theredsoxblog06

Thats all folks...

2006-08-21T01:14:00.000-04:00

well this season is over. A few thoughts about the off season. We need a closer so we can put Papelbon in the rotation and we need to get a legit hitter to bat behind Manny. Manny has walked in half his at bats this series because there is no one behind him that other teams need to worry about.

As for tonights suck fest, were do I begin? In the 9th inning tonight David Ortiz hustled to get to second base after and error by Jason Giambi. This would seem like a good thing, but it made it so the Yankees intentionally walked the red hot Manny. If Papi did not go to second the Yankees would have pitched to Manny because they would not want to put the tying run in scoring position. When Papi went to second it took both the bat at out Manny’s hands and any chance of the sox scoring against Rivera with it.

Also why the fuck is Youk bunting? If you really want to play small ball and bunt at least put a pinch runner for Papi. But in the end Youk should not be bunting at all. How is it that Hinske can not even make contact on 3 straight fastballs? Fuck fuck fuck fuck. The had my hopes up for a while earlier tonight but this season is fucking over.

Kapler fuck up major in the 9th. He dived for no reason playing a single into the double. Then we he should have dived on Jeter's hit he pulled back. What the Fuck?

Despite my current tirade I am not as angered as I used to be. 2004 softened my anger when we fuck up; in addition, the sox brass would never really publicly admit it but this is a rebuilding year. But does it have to be the fucking Yankees we tank it too? What the fuck is Toronto’s problem. If Toronto had a great year and was winning the division it would not be really annoy me at all, but the fact we are letting the Yankees cake walk into the post season still pisses me off. What Happened to that Latroy Hawkins deal that was supposed to go down earlier in the week? He could have meant a victory in a game like tonight. Maybe we would not need Hawkins if Hansen would spend more time on pitching and less time drunk off hiss ass hitting on girls.

Pointless

2006-08-10T00:17:00.000-04:00

To write about this team at this point will only serve to infuriate me...

Hey Papi!!!!!!....Get The GMs Drunk

2006-07-31T22:42:00.000-04:00

If any dumbass writer does not put David Ortiz number 1 on their MVP ballot this year because he is a DH I will personally lead the Calvary charge on their homes. All I can say is WOW.

Here is my theory why there was another trading deadline with no major deals in the entire MLB. The trading deadline is at 4pm. In the past it was at midnight. By midnight most of the GM were at the very least tired and most likely had thrown back a few and were half drunk. Everyone knows that there are a lot of ideas that people have that seem brilliant at midnight, but seem foolish in the light of day. Thus, you see few blockbuster deals at 4pm compared to the past when the deadline was at midnight.

Trade Deadline

2006-07-31T07:44:00.000-04:00

There were a lot of rumors recently of trades involving Nixon and Crisp, but with the injury to Trot last night I don’t see either of them being moved. Furthermore, I don’t see the sox trading any of their young arms. Thus, despite the Yankees move, the sox making most likely will not make any big deals today.

The most persistent rumor I have seen is a trade that would send Lowell to Tampa for Julio Lugo and the Padres being involved and the sox getting set up man Scott Linebrink who I know pretty much nothing about. I don’t really understand the point of that trade.

Should be interesting to see where Soriano lands and if Tejada gets dealt.

Ben Affleck should have his sox nation membership revoked after failing to fight for that foul ball last night. He could have saved the sox an out.

Bad Loss

2006-07-29T07:39:00.000-04:00

Last Night was the type of game we had been winning all year. Lester pitched better then his stats from last night indicate. Alot of those hits in the sixth were ticky tack hits.

I am a huge Trot fan and dont want him to be traded but he needs to step his game up. In the last month he has hit for almost no power and his average is slowly dipping as well.

Manny Vs. A-Rod

2006-07-25T23:25:00.000-04:00

It is only the fourth inning, but Manny already has had a classic Manny night. He drove a ball to deep center in the first inning for an RBI single, but should have easily made it to second if he hustled. Two innings later he came back up and hit one out of the park. Then there is the man we almost traded Manny for, A-Rod. A-Rod reminds me of the talented little leaguer whose dad is always watching him in the stands and tries too hard to impress his dad and ends up failing. I don’t care if Manny takes out a Game Boy and starts playing Tetris in Left Field, I still rather have him on the Sox over the head case that is A-Fraud.

Harold Reynolds

2006-07-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

Harold Reynolds was unexpectantly fired from ESPN today. Reports say that he was frequently hitting on the female ESPN production staff. I say, who cares, hes Harold Reynolds. Who doesn't like Harold Reynolds. He is a classy man, and anywoman who refuses his advances, should be fired from ESPN. I hope NESN quickly picks him up, cause I will suffer from Reynolds withdrawl.

Red Sox and Trades
I feel like there are no trades that would significantly help the Sox. They need starting pitching, and Wells is reportingly coming back. One pitcher i wouldn't mind seeing in a Red Sox uniform would be Livan Hernandez of the Washington Nationals. He pitches alot of innings, and Nationals GM Jim Bowden says he needs a pressure situation to be succesfull.

Good Win and Trade Rumors

2006-07-22T08:22:00.000-04:00

Good win last night, but I wish Snyder did not pull a Clement and have a random injury in the 6th inning. Are starters are not going deep enough into games and I am worried that we will tire are bull pen arms too early. On the plus side the Win put us ahead of Chicago and 3 and half over the Yankees in the standings.

I have been hearing rumors of a trade involving Mike Lowell and a midlevel prospect such as David Pauley for Jake Peavy. Peavy is having a bad year this year, and Lowell is fitting into the team well, but I would do that deal in a heart beat. Peavy is a young fire-baller akin to Beckett. He could help the team this year and down the round. We could always move Youk to third and have a combo of Cora and Wily Mo at first or even make an additional deal for a serviceable first baseman. I am sure Doug Mientkiewicz would be available just hide all the baseball or any other memorabilia if he arrives because he will most likely claim he is the rightful owner and try to put it on EBay.

Look Out for the Twinkies. Minnesota has one 8 in a row and I am sure by mid-August you will already be sick of hearing baseball commentators saying that with Santana and Liriano the Twins would be… lets say it all together now “ the team no one wants to face in the playoffs.”

A look at my predictions

2006-07-19T10:38:00.000-04:00

AL MVP- Ortiz, looks like im correct there
AL CY YOUNG-Johon Santanna He is still one of the best pitchers in baseball
AL MANEGER- Eric Wedge- Indians have greatly underachieved
AL ROY- Liriano- great pick so far

NL MVP- Soriano- Hes been alright, no MVP
NL CY YOung- Ben Sheets, havent heard his name once
NL MANEGER- Frank Robinson- I love the NATS
NL ROY- Ryan Zimmerman- Prince Fielder looked like the early pick but Zimmerman looks like the pick as of late

I Said this on March 27th

"ALL STAR GAME WINNERS
MVP: Michael Young- game winning hit, no one will be watching"

THAT IS THE MOST AMAZING PREDICTION I HAVE EVER HAD

Back in The Minor Leagues

2006-07-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

While facing the Royals tonight Jon Lester must have been wondering at times if he was sent back to Pawtucket. Despite the fact that the Royals are a joke, it was great to see Lester pitch 8 innings of 1 hit ball. Lester has proven he can pitch effectively in the big leagues and now all he has to do is get out of innings with an economy of pitches so he can go deep into games like tonight.

Are the Red Sox bats still on the All Star break?

Congratulations to Jason Varitek for breaking Carlton Fisk’s team record of games caught. In addition, I have to always give credit to the much maligned Dan Duquette who pulled off the best trade in Red Sox history by getting Tek and D_Lowe for Slocumb. The Slocumb for Tek and Lowe trade tops even the Pedro and Schilling trades because in the case of Pedro and Schilling the sox were getting known proven players. In the case of Lowe and Tek, Duquette got both of them before they were established major leaguers and both Tek and Lowe were major players in the Sox first World Series win in 86 years.

The Stopper

2006-07-15T22:31:00.000-04:00

After 2 tough loses, it was good to see Curt Schilling bring his ace stuff and stop a potential losing streak tonight. In addition, the continuing emergence of DelCarmen and Hansen in the bullpen will be the story in the second half.

Papi with another home run tonight has a great chance at 50 and an outside chance at 62. Lets say Papi hits 62 home runs; being that he has never been associated with steroids or HGH, should he not be considered the true home run king?

A look back on my predictions:

2006-07-13T00:18:00.000-04:00

At the half way point of the season, here is a look back at my predictions before the start of the season:

AL
R.O.Y: I picked Brain Anderson who has sucked. Verlander has been great, but he would be 3rd on my half season ROY list. I will go with Papelbon over Lirano because Papelbon’s games have been more pressure packed and I am homer.

Cy Young: I picked Roy Holladay and I am standing by this decision even though cases can be made for both Papelbon and Lirano as well.

MVP: I picked Manny, but for the first half of the year I have to go with Papi.

Manager: I picked Jim Leyland and if the Tigers keep this up he will win this award unanimously

Divisions and Wild Card: So far I am right about the Red Sox being in first. I thought the Tigers would be better, but not where they are. I picked Chicago in first place and they are only a few games out. I picked Texas in the west; they were leading for a while but Oakland past them and I must admit the A’s will most likely win this division. I picked Cleveland for Wild Card, but there bad bull pen and mediocre starting pitching combined with being in a surprisingly tough division means they don’t have a shot in hell at getting the wild card now.

NL.

The NL is such a joke I am not going to waste time writing about them.

19 Inning game

2006-07-10T22:21:00.000-04:00

The worst thing about watching all 19 innings of the game...

That god damn wendy's unicorn commercial over and over again!

Long Game… Short Post

2006-07-09T23:24:00.000-04:00

While it would have been nice to win today’s game, I cant be too upset with taking 2/3 in Chicago. On Tuesday, I will give my mid-season report and look back on some of the predictions I made at the start of the season.

Papi Power

2006-07-06T23:25:00.000-04:00

When David Ortiz first started his power surge a few year back I compared him to Mo Vaughn. He has since far exceeded anything that Mo Vaughn has done and the only player in Baseball history that he should be compared to the last few years is Babe Ruth.

Hansen, Delcarmen, and Papelbon had a strong night. As great as Papelbon is at closer I still see the starting rotation of the future of being Papelbon, Beckett, Lester; the closer of the future will be Hansen and Manny D will be the set up man.

Glad to see Nomar made it to the All Star team via the final fan voting he deserved it. Pierzynski on the other hand was the worst player on the list and should not have made it. I would have much preferred Liriano, Verlander, or Hafner.

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie

2006-07-04T00:54:00.000-04:00

I heard today on WEEI that after the fan and player voting, Ozzie Guien had to choose the three remaining spots for the AL all star team. He chose 3 White Sox. Im guessing Bobby Jenks, Jermaine Dye, and Mark Buehrle. None of these players are more derserving than Francisco Liriano, Justin Verlander, Curt Schilling, Travis Hafner, and (I hate to say it) Jason Giambi. Schilling was left of the "Last Man Vote" as well. This is a bad system. The fans elect crappy people and leave the manegers in positions in which they make bad decisions.
Ways to make it better

NO FAN VOTING

A player does not need to be selected from each team
Joe from KC isnt tuning into the game just to see Mark Redman

A Coach or maneger from each team is present at a conferance call which does not end till they hvae picked 25 men for the team.

All Star Teams

2006-07-02T21:34:00.000-04:00

The Sox have 4 all stars: Manny, Papi, Papelbon, and Loretta who I am glad got voted in. Loretta had that one slump for about 3 weeks when he was driving me nuts, but aside from that he has been on fire. Here are the teams for both leagues. I highlighted the sox and former sox players. Schilling should have made it but he was left off because Redman had to be their for the Royals and Ozzie put every possible White Sox on the team.

The complete list of AL All-Stars:
Starters:
1B David Ortiz, BOS 2B Mark Loretta, BOS 3B Alex Rodriguez, NYYSS Derek Jeter, NYY C Ivan Rodriguez, DET OF Vladimir Guerrero, LAA OF Manny Ramirez, BOS OF Ichiro Suzuki, SEA

Pitchers:
SP Mark Buerhle, CWS SP Jose Contreras, CWS SP Roy Halladay, TOR SP Scott Kazmir, TB SP Mark Redman, KC SP Kenny Rogers, DET SP Johan Santana, MIN SP Barry Zito, OAK RP Bobby Jenks, CWS RP Jon Papelbon, BOS RP Mariano Rivera, NYY RP B.J. Ryan, TOR
Reserves:
1B Paul Konerko, CWS 1B Jim Thome, CWS 2B Robinson Cano, NYY 2B Jose Lopez, SEA 3B Troy Glaus, TOR SS Miguel Tejada, BAL SS Michael Young, TEXC Joe Mauer, MIN OF Jermaine Dye, CWS OF Alex Rios, TOR OF Gary Matthews, Jr., TEXOF Grady Sizemore, CLE OF Vernon Wells, TOR

Here are the National League All-Stars:
Starters:
1B Albert Pujols, STL 2B Chase Utley, PHI 3B David Wright, NYM SS Jose Reyes, NYMC Paul Lo Duca, NYM OF Jason Bay, PIT OF Carlos Beltran, NYM OF Alfonso Soriano, WSH
Pitchers:
SP Carlos Zambrano, CHC SP Bronson Arroyo, CIN SP Brad Penny, LAD SP Tom Glavine, NYM SP Pedro Martinez, NYM SP Chris Carpenter, STL SP Jason Schmidt, SF RP Brian Fuentes, RP Derrick Turnbow, RP Tom Gordon, PHI RP Trevor Hoffman, SD
Reserves:
1B Lance Berkman, HOU 1B Ryan Howard, PHI 2B Dan Uggla, FLA 3B Miguel Cabrera, FLA 3B Freddy Sanchez, PIT 3B Scott Rolen, STL SS Edgar Renteria, ATL C Brian McCann, ATL OF Andruw Jones, ATL OF Matt Holliday, COL OF Carlos Lee, MIL

CoCo’s Coming Out Party

2006-06-29T22:16:00.000-04:00

Every new Red Sox has a game when they officially become a Red Sox. Nick pointed out that earlier in the year Loretta had his Red Sox’s coming out party when he hit his walk off homer. Tonight, after it being delayed by injury, CoCo had his Red Sox arrival game. The bunt single, the stolen base and the winning run. He caped that off with one of the best catches of the season to protect the lead.

Welcome to Red Sox Nation CoCo. To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart “ I have a feeling this is the start of a beautiful relationship”

Lester Shines (get well Peter)

2006-06-27T22:57:00.000-04:00

Before I talk about the game I have to wish a get well to Peter Gammons who is in the hospital after suffering a brain aneurism. Gammons has contributed to my love of baseball as much as any player and I hope he recovers.

Lester’s pitch to strike out Dave Wright in the fifth was the most important pitch of the season. Not only did he help keep the game under control and help preserve the winning streak, he showed a toughness that others ( cough cough Matt Clement) have lacked. I think Lester’s getting out of the fifth in a way inspired A-Gon and Lowell’s home runs.

There are few plays I enjoy more then the outfield assist to get someone out at the plate. It is even more fun to when it is yet another player underestimating Manny’s quick release and arm accuracy and getting gun down on a plate.

Mets series

2006-06-25T23:14:00.000-04:00

Firstly, I agree with Sam, anything less than a enthusiastic standing ovation would be a joke.

The Sox have to be estatic with how their pitching lines up for the series. Lester. Beckett. Schilling.

The scouting report on Lester is already thin and on top of that no Mets (aside from Millige maybe) have faced him. Thats a good advantage.

Beckett looked great last time out and he knows the mets well and Schill is Schill.

Should be a great series. I see the mets as the only good NL team. (How the hell can a whole league have one good team)???

Pedro

2006-06-25T12:24:00.000-04:00

The members of "The Boston Dirt Dogs" website is calling for a Paydro Martinez Greedy-Petey-Bolted-for-New-York Standing Boo-vation. Personally i think this is rediculous. He wanted a forth year and the Red Sox didn't want to give it to him. If you want to blame anyone for Pedros departure, it's the Red Sox. They made a calculated decision that in 4 years Pedro would be ineffective. Personally, i still think the Red Sox made the right decision, but booing Pedro is still stupid.
After everything he did for the Team and the City, he should recive a 5 minute standing ovation.
1998-2000 Dominance
99 All Star Game
99 PLayoffs- Injured earlier in the series, comes in, in game 5. Pitches 6 no hit innings to clinch the series.
117-37 Record as a Red Sox
1999 AL Pitching Triple Crown- Record:23-4 ERA:2.07 SO:313

Papelbon and Papi

2006-06-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

Papelbon so far this year has been every bit as good as Rivera or Eck in their prime.

Even an SI cover can’t stop Papi’s heroics. I am sure there are players in the history of baseball who have more total game winning hits and home runs, but someone needs to go into the record books and see if Papi has the highest ratio of game winners to games played.

If the Sox played in the national league is there any doubt they would finish with around 115 wins?

Aaargh

2006-06-23T01:08:00.000-04:00

Off days suck

Off days during a win streak really really suck.

What If......

2006-06-22T14:26:00.000-04:00

NESN is starting a program called "What If...."
http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/programming/shows/what_if/

Its debut is, What if Grady Little had Taken Pedro out of the 2003 ALCS.
They will use computer-generated statistical data, to try and predict the results.
They have 10 other Boston Sports Situations that they want fans to rank to see what the next show will be. I ranked them as such.

1. Buckner- Obvious First choice
2. Manny A-Rod Trade- Would he still fear failure
3. Len Bias- the Celtics would be good
4. No Tom Brady- Drew Bledsoe isnt leading the Dynasty
5. Celts get Tim Duncan- Again celtics would be good
6. Glen Wesley Scores in 90 Finals- I was 3 months old, but i have seen that replay, damn damn damn
7. Belicheck is Jets Head Coach- More Pete Carrol?
8. Orr is nevered injured- I dont know much about orr, except that he was amazing, his health would not affect my sports life
9. Bagwell is never traded- I dont think bagwell alone could have done anything.
10. Flutie has incomplete hail mary- flutie doesnt get hiesman, and no one knows about him when hes up in canadia

Snyder Silences Snide Statements

2006-06-20T00:05:00.000-04:00

I went to school with some guy named Kyle Snyder. He was a rolly polly dude, unlike the Snyder who pitched for the sox tonight who looked like a giant Bronson Arroyo (Arroyo had another great performance tonight) with a decent curveball. I heard many pundits mock the signing of Snyder since he was released from the Royals who are one of the worst teams in baseball history, but Snyder came through tonight. I suspect that there is a 50/50 shot that this will be Snyder’s only start for the Red Sox. If it is, and the sox win the pennant or the Series, Snyder earned his ring tonight.