Time to sit back and enjoy the younger players finding their wings

By adamg - 8/9/10 - 10:09 am

... From now on, if you watch, the attraction should be (like a AAA game) seeing young players getting playing time. It should be savoring the good work from Buchholz, Lester, Papi and Beltre (when he's not mauling teammates). It should be thinking ahead to the offseason and 2011's possibilities. Because the Sox are not going to October this year, and you'll only hurt yourself to think that. ...

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a long shot, but...

By Jimmy (not verified) - 8/9/10 - 11:01 am

#1

When Youkilis went down, it became pretty unlikely that the Sox would make the post-season. They're not going to catch the Yankees, but I think it's premature to suggest that the wild card is out of reach.

The Sox are only 4.5 games behind a flawed Tampa Bay team. Definitely not insurmountable. Maybe I'm being a Pollyanna. I don't know.

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Is it mid-August already?

By Kaz - 8/9/10 - 11:01 am

#2

It's that time of year to beat the doom-and-gloom drums.

This is a team that, when even 80% healthy, will contend for the Wild Card. We haven't been 75% healthy for weeks now. At one point, we had a full lineup on the DL (I mean, qualified at every position on the field...including starting pitching and bullpen). At the same time, the Yankees and Rays were playing out of their minds. The Rays have regressed a bit and the Yankees are stale too even though they went out and made 3-4 of the bigger moves at the trading deadline.

The Wild Card winner is currently predicted to win 95 games. That's enough to win a division...and yet it'll only bring the WC and basically only the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox even have a chance at it (the Twins are 10-fold less likely to win the WC than the Red Sox). That means we likely only have to beat the Rays to be in the playoffs. Hardly an insurmountable task.

We have kept up a torrid pace considering our lack of star power right now. With a few players making it back from injuries in the next week or two, I think we'll see a team that competes at every level (except maybe in the bullpen where we're currently weakest). This might not be our year to win it all again, but we're certainly nowhere near Rebuild'n'Rookie mode yet.

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It's premature to call the

By Rage Dump - 8/9/10 - 11:47 am

#3

It's premature to call the Red Sox done with 8 weeks left to play. This team is only 4.5 games back on the wild card. 4.5 games is not insurmountable. With Tampa Bay leaning heavily on young arms, it's not inconceivable for 1 or more of these guys to falter down the stretch. The Sox rotation is now healthy, and some valuable pieces have come back, or will be coming back (Ellsbury, Lowrie, Pedroia, Varitek, etc.) I think it's very possible that they hang on and get closer over the next 2 months.

This has been a frustrating year because of all the injuries. We never got a chance to see what this team looked like with all the pieces together. Now, with Youkilis out, we won't get the chance. But, as long as the Sox aren't mathematically eliminated, they still have a shot, so until all the playoff spots are clinched, I will still be holding out hope they can crash the post-season.

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Youk being out

By Kaz - 8/9/10 - 12:05 pm

#4

I know Youk being out sucks, but we have Lowell and he has not looked too shabby at all at first base (and I think last night would have been an entirely different game with Victor behind the plate instead of Cash and Lowell at first instead of Victor). I'm sure the lineup was created due to the handedness of the pitcher or some nonsense like that, but Cash was a hole in the lineup AND cost us runs on that really stupid pickoff attempt at 3rd, and Victor was lost at first on that craptacular throw from Bill Hall that led to multiple runs early in the game.

On top of that, we've now also picked up Delgado from the scrap heap. So, I think we can cover for the lack of Youk's offense and defense. I don't see that loss as being the ultimate cause of our missing the playoffs this year if it comes to that.