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Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Blog Has Moved!

I'm happy to say that the blog has moved! The blogger account will still be here, but I will no longer be posting here from this point on. All my latest posts can be found at dirtywaterbuzz.com, where I will continue to write about the Bruins, but I have taken on three more writers to cover the other Boston sports teams. Thanks to all of you who have read my material here, and I hope you all will continue to follow me at the new site location. My Bruins posts can also be found at thepuckstop.net and gamedayboston.com, as I am covering the Bruins there. Thanks again guys.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Rare Red Sox Post





I can not believe I'm actually doing this. It's been nearly half a year since I decided to start writing about the Bruins full time here on The Buzz, but with each and every Red Sox game I am becoming increasingly frustrated and I feel the need to tell you people what's really going on.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 2012 Boston Red Sox. They're not the same team as last year because they fired a bunch of medical staff and the strength coach, got a new pitching coach, manager, and GM, and they added a couple of mediocre guys to to lineup! Oh wait...

The Red Sox, for a lack of a better word, downright blow this year. The suck really badly. A team that has a payroll hanging out around $200M with nearly 1/4 of it on the disabled list can't be expected to go out and tear it up, but this team should. They have the talent. Or so I thought.

The team is 17-20 thus far, and the year has been plagued by brutal pitching, inability to come up big in clutch situations (I'm looking at you Adrian Gonzalez. How the hell do you go 0-8 and go down on three pitches to the frigging DH?), inability to score runs, and a manager who seems to be just a step behind the game.

Josh Beckett. My good Lord, where the hell do I begin with this guy? Beckett, otherwise known as the "Texas Tough Guy", a nickname given to him by CSN's Mike Felger seemingly out of disrespect (well deserved disrespect) is giving me more and more reasons to despise him. First off, he needs his own personal catcher. Are you kidding me? Since he came here in the 2006 trade that also brought the great Mike Lowell and Alex Gonzalez to Boston, he's pitched to whoever he wanted to pitch to. For a while, there was no question it was going to be Jason Varitek as he was the starting catcher. Then Tek broke down, and the team made a move and brought in Victor Martinez to take over as the starting catcher, but Beckett refused to pitch to Martinez, so Varitek was put in the lineup every time Beckett was set to take the mound. Now that Varitek has retired, you'd think he'd have to pitch to Jarrod Saltalamacchia, but nope. The Sox brought in Kelly Shoppach to back up Salty and also be Beckett's personal catcher. In other words, Beckett needs his binky to pitch. Hey Josh, how about your manager puts out whoever he feels gives the team the best chance to win, suck it the hell up, and frigging pitch. It's not that big of a deal. Second, the guy can never go a month without being "hurt" in some way, shape, or form. Blisters, lats, quads, hammies, stiff neck, sore back, sore toe, you name it, Beckett's used it as an excuse to not start. Seriously, how about you go a month without missing a start? And then we go back to last year and the whole fried chicken and beer debacle. Has anyone heard Beckett take any accountability at all for that? 'Cause it seems to me he doesn't care at all. Oh and don't forget that he was too hurt to start, but a few days before he was out playing golf with Buchholz! Unbelievable. And what does the "Texas Tough Guy" have to say about that? "What I do on my off day is my own business." Of course ownership, the front office, and Bobby V all come out and say they just told him to take the start off. That's a load of shit. "But Mitch, they had to bring up Aaron Cook, he was out of options and they needed to sit someone." Get real, why would you sit your best pitcher for some AAAA scrub who was picked up off the scrap heap?

The culture of this team is awful. the players are far too entitled 'cause they won two World Series titles in 4 years. The last one was in 2007. I haven't seen them go any further than the ALDS since 2008. And the worst part is the owners let this happen and they give them entitlement. Last season, the players were upset for some reason or another. You'd think the owners would tell them to suck it the hell up and play, but instead they take them out on a yacht and give them headphones! That's the biggest problem, there is no accountability there, and the owners let them do whatever they want. And if someone dares say something bad about a player you better watch out, they'll come down and silence you and make you backtrack until you look like an idiot.

Also, it's still very clear that there's a rift in the clubhouse. It's been reported on many occasions that the pitchers and positional players don't speak to each other, and unless this changes there's going to be problems down the line that will ultimately be a part of their downfall. Teammates need to talk to each other, doesn't matter if they like each other or not. They're on the same team and ultimately have the same goal in mind. This type of bullshit can't happen.

And Bobby V looks like he's lost touch with the game. Granted, the front office did neuter him and decided not to allow him to manage the way he wanted to manage, but when you're leaving your pitchers in far past their pitch count, there's something wrong. Part of that falls onto the guys in baseball operations for giving him a horrible bullpen, but at some point you have to at least show a little confidence in them. and when he calls guys out, he doesn't even try to stand up for himself, he rolls over and backtracks and apologizes. Dude, if you're going to call out a player, stand by your words!

What I really want to see and think they should do is get rid of the poison in the clubhouse. Beckett, Youkilis, etc. Throw in younger guys. See what you can get for Salty and Aviles, Byrd, and co. and call up the kids. I want the Sox to give me a reason to watch and be interested. I'd love to go to games to see how the young kids perform. Bring up Iglesias, Lavarnway, Ranaudo, Wilson, Hassan, Mortensen, Tazawa, and other young guys who may be able to help, cause these lazy, complacent, and entitled veterans aren't cutting it. But the team wouldn't do that. The pink hats would lose interest because the names they bring up aren't big time or famous names, they aren't sexy enough. And let's face it, it's all about satisfying the pink hats and fan girls.

This team is headed for a downward spiral late in the season once again. Maybe this time it'll be a wake up call to the owners, but I highly doubt it. Their heads are too far up their asses to realize there's a serious problem with this team.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Guess Who's Back!

Why Canadians so aggressive online?

Great news people! Bryz is back!

Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov has become a hockey celebrity. Since the Flyers were playing on HBO's 24/7 this year, Bryzgalov decided to take the time in his interviews to talk about things other than hockey.

But what could be more interesting than hockey? Well, I'm glad you asked!

The universe!

Here's a list of his best quotes from not just 24/7, but the entire year until now:
  • "Right now, I'm very into the universe. You know, like how it was created. You know, like what is it? You know, solar system is so humongous big, right? But, if you see our solar system and our galaxy on the side, you know, like, and you see it and it was so small. You couldn't even see it, our galaxy is like huge, but if you see the big picture, our galaxy is like small, tiny, like, dot in the universe, like. You think, we have some problems here on the earth we worry about, compared to, like... nothing. Just be happy. Don't worry, be happy right now."
  • "When I signed here, people said, "Oh you're going to hell. They hate that they never have goalie and they go hard on goalies. It's miserable market for goalies."
  • ""If you kill the tiger and they find you...that's it. You're dead."
  • "In China, you kill tiger. Death penalty."
  • "My husky, she's basically a hot girl, man."
  • "Who's more crazy, me or defenseman? Who's more weird?"
  • "At home I have one face. Public I have another face. On the ice I have a third face. Day off I have a fourth face. With you, fifth face."
  • "No I'm not afraid of anything. I'm afraid of bear in the forest."
And now, he's bringing his A game back again! I can't find any of the exact quotes, but the jist of it is he was talking about monkeys, the Roman Empire, and of course, space voyages. When he was asked what he would be if he weren't an NHL goalie, his response was simply, "An astronaut". This guy is just too damn funny. He was also very excited apparently when he started talking about how the first animals in space were two Russian dogs. He's pretty sure they were huskies. And one exact quote was, "The problem with monkeys in space is they push the wrong buttons."

I seriously hope the Flyers make it all the way to the Finals, just so we can listen to Bryzgalov some more. No joke, I fucking died laughing when I saw all these quotes from today. I don't understand where he gets all this stuff from. Hey Bryz, a tip for you. When you retire, start doing stand up comedy. You'll be even more loaded than you are already!