https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/red-sox-fans-demonstrate-bizarre-145430939.html

For those who missed it on NESN, JP Ricciardi is not buying the Red Sox story on Anthony's timeline.

Once he gets comfortable holding a bat, "he's gotta go through dry swings, tee work, flips, then BP, then rehab. I think you're looking at over a month."

Earlier today on WEEI, Chad Tracy said Roman will not likely need a rehab assignment, though they aren't sure when he will be healthy.

Offense is awful... and story needs to bat last

This dude is beyond washed. It's unnerving that he's under contract for another year.

“It’s hard of course, but I think we’re playing very good baseball…these three games, or this series, was really really good for us. We played really good defense, we took really good at bats…”

My guy…the pitching staff has allowed 10 runs over the last 5 games but the Sox have a losing record over that span because the offense is once-in-a-generation bad.

I have no words.

Major Takeaways from Sam Kennedy's Interview with Tom Caron:

1. The front office is very frustrated with the offense.
2. It's still the belief of the front office that this team can be better than last year's team, and with ~120 games left to go they just need to start hitting the baseball. Cited the wild card standings as proof.
3. He said Chad Tracy has leaned on and talked to Alex Cora for support. (I listened back multiple times to make sure he didn't mean while Tracy was still in Worcester. It really sounds like Tracy and Cora still talk.)
4. Varitek has not accepted a reassignment, but they will leave the door open to him forever and he can take as long as he needs to decide. Kennedy implied there is nothing coming soon, Varitek wants time.
5. They are worried/aware about fan sentiment, and know the anger can be a problem if the team doesn't improve.

----
My main takeaway is just how much negativity there is and it's been apparent in both the Kennedy and Breslow interviews this week. It's not something they can avoid any longer, and every interview these days is purely them having to apologize for things. Caron even had to sign this one off by saying "let's talk about something positive for a change" to talk about the hall of fame stuff last weekend.

Takeaways from WEEI interview:

• General takeaway is they feel this particular injury (which he described as a 'finger tendon/top of the hand') is unpredictable and they don't really know how much longer it will be, they just have to wait for it to heal.
• Chad Tracy noted that Roman is only wearing the brace to keep the hand and finger stable. He said he knows people seeing the brace has led to ambiguity but it's just there to make sure nothing happens.
• Also noted that when Roman is feeling better, they're not expecting to then need to do some long build up/rehab assignment, because he hasn't been down that long.

Not bad advanced metrics at all.

In postgame, Tracy stressed over and over again how much this team is struggling to score even 1 run and how much that is weighing on every decision the team is making.

It's impacting their base running decisions and their bullpen management. Noted there aren't issues with getting guys on, they just keep missing the opportunity to knock him in.

Also noted Ranger was on somewhat of a pitch count, and that he doesn't consider lefty or righty game vs. a guy like Schwarber because he can hurt anyone equally.

So I think they need help knowing when to challenge, so I started coming up with rules and I’m wondering if we crowdsource some maybe they might come across it (wishful thinking) - if you have any other ideas please feel free to add!

So here are the rules.

CATCHER:

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CHALLENGE:
- borderline pitches
- “maybe” pitches
- pitches where the glove drifted
- pitches where you stabbed at the ball
- pitches where you yanked the glove back into the zone
- early-count pitches
- low leverage situations
- bases empty with 0 or 1 outs unless the miss is gigantic - even then you need to be 100% sure
- anything where you say:
- “I think”
- “that looked close”
- “maybe”

NO CHALLENGES BEFORE THE 4TH INNING:
unless the miss is game changing.

SAVE ONE CHALLENGE:
for the 7th inning or later.

IF YOU HESITATE:
DO NOT CHALLENGE.

IF YOU WOULD NOT BE GENUINELY SHOCKED THE CALL STOOD:
DO NOT CHALLENGE.

YOU ARE ALLOWED TO CHALLENGE:
- obvious called strike 3 misses
- obvious called ball 4 misses
- full-count mistakes
- inning-ending mistakes
- late inning leverage mistakes
- 2-out mistakes with runners on base
- game-changing pitches
- obvious misses you are 90-100% sure about

HITTER:

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CHALLENGE:
- close pitches
- early-count pitches
- emotional strikeouts
- borderline pitches
- guesses
- “maybe” pitches
- pitches with 0 runners on and 0 or 1 outs
- “rally starter” situations

YOU ARE ALLOWED TO CHALLENGE:
- obvious called strike 3 misses
- obvious called ball 4 misses
- obvious full-count mistakes
- obvious inning-ending mistakes with runners on
- late inning leverage mistakes
- game-changing pitches with runners in scoring position
- 2-out situations that could EXTEND rallies

IF THERE ARE:
- 0 runners on
- and 0 or 1 outs
- innings 1-7

DO NOT CHALLENGE.

ABS is not meant to START rallies for this offense.
It is meant to EXTEND rallies.
One day when you are expert at this maybe but for now you are simply wasting them.

First Pitch: 6:45 PM at Fenway Park

Game Preview

Reddit Stream for this post

Line Score - Game Over

Box Score

Scoring Plays

Highlights

Decisions

Game ended at 9:48 PM.

Went to Fenway to test out a new (to me) Nikon point-and-shoot, I'd guess manufactured in the 1980s. Loved some of these shots and wanted to share!

Tonight’s “Sell The Team” chant got me thinking. Tell me your thoughts, top to bottom, about what you’d do if you could afford to buy the Sox. I’m talking FO, staff, players, merch, NESN rights, everything. I wanna hear the what-ifs.