Dear Theo...
Please, please, please, do not trade Bill Mueller.
posted by Bob at 7/30/2005 09:17:00 PM
1 comments
Saturday, July 30, 2005
If We Trade Him Now, Make It Good
I’m not liking what I’ve been reading. Yes, I am a proponent of trading Manny, as has been mentioned already. I am even willing to give him up now, assuming we get enough back for him to keep us competetive enough to win it again this year. I have faith that if anyone could pull off such a trade now, Theo would be the man. But I don’t think this deal on the table right now is the right one.
First of all, any deal in which we have to eat some of his contract doesn’t make sense right now. If we’re going to have to pay him something, then we should just pay it all and continue to use him this year. In Theo’s defense, it sounds like he’s trying to get the Mets to take it all and if they don’t it could, and should, be a deal-breaker. Even if the Mets do bite on it though, I’m not happy with what we’re getting back for what we’re giving up.
It looks like Aubrey Huff and Mike Cameron. Cameron would probably go to left to “replace” Manny and Huff goes to right to replace Trot. If we get Trot back anytime soon then Huff would be a good left-handed bat at first base. But I don’t think this is enough, considering the fact that we would be giving up 2 prospects as well, Anibel Sanchez and Kelly Shoppach. I have no problems giving up prospects, particularly Shoppach, since we really have no room for him and he’s going to be traded eventually anyway, but I don’t think we should have to give any up in a Ramirez deal, especially when one of them is a top pitching prospect.
We probably needed another pitcher anyway, but if we’re giving up Manny then we DEFINITELY need another pitcher, as well as a bat to replace his and another one either at first, second, or right field. It doesn’t matter whether it’s all one big deal involving Manny and prospects, or separate deals, as long as we get all of that back in the trade and don’t have to eat any of the contract. Otherwise, we should keep him.
Of course, I’m probably jumping the gun here, as all of this, none of this, or anywhere in between could be true. I just wanted to get my opinion in on what I felt needed to happen if we are going to trade Manny.
At this point, I would much rather see them hold onto Manny, pick up a left-handed bat to play right such as Larry Bigbie, who was recently acquired from the Orioles by the Rockies, who may be interested in flipping him here. Then use some prospects to get another bullpen guy and another starter. The Mariners may now be willing to give up Guardado for a prospect, which would be much better than trading Mueller to the Twins for Romero.
As far as the Mueller/Romero deal goes, Mueller hit a home run last night while Romero was brought in to get out leftie Olerud and proceeds to give up a grand slam. Also, as much as I hate to see anyone get hurt in this game (with the one exception of Barry Bonds), especially when it’s a guy like Torry Hunter, this could help my cause (and most of Red Sox Nation) in keeping Mueller here. If Hunter is down for any significant amount of time (and I really hope he’s not because he’s a great player and one of my favorites), the Twins are going to have to go out and get a much bigger bat than Mueller’s.
Gordon Edes is a great baseball writer, one of the best. He’s really got a pulse on what’s going on with the Sox as well as around the entire league. He’s not Peter Gammons (no one is so), but he’s probably the best of all the local guys covering the national beat. It’s because of this that I’m irked by the fact that in his column today he made the glaring error of stating that Mike Cameron has played for 3 teams, the Mets, Mariners, and Reds, while completely forgetting that he spent the first 4 years of his career with the White Sox, including 116 games in “97” and 141 in “98”. I expect better from a guy like that, actually I expect better from anyone who is getting paid to write.
In all my years of watching Major League baseball, I do not ever remember seeing anything as kooky as the series of events that happened last night in which the Sox scored their first 3 runs. It looked like I was watching a little league game. And this coming from a team that is usually known for how fundamentally sound they are (although not as much as usual this year).
As I was sitting there on the couch watching it all unfold and not believing my eyes, I was saying out loud things like, “no”, “you’ve got to be kidding me”, and “I can’t believe that just happened”. Kyla was sitting next to me saying, “what daddy, what happened” as if I was watching the some sort of natural disaster or another bombing.
I’m not the first one to say this, but it’s absolutely miraculous to see Matt Clement walking around with a cut on his ear and a headache as the only results from that shot to the head. He's actually talking about making his next scheduled start on Tuesday, although it's more likely to be later in the week. His skull has got to be a little thicker than most of us. That’s great that he’s okay, now let’s hope it doesn’t affect his pitching.
Welcome back Gabe.
First of all, any deal in which we have to eat some of his contract doesn’t make sense right now. If we’re going to have to pay him something, then we should just pay it all and continue to use him this year. In Theo’s defense, it sounds like he’s trying to get the Mets to take it all and if they don’t it could, and should, be a deal-breaker. Even if the Mets do bite on it though, I’m not happy with what we’re getting back for what we’re giving up.
It looks like Aubrey Huff and Mike Cameron. Cameron would probably go to left to “replace” Manny and Huff goes to right to replace Trot. If we get Trot back anytime soon then Huff would be a good left-handed bat at first base. But I don’t think this is enough, considering the fact that we would be giving up 2 prospects as well, Anibel Sanchez and Kelly Shoppach. I have no problems giving up prospects, particularly Shoppach, since we really have no room for him and he’s going to be traded eventually anyway, but I don’t think we should have to give any up in a Ramirez deal, especially when one of them is a top pitching prospect.
We probably needed another pitcher anyway, but if we’re giving up Manny then we DEFINITELY need another pitcher, as well as a bat to replace his and another one either at first, second, or right field. It doesn’t matter whether it’s all one big deal involving Manny and prospects, or separate deals, as long as we get all of that back in the trade and don’t have to eat any of the contract. Otherwise, we should keep him.
Of course, I’m probably jumping the gun here, as all of this, none of this, or anywhere in between could be true. I just wanted to get my opinion in on what I felt needed to happen if we are going to trade Manny.
At this point, I would much rather see them hold onto Manny, pick up a left-handed bat to play right such as Larry Bigbie, who was recently acquired from the Orioles by the Rockies, who may be interested in flipping him here. Then use some prospects to get another bullpen guy and another starter. The Mariners may now be willing to give up Guardado for a prospect, which would be much better than trading Mueller to the Twins for Romero.
As far as the Mueller/Romero deal goes, Mueller hit a home run last night while Romero was brought in to get out leftie Olerud and proceeds to give up a grand slam. Also, as much as I hate to see anyone get hurt in this game (with the one exception of Barry Bonds), especially when it’s a guy like Torry Hunter, this could help my cause (and most of Red Sox Nation) in keeping Mueller here. If Hunter is down for any significant amount of time (and I really hope he’s not because he’s a great player and one of my favorites), the Twins are going to have to go out and get a much bigger bat than Mueller’s.
Gordon Edes is a great baseball writer, one of the best. He’s really got a pulse on what’s going on with the Sox as well as around the entire league. He’s not Peter Gammons (no one is so), but he’s probably the best of all the local guys covering the national beat. It’s because of this that I’m irked by the fact that in his column today he made the glaring error of stating that Mike Cameron has played for 3 teams, the Mets, Mariners, and Reds, while completely forgetting that he spent the first 4 years of his career with the White Sox, including 116 games in “97” and 141 in “98”. I expect better from a guy like that, actually I expect better from anyone who is getting paid to write.
In all my years of watching Major League baseball, I do not ever remember seeing anything as kooky as the series of events that happened last night in which the Sox scored their first 3 runs. It looked like I was watching a little league game. And this coming from a team that is usually known for how fundamentally sound they are (although not as much as usual this year).
As I was sitting there on the couch watching it all unfold and not believing my eyes, I was saying out loud things like, “no”, “you’ve got to be kidding me”, and “I can’t believe that just happened”. Kyla was sitting next to me saying, “what daddy, what happened” as if I was watching the some sort of natural disaster or another bombing.
I’m not the first one to say this, but it’s absolutely miraculous to see Matt Clement walking around with a cut on his ear and a headache as the only results from that shot to the head. He's actually talking about making his next scheduled start on Tuesday, although it's more likely to be later in the week. His skull has got to be a little thicker than most of us. That’s great that he’s okay, now let’s hope it doesn’t affect his pitching.
Welcome back Gabe.
posted by Bob at 7/30/2005 11:13:00 AM
0 comments
Friday, July 29, 2005
Interesting Numbers
I thought I would take a look at our shortstop situation to see how we’re making out so far, so I took a look at both Renteria and Cabrera’s numbers. I also took a look at Eckstein since he was the third piece of the 3-team shortstop switch in the off-season.
Renteria Cabrera Eckstein
Games 94 81 97
Runs 58 31 50
Hits 103 74 103
Doubles 16 14 12
HR 6 4 2
RBI 34 25 29
SB 8 9 7
BA .272 .247 .271
OBP .339 .299 .351
Errors 18 4 11
Fielding% .955 .988 .977
Contract 4yr/40m 4yr/32m 3yr/10.25m
It’s tough to compare Runs and RBI because they all hit in different spots in the lineup and have different hitters around them, but if you go by BA and OBP it’s clear that Renteria has been better than Cabrera. I’m not sure if he’s 8 million dollars better but he’s definitely been more productive.
Cabrera’s numbers so far this year with the Angels are not nearly as good as what he put up for us in 58 games last year, and they’re all well below his career averages. That combined with what I’ve seen of him at the plate this year tells me that he may be on the downslide and may not ever produce at that level again.
Meanwhile Renteria, although he started off slowly and has been a little streaky, will come close to matching his career averages in most categories. He’s also looked much better lately.
As far as defense goes, it was a given that Cabrera was the better defender. The decision to sign Renteria was based on offense; although Renteria has been pretty solid and had won a couple of gold gloves himself. Surprisingly, he’s leading the league with 18 errors at the SS position, but he’s been good at getting the double play turned and making some tough plays, and I don’t think we’ve been hurt very much by all of the errors.
Overall, I think we got the better player for this year and it looks like we will make out much better on the deal in the long run. I think Theo made the correct move in spending the extra money to get Edgar over O-Cab. I expect Renteria to continue to be solid and come up with some clutch hits for us, particularly in the playoffs.
The strange thing about it all to me is that the Cardinals, after losing Renteria and not being able to sign Cabrera, ended up “settling” for the discarded Eckstein, and they may have gotten the best deal of them all.
Renteria Cabrera Eckstein
Games 94 81 97
Runs 58 31 50
Hits 103 74 103
Doubles 16 14 12
HR 6 4 2
RBI 34 25 29
SB 8 9 7
BA .272 .247 .271
OBP .339 .299 .351
Errors 18 4 11
Fielding% .955 .988 .977
Contract 4yr/40m 4yr/32m 3yr/10.25m
It’s tough to compare Runs and RBI because they all hit in different spots in the lineup and have different hitters around them, but if you go by BA and OBP it’s clear that Renteria has been better than Cabrera. I’m not sure if he’s 8 million dollars better but he’s definitely been more productive.
Cabrera’s numbers so far this year with the Angels are not nearly as good as what he put up for us in 58 games last year, and they’re all well below his career averages. That combined with what I’ve seen of him at the plate this year tells me that he may be on the downslide and may not ever produce at that level again.
Meanwhile Renteria, although he started off slowly and has been a little streaky, will come close to matching his career averages in most categories. He’s also looked much better lately.
As far as defense goes, it was a given that Cabrera was the better defender. The decision to sign Renteria was based on offense; although Renteria has been pretty solid and had won a couple of gold gloves himself. Surprisingly, he’s leading the league with 18 errors at the SS position, but he’s been good at getting the double play turned and making some tough plays, and I don’t think we’ve been hurt very much by all of the errors.
Overall, I think we got the better player for this year and it looks like we will make out much better on the deal in the long run. I think Theo made the correct move in spending the extra money to get Edgar over O-Cab. I expect Renteria to continue to be solid and come up with some clutch hits for us, particularly in the playoffs.
The strange thing about it all to me is that the Cardinals, after losing Renteria and not being able to sign Cabrera, ended up “settling” for the discarded Eckstein, and they may have gotten the best deal of them all.
posted by Bob at 7/29/2005 01:56:00 PM
1 comments
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Bye Bye Manny
Despite the fact that I love the term (very good one Chris), there is no way I’m going to be accused of lolley-blogging. So here’s a new entry, right on the same day as the last one.
Twenty million dollars is a lot of money to pay anyone for anything, especially a professional athlete. But when you look at what Manny Ramirez does with his bat, although it’s still too much money, it’s a lot easier to take. There are plenty of other contracts out there where guys are making millions and are either on the D.L. doing nothing, or even worse (because it’s not covered by insurance), on the roster doing nothing. Just ask George Steinbrenner, he knows all about that.
But anyway, at least with Manny, we’re getting our money’s worth. But at the same time, if we’re going to give this guy 20 million dollars a year, then he SHOULD be putting up those kinds of numbers, and not only that but he should be doing it without all the crap that’s been coming along with it.
This latest episode is the last straw as far as I’m concerned. First of all, the manager has to talk him into playing a game in Chicago last week by promising to give him today off. That’s bad enough, but now our right fielder is forced onto the D.L., circumstances have changed, the manager needs him to play, and he refuses. This is completely unacceptable. You know it’s bad when the manager, who staunchly defends everyone on the team to a fault, hangs him out to dry by admitting to the media that he asked Manny to play and Manny refused.
We can’t trade him now, not without sacrificing our chances to repeat. There’s no way that we would be able to replace his bat right in the middle of the season, and it’s not likely that we’ll find any takers anyway. Although I wouldn’t put it past Theo to come up with something that allows us to get rid of him now and still keep our chances to win it, or maybe even improve them. Anything’s possible with Theo (yes I do believe he is a miracle worker) but it’s probably not likely, so we ride it out and hope he helps this team bring us another one.
But as soon as the season ends, and I mean AS SOON as the season ends, even if it means ripping the Championship Trophy out of his hands in the champaign drenched locker room, I want him gone.
I’ve had enough. I have had as much as one Red Sox fan should be expected to take. If he’s not happy here and wants to go then I say good riddance to him. It won’t be easy to get someone to take the remaining 3 years of his contract, but I think something could be worked out somewhere; maybe the Mets would like to reunite him with Pedro.
We certainly wouldn’t be able to get someone in left field to replace his numbers, but with the money we save by getting rid of his contract, even if we have to eat some of it, or take on another one in the trade, we should still be able to get a very good replacement, as well as an upgrade at first, or second, or maybe even both. Or get us another starting pitcher or some bullpen help.
We don’t need Manny to win another pennant after this year. There are plenty of other ways to do it, and we need to begin trying some of them. There will be life and championships after Manny, and as far as I’m concerned, the sooner the better.
Twenty million dollars is a lot of money to pay anyone for anything, especially a professional athlete. But when you look at what Manny Ramirez does with his bat, although it’s still too much money, it’s a lot easier to take. There are plenty of other contracts out there where guys are making millions and are either on the D.L. doing nothing, or even worse (because it’s not covered by insurance), on the roster doing nothing. Just ask George Steinbrenner, he knows all about that.
But anyway, at least with Manny, we’re getting our money’s worth. But at the same time, if we’re going to give this guy 20 million dollars a year, then he SHOULD be putting up those kinds of numbers, and not only that but he should be doing it without all the crap that’s been coming along with it.
This latest episode is the last straw as far as I’m concerned. First of all, the manager has to talk him into playing a game in Chicago last week by promising to give him today off. That’s bad enough, but now our right fielder is forced onto the D.L., circumstances have changed, the manager needs him to play, and he refuses. This is completely unacceptable. You know it’s bad when the manager, who staunchly defends everyone on the team to a fault, hangs him out to dry by admitting to the media that he asked Manny to play and Manny refused.
We can’t trade him now, not without sacrificing our chances to repeat. There’s no way that we would be able to replace his bat right in the middle of the season, and it’s not likely that we’ll find any takers anyway. Although I wouldn’t put it past Theo to come up with something that allows us to get rid of him now and still keep our chances to win it, or maybe even improve them. Anything’s possible with Theo (yes I do believe he is a miracle worker) but it’s probably not likely, so we ride it out and hope he helps this team bring us another one.
But as soon as the season ends, and I mean AS SOON as the season ends, even if it means ripping the Championship Trophy out of his hands in the champaign drenched locker room, I want him gone.
I’ve had enough. I have had as much as one Red Sox fan should be expected to take. If he’s not happy here and wants to go then I say good riddance to him. It won’t be easy to get someone to take the remaining 3 years of his contract, but I think something could be worked out somewhere; maybe the Mets would like to reunite him with Pedro.
We certainly wouldn’t be able to get someone in left field to replace his numbers, but with the money we save by getting rid of his contract, even if we have to eat some of it, or take on another one in the trade, we should still be able to get a very good replacement, as well as an upgrade at first, or second, or maybe even both. Or get us another starting pitcher or some bullpen help.
We don’t need Manny to win another pennant after this year. There are plenty of other ways to do it, and we need to begin trying some of them. There will be life and championships after Manny, and as far as I’m concerned, the sooner the better.
posted by Bob at 7/27/2005 09:57:00 PM
0 comments
Last Night's Game
First things first, it looks like Matt Clement is going to be okay, which is of course, a good thing. When I say okay, I’m talking about as a human being, not as a pitcher. It’s still too early to tell how much time he might miss and how it affects him when he does come back. I have to think, that after taking a shot like that, he will miss at least a couple of starts and it might take him a few starts after that before he gets comfortable on the mound again. And that’s probably a best-case scenario. It’s possible this could end up being a major problem for the rest of the season. It looks like we might be making that trade for a starting pitcher after all.
What a crazy night. Not only do we lose our best starting pitcher for the foreseeable future, but it looks like we may also have lost our right fielder as well. Although Nixon is saying that he’s hoping to play through it, it’s still too early to tell how bad it is and if he’ll be able to. Good thing we have Kapler coming back this weekend. He may have a starting job waiting for him.
Of course, he won’t be able to completely make up for the loss of Nixon, but if it’s only a small amount of time that Nixon misses than we should be okay. If Nixon is going to be out for a long period of time, then I think we need to make a move and get another hitter.
We could bring up Petagine and play him at first while moving Millar to right field, or put Olerud at first, but I’m not convinced either one of those is a better option than Kapler. First of all, we lose defense in right field by putting Millar there over Kapler, and although Olerud is obviously a better defender than Millar at first, Millar isn’t that bad over there. We’re definitely better off defensively with Millar at first and Kapler in right than any other combination mentioned above.
Secondly, I’m not convinced that either Petagine or Olerud would be any more productive at the plate than Kapler. Although Petagine is tearing up Triple A, he’s never been able to do it in the majors, which is why he ended up in Japan for so long. I think he’s one of those guys who can hit in Triple A and Japan, but can’t do it in the majors. As for Olerud, he is not the hitter he used to be, despite the fact he started off hot enough to have everyone calling for Millar’s head. He might still have a little left in him, but I don’t think it would be any more than what Kapler could provide. The only advantage either of these guys would have over Kapler is that they’re both lefties, but that doesn’t make much of a difference if they don’t hit. Our best bet is to hope that Nixon isn’t down for too long.
What a debut for Manny Delcarmen. Here’s a local guy, 23 years old, making his first ML appearance for his hometown team, and finds himself coming into a tight game in the 8th inning with his team down by 2 runs. He throws a perfect 8th and gets his first major league strike out. They say he’s got a mid-90’s fastball that can top out in the high 90’s and a very good curve. The problem is his control is only average which results in a high amount of walks. It would be nice to see him be able to come up here and help this team down the stretch.
I don’t care what anyone else says, Theo needs to make sure Johnny Damon sticks around for a few more years. What hasn’t this guy done for us this year? Last night he saves the game by making a great running/jumping catch while crashing into the wall on a fly ball that certainly would have scored the winning run against us had it dropped. Then he leads off the top of the tenth with a blast into right field to give us the lead. And this is the kind of stuff he’s been doing all year. He’s just been clutch and not letting anything, injuries or otherwise, prevent him from doing it. He wants to stay, and I think he’s willing to settle for less to do it, so let’s make it work.
I guess Big Papi is human after all. He entered last night’s game hitting only .193 in his last 14 and flied out in each of his 2 at bats last night. I don’t imagine it will last much longer though.
I’m reading that SI’s Tom Verducci is a very credible writer, so if he’s writing that Manny is saying he wants to be traded than Manny must have said it. It could just be another one of his mood swings as he’s getting fed up with all the attention he gets here and just wants to be left alone, but if he really wants to be traded that’s okay with me. He managed to piss me off again last night as he lolley-gagged his way down to first after hitting what looked to be a double play ball that was misplayed, and he only ended up being safe because the throw was up the line and pulled Lee off the bag.
Of course, if we are going to comply, let’s wait until after the season. His bat will be tough enough to replace in the off-season, and absolutely impossible to replace now. On the other hand, if we don’t or can’t trade him, I’m also willing to live with the minor drawbacks that come with having his bat in the lineup.
There’s a lot of talk this morning that this game might be the one that gets this team going, and it’s being compared to the one last July 24th against the Yankees with the A-Rod fiasco and the Mueller homerun. I don’t agree.
First of all, it was the Devil Rays, not the Yankees. This is a team that we HAVE to beat, not hope to come back and beat. Secondly, although it was an emotional win after what happened to Clement, and that might have pulled this team together, it was also a game in which we lost our best starting pitcher and possibly our right fielder. It was great to come back and win it, but there could be some serious consequences suffered in the future as a result of what happened in this game. And finally, although it’s possible that this game could end up being a turning point, last year’s game against the Yankees really wasn’t. It was a great win (the best regular season win I can think of) and we beat them the next day as well, but then we went 6-6 over the next 12 games before we really turned it around.
Hopefully this one will get us going in the right direction, because it needs to happen soon with the Yankees breathing right down our necks for the division title and a bunch of teams right on top of us for the wild card.
What a crazy night. Not only do we lose our best starting pitcher for the foreseeable future, but it looks like we may also have lost our right fielder as well. Although Nixon is saying that he’s hoping to play through it, it’s still too early to tell how bad it is and if he’ll be able to. Good thing we have Kapler coming back this weekend. He may have a starting job waiting for him.
Of course, he won’t be able to completely make up for the loss of Nixon, but if it’s only a small amount of time that Nixon misses than we should be okay. If Nixon is going to be out for a long period of time, then I think we need to make a move and get another hitter.
We could bring up Petagine and play him at first while moving Millar to right field, or put Olerud at first, but I’m not convinced either one of those is a better option than Kapler. First of all, we lose defense in right field by putting Millar there over Kapler, and although Olerud is obviously a better defender than Millar at first, Millar isn’t that bad over there. We’re definitely better off defensively with Millar at first and Kapler in right than any other combination mentioned above.
Secondly, I’m not convinced that either Petagine or Olerud would be any more productive at the plate than Kapler. Although Petagine is tearing up Triple A, he’s never been able to do it in the majors, which is why he ended up in Japan for so long. I think he’s one of those guys who can hit in Triple A and Japan, but can’t do it in the majors. As for Olerud, he is not the hitter he used to be, despite the fact he started off hot enough to have everyone calling for Millar’s head. He might still have a little left in him, but I don’t think it would be any more than what Kapler could provide. The only advantage either of these guys would have over Kapler is that they’re both lefties, but that doesn’t make much of a difference if they don’t hit. Our best bet is to hope that Nixon isn’t down for too long.
What a debut for Manny Delcarmen. Here’s a local guy, 23 years old, making his first ML appearance for his hometown team, and finds himself coming into a tight game in the 8th inning with his team down by 2 runs. He throws a perfect 8th and gets his first major league strike out. They say he’s got a mid-90’s fastball that can top out in the high 90’s and a very good curve. The problem is his control is only average which results in a high amount of walks. It would be nice to see him be able to come up here and help this team down the stretch.
I don’t care what anyone else says, Theo needs to make sure Johnny Damon sticks around for a few more years. What hasn’t this guy done for us this year? Last night he saves the game by making a great running/jumping catch while crashing into the wall on a fly ball that certainly would have scored the winning run against us had it dropped. Then he leads off the top of the tenth with a blast into right field to give us the lead. And this is the kind of stuff he’s been doing all year. He’s just been clutch and not letting anything, injuries or otherwise, prevent him from doing it. He wants to stay, and I think he’s willing to settle for less to do it, so let’s make it work.
I guess Big Papi is human after all. He entered last night’s game hitting only .193 in his last 14 and flied out in each of his 2 at bats last night. I don’t imagine it will last much longer though.
I’m reading that SI’s Tom Verducci is a very credible writer, so if he’s writing that Manny is saying he wants to be traded than Manny must have said it. It could just be another one of his mood swings as he’s getting fed up with all the attention he gets here and just wants to be left alone, but if he really wants to be traded that’s okay with me. He managed to piss me off again last night as he lolley-gagged his way down to first after hitting what looked to be a double play ball that was misplayed, and he only ended up being safe because the throw was up the line and pulled Lee off the bag.
Of course, if we are going to comply, let’s wait until after the season. His bat will be tough enough to replace in the off-season, and absolutely impossible to replace now. On the other hand, if we don’t or can’t trade him, I’m also willing to live with the minor drawbacks that come with having his bat in the lineup.
There’s a lot of talk this morning that this game might be the one that gets this team going, and it’s being compared to the one last July 24th against the Yankees with the A-Rod fiasco and the Mueller homerun. I don’t agree.
First of all, it was the Devil Rays, not the Yankees. This is a team that we HAVE to beat, not hope to come back and beat. Secondly, although it was an emotional win after what happened to Clement, and that might have pulled this team together, it was also a game in which we lost our best starting pitcher and possibly our right fielder. It was great to come back and win it, but there could be some serious consequences suffered in the future as a result of what happened in this game. And finally, although it’s possible that this game could end up being a turning point, last year’s game against the Yankees really wasn’t. It was a great win (the best regular season win I can think of) and we beat them the next day as well, but then we went 6-6 over the next 12 games before we really turned it around.
Hopefully this one will get us going in the right direction, because it needs to happen soon with the Yankees breathing right down our necks for the division title and a bunch of teams right on top of us for the wild card.
posted by Bob at 7/27/2005 09:51:00 AM
1 comments
Friday, July 22, 2005
Left-Handed Pitchers
LEFTIES
I actually had most of this written to go with the last entry but I thought it made it too long so I left it out. Ironically, it’s now going to make this entry even longer, AND it’s not quite as relevant as it was 2 days ago. But here it is anyway, slightly modified to reflect the last 2 games.
After having played our last 6 games against lefties and dropping the first 4, all at Fenway, a lot is being made about our problems with lefties and how they have to be addressed. I really don’t see what more we can do besides finding a platoon partner for Nixon, which has already been done and maybe didn’t even need to be.
As a team we’re hitting .288 against them. Our other two lefties Damon (.346) and Ortiz (.322) are hitting them extremely well and even if they weren’t, they’re starters who are not going to be platooned. As for the rest of the starting lineup consisting of 4 righties and 2 switch hitters (I’m leaving 2nd base out of this right now as it’s all up in the air over there) it goes like this: Renteria (.353), Varitek (.365), Mueller (.262), Nixon (.255), Millar (.222), and Manny (.202).
As you can see, the only problems we are having are with Nixon, Millar, and Manny. Nixon has been addressed, and since he’s been allowed to face left-handers more since the departure of Payton, he’s actually been hitting them better. This leaves Manny and Millar which is somewhat of an enigma as they are both right-handed hitters who traditionally hit much better against left-handers and Manny has a track record of killing them.
What can we possibly do about that? I don’t really see anything, I think it’s one of those things that needs to work itself out, and after beating up Hendrickson on Wednesday (something we always seem to do to him anyway) and wearing down Buehrle last night, it looks like maybe it’s beginning to turn around.
CRAZY GAME
As I’ve said many times before this is a crazy and unpredictable game, which is one of the things that makes it so great. How else can you explain the Sox winning last night by getting 3 runs as a result of 3 errors made by 2 normally sure-handed fielders?
In the seventh inning, Papi hits what should probably be an inning ending double play ball to Igutchi (5 errors before last night) at second. Instead of getting the double play, it bounces out of his glove for the first error, prompting Damon to head home from third. He then gets a hold of it and fires it home to try to throw out Damon, who slides into Pierzynski as he’s catching the ball, which causes him to drop it and it rolls away from him, resulting in Damon being safe and Renteria moving to 3rd while Ortiz gets to second. A double error, which results in 1 run right there and a second one when Millar gets Renteria home with a sac fly.
Then in the 9th, after Schilling gives up the tying run in the 8th, Manny hits a pop foul to Crede at third. Crede (4 errors before last night) manages to have it bounce out of his glove, setting up the inevitable, which was Manny blasting a shot to left that would have shattered the moon had he been doing a Pepsi commercial, Red 6, White 5, game over.
THE OTHER SOX
A few things that come to mind about these White Sox, they remind me a lot of the Cardinals last year. They do a lot of things good. Good starting pitching, good bullpen, good defense, good base running, a good offense that can beat you different ways, they don’t play small ball quite the same as the Cards did last year, but they have a few players who can steal bases, move runners over, and hit it out of the park.
Also, like the Cards last year, they are running away with their division by taking advantage of a weak schedule both in and out of their division. They have 40 wins against teams that are at or well under 500, including 9 against the pitiful Royals.
You gotta love Ozzie, I do anyway. He makes it sound like everyone is accusing them of playing triple A teams. Of course they’re not triple A teams, but come on Ozzie, even you know you haven’t played many of the better teams in the league yet. They’ve got a big test coming up as they still have 6 games left against us, and a bunch against the Yankees, Orioles, Angels, and Rangers. Plus they still have 13 left against Minnesota, although they are an impressive 4-1 against them so far. They also still get to play a lot of games against the other 3 teams in their division, the Tigers, Indians, and Royals.
I’m not saying they are going to fail this test, I’m just saying it should be interesting to watch as this will give us a much better indication of how good this team is. I personally think that they will continue to follow the path of the ‘04’ Cardinals. That is, they will win the division, and be able to beat any of the weaker teams that might make it into the playoffs, but get taken out by the first juggernaut they go up against. The problem is, unlike the NL playoffs of last year, there might not be any weaker teams in the AL playoffs this year.
It’s quite possible that they could end up being the weakest team in there, despite possibly having the best record. They could find themselves in the first and/or second rounds facing the likes of the Red Sox, Yankees, or Angels all of whom should be better than them come playoff time (not that they can’t beat them). Of course it could also be the Twins (in the second round), A’s, Rangers, or Orioles, since we all know that anything can, and does, happen in this game.
TRADE TALK
With 10 days left to the trading deadline, this is always both a fun and anguishing time of year. We hear every proposal under the sun, from the very mundane to the completely insane. Although most never happen, we usually find out that a lot of them were only rumors while others ended up coming a lot closer to happening than we thought. Many times, trades end up materializing at the last minute, things we never even imagined, such as the one that Theo made last year.
It seems as though the 3 team deal involving Mueller and Millar that would net us Burnett and Romero is pretty much dead, which is fine with me as I didn’t want to lose Mueller anyway. And it looks like Theo is exploring other ways (Arroyo and a prospect?) to get Burnett so that’s even better. Although I would never argue with a trade that brings us a starting pitcher like that, I still think the only thing we REALLY need is another arm out of the bullpen.
I actually had most of this written to go with the last entry but I thought it made it too long so I left it out. Ironically, it’s now going to make this entry even longer, AND it’s not quite as relevant as it was 2 days ago. But here it is anyway, slightly modified to reflect the last 2 games.
After having played our last 6 games against lefties and dropping the first 4, all at Fenway, a lot is being made about our problems with lefties and how they have to be addressed. I really don’t see what more we can do besides finding a platoon partner for Nixon, which has already been done and maybe didn’t even need to be.
As a team we’re hitting .288 against them. Our other two lefties Damon (.346) and Ortiz (.322) are hitting them extremely well and even if they weren’t, they’re starters who are not going to be platooned. As for the rest of the starting lineup consisting of 4 righties and 2 switch hitters (I’m leaving 2nd base out of this right now as it’s all up in the air over there) it goes like this: Renteria (.353), Varitek (.365), Mueller (.262), Nixon (.255), Millar (.222), and Manny (.202).
As you can see, the only problems we are having are with Nixon, Millar, and Manny. Nixon has been addressed, and since he’s been allowed to face left-handers more since the departure of Payton, he’s actually been hitting them better. This leaves Manny and Millar which is somewhat of an enigma as they are both right-handed hitters who traditionally hit much better against left-handers and Manny has a track record of killing them.
What can we possibly do about that? I don’t really see anything, I think it’s one of those things that needs to work itself out, and after beating up Hendrickson on Wednesday (something we always seem to do to him anyway) and wearing down Buehrle last night, it looks like maybe it’s beginning to turn around.
CRAZY GAME
As I’ve said many times before this is a crazy and unpredictable game, which is one of the things that makes it so great. How else can you explain the Sox winning last night by getting 3 runs as a result of 3 errors made by 2 normally sure-handed fielders?
In the seventh inning, Papi hits what should probably be an inning ending double play ball to Igutchi (5 errors before last night) at second. Instead of getting the double play, it bounces out of his glove for the first error, prompting Damon to head home from third. He then gets a hold of it and fires it home to try to throw out Damon, who slides into Pierzynski as he’s catching the ball, which causes him to drop it and it rolls away from him, resulting in Damon being safe and Renteria moving to 3rd while Ortiz gets to second. A double error, which results in 1 run right there and a second one when Millar gets Renteria home with a sac fly.
Then in the 9th, after Schilling gives up the tying run in the 8th, Manny hits a pop foul to Crede at third. Crede (4 errors before last night) manages to have it bounce out of his glove, setting up the inevitable, which was Manny blasting a shot to left that would have shattered the moon had he been doing a Pepsi commercial, Red 6, White 5, game over.
THE OTHER SOX
A few things that come to mind about these White Sox, they remind me a lot of the Cardinals last year. They do a lot of things good. Good starting pitching, good bullpen, good defense, good base running, a good offense that can beat you different ways, they don’t play small ball quite the same as the Cards did last year, but they have a few players who can steal bases, move runners over, and hit it out of the park.
Also, like the Cards last year, they are running away with their division by taking advantage of a weak schedule both in and out of their division. They have 40 wins against teams that are at or well under 500, including 9 against the pitiful Royals.
You gotta love Ozzie, I do anyway. He makes it sound like everyone is accusing them of playing triple A teams. Of course they’re not triple A teams, but come on Ozzie, even you know you haven’t played many of the better teams in the league yet. They’ve got a big test coming up as they still have 6 games left against us, and a bunch against the Yankees, Orioles, Angels, and Rangers. Plus they still have 13 left against Minnesota, although they are an impressive 4-1 against them so far. They also still get to play a lot of games against the other 3 teams in their division, the Tigers, Indians, and Royals.
I’m not saying they are going to fail this test, I’m just saying it should be interesting to watch as this will give us a much better indication of how good this team is. I personally think that they will continue to follow the path of the ‘04’ Cardinals. That is, they will win the division, and be able to beat any of the weaker teams that might make it into the playoffs, but get taken out by the first juggernaut they go up against. The problem is, unlike the NL playoffs of last year, there might not be any weaker teams in the AL playoffs this year.
It’s quite possible that they could end up being the weakest team in there, despite possibly having the best record. They could find themselves in the first and/or second rounds facing the likes of the Red Sox, Yankees, or Angels all of whom should be better than them come playoff time (not that they can’t beat them). Of course it could also be the Twins (in the second round), A’s, Rangers, or Orioles, since we all know that anything can, and does, happen in this game.
TRADE TALK
With 10 days left to the trading deadline, this is always both a fun and anguishing time of year. We hear every proposal under the sun, from the very mundane to the completely insane. Although most never happen, we usually find out that a lot of them were only rumors while others ended up coming a lot closer to happening than we thought. Many times, trades end up materializing at the last minute, things we never even imagined, such as the one that Theo made last year.
It seems as though the 3 team deal involving Mueller and Millar that would net us Burnett and Romero is pretty much dead, which is fine with me as I didn’t want to lose Mueller anyway. And it looks like Theo is exploring other ways (Arroyo and a prospect?) to get Burnett so that’s even better. Although I would never argue with a trade that brings us a starting pitcher like that, I still think the only thing we REALLY need is another arm out of the bullpen.
posted by Bob at 7/22/2005 10:03:00 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Strange Goings On
I’m a bit baffled by the moves that were made last night. I’ll start with Alan Embree. I’m not actually surprised to see him go, I just thought the timing was a little strange. He has lost some velocity on his fastball, was not spotting very well, and as a result was getting hammered. About a month ago, I was right there with the rest of Sox Nation who thought it was time for him to go. But the Sox really didn’t have any good alternatives so they decided to remain loyal to him in the hopes that he would turn it around. And it seemed like he was actually doing that.
For the month of July he made 9 appearances, pitching a total of 5.3 innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs. The runs came in 2 appearances and he was good in the other 7. Of course, he was only being used for 1 or 2 outs at a time for the most part, with an occasional complete inning, and Francona really couldn’t trust him to go more than that.
That, combined with the fact that lefties were actually hitting .304 against him and they have 2 other lefties in the pen, 1 (Myers) who is very good at getting out lefties and 1 (Halama) who can give you some innings, the writing was pretty much on the wall for him.
It’s too bad it had to happen. I really would have liked to see him turn it around. He’s a good guy and he was a major contributor to the World Championship last year. So, we say goodbye to yet another one of our World Champions.
Embree was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Adam Hyzdu, a move I don’t completely understand. First of all, this is a guy who is now with the organization for the 4th time in his baseball career. In fact, we traded him away in spring training to the Padres for a pitcher (Blaine Neal) who didn’t stick.
Nixon is only hitting .238 against lefties and since Payton left, our only option was to either play Nixon, or move Millar to right and play Olerud, who is also a left-handed hitter but gives us a better chance against lefties than Nixon (.260 over the last 3 years). But we’ve addressed that situation by bringing Kapler back, more on that later. I don’t see Hyzdu having any kind of impact in the next week or 2 while we wait for Kapler to get back into playing shape. He's really not much of hitter and doesn't give us any better of an option than playing Nixon or Olerud.
Tony Graffanino doesn’t make a ton of sense to me either. This guy is a true utility player who can, and has, played all 4 infield positions as well as the outfield corners. Although he’s spent some time at short and third, he’s primarily been a second baseman which is what we got him for. Problem is, I don’t see him doing much better over there than Cora will while Bellhorn is out. Cora is a much better defender and only slightly inferior with the bat. Seeing as we weren’t getting a ton of offense out of that spot when Bellhorn was there anyway, I think we’re better off just leaving Cora there and getting the defense.
The only reason I can see for obtaining Graffanino right now is to give us some insurance when we have to pinch hit for whichever one of them is playing, Graffanino or Cora, and then the other one can go in and play second base. He can also play against left-handers in place of Cora, but it's only until Bellhorn comes back. He may be a slight upgrade over Bellhorn, he has a higher BA, strikes out a lot less, and has a higher OBP, but I'm not convinced it's enough to warrant taking Bellhorn's job away from him when he’s ready to come back. The time off might be good for Bellhorn and I think we have to give him a chance to see if he can turn it around. When he is ready to come back, one of those 3 will have to go, it’ll be interesting to see who. It wouldn’t surprise me though if it ends up being Bellhorn.
We said goodbye to 1 World Champion and hello to another one on the same day. Gabe Kapler stopped by the clubhouse yesterday as he prepared to head to Lowell to begin his rehab to get back into playing shape. I loved Gabe when he was here, and hoped he might make it back someday, so I’m glad to see it happening.
Speaking of World Champion baseball players that I love, there are rumors out there that the Sox are looking to acquire J.C. Romero from the Twins, and the Twins are interested in Bill Mueller in return. Romero would be a good addition to the pen (although he has walked quite a lot of hitters), but I don’t want to see him coming at the expense of Mueller. The deal makes sense for us, we can plug Youkilis into 3rd without losing anything and get a desperately needed reliever in the process. Plus, there’s probably a very good chance that we won’t even resign Mueller when his contract is up at the end of the year because we have Youkilis.
It’s just that, I love Mueller and don’t want to see him go. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t know much about him before he came here, but since he’s been here, he’s become one of my favorite ballplayers.
There’s also talk that they may send Youkilis instead (the Twins do need a 3rd baseman) and expand the deal to have it include a starting pitcher for us. The Twins don’t really have a surplus of starters so I’m guessing they’re referring to a minor league starter. I happen to like Youkilis as well, but we need a reliever and it’s likely one of these 2 guys will not be here next year so it makes sense to trade one of them now.
I didn’t want to see Nomar go last year and look what happened. I have complete faith in Theo so I’ll live with whatever moves he ends up making, knowing that it’s all being done in an attempt to net us another World Championship.
For the month of July he made 9 appearances, pitching a total of 5.3 innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs. The runs came in 2 appearances and he was good in the other 7. Of course, he was only being used for 1 or 2 outs at a time for the most part, with an occasional complete inning, and Francona really couldn’t trust him to go more than that.
That, combined with the fact that lefties were actually hitting .304 against him and they have 2 other lefties in the pen, 1 (Myers) who is very good at getting out lefties and 1 (Halama) who can give you some innings, the writing was pretty much on the wall for him.
It’s too bad it had to happen. I really would have liked to see him turn it around. He’s a good guy and he was a major contributor to the World Championship last year. So, we say goodbye to yet another one of our World Champions.
Embree was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Adam Hyzdu, a move I don’t completely understand. First of all, this is a guy who is now with the organization for the 4th time in his baseball career. In fact, we traded him away in spring training to the Padres for a pitcher (Blaine Neal) who didn’t stick.
Nixon is only hitting .238 against lefties and since Payton left, our only option was to either play Nixon, or move Millar to right and play Olerud, who is also a left-handed hitter but gives us a better chance against lefties than Nixon (.260 over the last 3 years). But we’ve addressed that situation by bringing Kapler back, more on that later. I don’t see Hyzdu having any kind of impact in the next week or 2 while we wait for Kapler to get back into playing shape. He's really not much of hitter and doesn't give us any better of an option than playing Nixon or Olerud.
Tony Graffanino doesn’t make a ton of sense to me either. This guy is a true utility player who can, and has, played all 4 infield positions as well as the outfield corners. Although he’s spent some time at short and third, he’s primarily been a second baseman which is what we got him for. Problem is, I don’t see him doing much better over there than Cora will while Bellhorn is out. Cora is a much better defender and only slightly inferior with the bat. Seeing as we weren’t getting a ton of offense out of that spot when Bellhorn was there anyway, I think we’re better off just leaving Cora there and getting the defense.
The only reason I can see for obtaining Graffanino right now is to give us some insurance when we have to pinch hit for whichever one of them is playing, Graffanino or Cora, and then the other one can go in and play second base. He can also play against left-handers in place of Cora, but it's only until Bellhorn comes back. He may be a slight upgrade over Bellhorn, he has a higher BA, strikes out a lot less, and has a higher OBP, but I'm not convinced it's enough to warrant taking Bellhorn's job away from him when he’s ready to come back. The time off might be good for Bellhorn and I think we have to give him a chance to see if he can turn it around. When he is ready to come back, one of those 3 will have to go, it’ll be interesting to see who. It wouldn’t surprise me though if it ends up being Bellhorn.
We said goodbye to 1 World Champion and hello to another one on the same day. Gabe Kapler stopped by the clubhouse yesterday as he prepared to head to Lowell to begin his rehab to get back into playing shape. I loved Gabe when he was here, and hoped he might make it back someday, so I’m glad to see it happening.
Speaking of World Champion baseball players that I love, there are rumors out there that the Sox are looking to acquire J.C. Romero from the Twins, and the Twins are interested in Bill Mueller in return. Romero would be a good addition to the pen (although he has walked quite a lot of hitters), but I don’t want to see him coming at the expense of Mueller. The deal makes sense for us, we can plug Youkilis into 3rd without losing anything and get a desperately needed reliever in the process. Plus, there’s probably a very good chance that we won’t even resign Mueller when his contract is up at the end of the year because we have Youkilis.
It’s just that, I love Mueller and don’t want to see him go. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t know much about him before he came here, but since he’s been here, he’s become one of my favorite ballplayers.
There’s also talk that they may send Youkilis instead (the Twins do need a 3rd baseman) and expand the deal to have it include a starting pitcher for us. The Twins don’t really have a surplus of starters so I’m guessing they’re referring to a minor league starter. I happen to like Youkilis as well, but we need a reliever and it’s likely one of these 2 guys will not be here next year so it makes sense to trade one of them now.
I didn’t want to see Nomar go last year and look what happened. I have complete faith in Theo so I’ll live with whatever moves he ends up making, knowing that it’s all being done in an attempt to net us another World Championship.
posted by Bob at 7/20/2005 10:18:00 AM
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Monday, July 18, 2005
Frustrating
I’m not overly concerned or panicked, but I am frustrated. It’s very frustrating to watch your team do the exact opposite of what you expected to happen. I figured at worst, we’d split this 4 game series and we had a chance to sweep with the most likely outcome being us taking 3 of 4.
It’s even more frustrating knowing that we had chances to win all 3 of the games we lost. There was the knucklehead on Thursday night catching Giambi’s fly ball, Mirabelli running to second with his head down and Svuem not sending Millar on Saturday, and Cora being at the plate in the 9th with the bases loaded, no outs and the go ahead run on first last night.
I’m not big on nitpicking and second-guessing, but like most members of The Nation, I question Francona’s thinking on that last one. I don’t want to hear, who’s going to play second base if we tie it up and go into extra innings? I want to see John Olerud at the plate trying to win the game or extend the inning for the top of the order to try to put it away.
If we tie it up and have to work out our defense, so be it. We don’t even get to that situation with Cora up there. Millar has played 3rd before and Mueller could have moved to 2nd despite the fact that Francona says he doesn’t want to put him there anymore. It’s not ideal, but suck it up and see what happens. At least it gives us a chance.
Enough of dwelling on that stuff, it’s over and it’s time to move on. I’m still feeling good about this teams chances. A few things go our way this weekend and we get that 3-1 outcome I thought we were going to end up with.
There’s no question we’re in a little bit of a funk right now, but we’re not playing terrible and it’s only a matter of time before we get out of it. Three games with the D-Rays at Fenway might be just what we need for that.
Like I’ve already said, we’ve got a race on our hands now, but I still think we have the advantage and the best chance to win it.
One last thing that I’m a little annoyed with, Ramirez crushed that ball off Gordon in the 9th, no doubt about it. But damn it Manny show a little class. You know it’s gone, put your head down and run the bases. I don’t care if you hit the Citgo sign, you’re team is still down 3 runs in the 9th with the greatest closer in the game coming in, and not only that, but A-Rod and Sheffield have each hit a few balls at least as hard, if not harder this weekend, including last night.
It looked like Posada might have said something to him, I’m not sure, but if he did, he was well within his rights.
It’s even more frustrating knowing that we had chances to win all 3 of the games we lost. There was the knucklehead on Thursday night catching Giambi’s fly ball, Mirabelli running to second with his head down and Svuem not sending Millar on Saturday, and Cora being at the plate in the 9th with the bases loaded, no outs and the go ahead run on first last night.
I’m not big on nitpicking and second-guessing, but like most members of The Nation, I question Francona’s thinking on that last one. I don’t want to hear, who’s going to play second base if we tie it up and go into extra innings? I want to see John Olerud at the plate trying to win the game or extend the inning for the top of the order to try to put it away.
If we tie it up and have to work out our defense, so be it. We don’t even get to that situation with Cora up there. Millar has played 3rd before and Mueller could have moved to 2nd despite the fact that Francona says he doesn’t want to put him there anymore. It’s not ideal, but suck it up and see what happens. At least it gives us a chance.
Enough of dwelling on that stuff, it’s over and it’s time to move on. I’m still feeling good about this teams chances. A few things go our way this weekend and we get that 3-1 outcome I thought we were going to end up with.
There’s no question we’re in a little bit of a funk right now, but we’re not playing terrible and it’s only a matter of time before we get out of it. Three games with the D-Rays at Fenway might be just what we need for that.
Like I’ve already said, we’ve got a race on our hands now, but I still think we have the advantage and the best chance to win it.
One last thing that I’m a little annoyed with, Ramirez crushed that ball off Gordon in the 9th, no doubt about it. But damn it Manny show a little class. You know it’s gone, put your head down and run the bases. I don’t care if you hit the Citgo sign, you’re team is still down 3 runs in the 9th with the greatest closer in the game coming in, and not only that, but A-Rod and Sheffield have each hit a few balls at least as hard, if not harder this weekend, including last night.
It looked like Posada might have said something to him, I’m not sure, but if he did, he was well within his rights.
posted by Bob at 7/18/2005 11:50:00 AM
2 comments
Friday, July 15, 2005
More Fan Griping (or in this case, not really a fan)
Nobody seems to want to make a big deal out of this, not Trot Nixon, not Remy and Orsillo, not Sportsdesk, not the Globe. Even Boston Dirt Dogs, who normally are all over bone-headed plays like this didn’t make much of it. Someone has to, so it might as well be me.
I’m talking about the idiot who cost the Sox a run by snatching that Giambi fly ball, preventing Nixon from catching it and turning it into a homerun. Yes, I know it was in the stands and therefore fair game, but, as I’ve asked a million times before, why would anyone calling themselves a fan interfere with a hometown player trying to make a catch to get an out?
It’s absolutely ridiculous and gets me steamed. If I were sitting near him, I would have cleaned his clock to make sure he gave Nixon a chance to catch that ball. The replays showed that the ball was going right into Nixon’s glove before Mr. Bonehead reached out and grabbed it.
And what made it worse to me is that they show him and the two boobs to either side of him on their cell phones afterward with giant smiles on their faces. Obviously, none of these 3 guys were fans. They weren’t wearing any Sox paraphernalia and they were completely oblivious as to what they did. They were probably just some guys who got the corporate tickets and had no business being at a Sox game, let alone a Sox/Yanks game.
Unfortunately there’s nothing anyone can do about it. There are always going to be jerk-offs who get tickets to Sox games that don’t deserve to be there, but they’re going to go because it’s the thing to do, now more than ever. And all they're going to do while they're there, is talk on their cell phones, try to get on TV, and try to catch any ball that's hit in their general direction regardless of how it might affect the outcome of the game.
It certainly didn’t cost us the game, but the game was close enough that if one or two things broke differently it could very well have been the deciding factor.
I’m talking about the idiot who cost the Sox a run by snatching that Giambi fly ball, preventing Nixon from catching it and turning it into a homerun. Yes, I know it was in the stands and therefore fair game, but, as I’ve asked a million times before, why would anyone calling themselves a fan interfere with a hometown player trying to make a catch to get an out?
It’s absolutely ridiculous and gets me steamed. If I were sitting near him, I would have cleaned his clock to make sure he gave Nixon a chance to catch that ball. The replays showed that the ball was going right into Nixon’s glove before Mr. Bonehead reached out and grabbed it.
And what made it worse to me is that they show him and the two boobs to either side of him on their cell phones afterward with giant smiles on their faces. Obviously, none of these 3 guys were fans. They weren’t wearing any Sox paraphernalia and they were completely oblivious as to what they did. They were probably just some guys who got the corporate tickets and had no business being at a Sox game, let alone a Sox/Yanks game.
Unfortunately there’s nothing anyone can do about it. There are always going to be jerk-offs who get tickets to Sox games that don’t deserve to be there, but they’re going to go because it’s the thing to do, now more than ever. And all they're going to do while they're there, is talk on their cell phones, try to get on TV, and try to catch any ball that's hit in their general direction regardless of how it might affect the outcome of the game.
It certainly didn’t cost us the game, but the game was close enough that if one or two things broke differently it could very well have been the deciding factor.
posted by Bob at 7/15/2005 08:19:00 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
All-Star Game
Some thoughts about the All-Star game, the Home Run Derby, and some other stuff.
First, I meant to mention this before, every episode of “This Week In Baseball” begins with a shot of Jason Varitek leaping into the arms of Keith Foulke as Joe Castiglione is gleefully uttering his now famous line, “And the Boston Red Sox are the World Champions.” Of course, there’s more than that, but that’s all they play on the show. Anyway, my point, I’ve been watching TWIB for as long as I can remember and for the life of me I cannot remember how episodes in any other season began. Maybe they all started with a shot of the previous World Series being won, maybe not, I don’t know, but I do know that I noticed this year.
I know the balls are juiced for the Home Run Derby, but it was still a lot of fun watching Bobby Abreu put on that impressive display. Before it started, I wanted our guy to win it, but after seeing that first at bat I changed my mind. How can you not root for a guy after he puts on a show like that? Big Papi represented us well though and actually would have had a record if not for Abreu. Good show.
As for the game itself, I’ll start with this. Scott Rolen made a last minute decision to forego the All-Star game, citing that he needed to take the time to rest his recently surgically repaired shoulder because it still wasn’t where he wanted it to be. I’m sure that’s definitely true, but I can’t help thinking that at least a small part of it was because he knew he really didn’t deserve to be there and there were others that did. Good for him, by stepping down it did 2 things, first it gave Aramis Ramirez the much deserved chance to start, and second it gave Morgan Ensberg a much deserved spot on the team, and he just as easily could have started.
Our boys did their part in helping clinch home field advantage for us in the World Series again. It was very strange, and a little awkward, rooting for Mo Rivera to get that final out. Francona did a good job of balancing trying to win the game and trying to get everyone in and almost did.
It’s difficult to pick an MVP for one game, especially when it’s not likely that anyone is going to be playing for the entire game. I think Tejeda was a good pick. He got the scoring started with that blast into left field, drove in another run with a groundout, and made a couple of nifty plays in the field, including that backhanded double play.
I thought it was an entertaining game and surprisingly short as far as All-Star games go. I’m not sure of the exact time but it seemed like just about 3 hours.
Now it’s back to business, beginning tomorrow night when we go back to rooting AGAINST Mo and the rest of the pinstripes, as they come into town for four.
First, I meant to mention this before, every episode of “This Week In Baseball” begins with a shot of Jason Varitek leaping into the arms of Keith Foulke as Joe Castiglione is gleefully uttering his now famous line, “And the Boston Red Sox are the World Champions.” Of course, there’s more than that, but that’s all they play on the show. Anyway, my point, I’ve been watching TWIB for as long as I can remember and for the life of me I cannot remember how episodes in any other season began. Maybe they all started with a shot of the previous World Series being won, maybe not, I don’t know, but I do know that I noticed this year.
I know the balls are juiced for the Home Run Derby, but it was still a lot of fun watching Bobby Abreu put on that impressive display. Before it started, I wanted our guy to win it, but after seeing that first at bat I changed my mind. How can you not root for a guy after he puts on a show like that? Big Papi represented us well though and actually would have had a record if not for Abreu. Good show.
As for the game itself, I’ll start with this. Scott Rolen made a last minute decision to forego the All-Star game, citing that he needed to take the time to rest his recently surgically repaired shoulder because it still wasn’t where he wanted it to be. I’m sure that’s definitely true, but I can’t help thinking that at least a small part of it was because he knew he really didn’t deserve to be there and there were others that did. Good for him, by stepping down it did 2 things, first it gave Aramis Ramirez the much deserved chance to start, and second it gave Morgan Ensberg a much deserved spot on the team, and he just as easily could have started.
Our boys did their part in helping clinch home field advantage for us in the World Series again. It was very strange, and a little awkward, rooting for Mo Rivera to get that final out. Francona did a good job of balancing trying to win the game and trying to get everyone in and almost did.
It’s difficult to pick an MVP for one game, especially when it’s not likely that anyone is going to be playing for the entire game. I think Tejeda was a good pick. He got the scoring started with that blast into left field, drove in another run with a groundout, and made a couple of nifty plays in the field, including that backhanded double play.
I thought it was an entertaining game and surprisingly short as far as All-Star games go. I’m not sure of the exact time but it seemed like just about 3 hours.
Now it’s back to business, beginning tomorrow night when we go back to rooting AGAINST Mo and the rest of the pinstripes, as they come into town for four.
posted by Bob at 7/13/2005 12:40:00 PM
0 comments
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Thoughts at the Break
A few thoughts going into the All-Star break.
How in the world are Morgan Ensberg (290/22/63) and Travis Hafner (313/18/58) not on the All-Star team? There are a couple of players on each side that they should be there in place of. Maybe we can’t do much about fans voting in players who shouldn’t be there (although we did pretty well this year for the most part), but we definitely need to change the rule that makes it necessary for each team to be represented.
Hey, if your team doesn’t have any All-Stars, then they don’t have any All-Stars. Let’s not start making things up just to get a representative from each team. I want to see the best players in the game playing in that game, not the best players from each team.
With Damon, Tek, Manny, and Papi, this is the first time that a team has 4 players starting an All-Star game since 5 members of the Big Red Machine did it in “75”. Not too shabby. It also gives us a lot of weight in deciding whether or not we start the World Series at Fenway again.
If Rafael Palmiero gets 3 hits in this last game before the break he will be able to get to 3,000 at home in front of all the Red Sox fans. That's okay though; Sox Nation will make him feel right at home by giving him the appreciation he deserves.
Speaking of Oriole’s players, I can’t believe this September 6th will be the 10-year anniversary of Cal’s record-breaking game. Ten years already? Damn, that went by quick.
While I’m on the subject of iron men, Johnny Damon is one of the toughest players this game has ever seen. I can’t even imagine how much pain this guy plays through. Sometimes I think he should be laid up in a hospital bed when instead he’s out patrolling center field. I don’t want to overpay for this guy, but I hope he and the Sox can work something out to keep him here. Kyla will be very disappointed if it doesn’t work out.
One of the greatest things about this game is how unpredictable it is. No one really knows what’s going to happen, even the experts. The Yankees pitching staff is riddled with injuries and ineffectiveness, it keeps getting worse for them and everyone is starting to write them off, yet they’ve still managed to win a lot of games and have bashed their way back into the race. We now have our hands full, and it’s probably going to go right down to the wire again. Of course, that could all change again by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, our invaluable closer has been everything but invaluable all year and our ace starting pitcher has been on the DL all year, yet we will go into the All-Star break in first place in the AL East. And now, our closer finally gives in to his knee problems and goes on the DL for 4-6 weeks to recover from surgery, and our ace starter is going to come off the DL and become our closer. Dizzying. What a wacky game.
Not even GM’s know what will happen. This off-season, David Wells goes to Yankee GM Brian Cashman and tells him he would love to come back and play for the Yankees. Cashman tells him, sorry but we want to get younger and go in another direction. He then goes out and trades for Randy Johnson and breaks the bank to sign him to a long-term deal. Johnson is a full 6 months younger than Wells. Meanwhile, Theo signs Wells to an incentive laden bargain contract. Their numbers at the break: Johnson 8-6, 4.14 ERA, Wells 6-5, 5.00 ERA. Both have been hurt, both have been inconsistent, but it cost us a lot less to get almost as much as they got so far.
Everyone thought that Carl Pavano was the free agent pitching prize of the off-season and we tried like hell to get him over here, but lost out to the Yankees and had to “settle” for Matt Clement. How is that working out so far? Pavano 4-6, 4.77 ERA and he just went on the DL. Clement 10-2, 3.85 ERA and he just got named to the All-Star team. I’d say that one worked out pretty well for us.
The Yankees also paid big money for Jared Wright who was supposed to be one of the keys to their rotation as it was being overhauled. Meanwhile we took a flyer (with another bargain contract) on Wade Miller who was rehabbing from a mid-season shoulder injury and was not expected to be back until mid-season this year. Their numbers: Wright 2-2, 9.15 ERA, on the DL most of the year. Miller 2-3, 5.03 ERA, came back in May and has been contributing and improving. Miller, despite only having 2 wins and a 5.03 ERA has really only had a few bad starts accounting for the high ERA, and he’s had some bad luck with the bullpen blowing a bunch of his leads. Meanwhile, Wright didn’t get a chance to pitch very much and when he did he was bad.
When I look at the starting All-Star teams, 2 conflicting questions come to mind about the batting orders: 1. How can you possibly go wrong no matter how you set them? 2. How can you justify batting any of those guys at the bottom? The funny thing is, the answer to both questions is the same, you can’t. Here’s my attempt at what I think they’ll look like, followed by my explanation.
AL
Damon
Roberts
Big Papi
Manny
A-Rod
Vlad
Miggy
Teixeira
Tek
Damon and Roberts are both table setters and interchangeable at the top. Damon gets the nod because he plays for the manager. I also think that Francona will go with Ortiz and Manny in their customary spots for the same reason. After that, it’s anyone’s guess, but I pretty much put them in the order I think they rank as hitters and I’m guessing Terry will do the same. I thought about left/right matchups but then realized, this is an All-Star lineup and all of these guys can hit either side so it doesn’t make a difference.
The NL in my opinion is a little tougher. First of all, the fans didn’t vote in a DH so LaRussa has to pick one. I’m guessing he’ll go with Pujols, because that’s his man. I also believe he probably deserves it the most. But then the question becomes, does he put him near the top because that’s his man, or does he put him near the bottom because the fans didn’t vote him in? My guess is he drops him down, but not too low. Here it is:
NL
Eckstein
Beltran
Lee
Pujols
Edmonds
Rolen
Kent
Abreu
Piazza
This isn’t exactly the way I would do it; I’m guessing that Tony will do it this way. He’s going to put his guys near the top, even though Rolen probably doesn’t deserve to be there, the fans voted him in so it’s justified to bat him 6th. Eckstein’s his leadoff guy and the rest of the Cards are just one spot down because he’s got to insert Lee into that 3-hole.
We’ll see how close I get.
It’s been quite an interesting first half and promises to be an even more interesting second half. We’ve got a race on our hands, so buckle up and get ready for the ride.
How in the world are Morgan Ensberg (290/22/63) and Travis Hafner (313/18/58) not on the All-Star team? There are a couple of players on each side that they should be there in place of. Maybe we can’t do much about fans voting in players who shouldn’t be there (although we did pretty well this year for the most part), but we definitely need to change the rule that makes it necessary for each team to be represented.
Hey, if your team doesn’t have any All-Stars, then they don’t have any All-Stars. Let’s not start making things up just to get a representative from each team. I want to see the best players in the game playing in that game, not the best players from each team.
With Damon, Tek, Manny, and Papi, this is the first time that a team has 4 players starting an All-Star game since 5 members of the Big Red Machine did it in “75”. Not too shabby. It also gives us a lot of weight in deciding whether or not we start the World Series at Fenway again.
If Rafael Palmiero gets 3 hits in this last game before the break he will be able to get to 3,000 at home in front of all the Red Sox fans. That's okay though; Sox Nation will make him feel right at home by giving him the appreciation he deserves.
Speaking of Oriole’s players, I can’t believe this September 6th will be the 10-year anniversary of Cal’s record-breaking game. Ten years already? Damn, that went by quick.
While I’m on the subject of iron men, Johnny Damon is one of the toughest players this game has ever seen. I can’t even imagine how much pain this guy plays through. Sometimes I think he should be laid up in a hospital bed when instead he’s out patrolling center field. I don’t want to overpay for this guy, but I hope he and the Sox can work something out to keep him here. Kyla will be very disappointed if it doesn’t work out.
One of the greatest things about this game is how unpredictable it is. No one really knows what’s going to happen, even the experts. The Yankees pitching staff is riddled with injuries and ineffectiveness, it keeps getting worse for them and everyone is starting to write them off, yet they’ve still managed to win a lot of games and have bashed their way back into the race. We now have our hands full, and it’s probably going to go right down to the wire again. Of course, that could all change again by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, our invaluable closer has been everything but invaluable all year and our ace starting pitcher has been on the DL all year, yet we will go into the All-Star break in first place in the AL East. And now, our closer finally gives in to his knee problems and goes on the DL for 4-6 weeks to recover from surgery, and our ace starter is going to come off the DL and become our closer. Dizzying. What a wacky game.
Not even GM’s know what will happen. This off-season, David Wells goes to Yankee GM Brian Cashman and tells him he would love to come back and play for the Yankees. Cashman tells him, sorry but we want to get younger and go in another direction. He then goes out and trades for Randy Johnson and breaks the bank to sign him to a long-term deal. Johnson is a full 6 months younger than Wells. Meanwhile, Theo signs Wells to an incentive laden bargain contract. Their numbers at the break: Johnson 8-6, 4.14 ERA, Wells 6-5, 5.00 ERA. Both have been hurt, both have been inconsistent, but it cost us a lot less to get almost as much as they got so far.
Everyone thought that Carl Pavano was the free agent pitching prize of the off-season and we tried like hell to get him over here, but lost out to the Yankees and had to “settle” for Matt Clement. How is that working out so far? Pavano 4-6, 4.77 ERA and he just went on the DL. Clement 10-2, 3.85 ERA and he just got named to the All-Star team. I’d say that one worked out pretty well for us.
The Yankees also paid big money for Jared Wright who was supposed to be one of the keys to their rotation as it was being overhauled. Meanwhile we took a flyer (with another bargain contract) on Wade Miller who was rehabbing from a mid-season shoulder injury and was not expected to be back until mid-season this year. Their numbers: Wright 2-2, 9.15 ERA, on the DL most of the year. Miller 2-3, 5.03 ERA, came back in May and has been contributing and improving. Miller, despite only having 2 wins and a 5.03 ERA has really only had a few bad starts accounting for the high ERA, and he’s had some bad luck with the bullpen blowing a bunch of his leads. Meanwhile, Wright didn’t get a chance to pitch very much and when he did he was bad.
When I look at the starting All-Star teams, 2 conflicting questions come to mind about the batting orders: 1. How can you possibly go wrong no matter how you set them? 2. How can you justify batting any of those guys at the bottom? The funny thing is, the answer to both questions is the same, you can’t. Here’s my attempt at what I think they’ll look like, followed by my explanation.
AL
Damon
Roberts
Big Papi
Manny
A-Rod
Vlad
Miggy
Teixeira
Tek
Damon and Roberts are both table setters and interchangeable at the top. Damon gets the nod because he plays for the manager. I also think that Francona will go with Ortiz and Manny in their customary spots for the same reason. After that, it’s anyone’s guess, but I pretty much put them in the order I think they rank as hitters and I’m guessing Terry will do the same. I thought about left/right matchups but then realized, this is an All-Star lineup and all of these guys can hit either side so it doesn’t make a difference.
The NL in my opinion is a little tougher. First of all, the fans didn’t vote in a DH so LaRussa has to pick one. I’m guessing he’ll go with Pujols, because that’s his man. I also believe he probably deserves it the most. But then the question becomes, does he put him near the top because that’s his man, or does he put him near the bottom because the fans didn’t vote him in? My guess is he drops him down, but not too low. Here it is:
NL
Eckstein
Beltran
Lee
Pujols
Edmonds
Rolen
Kent
Abreu
Piazza
This isn’t exactly the way I would do it; I’m guessing that Tony will do it this way. He’s going to put his guys near the top, even though Rolen probably doesn’t deserve to be there, the fans voted him in so it’s justified to bat him 6th. Eckstein’s his leadoff guy and the rest of the Cards are just one spot down because he’s got to insert Lee into that 3-hole.
We’ll see how close I get.
It’s been quite an interesting first half and promises to be an even more interesting second half. We’ve got a race on our hands, so buckle up and get ready for the ride.
posted by Bob at 7/09/2005 10:45:00 PM
1 comments
Friday, July 08, 2005
Francona Blew This One
I know we’re not going to win every game for the rest of the year, and that’s acceptable. What’s not acceptable is handing a win over to the other team, which is exactly what Terry Francona did last night.
When you have to defend a lineup by saying, “there are a lot of people who are going to be mad at me when they see this lineup”, that should tell you right there that you probably shouldn’t be putting that team on the field.
It’s understandable that Damon was not in the lineup as banged up as he is, and we pretty much knew that was going to be the case, and I can understand (but don’t agree with) why Tek wasn’t in there, after catching in that Texas heat followed by the late arrival in Baltimore. But, Tek was ready to go anyway and didn’t ask for time off, and there is really no excuse for Renteria and Manny not being in there.
Francona cited the very late arrival in Baltimore as his reasoning for giving so many regulars a night off. He also mentioned that right-handed hitters were batting something like 167 against Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera. So what? Is he trying to tell me that Sox newcomer and left-handed hitter Alex Cora is going to have a better chance against Cabrera then Renteria would? Cora, a utility guy, did not play much in Cleveland and when he did he was not hitting much.
Okay, so he says he wants to load the lineup with lefties because of the problems righties have against Cabrera, so he puts Olerud in there at first base. Fine, but how does he justify taking the best right-handed hitter in the game out and moving Millar to left field? If you’re going to put in a left-handed bat in favor of a right-handed bat, shouldn’t you leave the better right-handed bat in the game?
He’s already forced to substitute his leadoff hitter for a guy who does not have a Major League at bat, and he’s decided to give his switch hitting catcher the night off in favor of the right-handed hitting catcher. He then decides to take out his number 2 hitter in favor of a light hitting utility man, and also takes out the best right-handed hitter in the game.
All of this, and he knows there’s a very good chance the weather is not going to let them finish the game. Cabrera may be tough on righties, but he also has serious control problems. If he ever gets that problem resolved, he’s going to be one nasty pitcher. But until then, our patient and good hitting lineup should be able to take advantage of those control problems and get some runs off of him as well as drive him out of the game early. The lineup that was out there last night was actually able to do the second part, but if we had a better lineup out there, we might have also been able to do the first, and most important part.
You have to assume that Wells is going to give up a couple of runs at least, and knowing that the weather is probably not going to hold, you have to put a lineup out there that is going to get you some runs early as well.
I don’t get it. Francona is going to get away with a lot of things from me and most other members of The Nation because he won the World Series last year, but this one just really doesn’t make any sense and is inexcusable. And if they had actually managed to pull it off last night (which was highly doubtful), I would have still written all of this only adding at the end that he was lucky to get away with one.
But he wasn’t lucky, which was the only way he was going to win that game last night.
On another note, also indirectly affecting the outcome last night, was the removal from the roster of Jay Payton. It was terrible timing as we really could have used him in place of Johnny but it was also understandable and had to be done. The guy was not happy here, he continued to let it be known and gripe about his playing time, and I think Francona did the right thing by getting him out of here.
About a month ago I noted (but didn’t write it here) that with the griping of Payton about playing time and the benching of Kapler in Japan, it probably wouldn’t be long before Kapler came back and replaced Payton on the roster. It looks like that may be happening very soon now.
Although I believe Payton is the better overall player, Kapler is a much better fit for this team. He accepted his role as a part time player, and he was good at it. We shouldn’t lose much with this move, and it will be nice to have him back.
When you have to defend a lineup by saying, “there are a lot of people who are going to be mad at me when they see this lineup”, that should tell you right there that you probably shouldn’t be putting that team on the field.
It’s understandable that Damon was not in the lineup as banged up as he is, and we pretty much knew that was going to be the case, and I can understand (but don’t agree with) why Tek wasn’t in there, after catching in that Texas heat followed by the late arrival in Baltimore. But, Tek was ready to go anyway and didn’t ask for time off, and there is really no excuse for Renteria and Manny not being in there.
Francona cited the very late arrival in Baltimore as his reasoning for giving so many regulars a night off. He also mentioned that right-handed hitters were batting something like 167 against Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera. So what? Is he trying to tell me that Sox newcomer and left-handed hitter Alex Cora is going to have a better chance against Cabrera then Renteria would? Cora, a utility guy, did not play much in Cleveland and when he did he was not hitting much.
Okay, so he says he wants to load the lineup with lefties because of the problems righties have against Cabrera, so he puts Olerud in there at first base. Fine, but how does he justify taking the best right-handed hitter in the game out and moving Millar to left field? If you’re going to put in a left-handed bat in favor of a right-handed bat, shouldn’t you leave the better right-handed bat in the game?
He’s already forced to substitute his leadoff hitter for a guy who does not have a Major League at bat, and he’s decided to give his switch hitting catcher the night off in favor of the right-handed hitting catcher. He then decides to take out his number 2 hitter in favor of a light hitting utility man, and also takes out the best right-handed hitter in the game.
All of this, and he knows there’s a very good chance the weather is not going to let them finish the game. Cabrera may be tough on righties, but he also has serious control problems. If he ever gets that problem resolved, he’s going to be one nasty pitcher. But until then, our patient and good hitting lineup should be able to take advantage of those control problems and get some runs off of him as well as drive him out of the game early. The lineup that was out there last night was actually able to do the second part, but if we had a better lineup out there, we might have also been able to do the first, and most important part.
You have to assume that Wells is going to give up a couple of runs at least, and knowing that the weather is probably not going to hold, you have to put a lineup out there that is going to get you some runs early as well.
I don’t get it. Francona is going to get away with a lot of things from me and most other members of The Nation because he won the World Series last year, but this one just really doesn’t make any sense and is inexcusable. And if they had actually managed to pull it off last night (which was highly doubtful), I would have still written all of this only adding at the end that he was lucky to get away with one.
But he wasn’t lucky, which was the only way he was going to win that game last night.
On another note, also indirectly affecting the outcome last night, was the removal from the roster of Jay Payton. It was terrible timing as we really could have used him in place of Johnny but it was also understandable and had to be done. The guy was not happy here, he continued to let it be known and gripe about his playing time, and I think Francona did the right thing by getting him out of here.
About a month ago I noted (but didn’t write it here) that with the griping of Payton about playing time and the benching of Kapler in Japan, it probably wouldn’t be long before Kapler came back and replaced Payton on the roster. It looks like that may be happening very soon now.
Although I believe Payton is the better overall player, Kapler is a much better fit for this team. He accepted his role as a part time player, and he was good at it. We shouldn’t lose much with this move, and it will be nice to have him back.
posted by Bob at 7/08/2005 09:37:00 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Schilling to Close
I guess it doesn’t matter how closely you follow a professional sports team, sometimes something just comes seemingly out of nowhere and hits you like a ton of bricks. I called on Theo to do something about this pen, and like I knew he would, he (and Francona) certainly did.
I heard Arroyo to the pen, Wakefield to the pen, Miller to the pen, and last night, Wells volunteered to close. It never occurred to me that Schilling could and should do be the one, and apparently not to anyone else who follows the team either.
It could definitely work and if it does it makes sense. If he’s not ready to give us 7 innings every 5 days, he could be perfect pitching in short stints in the closer role. When I first heard it earlier today I had all the same thoughts that are now being mentioned. Not having to worry about pitch counts allows him to reach back and hit 95 with the fastball. That combined with his nasty splitter could make him a very dominant closer.
Of course, I also had the same questions. How is he going to get stretched out enough in order to get back to starting? I guess they don’t really have the answer to that either. A lot of it will depend on how Foulke ends up after surgery.
Ideally we would like to have Foulke back at his best at the end of games and Schilling back at his best starting games. Especially in October, as great as the starting staff has been, it’s not nearly as dominant without Schilling, and that could hurt us in the playoffs.
Regardless of how it all shakes out, we still need another arm in that pen. Halama is not getting it done and I don’t see any indications that that is going to change. Nothing personal against Jeremi Gonzalez and Lenny Dinardo, but I don’t want to see either one of those guys coming in with a game on the line in October. There’s a reason why Gonzalez is a long time minor league journeyman and I don’t think Dinardo is quite ready for that yet.
Now the question becomes, what do we trade for, another starter or another good middle guy, or maybe even a closer. Moving Schilling into this role will give management more time to assess the Foulke situation and prevent them from having to make a move out of desperation.
I like this a lot for the time being. It helps out everyone involved and continues to give us a good chance of winning games. Should be very interesting to watch.
I heard Arroyo to the pen, Wakefield to the pen, Miller to the pen, and last night, Wells volunteered to close. It never occurred to me that Schilling could and should do be the one, and apparently not to anyone else who follows the team either.
It could definitely work and if it does it makes sense. If he’s not ready to give us 7 innings every 5 days, he could be perfect pitching in short stints in the closer role. When I first heard it earlier today I had all the same thoughts that are now being mentioned. Not having to worry about pitch counts allows him to reach back and hit 95 with the fastball. That combined with his nasty splitter could make him a very dominant closer.
Of course, I also had the same questions. How is he going to get stretched out enough in order to get back to starting? I guess they don’t really have the answer to that either. A lot of it will depend on how Foulke ends up after surgery.
Ideally we would like to have Foulke back at his best at the end of games and Schilling back at his best starting games. Especially in October, as great as the starting staff has been, it’s not nearly as dominant without Schilling, and that could hurt us in the playoffs.
Regardless of how it all shakes out, we still need another arm in that pen. Halama is not getting it done and I don’t see any indications that that is going to change. Nothing personal against Jeremi Gonzalez and Lenny Dinardo, but I don’t want to see either one of those guys coming in with a game on the line in October. There’s a reason why Gonzalez is a long time minor league journeyman and I don’t think Dinardo is quite ready for that yet.
Now the question becomes, what do we trade for, another starter or another good middle guy, or maybe even a closer. Moving Schilling into this role will give management more time to assess the Foulke situation and prevent them from having to make a move out of desperation.
I like this a lot for the time being. It helps out everyone involved and continues to give us a good chance of winning games. Should be very interesting to watch.
posted by Bob at 7/06/2005 09:57:00 PM
0 comments
First Half Review
I meant to write this yesterday, after the 81st game, the official halfway point of the season. Anyway, I didn’t get a chance yesterday, so now I’m writing it after the 82nd game. What a difference 1 game makes.
After 82 games we’re 47-35, 12 games over 500, first place in the AL East, 3 ½ ahead of the slumping Orioles and 4 ahead of the surging Yankees. Although I still like our position, it could be so much more. There are a few different reasons contributing to why it’s not.
First, this year we are being ruffled by a bird of a different feather. Last year it was the Orioles who had our number, this year, we’re only 3-8 against the 42-41 Blue Jays. The main factors being the bullpen, Roy Halladay, and Ted Lilly. The bullpen blew a few leads, and the Jays won all 6 of the games started by those 2 pitchers. The crazy thing is that Lilly hasn’t been very good this year except against us, which always seems to be the case. Halladay right now is probably the best pitcher in the league but before his domination of us last Sunday we managed to score 8 runs against him in 14 innings in his 2 previous starts. I guess it’s just one of those things.
Next is the pitching. Although we went through a couple of different stretches where the starting pitching wasn’t that good, and we had a rough stretch where 3 of our 6 starters were on the DL (Schilling, Wells, and Miller), overall the starting pitching has been good and should only get better.
Schilling should be back right after the break. There’s really no way of knowing what we’ll get from him, but I’m being optimistic about it (as I am with all things Sox related). I have to think he’s going to come back strong and be one of the top pitchers in the league for the rest of the season.
With the exception of his last start and 1 or 2 other not so good ones that I can remember, Clement has been very good and I see no reason to believe his second half will be any different.
Wells has been inconsistent and it looks like that foot may be a lingering issue, but he has shown flashes of his old self and I think he should continue to contribute more good than bad and be an effective starter for us.
Wakefield is Wakefield. When he’s on, he’s as tough to hit as anybody, and when he’s not he becomes very hittable. He’s been on a lot more this season than not and it should continue.
Miller seems to finally be on his way back from his shoulder injury. Most of his problems have been in the first inning (Monday night being a perfect example) where he gives up some runs and throws a lot of pitches which ends up getting him out of there by the 6th inning. He looked very good after the first inning Monday, particularly the last 3, and this was against one of the top offenses in the league. This is very encouraging for the 2nd half.
Arroyo should be good as a starter but I think once Schilling comes back he will be much more valuable to us in the pen. Which brings me to the pen.
The pen is where we have most of our problems, particularly Keith Foulke. It looks like he is now finally conceding (after some prompting from Francona) that his knees are the main cause of his problems. Now what do we do?
There are a few things to consider depending on the severity of his knee problems. He could go on the DL and get some rest, which might help enough to get him going for the second half. He may have to have surgery and who knows how long we lose him if that happens. Even if one of those two things happens there’s no guarantee he will get back to where he was last year, there never is with closers not named Rivera.
In any case, we need to make a move. Theo knows it and will get it done. Personally, I think we need to get a closer and give up whatever we have to, to get one. I’m not content with winning just one World Series and I’m tired of listening to people say that it’s okay if we don’t win it this year since we won it last year. These are probably the same people who were saying they didn’t care if we won the World Series last year because we beat the Yankees and it really didn’t matter what happened after that. It’s all crap.
I’m not saying we mortgage our entire future to try to win it again this year, but we’ve got plenty of chips in our minor league system. We should use a couple, even if it’s our best one or two, to get ourselves the closer we need and put us in a position to win it all again.
Everyday Eddie would look good in a Sox uniform right now. And if Foulke comes back and is effective enough to get his job back, that’s okay. Guardado has been a set up man before, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind doing it again while helping his team try to win the whole thing.
We need someone. I like Timlin a lot, but he’s very good in the role he’s been in since we got him. If we move him to the closer role, we have no one to fill his role. Arroyo would be fine, but we still need help. I would much rather see Timlin and Arroyo in the set up roles with Guardado coming in at the end. And if Foulke comes back it just makes it that much stronger.
We need to make a move soon. The Yankees are surging and we can’t afford to sit around and give them a chance to catch up. Of course they have some serious starting pitching problems to go along with their own bullpen woes, but you know they’re going to make the moves they need to make to get it fixed.
As for our offense, there’s really not much to say. It’s one of the top offenses in the league. Everyone seems to be hitting now, Bellhorn not as much, but he’s still fine at the bottom of that order. There’s nothing to address, we put a lot of men on base, wear out a lot of pitchers doing it, and get enough of those base-runners around to win a lot of games as long as our pitching holds up, and in many cases even if it doesn’t. Manny and Papi are one of the deadliest 1-2 punches in the league. Damon is tops at the top, and everyone in between is a tough out and capable of coming up with a clutch hit.
Our defense is good enough to not hurt us and that’s all it has to be. We don’t need a great defense to win a lot of games, just a good defense that won’t cost us too many games.
So, overall it’s been good to this point, but could have been better. We should have a better second half, Theo will make the moves we need to make and we will continue to get good hitting and good starting pitching.
I will stick with my assessment of a week or so ago and say that I still do not see a team that will be better than us in a 5 or 7 game series and there is no reason why we can’t win it all again this year.
After 82 games we’re 47-35, 12 games over 500, first place in the AL East, 3 ½ ahead of the slumping Orioles and 4 ahead of the surging Yankees. Although I still like our position, it could be so much more. There are a few different reasons contributing to why it’s not.
First, this year we are being ruffled by a bird of a different feather. Last year it was the Orioles who had our number, this year, we’re only 3-8 against the 42-41 Blue Jays. The main factors being the bullpen, Roy Halladay, and Ted Lilly. The bullpen blew a few leads, and the Jays won all 6 of the games started by those 2 pitchers. The crazy thing is that Lilly hasn’t been very good this year except against us, which always seems to be the case. Halladay right now is probably the best pitcher in the league but before his domination of us last Sunday we managed to score 8 runs against him in 14 innings in his 2 previous starts. I guess it’s just one of those things.
Next is the pitching. Although we went through a couple of different stretches where the starting pitching wasn’t that good, and we had a rough stretch where 3 of our 6 starters were on the DL (Schilling, Wells, and Miller), overall the starting pitching has been good and should only get better.
Schilling should be back right after the break. There’s really no way of knowing what we’ll get from him, but I’m being optimistic about it (as I am with all things Sox related). I have to think he’s going to come back strong and be one of the top pitchers in the league for the rest of the season.
With the exception of his last start and 1 or 2 other not so good ones that I can remember, Clement has been very good and I see no reason to believe his second half will be any different.
Wells has been inconsistent and it looks like that foot may be a lingering issue, but he has shown flashes of his old self and I think he should continue to contribute more good than bad and be an effective starter for us.
Wakefield is Wakefield. When he’s on, he’s as tough to hit as anybody, and when he’s not he becomes very hittable. He’s been on a lot more this season than not and it should continue.
Miller seems to finally be on his way back from his shoulder injury. Most of his problems have been in the first inning (Monday night being a perfect example) where he gives up some runs and throws a lot of pitches which ends up getting him out of there by the 6th inning. He looked very good after the first inning Monday, particularly the last 3, and this was against one of the top offenses in the league. This is very encouraging for the 2nd half.
Arroyo should be good as a starter but I think once Schilling comes back he will be much more valuable to us in the pen. Which brings me to the pen.
The pen is where we have most of our problems, particularly Keith Foulke. It looks like he is now finally conceding (after some prompting from Francona) that his knees are the main cause of his problems. Now what do we do?
There are a few things to consider depending on the severity of his knee problems. He could go on the DL and get some rest, which might help enough to get him going for the second half. He may have to have surgery and who knows how long we lose him if that happens. Even if one of those two things happens there’s no guarantee he will get back to where he was last year, there never is with closers not named Rivera.
In any case, we need to make a move. Theo knows it and will get it done. Personally, I think we need to get a closer and give up whatever we have to, to get one. I’m not content with winning just one World Series and I’m tired of listening to people say that it’s okay if we don’t win it this year since we won it last year. These are probably the same people who were saying they didn’t care if we won the World Series last year because we beat the Yankees and it really didn’t matter what happened after that. It’s all crap.
I’m not saying we mortgage our entire future to try to win it again this year, but we’ve got plenty of chips in our minor league system. We should use a couple, even if it’s our best one or two, to get ourselves the closer we need and put us in a position to win it all again.
Everyday Eddie would look good in a Sox uniform right now. And if Foulke comes back and is effective enough to get his job back, that’s okay. Guardado has been a set up man before, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind doing it again while helping his team try to win the whole thing.
We need someone. I like Timlin a lot, but he’s very good in the role he’s been in since we got him. If we move him to the closer role, we have no one to fill his role. Arroyo would be fine, but we still need help. I would much rather see Timlin and Arroyo in the set up roles with Guardado coming in at the end. And if Foulke comes back it just makes it that much stronger.
We need to make a move soon. The Yankees are surging and we can’t afford to sit around and give them a chance to catch up. Of course they have some serious starting pitching problems to go along with their own bullpen woes, but you know they’re going to make the moves they need to make to get it fixed.
As for our offense, there’s really not much to say. It’s one of the top offenses in the league. Everyone seems to be hitting now, Bellhorn not as much, but he’s still fine at the bottom of that order. There’s nothing to address, we put a lot of men on base, wear out a lot of pitchers doing it, and get enough of those base-runners around to win a lot of games as long as our pitching holds up, and in many cases even if it doesn’t. Manny and Papi are one of the deadliest 1-2 punches in the league. Damon is tops at the top, and everyone in between is a tough out and capable of coming up with a clutch hit.
Our defense is good enough to not hurt us and that’s all it has to be. We don’t need a great defense to win a lot of games, just a good defense that won’t cost us too many games.
So, overall it’s been good to this point, but could have been better. We should have a better second half, Theo will make the moves we need to make and we will continue to get good hitting and good starting pitching.
I will stick with my assessment of a week or so ago and say that I still do not see a team that will be better than us in a 5 or 7 game series and there is no reason why we can’t win it all again this year.
posted by Bob at 7/06/2005 10:56:00 AM
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