Oh well. Bad starts happen to good pitchers.

Since last night’s contest was so miserable, I guess I’ll just provide some quick links.

- Stephen Drew and Jered Weaver each signed with their respective clubs at the very last minute.

- Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd was solid in his Brockton Rox debut. He’s one of the all-time great Red Sox characters. Go get ‘em, Can!

- The Chicago White Sox extended Ozzie Guillen’s contract yesterday. Guillen is an interesting guy, and he has a lot of people in Chicago believing that Magglio Ordonez and Frank Thomas types only serve to hurt a baseball team. The media line thus far has been that the South Siders have been winning with “small ball” thus far, as though their team 3.41 ERA was just sort of incidental to their early success. As I said, I don’t know what to think of Guillen the manager, but I do know what Jeff Brantley thought of the job Guillen did yesterday. Did anybody hear that? Who the &^$% is Jeff Brantley? Brantley was killing Guillen for not bringing in Dustin Hermanson to close out yesterday’s game against the Angels. It was 3-2 Sox and Mark Buehrle had thrown just 91 pitches through 8 innings. Putting aside for a moment what you think the right move was, bringing in Hermanson, Damaso Marte or sticking with Buehrle were all defensible from my view. For Brantley to go on and on and on about Guillen was more than a little ridiculous. When you’re as ignorant as Brantley, you have to temper yourself. Listening to him rail against Guillen was equal parts hilarious and maddening. Either way, congrats to Guillen on the extension. I am just not sure why he gets so much credit for this year while dodging any responsibility for the trainwreck that was the 2004 Chicago White Sox.

- Sometimes a trip through ESPN’s Stat pages is fun. Your MLB OPS leader so far? Derrek Lee (Brian Roberts is 2nd). These two also lead in RC/27. Trot Nixon, Johnny Damon and David Ortiz all find themselves among the top-25 in this category as well. On the pitching side, there are some less heralded players putting up some phenomenal numbers. Among the top-25 in ERA thus far are Kenny Rogers, Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang, Erik Bedard, Brett Myers, Chris Young, Carlos Silva and Nate Robertson. Go have some fun yourelves! It’s a great way to get caught up on all of MLB in 10 minutes or so.

“These are two teams heading in opposite directions.”

“The Red Sox are reeling and the Yankees are rolling.”

It’s just hysterical how reactionary the mainstream press is. I mean, did everyone think the Yankees were going to play .900 baseball for the rest of the season? Better still, was it just a given that the Sox were a .300 ball club? I think the obvious answer ot noth questions is “no”. So why all the noise about the Sox as though they are on life support? And why had the Division already been handed to the Yanks again? Forget the Red Sox, what about the Jays and O’s too? Fact is, the last three weeks or so have been just one of 8 or so stretches of the same length that occur over the course of every single season.

Friday night was particularly painful because Terry Francona and his staff cost the Sox the game. No need to sugarcoat it, no need to implement euphemisms like “aggressiveness” in the place of stupidity. The sixth inning was a disgrace, the top half displaying the latest two embarassments of Dale Sveum’s 3rd Base coaching career while the bottom half featured Tito, almost defiantly, handing the ball to Alan Embree over Matt Mantei or Mike Timlin yet again. We all know the specifics of what transpired. Their respective gaffes cost Boston an important game.

The lines tomorrow in the paper will go something like “Who could have seen this coming?”, referring to today’s 17-1, record setting drubbing of New York in the Bronx. The point of course is that in any given game, nobody can see anything coming. But given a group of players’ track records you can get a feel for how a team might do over the long haul. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be surprises. There always will be. What it does mean is that it would behoove most to refrain from sweeping remarks based upon a couple of weeks worth of baseball evidence. Sure it stirs up the airwaves but to those of us that know a lick about the game it’s just silly, tired and worst of all, boring. The Red Sox are good. So are the Yankees. No need to work yourself into a lather over short-term travails.

Oh yeah, and I am happy for this guy too. Let’s hope he keeps it going…(CNNSI photo).

Enjoy the Sunday-nighter tomorrow night. Moose has been great lately but against rinky-dink lineups. We’ll have a better sense for whether or not he is back tomorrow night.

One of the things I like to do is make trending charts up to see how players are progressing…

Here are trending charts for the year so far, from the home opener to the last Toronto series.

First the offense:

Now the rotation…

and the ugly:

If the pics aren’t clear, you can right click and save them to see them better.

There’s very little positive to say about last night’s 8-1 loss to the Jays. The Blue Jays sweep, along with the Yankees victory, has dropped the Sox to 4th place in the AL East. That’s not a terribly big deal, as the team is only a half game back of the Yankees and Jays. It is a little bit scary that the team isn’t outperforming its expected win-loss, but a handful of home games should get the offense clicking again.

Wade Miller had his first really bad start in a Sox uniform, giving up 7 runs in just 2 innings. There’s not really anything good to take away from this start. His control was bad, his velocity was down, and his mechanics were inconsistent. The low velocity is a bit of a scary sign for a pitcher coming back from a rotator cuff injury, but it may not be a need for worry. According to Miller’s STATS Inc. Scouting Report:

Miller has a complicated delivery that has to be just right for him to be effective. When he’s right, Miller has as much stuff as practically anyone on the staff, throwing his fastball in the mid-90s and his slider around 90 MPH. The slightest deviation, however, and he not only has troubles pitching, but can be prone to injury.

Ok, so the “prone to injury” bit is a little scary. But combining that bit of info with Miller’s own admission in Nick Cafardo’s Globe recap:

‘Physically I feel fine, but mechanically I was just a mess out there,” Miller said. ‘’My arm angle was everywhere. My bullpen [session] just didn’t quite feel right. I just didn’t have it.”

Maybe we don’t have too much to worry about just yet.

The bullpen was one of two bright spots for the night. Jeremi Gonzalez (more on him later) threw 4 innings of relief, giving up just a single run. Alan Embree and Mike Myers each threw a scoreless inning. You can’t read too much into those relief innings, as teams that get up early tend to coast through later innings, but still, it’s good to see the bullpen pick up the slack a bit for the starters.

The other bright spot was the 3-4 night by Kevin Millar. Millar, who’s still hitting at a ridiculously low clip, closed his stance up and hit a couple of solid liners on pitches that he’d recently been fouling off. Check out his at-bats via the Game Chart on cbs.sportsline.com.

Finally, the Sox will be keeping a close eye on Millar as they purchased the contract of John Olerud. The team made a bevy of moves yesterday, designating Shawn Wooten for assignment to make room on the 40 man for Olerud, and optioning Jeremi Gonzalez to Pawtucket to bring up Kelly Shoppach to backup Jason Varitek.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how Terry Francona uses Olerud and Shoppach. Francona has been very reluctant to use players in place of his veteran starters, a trait that got him in trouble in Philadelphia but seems to help keep the Boston clubhouse at an even keel. If Millar hasn’t turned it around, will we see more Youkilis and Olerud? Will Shoppach get Wakefield duty — meaning he’d get the start tonight against Randy Johnson? Lots of interesting subplots could develop over the next couple of weeks. Shoppach has been hitting extremely well in Pawtucket (.279/.392/.571). He does strike out good bit (about 25% of his plate appearances), but has put up numbers better than what Jason Varitek did in AAA at the same age, so take that for what it is worth.

Well the Sox started the first swing of a 10-game stretch against their main AL East competition by taking a sweep up in Toronto. After last night’s 8-1 bludgeoning, the Sox limped out of Toronto having dropped the three games by a combined score of 23-8. There’s no relief in sight, either. Boston now heads into the Bronx to face the Yankees, a team clicking on all cylinders right now, winners of 15 of their last 17.

The Sox did make two roster moves after the game. They called up John Olerud, hopefully to start taking time away from current everyday first baseman Kevin “.244/.342/ *&#%ing .331″ Millar. In my estimation they called up the wrong guy, but hey, they have started the process of supplanting a guy that has to be one of Major League Baseball’s very worst regulars. Boston also called up catcher Kelly Shoppach, currently hitting .279/.392/.571 thus far in Pawtucket. Jeremi Gonzalez and Shawn Wooten were sent down.

Wade Miller’s stuff last night was awful from the outset. His curve was flat, his fastball straight, his velocity down and his command was off. I am willing to give Miller a mulligan here but it was concerning inasmuch as it was a painful reminder that Curt Schilling is not a luxury for these Red Sox, but a necessity. Speaking of Curt, the news isn’t good on that front either. The Sox are reportedly eyeing the All-Star Break as a return date for their ace.

Yet for all the worry and angst fans must be feeling over this latest stretch, here is where the Sox stand. Having gotten nothing out of Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, Alan Embree, Edgar Renteria and Kevin Millar, and performances well below expectations from Manny Ramirez, David Wells and to a lesser extent David Ortiz, the Red Sox stand 5 games out of first place and a half game behind the Yankees. Further, the Sox have played 27 road games and just 19 home games. They are still on pace to win 88 games.

As a purveyor of the long view, I invite you take a look at Boston’s hitting and pitching stats over the last 7 days. There’s just no way this will keep up. Try and hang in there. With the Bombers and the O’s coming up on the schedule it may get worse before it gets better.

I liked this line from Chris Snow’s report this morning:

Lilly — who fanned 13 Red Sox last Aug. 23 while hurling a three-hit shutout — has been granted membership in the ‘’Rodrigo Lopez Club,” a collection of non-aces who pitch like Cy Young winners against the Red Sox.

It’s true. Just as they did last night, the Sox always struggle against Lilly. You may recall this game from last summer, or even Game 3 of the 2003 ALDS - a game Oakland never should have lost.

Since we try to take the long view here I should note that Bronson Arroyo was pretty good last night. He only allowed 6 hits. The Red Sox are in an enviable position because the things that need fixing have clear and ready-made solutions. Kevin Millar sucks but Roberto Petagine and John Olerud are close to ready in Pawtucket. Boston has lacked consistency through the back end of their rotation, but Curt Schilling continues to work his way back. The bullpen has coughed it up a few times, but there’s Matt Mantei itching to see some high-lev innings.

The lesson? Hang in. The Sox are very good. The problem is if they wait (or are forced to wait in Schill’s case) to address some of the aforementioned problems, it could be too late. The American League East features four very good baseball teams and the margin of error New York and Boston have enjoyed in seasons past no longer exists.

Wade Miller against Toronto’s intriguing youngster, Gustavo Chacin, tonight at the Rogers Centre.

Just some quick notes on this one:

• David Wells did not pitch as poorly as his stat line indicated. However, he doesn’t deserve a pass for pitching well for stretches either. At the end of the day, he gave the Sox 6 innings and gave up 5 runs. He didn’t miss many bats (7 hits, only 2 Ks), and there just aren’t a lot of pitchers who will surive with those rates
• Alan Embree was catastrophic and I’m becoming more convinced that he shouldn’t face righties, if it can be avoided. His fastball just seems very flat and very ordinary. Against lefties, he can get by purely by physics. Against righties, he looks like he’s throwing BP. If you check out the comments on Sully’s post, there are differing opinions on Embree and whether or not he’s just had a couple of bad outings or is in his decline phase.
• Bill Mueller is back (my favorite: his OPS for the last week is like 1.800). Kevin Millar is not (OPS for the last week is .646). Mr. Youkilis, could you grab your 1B mitt please?
• The Sox are going to have some very interesting roster moves to make in the next week or so. John Olerud is expected to join the team when they head out west. I’d assume that would mean Jeremi Gonzalez heads back down to Pawtucket and the Sox would go with 11 pitchers. Roberto Petagine might force the issue as well, since he’s probably not looking to hang around AAA for longer than it takes to rehab. Of course, Curt Schilling is going to be back at some point, though maybe not as soon as we’d like (according to the Herald).

It’s probably time to start getting Matt Mantei some high-leverage innings, no?

I actually didn’t find one of the main points of this article - that a Division title is important to the Sox this season - all that dubious. Anyone who read my Red Sox season preview knows that, to a certain extent, I agree. But man is this column filled with a lot of nonsense. Chass writes…

The one thing the Red Sox have not done in this era of the renewed rivalry is finish ahead of the Yankees in the American League East, winning the division championship, of course. For the Red Sox to finish second while the Yankees place third would be an empty achievement. Being the division champion is what it is all about for the Red Sox this season, whether they admit it or not.

I have no real problem here. A little aggressive for my blood but the general point isn’t all that off-base.

Here’s where we start getting a little dicey…

Which is a roundabout way of saying the Red Sox have blown it.

The Sox blew it. Pack it in. May 24th, half the lineup hitting like shit, 40% of the rotation banged up, Jeremi Gonzalez logging starts, Keith Foulke doing his best John Wasdin impersonation and the Sox find themselves just 2 games out of first place and 2.5 games up on the Bombers. Couldn’t agree more Murray - call off the dogs, season’s over.

No, the Red Sox need to win the division title. Nothing less will do.

Not to nitpick or smarm it up but I think we Sox fans know this not to be the case.

Given their play in the first five weeks of this season, the Yankees gave their followers reason to doubt their ability to finish first again. Even with their 12 victories in the last 14 games, the Yankees have not displayed the kind of consistent pitching they need to finish first.

But have you seen Boston’s pitching? David Wells, who had pitched poorly before, returned from the disabled list last week, and Oakland battered him for seven runs in an inning and two-thirds. Randy Johnson was not nearly that bad against the Mets.

Unbelievable excerpt there. He sets it up by noting that the Yankees’ pitching has not lived up to snuff - and he’s right. But then he tries to make the point that Boston’s pitching too has been awful. But Boston’s mediocre pitching numbers are skewed badly by a couple of Wells’ outings, some Jeremi Gonzaelz awfulness and a gimpy Curt Schilling. But Wade Miller, Bronson Arroyo and Matt Clement all appear on the ERA leaderboard ahead of any Yankee starter. Further, the emergence of Wade Miller allows Sox ace Curt Schilling the ability to take his time and heal up. Put succinctly, Sox pitching has been much better than New York’s and figures to improve more than New York’s going forward.

The truly amazing part of that excerpt is the standard to which Chass holds Randy Johnson. David Wells, in his first outing back off the DL, pitched worse than the Unit did Saturday for the Mets. I am sure Yanks fans take comfort in the fact that their 41 year-old ace is not as bad as Boston’s 42 year-old 5th starter.

That column sucked, a shit-stirrer of the highest order. But hey, I clicked on it and even wasted a half-hour writing about it. Job well done, Murray.

Through 49 plate appearances in Pawtucket Roberto Petagine has a 1.074 OPS while John Olerud smacked a home run in his first game back last night for the PawSox. Between Kevin Millar’s potential for improvement (remember his 2004 start), Petagine’s fantastic track record in Japan and Olerud’s proven steadiness (ok I’m reaching here), there is plenty of evidence to suggest the Red Sox ought to have a viable option for first base come summer time. I would like to see them exhaust all in-house options before caving and deciding they need to give up some of the future for, say, a Mike Sweeney type. Many around here just assume that come deadline time a first baseman will be the target. I don’t see it. Don’t ask me who of the three it will be but come July 1, the Red Sox will have a good starting first baseman.

Game story here, box score here, Kevin Millar’s defense of Edgar Renteria here.

I have to be honest. I’ll never understand booing as a general practice. Never done it, never been inclined to do it. I am as frustrated as anybody by Renteria’s performance to date but he certainly appears to be trying out there. Even more damning, the booing has ramped up as reports of Renteria’s sensitivity have emerged. Anyway, kudos to Kevin Millar for having his teammate’s back. And for realizing that he himself stinks.

As for the game, don’t look now but it appears that Matt Clement may have “harnessed his stuff”. He’s 5-0 now and appears to have figured out “how to win”. And no, the wins have nothing to do with pitching for the team with the 2nd highest run total in baseball. All kidding aside, yesterday was damn encouraging as Clement was able to go the distance while yielding just 4 hits and no walks. That’s right, no walks. If Clement can avoid the bases on balls, he can be one of the best starters in baseball. Even when he is walking batters, he’s still pretty darn good because his high strike out totals allow him to wiggle out of jams. But yesterday was a little glimpse of what Clement could be.

Manny Ramirez was the offensive star. After a weekend of being pounded away by Braves pitchers and some very un-Manny like cuts at some fastballs on the outside part of the plate on Friday and Saturday, Manny was locked in on the outside pitch yesterday. He had three hits, including a home run over the bullpen in right field. Detractors keep trotting out Manny’s paltry .242 batting average but the fact is that he has a .356 on-base average to accompany a .530 slugging figure. Not the kind of numbers you’d expect from Manny but not the type that will kill your offense either.

I don’t really get this hall-of-fame game today but apparently the Red Sox play Detroit in an exhibition game up in Cooperstown. From there, it’s on to Toronto where David Wells will try to improve upon last Wednesday’s blood-curdling, smoldering catastrophe of an outing out in Oakland.

I don’t have a whole lot of analysis to offer on this game. Wakefield didn’t pitch particularly well. The Sox defense fell apart, with 75% of the Sox infield making an error (Renteria 2, Mueller 1, Bellhorn 1). The offense still managed to churn out 11 hits and 5 walks, but much of it was too little, too late. The team trailed 7-3 going into the bottom of the 9th before getting a couple of meaningless runs off of former Sox farmhand Chris Reitsma to close the gap to the final score of 7-5.

Rookie Kyle Davies made his first start, and predictably had the Sox moderately befuddled all day. Davies scattered 4 hits and 3 walks over 5 innings, leaving with a 6-0 lead and getting his first MLB win. Marcus Giles (who at this point is probably the better Giles) paced the Braves offense with a 3 for 5 day with 2 doubles.

Honestly, that’s about it. It’s tough to offer up any sort of salient analysis when a team plays really poorly. You just hope that they’ll bounce back and pounce on Smoltz (which, as of this moment, they were able to crack through with a couple of runs in the bottom of the 5th).

Check out Braves Journal for some good stuff on this weekend’s foe.

Driving out to run some errands, I flip on Joe and Jerry in the top of the 2nd to hear Wade Miller quickly retiring Adam LaRoche and Andruw Jones on fly outs, and then striking out what sounded like a pretty nasty pitch to Johnny Estrada. The score is 1-0 and Miller sounds on. Those two factors make me happy, as the Sox traditionally have the type of offense to get to Tim Hudson — wait for pitches to hit and let him get himself into trouble.

Trot Nixon leads off the bottom of the 2nd for the Sox. He takes a ball, then hits a hard ball down the 1st base line that Adam LaRoche makes quick work of. Jason Varitek works the count to 3-1 without swinging the bat, then takes his first swing of the game and launches a ball into the bleachers in left-center. Kevin Millar works a 2-1 count, then rifles a shot into right to get on. Bill Mueller likes the first pitch he sees and bangs it off Pesky’s Pole giving the Sox a 4-0 lead that they would never relinquish (though, once again, Keith Foulke would make it interesting). The Sox’ 4-3 victory left them 2 games back of the Orioles in the AL East.

12 pitches in the bottom of the 2nd is all the Sox needed to put up 3 runs on Hudson. Take out Nixon’s at-bat, and you’ve got Hudson throwing 10 pitches: 5 balls, 1 swinging strike, 1 looking strike, and 3 hits. Right there, in a nutshell, is why the Sox offense can be successful, even with four regulars batting under .250. It’s why the Sox are teaching this hitting philosophy to players at all levels of the system.

“When players first start with us, it’s almost like they think the philosophy means you need to take pitches and you need to walk,” Red Sox minor league hitting coordinator Orv Franchuk said. “To us, that is just a byproduct of our system. If you’re selective, the on-base percentage and the walks are going to be there. But for me, the whole thing boils down to the batter being aggressive and the batter getting on base.”

While the offense was drawing 5 walks and rapping 8 hits against Tim Hudson, the pitching staff was shutting down a decent Braves offense. Wade Miller was great again, and Terry Francona got him out of the game before he got himself in trouble. Miller went 6.1 innings, striking out 5 and giving up only 1 run on 3 hits. Once again, Wade looked like the best offseason acquisition the front office made, and his start was a welcome respite from the starting pitching troubles that have plagued the Sox in recent days.

Mike Timlin continued his remarkable season (which I will take credit for after I questioned his performance back in early April). The last time Timlin allowed more than 1 hit in a relief appearance? April 16th, 15 appearances ago.

Keith Foulke also continued his remarkable season, but not in a good way. Foulke came into a 4-1 game and promptly gave up 2 runs before getting out of the inning and getting another of his now routine “2 run saves.” From a pure scouting perspective, he’s looking better than he did early in the season, seeming to spot his pitches a bit better than he was. Unfortunately, his stuff just hasn’t been great, and the difference between his fastball and changeup right now does not seem to be enough to keep hitters off-balance. Foulke threw 13 of his 15 pitches for strikes last night; it’s just that 3 of those pitches got hit decently hard. With Matt Mantei and Timlin pitching fairly well, I would not be surprised to see Foulke moved into a bit of a closer rotation, at least until he gets himself worked out.

The Sox get to face Braves rookie Kyle Davies in his first major league start tonight. Recent history does not favor the Sox when facing a young pitcher for the first time. Davies has had good K rates and K/BB numbers up through AA, but he was getting knocked around a little in AAA before his call up to Atlanta (1.65 K/BB in Richmond). Hopefully we’ll get a Kevin Youkilis sighting tonight.

It’s hard not to notice the multitude of NBA players these days that, though still relatively young, seem to have been through it all in spite of their relative youth. Many have bounced around from team-to-team, each having been written off a number of times. Guys like Chauncey Billups, Joe Johnson, Larry Hughes, and to a lesser extent, Etan Thomas all have been highly touted, then dismissed, only to once again regain status. Each made remarkable contributions to NBA playoff participants this season. Billups even won the NBA Finals MVP last season.

I am reminded of this phenomenon because two of my very favorite, and still young players each have regained their own status after some turbulent times. Mention Hee Seop Choi’s name to a Joe Six-Packer out in L.A. and you are bound to hear how the guy couldn’t hit his way put of a paper-bag. Well don’t look now but Choi is checking in with a .310/.410/.550 line. Another guy finally starting to put it together is playing all the way across the country from Choi in the nation’s capital. His name is Nick Johnson. Remember him? He is hitting at a .310/.415/.510 clip thus far in 2005. Both play a good first base, have a cerebral approach at the dish and are under-appreciated by the general public. Could be premature on my end, but I think it’s time they got their due.

Hee Seop Choi came up through the Chicago Cubs system. The Chun-Nam, Korea native started his professional baseball career in 1999 after the Cubs signed him as a free agent. On the field, he acclimated just fine to professional baseball, hitting in Lansing, West Tennessee, Daytona and Iowa before being called up by the Cubs in September of 2002 at the age of 23. He struggled in just 50 at-bats but made enough of an impression to earn some regular playing time in 2003 before a freak injury in a collision with Greg Maddux put him out of action. Eric Karros, in Choi’s stead, played well and given Cubs Manager Dusty Baker’s penchant for eschewing young talent for the experience and poise a veteran offers, Choi was out of a gig in Chicago. Even after coming off of the disabled list, Choi would see just sporadic playing time for the rest of the season.

That postseason, the Cubs lost to the Florida Marlins and their big, athletic first baseman Derrek Lee in the National League Championship Series. Lee made such an impression that the Cubs flipped Choi to the Marlins for Lee and immediately extended his contract. Choi fan that I am, I remember being critical of the trade at the time and had such conviction in my belief that the Choi trade was one the Cubs would regret that I was even brazen enough to take it up with my girlfriend’s father, a 3rd generation and lifelong Cubs fan. At the outset of 2004, I looked reasonably smart too. Choi was making just over $300,000 while Lee was making $7,000,000 or so, and Choi was putting up numbers in line with Lee’s through the first few months of the 2004 season. Choi held his own as a Marlin, putting up a .270/.388/.495 line. We won’t talk about how dumb I look for criticizing the Cubs now, as Derrek Lee has taken Major League Baseball by storm thus far in 2005. Without question, it was a good deal for the Cubs.

(Here comes the one-sentence paragraph)

(Wait for it…)

(Wait for it…)

Then came another trade.

On July 30, 2004, Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Paul DePodesta made his boldest move yet, exchanging fan favorite Paul Lo Duca, Guillermo Mota and Juan Encarnacion for Choi, hard-throwing Brad Penny and Minor Leaguer Bill Murphy. DePodesta was roundly criticized for the moves as the talking heads postulated that the Dodgers had given up their heart-and-soul and a shut-down reliever for a mid-rotation starting pitcher and spit. After all, two clubs had already written off Choi. How could he be any good?

Choi stunk for the Los Angeles, logging just a .531 OPS in Dodger blue. Toss in that Brad Penny almost immediately went down with an injury and it was vindication for the LA sports media vultures. The talking heads had declared victory over “Google Boy” and his spreadsheets. Of course they failed to keep in mind that Penny’s injury was entirely unforeseeable and that Choi logged just 73 plate appearances, hardly a worthy sample size. And besides, hard to declare victory on a guy overseeing the Dodger team that won the franchise’s first postseason game in 16 years.

Choi has a distinctively pleasant demeanor on the field but by the end of 2004, it appeared as though all the joys of baseball had been taken away from him. He was performing terribly and the local media didn’t care that he was living a world away or that he might need a little time to settle in. They were out for blood and it was clear that his quest for acceptance was coming up dry.

Choi’s late season 2004 struggles have been the baseball fans’ gain this season. All of the adversity that Choi faced in 2004 has made his 2005 successes all the more satisfying. Flip on a Dodger game sometime and hopefully you will be lucky enough to see Choi hit a home run or lace a two-run double. He tries his hardest to play it cool but when he glances in the dugout and sees Jim Tracy applauding on the top step or Milton Bradley rushing over to give him a high five, he is overcome and has to crack a smile. He’s accepted now and the lost cause that seemed so morose out there in 2004 is now a big reason for the Dodgers’ strong start thus far in 2005.

Nick Johnson, a Sacramento native, started his professional career in rookie ball with the New York Yankees in 1996. The Yanks selected Johnson with the 89th pick of the 1996 amateur draft. He was 17 years old. There began a steady rise through the Yanks system, where Johnson played better and better each incremental step he took. It was a study in how player development ought to go. Here were Johnson’s OPS figures, minor league by minor league.

GCL: .812
SAL: .825
FSL: .982
EL: 1.043
IL: .858

The Gulf Coast, Sally, Florida State, Eastern and International Leagues were fine venues for Johnson to hone his skills but by late 2001 it had become evident that Johnson was a Major Leaguer. The timing of his ascension couldn’t have been better, either – for Johnson or the Yanks. The Bombers had just signed Jason Giambi and the ridiculous excesses for which the Yanks have come to be known were beginning to rear themselves. Johnson’s production at his bargain rate was just what the doctor ordered for an otherwise pricey Yankees club. While Johnson struggled in his first full season, he did feature a promising offensive approach, as he averaged 4.11 pitches every time up.

Johnson was excellent in 2003. Despite missing two months smack in the middle of the season with an injured wrist, Johnson posted an .894 OPS at the age of 24. That the OPS figure featured a .422 on-base made it all the more impressive. Johnson had arrived and as long as he could stay healthy, he appeared destined for stardom.

In the off-season between 2003 and 2004, the Yankees traded Johnson to the Montreal Expos for Javier Vazquez. Johnson seemed down about the news but took it in stride. More pressing for his career was his nagging wrist that forced him to miss both the first and last two months of the 2004 season. He never hit his stride, posting a disappointing .757 OPS for a terrible Expos club.

Now healthy in 2005, Johnson seems to have picked up just about right where he left off in 2003. As one could have expected had he stayed healthy, the on-base numbers remain in line only the slugging has now improved. He looks happy now too, out of the baseball hell known as 21st century Montreal and into the vibrant baseball culture to which the Nationals have been welcomed in Washington, D.C.

What’s the lesson? Probably just that if a guy has talent and doesn’t have an attitude problem, it’s probably best to hang in there with him. This isn’t to say that the Yankees made a mistake by trading Johnson or that Florida or Chicago should not have traded Choi. In all cases the respective general mangers retrieved pretty good value. The lesson is just that it can take young people a while to become accustomed to their settings and fans and media types should afford young professional athletes the same patience we all are afforded in our early-to-mid twenties. Choi just now seems comfortable as a Major Leaguer. Johnson is now healthy enough to continue improving. Both have persevered through difficult circumstances and are fulfilling their respective abilities. It’s a testament to both of them.

All pre-Big League info provided by Baseball Cube.

Despite yesterday’s ass-kicking, there are actually two bits of good news. One, David Wells really did not pitch as poorly as it may look. Many of Oakland’s hits off of him were seeing-eye grounder and bloop types. Not exactly cheapies but it’s also not as though Wells was just serving up batting practice either. Still Wells was pretty bad and so the other bit of good news is that if Wells continues to pitch this poorly, it would lend some clarity as to who ought to head out to the bullpen upon Curt Schilling’s return. God help us if anyone on Yawkey Way is still thinking of relegating Bronson Arroyo to such duties.

The Red Sox have gone 2-4 in their last 6. Looking a little deeper at the past 6 games, there are some interesting tidbits to extract. For instance, Metropolitan Boston’s favorite whipping boy, Mark Bellhorn, has checked in at a .350/.480/.750 clip over the last 6 games. Trot Nixon, too, has been crushing the ball. Meanwhile over the same stretch Johnny Damon has begun to come back to earth, something entirely predictable based upon the high batting average induced hot start. There has been talk that Edgar Renteria has found his stroke, which, if that is in fact the case, is still far from a $40 million stroke. The .695 OPS over the last week is an improvement but well below what Boston bargained for. He is not making up for it in the field either. Of all MLB shortstops that qualify, he has the 18th best Range Factor, the 19th best Zone Rating and according to Baseball Prospectus, he has been 5 runs worse than the average shortstop thus far. Yes, fielding statistics are rough but when each of them show you to be lousy, it’s probably time to start entertaining the notion that the individual in question might in fact be lousy.

The amazing Atlanta Braves come to town this weekend. Recently, Dayn Perry did a guest piece at The Baseball Analysts on the Braves reign over the last 12 years. Check it out.

1) Conventional wisdom would have it that the A’s gave last night’s game away to Boston, what with the 7 runs the Sox pushed across on just 4 hits. Oakland’s hurlers walked Red Sox hitters an astounding 11 times. That judgment, however, sells the Sox a bit short. One of the counter-intuitive hurdles I had to clear when I began accepting various sabermetric principles was that the ability to walk is a skill a hitter possesses. Many will call a walk a “free pass”, as common knowledge had been that the walk was not something the offensive player earned but something the pitcher yielded. We now know this not to be the case. Last night, 8 of the 11 Red Sox walks came on 3-2 pitches, a tremendous credit to Boston’s patient batters. Still 5 more came after at least 6 pitches, more of a credit to their ability to fight off pitches that might otherwise be called third strikes. So give the Sox their due for last night as I am not sure a team like, say, the Cubs could even possibly walk 11 times in a game against Big League pitching.

2) Responding to a question about Manny Ramirez’s Hall-of-Fame credentials, Ryne Sandberg has this to say:

I think the Boston Red Sox outfielder has taken advantage of Fenway Park. He’s very comfortable there hitting balls off the Green Monster, and he’s been very constant in what he contributes year in and year out with his run production.

At this point of his career, Ramirez reminds me of Jim Rice and Andre Dawson. Both of them hit over 400 home runs in their careers, but they’re not in the Hall of Fame yet. Ramirez could have six or seven years left and wind up with 500-plus home runs. At that point, you could talk about Manny as a Hall of Famer. But not now.

Five hundred career home runs used to be the magic number to get into the Hall. Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa reached the 500-home plateau the past couple of seasons. They’ll test whether 500 homers is still a first-ballot lock due to baseball’s explosion of home runs from all different factors – first and foremost the steroid issue.

There are two main points Ryno makes about Manny and so I will address them both briefly.

1) Manny has been helped a lot by Fenway.

Manny’s home/road splits since he joined the Red Sox:
Home: .318/.424/.611
Road: .323/.411/.612

Also, he was pretty good as a member of the Cleveland Indians, no?

2) Manny is a similar player to Andre Dawson and Jim Rice.

Career Lines:
Manny: .314/.410/.598 - 156 OPS+ (OPS+ thru 2004)
Dawson: .279/.323/.482 - 119 OPS+
Rice: .298/.352/.502 - 128 OPS+

Sorry everyone but due to an unthinkably terrible incident this morning, I am far less than clear-headed. As such, here are my thoughts on the last four games:

Friday: John Halama?
Saturday: Wade Miller and Trot Nixon; the difference between good Red Sox and championship Red Sox
Sunday: Congrats, Manny.
Monday: Mike Myers?

Be back tomorrow.

I will be tonight back with an extended summary regarding this most recent 4-game stretch.

Another day, another walk-off win for the Red Sox. Captain Clutch willed a routine fly ball down the right field line around Pesky’s Pole for a game winning home run, proving once and for all that Octavio Dotel does not have the make-up to be a closer and that Jason Varitek would have made a perfectly suitable selection for Pope. Keith Foulke, on the other hand, does have the make-up and mental toughness to close - he just didn’t show it yesterday…or against Baltimore that time…or against Toronto…or in 2002…but he did show it last season!! I like omelettes! Wheeeee!

As fun and exciting as walk-off wins are, the last couple of games have been relatively unsatisfactory as these types of exciting victories go. On Tuesday night, it was only because of errors and continuous failures with men on base that the Sox found themselves down in the ninth inning. Yesterday, the Red Sox (Keith Foulke specifically) squandered another great start from Matt Clement, blowing a 4-1 lead in the ninth before coming back. As fans, we get to exchange high-fives and go wild after these games but when you take a step back some ominous signs loom. Is Keith Foulke ok? Will Millar’s bat be able to carry his horrible glove? Will Renteria ever hit? Bellhorn? Mueller?

I have great faith in this team and believe they will be fine. I just think it’s best to temper ourselves lest we think this team is just a runaway freight train ready to rip off 100 more wins or so.

Off to the West Side to play Seattle this weekend. My sister, currently living out there (though soon to be back), will be in attendance for all three games.

Edit: Here’s an actual debate going on about a closer’s make-up. It’s a lot more worthwhile than my petty potshots.