Why “Caveat City”? Because I think there is a federal law which states that one can never take any satisfaction or comfort in beating the Kansas City Royals. Every blog’s game recap must end with the some variation of words “but it was against the Kansas City Royals”, or else the FCC will send men in black suits to your house to smash in your computer monitor and enslave your children.
Here, let me try.
- The Red Sox scored 8 runs last night, the highest road total since June 28th in Houston. But, it was against a Kansas City Royals pitching staff which is 12th in the American League in ERA.
- Josh Beckett won his first game in four starts by going 6 2/3 strong innings, allowing only 2 runs on 4 hits while striking out 7. But, it was against an anemic KC offense which ranks 12th in the AL in runs per game.
- Jacoby Ellsbury stole two bases, his first two steals since trilobites became extinct. But, it was against Royals catcher John Buck, who has a strand of overcooked linguine for a throwing arm.
You know, I might be getting the hang of this. On a serious note, however, I don’t really think the caveats are warranted here. The Royals just aren’t as bad as our senses and memories tell us. I do understand the difficulty in stifling the reflexive visceral outburst of “THEY SUCK” every time our eyes spot those blue and white uniforms.
After all, this is a team that is 10-7 in the second half of the season. They are 4-3 against the Yankees this year, and 13-5 in interleague play. They have a guy who would be in the running for ROY had he more plate appearances after jettisoning the anemic Tony Pena at SS, along with one of the best late-inning relief tandems in the game. This isn’t a “good” team, but they aren’t terrible this time around. The win is what it is: a much-needed road victory with several encouraging individual performances.
If you had predicted at the beginning of the year that Jon Lester would be enjoying a far-and-away better 2008 season than Clay Buchholz, you probably could have won a few bets. Yet, this is where we currently stand:
Buchholz: 63.2 IP, 63/32 K/BB, 75 ERA+
Lester: 146.1 IP, 101,46 K/BB, 141 ERA+
According to some more advanced statistical evidence, a difference in luck has been a factor for these two pitchers. Their line drive rates are very similar (Buchholz with 22.5% and Lester with 20.5%), and their FIP is also similar (Buchholz with 4.21, Lester with 3.65). Clay actually boasts a better xFIP than Jon Lester, which seems inconceivable at this point (3.91 versus 4.06).
By the way, FIP an xFIP are Fielding-Independent Pitching and Expected Fielding-Independant Pitching, both courtesy of The Hardball Times.
With patience, Clay should eventually shape up into a decent MLB starter, as indicated by the high strikeout rates and low FIP. He certainly lack poise right now, and allows far too many errors to occur via untimely walks, HBPs, wild pitches, and hanging fastballs.
In the last-minute blockbuster deadline deal (and I mean “last-minute” quite literally, as in 3:59 PM) sending Jason Bay to Boston, we knew we were getting a more well-rounded player to take over for Manny Ramirez in left-field. What we did not expect was a complete exhibition of Bay’s well-roundedness in one weekend.
Let’s ignore for a moment that the Red Sox were playing a floundering Oakland skeleton crew, and take Bay’s performance at face value. He helped the team in just about every way possible during this three-game sweep.
- Towering extra-base hits.
- Patience at the plate.
- Running down short fly balls in left-field.
- Fluid and intelligent base running.
- Accurately throwing out a potential double at second base.
This is basically we hoped to see from Jason Bay, and we saw it all happen in one weekend. The Sox now travel to Kansas City, where Bay will look to extend the honeymoon.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Manny Ramirez is the second coming of Zack Wheat, going 8 for 13 with 2 HRs in his opening weekend. It’s good to see, and I’ll be pulling for the Manny and the Dodgers (also with Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Lowe) to make the playoffs this season.
On the wake of the most recent edition of the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals and given the Dodgers’ personnel in LF, SS, and SP, a 2008 World Series featuring Boston and LA would be quite a story.
Comments Off 