sox nation

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T07:49:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to all! Hoping 2010's are as fun and exciting for baseball as the 2000's were. First thing I did this morning after getting up was catch up on what Rob Neyer had to say. Always a good way to get started.

The decade in review, still to come . . .

bye, bye Bay

2009-12-30T08:15:00.001-05:00

The Jason Bay era is over. He will now spend the next four years just missing the playoffs with the NY Mets. Many reports have discussed that Bay very much wanted to stay in Boston. Apparently, the Sox offer to Bay mid-season was for more money than the Mets offer (at least in present dollars, given the way that the Mets deal is very backloaded.) So, effectively, Bay turned down a lucrative contract to play for a team and a city he enjoys, to go to a team he doesn't particularly want to play for, for less money. I guess that's what you get for being greedy, right?

I'm not convinced that greed is the driving force behind this situation for Bay, for two reasons. First, I think he had ample reason to believe that he could get more money and more years this off season. He's a young-ish slugger (31) who's performance has improved in each of the last few seasons. He was midway through a season which saw him eventually lead all AL outfielders in OPS, and finish top 10 in six major offensive categories overall. Last year's market was supposed to be tight, too; lots of money got thrown around, though. From Bay's point of view, it was not unreasonable to think that instead of 4 years, $60M, he could get 5 years, $75M, or 4 years, $72M. Not unreasonable at all. I think if I were in Bay's position, I might do the same thing; I suspect many readers would too.

Secondly (and this is a bigger deal than we realize, sometimes) . . . professional athletes are pathologically competitive. They must be. If they weren't they wouldn't be professional athletes. They find motivation in everything, and see perceived slights and slams to their abilities everywhere. Just watch MJ's Hall of Fame speech to see that pathological competitiveness in action. Bay is no different, I suspect. Well, different from MJ, but even though he's a mild mannered Canadian dude, he's a professional athlete, and a damn good one. He didn't get that way from NOT being competitive. He can't just turn his competitiveness off - accepting the Sox offer mid-season would be like laying up and playing for a safe par when your drive is in the middle of the fairway. How could he not try to reach the green in 2? Unfortunately for him, the market didn't materialize the way he thought, and the Sox had committed the money elsewhere. But, I don't think it was all pure greed, but rather competitiveness.

The Red Sox made the right decision regarding Bay. No reason to offer him more than they did mid-season - he wasn't worth $18M, and a fifth year would more likely have seen a slowed down Bay with a sinking OPS (remember, all he can contribute is hitting - significantly below average fielder.) After they signed Cameron, traded for Hermida, signed Lackey, they didn't have the money to go all in on bringing back Bay. The mainstream media seems to agree - the Sox made their best offer, and were right not to overpay. Now, are the Red Sox better with Bay (but no Cameron, Lackey, or Hermida?) Another topic for a future post.

2009-02-17T06:47:00.002-05:00

So what?

It is my intent in this blog to do several things - some the same as every other blog, some differen. . .

keep this blog cynicism free
create a community of fans who want to talk about baseball; not argue and fight about the Yankees
contribute longer pieces on occasion, more formal in style
blog every day, sharing my thoughts, soliciting yours, connect to the blogosphere, and create a community where baseball fans can celebrate the game honestly

2009-02-17T06:31:00.004-05:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Let's try again. . .

If you've come across this blog, you've done so accidentally after an I'm-so-bored-at-work-and-can't-wait-for-the-season-to-start Google search at work. This blog was born during the 2003 season, when both blogging and Sox Nation was coming into it's own. I blogged through much of 2004, and sporadically in the years to follow. Since then, I allowed work pressures to seep through the seems of my life and the blog fell off the back of the desk. I'll bet I frustrated many a potential blogger, sitting on the name "soxnation" and not doing anything with it.

I come back to this blog now because of something I heard Doris Kearns Goodwin say during a TEDTalk podcast (if you haven't watched these, check them out.) Goodwin, herself a huge Sox fan, did not say anything at all about baseball that got me back on this horse. Rather, she was speaking about her career and alluded to a course that she took at Harvard when she was a graduate student with a famous scholar named Eric Ericson. She said that Ericson said that happiness will result from paying careful attention to three co-equal parts of life - work, love, and play. I had allowed work to have one to many helpings at the dinner table, and there was little room left for play. I thought back to this blog, and how much fun I had doing it when I wrote for it every day. I loved constructing my posts; I enjoy the planning, design, and research as much as the writing. I missed it. Missing it, in and of itself, should've been enough to get me to come back to it. Thinking of it in light of Goodwin's comment showed me that I was living an unbalanced life. I realized that my work had become more all consuming and, ironically, less fulfilling. I was not playing enough. This blog will be daily dose of play.

Blogs require daily attention - maybe even hourly attention. Without it, you might as well not even write one (Andrew Sullivan has a wonderful article about why he blogs in the Atlantic a month or two back.) In this way, keeping a blog is not only a great source of play, but also a kind of disciplined, almost meditative experience (in fact, I already am starting to feel good, three paragraphs into my rescuscitated blogging career.) Blogs are for the audience, the community, to be sure, but blogs are also (if not mostly) for the bloggers. I need this blog.

Blogs should not be polished, magazine pieces. We have magazines for that. As you can see from this post, the writing should not be picked over too closely; what's important is the conversation. I don't know how long it will take to get a conversation with Sox Nation going again, or if it is even possible given the blogging noise that's out there. Doesn't necessarily matter, I guess - thinking about what I just wrote, whether I have 1 reader or a million, it's still just as good for me.

2007-08-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

I've not written for almost a year and a half, and I come to Sox Nation, hat in hand, to ask to be welcomed back. In my real life, I'm a prep school teacher; professional obligations have been a bit overwhelming in the last dozen or so months, and as such, this blog went into a steady decline until if evaporated. It is time to bring the blog back.

I very much miss being a part of the virtual coffee shop of the blogosphere, discussing all things baseball (plus a bit more.) Moreover, though this blog consumed a great deal of time for me when it was most active in 2003 and 2004, it made everything in my life work better (a subject for a future post . . . ;-)

This morning finds the Olde Towne Teame onlye foure gamese aheade of ye old Bronx Bombers; the Yankees have put on an absolutely smashing display of baseball over the past 2 months. Having said that, there is much to be happy about this summer's edition of the Sox. Still sporting the best record in the game and a four game lead in mid-August, the team has been exciting to watch all summer. The weather in New England has been the best its been in five or six summers, and we still have a bit of World Series buzz left from 2004. I still think the Sox will win the division by a half dozen games or so, so could everybody please just come in from off the ledge now?

Let's keep in mind that the essence of fandom is not raising stress levels for the next two months; the real privilege of being a fan is found through the enjoyment of a shared community experience. The Sox pull this region together each summer and contribute a great deal to a shared New England identity. Let's get over ourselves and stop making a fetish of cyncial pessimism. We're pretty lucky to have them . . .

WBC Pt II

2006-03-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

WBC Pt. II

Some stream-of-consciousness thoughts about the WBC . . .

. . . It’s great that the United States go knocked out last night. Don’t get me wrong, this is not some kind of anti-american smugness showing through. But think of this – if the US had rolled through the tournament and won the thing, or lost to the other MLB team from the Dominican, I suspect most American fans would’ve thought that the WBC is interesting, neat to see the non-American teams and fans get riled up, etc. Because the American team lost, the second guessing will now commence. The second guessing will ‘set the hook’ in the mouths of American fans. Listening to the MLB station on XM this morning, fans were livid about the loss, ripping Buck Martinez, Vernon Wells, Bob Watson, and Abner Doubleday. I don’t think that this will be a front burner subject for three years, but in late summer and fall of 2008, the grist mill will start to crank up with debate about the American roster for 2009. In fact, America losing might actually help the tournament in America (no doubt it certainly helped in Korea and Mexico!)

. . . It’s hard not to root for Mexico, Korea, Japan, Canada, etc. These countries can’t take on the U.S. in anything, really – not economics, military might, political influence, cultural exports, whatever. Sports is the only chance they have to take a shot at the mighty U.S. Mexico’s victory last night is probably playing out not unlike the 1980 Olympic hockey team’s victory over the U.S.S.R. (though without the malicious backdrop.) Good for them.

. . . The complaints about the U.S. team are plain silly. The conventional wisdom of the body of criticism is that:

anything can happen in a one game playoff, or a short round robin

the American team doesn’t do the “little things” that make the difference

the roster needs more David Ecksteins

If anything can happen in a one game playoff, how is getting David Eckstein et al on the roster going to make a difference? After all, anything can happen? Moreover, who would you knock off the American roster? Is Eckstein going to be a better choice than Jeter? How about scrappy Freddy Sanchez in place of Alex Rodriguez? The American’s just lost – this defeat is not a vindication of all the fans who pine for the dead ball era (but that’s another column for another day.)

. . . Bob Davison is a brutally bad umpire. He’s either fantastically incompetent, overwhelmingly arrogant, or a cheating homer – probably a combination of all three. His miss on the home run call off of the bat of Valenzuela was probably the worst missed call in baseball history – or at least baseball history encompassing games with big leaguers playing. The ball was about 15 feet above the wall when it hit the foul pole. Moreover, it was totally gutless and incompetent of the other umpires to have kept their mouths shut. This Davison botch job, coupled with his gross overturn of the sacrifice fly in the Japanese game makes one wonder if he was performing his own fix job. MLB would be wise not to employ him the next time around.

. . . Whereas the boorish and loutish behavior of the American Olympic hoops and hockey teams have been somewhat a cause of national embarassment (to say nothing of the king of all boors, Bode Miller), this American baseball team conducted itself with class and respect for their opponents, the tournament, and the game. What a breath of fresh air.

. . . This tournament is fun. Even though the American team is out, I’m anxious for the final four this weekend. It should be great baseball and great drama. We will have a Latin team and an Asian team in the final no matter what. The WBC was meant to drum up interest in the game in these other parts of the world. I think it’s a bit late to do that, and I mean that in a good way.

WBC

2006-03-15T06:35:00.000-05:00

WBC

The hyperventilation this past winter about the World Baseball Classic was typical smug sportswriting at its worst.  You know the kind – simple tossing around of accusations of ‘typical incompetence’ and ‘what else would you expect from major league baseball’ – all said with the smarminess of Joe Buck coupled with the arrogant laugh as punctuation mark that is supposed to substitute for reasoned argument,  a la Charley Steiner.  It bothered me all winter for two main reasons; the accusations against the poor planning of the event never offered up real reasons in defense of the criticisms (other than the breezy, easily refutable ‘it disrupts spring training’ canard), and the accusations did little more than to cloud the vision of old line baseball-istas about the wonderful value of this thing at best, and at worst provide a smoke screen cover for all those old cranky-pants who don’t like the fact that there are as many good non-Americans as Americans playing our game.

The arguments against the WBC pretty much came down to three simultaneous bows to the sanctity of spring training as a meaningful period of player prep.  To be sure, spring training is important, but not nearly as important as training camp is in the NFL.  How many players see spring training as a great opportunity to work on their golf game?  But I digress . . .

The first argument is that spring training is necessary for players to get game ready for the season.  It sure is.  And what better way to get game ready than to play actual games, maybe like those games in the WBC?  The total number of at bats a position player will get will be cut down, and relief pitchers innings will most likely be down as well.  But most of the work during traditional spring training comes in the bullpen, the cage, field fungoes, etc.  The players on WBC rosters can and have certainly continued with all this work – probably with greater urgency than the players in the ML camps.  Pitchers not getting enough outings?  The relief corps can throw simulated games on off days – heck, ML teams use just this strategy all the time for rehab.  Not enough at bats?  Get up to the plate for the simulated games.  I refuse to believe that the players on the WBC are going to be less ready than the players in the ML camps, probably precisely the opposite will be true.

The second argument was a fear about players getting hurt and pitchers not being ready to throw deep into games in early March.  The first part – that players could get hurt in the WBC – is just a silly criticism of the tournament.  Of course they could get hurt.  Their chances of getting hurt in WBC games is probably exactly the same as their chances of getting hurt in spring games.  I’ll waste no more words refuting that silly argument.  The second criticism about pitching strength early in March is legitimate, and quite easily solved with rational pitch counts.  Plus, if you want to be sure that pitchers are well taken care of, be sure that each team in the WBC has a manager who either is or would like to be working in MLB down the road as a coach or manager.  A manager who rides Jake Peavey to a sore arm will not get a sniff for another managing job.  I don’t know if Buck Martinez ever wants to manage in the big leagues again, but if he does, he sure knows that his pitching staff better be returned to their respective teams in one piece.

The third argument is that spring training is an important time for players to get to know one another, to develop that elusive and all-important ‘chemistry.’  I believe that good chemistry is a deep pitching staff and a lineup with a high OPS.  Because Curt Schilling and Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar can’t shut up about how they won it all in 2004 because of this elusive prep school boy love for each other is really maddening (the Sox won it all in 2004 because they pitched well, hit the crap out of the ball, scored a million runs, and got some good luck in the playoffs – not even just lucky bounces . . .  after being left for dead in the pen, Derek Lowe pitching like Greg Maddux against the two best lineups in baseball?  That’s good luck.)  Baseball is different than the other major American sport of football because in almost every situation you can think of, a player can play very selfishly and not have his actions run counter to the interests of the team.  Think of Pedro for perhaps the best example of this – he constantly sought to prove HE was the best, and every time HE proved HE was the best, it was a win for the team.  No harm there.  If chemistry were the essential ingredient for winning baseball, how do mid-season trades often inject new energy into a team?  Those guy didn’t have a chance to snap towels in the locker room all spring, after all?  I won’t even offer the example of the Oakland squads of the 70’s.  Now, I’ll acknowledge that wingnuts in your locker room are never a good thing for a team, but I think that chemistry as a concept is largely overrated.

Having said that, let’s admit that chemistry is a real thing.  What is it then?  I’d suggest that chemistry is not necessarily a palsy-walsy love for your teammates, a tendency for doing shots before games, putting pies in each others faces . . . Chemistry is probably better described as that which results from  a locker room full of guys with winning attitudes who put the interests of the team ahead of their own interests.  If this definition of chemistry is correct, then I think participation in the WBC only helps clubhouse chemistry.  How much more of a clubhouse leader will Big Papi be if he returns to Ft. Myers after having lead the Dominicana to a WBC championship?  Won’t Mike Timlin be an even better de facto bullpen captain after having pitched selflessly in the WBC?  Varitek’s leadership abilities and ability to shape chemistry can only be enhanced by spending three weeks playing for free, sitting in a locker across the room from A-Rod, putting aside the fact that he once tried to remove A-Rod’s face from his head, all in the name of winning.  The WBC participants will be better ‘chemicals’ – if you’ll allow me to coin that term – when they return to their clubhouses specifically because they’ve been selflessly competitive for three weeks.

I just don’t see any real valid criticisms of the WBC.  The concerns that it would be a lackluster exhibition tournament have been put to rest, I think, by the competitiveness of the games.  The American team wants to win as badly as anybody.  The way the Dominican, Puerto Rican, Japanese fans in the stands behave during a game is a breath of fresh air.  The call-in shows are buzzing with criticism of the American team for losing a couple of games.  The American team is a credit to American athletes generally with the way they’ve conducted themselves and their enthusiasm for the event (contrast that with the whining and crying of the Olympic hockey and basketball teams.)  The WBC breathes life into the game.  There are some kinks, and I’m sure they’ll be worked out.  If this thing grows into a big deal, a World Cup for baseball, it will be a great thing.  If Japan or Dominicana wins this thing, it will be even better for the game in America, piquing the interest of fans here and getting us talking about the 2009 roster right now.

Changing my socks

2006-03-13T07:38:00.000-05:00

Changing my socks . . .

Scrolling down the page of this blog, one would quickly notice that this site has been dormant for almost 20 months.  I wrote on this blog faithfully for a season and a half, chronicling a period of Sox history that played so much like a Shakespearean tragedy, complete with a fall from grace (2003 ALCS), followed by the turmoil of the ’03 offseason, the trading of Garciaparra, and the mediocrity of the first four months of the ’04 campaign.  Ironically, I stopped writing at just about the same time the Sox started the winning that sent them on the most exhilarating 3 month stretch of their history.  Unfortunately, I missed blogging about that playoff run – but what could I possibly have added anyway?

My reasons for not writing?  Lucky for me, I advanced to a new position in my career, and my blogging time got swallowed up.  Plus, I was writing some political stuff for some other blogs during that fall’s presidential campaign.

But that doesn’t explain why I didn’t write in 2005.  I didn’t write in 2005 because I was taking the season off from the Red Sox.  I didn’t watch every game, read every blog, scour Gammons every day hoping for some whiff of a trade rumor.  I didn’t stay up for the midnight run of Baseball Tonight every night hoping for a highlight of some news from Theo’s office.  I just watched and rooted, but sometimes didn’t watch and didn’t root.  I did my best imitation of a Kansas City Royals fan.

During the ’03 season, I wrote a long post on this site about how the quest for the World Series ring was corrupting the minds and hearts of Sox fans and players.  The desire to win took hold and drove us all to madness.  After the Sox were knocked out of the ’03 ALCS that year, I told a good friend that I wanted the Sox to finally win it all so that I could create some distance between me and the team.  The madness was making it difficult to actually like the game anymore.  The ’04 championship allowed me to get that distance.  In 2005, I dialed it down, even rooted for some other teams in addition to the Sox(, and didn’t even wince when they were knocked out by the eventual champs last fall.  To be sure, I still got amped up about the team, was as thrilled as anybody to see them in the playoffs, broke down the stats, designed brilliant trades in my own head, second guessed the manager . . . but all of it without the exhausting taxation of 1918 encircling the whole enterprise.  I didn’t want to write every day about the Sox and simply crank up the old manic intensity.  I just rooted for the Sox the way that a fan should – loving the team, the competition, the park, the energy, but not allowing the team’s successes or failures to define my worth as a person.

The result of all of this is that baseball is now more enjoyable than ever for me.  I watched the World Series this year without a lumpy pain thinking that it shoulda/coulda/woulda been my team playing those games.  I enjoyed the pennant races in other divisions.  I liked that the Indians made such a heroic charge through the fall, even though they posed a direct threat more to my Red Sox than their division brethren.  I’m loving the World Baseball Classic right now, not even losing a second’s sleep over the thought that Varitek is not in Ft. Myers right now trying to learn all the new pitchers.  Damon?  Though the name on the back of the jersey in center field will say “Crisp” and not “Damon”, the name on the front – “Boston” – will be the same.

I’m grateful that the Sox won in ’04 for all the reasons all of us are – don’t get me wrong.  But additionally, I’m grateful that by winning the World Series, they were like Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings, destroying the ring that was driving us all mad.  That rainy November day the duckboats took the team through the heart of the city, finishing up on the Charles River was the day I think all of us Sox fans could let go of the team a bit; the winning gave me some emotional distance, allowing me to get closer to the game itself.

2005-03-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

Baseball fans . . .

If you love good baseblogging, you've read RedBird Nation. Now an anthology of that splendid site is available (edited by yours truly.) The profits are going to the March of Dimes, so check it out.

Redbird Nation

2004-08-18T05:47:00.000-05:00

Boston Red Sox, AL East 5 - Toronto Blue Jays, AL East 4 . .

I'm a big fan of several of the other baseball and political blogs out there. I love RedBirdNation - if you're not reading it, you're missing some of the best baseball writing on the web (notice I didn't say "blogosphere" but rather the whole web.) I read a few others and then pop over to my favorite political blogs. Under the Gunn is my starting point, and I usually link from there, alwasy ending up at Salon.com. All of this done usually before anything else in the morning, even before coffee.

I always end up with a few pangs of melancholy - my writing and my blog just seems like such crap by comparison to the clever writing and thorough reserach of these other blogs. I know these guys have to be amateurs just like me (in fact, I know a few of 'em personally, and they are not sportswriters for a living.) Ironic that my blogging suffers in the summer, given that I'm a teacher and have more time than I know what to do with in the summers. My writing usually picks up once school starts back up and I'm back in more of a routine.

But, alas and alack, I fret needlessley. Why, you may ask? Well, whenever I feel that my writing and insights are stiff, boring, not clever, and not funny, I just jump over to the Red Sox coverage in the Globe. Dan Shaughnessey (with whom I share the same alma mater) usually comes through with some crappy writing to make me feel better about my own writing (indeed, in this column, Dan manages to practice his favorite move, "the setup." You can bet he's already working on the follow up to this setup - Many Questions to Answer.) Bob Ryan, an excellent writer, often resorts to the old "Cleaning out the Desk Drawer of the Mind" article when he can't come up with a thesis for something else. I always felt the bullet articles were copouts, a disappointment to my legions of loyal readers; but, if Bob Ryan can do it, why can't I. So without further ado, I give you today's post . . .

Cleaning out the Desk Drawer of the Mind

I love to watch Johnny Damon try to score from first on a double. He's twice won games with mad dashes like the one last night. It's a pure adrenaline rush, perhaps even bigger than a game winning home run. The game winning homer is a fact usually as soon as it leaves the bat. A surprise, it is all release for the fan. The Johnny Damon mad dash, on the other hand - with his fists clenched, elbows locked, arms pivoting wildly in their shoulder sockets, hair streaming back, teeth clenched and catching bugs like a radiator grill - is all buildup. The ball sailing through the air - Damon is approaching second; the ball descends towards the wall - Damon is tearing through the bag; the ball caroms off the wall, corralled by the outfielder - Damon is screaming into the windmill of Dale Sveum's "go" sign; here comes the relay, pefectly executed - Damon is about to explode out of his own skin; SAFE! What fun. . .
Cabrera has been struggling at the plate, and it's so great to see him win a game instead of make the last out of a one run game. Varitek was quick to defend him in the locker room, telling reporters to get off his back, he's in a new league. Two thoughts about this - how much does a new league matter, and, is there a better teammate in all of sports than Jason Varitek?
Pedro's stuff wasn't his best last night, but he is showing the late stages of the late-career metamorphosis needed to pitch effectively for the next four or five seasons. Pitchers like Pedro who were powerballers early in their career almost always have to evolve to have a long career (kind of like rock bands can't just keep playing the same old crap forever and ever.) Pedro doesn't blow people away anymore, but does a brilliant job mixing and matching and keeping hitters off balance. I wrote earlier in the season that because his stuff isn't locomotive any more, if he misses his spot even a tiny bit, he'll get hit. Last night was no exception, but he battled hard and got out of trouble.
Speaking of getting hit hard, I swear Vernon Wells' homerun was still rising when it went into the monster seats. That was a SMASH!
Speaking of SMASH, Varitek's blast was a gargantuan bomb.
David Ortiz needs to settle down a bit. I don't know what he was thinking, but if he thought that Lilly was trying to hit him last night, he just doesn't know baseball very well. He risked getting himself run and suspended again, and the Sox went 1-4 during is earlier 5-gamer. Anger management, perhaps?
Gabe Kapler is a great teammate and a great player to have around. He never gets hurt. He never complains, he is always the first player to congratulate a teammate on a job well done (I think he might've broken Cabrera's spine last night with his post-game bear hug.) He was the first one out of the dugout to grab Ortiz - maybe the only player with the muscles to hold Ortiz back. He's a terrific fourth outfielder, and he's starting to take over the job of club spokesperson with the media - not necessarily after games only, but doing the afternoon WEEI drive time interviews and things like that. I think the Sox should look to sign him up for a two or three year, $6M deal and be glad they did.
Starting pitchers simply have to go 7 innings per start from here on out. Without Williamson, the bridge to Foulke needs to be shortened. Embree and Timlin need to throw fewer innings then they have, and Foulke needs to be brought into games for longer stints.
Is Mike Myers a pitcher who can throw an inning, rather than just a third? I hope he can be - that would be a huge boon to the pen.
Speaking of the pen and Foulke, Terry used Foulke brilliantly that last two nights. A two inning save on Monday, and bringing him in to a tie game at home. The first move a bit more daring than the second, but both much smarter than the way Gagne was used in Fenway this season, for example. If you recall, the Sox beat the Dodgers two out of three, with both wins coming off the Dodgers' pen. Gagne only pitched in a blowout Dodgers' win, because Jim Tracy seems to be stuck on the LaRussa Rule which says you only pitch your closer in a save situation (to be fair to TLR, I don't know if he still manages this way, but he sure did in Oaktown with Eckersley.)
Speaking of Eck, where is he? Guy gets inducted into the Hall, and he's now too good for NESN and us little people? I love Eck, not because of his insight (sometimes his commentary is so spacey it makes you wonder how he ever got anybody out - I guess he was just up there 'slinging it') but because he's capable of saying anything at anytime. He hasn't done so, but you always feel like he could throw out an F-bomb without even thinking about it.
Outfielders with poor throwing arms have compensated with quick releases all throughout baseball history, and some to great effect (see Bonds, Barry.) Manny has taken this idea to a whole new level. He's positively chucking wiffle balls out of left field now, throwing off his back foot, underhanded . . . stoners playing ultimate frisbee at the Phish farewell are doing a better job setting their feet for the throw than Crusty the Clown is doing in left this year. I guess playing 81 games at Fenway really helps in this regard.
Don't look now, but the Sox are 10-7 since Nomar left. Now, I don't think that their record is because of Nomar being gone, but they certainly aren't missing him. How could they, really? He basically didn't play for them this year, save for June. (I do think the team is looser without his bad attitude and endless Nomar questions from the media - see Glenn, Terry, and Belichick, Bill)
Speaking of not playing, the Sox will only get about 40 games from Nomar and Trot combined this year. When you think back to the lofty offseason expectations that we all put on this team, I'll bet Nomar and Trot had something to do with crafting those expectations. Stands to reason they'd struggle without them, so let's cut the crew a little slack (see Shaughnessey, Dan.)
I think Kevin Millar's theme music should be Slim Shady. Just do. Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? Is Millar a .300, 25, 90 guy or the slumper he had been in the first half of the season? Nobody in the AL is hitting the ball better than Millar since the All-Star break. Is he just a right-handed Brian Daubach, or is he better?

2004-08-16T19:47:00.000-05:00

Only a couple of things to say this morning about last night's game . . .

Good to see Keith Foulke used for two innings last night. This might be a way to smooth over the roughness of the bullpen in Williamson's absence. Foulke has thrown as many as 105 innings in his career (1999 Chicago) and has averaged almost 90 innings per year recently. He says he likes the work, and we need him to stretch it out into some two inning saves right now. (B.K. Kim, where are you?)
As the trade deadline approached a couple of weeks ago, it was said that the players didn't want Lowe traded and would be happy to see Nomar go. Here's why - during the Yankee scrap awhile back, Nomar stayed on the bench. Last night, Lowe drilled Delgado as payback for busting up the new guy (Meintkeiwicz.) No elaboration needed on this one.
I was glad to see Francona play Meintkeiwicz at second base last night. Not afraid to take a chance, better to try this, get Meintkeiwicz' bat in the lineup instead of playing automatic out Ricky Guttierrez at second. Francona seems to have some ability to think creatively about the lineup, something Grady Little and Jimy Williams could not. Youkilis and Bellhorn both were taking ground balls at first (not needed now that Meintkeiwicz has changed addresses. . . ) I remember screaming all season during Jimy's last spin with the Beaneaters that Hatteberg should be playing first base. First base was a particular problem those years, and if you could catch, you could play first. Jimy finally got Hatteberg taking some ground balls, but never put him over there, even when Daubach was doing his best Pirate's Cove Windmill Hole imitations at the plate. Now he mashes for Oakland at - first base. Oy!
Has anybody else noticed that Lowe has seemed to right the ship? No longer an awful pitcher, he's pitched very "averagely" the last few times out. Even in the seventh with the error from Cabrera, he seemed to be holding it together well out there in the rain. He's only thrown about 5 1/2 innings per start this year, so his arm should be strong. It would be a huge relief on the bullpen to have D-Lowe pitching 7 or 8 innings each time out down the homestretch, especially with Williamson out for the year.

2004-08-16T19:33:00.000-05:00

Boston.com / Sports / Baseball / Red Sox / Debunking the mystery of one-run losses

Gordon Edes of the Globe sheds some much needed light on one-run games and the Sox this season. Many fans think that losing or winning one run games is somehow exclusively the province of the manager, but here Edes explains how it is in many ways a matter of luck . . .

2004-08-16T07:09:00.000-05:00

My final word on Nomar (until I think of something else) . . .

The Nomar trade, on balance, is a good one. I know that I'm late weighing in on this, but I've been late posting all year. Anyway, pros and cons . . .

Cons

We should've gotten more for him. No doubt that a good number three pitcher like Matt Clement would've been a better deal, but the Cubs weren't going to let go of him. Clearly the Cubs knew that the Sox were going to have to deal Nomar, so they knew they could hold out for a better price. Moreover, were there any other frontline pitchers out there available for a club needing a moody rent-a-player? Nomar for Unit was always a pipe dream. Nomar for Ponson wasn't going to happen, obviously. There just wasn't many places to move Nomar, with the Cubs being pretty much the only buyer. Any beginner economics student knows that when a supplier is trying to move product and there aren't many buyers, the price is going to drop, and drop it did.
Best case scenario with Nomar in the lineup would've been a healthy hitter for the next sixty games. This would've been better than the defensive upgrades we did get.
The potential public relations hit the club would take.

Pros

The club seemed to take no public relations hit.
Nomar was a clubhouse cancer, and it's good to be rid of him. The team just looks looser.
The defense at short is WAY better. Ricky Guttierrez at short was a one way ticket to missing the playoffs.
With Nomar off the books and D-Lowe suddenly pitching himself out of a big price tag, the free agent problems are largely solved. Unless their respective agents lose their mind, Pedro and Tek should be resigned. Additionally, Cabrera should be able to be resigned at a much better winshares/dollar price than resigning Nomar would've been. Meintkeiwicz is a long term solution at first base - Kevin Millar is not (though he's been hitting well lately, obviously.)
No more Nomar death watch. That is hell on any organization.

So, I'm late and brief with this Nomar trade assessment. Nevertheless, I needed to weigh in, especially with this last analogy. Nomar was becoming a pre-cancerous tumor. The "distractability factor" of him moping around, hurt, was huge. Francona, by all accounts, is a terrific handler of players, and he might've been able to handle Nomie. I think that by trading Nomar, Theo felt he was taking an aggressive treatment of this pre-cancerous tumor before it metastasized. Might not of, but if it did, the season would've spiraled downward like a brick in a pond. Now the boy wonder GM can focus on Varitek and Pedro, two players who really do want to stay with the Beaneaters.

We're better off with Nomar gone.

2004-08-15T16:18:00.000-05:00

So a troika of one run games . . .

. . . doesn't end the Sox' way. Twice in three games they were able to rally for a pair of runs of the frisbee throwing closer for the palehose; unfortunately, they were trailing by three runs entering the ninth each time (by the way, if you're Ozzie Guillen, do you have any confidence with Takatsu if you do manage to squeek into the playoffs? Yikes!)

I didn't get to see any of yesterday's game, and I only saw bits an pieces of Sunday's game (I was winning a golf tournament - not very humble of me, that bit, thanks - and I was flipping back and forth with the PGA Championship. I offer only some random ruminations . . . .

Jose Valentin, the Windy's shortstop, could easily be cast as the yes man gopher detective in any cop caper movie made from here on out. . .
Manny Ramirez is fast becoming the most disheveled athlete in Boston, if not in America. Running off the field with his shirt partially untucked (how does that happen?) today in the 7th, he could've made Rod Beck look positively foppish. . .
Mike Timlin's arm will fall off soon. Poor guy has been pitching his heart out, but you can tell that his fastball is just lacking juice, and if he leaves it even a bit over the plate, he's getting rocked.
Arroyo continues to be impressive. I really like the way he's getting ahead and staying ahead of hitters. . .
Francona sticks with starters - I like that. Nothing drives me crazier than managers who lift starters who are cruising because they give up a run or two of bleeders and bloops. Having said that, once Tito makes that first change, all hell breaks loose and he wears a path out of the grass between the dugout and the mound (ever notice he likes to use two hands to surround the ball when he takes it from the pitcher? I wonder if players have flipped it in his gut in disgust in the past and he's just trying to box it in like a catcher.) He loves the lefty-lefty, righty-righty matchup, sometimes so much that he'll do something like lift Embree with two down in the seventh for Timlin - not unusual - but sometimes with a 6 or 7 run lead - very unusual.
Nice to see Meintkeiwicz drive in some runs today. Cabrera had a good game at the plate as well, but now two games out of three he's mad the last out in a one run game - today with the tying run on third.
Speaking of tying run on third, why didn't Francona run Roberts for Crusty the Clown in the ninth? Standing on first, if V-Tek hit a gapper, Manny has an outside chance of scoring, but Roberts has a great chance of scoring the tying run. Now, I know that it is only the tying run and not the winning run, and you'd like to have Manny in the game if it goes into extra frames so that he might drive in the winning run, but without the tying run, there's no extra innings, no winning run . . .
The Sox have had many runners cut down at the plate in the past week or so, but not really their fault. Sveum had one poor choice, but centerfielders have been throwing like Willie Mays against them the past couple of series. Baldelli threw a pair of bullets to nail runners at the dish, and Rowand threw a perfect bee-bee to cut down Youkilis at the plate.
Losing Youkilis for any period of time will hurt. The fewer innings Ricky Guttierrez plays, the better.
The word on the street is that Williamson is done for the year, maybe for next season as well. Not only does that hurt the Sox, but that really hurts his career generally. He signed a two year deal in the off-season, and if he sits out next season healing, he'll get a contract, but not nearly as good a contract as he would've if he kept mowing batters down (.125 OBA this season) for the next year . . . closer money in fact. Too bad. Makes Kim's return all the more needed
The other word on the street is that Shoppach ain't ready for prime time. Tek needs to be resigned.
Yet another word on the street is that Garciapparra has quickly become the most popular Cub. Speaking of Nomar and the Cubs, don't you think ESPN had to be apoplectic about the fact that Nomie sat last Sunday against the Giants. Instead of every set in New England tuned in, there was a massive clicking of remotes at about 8:06
Derek Lowe's blisters seem to be more of a problem in the warm weather. Don't know for sure, just seem to be. Let's see, Pedro can't pitch in the cold, D-Lowe can't pitch in the humidity . . . or during the day for that matter. The Globe had a bit showing that Lowe's ERA is over 8 during day games, just over 4 during night games.
1 game lead going into today's game. The fact that the Sox are essentially out of the East race could play into their hands. Without Yankee envy, the team really can take it the proverbial one game at a time. The Wild Card playoff team is still a playoff team, after all.
Don't look now, but you're stumbling, bumbling Red Sox have the third best record in the AL, only a half game behind Oakland. Sixth best record in baseball.
Will anybody beat the Cardinals this year? Is Jim Edmonds' uppercut homerun stroke the most exhilirating swing in stickball today?

2004-08-14T09:10:00.000-05:00

Here's a name you haven't thought much of lately, I'll bet . . .

B.K. Kim. Where's he gone? He seems to have vanished off the face of the earth, in the midst of the longest rehab in history. But, if Ramiro Mendoza can actually come back and pitch effectively (at the beginning of the year, I had to double and triple check the spring training rosters to be sure the Sox hadn't released him) after an alien abduction, can B.K. be that far behind? Who knows if we'll see him pitch this year again, or pitch effectively. Still, the thought is a tantalizing one . . . what would he be best suited to do?

Option 1 - move into the rotation. Who gets bumped? Wakefield? I think right now it would have to be Wakey. It would suck for him, but he's the most inconsistent starter in the rotation right now. Plus, he's proven how versatile he really is, and a move to the bullpen for Wake might shore up the problems the Williamson-less bullpen is having running on fumes the past month or so. The other option is to move Lowe to the pen, but he's been pitching much better lately, and he'd lose much more confidence than the cagey, wiley veteran Wakefield would moving to the pen.

Option 2 - Put Kim in the pen in the Scott Williamson role. Kim could be a devastating setup man for the Sox out of the pen. If he's throwing hard, he's very tough to hit the first time through the order. Then, the pen would have Mendoza in the long role, Kim, Timlin, and Embree in the setup role, Foulke closing, Myers the lefty specialist, and Leskanic doing the odd jobs. That's a pretty imposing pen, especially given Boston's starters' penchant for going deep into games lately.

Clearly, a strengthened pen is top priority for the Sox right now. I think the Sox' playoff chances hinge on Williamson's elbow. If he can feel good at all, he's a DOMINANT setup man. Also, Timlin and Embree will be that much better not having to pitch every single night. Williamson AND Kim in the pen is just too exciting to think about. Add to that a 1996-2000 version of Ramiro Mendoza, and the pen is lights out.

Thoughts?

2004-08-13T20:40:00.000-05:00

It seems like the boys were having fun last night during the heavy rains. . .

When it looked for all the world that the umps were looking to finish the 7th inning just to make sure the game didn't end up suspended (which, in my judgement, was kindof silly because it was the first game of a three games set, i.e. there was plenty of time for the game to be continued tomorrow), the hometown nine looked like they were having a ball. Though Terry Francona was stewing about the possibility that his team was only going to have potentially three more outs instead of nine to come back on the ChiSox, everybody else looked like they were playing a little league game. Damon was grinning on the bases (when isn't he acting just a little bit buzzed?), and Manny was positively giddy after drilling his single off the wall. The rain seemed to energize the crew; they almost seemed excited about the challenge of needing to tie the game right then lest they end up losing a rainshortened contest.

I really liked seeing that. The kind of "bring it on" attitude, that hasn't been as obvious this season as it was last season. The team has played hard and passionately all year, but they now seem to be playing loose and having fun.

I've always thought the whole "having fun" thing was overrated; I just don't think it contributes that much to improved performance, or at least not as much as others do. Having said that, I don't think it's irrelevant. Having fun usually means you're staying in the moment and playing a bit more loosely, a bit more relaxed. When you're more relaxed, your timing improves, your vision improves . . . your brain just stops getting in the way.

In my real life, I'm a teacher. Studying cognitive development has led me to conclude that the biggest obstacle to performance of any kind (physical, mental, emotional) is the obstacles our own mind and psyche creates for ourselves. When we're not "in the moment" or "loose" to use players parlance, our minds drift either forward with anxiety or backwards with regret. When our minds are drifting forwards or backwards in time, it becomes very difficult to perform - the models of perfect performance that reside deep in our memory can't be recalled because our mind is off hanging out in bad neighborhoods. Playing "loose" makes synchronicity between the mind and the body more likely.

The irony of this situation is that it seems mindless. We've all had experience athletically where we got lost in the moment, or "in the zone" (I'm making the not unreasonable assumption that if you're reading this right now, you're probably a sports fan and therefore have played a bit of sports yourself.) A pure drive on the golf course, shooting lights out from the perimeter, or hitting the catcher's glove over and over, we've probably all had a taste of this "mindless perfection." It seems mindless, but in fact, it's entirely mindful; we're only really consciously aware of our mind when it's off racing without our permission.

Anyway, the point is, the team seems to be playing with a bit more bounce in their step. Having fun. Enjoying the moment, the childlike joy of playing the game in a downpour. That's good. Maybe they'll start playing a bit more "mindlessley . . ." ;-)

2004-07-09T12:31:00.000-05:00

Last night's game. . .

. . . certainly had an electric finish. I let out a yelp when I saw that Damon wasn't breaking stride around third - not as much because I thought that the Sox were going to win on that play. On the contrary, I thought they were going to get him at the plate. I yelped because of the balls to the wall way Damon was going to settle things right then and there. A play at the plate with the game on the line, Captain Caveman streaking like a freak around third . . . that's just plain exciting. Show's how this team HAS heart after all.

But you know what? They've had heart all year. I've grown weary of Red Sox Nation's hyperventilations about every loss. I've grown weary of RSN's tendency to extrapolate the way the team plays on a given night into a bigger revisionist history than saying the holocaust never happened. RSN's lamentations about this team haven't been fair at all all season. Let's take some and blow 'em up.

1. The team was taking losing too easily and playing without any heart. False. If you believe that, then you just didn't see the 13 inning extra inning loss to the Yanks. The team played with tons of guts in that game. Ortiz lumbering into third base in the 11th? Foulke getting out of the stickiest of jams in the ninth? The whole bullpen stymying the Yanks scoring opportunities in extra innings repeatedly? Leskanic showed major guts in the 12th when he got a man on third and nobody out to get out of that jam, and pitched great in the 13th (the ball Sierra hit for a seeing eye hit was a tough pitch, and Cairo was almost struck out on that wicked breaking ball right before he went down to dig that pitch out for a double.) The ONLY thing that has bothered me about the squad this year is Nomar's aloofness on the bench during that extra inning game. But to use that to say this team is heartless is foolish. . .

2. Nomar's skills have been steadily declining for three years now. Huh? Until he slumped after labor day, he was a very, very strong choice for MVP of the league (and if you need proof, go back and read ANY baseball writers midseason picks for post season awards last year.) Nomar's defense cost the Sox two games in a week last week - true. His defense is falling apart. Really? All anybody could talk about last year was how Nomar's defense had elevated to where he was one of the tops in the league. Nomar wants out at the end of the season. Is that so? The only things Nomar has gone on record as saying is that he wants to stay in Boston. Does he really want out?

3. Terry Francona is in over his head. Is he? Tell me what he has done wrong that you could fix if you could? I don't mean just a mistake here and there - heck, all managers make mistakes. What pattern of thinking in Francona's head do you disagree with?

4. Derek Lowe is a headcase. Is he? Because he's pissed at himself when he pitches poorly (which he has, no doubt about it.) D-Lowe was absolutely right to go off on reporters yesterday before the game. The media can't just write that he's pitching poorly; they need to invent stories that he's a wackjob to boot. Remember how Oil Can Boyd was consistently called unstable by the media and Wade Boggs (an admitted sex addict) was given a free pass? Boyd called out the media on that, and HE was right.

5. They need more speed at the top of the lineup. Why? Johnny Damon has scored more runs than any leadoff man in baseball. Isnt' that what he's supposed to do?

This team does have some issues to address. Arroyo is showing why he was released by the Pirates (I hope the love affair with Arroyo is officially over now), Millar needs to turn it around in a hurry at the plate. A real decision needs to be made about who goes to the bench (Pokey or Bellhorn - I say Pokey sits . . .) But this team is in good shape. It is near the top of the AL in pitching, runs, the defense is above average, they went .500 in interleague play (as much as you can ask for given the particular challenge to American League teams of interleague play) . . . they need a little more luck in one run games. Remember, with just a couple of breaks, they would've gone 4-2 on the recent 1-5 road trip.

All is well in Red Sox Nation. Stop worrying, and stop whining.

Leave your thoughts if you want to argue over this. . .

2004-07-08T16:19:00.000-05:00

I was recently held captive by a band of Uruk-Hai . . .

. . .and I'm pleased to say that I made it out alive. I'll detail the way it happened soon enough, but let's just say for now that I'm thrilled to be still alive . . .

As we all should feel about the Sox. It's amazing to me how SoxNation can go into hyperventilations about our team's ups and downs. Now, I am not going to go into it right now, but our recent little slide was more the product of bad luck than symptoms of fatal flaws with the team. Tomorrow I'll go into a more detailed analyses of the team to date, but for now, let's all take a deep breath and get a hold of ourselves. One game out of a playoff spot right now. One game.

Leave a note if you want to fight me over this . . .

2004-05-11T12:22:00.000-05:00

Wow. . .

Brian at the always outstanding RedBirdNation pointed out to me that the Sox' ERA is a full run lower than the next best team ERA. A full run. No wonder they're still winning despite an erratic offense and an (at times) curious defense [I can see Jim Rice saying to Kevin Millar "I knew Dwight Evans, I played with Dwight Evans - Dwight Evans was a friend of mine, and you sir, are no Dwight Evans . . . "

Team ERAs in the AL this year -

Red Sox 3.39
Anaheim 4.29
Yankees 4.33
Oakland 4.37
Rangers 4.40
Orioles 4.40
Toronto 4.47
ChiSox 4.49

Lowest ERA in the AL? Detroit - 5.94

Interestingly, pitching ERAs in the NL are across the board significantly lower. 8 and 9 hitters perhaps, or more of a strike throwing league? Thoughts?

2004-05-10T16:08:00.000-05:00

19-12

Raise your hand if you thought that one quarter of the way into the season, with Trot and Nomar yet to play (on a side note, you could make an argument that the best shortstop and the best right fielder in the league are sidelined) that our boys would be in first place with a stout 15-6 record in the division? I thought there was a chance, but I thought the best we could hope for was being a handful of games back of the Yanks right now. If not for a MayDayVaCa, the boys would still be 4 or 5 up right now . . .

Thoughts and reflections, in no apparent order . . .
Schilling is better than I thought he was going to be. His complete game Saturday was studly. It sets my mind at ease knowing he's in the rotation. His penchant for going deep into games makes everybody better because of the rest it gives the bullpen . . .

Pedro will continue to be rocked every fifth or sixth time out. I don't think his three poor outings this year are abberations, or the product of cold weather. Remember, he was drilled by Texas in Arlington, and though it was cool, it was not cold there (plus, I think the cold weather thing with Pedro is overrated - I saw him dominate Tampa Bay last year, going seven deep with a gametime temp of 33 degrees.) No, the reason that Pedro will be hit hard periodically is because he has become a fundamentally different pitcher. He is now a spot-fastball, changeup artist. He can still move it at 90-91 MPH, but he doesn't have that zinging gas anymore. Without that, he's got to hit his spots ALL the time. I'm not saying he's morphed into Bob Tewksbury overnight, but if he's off, he can't go to the speedball well and blow people away anymore. So, he'll get whacked - get used to it. . .

Wakefield is the Steve Grogan of this team. I don't mean he stubbornly plays through injury, but rather, he seems to do whatever it takes to win. This guy is gutsy, the real dean of the team. If he had to pinch-hit and throw his head in the way of a pitch, just to get on base, I think he might do it. . .

Williamson, Timlin, and Embree make one of the strongest bullpens in the division - by themselves. Adding Foulke to the back end is just scary. I love the way Timlin works. Gets it, stares, chucks it 94 - see if you can hit it. Get's it, stares, chucks it 94. So much fun to watch. Embree and Williamson do the same. No nonsense gasmen. Love it. . .

David Ortiz will not regress to the mean of his career. Nuf 'Ced.

Bill Mueller has been throwing the ball like Butch Hobson lately.

Mark Bellhorn has as good a sense of the strike zone as any player in the AL. He's not leading the league in walks because pitchers fear his mashing ability, after all . . .

Derek Lowe is a concern right now for me. Don't have a real sense of what's wrong, but it's worrying me.

Good to see Manny show some emotion. I'm one of those who believes that "playing with emotion" is overrated. Playing well is what matters. But, still, it's good to see him fired up. A Cleveland pitcher trash talked him as he was heading around the bases the other night after unloading a 450 ft. bomb, and Manny's reply - clearly read on his lips - "Why don't you learn to f-ing pitch!" Great stuff.

Please post your thoughts about the first quarter of the season. Love to hear 'em. . .

2004-05-10T15:49:00.000-05:00

Pathetic!

No, not the start to the season from our Olde Towne team. What is pathetic is how poorly I've kept up this blog in the past couple of months. I'm happy to say that I've recently risen from the ashes like a fiendish phoenix, and I'm going to be posting with the fervor of Bill James running a slide-rule . . .

First, please indulge me in a little bit of background as to why I haven't posted in ages. Regular readers know that I've mentioned on occasion that I am a prep school teacher here in New England. Boarding school and all that comes with it. Very busy time of year for us, and I've been swamped with projects . . .

Also, I've recently been promoted to serve as Chair of the Social Science Department. Time consuming, to say the least. But, this should work to my advantage as I pontificate on this page. Now, I actually have to lead, motivate, supervise, etc. in my profession. Might give me some insight into the job faced by our friendly Tito Francona. We'll see. . .

2004-02-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

Predictions . . .

Please post your predictions for the upcoming season in the comment page - anything from standings, to Cy Young winners, to BALCO fallout, etc. Love to hear what you all have to say . . . my predictions below.

Prediction # 1 - The Sox will sign Nomar, Pedro, and Lowe, but let Varitek walk
I know that this is the most expensive combo plate available to them, but Pedro and Lowe will be priorities because, after all, pitching is pitching. Nomar will be resigned for the reasons I've said earlier; additionally, to let Nomar walk would be a PR nightmare. This management team is not going to let Dan Shaughnessey make the personnel decisions, but they are savvy enough to know that they can't let Nomar go. Varitek is the most easily replaced player in the core, with Kelly Shoppach on deck . . .

Prediction #2 - Kevin Youkilis will be the team's third basemen by the All-Star break.
Pokey Reese's offense will be weaker than the Sox can tolerate, and they'll call up Youk, put him at third, and move Bill Mueller to second. Just a hunch . . .

2004-02-22T09:51:00.000-05:00

The Blue Jays of the early 90s . . .

. . . were a stud team. Two World Series titles, three division championships - who knows what they might've done if the 94 season had been played to its conclusion.

Yet, whenever discussions about great teams, or "teams of the decade" come up, the Jays are not even mentioned. Clearly, the Yanks laid to rest any question about who was the team of the 90s, but even before they nailed their threepeat from 98-00, the "the team of the decade" was a two horse race - Yanks or Braves. Remember, at this point, the Jays had two World Series titles, and the Yanks and Braves one each.

Indeed, from 1985 to 1993, the Blue Jays were really a monster team. Division titles in 85, 89, 91, 92, 93, pennants in 92 and 93, and World Series titles those same years (and this was at a time when Sports Illustrated was pondering if anybody would repear ever again as a WS champ.) They had Steib and Bell and Carter and Gruber; they drew boatloads of fans; they built the first retractable roof stadium in pro sports, back when it was audacious to even think about such a thing.

When I was really cutting my teeth on baseball (my first Sox team was the 78 edition with Rice, Lynn, Rooster, Pudge, Boomer, Yaz, et al - but I was only 8 years old - I really geeked out about baseball in the mid 80s) the Jays played the Simon Barsinister role for the Sox that the Yanks now play. They were the Beasts of the East - really the first super - successful franchise outside the traditional markets. This team would rank #1 on an all-underrated team index.

This got me to thinking - what teams do you all think belong on the All-Underrated list? Please drop us your thoughts in the comment box.

2004-02-21T06:51:00.000-05:00

Pete Sheppard sat in the big chair . . .

. . . last night on Fox Sports New England (and with Pete, it's a VERY big, tough chair) and claimed Nomar would be gone at the end of the season with more matter-of-factness than if he were talking about heading out to an all you can eat ribs joint after the show. His cohorts on the left and right didn't even blink.

I understand that media types actually get to talk to players, etc., and I don't. But still, I can't see a realistic scenario where Nomar leaves. Realistic. I know that he'll walk if he gets significantly lowballed, or significantly paid off by another team. But like I said in yesterday's post, I just don't see a scenario where that is likely.

If you have any realistic scenarios where you think Nomie will be a-walkin', walkin', walkin in the fall, please write me or put 'em up in the comment section. Thanks.

2004-02-20T16:09:00.000-05:00

Comparing John Henry and Theo Epstein . . . .

. . . as spokesmen for the Red Sox, I can't help but think that Theo needs to do most of the talking from now on. I understand Henry's frustrations, but he doesn't really have any ground to stand on when he whines about the need for a salary cap because of the Yanks seemingly limitless resources. I think a salary cap of some type is essential (though maybe one that allows for greater flexibility than in football - I can't put my finger on it, but the near revolving door for the bottom half of every NFL roster doesn't seem to hurt my ability to form an affectionate bond with my team, but if the same thing were true of baseball, I think it would hurt - especially because of baseball's everydayness encouraging an emotional link with specific players.) But when Henry yells for a cap, it sounds at best whiney, most likely disingenuous, and at worst downright pissy. Red Sox ownership saying a salary cap is in order is like Dave Letterman complaining that Jay Leno is just too darn smug.

Theo handled the A-Rod thing quite well. The Boston media, as is their wont, tried as hard as they could to claim that the Red Sox' walking away from the A-Rod deal was "bungled." Theo calmly turned these accusations away and kept to the mantra that he has been using all along - we are going to be fiscally responsible and not limit our ability to make in-season acquisitions or sign the core of our veterans at the end of the year. I believe him - I don't think he's just blowing smoke. The Sox do have to be disciplined. I know that sounds awfully strange to every fan of every team that doesn't play in the "AL Northeast" division; nevertheless, it's true.

Moreover, Theo just handles the media so well. Everybody else in the front office needs to stop talking (Lucchino did some whining too, after all.)

Nomar!

I think the Red Sox have a terrific chance to sign Nomar either during spring training or at the end of the season. It'll take $60M/4 years, but I think they'll do it. Three reasons. First, they'll open the wallet. Sox brass will spend bucks for the players they want. Two, Nomar wants to win. He'd sacrifice 3 or 4 million over the course of a contract to stay with a contender. Third, who else is out there who could give him appreciably more $$$ than the Sox will? The Mets? Probably not - they've got Matsui in that spot. Angels? Maybe, but they are pretty stretched payroll-wise. LA? Hard to say if McCourt has the pockets. Yanks have two zillion dollar shortstops already, and the O's have just signed Tejada. Seattle? They'll probably have the $$$ . . . but still, I can't see any team offering a king's ransom over and above what the Sox will offer. Moreover, Nomie wants to be with a winner. The more I think about it, the only way I see Nomar leaving is to make some sort of spiteful point that his feelings were hurt in the offseason. Nomar is far to smart to cut off his nose to spite his face. No, rest assured, Nomar will be re-signed . . .

2004-02-17T08:19:00.000-05:00

One perspective from Sox Nation on the A-Rod to New York deal . . .

What difference does it make? The Sox' troubles last year was with their bullpen, especially finishing games, and that problem is fixed with Foulke. Their second biggest problem was a manager who was unable to understand even a little bit about what statistical analyses can do to help win a ballgame (game 7 did not in an of itself get Grady fired, but it definitely is a good example of the reason for his canning.) As far as the Red Sox team that takes the field next week, it would have been only slightly more potent if the Manny/A-Rod/Nomah/Ordonez deal went through . . .

Now, being a little more sensible, this trade does make the Yankees better. How can it not? But the Yanks have created some problems for themselves. They needed to give away their best young player (Nick Johnson) just to make sure their pitching staff stays equal to last year's staff - in other words, a net loss. They have nobody to play second base, and their big bopper DH (Giambi) is falling apart. Sheffield's outfield defense is curious, and Williams is getting older as we look at him. Moreover, if Jeter stays at shortstop, they are still very weak defensively up the middle.

One problem it does not create for the Yankees is payroll flexibility down the road. The Yankees are showing that they will LITERALLY spend whatever it takes to win. Whatever it takes. If they need to take on big contracts mid-season, they will. If they need to spend big bucks on free agents 12 months out from now, they will. Whatever it takes, they will spend it. Of course they will, with Steinbrenner having a Captain Nemo like obsession with the Red Sox and staying ahead of them.

On the other hand, the Red Sox do have a limit on what they can spend on players. My guess is that they have the second or third biggest wallet in baseball, but it is significantly smaller than the Yanks. Even though the Sox would've shed Nomar's and Manny's salary, the A-Rod to Boston deal needed to be for fewer dollars, period. That's the only way it could've worked. Much of the media and fan reaction goes something like this - "for only $28 million dollars more . . . " True. But that $28 million more could've meant that Varitek or Lowe would've walked next year. It could've meant that NIxon wouldn't be all signed up right now. It could've meant that Foulke would not be closing games for the Sox this year. The Sox just can't afford to make the moves that the Yankees do . . .

I know that sounds strange to fans of teams not from New York or Boston; the Red Sox have the second biggest budget in baseball, and I'm talking about how they have to be budget conscious - but they do. I even know that it sounds strange to be talking about the A-Rod deal as if it were no big thing. Am I talking like a fan, putting a "no big whup" spin on things? Sure. But are those who feel that the Red Sox were duped and that the A-Rod trade will be bigger than the Babe Ruth sale talking like typical Boston pessimists? Absolutely. No doubt, the first time A-Rod beats the Red Sox with a game winning hit (and it will happen) there will be a great wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But something that the Patriots have shown is that it's not about big names, it's about getting big value. I don't know if there is more value per dollar spent with A-Rod in the lineup or not. I do know that the Sox management didn't think so; they're managing with a plan - and a plan not based on media or fan reaction - but a plan based on value per dollar spent. I think this is a winning plan. I think they are better off without A-Rod at the price they would've had to pay for him (even though I didn't always think that way.) I'm glad we didn't make the trade - Dan Duquette would've.

To be sure, A-Rod going to the Yankees is tough to swallow from an emotional standpoint. I think there has never been a rivalry in pro sports like the 1998-present Sox-Yanks rivalry. The best player in the game going to your biggest rival after already picking out a locker in your clubhouse - that's tough to take. It's a great storyline, and it adds to the myth and mystique of this rivalry and to baseball in general.

But you know what? After I break it all down from a level-headed baseball point of view, I just don't think it matters that much. When the offseason began, if you asked baseball people if they could have A-Rod or Schilling/Foulke, I'll bet there would be plenty of takers for the latter. That's what we got. We're in good shape.

2004-01-11T17:19:00.000-05:00

Pete Rose and the Hall

Petey doesn't belong in the Hall. That he's a shameless self-promoter who only has admitted to his crimes because of self-interest shouldn't keep him out. That he hasn't shown the necessary contrition shouldn't keep him out. That he might still be lying shouldn't keep him out. He should be out because he bet on baseball and his own team. Period.

All sports have their cardinal sins. Baseball's is gambling on baseball. Baseball cannot enshrine Pete Rose with the ultimate honor - to do so would simply be an inherent contradiction. The Hall seeks to celebrate the contributions that it's players have made to the construction of the cultural institution that is this great game. The game is built on the backs of those players and the work they did on the field. Petey's gambling takes a wrecking ball to that institution.

Pete's gambling calls into question the integrity of every game he ever participated in. Who knows how long he has been gambling? I know the argument that his 4200 hits shows that he couldn't possibly have been throwing games or letting his managing decisions been affected by a bet. Two rebuttals: first, really?; second, who cares? Betting on your own team is betting on your own team is betting on your own team. Case closed. Game over. Nuf 'Ced. Happy trails, Pete.

(Terry Bradshaw said that if Pete does get in, his plaque should say that he was kept out for x years because he had been banned for betting on his own team.

Tim McCarver thinks Pete should not be in the Hall because betting on baseball is just simply the cardinal sin of baseball. This might be an argument in favor of Rose's enshrinement - anything to piss off McCarver.)

2004-01-11T17:08:00.000-05:00

Cleaning out the desk drawer of the mind

I've taken a vacation from writing for awhile. Much has happened since I last wrote. Alex Rodriguez Sox jerseys sat unsold on souvenir store shelves, and a Pete Rose book can't sell him into the Hall of Fame.

The Alex Rodriguez runaround showed how much this business is just a business. A-Rod and Ordonez would've improved the team, no doubt. In fact, a weaker GM probably would've pulled the trigger and ended up handcuffing the Sox in the future. The Sox entertained the idea of trading for A-Rod, and ultimately rejected the deal, because, after all, it's just business.

Nomar told the Sox that this game is a business and he'll make business decisions by rejecting the Sox' contract offer in Spring Training last year. His agent told the Sox to start thinking about replacing Nomar, because, after all, it's a business.

The Sox took Nomar at his word and began to plan for life after Nomah, because, after all, as Nomah said, it's a business.

Vlad Guerrero signed with the Angels despite his professed love for the National League, because, after all, it's a business.

Pete Rose admitted to gambling because he wanted to sell some books, get himself into the Hall, thereby hopefully increasing the capital value of "Pete Rose Industries" because, after all, it's a business.

Rose is trying to leverage every advantage he can for the greater benefit of Pete Rose; not unlike an owner who leverages a new stadium out of gullible municipal voters, or the players union that wants to squeeze every drop of $$$ possible out of every scenario, or the teams that introduce a "thirds" jersey in order to boost clubhouse sales, or the big media (read: Fox Network) who corrupt the coverage of the game in order to drive up ratings, or the big media that prints the name of Steve Bartman, knowing that it will ruin that Chicagoan's life, for the sake of ratings. The whole thing is a big, messy business. Always has been, always will be.

At the end of the day, we need to hold our nose when we root for pro sports in America (though, peculiarly, I think pro sports have more integrity than college sports these days.) It's all about $$$ - even our beloved Red Sox, who are singularly committed to winning, as much as any franchise in sports these days, want to be sure they turn a nice, tidy profit each year. After all, John Henry didn't but this team as a public service.

So, can we still root? Sure. Pro sports in America are singularly American. In other words, the social mechanism that holds America together is the market system (for better or for worse, and I fear, frequently for worse.) The market ties us together in a delicate dance where we all ruthlessley pursue our own self-interest - and in this consumption happy culture, self-interest is almost alwasy measured by bucks or loot or leisure - without barely any regard for any sense of anything bigger than ourselves. Pro sports are no different. Even the best teams are held together through the same delicate dance of mutual self-interest among the players, coaches, managers, and ownership. Leagues themselves embody the same spirit. They're not really about sacrificing for the team, or winning it for the home town fans.

Okay - I'll lay off the bottle of Dr. Cynical. Was "cowboy up" a real thing? Sure. Do the Patriots play for the name on the front of the shirt more than the name on the back? Sure - it's the reason they're awesome. There are decent people who treat each other well, no doubt about that.

But at the end of the day, pro sports are about making $$$ and winning (which fills seats, which makes $$$.) If a player gets a better offer, they walk. If a team gets a chance to improve their team, they do it. Even Nomar isn't safe. That's the way it is. Nasty, isn't it?

Well, so what? We can't really extol the virtues of mutual self-interest and the market mechanism as the thing that makes our country great, and then be surprised and hurt when we see these same things in action in sports. So, if we want our heroes to be good and great men . . . well, we better not look for it in sports. At the end of the day, then, what are we left with? What's left to root for?

Plenty. Baseball is a business, and we should be happy that in Sox Nation that our owners treat it as such. We are rooting for the shirt, not the players, at the end of the day, and these owners do what's best for this jersey. We're left with the shirt. I think it is possible to root for the name on the front of the shirt and turn our gaze away from the nasty business side of things. We should stop caring how much money these players make vis-a-vis a social worker. Pleeeaaaase! That is so tiring. The players union is tiring. Bud Selig is tiring. Pete Rose is tiring. Just root for the shirt, cuz really, that's the one thing we can count on. . .

2003-12-01T20:12:00.000-05:00

I would like to go through a big rundown of stats (just like some of the more well run blogs out there, like RedBirdNation) to discuss why the Schilling trade is a good one. If I had the time, I could gather the WHIP, Strikeout/Inning ratios, Strikeout/Walk ratios, ERAs of the big four of the Sox pitching staff and show that Schilling will be good for the duration of his Sox contract - but I just don't have the time. I do have some thoughts, and without further ado . . .

1. Theo Epstein continues to draw rave reviews all over baseball. Not only does he have a clear plan, execute moves shrewdly, boldly maneuvers in the market - but he constantly is lauded by players and fellow GMs for his brains, preparation, work ethic, and integrity. I asked a friend of mine who had played in the NHL back in the late 80s if GMs seemed to be as central and connected to players as Theo is and he said it wasn't even close - GMs just wrote the checks. Theo is fast becoming the wunderkind of baseball, just as Bellichick is the Einstein of football. I wouldn't trade Theo for Billy Beane right now . . .

2. Neyer said in his column that there is every indication that Schilling will be a dominant pitcher for the forseeable future. There is no magic age after which players break down (at least not in their 30s) . . . in other words, there is no predictable age at which players break down, so past performance is the best indicator of future success. Schilling is at the top of all the major pitching categories with strong predictive value . . . WHIP, strikeout/inning ratio, strikeout/walk ratio.

3. Lowe, Schilling, and Wakefield can all go deep into games. In the 27 innings covered in a typical set of starts from those three, their might only need to be 2 or 3 bullpen innings. That makes Pedro and the number 5 starter that much better having a more rested bullpen coming in behind him to wrap up games (come to think of it, if the number fiver is BK, not only will he be a great number five starter, but he can also be an innings eater.)

4. Schilling said that he would not come to Beantown without an assurance that the team would remain competitive. Schilling is the farthest thing in pro sports from a BS artist. He's here - that means that whatever happens with all these contracts up next year, the Sox are committed to fielding a championship caliber team - that means signing Pedro, Lowe, Tek, Nomar (or getting A-Rod . . . ) It sounds like the Sox' budget is $122.5M (the luxury tax cap) and they are committed to it.

5. The Sox did not give up Kelly Shoppach or Kevin Youkilis. When I first heard the trade on ESPN radio ("for prospects" was the way they described it) I thought that either one or both of those guys was gone. PHEW!

6. Speaking of Youkilis, will he make the big club, moving Mueller to second, solving the Sox' second base problem? I know that second base is down on the list of priorities for the club (behind finding a manager, a starter (now Schill-Dog), a closer, dumping ManRay) but the apparent indifference to Todd Walker shows me that they must think he's easy to replace with a cheapo free agent or that Youk will have a great chance to make the club.

7. It is fashionable with the media to suggest that Ortiz, Mueller, Millar, Nixon, and Varitek won't all have career years next year. Why not? Nixon and Varitek have done this most of their career (they were better this year hitting in a better lineup) and Ortiz, Mueller, and Millar finally got to be fulltime players. I don't have the numbers, but I'll bet that Ortiz and Millar's previous best years would've projected out over a full season relatively close to the numbers they did post this year. Mueller finally stayed healthy for the whole year - I don't expect a batting title out of him next year, but he'll probably hit well again.

8. This won't play well in other bloggervilles, but one has to suspect that Mendoza's year last year was an aberration, and not the new norm for him. Historically, he's been a much better pitcher than he was this year. We might be pleasantly surprised - he might be a sort of Vinny Baker-esque reclamation project next year. How would he look coming out of the pen for the Sox in his 1998-2000 form?

9. The Red Sox are likely to have the best hitting AND the best pitching in the AL next season (if they sign Foulke, especially - keep in mind also that they've basically traded John Burkett for Curt Schilling.)

Try this on for size:
Starters - Martinez, Wakefield, Schilling, Lowe, Kim
Middle relief - Mendoza, Arroyo, Sauerbeck, Embree, Timlin
Setup - Timlin, Williamson
Closer - Foulke

That's a pretty tasty pitching staff.
(I know that's 12, but what the heck . . .)

2003-11-05T20:08:00.000-05:00

It's interesting to see just how well liked Theo Epstein is by the players and coaches. Grady Little went way out of his way to praise Theo, calling him a friend and an honorable man. Todd Walker is in today's Globe talking about how much he likes Theo. Players all year long talked about how well they respected Theo and how they always felt that Theo was shooting straight. Peter Gammons even went out of his way to talk about how Theo is an honorable as well as smart GM. Other GMs say the same thing. He handled the Brandon Lyon thing quite well, and I'll bet is was Theo who insisted on a bonus for Grady on his way out.

Sox fans, the team is in good hands with the current management. For maybe the first time in the team's history, the club is owned and run by bright, intelligent, emotionally secure, and probably honorable men (to be fair, all accounts say the Lou Gorman was and is one of the most honorable men in the game, but he was saddled with John Harrington.) The Harringtion led club was typical of Boston style pigheadedness. Tom Yawkey was a bigot (the team passed on both Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays because they 'weren't big league caliber'.) And obviously, Harry Frazee didn't really care about winning either. That's the whole post Babe team history right there. A Broadway producer who used the team revenue to put on plays, a bigoted patrician, and a back-room bully. Not too many talented managers in that mix either.

My point is this - for maybe the first time since the Babe walked, the team is owned, run, (will soon be) managed, coached, and made up of people with brains, integrity, passion, and - lest we forget - a plan for winning. In my regular life as a teacher, I'm often asked by students what's the best system for note taking, organization skills, etc. I give them ideas to think about but always conclude by saying that the best system is the one you choose, use, and stick to, while always keeping an eye on the long term assignments. I suspect the team is now firmly in the grips of a management team, led by a classy, bright young Theo Epstein who has chosen, is using, and will stick to a system, all the while keeping an eye on the long term picture. Fret not, SoxNation . . . the future is bright.

. . . Our Obligation as Fans . . .
1. Quit obsessing over the Yankees. Clearly, they remain the team we must get past; there is no way around it. Clearly, they are the perpetrators of so many Red Sox deaths. Clearly, they are like the big brother who keeps beating us up, never giving us a break. And, right now, clearly, they are a better team. Exulting in the Yankees loss in the World Series just reinforces our own loser mentality. It is vindictive and petty. We cannot be concerned with Yankee success or failure; the Red Sox (and by extension, SoxNation) must not measure success vis-a-vis the Yankees. Yankee losses are only important if they improve the Sox' chance of winning. Yankee losses after the Sox are eliminated are nothing to rejoice in; ironically, it is this schadenfreude we enjoy that keeps us permanently second class.

2. See the season as a marathon, and not a sprint. Don't ride the manager so hard. Don't flood suicide hotlines after losses in April. Don't constantly hold your breath waiting for the other shoe to drop. Don't expect failure. As a coach, I always tell my players that "you'll live up or down to your expectations." We have got to stop expecting to lose, because, I fear, with some Sox fans, the expetation of losing is dangerously close to the perverse hope of losing. Get past this obsession.

3. Enjoy time spent with other Sox fans rooting on the team. Enjoy the daily companionship of Joe/Jerry or Don/Jerry. Enjoy the ballpark, the summer, the conversation about the team. Don't stand for negativity. Don't allow fellow SoxNation tribe members to succumb to the Dark Side, or get pulled in by the Dark Lord Sauron. Stay clear-headed about this - after all, it's only baseball.

Coming soon in this space I'll present my thoughts for the offseason. Trust me, we'll be in the playoffs next year.

2003-10-26T09:40:00.000-05:00

my post season analysis, opinions, & nonsense

I'd like to comment on the various aspects of baseball that affected me this season.

First of all there's the Sox. I've followed and cheered and jeered for the Sox since the 60's. This was my favorite season simply because it was the most interesting. The cast of characters was by far the most fun, from Grady to Ortiz to Manny to Pedro. They played great baseball. Fabulous baseball. They destroyed mediocre pitching and humbled quite a few of the top-notch ones. I can't think of a pitcher that shut them down completely.

NESN. We are pretty lucky to have the NESN team. I especially enjoy them via radio. They aren't overly serious, don't drown us in arcane nonsense, and their love of baseball goes beyond the diamond.

The Sox faced worthy opponents. The Yanks didn't win the AL East by default. The Yanks fielded, once again, an excellent lineup for an entire season and they just might have the best manager in baseball. I am tempted to say, but don't actually believe, that if Grady and Joe swapped spots the Sox would be in the World Series. The Yanks made the Sox a better team.

Sportsmanship. I just wish the Sox played with a bit more dignity and jettisoned some of their stupid habits. Nixon and Jesus, Manny's stupid antics, Pedro's foolishness, etc. I totally agree with Cookie about ugliness creeping into the game.

Tim and Buck etc. These two truly are simply insufferable. The FOX broadcast reduces the game to something I can't really stomach.

Grady. Grady worked some magic this season and last. He's probably worth 10 to 15 games in the win column. But, he probably costs the Sox a few games with his style of managing. I would bring back Grady but the Sox desperately need a pitching coach that will make a difference in developing pitchers and in using them thoughtfully during games. I am not suggesting that Grady's decision to go with Pedro was wrong. But, any other pitching coach would have been screaming at Grady to pull Pedro after he got whacked.

MLB. The season was wonderful. And then the WS finished with one of the best pitching performances I have ever seen. Having the low budget Marlins beat the Yanks didn't hurt. But I will say that it wouldn't have bothered me the least if the Yanks had swept the Fish in four games. The Yanks had a great team and deserve respect from Sox fans.

Theo. I didn't know what to expect from the lad. I am impressed to the point that I have no advice for him except keep Grady and get a pitching coach that will do some good.

Cookie: The Blog is a nice addition to my baseball interests. Kudos to the Cook for getting it running, keeping it going, and blessing us with his wisdom, insights and passion.

'til catchers and pitchers report....dawg

2003-10-17T13:17:00.000-05:00

We're pretty lucky . . .

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, becuase they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." T. Roosevelt

There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth in Sox Nation today. Grady Little is public enemy #1, and one needn't be a Marxist to feel that there is some affront to social justice that the Yankees keep winning and winning and winning. If you are blue today, that's fine. If you are angry, troubled, mired in unfathomable depression . . . well that's a different story.

This postseason had much ugliness to it. Let's be honest - game 3 at Fenway, D-Lowe's crotch grabbing, 'Lilly' taunts led by the PLAYERS! But there was much about it that was brilliant. D-Lowe's pitching, the comeback against Foulke, beating the Yanks in game 6, the spirited play after the Yanks tied it in game 7. The season was a gift to us sports fans; let's be grateful. For those who truly understand sports know that winning and losing just really isn't the point. The competition, the excellence, the camaraderie among fans, the tension, the drama, the thrills, highs and lows - that's the point. And you know what? At the end of the day, if your value as a human being is determined by whether or not your team wins, you've got some evaluating to do.

I followed the Sox on bubble gum cards and boxscores in '78 (the big neighborhood fights were over who got to have Jim Rice as their favorite player, because for some strange reason, if you had a favorite player, nobody else could have him as their favorite player. I had to settle for Freddy Lynn, which wasn't really settling because I liked him better anyway. My brother loved Dewey Evans.) I sat in stunned amazement at the freaky turn of events in Game 6 (and if you have to ask "which game 6", it won't matter if I tell you.) And, like you all, I followed the ups and downs of this team the whole season. I got caught up in a wonderful ride that had its spectacular finale beginning on Labor Day and running through to this morning. What we didn't know was that we wouldn't have our Hollywood ending; what we should know now is that we shouldn't be too upset.

We're not Tigers fans. We're not Expos fans. We don't have to try and root for Pittsburgh. And for heaven's sake, we could be alot worse off. The Sox lost last night - nothing seriously bad happened, like, say, George Bush was re-elected. Let's get a reality check.

Am I rationalizing this to make myself feel better? No. I really am not. If you can't be happy this morning that we had such a great post-season, I'm not sure you'll enjoy a championship when it comes (which, I think, will be next season.) Sure, there is some emptiness to the way it ended. But ours is a team that has given us much to cheer about - let's be thankful for what it was. It was an opportunity to feel some regional pride; a chance to pull for something that is bigger than ourselves; a chance to enjoy the highs and the lows - in other words, be reminded that we are alive; and, most importantly, a chance to enjoy a shared experience with friends and family. If I'm right, and this is what we get out of being sports fans, than it doesn't really matter that we didn't win . . .

2003-10-13T11:01:00.000-05:00

Wow! You leave the kids alone for awhile and see what happens? My apologies for not posting for awhile. As many of you know, I am a teacher and September is busy. I decided to get back into it this past weekend during the playoffs, but I haven't had the spirit yet. So much of the ALDS, and clearly now the ALCS, has shown that the ugliness of the other three pro sports is leaking into baseball at a fast rate, and there seems to be little to block the flow.

I spent some time reading some of the other blogs, particularly Bronx Banter and Bambino's Curse, and I felt I needed to get back out on the blogfield. These guys, along with RedBirdNation have inspired me to go back to baseball and give it the love it deserves. For, in the end, despite the ugliness of everybody involved, baseball fans - real baseball fans, not Bill Simmons and his crowd of obnoxion - need to stand up and demand better from the game we love.

There are still reasons to watch this series. Despite Pedro's and Manny's and Garcia's and Zimmer's and Nelson's and Bloomberg's and Buck's and McCarver's best efforts to turn us off, we still have Nomar and Varitek and Nixon and Damon and Jeter and Williams and Giambi and Rivera . . . we still have the Green Monster and Yankee pinstripes. . . we still have Fenway and the Stadium . . . we still have Boston and New York . . . and most importantly, we still have baseball to play.

I will let that suffice for now. I intend to dissect the playoffs soon - unfortunately, I've been more disgusted than excited about the Red Sox in this postseason. But, I intend to demand that baseball be returned to us fans, wrestled away from thugs like Pedro and Garcia and Posada and Manny who are bringing it down to the level of the NBA. I encourage all of us true fans to do the same. . .

2003-09-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

Sox 7 Birds 5

I have nothing really extraordinary to say about the win last night. There was some trouble holding on to the comfy lead, but Kim was great (fabulous movement and location) and the offense got a crooked number off a good pitcher. Hopefully, this signals the emergence from the mini-slump of the team (not coincidentally, last night was the first night the team had all eight regulars in the lineup.)

One observation - I think Damian Jackson had time to get the ball out of his glove and toss it with his hand to Nomar covering on the botched DP in the eighth. Interesting question about late inning replacements - Jackson has better range than Walker, and probably better hands; however, does a late inning replacement suffer from a lack of game speed experience? I think that if Jackson were a regular second basemen, he'd be more in tune with the tempo of the DP tandem and would have made a better play. What do you all think, Sox Nation? E-mail me.

By the way, thanks for all the e-mails. I plan to answer them in this space tomorrow.

2003-09-22T13:26:00.000-05:00

I need to print a retraction. Jorge Posada is the best catcher any American League's Eastern division. RedbirdNation alerted me to a Rob Neyer column comparing Varitek and Posada. Strange that I missed it, given the fact that I do an exhaustive Nexis search every day and read close to 3 million articles daily about baseball. Nevertheless, I missed it. It seems I hadn't done all my homework. Posada has posted numbers significantly superior to Varitek. I still believe Varitek to be the superior defensive catcher (this is where Neyer's love of statistics let him down - he uses team ERA as the indicator of the catcher's ability-clearly, there is quite a bit more that factors into team ERA than just catcher's ability. Indeed, one could argue that the Red Sox would have a much higher team ERA if Varitek were not as good as he is.) So, I must issue a mea culpa to Posada-and I'm sure he reads this site every day-you are the best catcher any American League Eastern division.

However, you are not the MVP. I simply can't be convinced that Posada is the best or most important player in the American League. For my money, Rodriguez of Texas is the MVP. I know how the argument goes; where would the Rangers be without him? Still fighting it out for last place. But that same argument can cut the other direction as well. Where would the Yankees be without Posada? Almost certainly, still in the playoffs. Maybe without his offense they would not win the Eastern division; but I suspect he's not so important to that team that they would not make the playoffs without him. So if the measure used to exclude Rodriguez is that his team would be in the same position with or without him, well then that same measure can be used to exclude Posada. Beyond that, his numbers just aren't the dominant kind of numbers you would expect from MVP.

And I just to Red Sox fan who refuses to acknowledge Posada as a likely MVP candidate? Maybe so. But still, I can't help but be surprised at the level of support for Posada.

2003-09-22T09:52:00.000-05:00

Red Sox 2 Indians 0,

I was unable to see Pedro Martinez for all a masterpiece yesterday against the Indians... I had a golf tournament to win (all praise me.) however, from the highlights, and from Peter Gammons' comments yesterday on baseball tonight, it looks like Pedro is saving is best for last. In fact, Gammons suggested that Pedro should win the Cy Young award this year. Sounds good to me...

speaking of end of year awards, Joe Morgan suggested that Jorge Posada should be and VP of the American League. This is laughable, and shows just how little critical thinking ability Joe Hass. Jorge Posada has good numbers this year; however, they are only slightly better than Jason Varitek's numbers, and Varitek is by all accounts a vastly superior receiver. So, I think you have a tough case even saying the Posada is the best catcher in the American League Eastern division, let alone the best player in the American League. Very similar to this sort of thinking that led to Miguel Tejada's selection as the American League MVP last season. I think the voters get carried away with whoever the trendy candidates are. Jorge Posada is clearly a trendy candidates. Also, by all accounts, he gets along great with reporters. Certainly doesn't hurt his candidacy for the American League most valuable player.

For my money, I have to go with many Ramirez as the MVP of the American League this season. It's a bit of a homer pick, but hey, I'm a homer.

2003-09-21T06:49:00.000-05:00

Cleveland 13 Sox 4
It looks like I spoke to soon. The Sox really took one on the chin last night. Fortunately, there is a silver lining; regular readers of this site know that I can find a silver lining in anything.

Derek Lowe was victimized by bad defense and timely hitting from the Indians lineup. The base hit that finally drove him out of the game from Blake was an exceptionally good piece of hitting. Lowe had gotten ahead in the count and was busting sinker is down and in on him in an effort to get him to ground out. All pitches were good pitches, and all Blake could do was filed them off for most of the at-bat. Finally Blake was able to get his hands in tight enough to get the barrel of the bat on the ball and pull it inside the third baseline. So, in other words, Lowe really didn't pitch all that badly, even though he was saddled with the loss.

The other silver lining is that our bullpen that lacked around conveniently ball in the same night. In other words, when they choose to go bad they all go bad at the same time. Who cares that Williamson gave up five runs in the eighth? After all, Sauerbeck had just been smacked around himself the previous in inning. The game was effectively over anyway, so if Williamson is going to choose a night to be bad, it may has well has been last night.

The question of whether sour back is going to be effective in the postseason is a real one. The question of whether Williamson will be effective in the postseason is not as pressing, in my mind. Williamson has suffered from the odd bad outing; but more often than not he's been quite effective. I'm confident he will be effective in the postseason is used correctly. However, I'm not as confident about sour back. His stuff has been good, but he just doesn't have any control right now. As Jerry Remy said last night on the broadcast, you simply can't walk everybody in lineup and expect to be effective.

On an aside, does anybody else get the feeling that Timlin and Embree are best friends and Williamson and sour back are best friends and they insist on pitching in the same games together? It seems that is Little decides to bring Timlin in the game then Embree is not too far behind; it's Sauerbeck comes in, he's usually followed by Williamson. Sometimes the manager for flops these pitching changes, but she can usually banked on the combinations. It's kinda funny - almost like he is using the buddy system in kindergarten. If he is Williamson and Sauerbeck are those two kids who always managed to get in trouble on every field trip. You know the two - always sticking their hands through the bars of the cage at the zoo, not looking across the street, running in the McDonald's, making faces out of the back of the bus on the way back to school...

It has been said probably more than any other truism about baseball, but it bears repeating here... today is a new day and last night thrashing only towns is one loss. The Red Sox are still two games up on Seattle in the loss column, and we have the hottest pitcher in the American League going for us today. Pedro has owned the Indians in his career, and there's no reason to think he won't continue to hold the deed on this team today. Expect a Boston win with a revival of the thumping bats.

2003-09-20T18:26:00.000-05:00

This just in from Oakland: Seattle 9, Oakland 3. Two days in a row, the Mariners have handed Oakland their lunch. These thrashings only bode well for Sox Nation. If the Red Sox continue to win then they have nothing to fear from a little Seattle win streak against the West division leading A's. On the contrary, this can only serve to weaken the A's. Seattle, a team who has struggled to score runs for the entire month of September, is having their way with the vaunted Oakland pitching staff. Just think what the Sox lineup-healthy and rested, hopefully-will do to the Oakland pitching staff in the American League division series. I have to think that the Sox will be able to score runs against Oakland. Right now, a fight for the division title between Oakland and Seattle will only serve to weaken and wear out either team, making them ripe for the pickings against the Sox in the American League division series. If Seattle is within a game or to in the final weekend of the season, hosting Oakland in their place, and they are able to slug it out with them, neither team will be able to get their pitching rotation sat for the postseason. The longer it takes Oakland to clinch, the better it is for the Sox.

The same logic could be applied to the Sox and their situation. The longer it takes them to clinch the harder it will be for them to put their pitching rotation in the correct order for the postseason. If Seattle makes a run against Oakland it will only be that much more difficult for the Sox to clinch. The one difference is that it really doesn't matter for the Sox. The rotation is set up right now that even if the Sox have not clinch before heading south to Tampa for the final series of the season, the rotation has worked out so that Martinez will be able to pitch the opener in Oakland anyway. In fact, the globe jokingly suggested that Martinez could simply stay in Oakland, wait for the team to come back to open for game 5, and pitch game 5. That's how serendipitously the schedule and pitching rotation is working out for the Red Sox right now.

(By the way, as I finish this entry, Trot Nixon, in his first at-bat back from his leg injury homered. What else can you say, when things are just going your way?)

2003-09-20T14:44:00.000-05:00

My apologies to all of those in Sox Nation who have not had a chance to read me lately. Some of you may know that I am a teacher; all of you know the teachers are busy in September. Certainly this is no excuse-the Red Sox are busy in September, and their certainly not using that as an excuse for lackluster play. When I last wrote, we were getting ready for a big series in the Bronx. The first two games looked great; the last game had many great things into, including a great pitching performance by Jeff Suppan. Unfortunately, David Wells was that much better. There is really nothing you can do when a good pitcher is on his game like David Wells was. Certainly it has been a long time since David Wells was on his game, but good experienced pitchers often can figure out how to get it done when the game is on the line. That is the reasoning that Grady Little is using when he chooses John Burkett as his fourth starter (if he does decide on John Burkett after all.)

In the intervening two weeks, the Red Sox have shown that they are a playoff caliber team. The Red Sox of old would have lost two out of three to Baltimore after losing the opening game of the series in nightmarish fashion-not come back to win two out of three. These Red Sox simply won't fold. They are too good of a hitting team to be beaten by good pitching-you need great pitching to beat them. In the past few weeks, they have beaten Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay-all of whom wear on their game when the Red Sox faced in. Frankly, a team will need great pitching to beat the Red Sox this year in the postseason. The resilient Red Sox dropped two of three to Chicago-the middle game not even the 1927 Yankees would have won, the way Bartolo was on his game that night. Whereas the Red Sox of old would have folded after dropping two out of three, these Red Sox have shown all year that they are resilient enough to bounce back from bad losses. They have never really gotten into one of those old Red Sox slides where they dropped two of three, which then becomes three of five, then seven of nine... On the contrary, they jumped all over Tampa Bay in game one of the series right after the Chicago losses, and won two very close tough pitched games in that series. Last night's game showed that this team is-dare we say it-a team of destiny? Pedro, Derek, and old John Burkett are right on top of their games right now. Tim Wakefield is not that far behind. Mike Timlin and Alan Embree are certainly pitching well out of the pen right now. Even BK Kim is pitching better than he had been-in spite of drilling two batters with two outs last night.

The Red Sox are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners with nine games to play. Even the traditional pessimistic Red Sox fan has to admit that this looked good. It has been set one million times already, but Seattle has to play old 25 more times. The Red Sox have to play Tampa three more times, Baltimore for more times, and Cleveland to more times. A 2 1/2 game lead with nine games to play should be safe. Belmar showed signs of coming out of his slump last night, tried mixing should be back in the lineup today, and Bill Miller should be healthy soon. Hopefully, Seattle will drop the next two games to Oakland and the Red Sox will win the next two games in Cleveland. If we went out Monday morning with a five-game lead in the loss column over Seattle, we should be able to get our rotation in order for the opening series against Oakland. Indeed. . . Am quite comfortable with talking about the playoffs now.

So, how do we matchup against Oakland? Beyond that, how do we matchup against Minnesota in New York? (In an aside, I have to admit that I am quite happy to see Chicago falling back of Minnesota. For some reason I just don't like this Chicago White Sox team. Roberto Alomar, Carl Everett, and Frank Thomas are all thoroughly dislikable players. Moreover, Sox Nation has already made clear its opinion that Brian Daubach is getting a raw deal in Chicago. A couple of weeks ago when the Red Sox were in town for a big series against the White Sox, who themselves were making a push toward the top of their division and a playoff spot, it was easy to see on the TV screen that there were not many people really all that interested in coming to see the White Sox play. It is one of my selfish, petty little things, but if the hometown crowd doesn't even care about the team and the playoffs, why should the rest of us?) In short, we matchup against Oakland quite well. Pedro, Derek, Wakefield, and Burkett are pitching as well as any for starters in the American League right now. I really believe that. Certainly, the closest thing we have to money in the bank is Pedro. He looked like Pedro from 1999 the other night against Tampa Bay. Lowe, Wakefield, and Burkett are still capable of blowing up in the face of good hitting-but the A's are not a good hitting team. Also Lowe, Wakefield, and Burkett are all pitching the best they have all season right now. There is no team in the American League it is really a buzz saw-a team you expected tear right through the playoffs into the World Series the way the Oakland A's of 1988 and 1990 had that care of inevitability about them. So, without the dominant team in the league, we have kind of an NHL/NBA thing going on. By that I mean that a team that is hot going into the playoffs could easily ride that he waved right into the World Series. Moreover the Red Sox have shown that they can pummel any of the teams that are likely playoff bound in the American League this year. They have thrashed Yankees, thrashed the A's, and thrashed to the Twins. They have also been thrashed by those teams. However, I feel good knowing that the Red Sox have beaten up these teams already this year... it leaves me to believe that they are capable of beating them up again. And why not? The Diamondbacks of 2001 were a world champion built on pitching. They hit OK, but they won because of the two dominant starters. Last year's champion Angels, were a team who succeeded because of timely hitting and resilient rallies. They got good pitching when they needed it; but they weren't team who won because of their offense. The Yankees have won because of their offense. The Blue Jays won in the early '90s because of their offense. I simply think that dominant pitching is not a necessity to win in the playoffs; certainly dominant pitching will win you many games, but I think the conventional wisdom that dominant pitching is what wins championships is overstated. The dominant offense is just as important as dominant pitching in the postseason.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if the Red Sox do get into the playoffs, I like your chances against all the great pictures and bolt the American League and the National League. Yes the National League. That's how confident I am about this playoff bound to team. The stars are in alignment. Pedro will pitched game one in Oakland. There will be no need to go back to Oakland for game 5-1 just in case there is Pedro will be able to pitch that one as well. And certainly the Red Sox bats are capable of smacking around any pitcher in the league. Roy Halladay is this year's Cy Young winner-to suggest otherwise is foolish, I think. The last time the Red Sox faced Halladay he had his best stuff. And he still got whacked. Three home runs, a David Ortiz bomb... I think I game against Halladay is the real proof that this team has to be considered one of the favorites in the postseason-in both leagues.

If you disagree with me that dominant pitching is overstated and overrated, drop me an e-mail. If you agree with me that dominant pitching is overstated and overrated, drop me an e-mail. If anything else is on your mind about the Red Sox in the postseason chances, drop me an e-mail.

2003-09-05T14:26:00.000-05:00

2003-09-05T14:24:00.000-05:00

Bigger than big . . .

The Red Sox are probably going to be in the postseason. Clearly, nothing is a guarantee, but unless Seattle can put something together offensively down the stretch, I think the Sox are going to get the wildcard . . . if they don't win the division. The Sox need to take 2 out of 3 this weekend to put themselves in a position to win the division. They need to take 2 out of 3 even if they only get the wildcard. And they need to send a message to Yankeeland that they can beat the Yankees when it counts (and they haven't done that since the tail end of the '99 season when they surged hard, sweeping in the Bronx behind Pedro's 17 strikeout 1-hitter in the series opener, getting to within three games, but time ran out.) If the Sox are going to win the pennant this year, they'll have to beat the Yanks in the ALCS, which means winning a couple of playoff games in the Bronx (I'm assuming that the Yanks will beat the Palehose/Twinkie/Le Royale entrant from the central division.) To prove that they can do it, they'll have to get some good pitching . . .

Pedro is due for a big game. With the depth of the bullpen right now after the September callup, the Sox are positioned to avoid the pitching blunders of last weekend. If Petey, Wakey, or the Last Suppan falter, Little can go to Fossum, Lyon, Arroyo, or Mendoza in the middle innings. Sauerbeck was okay the other night, and Williamson looked great in the Chicago series (even better in his postgame interview - sign him up, this guys a gamer. To wit, many players use the second person "they" to describe a team they've recently been traded to, but Williamson has said "we" from the very first day he got here.) Timlin is much better coming into a bases loaded, nobody out, Babe Ruth at the plate type of jam than he is starting an inning protecting a lead - but overall, he's been the best reliever in the pen, and one of the more reliable setup men in the AL. All told, the pitching left the Sox out to dry last
weekend; the bullpen got a new cache of arms this week. Obviously, the Yanks have some callups too, but not the sort that will make the kind of difference that the Sox callups will.

Manny is going to have two homers tonight off Pettite. Just got a feelin'. Nomar is going to have a big series. This is the type of season that SI commemorative editions are made of. The comebacks, the galvanizing wins, making up so much ground so quickly on the Yanks . . . it all adds up to a storybook season . . .

Sox players have long publicly fibbed saying that the curse doesn't bother them, '86 doesn't bother them, yada yada yada. The Sox are saying the same thing, but this time I believe them. Go Sox.

p.s. If you need a laugh, search the web for Shea Hillenbrand quotes. He is a lunatic. Now he's talking about how the two best clubhouse guys when he was in Boston were Manny and Carl Everett. Goodbye Shea . . .

2003-09-04T16:05:00.000-05:00

Ahh. The finish to the game was sweet indeed. I couldn't believe it when Ortiz poked it into the stands. The smile on Grady's face was a thing of beauty, if that word can even be applied to a mug like his. And of course B.K. got it done in his usual way. Unpredictable.

I kinda remember Boomer being left-handed....did he switch hit?

2003-09-04T08:48:00.000-05:00

Sox 5 Sox 4

The Sox dropped two in typical fashion this week . . . save for it wasn't our guys this time (sorry - regular readers of SoxNation know I think all this pessimism and "curse" stuff is junk, but I thought it'd be a fun way to start the post.) I did not get to see most of the game, but when I tuned in with the Sox ahead 4-3, I knew it was a win. Even when Timlin gave up the homer to Valentin, I knew they'd win. D-Lowe pitched well, Ortiz is looking like a lefthanded Boomer Scott, and even Manny made a play (though he was in no hurry to get to that ball in the corner, was he?)

I am hoping for two jacks from Manuel this weekend. This off day will be good for the team and for the fans. We all need a break . . .

2003-09-03T09:11:00.000-05:00

Wondering if Grady secured himself a contract extension last night? I think he handled the Ramirez situation perfectly. If Manny isn't the first guy at the park today, apologizing to his teammates, getting water for Doug Mirabelli (whether or not Mirabelli is in the game) then he should be benched until he does these things. Remember when Jim Leyland let Barry Bonds have it in spring training years ago? I think that saved Bonds' career - not that Barry was going to wash out, but it propelled him to Olympian heights. If Grady can tough love Manny in the right direction, I say keep him (Grady and Manny.)

2003-09-03T06:47:00.000-05:00

Hello, Manny . . .

I'll be the contrarian and say keep Manny. I'll also say that none of us really has any idea what goes on off the field or, for that matter, on the field. And the popular media is of no help. They get a couple of tibbits, read what they want into it, and collect their paychecks.
Manny is a great hitter, and I think importantly, feared by pitchers and managers. He disrupts the game. The improvement in his fielding shouldn't be overlooked. I don't sense any lazybones attitude about playing left field in Fenway. He is more than adequate and far better than Millar, Kapler, et al. And if he's a bit spacey, so what? Christ, Nixon threw the ball in the stands with only 2 outs! Who knows what Little thinks Manny did and I'm sure Manny couldn't give him a straight answer. The guy probably doesn't know, or care, what day it is. And who knows why he refused to pinch hit, or whatever. Grady certainly isn't the great communicator so maybe they just were crossed up. I say leave Manny alone but when his contract comes up pay attention to the market.

The guy I would like to see axed is that "sportscaster", I don't even know his name, that called Manny an idiot savant, a moron, etc. Unprofessional, self-serving, and more.

2003-09-02T12:36:00.000-05:00

Goodbye, Manny . . .

I've been reluctant to jump on the Manny Bashwagon these past couple of years because I felt like most of the criticism he received was unfair. He hustles in the field and produces - so what if he's got a bit of a lazybones persona around the clubhouse? But this weekend sent me over the edge. I will not reiterate the points that have been made a million other places; rather, I'll take this opportunity to say that Manny needs to go too (the "too" part coming from SoxNation's well documented desire to dump Pedro.) Finding a taker will be hard as hell, given that ridiculous contract that Manny has. However, I think the negativity this guy is beginning to bring to the clubhouse could kill morale. He quit on the team his first year, remember, not even bothering to finish the season.

If somebody (LA Dodgers, maybe) was desperate enough for hitting and had the bucks to take on Manny, I'd dump him overboard first chance I could for prospects. Take his $20M per year and sign 4 or 5 David Ortiz type players, or two front line pitchers. Remember, getting several "lesser" guys using salary that would've gone to one guy can really work out well (realize that Kevin Millar and David Ortiz are making combined what Brian Daubach would've won in arbitration.)

Give Nomar big bucks. Give Tek his due. Lock up Nixon. Sign Lowe for three years at $15M. Chuck Manny and Pedro out to the NL West and say "so long, it's been good knowing ya."

2003-09-01T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sox 13 Phils 9

Watching Trot's postgame interview, with his profuse thanks to the "Man Upstairs" leads me to wonder - was it the man upstairs that told him to throw that bat at Ryan Rupe last year?

2003-09-01T13:14:00.000-05:00

Yanks 8 Sox 4

I did not see a single pitch of the game yesterday, so I will refrain from commenting save to say that it was a nice gesture from the Sox faithful to give Clem-Dog a standing O and for Clembo to acknowledge the fans. That could've been embarassing for everybody so I'm glad it worked out well . . .

Is there anything worse for a Sox fan looking to settle into a game on the tube than to find out it is on UPN with Sean "I hate the Red Sox" McDonough? He's gone from a rising national caliber talent to a petty scoundrel so fast. He is so negative. To wit, today, he keeps coming back to bashing Manny about an unfounded rumor that he was out on Saturday night in a hotel restaurant. Report not confirmed. Plus, even if Manny was there, it is the same hotel he lives in - hardly a night on the town, jumpin' around. Worst case scenario, Manny just having dinner. To listen to McDonough, you'd've thought Manny was deliberately throwing the season.

Manny deserves to be boxed about the ears for saying he'd love to play in NY one day (I just think the poor guy is ultra-naive, not pissy like Martinez or Mo Vaughn) when he's making $20M a year here. But McDonough needs to calm down. You can hear the vitriol in his voice. I'll bet that if the Sox had swept the Yanks this weekend, he'd still be looking for negatives to rip the team on. I imagine that he's pissy because his career is on a dead end track, but he really ruins the game for the fans. . .

2003-08-31T12:22:00.000-05:00

Last night's game was a joy, despite the Sox loss. Cookie has summed it all up rather nicely. When we do get to the Pedro bashing I have three items.

1. His fielding is WEAK and sometimes non-existent.
2. 5 or 6 innings isn't enough
3. Why do people make excuses for him?

2003-08-31T06:22:00.000-05:00

Crank Yankers 10 Sox 7

All that I can say about the game yesterday is that those guys are good. You've got to hand it to them. Embree made a zillion pitchers pitches to Wilson before he took the one hittable pitch to right field. McCarty had the same type of at bat in the bottom of the eighth. Just shows you how good each of these two teams are. Looking at the playoff picture as a whole, the NL will have two teams in who will probably be less than 10 games over .500, and the AL will have a team left out that is close to 20-25 games over .500.

It will be tempting to bash BK Kim, and the poor guy does seem to have some real tough stretches against the Yanks. However, before we take his head off, let's remember that the base hit was a chop in front of the plate, i.e. hardly the pitchers fault, and the home run was to one of the better clutch hitters in the game this year, Posada. He otherwise didn't have a hard hit ball against him. If we rip Kim, we must rip Pedro too.

And if we do want to spend time assigning blame, we need to blame Mueller for swining at a pitch at his eyes after Rivera spent most of the inning getting ready to blow the save. We have to blame Nomar for swinging at the first pitch in the ninth against Rivera - he had been wild, and Nomar should know that with a three run deficit, drawing a walk (which was likely, given how bad Rivera was locating pitches) was nearly just as valuable as a homer (which was clearly what he had in mind) because the guys behind you have to get on and come around too (it's the same sort of thinking that leads teams not to hold runners with a multiple run lead in the ninth.) We have to blame Millar for poor at bats all day, especially in the ninth. I'm not prepared to blame those guys (though I think Nomar's at bat in the ninth was poorly planned - I know the guy is a free swinger and that that style suits him, but I'd like him to have a bit of a plan at the plate in the ninth inning.)

Positives:
1. Jumped all over Pettite early - Pettite is Cy-worthy, and the Sox continued their pattern of jumping all over any pitcher
2. Bronson Arroyo - He pitched darn well again. Tim McCarver desperately wanted Arroyo to fail. "It's not that he's getting outs, it's the kind of outs he's getting." That tell you what, Tim? An out's and out, right? "Little better have a short leash with Arroyo because this is still a one run game." Tim the genius said this when Arroyo was mowing 'em down in the sixth. Tim clearly thought this was some kind of late season, get 'em some experience call up. Hasn't done his homework. Didn't know Arroyo was the IL pitcher of the year or that he started 54 big league games with the Pirates. Tim clearly thought he was some kind of newbie. Shame on Tim for tending towards Joe Morganland.
3. The comeback - key hit provided by David McCarty. Trot Nixon was one of the first to congratulate him when he came to the dugout.
4. Plate discipline - Sox hitters are just not going to expand the strike zone. It pays off. I don't know why there are still any free swingers in the big leagues. Remember how spastically last year's team would've been flailing away, especially with the team trailing?

Negatives and other nitpicks:
1. Kapler needs to take about 1000 fly balls off the wall if he is going to play any more games in left. Balls off the wall and in the corner he boxed around like he was trying to corral a live snake.
2. Mueller's impetuous swing in the eighth inning.
3. Can't really think of any others. The Crank Yankers earned that win yesterday.

Let's rip Rajah apart.

2003-08-30T08:17:00.000-05:00

Can't help but think about Rajah's last game at Fenway already. I'm not trying to look past the Pedro-Pettite matchup today (which should be a dandy of a pitching matchup - by the way, remember back in '98 when the boss wanted to trade Pettite?) but the Globe ran a good piece on Clemens today. Rajah was asked what he will expect from fans tomorrow and he said "The fans here don't owe me anything . . . they were good to me and cheered me on . . . when you play for the visiting team you take what you get . . ." So what will the fans do? Who knows. If the Sox win today, the fans will be circling the water like Great White sharks in a feeding frenzy, so anything is possible. I expect they'll give him a standing O when he comes off the mound. And you know, they should. A Sox fan has to hope for Clemens' failures, because he plays for the Yanks. If he were pitching for the Padres, check the boxscore and cheer him on. But the Sox fans are by and large a gracious lot when they should be. They'll acknowledge Clem-Dog, and then route hard for him to get his brains beaten in. That is really the only acceptable position for a Sox fan to have. I'd like to see the fans acknowledge Clemens at the start of the game, and again when he leaves the mound . . . and I'd like both things to happen in the first inning.

2003-08-30T07:41:00.000-05:00

Sox 6 Loonies 3
Sox 10 Pinstripers 5

This has to be the most encouraging pair of wins the Sox have had since beating the Indians three in a row in the ALDS of 99. Beating Doc Halladay for an essential win (losing that game would've made the spread 5.5 games going into the Yankees series) was fantastic. I think that win will be the moment for me when I became 100% convinced that this team has got the duende to make it to the Series. After the clown show that was the bullpen the night before, and after staking Cy Halladay to a three run lead (incidentally, Halladay had his best stuff that night as well), the three homer barrage to come back and win that game showed that these guys have got it.

Last night's win should've been a loss. Almost September, pretty close to the 25 year anniversary of the Boston Massacre, your hottest pitcher getting shelled early . . . all of that adds up to a Sox loss (I know that Sox Nation has argued against the pessimism and woe-is-us attitude around the team, but adopting that attitude here helps me make my point - you've got to be an opportunist, after all:) You all know how it went; Yanks get two, Sox get three, Yanks get three, Sox get four . . . not only was the win itself great, but the way they won is kind of like the way the Yanks have won so many games through their incredible run of the last seven years. Psychologically, if you're a Yankees fan, you know you're going to lose that game. That's just the way it unfolded. The Sox played, hit, and pitched with such steely confidence. This is looking like a championship team.

If you go back and look at the championship runs of the past several years, every champ has some sort of identity that evolves in the last month or so of the season that becomes their trademark. The Angels were the comeback kids, the D-Backs had that stunning pair of pitchers, the Yanks were the calm assassins. The Red Sox are evolving into the "top-to-bottom-we'll-send-your-best-pitcher-to-the-psych-ward-lineup." Halladay, Harden, Meche, Piniero, Garcia, Contreras (who, to be fair, had been really hot and threw the ball really well at times last night) have all been rocked in the past week. The Sox had no right to come back on Halladay Wednesday night - he's the best pitcher in the league and he had his best stuff. He was light's out. In fact, the only pitches he threw that weren't totally nasty were the pitches that led to the Sox runs. A very telling scene last night was the reaction of Contreras after Walker singled in the middle of the game. Contreras threw a filthy forkball that Walker slapped into right field for a safety. Contreras just stood there and shook his head. I think the Sox would probably shell Koufax right now.

In the Patriots Super Bowl run, their signature became the ferocious hitting of the defensive secondary. Tim Brown and Jerry Rice of the Raiders did a disappearing act in round one because they were getting their brains beaten in. The Steelers receivers got whacked, the running game stuffed, and Kordell Stewart ran for his life. In the Super Bowl, the Greatest Show on Turf crashed and burned because of the relentless Terminator like hitting of the defense. This Sox team is producing offensively the way that Patriot team was hitting ball carriers - run out any old pitcher you want, boyo, cause we're gonna tee off on him.

I like the Sox' chances in the playoffs. If they get there, it means that at least three of their starters have heated up, e.g. Pedro, Lowe, and Suppan have had a good September. If three guys are throwing it well, this offense can carry this team to a World Series title. The conventional wisdom is that you have to have superior pitching to win in postseason. I think the Red Sox can do it with good pitching because of their unbelievable, once-in-a-generation offense. This offense is so good it makes middle of the road pitching excellent pitching. All praise be to Theo . . .

3.5 down with Pedro pitching today. 7 game deficit cut in half. The Yankee fans must be going nuts. If the Sox win today, Torre will have to be taken into protective custody to protect him from the boss. Hold on tight, because win or lose this September, this team is going to be fun.

2003-08-30T06:17:00.000-05:00

I believe that we can all agree that this has been a most enjoyable Sox season. I am even willing to say that no matter what happens from here on out we have been blessed. Far more enjoyable than seasons of late. Once I analyze the differences I'll blog'em. I am sure Cookie can add some insight. Has Theo worked some magic here?

The last night's game was lovely. My pulse never went over 58 and that's the way baseball ought to be.

Going back to my first sentence I realize that I was do my utmost to not give up on the Sox as I usually do and not to spend the last few weeks of the season bitching. No matter what. I do believe that the Sox will go deep into the playoffs.

2003-08-27T15:58:00.000-05:00

Sox Nation 99 Billion McDonalds 98 Billion

Very exciting that our number of readers served now passes McDonald's. This morning we received our 99 billionth hit. Thank you to all who have made Sox Nation the hottest site on the web. If you enjoy reading Sox Nation, spread the word to everybody you know to check us out. Also, please drop us a line at sox_nation@yahoo.com. We'd love to hear what's on your mind regarding the best sport's experience - which is being a member of Sox Nation - in America. Each Friday, we'll answer the reader mailbag. So, drop a line, rip us to bits, stomp on our eyeballs, gouge our hearts out with a filet knife, tell us what you like so much about us, or ask a question of our resident baseball guru The Dawg. We look forward to hearing from you.

2003-08-27T15:44:00.000-05:00

Loonies 12 Sox 9

Funny how two big innings can happen to an otherwise fairly reliable pitching staff (at least lately.) The two Scotts were two of the most sought after relievers in the Senior Circuit, and our Olde Towne Team got 'em both. And both of 'em did a great job giving up the ghost last night. Oh well, the run couldn't last forever. I wonder what the Sox' record would be if pitching outing were allowed to be played like seven card stud - you know, throw seven innings, keep the best five. Burkett and Lowe have been the chief victims of the "otherwise sound outing spoiled by the big inning" complex. I wonder how this happens. I suppose it just goes to show how fine a razor is used to separate effective pitchers from slingers and chuckers in this game. Burkett can be both in one game. His control can be on and he can be spotting it well for five innings, then in the next inning, his control is off just an inch or two and he can be rocked. [Confession time - I didn't watch last night's game, so I didn't see it firsthand how the thing came apart.] Please let me know if you have any ideas as to why the Sox staff has seemed to be inordinately victimized by the big inning this year.

Is anybody else as confident against Roy Halladay as I am? The Sox always seem to shell him pretty good. Plus, they are at home after all, and they have shown great resiliency at home.

Are the Seattle SailorBoys done? They looked so dead this weekend. They looked as dead as any good team has all season. I wonder if the Sox will cruise into the wild card - not because Oakland will fall apart (as many in the punditocracy are predicting) but because the M's ship will sink. We shall see. . .

2003-08-26T07:13:00.000-05:00

Sox 6 and 8, Sinking Ships 1 and 1

There was a good bit of hemming and hawing about how the Sox now have to chase two teams, the A's and the M's, for a wild card spot. Seriously. That's just silly. The Red Sox have two teams to chase, the Yanks for the division and the A's/M's for the wild card. One of the two west teams will win that division, obviously, so the Sox will have to chase the team in second place. They don't have to beat out both of them. Apparently, some media types don't even understand that.

Pedro wants out again. Sick of all the criticism. I'd be burned too, if I were in the hospital with an IV in my arm and the media said I was faking it (in a classic media "setup" move - see Sunday's post.) But he again talked about playing somewhere else, in the middle of a playoff push. Fortunately, Pedro plays one of the few positions in sports where selfish goals and team goals are one and the same; however, I think the team needs to think long and hard about trying to move him in the offseason. If the Sox win it all this year (and I think they will), then moving Pedro in the offseason is a definite. The proverbial "window" for the team is closing, and if the Sox have a World Series championship, they can blow up this window right away and move to open another. Pedro will command $20-25 million. Varitek, Lowe, and a bunch of others can be had for that money. Plus, Pedro could garner 5 top line prospects in a trade in the offseason. Those prospects could form the nucleus of the next "window" of opportunity the team could have. Texas might trade for Pedro. Maybe the Mets (and they have some good arms on the farm.) Maybe the Giants will want Pedro next year if they don't win it all this year. I think that a trade of Pedro could be akin to the Gretzky trade from Edmonton to LA. Edmonton's end of the deal built the foundation for another Stanley Cup run. Remember Jimmy Johnson dealing Herschel Walker for about a zillion picks? Two or three Super Bowls was the payoff. How about the M's success dealing away Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey?

There are reasons not to trade Pedro, and they are obvious. But one reason NOT to pull the trigger on a Pedro deal would be the criticism the team would get for letting him go. The Curse of Petey would crop up immediately, and the media feeding frenzy would be astonishing. I don't think Theo cares about this, though; the same could not be said for previous management, however. I wouldn't deal Pedro for anything less than an absolute motherlode of top line pitching prospects, but if I could get that kind of a deal, I'd do it in a heart beat. It would be a bold move to be sure, but I'd like to see this team be bold and build a sustainable foundation of an organization that will compete in the AL East for years to come.

2003-08-24T08:21:00.000-05:00

Sox 7 Village People 6

I've got plenty to say about the game, and I will in due time. But first, I must highlight Dan Shaughnessey's column today as proof positive of the negative media bias in Boston. His article today in the Sunday Globe is generous, but demonstrates three of the classic Boston media moves . . . the setup, the deliberate misinterpretation, and the persistent falsehood.

First, he makes the case that the Red Sox are in the driver's seat for the wild card spot (especially with Mulder's injury and Zito's mediocrity.) While none would argue with the idea that things are much better now than they did mid-week, it is really preposterous to say that the Sox are "in the driver's seat." It is clear that the wild card will be the Sox or the AL West runner up, but I certainly don't see the Sox as "in the driver's seat." The A's are just too good to fall apart because of this injury to Mulder, and the M's have been clearly the second best team in the AL. When Shaughnessey fits this team into "no excuse jeans", he's setting up a proverbial Many Questions to be Answered type of column for October if the Sox miss the playoffs.

The second play Shaughnessey makes is the deliberate misinterpretation. "I'm ready to be booed again," said Kloser Kim after his blown save yesterday. Sounds to me like an admission of a real pro - 'hey, the fans can boo if they want to, and I deserve to be booed', Kim seems to be saying. A little tough to talk that way through an interpreter, so we'll have to settle for Kim's quote. Shaughnessey used this quote as a setup for his next line "You want positive, Messrs, Millar, Lowe, Jones, Martinez, and Kim?" Shaughnessey seems clearly to be saying that Kim is griping about negative fans and negative media. Lowe, Jones, and Martinez are all guilty of this. But Kim?

The third tool from Shaughnessey's toolbox employed is the persisntent falsehood. This is when the reporter takes a bit of information that has been shown to be incorrect (e.g. Millar's comment that the fans were negative - never said that) and let's the impression created by the original misinformation persist. Millar get's lumped in with Jones, Lowe, and Martinez as a fan accuser, though he has been acquitted of that charge. No matter, because Shaughnessey uses this perception to his advantage. Shaughnessey may claim that Millar has been negative about the media (and he has) but the way Shaughnessey constructs his paragraph, it's clear he's referring to booing fans.

The setup, the misinterpretation, and the persisting falsehood. Perfect these tools, and you too can stir up enough bee's nests to be sure you're on WEEI later in the week raking in some walking around money. (For a terrific article about this phenomenon of writers starting trouble to be sure to get on the radio later in the week - and make a nice little appearance fee besides - see Bill Simmons' piece from awhile back.)

2003-08-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Sox 6 Sailors 4
Wild Card Dead Heat

Glad to be back with the miracle of the information superhighway. I was out in the information hinterlands for awhile (funny, I moved not more than a mile from my previous home, but it became a month and a half long odyssey to get the superhighway to put an on-ramp by my new house.) I'm also glad to be back posting after two big Red Sox wins.

The name of the game today is "perceptions." It is so funny about how perceptions can affect the way players play and fans root. After the two losses to Oakland to begin the homestand, most, if not all in SoxNation were figuring out how to make sure the concrete blocks they tied around their neck wouldn't slip off when they threw themselves off the Zakim bridge. Now, bring on the damn Yankees!

This manic roller coaster ride must be particularly acute in Boston. I can't imagine any city behaving the way we do. My good friends over at RedBirdNation have to have their belts and shoelaces taken from them afters Cardbird's losses, but I'd be surprised if they are indicative of the character of the whole fandom. In New England, even the most casual fan can go from "it's over, how are the Patriots doing?" - in mid-August, by the way - to "print the playoff tickets now" - also in mid-August, by the way - in the span of three days. It really indicates the passion, intensity, loyalty, and manic-depressiveness of us here in SoxNation.

Funny, too, how perceptions affect players - especially self-perceptions. Ironically, moving a struggling Todd Walker back into the lineup in the 2 hole has helped him break out of his slump. It seems as though players shouldn't have to "be comfortable" in the lineup - just hit the damn ball! But I think Walker has the self-perception that he is a number two hitter (he certainly can't have the perception that he is a gold glove leatherman.) Batting eighth makes sense during a slump period, but if the player's identity is forcibly shifted, most notably in his own head, he begins to have a different approach to the game. "I'm not effective, I need to be more patient, more aggressive, take walks, swing away . . ." you name it. Jason Varitek's season at the plate helps to illustrate what I mean. He is having a great year hitting in the nine hole, and going back into the nine spot recently has helped him begin to break out of his own little mini-slump. If Varitek bats fifth or sixth, his self-perception at the plate might change. In the nine spot, he might be thinking "I'm the backstop, and any offense I can give is a bonus." That keeps him loose and consequently he produces. Move him into the five hole, and he thinks "I need to protect Manny, I need to be aggressive at the plate, I need to produce . . ." he changes his mindset, and then might not hit as well. The same nine guys are up there swinging, but the self-image produced in each player's head might be largely affected by the spot in the order. Twenty runs in two games is tough to argue with. . .

Perceptions . . . how sick was Pedro? Too bad that he "shut it down" last year. I fear that will haunt him the rest of his career (as it probably should.) After calling it a season with one start to go last year, Pedro will has permanently planted a seed that he is a "ducker." He seems to always be hurt just when it would be his time to come to the plate in the NL parks. This illness against the A's. I have no doubt he was as sick as could be. The perceptions of Pedro are at least partly unfair; he's not scared to hit and throw inside, having built his career in Montreal, and he isn't afraid to play hurt - pitching game five of the ALDS in 99 was the gutsiest game since Jack Morris in the 91 World Series. Still, perceptions . . .

Speaking of perceptions, does Sean McDonough hate players or does it just seem that way? To be fair to Sean, I haven't seen much of him the past few years (being stuck in the Dish Network hinterlands, I got NESN, but not 38 - now I'm back in the real world with good old fashioned cable.) He was jumping all over Kevin Millar last night for the (even after it was shown to be incorrect - but don't let the truth distract you, Sean) report that Millar bashed the negativity of the fans. He then made a sweeping statement that Millar should be grateful to play in front of fans that care, especially coming from Florida. Moreover, the Seanster says, Red Sox players should be grateful in general that the fans pay the highest ticket prices in baseball and the season sells out every year. McD says that the players should just shut up and play. Great comments from Sean, if the implicit premise that the players gripe about the fans negativity were true - but it isn't. I'd love readers to send me any quotes [sox_nation@yahoo.com] they have from any players in the last ten years saying the fans stink. The only thing I ever hear is that the players find the media to be negative, rooting for bad things to happen to this team. Players adore the fans. Looks like Seanster fits right in with that negative-media motiff, especially after last night's little hissy fit. I wonder if McDonough needs to be sure to stir up enough bee's nests during his broadcasts of the games to make sure he has enough crap to talk about on his radio show.

Speaking of McDonough, I wonder what caused him to drop off the radar screen of promising up and coming play by play guys. To be fair to Sean, there aren't many national broadcasts of baseball to do anymore, and Joe Buck is a brilliant talent that would crowd out any other potential young, budding superstar mike jockey, but I have to think his surliness and tendency to be negative and smarmy has something to do with it.

Speaking of Todd Walker (I was earlier, I think), should the Sox re-sign him next year? My feeling is they should. His defensive inadequacies are real, but I think it is easier to take a good hitter (and, despite the recent slump, that's what Walker is) and learn to field (see Wade Boggs, Shea Hillenbrand) than the other way around. If it were possible to take good glove men and teach them to hit, Ray Sanchez would not be playing for his eighth team right now. Especially that Freddy Sanchez is gone, I'd resign Walker to two years and extend Mueller. When Youkilis is ready to play third base, I'd move Mueller to second and let Walker walk. [As an aside, it seems that Walker's deficiencies are with his range and ability to turn the double play. How about flopping him over to third and Mueller to second? Range is not as much of a factor at third as is reaction, and you seldom have to make the pivot at third base. But then we run into the whole "self-image" question again.]

The question for today's start is "Whither Pedro?"

2003-07-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

I am sorry that I have vanished off the face of the earth. I have moved recently and have had a struggle trying to establish broadband internet connections at my new house. Hopefully I will have that squared away soon.

Hang in there with me . . . I'll be back!

2003-07-15T09:59:00.000-05:00

I've been on vacation . . .

Sorry to all who've been looking for posts from me for the past few weeks . . . I've been trying to manage a move to a new house. It's done, and I'll be back tomorrow . . . I've got a lot to say. Looking forward to resuming our conversation about SoxNation and the Quest for the Pennant.

2003-07-03T10:27:00.000-05:00

Trying to figure this one out . . .

The Sox are protecting Pedro (perhaps overprotecting him) in order to have him avoid injury. He is fragile, and this makes sense, right? Pedro has left four games with leads only to end up without a win (and the team losing three of those four.) So, what are we saving him for? Shouldn't this guy pitch eight, even nine innings regularly? We can hold him out so he doesn't get hurt so he can help us win games later, right? What if thirty percent of the time we hold him out of the later innings (to win games down the road) we end up losing the game from which he was held? An analagous situation in basketball would holding a guy on the bench with four fouls so he doesn't foul out (and therefore can't contribute minutes) at the cost of the minutes he would've played in the middle of the game, allowing the opponent to get a lead so big that you can't overcome it anyway, even with said hacker in the game? Another analogy - a guy buys a new car but doesn't drive it now so that it will still be new when he drives it later. Does that make any sense? I suspect it makes about as much sense as consistently yanking Pedro too early in games. Don't games now count as much as games later? Wouldn't the bullpen be much more effective needing three or six outs rather than the 9-10 outs they need to get every time Pedro pitches (he's only averaging 6.3 innings per game.) Pitch the guy!

2003-07-03T06:38:00.000-05:00

Sox 5 Deep Sea Groupers 4

On Saturdays and holidays, big time columnists (guys who actually draw a paycheck for writing) use an old tactic called "emptying out the desk drawer of the mind." It's a clever conceit, meant to look like a delicious smorgasbord of thoughtful tidbits for the reader, when really it's just cover for the fact that the writer doesn't feel like piecing together an actual column. NOT ME! I would never do that ;) So, without further adieu, I give you:

Emptying Out the Desk Drawer of the Mind

- I have perhaps been a bit too easy on the pitching staff, but I wonder if Lyon had pitched the exact same ninth inning that Kim had last night, how many of the Sox diaspora would've been saying "yeah, but . . ." I wonder how many of that same sample set of the Sox diaspora was saying "see, I knew we should've moved Kim sooner!" No doubt Kim is the answer (at least this season) for the last call, but no doubt some players get 'branded' and despite performance will struggle to shake that branding. See: Lou Merloni, Brian Dauabach (by the way, the Dauber is hot for the ChiSox. He must've loved to see Alomar and Everett come back)

- Speaking of the Pale Hose trade, they've made a huge devil's bargain here to win. Their fandom must appreciate their desire to win (even if it is a wrongheaded move.) They may win the division with Alomar and Everett in the lineup (Alomar is having a so-so year, while Jurassic Carl is hot.) But the boatload of prospects they gave up, coupled with the fact that these two guys are cancers, will haunt this team for the next five years. Everett is a cancer - he might be in remission now, but he will metastisize - just give him a chance. Alomar is still fairly young, but there is something wrong with this guy. He leaves teams or gets traded and nobody on the team he is leaving really cares. The Tribe traded him soon after he hit .365, before the Tribe actually had committed to stripping down and retooling. There must be something about this guy that we don't know that alienates him in the clubhouse.

- Love what Theo is doing in the trade market. GMs past managed the team like a drunk resisting rehab - "just this one more trade. Reitsma for Bichette. I know it's the dumbest trade in the history of trades, but Bichette is the next Mickey Mantle. He met his wife in Boston!" That Kim is in the bullpen tells me many things, but the one thing it tells me that excites me the most is that the Sox are not going to sell the farm for a reliever like Benitez or Urbina. Who knows, we may still be able to get Benitez for a song at the deadline, but I doubt it. It's clear now that Kim was kept into the rotation until Theo cashed in his chips and got up from the Reliever-Market-Poker table. Didn't want to yo-yo Kim in and out of the rotation. Now that he's in the bullpen (not in a response to Lyon's struggles against the Fish - I think this move was decided a long time ago, i.e. Kim will move when we get out of the closer market) we'll focus on a starter. More importantly, we'll keep Fossum, Lyon, Sanchez, Youkilis, Shoppach, et al. For the last five years, the Sox have been that sucker kid who all the other kids were nice to so they could steal all his toys. No more with Theo. He manages with a plan - that plan may have holes in it - but at least he has a clear plan.

- Speaking of plans, I still think the bullpen will work out, and I think that bullpen by committee is a plan that can work. If you disagree, I'll meet you on the monkey bars at recess to fight. I also feel much more relieved that Kim is the last call.

- Speaking of trading strategy, I'm going to throw this one out there, and then feel the love. Trade Pedro in the offseason. Here's my thinking (which I'll build up into a bigger post later.) Economics and contracts make it so that either Pedro or Nomar will play for the Sox beyond 2004, but not likely both. So, the conventional wisdom among the knights of the keyboard is that it will have to be one or the other, but not both. Pedro will want at least $20 M and five years. Nomar might be able to be signed for $15-$17 (there will be more market pressure for Pedro driving his price up more than Nomie's - both will be coveted.) I've resisted saying it, but Pedro is fragile, I have to agree. Nomar is younger and not fragile at all. I know he missed a season with a wrist injury, but that was a freak thing, not fragility. Nomar is one of the few position players in the game for whom you can conclude counter to the conventional wisdom that he is as valuable as a starting pitcher (though not as valuable as a healthy Pedro.) But the kicker is this - if you can't keep both, you need to trade one in this offseason to avoid gettin' nuttin' when they walk. Pedro will command a greater trade package than Nomar. Many teams already have great shortstops (Yanks, Rangers, A's, Braves, Cardinals, and a half dozen others); Nomar would be an upgrade these teams (except the Rangers), but not enough for these teams to work to sign him. All teams could always use another starter, especially like Pedro. I think a team that thinks they could win it all in 2004 would part with five top line prospects for Pedro. Really - five. If you could get five studs for Pedro - say three pitchers, an outfielder and an infielder - all of whom are going to be good major leaguers, I say you should do it. Those are the kinds of trades that win championships a couple of years out. Trade Pedro in the offseason. Sign Nomar in the offseason.

- What to do about Jeremy Giambi? I think the Sox should hang on to him as long as they can. I think this guy is a good hitter who's got himself in a Mendoza like mental lockdown (by the way, will "tendinitis" for guys like Giambi and Mendoza be the new "Hellenic Flu" in Boston sports? Plus, he's a great teammate, locker room guy. I put alot of stock in the Beane-ism that past performance is the best indicator of future performance. Giambi's past performance in his career is much better than it has been this year. So . . . keep him down on the farm until the All-Star break, let him have some whacks in July, dump him in mid-August if he still stinks, and sign up Ortiz for a few years (another good clubhouse guy.)

- Speaking of "good clubhouse guy", how important is clubhouse chemistry. I've always been tempted to think it is overrated, just like "grit" and "hustle" were really terms to mask the surprise of the media that some short or slow guy could actually play. Let's take a decidely unscientific look at the past few champs and make a purely subjective, even knee-jerk assessment as to whether or not they had good clubhouse chemistry.
Angels - by all accounts, a good clubhouse with a bunch of "gritty" guys ;)
D-Backs - good clubhouse with "gritty" gamers ;)
Yanks - great clubhouse leadership with O'Neill, Brosius, and Martinez
Marlins - don't know, but I suspect they hardly even knew each others
Braves - good clubhouse, good guys, except for Bobby Cox (boxing his wife around?)
So, what about playoff teams? Can anybody think of any decidely poor clubhouse teams or teams with whacko jerks on their roster actually making it to the playoffs in the last few years? The A's of the 70's are famous for winning despite not liking each other. Can, and does, that still happen now? Please write in . . .

- Back to the trade market - my gut tells me Scott Shoenweis could be had for a couple of second tier prospects, particulary outfielders. The Champs are a bit long in the tooth in the outfield and could use some help there. Plus, Schoenweis is a MUCH better pitcher than the Angels seem to realize (at least judging by the way they're using him.) He could look good in the starting rotation again. . .

- But he hasn't started in a couple of years; I think the Sox are probably looking at a current, proven starter. Who? ESPN said the Sox called the CrabCakers about Ponson, and the price was Nixon. I'd trade Nixon for a pitcher with a stronger track record than Ponson, but not for Ponson. Al Leiter? He's been struggling, and he was not good against the Yanks Sunday night for all the world to see. I'm struggling to see who else is worth trading for. . . Brad Penny proves he stinks. There are probably 15 teams who are buyers in this market (a product of the four division lineup in each league - counting the wild card as a division) so that cuts the market in half. The 15 teams who are out of it are out of it for a reason, and that reason usually is that their pitching stinks. I think we'd better get used to the fact that the thin pickings in the pitching market, coupled with Theo's (smart) reluctance to get snookered into selling out the farm system, has precluded us from picking up a pitcher. Maybe not, but don't hold your breath. . . I still think we should get Frankie Castillo back in here for a whirl. He can pitch well. It would be like buying a scratch ticket, but we could get some quality starts out of him.

- Just for fun, how about a talk radio caller type trade. "Hey Dale and Neumie. How about Giambi, Seanez, Almonte, and Sam Horn for Jason Schmidt and Barry Bonds? What do you think of them apples?"

- Keep the cards and letters coming. . .

2003-07-02T08:03:00.000-05:00

StingRays 4 Sox 3, 11 Innings

I'm sure there are those in the Sox diaspora who are tempted to rue the pitching again because Lyon was on the mound when the game came apart. I hope the number of folks who fall into that category is small. The pitching was fabulous. I we can be assured of a pitching roundup like last night's we'll be in very good shape.

The fault last night lies at the feet of the D-Rays starter. Standridge was large (6'4") and in charge. He consistently got ahead of hitters and kept the Sox off stride. Thankfully, the Rays bullpen made sure that things wouldn't be easy (how'd you like to have this guy Carter chumping in the pen?) Baseball's a strange game - the Sox could score 45 runs in a three game set against a pretty good staff in the Fish, and then get stymied by a winless rook pitching for the hapless Stingers.

Strange that the D-Rays would play the game under protest after the Damon catch/no-catch flap in the first. They at first were doubled-up to end the inning; then, in a quite shocking reversal of a call, found themselves with the bases loaded before Shady Grady argued (quite correctly) that the runner on first had to have been forced at second. So the Rays protest? They kept the inning alive and got a call changed to go their way, and Piniella would protest because he didn't get it to go completely his way? I've never been a big Piniella fan, and this pissy little hissy fit, coming off the heels of his murder of Ben Grieve, doesn't win him any more points with me. Doesn't he realize that his success in Seattle was due to low key players (Martinez, Olerud, Sasaki, Ichiro) who could block out his screaming and yelling? Piniella will become the Bill Parcells of Baseball, or maybe even worse, the Mike Keenan of baseball, if he continues to insist not only that players PLAY his way, but also FEEL exactly what he wants them to. . .

Unfortunately, another really good pitching performance from Burkett is wasted (not to mention Embree, Kim, Lyon, et al . . .) It's always important to win the games Pedro starts, but maybe even more important to win the games Burkett starts, because those are the handful of wins at the margins that will put the Sox in the playoffs. Having said that, I think we can be confident that Burkett (five good outings and four good starts in a row) has found his stride again, spotting his fastball really well (so many looking K's.) A bullpen of Timlin, Embree, Fossum, Lyon, and Kim (not to mention Fox - though he didn't have good command last night, I still think this guy is going to be a big factor) will be a good one. If we can just get lucky and have the Mendoza of the 2000 playoffs show up and be the fifth starter, then our pitching will be fine, our hitting will continue to be outstanding, and we'll be watching the Sox play in October. . .

2003-06-30T13:17:00.000-05:00

Sox 11 Fish 7

Gabe Kapler wowed 'em this weekend in the Fens. It is tempting to think of Nixon as still getting his feet wet in the bigs. We've been looking forward to the day Nixon blossoms into an all-star ever since the day he was drafted and backed out on NC State the day classes began for a million dollar contract. He was called up in September of 1996 and played well. He's been one of those hardscrabble guys that teams need and fans love. We keep waiting for it with the Trotster - when will he hit with average and power? When will he develop consistency at the plate? When will he hit lefthanders? Time ticks by faster than we think, however; despite not getting a chance in the first part of his career to really get settled all the way in as an everyday player, I think Nixon has proved he isn't ever going to be. Too bad for him - I think he is genuinely one of the few team firsters in pro sports (I mean that - if there were a bench clearing brawl with the ChiSox, I expect Nixon would speedbag Daubach - and vice versa - even though the two are best friends.) But Nixon can't hit lefties with any degree of consistency. To wit, Trotster's stats this year (which are pretty consistent with his performance the last three years:

vs. Lefties
.208 BA, .666 OPS, .291 OBP

vs. Righties
.344 BA, 1.009 OPS, .430 OBP

He has the highest OPS of any right fielder in the AL against right-handed pitching. Moreover, he finds himself seventh in the entire AL in OPS v. right handed pitching. The ranking for Trotmania against left handed pitching? Sorry, Trot, but you are the weakest link. ESPN has him at 148th in the league for OPS standings v. left handed pitching; to be fair, I didn't subtract from that count the number of players with only a handful of at bats (about 30.) To be kind, I also didn't tell you that Trot ranks behind Jamie Moyer in OPS against left handed pitching. We've long known this about Trot, but the numbers are undeniable. Not only is he gawd-awful against left handed pitching, he is positively devastating against right handed pitching. I think that Nixon (and all of us Nixon fans) is going to have to live with the fact that he is simply going to have to be a platoon player on a contending team.

Gabe Kapler - enter stage right. Gaber's numbers against left handed or right handed pitching is a wash, and, he's only got an OPS that is about .110 points higher vs. lefthanded pitching than Trot's over the last three seasons. Having said that, he's worth a shot. Hitting in this lineup, he can do some damage. He runs well and defends well, and he certainly mada a heckuva splash this weekend. Whether it be Kapler or somebody else, if the Sox are going to keep Nixon around through the next few seasons, they'll need to see him for what he is - a devastating smasher of right handed pitching, a good outfielder, a nice guy to have in bench-clearing donnybrook, and a platoon player.

2003-06-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

If you will it, then it isn't a dream . . .

This is a line spoken by Walter, the John Goodman character in the Big Lebowski (which is, if you haven't seen it, hilarious.) It is appropriate for this morning's sermon to SoxNation.

SoxNation has taken the media to task for their contribution to the overall negative vibe that surrounds this franchise. SoxNation has taken Sox fans to task for their fetishization of losing coupled with their pessimistic yearnings. The players are consumed by these negative vibes and turned into wraiths. For years, management has been just plain dumb (we should talk about the curse of Jackie Robinson, not the Curse of the Bambino, because if there is any curse to be placed on the head of this franchise, it should be the racist move of passing on signing Jackie Robinson.) We members of the diaspora deserve better from this management and this team - that much is true - and we are starting to get it with the Theo Epstein regime. But now, it is time to do our part. . .

The boos rained down on Brandon Lyon last night at Fenway after blowing a save and the game against the Fish. To be sure, it was a painful loss. However, Lyon had been burned by the NL's home run leader. He didn't fritter away a ninth inning lead by nibbling. He came after people, and he got beat. Deal with it. Moreover, Lyon has been the team's best reliever all year, plucked off the scrap heap over the winter. He almost didn't make the team out of spring training. The guy is fearless, pitches with guts, and has answered the call way more often than not. The boos were not fair. . .

So you say "waaaaahhhhhhh!!!!" He's a pro athlete, take it. Let's all take a time trip back to fall and winter, 20001-2002. Our New England Patriots were beginning one of the most improbable NFL runs in the leagues history. Down 16-0 at the half to the Jets at the Meadowlands, the Pats rallied to win 17-16, en route to running the table and winning the SuperBowl. No reader needs me to recount that season for them.

I bring up that Pat's run because I contend that it was the Patriots fandom that willed the Pat's to the SuperBowl that year. So many chances to lose, so many great wins, so many unbelievable gutsy upsets (the biggest AFC Championship and SuperBowl upset in years.) Patriot Nation collectively willed that team to the championship - the positive vibe and the refusal to be plowed under - on the part of the fans - was the reason the Pats were able to pull off those rallies and upsets. I don't want to be too surreal here, but I think we of the Sox diaspora can do the same.

If we stay positive and will this team to victory, it will happen. Let's not boo Brandon Lyon. Let's cheer our butts off for him the next time he comes to the mound. Let's go nuts for D-Lowe today. Let's stop calling the sports stations with our Chicken Little routine every time the Sox lose. Let's ask ourselves "what have we done lately to help the Sox win?" Seriously. The Sox diaspora punts its obligation to the team to easily. Let's hang in there with these guys. Let's not pull the chute. Let's be there every step of the way. I know that in so many ways we are - Fenway Park stuffed to the gills for thirty years now is evidence of that. Let's not sit back like petulant children expecting the front office to hand us a championship. Let us be the one's to make it happen. Let's do more.

The best way to Reverse the Curse is to simply forget about it. Once we forget about it, it's gone (and Dan Shaughnessey won't have anything left to write about - talk about killing two birds with one stone.) LET GO! Let's stop carrying around the bad memories of yesterday - the load is just too heavy - and start appreciating the positive opportunities of tomorrow. Let's stop making a fetish out of losing. Let's do our part.

If you will it, then it isn't a dream . . .

2003-06-29T06:39:00.000-05:00

Sox 25 Fish 8
Fish 10 Sox 9

Both of these games were flukes. I don't mean to say that either victor didn't play well . . . quite the contrary. However, 14 runs in the first inning is a fluke. Three hits by one batter in one inning is a fluke. 10 runs before an out was made is a fluke. Going to your third pitcher before getting an out (Fish) is a fluke.

Losing last night's game in the fashion that we did is also a fluke. I know there are those who say Grady shouldn't've sent Wakefield out to pitch the 8th. Why not? A seven run lead? Why not rest Timlin another night? Lyon's blown save was a fluke. He went 0-2 on Lowell and the batter before. He was throwing really well. Lowell is just a very good hitter. That wasn't so much a blown save as a "rescued win" for Lowell and the Fish.

It was a stunning turnaround. I was checking the Yanks score in the late innings, not really paying close attention to the Sox/Fish (so blame me for the loss, if you must.) But I don't think it is a symptom of the pitching staff's recent gains coming apart. Wake had one poor three batter stretch, and Lyon threw one unfortunate pitch (I won't even say bad, because Lowell did a heckuva job to hit that ball into the bullpen.)

Highlights for the game include:
- Kapler's debut. Another righthanded bat with pop (can't you just see him giving David Wells and Andy PPeetttiiiittitttie fits?) It'll be nice to have a right field platoon of Kapler/Nixon (if Nixon ever gets another start against lefties, Grady should be fired . . .)
- Garciaparra was outstanding again, particularly in the field (two things - "Garciaparra was outstanding" has become a tautology, and he is SOOO much better than Jeter now, the question has been settled.) When the Sox win the division this year, Nomie is a lock for the MVP; Delgado will have better numbers, but only slightly. Plus, Nomie contributes to wins in an Ozzie Smith like fashion; I'm not suggesting he is as good a defender as the Wizard, but he routinely takes away hits and runs from the opposition with the plays he makes. We are watching a Hall of Famer enter his prime. When all is said and done, we will talk about Nomar as one of the best shortstops the game has ever produced.
- Tek's pinch double. He's done some great clutch hitting this year, particulary in the ninth. (By the way, getting doubled off second was nobody's fault. He had to be going on a low line drive, because if that ball fell in - which it sure looked like it would've - he had to score. If Hillenbrand were still here, Jackson could've pinch run for Tek and Hilly could've caught the last innings, but Tek doesn't run that badly. Tough luck with the lineup precluding Jackson as a pinch runner . . .)
- Wake's pitching. Other than the eighth inning mistakes, he pitched great. Looks like his back isn't bothering him. Additionally, Wake said to reporters "I'll take the blame . . ." Could this be a start of some vocal veteran leadership on the pitching staff? Could he be trying to take the heat of the young Lyon? Please?! SoxNation has said many times that the pitching staff could use somebody to step up and become the sort of de facto captain of the staff. Clearly it won't be Pedro (unless he gets some incentive money for it.) Could it be Wakie? Do it Wake, do it!
- Timlin was clutch again. Nice job in the eighth.
- The team's best pitcher, D-Lowe (please e-mail me if you want to fight over this) is going today. Two out of three from the Fish ain't bad.

2003-06-27T06:57:00.000-05:00

I'm Back . . .

I took the Detroit series off and I'm now back, ready to write with a vengeance. Not much to say about the Sox/Kittens series anyway. A series like this can be just what the doctor ordered. It cures all mechanical problems with pitchers; it puts every batter on a hot streak; and it builds the confidence of this team up to robust proportions. With BK going tonight against the Florida Marlins, we stand a great chance to get a win and be on our way to another sweep. A nice seven or eight game winning streak will be a good thing when Toronto comes freewheelin' back into town.

"Play this game with fear and arrogance. That's the secret. . ."

2003-06-23T19:45:00.000-05:00

I'm ready to give the Sox management huge accolades, props, kudos, whatever for the BK Kim trade. This guy is a hoot to watch, is a very good young pticher, and has fire in the belly. So the Sox got whipped...but not BK. He showed up to pitch and play some ball. I hate see the Sox lose but I enjoyed the game because I enjoyed watching BK throw that crazy stuff.

Five years from now I hope BK is still with the Sox. If they had any brains they'd sign him up now. Has he ever had any arm injuries??
Five years from now baggy pants Ramirez will still be getting it done.
Five years from now ditto for Nomar.
Pedro will only be seen in Red Lobster commercials.
Carlton Fisk will be the Sox manager

OK OK I'll go back to the game!

2003-06-23T12:19:00.000-05:00

Phillies 5 Sox 0

I'm uninspired; nothing funny or smart is coming to me (not that it ever does.) The highlight of the game is that BK was the best Sox player in the field, pitching pretty darn good yet again. The number three spot in the rotation looks solidified now. The lowlight of the game was that BK was also the best Sox player at the plate. This game was just a case of a team in a hideous slump ran into a pitcher in a really hot groove. Great to get the heck out of Philly; I hope the Sox hurried home to straighten up and dust the place before wecoming everybody's favorite houseguest, the Tigers. . .

2003-06-22T07:36:00.000-05:00

I will only say this about yesterday's game . . .

The Good
Pedro was dominant . . .
Nomar was awesome (only the fourth Red Sock to have six hits in a game) . . .
Timlin got beat by one of the best clutch power hitters in the game, so don't be too hard on him . . .
Embree, Lyon, and Shiell (until the unraveling in the 13th) pitched very well . . .
Todd Walker, Kevin Millar . . .

The Bad
Manny? 0 for 7 . . .
Three blown saves in one game (I wonder what the record is?)
Why Seanez instead of Almonte?

The Ugly . . .
Grady Little NOT putting Jim Thome on after the count went 3 and 2 in the 12th. No margin for error, go ahead and put the tying run at first, then whiff Berg . . .
Rudy Seanez . . . there's a reason this guy has been released several times (picture this - in a couple of weeks, Grady can go to Fox, Fossum, or a fixed Mendoza, so relax . . .)

Remember, it's just one game, and the bullpen pitched very well with the exception of three pitches. It'll all be fine, because we'll have it our way with BK today. . .

2003-06-21T20:46:00.000-05:00

I find it more unbelievable that the Cook and I both have a never ending supply of opinions and don't get paid...

Didn't watch the Sox/Phillies game today but flipped on the evening news only to hear the word Timlin.....

I'm not a fan of stats but I wonder about the OBP of lead off hitters in the AL . Who's good and who's bad?

Boston hadn't played Pittsburgh since 1903. I thought it very cool that simply because of interleague play they got to meet head to head. They could have easily gone another 100.

2003-06-20T18:26:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains . . .

Tonight's rainout is a mixed blessing; it will give every hurting pitcher one more day to heal, but making that game up in September will be a pain in the neck. However, even without playing, the Sox generated as much excitement as Joe Morgan did today in his ESPN chat. It's really amazing that Joe can write 2 or 3 pages and answer two dozen questions without really saying anything. "It's too early to tell" is the only response he has to prediction questions. "There are pros and cons to both" is the only thing he ever says to either/or type questions. "We'll have to wait and see" is another of Jo-Jo's favorites. Unbelievable how this guy is paid for his opinions without ever having any. . .

2003-06-20T09:39:00.000-05:00

The Sox are in Philly tonight for the latest installment of interleague play. The Olde Towne Team has gone through interleague play in one piece so far (8-4) probably avoiding the potholes that derailed them last season. A Phillies sweep this weekend and the Sox will still be 8-7 against the NL, a vast improvement over last season's excursion to the Senior Circuit. Every season at this time, the baseball punditry and the baseball blogosphere weighs in with their feelings and opinions about interleague play. Here's mine [and I'll try to avoid making the same arguments that have already been made frequently other places. . .]

Pros
- The Cardinals/Sox series in Fenway was as exciting a midseason series involving teams not from the Bronx as Fenway has seen in years. Was this simply a great series which happened to be against the Cardinals? I think not. I think the RedNuts are what made it special. The key ingredient is the passion of the fandom from both cities. The Cardinals fan base travels extraordinarily well, and of course Fenway is always jammed. Both teams are almost always near the top of their respective divisions and are always sporting a few superstars. I don't believe the history between these two teams was the driving force behind the excitement of the series (after all, the last time they met was 36 years ago), but rather the passionate fandom and history of these two teams made this series explode with excitement. That, coupled with some great, great games made this a real treat. So, super series between old stalwart franchises who helped to build the sport into America's pasttime is appealing.

Cons
- Sox/Brewers had all the glamour of a series against Pawtucket. Not to take anything away from the Brewers per se - heck, they could've even been in first place at the time - but this series was a bust. Games in Miller Park are like games of wiffleball at indoor recess in the gym. The Brewers have little tradition compared to the Sox, and I couldn't care less about the players the Brewers have. Now, there are many boring series within the AL, so the fact the series had the makings of dullsville and lived up to its promise is not ipso facto proof that interleague should be canned. The question is, what was the cost of the Brewers series?
- The cost of the Brewers series, the Pirates series, even the Astros (let's face it, the 'Stros don't have the same history and grand position within the game as the Cardinals) is fewer series against the Mariners, Angels, A's, and Twins. I couldn't guarantee you that those would be the replacements in the BoSox schedule, but each blah interleague series costs a team a series with an opponent against whom they would be directly competing for a playoff spot. This exposes a central paradox in the thought process of MLB schedule makers. We must take as a given that each league really has four divisions, including the wild card as a "division" [because in essence, teams play it exactly that way.] MLB finds it very important that teams competing for the same division, say the AL East, play each other boatloads of times to be sure the winner really earned it. However, MLB, in its failure to recognize and treat the wild card as a division, has the Sox play the Angels six times only! What does this have to do with interleague? It's interleague play that "crowds out" series against potential intraleague rivals. So, instead of head to head competition with wild card rivals in August or September, we get Glendon Rusch and the BrewCrew in June.
- Speaking of the wild card, if it is truly a division in its own right, then interleague play further erodes the credibility of the wild card. It has been well documented that the Yankees have a tougher interleague schedule than some of their AL West rivals for the wild card. Our own BoSox played six games last year with the Braves in the "rival" series while our wild card rival Mariner's got the Padres for a home and homer. This wildly inequitable scheduling between wildcard rivals really hurts certain teams every year.
- One little selfish gripe about interleague play - AL pitchers are put at risk in NL parks. Wakefield was lucky, but he could easily have broken his ankle being hit by that pitch in Milwaukee. His injury was directly a result of inexperience; he didn't know how to get out of the way. I know these guys are professional athletes, but I'd hate to see Pedro lost for the season because of a wild throw from a Padres mop up man some year down the road [notice, I didn't even complain about the disadvantage AL pitchers actually trying to do something at the plate?]

So, where do I come down on all of this? The Cards/Sox series was a keeper, one I'd like to see every year. But what about the other series that don't fit the same criteria? How jacked up can fans get for Detroit/San Diego? Florida and KC? Are these really worth it? I think the cons [including the cons already talked about in the media, e.g. losing the mystique of the World Series matchup, etc] outweigh the pros. Still, I'd like to see MLB figure out a way to have one interleague series per year for each team that actually meant something in terms of history, city rivalries, or matched fanaticism. I know the scheduling would be a challenge given the current unbalanced, division heavy play, but so what? Would anybody cry if the BoSox played only 16 games against each Division opponent while canning five of the six interleague series? That would free up space for a series with the Cards, and two each with the Mariners, Angels, A's, and Twins (just to pick teams out of a hat - I know that it would be tricky scheduling more AL series - i.e. you don't want to replace one inequity with another - but I'm sure MLB could find a way to see that more AL series are played by AL teams so that the integrity of the wild card will be strengthened.)

So, interleague play? Thumbs down, with a tiny little hedge so that we can see Alberticus in Fenway every other year. . .

2003-06-19T21:23:00.000-05:00

If you like baseball at all, and you like smart insights about baseball, and you like to laugh, read RedBirdNation everyday. It's a Cardinals fan page, but it is must reading for all fans of stickball.

p.s. If you don't, I'll come to your house and challenge you to a fistfight. . .

2003-06-19T19:36:00.000-05:00

Good Sox 4 Bad Sox 3 (10 innings)

The White Sox threw 8 no hit innings today and still lost. The difference between the White Sox and Red Sox is best shown by looking at this factoid - the White Sox screwed up four sacrifice bunt attempts. Read that again - four. In a one run game. Four [by the way, notice how Damian Jackson was up there bunting in the tents - Grady obviously reads SoxNation - thanks for checking in with us Grady.] That's embarassing. The Good Sox don't bunt as much as The Dawg would like but they do hit behind runners, bunt when needed, go from first to third on base hits - all that good stuff. The White Sox have a four hundred pound pouting first basemen and can't bunt.

What has happened to Frank Thomas, by the way? What a cancer.

The Bullpen was again rock solid. Jason Shiell got out of a jam in the seventh, and Brandon Lyon pitched two great innings to get the win. The Sox are now 4-17 when scoring less than five runs, but 3-2 when scoring less than five runs in the last week.

Off to our "rival" series with the Phillies. The Phillies franchise began in Worcester, MA as the Worcester Worcesters . . . maybe that's where MLB thinks the rivalry is rooted?

2003-06-19T09:54:00.000-05:00

The Dawg Barks

If Timlin truly is a Texan then he can certainly handle any sort of crap I dish out. That being said, he is now my official designated whipping boy for the rest of the season. I predict that by the end of the season Cook will be skewering Timlin with glee.

Wake threw a pitch last night that fluttered like a monarch butterfly heading down to Mexico. Mirabelli headed to his left then went low then went right and just barely caught the thing. The reactions of the batter, ump and Dougie were all just priceless. Wake was totally expressionless.

2003-06-19T09:15:00.000-05:00

Check out this website

Interesting reading at this very cool page, Universal Baseball Blogs. Good stuff about all things baseball. Another excellent site with great links to resources and other pages is Baseball Musings.There are permanent links to both on the right. Check out the other links while you're there - Bronx Banter, Bambino's Curse, RedBirdNation, Red Sox Rag, and Obey Pedro.

Congrats to Bambino's Curse for getting a call up to the show. Read 'em today and you'll see what I mean.

2003-06-19T07:02:00.000-05:00

Bad Sox 3 Good Sox 1

Scattered Thoughts

How does Estaban Loaiza go from being a mediocre journeyman to the stud of the staff? His career ERA coming into the season was pushing 6.00, and he's down in the low 2.00s now. We're almost halfway through the season, so his performance can't be merely chalked up to a hot start.

Epstein said this morning in the Globe that he has given no thought to releasing Burkett this season. Still, I have to think that in the first inning on Tuesday after four patriot missile doubles and three runs, Burkett was standing on the mound looking in at Varitek's signs, trying to sign back at him "If I don't get this next guy out, my career is over." Not to be funny, but it could very well have boiled down to that. If Burkett gave up any more runs in that inning, he would've been lifted either right then or after the first inning. My guess is that he would've been either released then, or moved to the bullpen and eventually released. Fascinating that a major league career of that length can come down to one hitter . . .

Even more fascinating is how much I've turned on Grady Little the past week. He was talking about how well Burkett had pitched, vis-a-vis talk of releasing him - "It's hard to turn your back on a guy who's just retired 18 hitters in a row." Grady says these kind of dopey things all the time. IF he's trying to protect his players from the media, then kudos to Grady [SoxNation has made no secret about our opinion of the vulturous Boston media.] But if he's really that dopey about the reality of his own players [Burkett did pitch an outstanding game, but the only thing that should get him is a stay of execution, not a pardon] then I just don't know if he's the guy to lead us to the promised land . . . Another Grady-ism that leaves me scratching my head - he was talking up Brandon Lyon and said "There are alot of nights I sit there and think to myself "I'd like to bring in Brandon Lyon in the sixth. . ." Maybe Theo needs to give Grady a clearer description of his job, which includes MAKING PITCHING CHANGES WHEN HE SEES FIT! I thought the whole idea of the bullpen by committee was that you bring in a guy when he's needed based on the flow of the game, not based on a "closer" role? I like the bullpen by committee approach, but I can't fathom why the manager would act as if bringing in Brandon Lyon in the sixth is out of his control, especially because such a move is endorsed and encouraged by the brass?

Howry is having surgery on his ulnar nerve and is done for the year. That's too bad. I think he's a good pitcher who got off to a bad start. Two things to keep in mind about Howry - he has been a good reliever in his career (he pitched well for the Sox down the stretch last year) and the brass was planning on him being a key component out of the pen. So when you feel like it's "lock and load time" on Theo for the pen's woes, think of how they would do with a healthy Howry. . .

Speaking of hurt pitchers that the Sox could really use, Fox is chucking it in the mid 90's in his rehab work. He'll be back soon and give the pen a HUGE lift. Running through the pitchers who have been hurt this year - Embree, Fox, Howry, Fossum, Person. All of these guys struggled at one point or another [indeed, they are the chief culprits in the pen's ERA woes (save Fossum, of course.)] I have to think their injuries affected the way they pitched. How much better would we feel about the pen now if these guys had been healthy all year, throwing effectively?

Speaking of throwing effectively, Mendoza will be good when he comes back. Trust me on this. He will not be El Guapo II. He pitched so well for the Bombers in his career in many big games (remember his work against the Mets in the 2000 Series?) He'll be fine . . .

Jeremy Giambi's batting average is .178 but his OBP is .365. Interesting . . . I wonder how many major leaguers have an OBP twice their BA. Not many, I'm sure. But then, maybe the only way to get an OBP 2x your BA is to have hit as poorly as Giambi.

SoxNation may have begun a sort of reverse curse. We wrote about Daubach getting a raw deal in Chi-Town and he promptly homers and then hits a game winning double. I think our work here at SoxNation was just what the doctor ordered for the Daubinator. Perhaps this effect will be come as huge as the Sports Illustrated jinx. Players will be e-mailing us day and night asking us to do a "tough luck piece on them like you did for Daubach." We just have the magic touch . . .

2003-06-18T16:54:00.000-05:00

Why so hard on Timlin?

We here at SoxNation are not as down on Timlin as The Dawg is. I just want Mr. Timlin to know that. It's just The Dawg, not the rest of us. [Timlin is a pro-military, gun rack, pick up truck driving, NASCAR loving, yahoo from Texas, so I want him to be sure that it is just The Dawg who is so upset with him.]

THROW THE SINKER ALL THE TIME DEREK! [I haven't said that in awhile, so just in case old D-Lowe forgot . . .]

2003-06-18T15:54:00.000-05:00

The way I figure it old man Burky did the math and realized the only way he could save his hide was to bribe the ump. Maybe 20% of his next contract. I will give Burkett credit for realizing very quickly that the ump was setting up way inside and giving Burkett inside pictches that had to be 6 or 8 inches off the plate. Burkett kept tossing them and the ump kept calling them. While I had some sympathy for the ChiSox batters, I was mostly giddy to see that Burkett actually struck out 4 or 5 batters without any help from the ump. He was exceptionally crafty. Colon, on the hand, was mostly clueless.

I'm waiting to hear the final outcome of the possible scenario that B. Cook painted for us the other day. What gives?? Did Burkett say anything at all about relieving Pedro? Is all forgiven?? Please enlighten us Mr. Cook.

Once again, J. Damon warmed my cold heart with "the squeeze". The more bunts, the better.

I enjoyed Brian Daubach's homer too....and it came off another meatball served up by Chef Timlin.

2003-06-18T05:39:00.000-05:00

Sox 7 SouthSiders 4

Random thoughts

I keep using the name SouthSiders as an homage to the White Sox' past. They were originally named the SouthSiders, changing their name to the White Sox in 1997.

Who could've predicted Burky would pitch like Greg Maddux after throwing bp fastballs to the first four batters. SoxNation has felt that Burkett has pitched well at times, but has been so unpredictable and unreliable (see yesterday's post) that realeasing him would improve the team. After the four straight doubles to get things started, he set down 18 in a row, and only one little bloop single to break that streak. The SouthSiders are not a good hitting team, but still, what a pleasant surprise. The pen can be so much more effective when they have to throw only one or two innings per night.

Because it didn't cost the Sox the game, it was so good to see the Daubinator get a home run against his old team. He now has only one fewer home run than the guy he is stuck behind, Konerko. Konerko's ineffectiveness coupled with Frank Thomas' immaturity (getting run like that in a close game shows how selfish he is) should convince Manuel to start Daubach at first more frequently.

Looking at the standings of the AL this morning, the AL East is 38-34 against the AL West (and obviously the AL West has the opposite record.) I'm growing ever skeptical about the generally acknowledged fact around baseball that the AL West is the toughest division in the league. I'm not so sure of that. To wit:

- the division has a losing record against the East
- the top two teams in the West have each fattened up with 30 games each against Central Division teams. The top three teams in the East have played 10, 17, and 19 games respectively against the buffet table that is the Central Division.
- the conventional wisdom is that the West has it tougher because they beat up on each other and the East teams get to play Toronto, Baltimore, and Tampa Bay all season. That doesn't wash anymore. Toronto is good, Baltimore is only 1.5 games behind Anaheim, and Texas is only a couple of games better than Tampa Bay. Only TB and Texas are teams to fatten up a record, and the West teams get Texas 19 times per year while the East teams play TB only 19 times per year. That's a wash. But the East has to play 76 division games against teams .500 or better (and Baltimore compares favorably with Anaheim in this respect) while the West teams only have to play 57 games against divisional opponents .500 or better. Clearly, much depends upon who the West plays in that 19 game differential; however, it is just as likely to be games against Detroit and Cleveland as the Yankees or the Twins.
- Tampa Bay is 15-18 against East teams, and god-awful against everybody else. Go figure.

2003-06-17T18:47:00.000-05:00

The Screwing of Brian Daubach Continues

I always thought Brian Daubach got a raw deal. I am glad to see him gone, because he doesn't fit with the Sox' new philosophy, he struckout too much, and his OBP was too low for first base. Having said that, some teams don't care about that. They need their first basemen to bash, and Daubach can bash.

When he was with the Sox, he never really got a shot as a fulltime player. To be sure, he was bad against left-handed pitching, but to split time with Tony Clark last year must've been maddening. He made himself into a good defensive first basemen, played the outfield, never complained, got on Joe DiMaggio like hot streaks, and was a great guy to have in a brawl.

Daubach's stats:

Year Team G AB HR RBI BB SO OBP SLG AVG
1999 BOS 110 381 21 73 36 92 .360 .562 .294
2000 BOS 142 495 21 76 44 130 .315 .448 .248
2001 BOS 122 407 22 71 53 108 .350 .509 .263
2002 BOS 137 444 20 78 51 126 .348 .464 .266
2003 CWS 39 77 1 7 12 18 .333 .325 .221

Those strikeout totals still have me waking up in the middle of the night screaming. His walk totals were always lower than they should've been; his OBP was middle of the road for a first basemen. His OPS his final year in Boston was just over .800. A team certainly needs more from their first basemen than that. However, he was forced to share time with Tony Clark, Jose Offerman, Mike Stanley, Izzy Alcantara, Morgan Burkhart, and Rico Brogna. None of these players were any better than Daubach, and most were far less productive than Daubach (if I finally get around to buying James' book Win Shares I'll be able to be more specific.) That Daubach had to compete for playing time with these pretenders (Brogna and Burkhart are lefthanded!) was a slap in the face to the Daubinator.

Now he's landed with the SouthSiders, fighting for playing time with Konerko, Thomas, and Carlos Lee. Konerko's stats:

G AB HR RBI TB BB SO OBP SLG AVG
61 196 3 17 56 20 21 .277 .286 .199

Thomas' stats:
G AB HR RBI TB BB SO OBP SLG AVG
65 222 16 35 124 46 46 .412 .559 .275

Lee's stats:
G AB HR RBI TB BB SO OBP SLG AVG
66 242 11 41 110 19 44 .319 .455 .260

Daubach's last couple of years in Boston compare very favorably with Carlos Lee's numbers. In fact, the Daubinator's OPS was slightly higher. In many ways, Lee is simply a righthanded version of Daubach. Konerko is having the mother of all crapout years. Who knows why these things happen; let's hope for his sake he is not on his way to Rich Gedmanville. Frank Thomas is having a good year, producing not necessarily like the Frank Thomas of old (only 35 RBI) but still playing better than Daubach could be predicted to play.

So why is Daubach still riding pine? Past success is a terrific indicator of future success, so the White Sox could expect 20 HR and 80 RBI from Daubach playing 3/4 of the time. Their offense is anemic - couldn't he give them some pop? Couldn't hurt. Frank Thomas should DH and Daubach and Konerko could platoon at first. But Frank pouts if he doesn't play first base, so play first base he does. This is probably why Manuel will be fired soon.

Why is it that some players get branded part timers (Daubach, Lou Merloni) despite being productive (at or near the league average for their position, extrapolated to a full season) in their limited playing time? Daubach would hit 25-30 HR's and drive in 100 RBI if he got 550 ABs [though I must concede this is not necessarily so, because the extra ABs would come against lefthanded pitching - but even Trot Nixon has learned to hit lefties, so Daubach could too.] Those stats are very good numbers for a first sacker swinging from the left hand side. Additionally, working on old timey baseball thinking, Daubach can get scorching hot at the plate; why wouldn't a team want to get him in the lineup more and see if they can't ride a hitter like that for awhile?

Alas and alack, Daubach sits.

[all stats in this post from MLB.com]

2003-06-17T17:51:00.000-05:00

Bring Back Frankie

At the risk of making sure that nobody ever again reads this page - how about signing Frankie Castillo to a minor league deal and seeing how he does? The pitching is so stretched out with injuries right now that it certainly couldn't hurt to give ol' Frankie a look. I believe he has recently been released by the A's AAA club in Sacramento and he has yet to latch on anywhere. Hey, if Rod Beck could save a game for San Diego last week, then maybe Frankie can gobble up some innings out of the bullpen.

If you recall, Frankie pitched well in spring training. The decision to cut him was based on logistics rather than performance. In fact, I think he had an ERA in spring training in the low 2.00s. When the Sox decided to go with 12 pitchers out of camp (because the versatility of Damian Jackson - god love 'em - allowed them to) they kept Woodard and Lyon, letting Castillo go. If they only kept 11 pitchers, it was going to be Frankie and Woodard and Lyon would've been sent to Pawtucket. Why not give Frankie a shot? There's no reason not too. He pitched very well for the BoSox in 2001. He couldn't have lost any velocity because he didn't have any anyway. He'll come cheap, and he can't be worse than Burkett?

On the other hand, perhaps it's a waste of time. He's probably no better than Bronson Arroyo. He's out of options, so he couldn't be shuttled up and down. Plus, Person will be off the DL sometime soon. But, still, it is intriguing. . .

2003-06-17T15:26:00.000-05:00

Colonitis

Report today in the Boston Globe that the Sox might be interested in acquiring Colon from the White Sox when the SouthSiders start dumping payroll and contract year guys (which they will do if they don't climb back into the race in a hurry.) This seems like it would be a poor acquisition.

1. The price will be high. Almost certainly the White Sox will ask for Freddy Sanchez and Casey Fossum. That price was too high this winter, it's too high now.
2. Colon will probably not bolster the staff. He's having a so-so year. He's had so-so years. He's a so-so pitcher. He throws as hard as any starter in the bigs, but he doesn't get much movement on the fastball. I predict the Sox will shell him tonight.
3. He'll walk. He'll be too expensive for the Sox to keep. He'll command $8-10M next year. The Sox should be able to get three good pitchers for that price. Plus, signing Colon might make Derek Lowe unaffordable, and D-Lowe is a better pitcher.
4. We won't have a chance to hit against him. Sox batters have always rocked Colon. He can do us the most good by staying put.

2003-06-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

Say it ain't so, Burky

It is all over blogville that John Burkett refused to pitch in relief of Pedro last night, preferring to start. Things like "If I can't start, I will retire" and "I don't want to pitch in relief" have been said to have come out of JB's mouth. Rupe, who is clearly a trooper, took the ball two days after a 105 pitch start. IF this is a true scoop (and I'm not yet sure it all happened this way) two things should happen right away:

1. Burkett should be released.
2. Grady should be fired.

The first one is a no-brainer. The second one would be tough, because I like the way Grady makes out a lineup card, but if he let a player call the shots, he is done. Remember Daddy Butch's first spring training and the Clemens fiasco? The Hobster never had a chance after that. This is how the conversation should've gone between Grady and JB.

Grady: Hey, Burk-Dog, you're following up Pedro again tonight.
Burkett: I don't want to Grady. I want to start. If I can't start, I will retire.
Grady: Sounds good. Let me help you pack.

But if Grady allowed Burkett to have his way, this is how a conversation between Theo and Grady should go:

Theo: Hey Grady, how come the Burkinator didn't follow up Pedro on Monday night?
Grady: He said he wanted to start, not relieve.
Theo: Do you think that gave us the best chance of winning?
Grady: No, but I didn't want to upset the old Burky Lurky Doo.
Theo: Okay. Sounds good. By the way, you and Burky Lurky Doo are flying out together on the next plane out of Midway. Maybe you can get your old gig as technical advisor on Ron Shelton movies. I'll make a call for you. Oh, and while we're at it, do you know where I can reach Mike Stanley right now?

The instant a manager lets a player call a shot, they have no future with that club. Grady already did that last year when Petey took his last start off, despite having no signs of injury. If Grady let Burkett call his own shot, then eventually respect for him will erode, and he will be unable to manage the team. In that case, the Sox would do well to cut bait right away. One thing that Joe Kerrigan and Dan Duquette did do correctly was tell Pedro to get in there and pitch (when his arm healed), even though Petey didn't want to (though they did let Manny go AWOL at the end of the year.)

2003-06-17T08:15:00.000-05:00

Pale Hose 4 Blood Sox 2

Tough one for the Olde Towne Team last night. Buehrle had lost nine starts in a row, posting an ERA somewhere north of 6.00 in that span. Last night he looked like the pitcher who won 19 for the Pale Hose last year. He works quickly (wow, does he work quickly - NESN said the White Sox had a Buehrle pitched game over in 1 hour 49 minutes - note to Bud Selig, if you want to bring more fans to the park, speed up the game, have the umps call more strikes!) throws strikes and changes speeds. Easy recipe for success. I think all pitchers could take a page out of Buehrle's playbook, particularly Fossum. If Fossum got pants that fit and stopped walking around the mound after EVERY pitch, he might get better rhythm to his outings.

Rupe didn't pitch that badly, despite getting tagged for the loss. He made one bad pitch to one good hitter, and the ball left the yard. Otherwise, the Sox pen did a nice job setting down the Pale Hose lineup (albeit an anemic lineup this year.) This should not add fuel to the fire that the pen stinks, or get people all hopped up saying that Rupe should be sent down. I'm still in favor of Rupe in the starting rotation.

By the way, great throw from Manny to peg Carlos Lee in the fourth. Having said that, was Carlos out for a jog along Lake Michigan, or is he really that slow? It was a fine play by baggy pants, but it looked like somebody threw a piano to Lee as he was rounding first and made him carry it with him as he tumbled down to second.

2003-06-17T08:08:00.000-05:00

The First No-Holds Barred Grady Bash of the Season

At SoxNation, we have (or at least I have) tried to refrain from joining in the Grady bash-fest that is going on this year all over the nation. I think he gets a bad rap for how he handles the bullpen; performances out of the pen are can be erratic, so how could anybody really manage that pen? I think the bullpen has pitched better than most people do, but I'd be a fool to say that there has been anybody who has put up predictably solid performances all year (save for Lyon, I think.) So wacking the manager over the bullpen is a but unfair. Wacking the manager over this is completly fair . . .

From Monday's Boston Globe Sox Notes by Bob Hohler - Grady was watching from the clubhouse when he saw Nomah lay down the bunt in the 14th. "Initially I was cussing because I thought somebody missed a sign . . . [I] wanted Nomar swinging then." Hohler goes on to write that Nomar put the bunt down on his own. "He had a chance to have five hits . . . all he cares about is the team and winning."

This is positively preposterous from the Grad-ster. Hey Grady, were you going to play for the big inning in the bottom of the 14th? It was an absolute lock-cinch no-brainer to bunt Walker over to second in that situation. SoxNation said yesterday that the Sox should've bunted over earlier - heck should've squeezed in the winning run. With Walker on second, one out, Manny and Ortiz coming up - and you ONLY NEED ONE RUN, GRADY! It would be stupid not to bunt. That Nomar had to do this on his own is absolutely nuts. In extra innings with the game tied, if the hometeam gets the leadoff man on, if a manager doesn't bunt the runner over HE SHOULD BE FIRED FOR THAT ALONE. Manny Ramirez is the best RBI man in baseball over the last ten years (save for Barry Bonds, but he's the best at everything, so we'll just take him out of the conversation and count all the number two guys in all the different categories as number one.) I'll repeat that in plain English for Grady in case he's reading - MANNY IS THE BEST RBI MAN IN THE GAME OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS! I hope that Grady isn't really as vacant as all that.

2003-06-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

Try the link below for some serious high octane Grady "Goober" Little bashing by columnist Chad Finn of the Concord Monitor. Vicious stuff.

thhttp://www.cmonitor.com/stories/sports/sportcol2003/chadsgrady_061603_2003.shtm
As for the Cook putting the Dawg out of his misery...I still think the Sox should have kept Uge. And Cookie agrees with me, he just doesn't know it. True, Uge routinely shut down the weak teams, pitched well against the mediocre, and struggled as most everyone does against the really tough ones. The bullpen by committee, whatever the hell that is, has struggled against all of 'em. Do the Sox have some good pitchers in the bullpen? Without a doubt. Does Grady know how to use them? Read Chad Finn.

Fossum to the bullpen. It might be the only place to put him. I wouldn't toss him back into the fire. Guys like Burkett can shrug off giving up 9 runs in one inning but I think Casey took it hard.

Pedro tonight.....always worth watching.

2003-06-16T08:05:00.000-05:00

Sox 4 Astros 3
Sox 8 Cosmonauts 4
Sox 3 Astronians 2 (14 innings)

This was an especially satisfying sweep of the perennial powerhouse from the NL Central. Many of the criticisms and concerns of the Sox this season were at least partly put to rest in this series. Some thoughts and reflections:

Sox can't win the close, low-scoring ones -
Coming into this series, the Sox were 1-15 in games where they 5 runs or less. They have tripled their win total. Two one run victories, men out of the bullpen getting the win. When the starters pitch well, getting to the sixth and seventh inning consistently, it avoids stretching out the bullpen too badly. In Toronto a couple of weeks ago, starters got shelled, forcing the bullpen to throw alot of innings. In Milwaukee, starters got hurt, forcing the bullpen to throw alot of innings. When any pen gets worked that much, they'll lose their effectiveness. In this series and the last, Shiell, Lyon, Embree, Timlin all pitched very well. Hector Almonte was very good, too, even in the Cardinals series. By the way, it is tough to be too hard on Lyon for giving up the lead twice in the Cards series - look at the lineup he was facing. Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, Drew, Renteria - very tough lineup. It would be nice to have a "lights out" guy come in against lineups like that, but for the time being, it looks like the Yanks won't trade Rivera, and the Angels will probably hang on to Percival. Moreover, if we're completely honest about it, would Urbina do any better against that lineup in the same situation? I don't think so. Remember how his season went last year - lots of saves against weak teams, or cheesy saves with three or four run leads; close games against good lineups usually ended up in blown saves and losses. Remember the Braves series at Fenway? We've written about this before at SoxNation, but it bears repeating - where are you going to find the lights out closers on the market right now (if the Sox trade for Benitez, I'll hang myself. If they trade for Urbina, I'll have The Dawg put down.)

Sox starting pitching isn't going deep enough into games -
Rupe, Lowe, Kim pitched extremely well. I think Kim has to stay in the rotation (remember Pedro is steamrolling his way back into the rotation, and Burkett has pitched well.) Rupe's performance was particularly exciting. The guy has always had good stuff. He struggled in Tampa (but then again, who doesn't) and I'm sure he didn't receive very good coaching. Though only one game, Thursday night's performance suggested he has learned to pitch quite a bit better than when we last saw him jumping out of the way of Louisville Sluggers being hurled at him by the Trotster (I wonder if they've made up?) I suspect that NOT making the team out of camp could be one of the best things to happen to Rupe in his career. It allowed him to go to Pawtucket, pitch as a starter (rather than as a long reliever or mop up man - the Steve Woodard job - which is what he would've had earlier in the season. At Pawtucket he was able to start and pitch without being afraid of the quick hook, work through problems, and learn how to pitch. He was very, very good agains the Stros under tough circumstances (rainy, delayed game.) Whereas Duquette would take flyers on old guys he picked up off the waiver wire whose arms were hurt or spent and squeeze some good outings out of them (Pichardo, R. Martinez, Cone), those deals were inevitably doomed, designed perversely to keep the Sox in contention just long enough to persuade the brass to deal a few good prospects for last-year-of-their-deal guys. When Epstein goes to the thrift store, he's got a much better plan - find the guys with good arms, good stuff, strike throwers, who need help learning how to pitch. Rupe, Lyon, Fox all fit this description. The "upside" is so much more positive. Lyon can become a very good closer. He's got a great, live fastball, a good slider, and a change that is much slower than his fastball. I also think he's tough mentally, and he's only 23. Rupe could be the find of the year. He got through a very good Cosmonaut lineup the other night relatively untouched. Lest we forget, Fox was pitching very well when he was hurt, and he is almost back. The bullpen was awesome in this series against Houston. I still firmly believe the bullpen-by-committee thing will be a good move in the long run (see my post from a few weeks ago - I haven't figured out how to link within the site yet - sorry.)

Other thoughts
- It was tough to watch the Sox leave a zillion runners on base yesterday, and all last week. More timely hitting against the Cards and they would've swept two series in a row. Good news - to leave a bunch of runners on base, you have to be getting a bunch of runners on base. Last year in the late innings, all too often Sox hitters would make two outs on two swings, trying to do too much at the plate. The OBP conscious Sox of this year are much more refreshing and encouraging. (Note to Grady - it's okay to sacrifice in the ninth or tenth inning to get a RISP. Nomar's sacrifice in the 14th paid off, so don't be afraid to try it earlier. Also, runners on second and third with one out in the 12th with Damon at the plate - how about a squeeze play? Damon's a great bunter and not a great fly ball hitter. He's a slapshot artist. Obviously with Manny or Millar at the plate - guys who hit the ball in the air all the time - play for the sac fly. Yesterday was ripe for a squeeze, and wouldn't that be a fun way to win a game?)
- Nomar is the MVP in the AL right now. I think the Nomar vs. Jeter debate is losing steam, as Nomar is clearly distancing himself from Jeter. Nomar's production at the plate continues to improve each season, and Jeter's fall every season. Jeter is at best the fourth best shortstop in the league. Nomar is the second best.
- Some pitchers have their personal catchers. Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver are the best examples of this. Freddy Sanchez needs to be Derek Lowe's personal third basemen. Move Mueller over to second on days that Lowe pitches, play Freddy "Brooks Robinson" Sanchez at third, and see how many ground balls get gobbled up by the Sanchez-Garciaparra-Mueller infield.
- How about trying Fossum out of the bullpen when he comes back? I am of two minds about this. I think he'll be a very good starter for the Sox for many years to come, but right now, I think he could be most valuable out of the pen (on a related note, could Fossum's poor outings right before he got hurt have something to do with him being hurt? Before we bury Fossum, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. I'll bet the poor guy was pitching with a bum shoulder and didn't tell anybody about it. We all know how desperately he wants to be a contributor and how tough he is. Indeed, those traits are almost as valuable as his big uncle charlie.)
- Loved seeing Todd Walker go after the umpire when he blew the call on Walker covering on the bunt in the sixth or seventh inning. I was getting the impression that Walker was a good ballplayer that would sign with somebody else next year - you know, one of those guys who don't mind playing for a loser so he can be close to home, a la Fred McGriff. Seeing him go after the ump yesterday changed my mind. He wasn't arguing a call that could aversely affect his own stats, but rather a forceout at first. He wants to win. We should be sure to sign him up for a few more years and solve our revolving second basemen problem.

2003-06-13T19:45:00.000-05:00

I loved last night's game. It was truly a good one. But the best thing about the game was seeing Johnny Damon lay down a bunt and beat it out for a hit, a crucial hit. So sweet. If he would seriously include the bunt in his bag of tricks he'd get my vote in the next election for Mayor of Boston.

Timlin is "not good". He throws one predictable pitch.

The new guy, Danny Amonte or something, the "good weed" guy, is pretty good. He has some of that Urbina "fire" that I miss.

I actually felt sorry for Trot Nixon, and I have been a serious Nixon basher since the '56 Republican convention. Nixon is so helpless against any sort of decent curve ball. But he has lots of company. A good % of major leaguers can't hit one either. So why would any ball club hire a pitcher that can't throw one????

I looked at the game as World Series preview. It'll be wonderful. As Cookie sez we'll have two of the most fanatical fandoms going at it. The baseball will be good too.

2003-06-13T09:36:00.000-05:00

Another cool website can be found over here at Bronx Banter. Check out how the other side lives. It'll do you some good . . .

2003-06-13T08:43:00.000-05:00

Still trying to make sense of last night's game. Great pitching, poor pitching; Stephenson as wild as an October Nor'easter throwing seven shutout innings; 14 walks, 18 runners left on base for the Sox; run cut down at the plate by Nomah, looking like Ozzie Smith; three comebacks - or three blown leads, depending upon your perspective; Varitek's third ninth inning homerun in a week; and, oddest of all, Jeremy Giambi drawing a walk in the ninth and 13th inning.

I hope somebody can help me understand this. Giambi is the acknowledged master of the strike zone, and he rarely swings at bad pitches. However, he is hitting so poorly this year (I won't even bother to look up his stats) that I don't understand how he gets walked? He has had a couple of big homers this year, and the Monster is soooo close for a lefty who likes to go the opposite way, but how come he still gets walked? Why not just fire 'em in there and see if he can hit it? Particulary when he is leading off the inning (as he did in the ninth, with the CardBird up 3-0) and he has been hitting around .200 all year? Very puzzling. Perhaps the Cards pitchers were prepped about facing Giambi on this trip, told to be careful with him, don't give him anything good - and they didn't realize there were actually two Giambis, and the one to be careful with is waiting for them this weekend. If you have any ideas on this, please let me know . . .

2003-06-13T07:19:00.000-05:00

Sort of interesting

This is an oddball statistic, but I think it's pretty interesting that the top 15 teams in baseball are separated by only 10 games (Mariners with the best record, defending champs that Halos with the 15th best record.) Anybody within 10 games in early June could still win their division or wildcard for sure. So, half the teams are still very much in it. Contrast that with the usual spring training reports that 75% of teams are out of it before there opening day starter throws a pitch.

It seems more and more to be the case that if teams have a philosophy of winning (e.g. the Sox's OBP infatuation, or the Braves great pitching), scout well, draft college players, and then have very good coaching consistent with the organizational philosophy, they can put together teams that will compete. To be sure, they'll struggle keeping their players in the long run, but good drafts and minor league coaching can continue feeding the big club. Ex. - see Minnesota Twins.

While we're talking about the Twins, I always found the talk about how the Twins were getting it done on a cheap payroll to be a bit off the mark. Here's what I mean - take last years' Twins team, void their contracts, and then resign the whole team giving them all approximate market value, and the payroll would easily double. The media would look at the itty bitty payroll and conclude the Twins were somehow plucky overachievers, getting it done with some insightful coaching or scouting or whatever. I contend the team was full of great players who will soon be making piles of money. The quirks of the collective bargaining agreement keeps them from being arbitration eligible, etc. so the salaries stay low. The payroll is small because of luck, not because they are a lovable band of fighting scrappers.

And while I'm ranting about the Twins and the media, the other thing that always bothered me was how the media would use the Twins on-field success as ipso facto proof that contracting the Twins was the dumbest idea in the history of homo sapiens. Wrong. Winning and losing should have nothing to do with contraction - it should be how many people are coming to the games. To be sure, winning will put more people in the seats in Twinville, but how about Montreal? If they win this year, will their attendance and support grow? I doubt it. They don't even have an English language radio broadcast of Montreal games. If nobody wants to buy the product, no matter how good it might be, you stop selling it.

By the way, notice how I'm avoiding writing about last night's game?

2003-06-13T07:03:00.000-05:00

Redbirds 8 Sox 7

Anlayses of the game to follow, but right now, I'm too drained to write (even 8 hours after the game.) I'll just let Nomah tell you how I feel:

"If you're any kind of baseball fan, all you can do is just appreciate that game. That's all you can do. It was just an incredible game on both ends. The Cardinals battled. They pulled it off. They didn't give up, we didn't give up. If you're any kind of fan, there's nothing you can say bad about that game on both ends."

2003-06-12T10:55:00.000-05:00

Another great site

Smart and funny, Bambino's Curse is a sight you should be sure to check out.

2003-06-12T07:03:00.000-05:00

Sox 13 Cards 1

How's this for candor from a professional athlete? After last night's game, Tomko said "It's probably the worst outing of my career . . . It's a rut, a big rut. I can't throw a curveball for my life right now.'' The Cards pitcher had the toughest time of any Cardinal in Boston since Bernard Law. This was a "great cleanse the palate" game in all respects for the hometown nine. Clearly, winning the game against one of the better NL teams is great (don't be surprised if we're seeing the eventual NL pennant winners here.) Moving back into first place was great (Houston staff no-hits the Yanks! Dios mio, man!) Pedro was whirling and twirling. But the thing about the game last night that has me the most excited was Burkett's pitching.

At SoxNation, we try to have some evidence and argument before we beat the stuffing out of players, and Burkett has given us plenty of evidence to beat the stuffing out of him. The past three or four outings, he's been terrible. He throws weak stuff over too much of the plate too often. His velocity is there (such as it is, anyway - the point I'm making is that he's healthy) and he hasn't missed a start. He's pitched well, even extremely well, in a Boston uniform; I've secretly held out hope that he could right the ship and be a very good fifth starter (at least when compared to the league average.) Though the Cardnut was down 9-0 when he came in, they were not throwing in the towel, resting the regulars. 9 runs in six innings is nothing to the NutBirds; Burkett held that great lineup to one run (and even that was the product of a "bam, bam" introduction to the game - perhaps Burky should've taken my suggestion to play shadowball.) Not only did we get a win, a great pitching peformance from Burkett, but we also didn't have to stretch the bullpen out. That's terrific, given the Petey-Burky game plan ahead of time; I though we were set up to use about 14 pitchers last night - this was effectively a complete game.

With Wakefield back on the mound, we've got a great chance to take 2 of 3. The BirdNut is as free swinging a team as you'll see this season. They could be creating a turbofan blast at homeplate tonight, chasing the wiffleball from Wakie like the guys in that classic Bugs Bunny routine (by the way, I wonder if anybody HAS ever really struck out on one pitch? Might happen tonight.) Or, Wakie's wiffleball won't wiffle, it'll stay in the fat part of the plate, and Giant Glass will get alot of business fixing windshields on Landsdowne Street. The Sox should score some runs tonight; working backwards, they've scored 13,7,9,11,3,4,8,9,7,10 runs in their last week or so of play.

By the way -
- Nomar has 30 multiple hit games out of 63 games the team has played. I think Nomie has taken a day off at least three times, so half the games he plays, he gets more than one hit. He's got 90 runs produced (runs scored + RBI - home runs) and his OPS is .939. He's hitting .326 and slugging .582. He already has ten triples, all of which are "good" triples, i.e. coming with less than two out. He would not win a vote taken right now (perhaps Delgado?) but with Nomah getting better seemingly every game, he will win his first MVP award this year.

2003-06-11T18:52:00.000-05:00

Check out these sites

If you can't get enough of Red Sox fan sites (actually run by fans) try Obey Pedro and Baseball Blogs (a clearing house of all blogs baseball.)

2003-06-11T17:58:00.000-05:00

Cards 9 Sox 7

In many ways when these two teams meet, they are pretty much looking in the mirror. The Cards have better starting pitching, but it is shaky after their top two of Morris and Williams (they should be bolstered when Tudor rejoins the staff. . .) Does that sound familiar? Their bullpen is a crapshoot. Does that sound familiar? They can slug their way to a victory when their pitching falters. Does that sound familiar? They've got two very big righthanded bats in the lineup in Mr. Rolen and Mr. Pujols. Does that sound familiar? There are differences, most notably being that the Cards can flash much better leather than the Sox. But both of these teams have the same problem, and solving that problem will probably get them into the postseason - where is there some consistent pitching depth to be had?

Mendoza threw the ball well last night, which makes the following scenario infuriate me even more. When Rudy Seanez is out there in the seventh, clearly struggling worse than Calvin Schiraldi in Shea Stadium, why was Mendoza not getting warm faster. He looked like he was playing soft toss with Burkett's kids. Moreover, when the catcher, pitching coach, infielders all stall for time to let the guy warming up get warm, why doesn't the pitcher slow everything down too? Walk seven or eight times around the mound, throw over to first a dozen times, call out the catcher three or four times, pick your nose, fix your cup, clean your spikes, and by that time even Jim Kaat could've warmed up. It seemed like ol' Rudy could've slowed things down a bit more and not had to face as many batters as he did. And surely Ramirio could've had a bit more urgency to his wiffleball warmup tosses.

The Cards took round one last night, but Pedro on the mound is an encouraging sign. With his pattern of first inning problems, Burkett should throw three simulated innings in the bullpen to avoid a "first inning;" or better yet, he should stand behind Pedro playing 'shadowball' for the first three innings.

2003-06-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

The Dawg Barks

I loved Cook's essay on the soul of Soxnation. I would only add that some of us are secretly optomistic about the Sox but having been disappointed so often we tend to always qualify our hopes I for one would love to see the Sox take it all and would agree that the event would change the culture of Soxnation forever. Imagine if in '67 they had pulled it off. The mentality of the entire franchise would have been altered.

Remember, the Rings enabled the wearers to look into the past and future. Cookie has done a lovely job of looking at the past. Here's my take on the future and some advice.

1. The Sox will remain a successful franchise. By every measure, except for the lack of the WS title, it is a bluechip franchise. However, they can go another 100 and it won't matter a wit.
2. The Sox would be wise to foster New England talent. When in doubt keep the locals.
3. Nurture the farm system because they supply both players and fans.
4. Keep Fenway no matter what. Some antiques are better than the replacement.
5. Lower ticket prices, stop the spitting, everyone wears the uniforms the same way.
6. Always have a manager that has some character. When in doubt go with the oddball.
7. Get a pitching coach who was a catcher not a former third rate pitcher.

OK....that's enough.

2003-06-10T17:48:00.000-05:00

A little polemic in honor of the Sox/Cards series

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

I am going to ruffle some feathers in SoxNation with this post; so be it. The things I am going to say need to be said. I think they may help all of us in SoxNation move ahead with our lives and actually become normal fans for a normal team. Here goes.

Our friends over at RedbirdNation have a really insightful post today preparing their readers for the upcoming Sox/Cards series. The whole thing is worth reading, but I’ll just share an excerpt here:

“It must kill the soul of a city, just a little, to go 84 years without winning a World Series. And I suppose one way to cope is to embrace your problems, to make a fetish of your failings and your heartaches and your sorrows. And if you’re a diehard Sox fan, you can add a razored edge to the bullwhip you flog yourself with, and you can lash out with anger and bitterness against anyone who claims to have it half as bad as you.”

I think they’re correct. Many sportswriters have opined what it would be like to have the Sox finally win the big enchilada (I personally think it could signal a paradigm shift in the whole culture of New England – seriously.) Leigh Montville wrote in Sports Illustrated several years ago that NOT winning was more important than winning. NOT winning is what gives the team and its fandom its identity. It is the thing to which we Red Sox fans cling most tightly. We are bound together in our collective misery, and our collective yearning to taste victory. But what would we do if we did win? What would spring training be like the next year, without the Herculean task sitting out there on the diamond like a giant monkey laughing and winking as pitchers and catchers report? What would we strive for? Would we simply be Anaheim with better sports bars? In the same way that autumn is such a bittersweet season because hidden within its beauty is the promise of the death of the summer, would a Sox season without The Quest be like a summer that didn’t end? Wouldn’t we stop caring?

In the Shawshank Redemption, one of the lifers is finally let out of prison. He struggles in the world of free men for a time and then finally kills himself. He just couldn’t take it. The known misery, the life of unfulfilled expectations, the never-ending longing for freedom (without the worries and challenges that actually come with freedom) is more enjoyable and certain than actually having that freedom. Be careful what you wish for, you may get it . . .

As some readers know, in my real life, I am a prep school teacher. I have seen students and athletes (I also coach) deliberately sabotage their work and effort to avoid SUCCEEDING, not to avoid failure. Falling short of expectations is what they’ve come to expect from themselves. Meeting expectations is terrifying.

Sox fans are always waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for failure, hoping for failure, willing it to happen. A friend of mine a couple of years ago was watching a Saturday afternoon game coming from the Bronx where the Sox had a 10-0 lead in the seventh. Jimy Williams brought Frank Castillo in to get some work; this particular friend just about lost his mind over the move, expecting somehow that Frankie would somehow lose the game. He was almost hoping it would happen. How else would you explain this, other than to say that Sox fans have a love affair with losing? Not a love affair like the Cubs’ bleacher bums – but rather an operatic, drawn out, stick forks under your fingers, I know they’ll find some way to screw it up in the end type of losing?

So RedbirdNation is right. We in New England fetishize our losing. We are more miserable than anybody. We are the world champions of losing. Nobody can touch us when it comes to losing. Nobody has it half as bad as we do. We love to watch our gang lose. We are so terrified that they might win someday that we collectively will them to lose whenever they are close in September.

“But they’ve broken our hearts so many times before!” Any time any team loses in game seven of the World Series, their fans are heartbroken. How’d you like to be a San Francisco fan? How many times have the Yankees come close to winning the pennant and settled for second place? I’ll bet it is at least as much as the Sox. Sure, there was 1978, but most of the other instances in the last 30 years that Sox fans point to as “heartbreaking” are simply just plain old coming in second. Get over it.

“It’s the Curse of the Bambino!” Catchy, but really quite preposterous.

· 1946, Pesky held the ball – no he didn’t. Any reasonable baseball historian will tell you that’s not what happened. DiMaggio was out of the game and the backup centerfielder had a weak arm, so Slaughter was planning on scoring as soon as the ball was hit in the gap. Curse? No, just got beat by a good play.
· 1967 Impossible Dream – first of all, going worst to first in the days before divisional play should be a mark against the “guaranteed collapse theory” of the Sox. Lost to Bob Gibson and the Cards. Big wup. Just plain lost.
· 1975 Fisk Homer series – if the Sox were cursed, wouldn’t the Fisk Homer have been hit by George Foster to win the series for the Reds? Sure the Reds still won, but where’s the curse?
· 1978 – Big collapse to the Yanks – Bucky Dent homer. Not cursed. Phillies collapse in ‘64 was bigger. Angels collapse in ‘95(?) was more heart wrenching. Yanks actually blew a bigger lead to the Sox in ’88. Also, the ’78 Yanks went on to win the series, so it wasn’t as if the Sox were beat by the Brewers or something. Anyway, who’s to say we’d have beaten the Dodgers that year?
· 1986 – Okay, that one’s hard to explain. It still pulls bile up into the back of my throat to think about it. But it happened. No worse than what the Dodgers fans in the 40s dealt with when Mickey Owen let strike three get through his legs allowing the Yanks to rally. How about the Cards fans trying to live with Denkinger’s game 6 call in ’85? That Sox loss was as painful as any loss in history – made more painful by the fact that it would’ve relieved literally lifetime’s worth of suffering (by contrast, the Cards had just won in ’82), but it happened, move on. Come to think of it, wouldn’t the Angels have a better claim to be cursed? Henderson’s homer in game 5 of the ALCS sort of killed a man (Donnie Moore.) Talk about curses!
· 1999 ALCS – I’ve even heard Sox fans talk about a curse in this playoff series because of two blown calls at second base in the late innings in that series. To be sure, replays show that the umps missed calls, and you can kinda sorta coulda shoulda woulda make the case that the Sox mighta pulled out those games. Game two, three Sox flies hit the top of the wall in the Stadium. Was the ghost of the Bambino holding those in? C’mon. We got whipped in five. Rod Beck’s mediocre fastball was more the reason we lost. And lest we forget, even if we did beat the Yanks, there was a little matter of the Atlanta Braves to take care of.

We’ve come close, and we’ve had some bad luck. We might want it worse than any other yearning city – but cursed? That kind of thinking is part and parcel of the fetishization of losing. We’re cursed! There’s nothing we can do about it! We’re doomed to push this rock up the hill forever! Nobody has it as bad as we do!

It can’t help that Boston’s biggest rival in sports is the Yankees, only the most successful franchise in team sports history. That really exacerbates the losing streak we’re on. It also can’t help that the rivalry between Boston and New York extends beyond the sports arena to life in general. Boston was once the big boy on the block, but ever since Alexander Hamilton, we’ve lived in the shadow of New York. Bostonians can’t admit that, so they just wrap themselves up in denial.

We can be obnoxious

I’m afraid its true. Beyond the constant longing for losing, Sox fans can be overbearing in their haughtiness and self-loathing. We are like a drunk not that far into recovery. I think I've figured out where this Bill Simmons-esque pissiness and hauteur comes from - the hauteur comes from provinciality, oldness, and the territory - all east coast cities are a bit full of themselves, to a certain extent. Boston IS the best in the world at some things, like universities and hospitals, and this “we are number one” attitude carries over into other domains, like sports. Nobody can touch us as sports fans, we think (hey, if the teams don’t win, you might as well declare yourselves champion fans.)

Moreover, there is an aristocratic, egg headed Bostonian tradition that inhabits the same geography, but has nothing to do with, Vinny and Joey from Quincy. New England is liberated and puritanical, intellectual and provincial, beautiful in summer/fall and pure drudgery in the winter. These strange mixes concoct in New Englanders some of the most confused and embarrassing attitudes you'll ever see – a sort of schizophrenic caste system built deep into the region’s psyche. When the Irish and Italians and Germans came to America optimistically seeking to free themselves from their second-class citizen status in Europe and make a better life for themselves, they found it in Chicago, St. Louis, even New York. But in Boston, the poor souls ran into the same WASPy aristocracy that they just left behind in Europe, firmly rooted in place and not anxious to give any ground to any crazy Irishmen. So the second class citizen status remained, and out of this grows a sort of downtrodden everyman’s hero who pooh poohs the good life because he knows he can’t have it. This grows easily into cynicism about life in general; our obsession with sports is not immune from this cynicism. In St. Louis, Irish immigrants found other immigrants mixed in with some French fur trappers and Native Americans. St. Louisians ALL pulled on the same end of the rope building that city. It’s not a stretch to see that can do attitude, coupled with sincerity and earnestness in the way they root for the Cardinals.

Boston loves to call itself a sports crazy town, but I think that’s being a bit too self-congratulatory. To be sure, we love the Pats, Sox, B’s and C’s, but we don’t really have a great following for sports beyond this. In some ways, the craving for sports has grown bigger than the big four sports’ and this media’s ability to satisfy it. Because of this myopia, there is a “coverage shortage” (to wit, the Revolution were in the championship game last season, and though the Globe gave genuine coverage, the rest of the media were mocking soccer the day of the game. Perhaps it's fear of something new. Similarly, the New England sports world hardly noticed when Harvard and BC won men's ice hockey titles in the past decade.) The fans tend to smother the big four with love; and like a dysfunctional drunk, they heap on criticism, self-loathing, and a simultaneous superiority and inferiority complex.

We even fall in love with sports stars who are not lovable people. We trash our heroes when they leave, and forgive the same sins of “our guys.” Think about these heroes for a second:

Ted Williams - colossal jerk
· Yaz - born without a personality
· Fisk – ingrate (he even treated the White Sox, who did him HUGE favors at the end of his career, worse than he treated the Red Sox)
· Bird - zero sportsmanship in the way he played. dirty, cheap, trash talker, but he was sooooo good.
· Russell – Colder than an iceberg.

The only Boston sports hero I can think of who is genuinely a hero without blemish is Bobby Orr. Maybe John Havlicek. Interestingly, the Patriots heroes are usually pretty good people, but they are not as much in the pantheon of sports favorites in this town.

The minute Clemens left town, we ripped him to bits. Pedro is really far worse than Clemens ever was (Rojah never talked about playing for the Yankees one day when he was still drawing checks from the Sox – Pedro has already talked about it twice.) Don’t worry, when Pedro leaves, we’ll rip him too.

This tendency to immortalize great players who were not great sports or great people while shredding other players who commit no worse sins is part and parcel of the self-flagellation and loser-hero status that Red Sox fans perversely wear with pride.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Lord of the Rings, Sauron’s ring drives everybody who comes near it mad with obsessive longing for the ring. It causes otherwise sane and noble people to do strange and ultimately self-destructive things. It envelopes those who desire it in a murky darkness, where they dwell knowing neither life nor death. It is maddening.

The quest for the World Series is Sauron’s Ring for Sox fans, Sox players, Sox media, and Sox management. Management makes crazy trades, giving up good prospects for marginal shots at WINNING NOW! Good players come to Boston and have their careers fall apart, breathing sighs of relief when they leave town finally (Roger Clemens and Bruce Hurst, as different as Yin and Yang, were both glad to be out of town.) Players say and do nutty things (read ANY of Pedro’s quotes from the past week and tell me the Ring hasn’t rotted his brain.) The media pursues these players with a wraith like intensity, and the ring drives players mad. Lynn, Fisk, Burleson, Clemens, Vaughn – they all got the hell out of Dodge. I challenge anybody to name a Sox player who had his career rejuvenated by coming to Boston (other than Tim Wakefield.) I dare you.

The Quest consumes. It eats up fan hearts and spits them out. It makes otherwise good hearted, spirited people turn violently against their own kind (see RedbirdNation for a very good criticism of Sox fans hatred of Clemens.) We are all driven mad by our longing for the Ring.

Where’s Frodo?