Comments Off

By Jeff, 4/22/2004 2:04 pm

Today is what MLB Audio was made for.

Of course the game I am most interested in is on ESPN, so I’m not really getting my $15 worth right now, but I digress.

The Philadelphia Phillies have been completely dominated by the Florida Marlins over the last two seasons. Really, it defies explanation too, because later the Phyllis (arguably) were better, and this year, on paper, they are also superior. Not only that, but the last two years during spring training, the teams have had a brush up involving some high and tight pitches. Do you know what that makes the Marlins/Phillies?

A pretty bitter rivalry.

In one corner is the upstart franchise with two winning seasons to its credit…And two World Championships.

In the other, is a long standing franchise marked by incompetence, cheapness, and has one World Championship since 1883.

The Marlins are a media darling, have young, fast, exciting players, and young flashy pitchers. The Phillies have a bunch of #2 starters and sluggers who walk and strike out. The Marlins have a diverse roster. The Phillies have finally dug out from the hole of being the last National League team to intergrate. The Marlins have a likeable, old folkesy manager (Jack McKeon). The Phillies have a fiery asshole (Larry Bowa). The Marlins play in a huge, multipurpose football stadium. The Phillies play in a nice, new mallpark.

The teams really couldn’t be more different.

“So Jeff,” you say. “It sounds like you are really bashing on the Phillies.”

I reply: “Perhaps, but I really can’t ever root for the Marlins.”

The Marlins are run by Jeffrey Loria, who is probably as despicable a human being as you can be in modern baseball and not be named ‘Rose’. That, and Juan Pierre pisses me off. Jim Thome and Bobby Abreu are two of my favorite players. And my team hasn’t won in over 80 years. You better believe I’m not going to like the team that’s won twice since 1996.

By the way, if you see this and get a chance to watch the game, flip it on. Brett Meyers gave up a home run to Mike Redmond. The next pitch was over thrown and came up an in to Alex “Florida” Gonzalez. Todd Pratt was walking out to the mound. Gonzalez said something and Pratt flipped out. Benches clear, Pratt and Gonzalez threw punches that didn’t connect, and were bounced from the game. Benches warned. Bowa talks to the umpire, McKeon watches and wishes for oatmeal. Order restored.

It’s 4-2 Marlins as pitcher Darren Oliver (yes, I still get nightmares) singles in Redmond.

Comments Off

By Sully,

Gotta love Thursday getaway baseball.

David Pinto gets you up to speed on the matchups.

Enjoy!

Comments Off

By Sully, 4/21/2004 11:09 pm

What the hell can I say? He smacked two more home runs tonight as the Sox took care of the Blue Jays 4-2 north of the border at SkyDome. You want some fun with small sample sizes? So far in 2003, Doug Mirabelli is hitting .556/.600/1.667 for an OPS of 2.267. While it may be a tad unrealistic to expect a 2000+ OPS from anyone but this guy, it is not unrealistic to expect Mirabelli to produce when penciled in against southpaws. He slugged a phenomenal .577 against lefties from 2001-2003.

For his second straight start, Tim Wakefield looked very much in control all night. He allowed just six hits in 6 2/3 innings and struck out four. If the last two starts are an indication of what is forthcoming from Wakefield in 2004, it is hard to imagine the Sox yielding many runs this year. In their first 14 games in 2003, Sox opponents scored 82 runs. In the first 14 of 2004, the Sox staff has given up just 60 runs.

Wait ’til Trot and Nomar come back and this team starts hitting. I just don’t really see how they are gonna lose all that often.

Big Schill tomorrow night.

Comments Off

By Sully,

Jeff’s mention of Ted Lilly got me thinking about one of my favorite Grady managerial mishaps of 2003.

The Red Sox traveled to Oakland for an important three game set that began on August 12th. They would face three lefties in a row, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and Ted Lilly – in that order. Because two of their best hitters, Trot Nixon and David Ortiz, were and still remain vulnerable to left-handed pitchers, the Red Sox would have to figure a way to field their optimal lineup each night while being careful not to let Ortiz and Nixon sit too long and subsequently lose form. In other words, they should have each probably played one night and sat the other two.

Now, time for some audience participation. Here are the three pitchers’ respective OPS yielded against both right-handed and left-handed batters from 2001-2003.

Zito
vs. righties: .612
vs. lefties: .707

Mulder
vs. righties: .656
vs. lefties: .658

Lilly
vs. righties: .790
vs. lefties: .594

How would you allocate playing time to Nixon and Ortiz based on these track records? Me? I probably would have refrained from playing them in the same game, as none of the three match-ups were particularly attractive for either slugger. So I would have started one against Zito – say Trot because Zito actually is a little hittable against lefties and Trot struggles more than Ortiz against them. And then I would have started Ortiz against Mulder in Game 2 as Mulder has an almost non-existant split. Neither would have faced Lilly in Game 3, as he is the toughest of them all on left-handed batters. So what did Grady do? Held them both out of the first two games of the series and started them both in Game 3. They went a combined 0-6 with 4 strikeouts. My favorite side anecdote of this is that Grady lifted Nixon when Ricardo Rincon came on in relief of Chad Bradford. After all, Rincon is tough on lefties.

To the barstool fan, it made perfect sense. Hell you keep Nixon and Ortiz out against big name lefties Zito and Mulder but you let them take their hacks against the mediocrity, Ted Lilly. The problem of course is that Lilly is only a mediocrity, has only been able to sustain a major league career, because of the very existence of left-handed batters, on whom he performs malicious torture rituals. Of the three starters, Lilly was the most difficult match-up for both hitters and yet it was the one game both Nixon and Ortiz started!!

It was baseball malpractice and simultaneously the most barefaced manifestation of the very reason Grady Little no longer manages the Boston Red Sox – his utter neglect for available and essential information.

Major League Baseball, the greatest sport in the world’s most competitive stage, demands management with more sophistication than Grady Little was either willing or able to provide.

Comments Off

By Jeff,

For no reason at all, right now I will mention that Wakefield was wearing one of the infamous jackets last ALDS game 3. Lil-ly!

Anyway, Ted Lilly is a fun pitcher because he has some nice rate stats, is still young enough (28) to be more than a 4th starter, and is left handed. Not only has Lilly been one of those ‘decent guys that could be very good, but isn’t yet’ but he has three other characteristics that I like about him…

1. He has a very small head. I’m talking absolutely miniscule. I think I would pay money to see Lilly wear one of David Ortiz’s caps.
2. He usually gets abused by Red Sox hitting. Los Soxos Rouge have roped him to the tune of 330/385/585 line. Doing most of the damage is Manny Ramirez and Doug Mirabelli. Surprisingly, the two worst Red Sox at hitting Lilly are the injured Nomar Garciaparra, and the injured, lefty-impotent Trot Nixon.
3. He has been traded a lot. Here is his personal transaction log…

June 4, 1996 – Drafted by the Dodgers 23rd round
July 31, 1998 – Traded to the Expos with Jonathon Tucker, Peter Bergeron, and Wilton Guerrero for Carlos Perez, Mark Grudzielanek, and Hiram Bocachica.
March 17, 2000 – Was the player to be named later to complete a trade with the Yankees. Expos received Hideki Irabu, and traded Jake Westbrook, and Christian Parker.
July 5, 2002 – Traded to the Athletics with Jason Arnold, and John-Ford Griffen for Jeff Weaver. (Other leg, Weaver traded to the A’s from Detriot for Jeremy Bonderman, Franklyn German, and Carlos Pena).
November 18, 2003 – Traded to the Blue Jays for Bobby Kielty

Dodgers, Expos, Yankees, Athletics, Blue Jays. Not record-breaking, but he’s only 28. Imagine how great this list would be for Bruce Chen.

Anyway, tonight he faces Tim Wakefield, against a Red Sox offense that knocked Roy Halladay around a bit last night.

Comments Off

By Sully,

- That’s the blueprint. Pedro for seven, Williamson in the eighth, Foulke in the ninth (how hard is that, Grady?). Solid production through the lineup. That was fun and I imagine the Sox will win a number of games with a similar formula of excellent starting, solid hitting and reliable relief work.

- I would like to extend a hearty “welcome back” to Pedro’s knee-buckling breaking ball. What a welcome site.

- Nobody defends Manny Ramirez more than I do. That said, relax Manny.

- I thought the offense was impressive last night, even more so than the box score would indicate. In addition to the nine hits the team belted out off of Toronto’s ace, Bill Mueller, Mark Bellhorn and Manny Ramirez all took Halladay hard and deep with Blue Jay outfielders making nice grabs on the warning track. Nice to see.

Comments Off

By Sully, 4/20/2004 5:08 pm

So all of my pals in my fantasy league really enjoyed piling on me after I “wasted” my 6th round draft choice on Cincinnati Reds leftfielder Adam Dunn.

His numbers so far this year?

.395 / .540 / .974

Dunn is an amazing athletic talent, 6′ 7” with rare coordination and athleticism. He also has exceptional pitch recognition ability and a Big Hurt-esque power/patience approach.

I think Dunn, despite his high strikeout rate, is in for a big year.

Comments Off

By Sully,

Pedro Martinez and Roy Halladay take the mound tonight at SkyDome as Pedro tries to bounce back from a dismal outing last Thursday against Baltimore. The same two pitchers squared off April 10th at Fenway with the Sox coming out on top on the strength of seven-plus strong innings from Pedro.

Halladay is an excellent pitcher – an innings gobbling horse with a vicious fastball that bears in on the hands of right-handed hitters. Halladay won 22 games last year and pitched a remarkable 266 innings. That said, no way in hell was he the best pitcher in the American League last season.

American League Support-Neutral Wins Above Replacement
- Pedro Martinez: 7.5
- Tim Hudson: 6.6
- Esteban Loaiza: 6.6
- Roy Halladay: 5.7

American League Pitchers VORP

- Esteban Loaiza: 74.7
- Pedro Martinez: 71.9
- Tim Hudson: 69.5
- Roy Halladay: 66.8

When evaluating pitchers’ contributions when the collection of pitchers in question have all pitched varying amounts of innings, it is important to take a look at just how replaceable the differential in innings would be. So consider…

Halladay, 266 ip, 3.25 era
Hudson, 240 ip, 2.70 era
Loaiza, 226.3 ip, 2.90 era
Martinez, 186.7 ip, 2.22 era

So what was the real difference between Halladay and the other three?

- For Hudson, 26 innings of 8.31 ERA pitching
- For Loaiza, 40 innings of 5.18 ERA pitching
- For Martinez, 80 innings of 5.63 ERA pitching

For comparison’s sake and so it is perfectly clear just how replaceable these innings were, the American League average E.R.A. was 4.53 in 2003.

Enjoy tonight’s match-up and let’s all hope Pedro regains his 2003 form.

Comments Off

By Jeff, 4/19/2004 6:10 pm

I’ve taken two long, extended like breaks from this blogging thing, mostly because of school work. My compade, Sully, takes over some, picking up the ole’ slack. And he gets this in the Comment:

You should be paid by a newspaper to write columns. This post was terrific.
BuckBleepinDent | Email | 04.16.04 – 1:15 pm | #,

I say, that’s really good. I love having newspaper quality writing on a site that was just my place to bitch about the Red Sox.

However, all is not well in the House of Dewey. I got this e-mail during Sabbatical 2: Jeff Picks Up Another Major:

From : Jarjarjohn11
Sent : Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:49 PM
To : HouseofDewey@hotmail.com
Subject : fuck you

from every new york yankees fan.
1918 and cowboone up motherfucker

I’m sure Jarjarjohn doesn’t speak for every Yankee fan. I will say he is mistaken though, I have never engaged in sexual congress with my mother. It does bear mentioning that his e-mail contains the name of one of the most annoying movie characters of all time. It also bears mentioning that guys like him are the reason many people think the Yankee fans are complete jackasses.

Of course, now is as good a time as any to mention that the Red Sox, down 2 of their 3 most productive hitters, have taken 3 of 4 against the Yankees. Sure it’s still April, but when you win in April, the games in September don’t mean anything. I’m long of the belief that a Yankee game means no more than a Devil Rays, Blue Jays, or Orioles game, but let face it, the Yankees are the biggest competition this year for the Sox 9. Plus, people like Jarjar are lined up on the Brooklyn Bridge cursing Matsui and ARod. Let them…a few less douchebags in the world.

Comments Off

By Sully,

Taking three our of four without Nomar or Nixon is a tremendous lift for this team. How ’bout a tip of the cap to the bullpen who once again performed marvelously today. Both bullpens were tremendous all weekend.

For the next eight hours or so, I direct my undivided attention to the Boston Bruins, who square off with arch-rival Montreal tonight in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinals series.

Comments Off

By Sully,

Last Friday, Baseball Prospectus’ injury guru, Will Carroll, had this to say regarding Trot Nixon’s status;

“Things are looking very good for Trot Nixon. His extended stay in Miami hasn’t set back his timetable. After a pair of successful batting practice sessions, Nixon is moving to the Red Sox’s Ft. Myers rehab facility. He’ll continue his extensive rehab program with Sox trainers, not just for the next weeks, but if he hopes to stay healthy, he’ll have to make this part of his daily routine. Nixon could be back in Boston’s lineup as early as May 1, but it’s more likely that it will be a week to 10 days after that. “

Nixon is on his way back to Ft. Myers now and as long as he has no setbacks he should be back soon.

Anyone that knows me also knows how much I like Nixon and admire his style of play. Because he loses at-bats against lefthanders (as he should), his counting stats lag the some of the game’s best. But not his rate stats. His RC27, OPS, EQA and other advanced metrics all stack up to baseball’s most productive hitters. In 1,366 plate appearances against righthanders from 2001-2003, Nixon has tortured them to the tune of a .295/.386/.560 line. With a suitable platoon partner (which Gabe Kapler is), Nixon is one of the league’s most valuable commodities.

Can’t wait to see both Nixon’s and Nomar’s names back on the lineup card. Only so much McCarty, Crespo, and Reese I can take.

Comments Off

By Sully, 4/18/2004 8:50 pm

I recall a number of times over the course of 2002 wondering aloud why teams did not make it more of a point to take pitches against Boston starter Derek Lowe. He throws a devastating sinker, one that appears to be a strike until it is about 25 feet or so away from the plate. Then it dives downward. The dilemma for batters of course is that the velocity of the pitch necessitates that a decision as to whether or not to swing must be made before the ball begins its diving action. The result more often than not is a groundball. The pitch is so effective at inducing batters to swing that Lowe rarely has to throw pitches that would be called strikes by the home plate umpire.

The obvious strategy to combat this would be to simply take more pitches. Say, a strike every at bat until Lowe senses this and begins to groove his first pitches to batters. The Yankees seemed today to be employing at least some variation of the strategy. All day, Lowe struggled to get ahead of batters and when he was not walking them, Yankee hitters were taking advantage of their ability to get ahead of Lowe and hitting balls sharply. I also suspect the Yanks’ lefthanded hitters were determined to take Lowe’s tailing fastballs to the opposite field. Giambi, Posada, Williams, and Lee all were able to drive balls either up the middle or to left.

Against Lowe, the patient lineup with solid strike zone command will always fare better. The Yankees proved that today.

The Yankees deserve credit for remaining focused and coming into their matchup as well prepared as they were, despite their recent hitting struggles. Lowe is going to have to strategize to combat patient lineups as more and more teams catch on to what the Yankees were able to do today.

Comments Off

By Sully, 4/17/2004 6:54 pm

Like Gaylord Focker’s portfolio Curt Schilling was strong…to quite strong today. Uncharacteristically, he did walk four in 6 and 1/3 but he also struck out eight and was at his best in tight spots. He struck Tony Clark out looking with two men in scoring position and two outs in the 2nd. After a two-out Bernie Williams double in the third Schilling made quick work of Alex Rodriguez, striking him out on three pitches. In the fourth, Schilling was able to get Jorge Posada to bounce into a double play with men on first and third and one out. He cruised in the fifth after a Tony Clark leadoff home run and then an inning later was able to get Clark to bounce out to first with the bases loaded and 2 outs. It wasn’t an outing without hiccup and against a Yanks lineup performing as it figures to, he would probably have needed to be better. Still, as April outings go, it was a solid one.

Mark Bellhorn continues to be remarkable. A walk, an HBP, a single and a lineout. He now has an OBP of .500 on the season. The irony is that the casual fan would probably argue that his .233 batting average has been a drain on the lineup when the reality is that after Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz he has probably been Boston’s best player.

Manny is hitting, which is always fun. There are few hitters in baseball as dangerous when they are truly locked in and it appears to me that Manny may be on the verge of a serious tear. A signature Manny murder streak would be timely while Trot and Nomar rehab.

For the Yanks, I am sure their fans may be starting to get just a tad uneasy. Well don’t. This lineup will hit, Mike Mussina will pitch damn well and more often than not, bad hitters like Doug Mirabelli will not get the better of a great pitcher like Javier Vazquez. Of the three areas of baseball that have plagued the Yanks the last two days – leaky starting pitching, bad hitting and horrendous defense – only the defense is a long-term concern. The Yankees are a phenomenal team that will get the better of the Sox plenty of times this season.

Tomorrow it’s Lowe against Contreras.

Comments Off

By Sully,

Things will be more settled today.

No national television, no more wide eyes. Today it will just be baseball and what a pitching matchup it should be.

I wouldn’t pay much attention to Mike Mussina’s unimpressive numbers this year. He owns the Sox to the tune of a .529 total OPS yielded vs. this current edition of the Sox.

Career numbers vs. Mussina:

Ramirez (64 AB): .188 / .246 / .391
Ortiz (20 AB): .000 / .130 / .000
Damon (66 AB) .242 / .297 / .348
Varitek (36 AB) .056 / .105 / .056

Unless Mussina is seriously off of his game, I expect Boston to struggle a bit offensively today….

….which is just fine because Curt Schilling opposes Mussina today. He lives for this kind of stage. I know that may sound like Tim McCarver nonsense but he really does. He has had this series in mind since the moment Theo sat down to Thanksgiving dinner in Scottsdale last November. He will be prepared and focused and thusly I imagine quite effective.

Sox, 3-1 on the strength of a Schilling complete game.

Comments Off

By Sully,

I wrote this yesterday:

“I give Wakefield a small but real chance of throwing a true gem tonight. With all the hype and adrenaline a knuckleballer may be just the perfect antidote for a juiced up (hehe) Bomber lineup.”

Well it’s exactly what happened. Whether or not how pumped and jacked the Yankees were had anything to do with Wakefield’s effectiveness is unknown but either way, New York was off-balance.

Wakefield’s tremendous outing was just one of a handful of storylines to emerge from 2004′s first Sox-Yanks game. I said to a pal of mine in the first inning as Doug Mirabelli came to the plate that there may not be a bigger mismatch in all of baseball than Javier Vazquez against Doug Mirabelli. Who knew it would be the veteran backup catcher claiming ownership of the dominant power righthander?

A major theme for the game and one I am afraid for Yankees fans will run throughout the season was the blatant ineptitude of their defense. Giambi kicked a ball in the first that led to a run. Jeter muffed a Mirabelli grounder in the first that led to two more. Also, and this may be nitpicking, Gary Sheffield failed to catch a 310 foot Manny Ramirez lazy flyball that resulted in a mistakenly ruled home run. I think twenty or so Big League rightfielders make that play. I dunno, maybe I am wrong.

I was shocked to see Vazquez make such an eggregious error to Bill Mueller with an 0-2 count in the first. Still, I came away from the game rather impressed with Vazquez. His three consecutive strikeouts of Ramirez, Millar and Burks in the third was truly something beautiful to behold. One of those rare moments watching sports where you and your pal just look at each other with the holy-effin’-shit look and don’t even need to say anything more. With any luck or even passable defense, he leaves that game down 3-2 or so. Still, just as BP2K4 stated, Vazquez does not challenge hitters inside with even close to the propensity he ought to. He’s simply too talented to allow players like Doug Mirabelli to dive out over the plate and launch an “oppo” home run. Do you think Mueller has the bat speed to get his hands through on an 0-2 Vazquez 2-seamer on the inside half? Me either. Until he decides to more regularly challenge opposing batters inside, the quality of Vazquez’s performance will always lag the quality of his stuff.

I am really starting to fall for Mark Bellhorn. Two more walks and another single. It’s going to be awfully difficult for Pokey to get more AB’s than Bellhorn when Nomar returns because Bellhorn, like Mueller, is the very embodiment of the organizational approach to hitting. He possesses a remarkable ability to lay off balls that miss the strike zone by even the narrowest of margins. I have a feeling the front office may have scored another coup here in Bellhorn.

Manny made a terrible error in the eigth on a high Jason Giambi fly ball with two outs and nobody on. Scott Williamson seemed shaken as a result and Terry Francona called on Alan Embree to get Hideki Matsui with the bases loaded. It was the closest the Yanks came to sustaining any sort of attack. I am just thankful that our worst defensive player plays leftfield and not shortstop.

All in all, it was a solid effort by the Sox. The lineup performed about as ably as you might hope against a hurler of Vazquez’s caliber. Tim Wakefield was magnificent and save for Williamson’s struggles to get his fourth out of the eigth inning, the relief corps did their jobs as well.

One down, eighteen to go in what is sure to be a wild season series.

Comments Off

By Sully, 4/16/2004 4:51 pm

Gotta give the Yanks the advantage tonight.

There are a number of things I will be interested to see;

1) How Vazquez deals with the environment. In case he didn’t know already, he will not be in Olympic Stadium or Pro Player Field tonight.

2) The Sox are third in Major League Baseball in walks. I love how patient the Sox have been at the plate this year but against Vazquez tonight, I think a more swing-happy approach may be necessary. Vazquez rarely walks batters and is vulnerable to first pitch aggressors, having yielded a .955 OPS on 0-0 counts from 2001-2003.

3) I give Wakefield a small but real chance of throwing a true gem tonight. With all the hype and adrenaline a knuckleballer may be just the perfect antidote for a juiced up (hehe) Bomber lineup. Sheffield may do one of those Bugs Bunny corkscrew swings. That’d be cool.

Fanboy Prediction? Call it 4-3 Sox on a late groundball single between Jeter and AROD off Quantrill.

Usin’ my noggin prediction? 6-1 Yanks.

Comments Off

By Sully,

So the Yankees come to town tonight.

Cool.

I am not particularly interested in reading Shaughnessy shamelessly regurgitating a nonsensical curse. Nor am I all that interested in ignorant “Yankees Suck” or “Nine-Teen-Eight-Teen” chants. For me the greatness of the rivalry, currently at its peak, exists between the white lines. The Red Sox, despite their many postseason failures, have had some of the great teams in the history of baseball. This is obviously also true for the Yankees. What gives these clashes added allure is not all the peripheral hullabaloo but rather the extraordinarily high level of baseball that is played when these two historic franchises are at their best.

Of course the reality is the rivalry has not been much of one at all save for three distinct periods of Major League Baseball history. In the late forties, Ted Williams’ Sox teams battled the Bombers year in and year out. The Sox won the pennant in ’46, the Yanks in ’47. They both won 90+ games in 1948 and most famously in 1949 thanks to David Halberstam’s great book Summer of ’49, the Yanks finished one game ahead of the Sox by virtue of a win on the last day of the season over the Sox. The Yanks would take the pennant again in 1950 but again, both teams won 90 games. From 1946-1950 the Red Sox went 473-298. Over the same stretch, the Yanks went 473-297. Read those last two sentences again. It’s remarkable.

If you wanted to find a specific point in time that fostered the acrimony now surrounding the rivalry, it would be the mid to late 1970’s. From 1975-1978, the Yanks won 380 games and the Sox 374. The characters involved added flair during this period. Carlton Fisk and Thurmon Munson hated each other. The Yanks were managed by Billy Martin who often clashed with superstar slugger Reggie Jackson – once even in the Fenway dugout. The Sox had Luis Tiant and the Spaceman, Bill Lee. Jim Rice was at his peak and Dwight Evans was becoming a star. Carl Yazstremski was still playing at a reasonably high level. The Yanks boasted starters Ron Guidry and Catfish Hunter and had Goose Gossage coming out of their pen. There were numerous and famous brawls between the clubs. The rivalry boiled over in 1978 when, despite a midsummer 14 game lead over the Yanks, the Sox blew it down the stretch and the two played a one game playoff to advance to the League Championship Series. And then, well whatever – Bucky Dent hit a big home run and the Yanks advanced.

The latest chapter has elevated the rivalry to a whole new level. People that I am not even sure ever cared about baseball get involved just to kick and scream (or gloat) either about their team or at the other. At Yankee Stadium last summer, I was ridiculed for wearing a Sox cap until I politely asked one individual to name one member of the 1991 Yanks aside from Don Mattingly. He replied, “Derek Jeter”. Similarly, I imagine there will be quite a few fans in the bleachers this weekend who wouldn’t know Erik Hanson from MMMBop Hanson. And with this new, elevated level of widespread interest has come a pathetic amount of gossipy media coverage, most notably this off-season with the Alex Rodriguez saga. The Sox tried to acquire him and decided the Rangers’ and AROD’s demands were not worth it. The Yanks offered more and thus landed him. That’s it. The Sox were not foiled. It was just another off-season deal just like Bernie Williams, Manny Ramirez, Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling before.

The Wild Card has also added drama in that the two can now meet in the League Championship Series. They have done just that twice with the Yanks winnning both times.

So here’s where we stand now. The Yanks have won the division six years in a row and look as strong as ever. The Sox boast arguably their most talented team ever. The third best team in baseball is probably just about 85% as good as either team.

Enjoy the baseball and try to block out the noise.

Comments Off

By Sully, 4/15/2004 3:42 pm

And you thought Miguel Tejada’s contract screwed the Sox over.

Today, over at Baseball Prospectus, my favorite baseball writer Joe Sheehan has written a piece on on Garret Anderson’s contract extension.

Angels owner Arte Moreno extended Anderson at 4 years and $48,000,000, the same amount of money the Red Sox offered star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra at the end of the 2003 season last Fall. Nomar rejected it and with good reason it would turn out. Later in the offseason, the Orioles inked the inferior Miguel Tejada to a 6-year, $72,000,000 deal.

Take a look at this and tell me who is worth more money:

2001-2003 Stats:

Player A: .303 / .330 / .518
Player B: .305 / .349 / .523

now…

Player A is 31 years, 9 months
Player B is 30 years, 8 months

plus…

Player A plays left field
Player B plays shortstop

Not only is Nomar worth more, he is worth a whole lot more.

News of Garret Anderson’s contract extension has come and gone with little fanfare here on the east coast. Not for me. I am preparing myself for life without Nomar because in a market that rewards the Garret Andersons of the world with such contracts, Nomar deserves the financial boon coming his way. Sure it’s sad but I am happy for Nomar and also happy that the guys running the team I love so much are not dumb enough to dole that kind of dough out just for the sake of it.

Comments Off

By Sully, 4/14/2004 3:45 pm

Tremendous start, reliable relief, long ball.

Kevin “the Devil Ray killer” Brown pitched seven strong today, Gordon shut down the Rays in the eighth, and Posada and Giambi have homered.

The Yanks lead 5-1.

Comments Off

By Sully,

Tonight’s imminent rainout presents an interesting opportunity for Terry Francona. Provided tonight’s game is not re-scheduled as part of a double-header tomorrow, there is no reason the Sox could not go with the following:

thu 4/15 Lowe (O’s)
fri 4/16 Wakefield (Yanks)
sat 4/17 Arroyo (Yanks)
sun 4/18 Pedro (Yanks)
mon 4/19 Schilling (Yanks)
tue 4/20 Lowe (Jays)
wed 4/21 Wakefield (Jays)
thu 4/22 Arroyo (Jays)
fri 4/23 Pedro (Yanks)
sat 4/24 Schilling (Yanks)
sun 4/25 Lowe (Yanks)

The obvious reason you do this is that it allows Pedro and Schilling to face the Bombers four of the seven games they play over the next eleven days. The one cause for hesitation is that Pedro and Schilling would have to each go on seven days rest, bringing into play the potential for a little rust to show. Still, it’s April and cold outside and extra rest may actually benefit the two aces. Furthermore, the notion that the Wild Card is a lock to go to the 2nd place finisher in the AL East is presumptuous. You play to win the division.

Even if you believe the wild card to be a lock, woulda been nice to play Game Seven at Fenway last year, no?