Comments on: The great September tease

By: mustang

mustang — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:00:54 +0000

They had two aging pitchers in the rotation in Pettitte and Mussina everyone expected at least one of them to go down. So knowing that they started the season with two rookies I’m sorry it was a stupid plan then and it looks even dumber now.

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos

tommiesmithjohncarlos — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:47:07 +0000

*caused*

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos

tommiesmithjohncarlos — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:45:50 +0000

Agreed.

At whom would you like to direct your boiling rage for the failures in drafting from 1996-2005?

Steve Swindal? Mark Newman? Billy Connors? Gordon Blakeley? Big George himself? Most of the people whose decision making casue us to draft poorly or not have draft picks in the first place are either gone from the organization or have had their influence reduced by Cashman and Oppenheimer, but the effects of their past incompetence linger on…

By: Brad K

Brad K — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:16:53 +0000

I have to agree. I can’t think that there is any GM out there who doesn’t know exactly what they are getting with Abreu and Giambi. These guy’s have been playing on the big stage now for awhile, especially Giambi.

By: Slugger27

Slugger27 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:14:06 +0000

look im not saying the injuries didnt cost us huge, cuz they did, all im saying is that bad drafts for the past decade with a SEVERE lack of positional talent in the organization and all around below average depth in this organization made tough injuries become insurmountable season-ending fists of doom

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos

tommiesmithjohncarlos — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:36:17 +0000

Well, maybe Ned Colletti or Dave Dombrowski.

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos

tommiesmithjohncarlos — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:15:32 +0000

Exactly. We had a bunch of players get hurt. People scream, “WHERE’S THE BACKUP PLAN!??!?!”

Guess what… a bunch of our backup plans got hurt too.

By: tommiesmithjohncarlos

tommiesmithjohncarlos — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:08:24 +0000

No, it’s not wrong to question it, as long as you do so fairly and equitably.

I.E., it’s okay to question Cashman’s plan to start the season with Hughes and Kennedy in the rotation, as long as you also note the fact that he had no way to anticipate that that potential small problem would snowball into a bigger problem when you factor in the unpredictable injuries to Wang, Joba, Pettitte, Aceves, Marquez, Horne, Karstens (don’t forget those three), as well as Hughes and Kennedy themselves.

Had Hughes and Kennedy struggled without us having the volume of injuries we had, it would have been isolated to a few starts here and there and not massive amounts of Ponson and Rasner. And, had they not been injured themselves, they might have been able to get back on the horse sooner and start contributing again, like Hughes did last night.

It’s okay to question. Just remember, we’re been unlucky on a lot of levels. Cut some slack.

By: steve (different one)

steve (different one) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:51:36 +0000

Ponson was pulled from the rotation when Hughes came up. he’s only pitching on saturday b/c Pettitte has been shut down.

they could call up Kennedy for that start, but if they Yankees have any possibility of including him in a trade this winter, exposing him to the Sox offense in Fenway is probably a bad idea.

By: Rebecca--Optimist Prime

Rebecca--Optimist Prime — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:51:17 +0000

Agreed.

The Sox lost Ortiz and Lowell for considerable periods, sure, but they weren’t also losing Lester and whoever else has been an effective starter for them.

And Pedroia didn’t pull a Canò.