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:
I like that you used "lolley-gagged" in your blog. If you take too long on your next entry, you might be accused of lolley-blogging.
Are you planning to get the new Red Sox dvd set or do you have all the playoffs tivo'd?
-CC
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