I wish I could write about yesterday’s game, but with it being Memorial Day, I have bigger fish to fry.

Offense
Baltimore
c - Javy Lopez .313/.367/.453
1b - Rafael Palmeiro .281/.398/.450
2b - Brian Roberts .261/.330/.346
3b - Melvin Mora .380/.465/.603
ss - Miguel Tejada .319/.374/.503
lf - Larry Bigbie .263/.326/.429
cf - Luis Matos .244/.293/.369
rf - BJ Surhoff .302/.358/.407
dh - Jerry Hairston Jr. .267/.292/.333
Team - .285/.355/.430

Anaheim
c - Ben Molina .291/.315/.456
1b - Casey Kotchman .238/.279/.286
2b - Adam Kennedy .245/.298/.352
3b - Shane Halter .231/.263/.418
ss - David Eckstein .270/.330/.315
lf - Jose Guillen .314/.377/.535
cf - Chone Figgens .287/.325/.440
rf - Vlad Guerrero .348/.397/.601
dh - Raul Mondesi .000/.333/.000
Team - .261/.337/.441
Red Sox - .270/.359/.440

Offensive Efficiency:
Anaheim - 97.0%
Baltimore - 120.5%
Boston - 97.9%

‘Clutch number’
Anaheim - 19.091
Baltimore - (-19.918)
Boston - (-5.008)

Baltimore’s offense seems to revolve around the walk and the single. Their batting average is the highest in the American League, but as far as runs scored, they rank only 8th.

If the O’s keep up the 120% OE, that will be the highest since I have been tracking by almost 10 points.

Anaheim is third in the league in runs scored, right below the Red Sox. Their offense is probably the opposite of the Orioles, in that they don’t walk very much, and don’t hit many singles. The Halos live off situational hitting (RISP especially), and the extra base hit.

Chone Figgens has 7 triples this year. That’s as many as the Red Sox and Orioles have combined.

Both teams run a lot, with the Orioles 45-56 (80%) and the Angels at 40-55 (73%). Both hit and run a good amount, and both managers aren’t shy in utilizing the sacrifice bunt.

Pitching
Monday - Lopez (-4.785) vs. Lowe (-0.341)
Tuesday - Arroyo (5.471) vs. Colon (3.349)
Wednesday - Martinez (18.286) vs. Washburn (8.246)

Bullpens
Anaheim - 44.138
Baltimore - 26.870
Boston - 52.499

Usage
Anaheim - 2.2 RpG, 1.41 IPpApp
Baltimore - 2.7 RpG, 1.40 IPpApp
Boston - 2.7 RpG, 1.09 IPpApp

Baltimore played the Yankees last week and surrendered 41 runs en route to getting swept by the New Yorkers. Then they promptly held the Tigers to 12 runs in sweeping them. The O’s have been bobbing around 500 since their hot start, and now only sit three games ahead of the Blue Jays.

Rodrigo Lopez was the best reliever in baseball before he got the bump up to the rotation. He gave up 6 runs in 4.7 against Seattle, and 5 runs in 5 vs. the Yankees. So he’s improving, I suppose.

The Orioles rotation is over four runs below replacement level.

The theory that the Angels need one more starter to go with Colon/Washburn/Escobar is being tested by Aaron Sele. Ever since he came back into the rotation, he’s been as good as he was in his first year in Texas. He leads the Anaheim rotation in runs saved.

Many ‘mainstream’ baseball fans think that Bartolo Colon is an ace, including some mentioning him in the same breath as Pedro Martinez. Colon has walked more, struck out less, given up more home runs, saved less runs, and pitched less innings (he would need to pitch 10 on Tuesday to tie Pedro). His ERA is also sitting over 5. Right now, he is legitimately the 4th starter on the Angels.

The Mariners sure showed me.

Since there is very little to be said about this game in an anayltical sense, and I really can’t crap on the job Bavasi has done (not because I don’t think he’s done a good job, but he’s easily the most hated GM in the game in the blogsphere), I really don’t have much to write about.

Manny Ramirez (yawn) hit another (stretch) long bomb (yawn).

Over on your right, in our stats section, you will see two more entries. They are the current standings for the Eddy Awards, a fun little thing that Jeff Bower came up with at Baseball Prospectus a year ago.

Here is a quick blurb from the article:

This study is designed to identify hitters that had the greatest percentage of their offensive game as a result of walks and hit-by-pitches. This is very different than leading the league in the counting or rate statistics attached to those categories. Ted Williams led the American League in bases-on-balls eight different times, but was such a force at the plate that he still would have been an outstanding offensive player had he walked half as often. The idea is to recognize players who made the slow walk up the first baseline an art form, who were and are somehow able to finagle pitches outside the strike zone despite being less than imposing figures with a bat in their hands.

After monkeying around with various combinations of on-base percentage, batting average and slugging percentage, I tossed them aside and settled on the following formula, calling the result the “Walking Man Quotient”

The American and National League standings are listed now, and will be updated weekly, or whenever I feel like it.

In case you don’t read the comments section, I’m looking forward to a Gerbil/Sully fight to the death.

Curt Schilling against Ryan Franklin tomorrow at 2.

Is it wrong to be excited and somewhat arrogent about rooting for a team that has the best record in baseball? I don’t think so.

I just started a new job, running summer conferences at the University of Rhode Island. On staff are three Yankee fans, three Red Sox fans, a Brewers fan (from Wisconsin), and three people that could give a shit about baseball. After last night, I don’t think its wrong to walk around as if I was superior to all that root for inferior teams.

Down 4-1 in the fifth, Pedro Martinez was struggling. He had a uncharacteristic loss of composure in the dugout, taking out frustrations on his jacket. The display was so bizarre that Derek Lowe wet himself (again).

Of course, because of Messers Youkilis and Ortiz, the Sox led 6-4 the next time Pedro walked to the mound, and he kicked on cruse control for the next two innings, before Embree set them up, and Foulke shut them down.

As an aside, I am very worried about Foulke after his crappy spring.

All kidding and Joe Fan bluster aside, last night’s game was a good one to win. Not only did it keep the Sox in first place, but the win also gave the Sox their first grand slam of the year (David Ortiz) and gave them a win over a team they need to beat.

Good job. Clap clap clap. Dirty Water.

This post was brought to you by the Fans of WEEI. Red Sawx Tawk.

Offense
c - Dan Wilson .293/.328/.390
1b - John Olerud .262/.377/.362
2b - Bret Boone .231/.289/.394
3b - Scott Spiezio .261/.310/.437
ss - Rich Aurilia .222/.285/.278
lf - Raul Ibanez .269/.337/.485
cf - Randy Winn .229/.301/.299
rf - Ichiro Suzuki .329/.374/.406
dh - Edgar Martinez .257/.344/.415
Team - .260/.323/.375
Red Sox - .270/.359/.440

Offensive Efficiency:
Seattle - 97.3%
Boston - 97.1%

‘Clutch number’
Seattle - 2.492
Boston - (-4.773)

Pitching
Friday - Piniero (0.381) vs. Martinez (17.557)
Saturday - Garcia (19.450) vs. Wakefield (16.943)
Sunday - Franklin (4.567) vs. Schilling (26.118)

Bullpens
Seattle - 16.275
Boston - 52.499

Usage
Seattle - 2.8 RpG, 1.12 IPpApp
Boston - 2.7 RpG, 1.09 IPpApp

No real analysis, as a new job has me running ragged right now.

- Cal State Long Beach’s Jered Weaver lost last night for the first time all year. His E.R.A. swelled from a downright deity-like 1.25 to a merely ridiculous number, 1.68. I still think he will edge Rice’s Jeff Niemann as the nations’s number one pick.

- Francis Bacon wrote, “Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and Adversity is not without comforts and hopes.”

It’s a bumpy ride to the promised land. Deal with it.

For one thing, a 15-2 loss helps a team avoid underperforming its pythagorean.

- For some good material on this weekend’s opponent, the Seattle Mariners, check out one of my favorite blogs, USS Mariner.

- I will be at Fenway tomorrow again. Supposed to be a beautiful day.

- Have a nice long weekend.

The two strangest things in baseball have happend in the last two days.

1. Daryle Ward hit for the cycle. Daryle Ward!
2. The Red Sox have tagged the vaunted Oakland A’s staff for 21 runs in two games.

The Red Sox as a team have hit .378/.484/.595 against the A’s, and only Kevin Millar really isn’t hitting (seems to be a theme this year). Why?

To be honest, I have no idea why the normally unexplosive Red Sox offense struggled to score runs against such worthy opponets as the Rangers and Indians, but are hitting the Athletics thus far. Last night, a Bobby Crosby 3-run error didn’t help. Mark Redman walking Manny Ramirez to face Jason Varitek didn’t help either.

As a final aside, Kevin Youkilis has been very impressive in his short stint in the majors thus far. I don’t expect he will keep it up, but he has been pretty fun to watch so far.

And one more thing about Youkilis is that he has faced some pretty good pitchers. Redman, Hammond, Bradford, Hudson, Rincon, Halladay, Hentgan, Batista, Adams, Lightenberg, Lilly, Lopez, Zambrano, Baez, and Sosa. There are some crappy pitchers there, but even the bad ones tend to be tough on righties.

And it doesn’t get any easier. Tonight is Mulder vs. Arroyo.

I was fortunate enough to sit in the very first row of Fenway Park’s Green Monster seats last night to watch Boston dismantle Tim Hudson and the Oakland A’s. It was a thorough beating, commencing in the first inning and subsiding only when the game was well out of hand in the eighth inning.

Curt Schilling was not his typical overpowering self but he was his typical very good self. He struck out just 5 all night but only began to lose his command a bit when medicine he took to relieve pain in his ankle wore off after the fifth inning or so. Still, he finished the seventh inning and his outing with an impressive strikeout of righty killer Eric Chavez. Lenny Dinardo and Jamie Brown finished the Athletics off.

It was a remarkably upbeat game to attend. The Sox attack was methodical and consistent. Every player in the lineup contributed, except Kevin Millar of course, who stranded 9 men on base thanks to his 0-for-4 effort. Johnny Damon led the game off with a sharp single. Mark Bellhorn hit a 2-run home run off Pesky’s pole and finished with a career high 5 RBI’s. Manny hit a double fifteen feet to my left off the top of the Monster and a home run fifteen feet to my right – both wicked shots. David Ortiz smoked two doubles, Brian Daubach was on base three times, Jason Varitek had three hits, Youkilis a double and two walks and even Pokey chipped in with two hits. The Fenway faithful embraced Kevin Youkilis with chants of “Yooooouuuukkk”, almost as if to let the kid know that they were all perfectly comfortable with him playing everyday as a result of Bill Mueller’s bad news. “You’re our guy for the next six weeks,” the crowd seemed to say. “Let’s see what you got.”

Another warm moment came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Andy Dominique came to bat for the first time in a big league game. The crowd, cognizant of the fact that it was Dominique’s debut, simultaneously rose to its feet with a raucous ovation despite the game’s result being well in hand. Even feint chants of “Andy, Andy, Andy” could be heard from various Fenway sections. Dominique struck out but I still have to imagine that having 25,000 Sox fans cheering wildly for him has to rank as one of his life’s highlights.

I know it would be one of mine.

Redman and Lowe tonight. Hopefully Derek can turn things around a bit.

Tonight’s pitching matchup should be quite a treat and I will be fortunate enough to be on the Green Monster to witness it. As has been stated here, Tim Hudson comes into the game with some awfully shiny numbers but his K-rate is down by an enormous margin. To say the least, it’s bewildering. Brian Daubach has actually been the Sox’s most successful hitter against Hudson over the course of his career. I imagine he will start tonight. Manny also has a respectable history against Hudson. Pretty much everyone else, like most of the league, has struggled mightily against him.

The only two A’s with any sort of track record against Schilling are Erik Karros and Mark Kotsay, two of Schill’s former AL West foes. Neither have fared particularly well against the big right-hander. It is difficult to imagine this A’s offense, currently ranked 10th in the American League in OPS and 11th in runs scored, getting much going tonight.

It should be a fantastic pitchers duel between two of baseball’s best hurlers.

Hudson’s numbers are unbelievable. A 3.95 K/9 and a 1.07 WHIP? And look at defensive efficiency rankings, courtesy of Baseball Prospectus. Oakland is in the lower half of the league.

SLN 0.7297
TBA 0.7215
CHN 0.7202
MON 0.7140
LAN 0.7130
NYN 0.7049
FLO 0.7035
BOS 0.7034
NYA 0.7005
MIL 0.7001
HOU 0.7000
PHI 0.6978
CHA 0.6969
ARI 0.6965
SEA 0.6959
SFN 0.6950
OAK 0.6947
CIN 0.6936
SDN 0.6925
PIT 0.6897
TEX 0.6883
BAL 0.6877
TOR 0.6875
DET 0.6872
COL 0.6863
ANA 0.6823
KCA 0.6787
ATL 0.6769
CLE 0.6768
MIN 0.6569

I have absolutely no idea what to make of this.

First some news. Byung-hyun Kim is being sent back to Korea to get a second opinion on his back and hip problems. Already, Red Sox fans are divided into three camps. “Wait and see” people that want to see what comes back, “This is terrible” people that are saddened Kim might not contribute to the Sox again, and “Good riddance to bad rubbish” people, that are assholes.

Offense

c - Damian Miller .291/.352/.402
1b - Scott Hatteberg .302/.388/.465
2b - Mario Scutaro .292/.326/.385 OR Mark McLemore .160/.192/.200
3b - Eric Chavez .244/.366/.463
ss - Bobby Crosby .230/.283/.437
lf - Bobby Kielty .229/.317/.438
cf - Eric Byrnes .295/.377/.467 OR Mark Kotsay .229/.286/.264
rf - Jermaine Dye .281/.346/.515
dh - Eurbiel Durazo .284/.358/.493
Team - .257/.329/.418
Red Sox - .267/.353/.436

Offensive Efficiency:
Oakland - 96.4%
Boston - 97.7%

‘Clutch number’
Oakland - (-6.891)
Boston - (-6.754)

Currently, Oakland is on a 5 game winning streak, and have won 8 of their last 10. They have the third best record in the American League. In that time, the A’s offense rebounded, improving from ‘crap’ to ‘competent’.

As a team, the A’s don’t hit and run. They don’t bunt very often. They do, however, steal at an impressive rate, 16/20 (80%). That’s the best mark in the American League so far, though the only team that has run less has been Toronto. Despite the lack of running, the A’s are 7th in the AL in bases gained by stealing. The Red Sox are 9th.

The three best A’s hitters so far this year have been Scott Hatteberg, Eric Byrnes, and Eurbiel Durazo. On the Red Sox, they would rank 2nd, 7th, and 9th.

Random trivia for no reason at all: Ken Macha played under Danny Murtaugh, Chuck Tanner, and Dick Williams.

Murtaugh has won 2 World Series, Tanner 1, and Williams 2 (in 4 tries). Macha might a member of one of the best non-Yankee “Manager Families” in baseball right now.

Pitching

Tuesday - Hudson (21.421) vs. Schilling (22.184)
Wednesday - Redman (11.771) vs. Lowe (-0.136)
Thursday - Mulder (20.150) vs. Arroyo (8.532)

Bullpens
Oakland - 25.685
Boston - 46.924

Usage
Oakland - 2.3 RpG, 1.13 IPpApp
Boston - 2.6 RpG, 1.09 IPpApp

The A’s bullpen haven’t allowed a run in 13 innings, and 5 games. It looks like the troubles that cropped up in the various Yankee series have been exorcised. Bradford and Rincon have seemed to get back on track also, each cutting down walks and improving strikeout rates over the last two weeks.

Former Sox farm-hand Justin Duchscherererererer is their best reliever. If you don’t remember who he was traded for, wait until Wakefield pitches and see who’s behind the mask.

Tim Hudson right now is a study in DIPS. He is a groundball pitcher (gb rate is 2.12), yet he has only given up 62 hits in 68.3 innings. His DIPS era is 3.65. His actual ERA is 2.90. He’s the second best pitcher in the American League right now, despite only striking out 3.95 per nine. I don’t know if it’s luck, or the A’s infield defense. It’s bizarre though.

Now more than three weeks into the month of May I think it is fair to say that the Boston Red Sox offense is showing some signs of life. The team that mustered just 103 runs over the whole month of April has already scored 125 runs in May. Without question, weaker competition has something to do with this but the bats have indeed come alive and there seem to be some identifiable remnants of the juggernaut lineup of 2003. Let us explore.

- The Sox hit at a .260/.349/.417 clip throughout the month of April. In May thus far, they are hitting .273/.357/.455.
- Johnny Damon, he of the .693 April OPS, has posted a downright two-thousandesque .871 OPS in May. This is a good sign as Damon has been a notoriously slow starter throughout his career. That he has cut short that slow start by a good month or two this season may just mean we will see something resembling the player the good folks of Kansas City saw at the turn of the century.
- Manny has been Manny again this month. He is raking again, like he does every month. His two towering home runs this weekend, both absolutely no-doubters, were yet two more reminders of why it is such a pleasure to have this guy in a Sox uniform. What a hitter.
- Jason Varitek is showing that 2003 was no fluke. He is now almost undeniably one of the top five catchers in the game. While Scott Boras’ hope of getting four years and $10MM per like Pudge may be a pipe dream for his 33 year old client, I think the Sox may have to entertain either the term or the rate of the contract, most likely the latter. Incessant talk of his invaluable intangibles aside, Varitek is as productive as any catcher not named Jorge or Ivan. He has been one of the best Sox hitters in May, pounding the ball to the tune of a .302/.413/.524 line.
- Mark Bellhorn, an on-base wonder-boy from the get-go this season, has begun to hit a bit. He has raised his slugging percentage 77 points thus far in May and now stands at an above second-baseman-league-average .400 for the year.
- Even Kevin Millar has contributed this month, albeit almost solely on the on-base side of the offensive ledger. Millar’s .407 OBP has been an upgrade over his out-crazy April. Still, his slugging remains below .400 for both the season and the month, an unacceptable figure for a player that has done little more than just slug over the course of his career.
- Pokey’s May numbers: .274/.338/.435
AL avg. SS numbers: .275/.322/.406

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been nice getting this kind of production from Pokey and all but I wouldn’t expect it to last.

What’s encouraging is that the over-performance and the under-performance plus injuries seem to be, at the very worst, evening out. The Red Sox have averaged 5.43 runs a game this month. In order to reach 900 runs for the season, the team would have to score 5.69 runs per game for the rest of the season. Sustained quality play from Bellhorn, Varitek, Manny and Damon along with improved numbers from Ortiz, Millar and whoever is playing third base and finally solid comebacks from Nomar and Nixon and this team can do just that.

Nice to see the bats back.

Finally, my condolences to all that knew and loved Doug Pappas. If you haven’t read his work, do so. He was THE authority on the business of baseball and his contributions will be missed.

The Boston Dirt Dogs site reported last Friday that Tony Conigliaro’s #25 will be retired by the Boston Red Sox after Ellis Burks retires (half way down).

For an excellent rendition of what Tony C was read Shaun Kelley’s post from SoSH called Tony Conigliario Forty Years Later: A Remembrance.

When I was growing up, I was in awe of the Red Sox history. That’s before I knew about the racism, the incompetence, and the managerial malpractice. I loved learning about the history of the Boston Americans. The people from that time were larger than life. Cy Young, Smokey Joe Wood, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Babe Ruth, Joe Cronin, Jimmy Foxx, Lefty Grove, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, Mel Parnell, Dick Raditz, Carl Yastrezemski, Tony Conigliaro, Jim Longborg, Carlton Fisk, Dwight Evans, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Luis Tiant, Bill Lee, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst, Dave Henderson, Mike Greenwell, and Ellis Burks.

When I was twelve, I went to see the Pawtucket Red Sox quite a bit, and saw such gentlemen as Mo Vaughn. When Vaughn made it to Boston, I felt like I grew up with him.

Some thing happened between when I was twelve and now. I grew up. Speaker was a member of the KKK. Ruth was an alcoholic, as was Foxx. Grove, Williams, and Yaz were assholes. I realized that I can root for them to win, but I can’t look up to them. Baseball players aren’t mythical beings that used superpowers to hone their craft. They are ordinary human beings that have enough skill at something to make a living doing it.

Because of that realization, I no longer look at baseball players as heroes. I look at them as men. I work hard at not being a slave to sentimentality.

And that is essentially what the discussion about Tony C having his number retired has become. A agrument over the value of sentimentality. Tony C was from the Boston-area. He hit a obscene amount of home runs at a young age. He was handsome, and his decline was tragic (thanks to a Jack Hamilton fastball).

First, a digression.

If you read my Hall of Fame pieces from a few months ago, I tend to err on the side of exclusion of honors. If you are a borderline Hall candidate, you don’t make it. The Hall of Fame is the highest honor that the sport can bestow upon it’s players. A number retired is the highest honor of each team.

The Red Sox, despite 102 years of existence has only retired five numbers. Under the old Yawkey regime, the rule was in the Baseball Hall, 10 years as a Red Sox, and retired as a Sox. The standards were relaxed to retire 27 in honor of Carlton Fisk, who retired as a Sox Blanc. The other retired numbers are 1 (Doerr), 4 (Cronin), 8 (Yaz), and 9 (Williams).

Doerr is a HOFer, and the best 2b the Red Sox ever had.

Cronin served as a shortstop, and team manager. He was the first player ever to become president of a league. (As an aside, I would take his number down. According to most histories of the era, he was as much to blame as Yawkey, Collins, and Higgins for the fact the Red Sox were the last team to intergrate.)

Yaz and Williams are all-time greats.

Back to Tony C. I don’t think his number should be retired. I think that there are too many other Red Sox who were better than he was that haven’t had their numbers hung. The points in Tony C’s favor just aren’t enough to convince me that #25 should be retired, and #10 (Grove) or #3 (Foxx) aren’t. I know he was a local boy. I know he was very prolific in the home run category. I know he was insanely popular. I know the beaning ruined every chance he had to be named as one of baseball’s elite players.

Sentimentality is a result of hero-worship in this case. Little New England boys loved Tony C in the 1960s. They honor him in their minds, and tell us how he was larger than life until his fate was met with a Jack Hamilton fastball. Unfortunately, we aren’t little kids any more. “Because I loved him” isn’t a strong enough argument to say Conigliaro in the same breath as Williams.

Two questions to ponder…
1. If there is a disservice done in not retiring Tony Conigliaro’s number, why wasn’t it done when he was alive? Why wait until 15 years after he died?
2. Wouldn’t you be pissed if you were Harry Agganis’ kids?

(By the way, Agganis, the Golden Greek, was a first baseman from Lynn that played for the Red Sox in the 50s. According to reports of the time, just about as much glowing praise was written about him as Conig. Agganis died of a pulmonary emballism before he turned 26.)

Doug Pappas, the chairman of the SABR Business of Baseball Committee and regular contributer to Baseball Prospectus, died on Thursday from heat prostration. He was 43.

If you ever click the links over on the side, you know I have both Baseball Prospectus, and Doug’s own blog linked. Doug was one of my favorite bloggers, due to his writing style, and his wealth of knowledge on the business of baseball.

Dewey’s House gives our deepest condolences to Doug’s friends and family.

- Derek Lowe has really shot himself in the foot with his start to the 2004 season. Essentially, to realign his E.R.A. with that of the most highly compensated pitchers, say around 3.25-3.50, he would need be stellar from here on out – as in somehow-miraculously-revert-back-to-2002 stellar. In looking at his monthly splits since 2002, I noticed that only in September of last season did he manifest anything close to his 2002 form. To say the least, it would be an awfully big stretch for any General Manager to consider Lowe worthy of either big bucks or a long-term commitment, much less both. Still, as long as folks like Bill Bavasi and Chuck LaMar are populating Major League front offices, mediocrities everywhere can still hope for their payday.

- Bronson Arroyo faces Toronto ace Roy Halladay tonight. Orlando Hudson, Reed Johnson, Frank Catalanotto and star Vernon Wells have all begun to swing the bats well. Amazingly, this Toronto offense has been strong in the month of May despite little production from three of its most heavily relied upon players. Eric Hinske, Josh Phelps and most surprisingly, Carlos Delgado all continue to struggle.

- Go to boston.com, look at the Johnny Damon shaving pictures and find the one of his fiance. Just trust me.

First, David Ortiz has signed a 2 year contract extention (with option). Terms to be announced. Off to the game.

Offense
c - Kevin Cash .236/.293/.368
1b - Carlos Delgado .232/.328/.406
2b - Orlando Hudson .270/.348/.461
3b - Eric Hinske .212/.289/.329
ss - Chris Gomez .289/.368/.382
lf - Frank Catalanotto .346/.383/.478
cf - Vernon Wells .286/.365/.429
rf - Reed Johnson .295/.357/.450
dh - Josh Phelps .245/.298/.361
Team - .267/.336/.405
Red Sox - .264/.347/.436

Offensive Efficiency:
Toronto - 98.8%
Boston - 95.8%

‘Clutch number’
Toronto - 0.645
Boston - (-8.529)

Toronto is hitting much better now from their time in Devil Ray land the first six times the Sox have faced them. However, the last time the Blue Jays have homered was against Pedro at the Sky Dome. That’s a serious power outage.

Tosca, despite being brandished as a ‘Moneyball’ manager, meaning he doesn’t hit and run/steal/bunt.

He still doesn’t hit and run or steal much, but the Jays have laid down 8 sacrifices, which is 4 more than the Red Sox, and 8 more than Boston players not named Pokey.

All things considered, Kevin Cash is hitting better than Carlos Delgado. For that matter, so is Pokey Reese.

Pitching
Friday - Halladay 15.139 vs. Arroyo 9.606
Saturday - Lilly 3.097 vs. Martinez 14.534
Sunday - Batista vs. 5.159 vs. Wakefield 13.406

Bullpens - Toronto 20.031
Boston - 40.850

Usage - Toronto 2.9 RpG, 1.03 IPpA
Boston - 2.7 RpG, 1.08 IPpA

Arroyo’s numbers only count time in the rotation. I don’t think I explained RpG and IPpA. They are simply Relievers per game, and IP per Appearance for the bullpen.

Toronto’s best bullpen pitcher this year has been Jason Frasor, by a good amount. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the closer role before the end of the year, since Terry Adams has been hemorrhaging saves.

Michael Nakamura is striking guys out at a scary rate.

Tosca skipping Pat Hentgen for a start deprived us from Halladay/Pedro IV. Four times the #1 and #2 pitcher in baseball from 2003 would have matched up before Memorial Day. I do feel a little cheated.

Valerio de los Santos sucks.

Here’s where Mark Bellhorn currently ranks among qualified Major League 2nd Basemen:

RARP: 3rd
VORP: 9th
EQA: 5th
OPS: 8th
RC27: 4th
IsoP: 5th
RC: 3rd

Remind me again, aside from when Derek Lowe starts, why would Tito ever play Pokey Reese ahead of him?

Sometimes when you are ripping off a band-aid, you think it might be painful. You generally slowly rip it from your skin, cursing as hairs are being pulled off with your band-aid.

Of course, sometimes, the band-aid comes off like that. No pain, no incident.

That must what last nights game felt like for the Red Sox.

Tampa scores a run to tie it? Pop, Damon and Ramirez homer.

Get a few runners on against Schilling? Bang, two groundouts.

Get a few on against Embree with the tieing run at bat? Call in Foulke, game over.

Boring game to write about, fun game to watch. Kinda like when you play your little cousins in wiffleball, and keep hitting home runs. It’s awesome, because you’re hitting homeruns. Sucks because they are off 9 year old girls. Maybe that’s just me.

Good pitching, generally good defense, good offense…dull win.

However, Mark Bellhorn is now up to 38 games with one of the Three True Outcomes (BB, K, HR). I say he goes the whole season.

- Curt Schilling takes the mound tonight for the Carmine Hose while Rob Bell toes the rubber for the Devil Rays. Facing Rob Bell is fun for the whole family. I can’t stress this enough. Between 2001 and 2003, Bell yielded an .875 OPS to opposition batters. For a little perspective here, Alex Rodriguez has an .876 OPS thus far in 2004. Carl Everett had an .876 OPS last year and Derrek Lee had an .872 OPS in 2002. The fun part about facing Rob Bell is that everybody becomes an upper echelon offensive contributor. Go get ‘em, Pokey!

- Kevin Millar looked brutal last night. While he hasn’t been quite as terrible thus far in May, it is still worth noting that he is currently slugging .363. Among Major League right fielders, Millar currently ranks 24th in slugging - right behind the big bopper himself, Ichiro!. Among firt basemen, he would rank 23rd, sandwiched between notable sluggers Doug Mietkiewicz and J.T. Snow. All of this makes me wonder; if Kevin Millar isn’t hitting, which he has not been doing for at least 10 months now, what the hell is he contributing to the Boston Red Sox? It reminds me of my favorite quote from the late football coach John McKay who had this to say after another agonizing Tampa Bay Buccaneers loss:

“We didn’t block very well today. But we made up for it by not tackling.”

Millar hasn’t hit very well. But he has made up for it by not running or fielding.

- And now for the weekly “Olney’s counterfactual drivel” segment…

Today we get this gem:

“Jeter’s at-bats tend to get more focused in the postseason; his plate discipline improves as he picks and chooses from pitch to pitch.”

So naturally, Olney has done his homework and noticed that Jeter’s postseason on-base is significantly better than his career regular season on-base. Oh wait. No he hasn’t.

Derek Jeter

regular season: .313/.385/.455
playoffs: .314/.385/.469

Virtually the same numbers.

If the Red Sox lose tonight, I promise to write a heavily researched entry on Rob Bell with an undeniably positive spin.

I would like to preface all of this by saying that it is always wise to temper enthusiasm when said enthusiasm stems from a victory over the Devil Rays.

That said, there were some damn good signs tonight.

- Tim Wakefield, after two crap outings in a row, pitched very well tonight. He allowed just 5 baserunners in 7 innings and had D-Ray hitters flailing for much of the night. This was a good sign but Sunday’s start against a suddenly awakened Toronto offense may be a better barometer to decide where Wake really stands.

- Really, really nice to see the offense go off in the 7th. Hadn’t seen that in a good while. Double, double, bunt single, double, home run. 5 runs, 0 outs. Man I miss that. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.

Elsewhere…

- His performance will rightfully be overshadowed by Randy Johnson tonight but Jason Schmidt pitched a complete game shutout at Wrigley tonight, yielding just 1 hit and 1 walk in the process. I think we can safely declare him all the way back from off-season elbow surgery.

Randy Johnson just threw a perfect game against the Braves.

Oh yeah, and the Sox beat the Devil Rays.