June 28th, 2009
Well the Red Sox have the best record in the AL. They have the best bullpen ERA in baseball and they’re leading the majors in 2 out RBIs. Winning the ultimate goal and the Sox are having great success…but this is a boring team to watch.
With the best bullpen in the league they rarely blow leads. There are almost no back and forth lead changes because they don’t give up the lead. If the Sox are ahead late in the game they usually win. Paplebon has one blown save. So if the team goes into the 9th with a lead they’re on pace to win 95% of the time.
The bullpen is so strong that I’m waiting for teams to tell batters not to take pitches. I can just imagine the coach before the game, “Hey you guys we need to stay out of their bullpen. So keep the starter’s pitch count low. As soon as you see a ball you can hit, swing at it. Don’t be taking strikes. We want their starters in as long as possible.”
OK, maybe now that Beckett and Lester are on fire that approach won’t work. And let’s face it there is not strategy with Wakefield. If you get a pitch to hit, hit it.
On the flip side of keeping the lead… there have been very few end-of-game heroics. Nick Green had a walk-off homer and Youk had one early in the season against the Yankees. So if Sox are losing at the end of the game they’re not that likely to put together a dramatic rally…at least not so far.
Didn’t it seem like it wasn’t that long ago that Big Papi had a walk-off RBI once a week or so? More during the playoffs…this year that hasn’t happened.
So the Sox are good, they’re winning, they have very few holes and their boring. It’s the opposite of a basketball game where you can watch the last 5 minutes and enjoy the drama. For the Sox this season, you can watch the first 6 innings and then go mow the lawn. The results over the last 3 innings don’t seem to change the outcome.
Can we at least have a realistic trade rumor, a contract dispute or a disgruntled player to liven things up a bit? Maybe it’ll all change in the second half, or for the playoffs. It’s been a very good season so far, Go Sox…yawn!
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June 6th, 2009
Clay Day is coming soon. Pretty soon the Red Sox will have to give Clay Buchholz a chance to pitch for the big club. He’s just been too good in the minor’s to leave him there to rot.
He’s nearly pitched a perfect game this season; he already pitched a no-no for the Sox in September 2007. In the minors you can’t ask for much better than this:
| CG |
ERA |
Innings Pitched |
Hits |
Runs |
Earned Runs |
BB |
Strikeouts |
| 1 |
1.77 |
86.2 |
55 |
18 |
17 |
22 |
116 |
Even going back to his college days at Angelina College he was dominant. In 85-2/3 innings he struck out 129 batters and only gave up 10 earned runs. Only college students sure, but he got them out.
He’s shown to have major league stuff, he knows how to win, he knows how to throw strikes. He needs to show us that he can consistently win on the big stage. It’s time for the Red Sox to throw him on the mound.
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June 4th, 2009
So the Red Sox have a 4th/5th starter in Brad Penny. A guy who’s done a respectable job in the rotation. Chews up innngs, keeps the Sox in the game, has a bunch of wins…yada yada yada.
TRADE HIM
Not that he’s a distraction or a detriment to the team. It’s quite the opposite, he’s exactly what the Sox hoped for and he’s got a reasonable contract.
TRADE HIM
He’s got some value on the market and teams need pitching and the Red Sox don’t. No the Sox won’t get a starting shortstop but they’re in need of some power hitting prospects. There are lots of players who may be gone in a year or two; JD Drew, Jason Bay, Mike Lowell, David Ortiz…and the Sox have holes in their farm system that could use filling.
TRADE HIM
OK maybe trading him for ‘thoughts’ is a little dramatic, but we don’t need to get much more than that for him for the Sox to be successful. They have options in Bucholz, Masterson, Bowden and Smoltz. Brad Penny is tradeable so…
TRADE HIM
Posted in Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball, Sports, Team Sports | 1 Comment »
May 28th, 2009
Mark your calendars. The WNBA will tip off its 2009 season on Saturday, June 6. Six games are on tap for opening day:
- Detroit @ Los Angeles - 2:30pm
- Seattle @ Sacramento - 4:00pm
- Washington @ Connecticut - 4:00pm
- Indiana @ Atlanta - 7:00pm
- Chicago @ Minnesota - 8:00pm
- San Antonio @ Phoenix - 10:00pm
Tags: Basketball, WNBA
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May 21st, 2009
National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) will start its 2009 season on Wednesday June 3rd. The league will be fielding 5 teams this year as the New England Riptide are taking the 2009 season off because of economic conditions.
For more information see the NPF Schedule.
Tags: NPF, Softball
Posted in National Pro Fastpitch, Professional Sports, Softball, Team Sports | No Comments »
May 18th, 2009
The Bruins fell in a game 7 last Wednesday. The Celtics fell last night. With that, Boston’s spring championship hopes are over…
For the Celtics it was a case of too few healthy bodies and too much fatigue. Up 3 games to 2 the Celtics finally ran out of gas dropping the last 2 and the series. Last night they had clearly hit the wall.
Now our hopes rest on the boys of summer…
Tags: Basketball, Boston Celtics
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May 15th, 2009
Yesterday was a dark day for Boston sports fans…
It started in the afternoon with the Red Sox who dropped an extra innings game to the Angels. Now granted, this is only 1 of 162 so it was not tragic.
Things got worse in the evening when the Celtics got some of the bad karma dropping game 6 of their much more important playoff series. This forces a final and decisive game at the Garden on Sunday, so while bad, still not tragic.
If it had stopped there it would have been all right. But no, the Bruins too had to get touched by the angel of defeat. This one was tragic as it was the final game 7 of their semi-final playoff series with Carolina. The loss means that one of the best seasons the Bruins have posted in a long time is over and it is once again wait until next year.
Please excuse Bostonians if they are a little extra grumpy today. We don’t get hit by a triple whammy that often…
Posted in Baseball, Basketball, Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, Hockey, Major League Baseball, NBA, National Hockey League, Professional Sports, Sports, Team Sports | No Comments »
April 23rd, 2009
Boston is a sports town. One could go so far to say that Boston is an over-the-top sports town. We take our sports very seriously. Sports news often trumps hard news on the front page of our local papers…
Even by Boston standards this has been a big week.
Start with the Boston Marathon, where for the first time in years Americans were actually in contention (finishing 3rd for both the men and women). This week has also seen a Celtics playoff victory, and the Bruins finishing off a 4-game play-off sweep of arch-nemesis Montreal. Even the Red Sox are running through a 7 game winning streak putting themselves in a tie for 2nd in the American League East.
Bottom line, if you are a sports fan, there really is not anyplace else to be then the hub-of-the-universe - Boston (queue the Standells - “oooooh Boston you’re my home…”)
Tags: Boston Sports
Posted in Professional Sports, Team Sports | No Comments »
April 14th, 2009
I know that it is early in the season… But as of the half way point through the second time through the Red Sox pitching rotation for the season, only 1 pitcher has no losses (and he, Brad Penny, has only pitched once). Pitching is supposed to be a strength of the 2009 edition of the Boston Red Sox. Jon Lester, supposedly one of the rocks in the rotation, is now 0-2 and has given up 11 runs in 11 innings (here’s a hint - you want you pitchers to have many more innings than runs given up…).
I know that is early and there is much time for this to settle down. I would not go so far as to say that I am concerned yet, but I do have a significant raised eyebrow…
Posted in Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball, Professional Sports, Sports, Team Sports | No Comments »
April 6th, 2009
Opening day is upon us. Here in Boston, opening day has taken on a status akin to the most revered of holidays. This year is particularly special as the home town team, the Red Sox, will be opening the season at home in Fenway Park - a fairly rare occurrence in a regions where it is just as likely to be snowing on opening day…
Unfortunately, game start at 2:05 is just about when the forecasters are calling for rain, “heavy at times” with the possibility of a thunder shower.
So Red Sox Nation, we should all collectively do a reverse rain dance to see if we can get it to hold off until after the game is over…
Tags: Red Sox
Posted in Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball, Professional Sports, Sports, Team Sports | No Comments »
