the ship is sinking

Blame who you want-- untimely injuries, bad management (Tito, Nipper, Wallace), Theo's terrible front-office moves-- this team is done. Stick a fork in them. I'm excited for the future of the Red Sox though. And I've come to the realization that the out-of-this-world way that the Sox were playing in April was just a fluke. This utter failure for anyone on the team to string together clutch hits or pitch scoreless innings is amazing. It reminds me a lot of August-September 2001.

Oh well, it couldn't have happened at a better time. The Gators kick off their season in four days. So give a cheer for the Orange and Blue...

Simmons sums up my feelings about the Sox right now

Sports Guy just wrote a column about who are "for real" and who aren't in the race to the American League pennant and World Series championship. At first I was afraid his Boston bias would blind him into believing that this year's Red Sox team are actually going to do something in the postseason (that is, if they get there).

Instead, he has summed up everything I feel about the team right now. Every frustrating detail. From their inability to keep the '04 team together to Terry Francona's mind-numbing stupidity, to the Jekyl-Hyde bullpen... the list goes on. What he doesn't mention is that this is a team built for the future. And while I've probably given up on any run in 2006, I think the Red Sox are headed in the right direction. (Except for maybe the Beckett extension, wtf were they thinking there?)

Simmons says:

THE THREATENING NON-THREAT

4. Boston
Here's what I like: Big Papi, Manny, Schilling, Papelbon, Youkilis, Lowell and Gonzalez on the left side of the infield; Jon Lester's potential; Wily Mo in any game where the Red Sox are leading or trailing by four runs or more.

Here's what I don't like: Everything else.

Bottom line: They overachieved in the first half because of Papelbon (who was simply out of his mind) and Big Papi (who probably swung 6-7 games in Boston's favor it had no business winning). Now the Sox are underacheiving. It's probably a 92-win team at best. And I could spend the next 3,000 words ranting and raving about the unacceptable performance of the Henry/Theo regime since they won the World Series -- the catastrophic Renteria/Clement signings; lowballing Pedro/Damon, then half-heartedly renewing talks at the last second; overvaluing Beckett (a genuine disappointment) and Crisp (a colossal disappointment); undervaluing their own prospects (Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez) in the Beckett trade; freezing at this year's trading deadline; dealing Arroyo without knowing about the health of Wells and Foulke; allowing 40-year-old Mike Timlin to pitch in the WBC (he's a walking corpse now); letting Roberts and Cabrera go; handing Beckett that unconscionable $30 million extension (I yelped out loud when I saw the headline); and we haven't even mentioned last winter's soap opera with Theo yet -- but I don't want to ruin my chances of getting a key to the office next season. So let's just say that everyone did a swell job and I fully support every moronic decision that was made. Now where's my key?

(Note: Not to keep bringing up my keeper league, because I wouldn't want you to think that I'm obsessed with it, even though I probably am … but Hench and I had Timlin, Delcarmen AND Hansen on our keeper team this season, and we traded all of them in separate moves last month. Why? BECAUSE WE WATCH BASEBALL! BECAUSE ALL OF THEM SUCK! THAT'S WHY! Really, we're going to war with a one-man bullpen for the next 10 weeks? That's the plan? Good God, I can't wait to have Belichick and Brady back in my life. I want everything to make sense again.)


I could not agree more. Is it football season yet?

Unbelievable.

Papelbon just blew another save against a last-place team. I will now build something very tall and jump off of it. This is September 2001 all over again.

Just saw the worst loss of the season.

I can't believe Julian Tavarez continues to ruin my life. What I also can't believe is that TERRY FRANCONA CONTINUES TO PITCH HIM IN CLOSE GAMES! This shit is unbelievable. At least we got a foul ball at the Devil Rays game, and I beat a bunch of kids in some lame baseball trivia game, only to be given a free Wade Boggs DVD for my efforts.

As of right now, we're down 5-3 to the Royals. They have the bases loaded on two straight errors from Lowell and Mr. Suddenly Worthless, Craig Hansen. Kansas City hasn't won a game in a week and we can't even beat them.

The Javy Lopez trade was asinine. The injuries are killing this team.

And this is rock bottom. The Boston Red Sox will NOT make the playoffs this year.

Another thing that really irks me lately is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization. It makes me so angry that they are so anti-Red Sox. They post shit on their big jumbo screens like, "Make noise, don't let the Red Sox take our house." Their idiotic mascot Raymond messes with our bullpen, and takes Red Sox hats off fans and throws them on the ground. If he sees a guy with a Yankee hat he'll take it off and taunt the Red Sox fans. The D-Rays fans are really hostile when we come in and take over their stadium. One even got up in George's face yesterday after the walk-off loss, saying how the "RED SOX SUCK." Last time I checked, they are a last-place organization. They are 28th in the major leagues in attendance, and if Red Sox fans stopped going to Tropicana, they'd be dead last. On top of that, the Rays got mad because they think we tampered with the Julio Lugo trade talks, so they blocked the Adam Stern waiver trade to the Orioles.

I vow to never return to that shit hole of a stadium to see that terrible excuse for a baseball franchise. I think I might write a letter to the Devil Rays on behalf of all Red Sox fans and tell them what a bunch of asshats they are.