In honor of the Sox starting their annual collapse early..

[SirFozzie]

By blowing a 4-1 lead against the fricken DEVIL RAYS tonight, I felt inspired to create the following limerick.

There once was a manager named Grady..
Who managed like his name was Greg Brady..
His Bullpen by Committee..
Is turning out real shitty...
And cry like a baby he has made me..


GOD I hate being a RedSox fan sometimes.

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by SirFozzie
By blowing a 4-1 lead against the fricken DEVIL RAYS tonight, I felt inspired to create the following limerick.

There once was a manager named Grady..
Who managed like his name was Greg Brady..
His Bullpen by Committee..
Is turning out real shitty...
And cry like a baby he has made me..


GOD I hate being a RedSox fan sometimes.

It's hard to blame the bullpen by 'committee'. Embree would have been everyone's pick to 'close'. He's the one that got lit up.

[CamEdwards]

ummm... I hate to be the eternal optimist, but it's just one game. We'll be all right.

[Tarkus]

BTW, Yanks won their opener. :D

Tarkus

[SirFozzie]

Cam: I've lived with this 28 years.. all my life. I've lived through Game 7 against the Reds in 75, Bucky Bleeping Dent in 78, The Ball going through Buckner's legs in 86. Roger Clemens's grand nutty against Oakland, a certain GM saying this about the progress of a drawn out contract negotiation battle.. "The Sun will rise, the sun will set, and I'll have lunch.." the Yankees beating us for the AL Pennant.. year after year after YTEAR after *%#)%&@#) year.. and then once the wild card started, doing it to us in the playoffs too..

But still I watch. Knowing the collapse is not only likely, but certain, and painful. I'd say it's when we least expect it, but I always expect it..

I'm like Eddie Andelman, the local sports talk show host. He's already got his gravestone carved and ready for when he passes from this mortal coil..

"He didn't live long enough for the Red Sox to win the World Series"

Cynical?

Me?

Nah..

More like a realist ;)

[SirFozzie]

Tarkus: I also heard Jeter Dislocated his shoulder.. What a shame.. Well.. at least half of me feels that way.. the rational side :)

[JeeberD]

Hmmm, wonder if the 'Stros will go through their annual (at least since they moved to Enr...errr, Minute Maid Park) first half slump. I certainly hope not, the division is going to be hard enough for them to win without tanking early on...

[McSweeny]

ha! my rational side is having a hard time feeling bad about jeter getting hurt. The rational side alos points out that it would have been better if he had dislocated his right shoulder instead

[EagleFan]

Welcome back baseball. It's been a while since I've actually been looking forward to a season. Thome rips his first regular season pitch he sees as a Philly into the gap in right for an RBI double and ends up with a 3 hit game. Millwood looks solid in his first game and the expectations have started to rise. Go Phils!!! :D

But back to the topic. The Sox are the AL team that I like, which has been extremely frustrating. Maybe they'll just collapse early and save the fans the frustration of thinking this might be the year before the collapse.

Not sure which memory is worse, Bill Buckner or Mitch Williams.

[lytic]

<---- Sox fan as well. I feel your pain...

[Honolulu_Blue]

Go Tigers!
Bless you boys!

[CamEdwards]

SirFozzie, I understand. Every morning when I leave the house I put on my Sox hat. I've also lived with this for 28 years. Heck, my dad's lived with this for 77 years. I'm just saying, wait until Memorial Day at least to call the season a bust. :)

[Ksyrup]

The bullpen by committee is a great idea, no doubt influenced by Theo Epstein and Bill James being on the Red Sox' payroll. If it doesn't succeed, the reason will not be because of the idea iteself, but the guys they've got to carry out the idea.

Embree was out of gas a few years ago until he put up some decent numbers last year, Chad Fox was once a promising closer until he missed most of the last couple of years with injuries (since 1999, he's one had one season where he was healthy, 2001 - the other 3 years he pitched a total of 12 innings), Bobby Howry and Mike Timlin are decent middle relievers who can occasionally save a game, but not much more than that, Matt white - isn't he the guy the Devil Rays gave an insane contract to 6 years ago and he never even made the majors?!, and Ramiro Mendoza is a nice middle reliever/long man/starter, similar to Wakefield. Not exactly a great collection of arms, although if everyone performs as they can, it could work. But that's asking a lot.

In order for the bullpen by committee to work, there needs to be a collection of guys who can strike people out and be effective in any role. The idea is good, I'm just not sure the Red Sox went about it in the right way.

[Ksyrup]

Dola.

The reason it is a good idea, of course, is money. There is no reason to pay one guy $8-10 Million, when you can get a collection of quality guys for about the same amount of money, and not have your team's hopes hinging on the arm of one guy.

With as many teams as cost-conscious as there are in the MLB, it really seems like spreading among several guys the one stat that relievers can waive at an arbitrator or as a free agent to make more money, is a good idea. Sort of like in FOF, when most of us used our FB in running and passing situations, because they cost less than RBs and WRs. Same theory here.

[oykib]

You hear a lot of talk about New York fans. But there is something in this thread that you'd never see in New York. I'm not saying that we don't have people in NY that wouldn't say something tasteless about the Red Sox, or a Sox player getting hurt. But the other Yanks or even, ugghh, Mets fans would call him on it.

I've already seen two tasteless jokes about Jeter's injury in this thread. Even though they are obviously toungue-in-cheek, they are in bad taste. Jeter is by any account ( besides George Steinbrenner's ) one of the classiest guys in pro sports. He's a guy who is the antithesis of all the jerks that are whined about in all the Randy-Moss-is-a-dick type threads that pop up here every other week.

No one would've made this kind of joke about Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripken or <insert classy athlete here>.

[Anrhydeddu]

No one would've made this kind of joke about Tony Gwynn

No, but I had to endure ESPN calling him 'Fat Tony'. That was not nice.

[CamEdwards]

he dated Mariah Carey. That alone makes him ridicule-eligible.

[oykib]

Originally posted by CamEdwards
he dated Mariah Carey. That alone makes him ridicule-eligible.

You tellin' me that the consensus wasn't that Mariah was crazy hot back in the day. Come on...

[Marmel]

You cannot argue baseball with Cam. He is a Red Sux fan. :)

Cam, if you only kept Urbina, you guys would be in first place. Instead, you go bullpen by committee, and are in last. Great start. :)

[clintl]

Originally posted by lynchjm24
It's hard to blame the bullpen by 'committee'. Embree would have been everyone's pick to 'close'. He's the one that got lit up.

After watching Embree get lit up regularly for several seasons as a Giant, I can tell you this - if you are depending on him to be a crucial member of your bullpen, you are in deep, deep trouble. The guy is a horrendously bad pitcher.

[oykib]

Originally posted by clintl
After watching Embree get lit up regularly for several seasons as a Giant, I can tell you this - if you are depending on him to be a crucial member of your bullpen, you are in deep, deep trouble. The guy is a horrendously bad pitcher.

Two points:

1. All bullpens are committees. Closer-by-committee makes sense. But saying bullpen-by committee is aying group-of-guys-who-work-together-to-finish-games-for-starters-and work-together-todo-it.

2. clintl is absolutely right in that bullpens are only as good as the pitchers in them. You can maximize their effectiveness by putting them in good situations. But if the maximum sucks, then your bulpen can't help but suck.

[McSweeny]

espn.com is now saying that jeter will be out for months! the yankees demise begins today!

oh whoops was that in bad taste? or should i hope that jeter comes back as soon as possible and plays far better than he ever has just because he is a class act? it's not a personal attack, jeter the person is different than jeter the baseball player. I hope jeter plays horrible when he comes back though i wish jeter the person no ill will

[Marmel]

Of course, McSweeny, the only way your team could win the division is if the Yankees get injured and/or start playing terribly.

I understand you would not want your team to have to go out there and actually beat the best. :D

[McSweeny]

but Marmel, how can we beat the best when we are the best? :D

[RonnieDobbs]

Yankees suck, Mets suck, Jets suck, Krypton sucks.

[lytic]

Injuries are a part of sports regardless...
Most championships are built on injury free (or injury-less ?) teams. Except in the case of Brady taking over for Bledsoe, but the rest of the team stayed healthy.

[Marmel]

Originally posted by McSweeny
but Marmel, how can we beat the best when we are the best? :D


It seems the Sox beat themselves several times a season. :D

Like last night for instance. ;)

[SirFozzie]

That's right.. yuck it up New Yawker.. Grumble grumble, Grrrr..

[Marmel]

New Yorker? You must be talking about somebody else. Clearly, as my bio shows, I am from Connecticut. Just a small rustic, New England Town. :D

[SirFozzie]

Yer a New Yawker in spirit then.. Considering the amount you brag about the peeled Oranges.. whoops.. the Orangemen. Bah.. and BAH again ;)

[Marmel]

How is that NIT tournament working out for you Foz? :D

[SirFozzie]

RACKENFRACKENBRICKENBRACKEN..

Well.. one good thing.. Marmel hasn't uttered the word Hiroshi once during this beatdown of all that I treasure.

[SirFozzie]

Dola.. Gawwwwd.. Please don't tell me they're going to blow another late lead.. I know Cam, still early.. but Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me???

[McSweeny]

oh great... and here comes embree

[SirFozzie]

whew. Went to the late late late show.. but that Lyon kid was pretty damn good

[McSweeny]

woodard was pretty good too... glad we pulled that one out