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Message: [QUOTE="BostonCanuck, post: 2366814, member: 6931"] Nailed it! Let me add that I've never seen a more passive hitting philosophy applied by a club so dogmatically and without any variation for what the particular situation on the field called for. These guys almost to a person (except for Devers and the two trading-deadline pickups) could never bring themselves to swing at a ball in the strike zone until the count was at least 0-2 in the pitcher's favor, and by then they'd go down hacking at balls way off the plate. Their entire offense is designed to beat sub-500 teams, and that's exactly what it did, all season long. And what a shame, too, because they had such great pitching, and such great defense. But that approach to hitting will never take you anywhere in the playoffs, as was proven two years in a row. You're not going to achieve anything post season by taking pitch after pitch in a mindless effort to drive up pitch counts or get on base with walks. And then to see them finally realize this after dropping the first two by 12 runs in Houston, and try to make the necessary adjustments when they had been doing something completely different all season long, well it was painful to watch. I really like John as a human being. Clearly a player's manager. But the offensive strategy deployed by his Red Sox was a guaranteed loser that also had the unfortunate affect of making the games boring and/or exasperating to watch. [/QUOTE]