ozzie’s clown act. Him hiring a stooge like Jeff Cox certainly didn’t sober up his image. In light of this, his treatment of BA last year makes more sense – the vets have tuned him out, and he can’t do anything to them because of guaranteed contracts and NTC’s. The only way for him to assert authority is to muscle around some kid over whom he has life & death control.

I’ll say it again, but I can’t remember a Sox team I disliked so much. They play like lazy ass uninterested fat cats, who wake up and play hard maybe a couple times a week when they feel like it. And they don’t have nearly enough talent to play like this and beat teams in a very competitive AL. From a fan’s standpoint, slumps are forgivable – but less than optimal effort. lack of focus and selfishness isn’t. It especially stands in stark contrast when you see how hard our opponents play, that is the friggin’ norm in the league. Again, if they don’t care why should I? And again, wake me up when they blow this shit up.

mlb.com player cards and I didn’t really find many elite hitters who could consistently go the other way with any power. If the fact that the Angels had a great plan and the Sox had a terrible plan was 100% responsible for the final score, the difference was two runs. If you remember that it was a bad defense aiding the two runs, isn’t the margin surprisingly small?

Defensive miscues, though, really annoy me. Being unable at critical moments to manage the routine makes for cringe-worthy television. Still, though, I’m unwilling to say the Sox are putting themselves at a disadvantage due to coaching. The consensus on Ozzie seems to be that he’s at least competent, I don’t see what has changed exactly to reflect otherwise. I think we’d have a much easier time handling this if 2007 hadn’t happened.

I will say that if there’s something that could possibly address BABIP woes, if the Sox are placing their batted balls in a very predictable manner, that would make them easier than average to defend and therefore mean the Sox could expect fewer hits despite a solid GB/FB/LD ratio. You’d have to start looking at a lot of charts and do some comparing to demonstrate that.

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=48499

What a meltdown. I just graduated so I haven’t been able to watch many games recently (damn senior thesis) but from most of what I’ve read its been pretty disappointing to say the least.

Isn’t it kind of remarkable that we’re only slightly below average in OBP and above average in SLG despite having the worst BABIP in the AL? Isn’t that some kind of more or less successfully overcome obstacle?

can be explained by 2007?

as the Sox are getting (unexpected) above-average pitching, yet we are still “waiting for the big bats to come around.” This wait has been going on since sometime in 2006, right?

Swinging for the fences is OK if you actually connect and hit it over the fence. But I have seen way too many pop outs that don’t even make it out of the infield lately…leading to dismal, short innings.

And for Chrissakes, do we have to add the great Jered Weaver to the list of pitchers that you can pencil in an “L” before he even takes the mound? I swear at one point Hawk called him “Dennis” which I found quite funny. (Great Dennis Weaver movie – “Duel” from 1971 – check it out sometime).

Yet…and here’s the “glass half full” news…the Sox are still in the hunt! If they can actually start hitting to their capability, the rest of the year could be interesting.

Oh, and…Detroit still blows…hah!

Is there anything in the rules that mandates keeping an International Free Agent on the roster ala Rule 5 signees?