About the Weekend...

pky
that was a horrible red sox game. renteria sucks. i already harped on him, so i'm not going to waste my time anymore. and on that note...

renteria's pure incompetence has got me thinking about francoma's usage of bellhorn this season and how it led to his demise in our organization. ep and I have discussed this several times- Bellhorn was an amazing 2 hitter, no matter how many Ks he got because he saw at least 4,5 pitches each plate appearance. bellhorn had a much tougher time being productive in the 8,9 spot. ep and i both think he would have been better in the 2 spot. as good as last year? we can only hope, but not as renterian as he was in the 9 spot. working the pitcher hard was his strength, which is something that only renteria can dream about. speaking of renterian...looks like renteria isnt the hardest out in baseball after all...

craig hansen looked good. granted, it was the 8,9,1 hitters, but lets not shortchange him. embree, myers, bradford, harville, etc regularly give up runs, walks, hits to 8,9,1 hitters. like i've said. if hansen misses, he misses at 97. not 87, like bradford and myers. as eloquently put by D&C this morning, "arent submariners supposed to fool people?" looks like we dont have any submariners on this team. the jay payton for bradford deal was a bamboozlement. it's too bad payton is such a bitch. a barry bonds style bitch.

and now, nomar is tied with renteria for HRs- 7. yes, the same nomar who was in the ICU last week. anyone up for a 3-1 trade? renteria, bradford, myers for nomar? HAHA. even then it'd be a steal for us.

clement continues to underwhelm. clement surprised the hell out of my in the first half. unfortunately, this was closer to what i was expecting. but 2 innings? 2 innings? 2 innings? i really dont konw what to say about this guy. everyone says he has good stuff. how about use it then? clement has thrown well at times this year, and i was fooled into thinking he would be primetime this year. i even called him the ace of the staff at one point. boy was i off. off as hell. no longer. i'm back to my previous impressions of him, as I saw him with teh cubs. an unreliable, subpar starter who might give you a good outing every 4,5 starts and will bust the other 3,4. i fear his starts in the postseason. i just dont see how well they can possibly go. does he even have an out pitch? you'd think it'd be his slider or something. hardly. he has no fastball. maybe the sinker? i have no idea. i cant read this guy at all.

and wells continues to underwhelm. wells has established himsefl though, and he's thrown several gems this year, so i can deal with his incompetence a little more easily... but he's incredibly ineffective. lets hope it was because of his bum knee.

at least last night, the bats got hot for once. i felt almost rejuvenated, until i realized that this is what the team should have been doing to the rays, the orioles, and the jays all season. dont be spoiled by their recent ass performance- they should have been playing much better. is the 30 games in 30 days schedule to blame? i'm sure it is. but that's where the quality teams separate themselves from the ass teams. and we've shown that we havent been able to do that.

there is a real distinct possibility that we will have hanley ramirez, jonathan papelbon, craig hansen, manny delcarmen, dustin pedroia, jon lester up here next year. that's 6 prospects getting paid sub 500,000. think about that payroll flexibility. we could possibly give renteria his 40mil, kick him to the curb, and if pedroia turns out to be prime time, put him or graffanino at SS. which implies we must retain graffanino. this guy has come up huge. big plays, good bat, exactly what we should have gotten from... oh, renteria. another easy ground ball error last night. at this point, we might be better off with a gap at SS. go with the 8 man lineup, so we can give ortiz more ABs, a better chance to help the team win, and solidify his clear MVP status. i think that's the solution. just take renteria out completely, and dont even replace him. just wait for graffy to come back, and then plug cora at SS and graffy at 2B. it's failproof.

i didnt see if hanley played last night, but if renteria makes ONE MORE ERROR, i dont see any downside to putting hanley in there. none whatsoever. his glove by default is better than renteria's... and there's just a slight chance his bat would be worse than renteria's. oh, speaking of renteria, he was the only hitless player last night. fancy that shit. 0-4. THE ONLY PLAYER WITHOUT A HIT. on the other hand, 4 other players had 4 hits. on the other hand, 8 other players had hits. had PRODUCTION. HAD NO ERRORS. oh wait, it wasnt ruled an error. sorry, it wasnt ruled an error, but it just sucked just as much. let me replay it for you. routine ground ball, takes one big hop at him, hits his glove, falls out, runner safe at 1B. unbelievable. yeah, i guess when the balls are hit right at you, and you dont make the play, that's nto an error. that's 30 on the season folks. dont be fooled- the game scorers would have you think it's only 29. dont be fooled. it's 30. if not more from his previous "defensive gaffs." that's 30 ERRORS, on pace to get 50. watch it happen. you heard it here first. unless they put in hanley. and i'm not big on hanley, he hasnt proven anything to me, but he's athletic at least. my guess is, since groundballs are just so hard to field, hanley's athleticism will allow his inherent INSTINCTS to take over and actually make routine plays in the field. routine plays, Mr. Edgar Rentererror. Rentawreck. Mr. Error Renteria. Mr. E-Renteria. Mr. E-6. lets just refer to renteria as E6 from now on.

Scouting Report- from STATS INC.
2004 Season
A sluggish start, several shifts in the batting order, and some apparent discomfort about his contract status combined to produce some disappointing numbers for Edgar Renteria. The Cardinal shortstop hit under .300 with fewer than 80 RBI for the first time in three years. Even so, Renteria was among the top shortstops offensively in the National League and was the starting NL shortstop in the All-Star game.

Hitting
Renteria has good bat speed with his short stroke and the ability to spray balls with power to all fields. However, for much of last year, Renteria was too anxious early in the count-something he had grown out of over the previous few years. Part of the impatience could be related to his never settling into a regular spot in the batting order. The No. 2 hitter for an early portion of the year, he batted fifth or sixth after Larry Walker arrived. Then in the postseason, he was often inserted into the leadoff spot. Renteria had trouble making the adjustments in terms of pitch selection and working counts.

Baserunning & Defense
Always a good baserunner, Renteria had a poor basestealing season, getting caught 11 times in only 28 attempts. The Dodgers' Cesar Izturis supplanted him as the NL Gold Glove shortstop, but that was no indictment of Renteria, who is one of the game's most fluid and complete shortstops with excellent range, very soft hands and a strong arm.

2005 Outlook
St. Louis tried unsuccessfully to sign Renteria during spring training and then suspended talks during the season. As a result, he was a free agent this offseason, and few players were more coveted. St. Louis intended to do its best to keep one of the best in the business at his position. Whoever ends up with Renteria will get an outstanding performer who won't turn 30 until this summer, and who is a very positive personality in the clubhouse.
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um, soft hands and strong arm? they must have gotten him confused with a real SS. lets see... "...renteria was among the top SS offensively in the NL..." which only indicts the NL as a clearly inferior league compared to the AL. E6 is a joke of a baseball player. he is awful. he is AWFUL.

"renteria had trouble making the adjustments in terms of pitch selection and working counts." kind of like an anti-bellhorn, and he sucks much worse.

"...who is one of the game's most fluid and complete shortstops with excellent range, very soft hands and a strong arm." i cant get over this statement. surely they jest.

and lastly, the kicker- "Whoever ends up with Renteria will get an outstanding performer who won't turn 30 until this summer, and who is a very positive personality in the clubhouse." surely they jest.

E6. remember it. cause he's not going away.

about the patriots.
not a good game, which stemmed from the offensive line. it all started there. once dillon was completely contained, we had to go to the pass. and since they knew we werent going to the run, they just dropped back and harrassed our guys. add to that the fact that brady had some bad throws in the mix, it was hard to hear, the 12 penalties, two fumbles, defensive gaffs, renterian gaffs, it added to a tough game to win. i still think they could have, if they committed more to some screen passes, like in teh 2001 season. they had one screen pass where they got massive yards. i'm not sure why they didnt do more triplet sets on the weak side, so that when they blitzed, they could open up the field with teh screen pass. i would have rode that until they figured it out. i dunno... the offense looked really bad. one particular bad play was when they rushed 3 and we basically had two men frmo the line, and rucker still got thru and created that fumble. unacceptable.

but they'll get their bearings back. the pats have won in pittsburgh in the toughest circumstances. this sunday will be no different. everyone's favoring the steelers, which is fine. none of it matters. roethlisberger will be eaten alive again, ala the AFC championship game.

and i've been eliminated from my double elim NFL tourney. two straight losses. unbelievable. i suck.

david ortiz is disgusting. he's barry bonds-esque, except i dont want to actually insult him like that. barry bonds is a cheater, and david ortiz IS NOT. this is the real deal. he's not a victim like barry bonds would have you think. yeah, the barry bonds who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth complains more about his hardships, racism, and pulls the race card at every opportunity. he is the quintessential bitch. the quintessential victim. david ortiz is MVP.

courtesy of the article from David Borges...
[excerpt]
All in another night's work for Ortiz, who upped his A.L.-leading RBI total to 140, bypassed his chief MVP combatant, Alex Rodriguez, for the home run lead with 46 and lifted his average over .300 (from .295 to .302).
[/excerpt]

[excerpt]
Still, the longest list of accomplishments belonged to Ortiz:
* His 87 homers over the past two seasons sets a new Red Sox record (Jimmie Foxx hit 86 from 1937-38).
* Ortiz's 27 homers on the road also establishes a new single-season club mark, originally set by Ted Williams in 1957.
* Ortiz and Ramirez have now combined for 84 home runs, matching the club record they set in 2004.
* Ortiz's 140 RBI sets a new career-high, and he's just the second Sox player in the last 55 years to reach the total (Mo Vaughn had 143 in 1996).
* His 10 homers against the Devil Rays are the most any opponent has hit against them this season.
* It was the burly DH's ninth multi-homer game of the season and 20th of his career.
[/excerpt]

pure nastiness. eat a dick bonds. and cry about it.

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courtesy of Dale and Holley-
orlando cabrera made a league leading 29 errors the year after his gold glove season...
nomar 25 E twice...
arod 24 E in a season...
jeter 24 E...
vizquel 20 E...
yeah, ok, i get the point, great SS can have off years and commit a ton of errors. we all know the moneyball adage that errors are over rated. and as I've said before, i agree. except...

E-6 is now in his 5th 20+ error season.
would you even think twice before taking ANY of those SS over E-6? believe me, i hate jeter, but lets be realistic here. i'd take him in a heartbeat over E6. i'd take a broken nomar over E6. Arod- no brainer. vizquel, yes. the OC- um, we HAD him and gave him up to pay E6 more.

another random thought- David Borges of the Pawtucket Times has the same last name as the bitch, Ron Borges. first of all, any relation, and second of all, any embarrassment?

i've never seen a manager so loyal to players as to actually HARM the team by allowing certain players, like E6 to play. and not just play, to hit in the 2 spot.

excuses for E6's ineptitude-
-april; he needs to get acclimated to boston. let him settle and get used to it here.
-april is too cold for him to hit.
-summertime, all star break; it's hot now, but he's too tired, it's the all star break, let E6 rest.
-september; E6 is hurt, but hasnt told anyone. look at how he raises his right shoulder all the time. do i smell a foulke? dont get me started on foulke.
as charlie murphy might say- "WRONG."

E6 is a piece. put him out of his misery.

another random thought. the Red sox bullpen is so hapless that when i see the sox up 7-1, i have NO CONFIDENCE that the game's over. it's like 2003 all over again.

a question- if you had the choice of 1 set of season tickets, would you pick the Red Sox or the Patriots? (I guess we can include the Bruins and the Celtics too... but we here at TrophyVilleUSA are a realistic pragmatic bunch...) in its current form, i consider basketball an invalid, and we

i dont know what i'd do. I'm leaning toward the Red Sox, just because of the sheer number of games i'd have in my control. But the Patriots are the hottest ticket in town. and they're dominant. tough call. i dont know what i'd do. then again, watching E6 flounder around isnt exactly my idea of a good time. or watching francoma make renterian moves.

on the scale of suck, which is worse, to be remlingerian or renterian? foulkian? franconian? what's the order?

from another article- about the game last night.
[excerpt]
Every Sox starter had a hit except for the fatigued Edgar Renteria (0 for 4 with a walk), who began the night with the second-lowest on-base percentage (.197) in the majors for anyone with 50 plate appearances this month.
[excerpt]
enough said. no commentary necessary. that'll do just fine.