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By Jimmy, 3/18/2010 10:46 am

If you came to this spring training ritual game hoping to get a glimpse of some of Boston’s new and expensive toys, you really couldn’t ask for a better day.  The offseason front-office strategy centered around pitching and defense, and that certainly manifested itself in the annual St. Patty’s Day extravaganza.

• The guy on center stage was the newly acquired right-hander, John Lackey.  Lackey has a certain goofball “Baby Huey” demeanor about him when he’s giving interviews and such.  But when he steps onto the mound, that image is flipped upside down.  He appears to be a very intelligent, surgical type of pitcher.  Despite having the body of an NFL tight end, Lackey does not rely on gas to overpower hitters.  Instead, he uses pinpoint command and benefits greatly from having a good defense behind him.  He’s not the type of guy who will walk someone in a key spot (in fact, he has not walked anyone this spring).  To beat him, a hitter will need to be aggressive.
• Adrian Beltre demonstrated the reason why the Sox acquired him, by throwing out old friend Alex Cora on an awkward ball that ricocheted off of Lackey’s ankle (he’s fine).  Beltre swooped in, barehanded the ball, and submarined a perfect throw to Youkilis for the out.
• New SS Marco Scutaro, a guy from whom the Sox hope to get steady defensive play along with some decent offensive contributions (something they have not had from a shortstop since 2004), turned a nice double play with Dustin Pedroia in the first inning, earning an appreciative fist-pump from Lackey.

Other notes:

• Fans hoping to wish farewell to (or heckle?) Jason Bay were disappointed, as the All-Star outfielder was held out of action.  I was especially bummed-out, since I had my soapbox all ready for the fans in attendance who planned on booing him.  It’s a rare occasion where I get to display righteous indignation.  How dare the Mets take that away from me.
• Lots of Mets fans in attendance in Fort Myers yesterday, and they were definitely enjoying their team’s “victory”.  Might as well savor those wins now.  Once April arrives, the fun is over in Queens.
• I caught a foul ball off of the bat of Gary Matthews Jr., and immediately I start getting yelled at from the surrounding blue-hairs: “Give it to a kiiiiiid!  Give it to a kiiiiid!”  What assholes.  Listen you miserable geezers, I am a kid.  I will appreciate this ball 100x more than some drooling toddler.  Regardless, not wanting to be descended upon by an army of melanoma zombies, I gave the ball to the nearest 3-year-old.  Fortunately, his mom (a MILF) gave it back.
• My one thought regarding Ron Washington’s cocaine use: so what?  A) He’s not a player, and B) It isn’t a performance enhancing drug.  I don’t remember anywhere near this type of backlash when the news of Tony LaRussa’s DUI broke.  Washington’s “crime” is victimless.  If the Rangers are cool with it, let’s all move on.  Besides, Washington was a player in the early 80’s.  Those guys were pretty much contractually obligated to snort as much blow as their nostrils could handle.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka could see some game action on Sunday.

Comments (2)

By Jimmy, 3/16/2010 9:53 am

A New First Baseman – Mike Lowell, having recently returned from an injury, was playing a position he has not one played in a MLB regular season game: 1B.  From what I could tell, there didn’t seem to be very much awkwardness for him at the position.

Big Day for DH – After going 1-21 in the first two weeks of spring training, David Ortiz had an impressive 2 for 2 game, including a bomb over the right field fence on a 3-1 pitch.  Ortiz is confident he’ll see an improvement over 2009.

WTF is That? – If you’ve never heard of a “cavernous malformation of the brain” before, chances are you expected the worst after reading that Red Sox top prospect Ryan Westmoreland was diagnosed with one.  Here’s a nice thorough write-up on the condition, including the risks and probable recovery period, from Ryan’s hometown paper.  The surgery will happen today in Phoenix.

No Gyroballs Yet – Daisuke Matsuzaka’s bullpen session was once again pushed back to today (tentatively).  It’s becoming increasingly more likely that you will see Tim Wakefield in the rotation to begin the year.

Travel Tip - If you’re in southwest Florida, do be sure to avoid any “Italian restaurants” they may have down there.  Especially if they plan on closing in 45 minutes.  One in particular basically incapacitated me for 24 hours.  Be smart…stick to grouper.

Comments (2)

By Jimmy, 9/30/2009 6:53 am

I was at the game last night, and wanted nothing more to see a champagne-soaked Heidi Watney awkwardly holding a microphone while asking extraordinarily inane questions (”How does this moment feel?”) to a bunch of screaming men wearing goggles.

Sadly, the party didn’t begin until after I left.  However, due to the utter disintegration of our competition in Texas over the past two weeks (thanks, fellas), the Boston Red Sox are heading to the playoffs yet again.  This will be the seventh Wild Card berth for the Sox, by far more than any other team in the history of this current playoff structure.

Hey guys, I love this strategy you have going on!  You know, making absolutely no effort to win these games, focusing 100% on avoiding injuries and conserving energy for the playoffs.  It’s just a brilliant, brilliant strategy.  Right?  RIGHT?!

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By Jimmy, 9/22/2009 6:48 am

It happened again, a rarity in 2009.  Last night’s debacle was a loss that could be pinned squarely on the shoulders of the bullpen.  Yeah, the same ‘pen I claimed was “among the best ever” in a recent post.  All other parties involved (the starting pitcher, the offense) did their job against Kansas City, except for a handful of relievers who were uncharacteristically awful.

Manny Delcarmen, in particular, has not been very good of late.

Yeah, I know he’s form JP or Hyde Park or wherever. When the playoffs start and the team flies to Anaheim, he might be watching the game from there.

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By Jimmy, 9/17/2009 8:37 am

Nick Green, a guy whose role has been marginalized ever since the Red Sox acquired a vastly superior player from the Reds weeks ago, came up with a huge game-saving walk with the bases loaded in the 9th inning last night.

For what it’s worth, here’s the actual location of Brian Fuentes’ pitches to Green in that at-bat, courtesy of Brooks Baseball (focus on pitch #9 in particular, as that was “ball four”):

Yeah……

Kudos to Fuentes for not having a Serena Williams moment on the mound. Manager Mike Scioscia, a hot-headed Italian, was understandably peeved. However, were I him, I’m be more upset at my left-fielder’s effort on the next play. Juan Rivera basically let the game-winning bloop hit fall 2 feet in front of his toes without so much as a lunge. Just an odd inning all-around, with a few big breaks for the Red Sox.

Whatever, I’ll take it.

Magic Number: 12

Texas was shut down again, this time being held to one hit.  If I weren’t a Sox fan, I would find their swoon very sad and uncomfortable to watch, sort of like the last few episodes of that series “The Beast“.  Instead, I am overcome with joy, as I am when watching Point Break.

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By Jimmy, 9/16/2009 8:58 am

Before last night’s game, if you were to ask me what the most unlikely outcome of Daisuke Matsuzaka’s return would be, I probably would have said “six shutout innings”.  Okay, that’s a lie; I actually would have said “nine shutout innings”, but six is still pretty damn unbelievable.

Stuff wise (and this may be good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it) he wasn’t much different than the disastrous version of Dice-K from earlier in the year.  Look at the PitchFX data from his last start in June that prompted his 3 month vacation, and compare it to last night’s start.  They are uncannily similar, which leads one to believe that the bulk of his early summer struggles were command-related.

Last night was all about pitch placement, something Daisuke had mastered during his 18 win campaign in 2008.  He managed to induce 5 swinging strikes on his fastball.  On a heater that averages under 92 MPH, that wasn’t happening due to brute force.  It was all guile and deception, and we can only hope that Matsuzaka has remastered those skills.

Magic Number: 14

• Hats off to the Oakland A’s bullpen, who held Texas to only 1 hit over 5 innings of shut-out relief last night, an effort spearheaded by former Sox prospect Craig Breslow.
• Jorge Posada apparently had something to prove last night.  Well, he did manage to prove something: his brain is roughly the size of a walnut.  It takes a certain brand of stupid to ignite a brawl during the 8th inning of a 6-run game, when the primary goal of your team is remaining healthy and intact for the playoffs in three weeks.

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By Jimmy, 9/15/2009 11:05 am

The Sox were idle last night, but were helped by the Oakland A’s who managed to shut-out Texas by a score of 9-0.  Who was the dynamic arm behind this 5-hit shutout, you might ask?  None other than Brett Tomko, who is quietly pitching very effectively after being jettisoned from the Yankees earlier in the year.  The last time Tomko had an ERA under 4, Notorious B.I.G was still alive.

So, the magic number is now the same number I keep scrawled on a card in my wallet, as a reminder of the age of consent in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  It’s tough keeping on top of all these antiquated “laws”, you know?

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By Jimmy, 9/9/2009 8:36 am

Thank Jeebus for the 2009 Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles that have lost 12 out of 14 games to the Red Sox, with four games yet to be played in this all-important September stretch.  The Orioles that have scored only 54 runs against Boston pitching (3.86 per game) while allowing 100 (7.14 per game).

Thank you, Matt Wieters.  As we speak, MLB officials in Manhattan are sheepishly chiseling away on the American League Rookie of the Year trophy, removing the name they had proactively engraved in March.

Thank you, Nick Markakis.  No longer baseball’s best kept secret, however, after all the smoke and bluster begins to dissipate on the 2009 season, the hard data will tell us that you were outplayed by J.D. Drew.

Thank you, Jeremy Guthrie.  A flyball pitcher who doesn’t strike guys out will eventually feel the wrathful vengeance of the BABIP gods.  Consider yourself fortunate that it took them two long years to awaken from their slumber.

If you removed both team’s games against Baltimore, the Red Sox and the Rays would have the exact same record.  Let us turn towards Fenway South and give thanks.  The good teams take care of the cupcakes.  At the very least, the 2009 Boston Red Sox fit that criteria.

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By Jimmy, 9/8/2009 9:05 am

The Red Sox continue to miss opportunities to gain some ground on their Wild Card competition in Texas, as they had a very “meh” holiday weekend against a very “meh” team.

I don’t want to hear about Josh Beckett, he was fine last night, just like he was fine in his previous start.  The story of this game was the apparent renaissance of Mark “Mr. Perfect” Buehrle, who notched his first win since he earned the aforementioned nickname over a month ago.

For what it’s worth:

A couple of things to note:

• The Yankees will likely be in preservation mode when the Sox come into town on 9/25/09.  I’m not saying they’ll lie down (I’m sure they’d love to play the spoiler), but we’ll probably see some of their regulars resting by that point.
• The Seattle Mariners currently have the same record as the Tampa Bay Rays, both being 7.5 back in the Wild Card race.  So, both teams still have something to play for, at this point.  That could change within a few days.

Coming up: I’ll be trying to rank the Top 5 Bullpens of the Modern Era.  Not sure if the 2009 Red Sox will make the list, but curiosity is the main force driving me to write that piece.  Right now, I’m trying to define “modern era”.  For bullpen usage, it’s probably a relatively recent time span, maybe the past 25 years or so.

Comments (6)

By Jimmy, 9/2/2009 9:24 am

Unlimited Zone Rating, otherwise known to the baseball cognoscenti as UZR, is my favorite defensive statistic.  It’s the stat I will usually reference on this website when attempting to ascertain a baseball player’s fielding prowess.  If you were to randomly pick players from this past decade who are universally regarded as “good fielders” or “poor fielders”, UZR will typically confirm those opinions.  (You can go ahead and try this on Fangraphs.com).

Now, why is it that Jacoby Ellsbury, a guy who appears to be at least slightly above average, is second to last in UZR/150 among AL center fielders (-14), ranking ahead of only Vernon Wells’ bloated poutine-filled carcass.  Did Jacoby run over UZR’s dog?  Does UZR’s wife parade around the house in an Ellsbury t-shirt like every other New England female under the age of 35?

If you happened to see last night’s game, you witnessed Ellsbury single-handedly save multiple runs from scoring with two excellent catches in center field.  While the catches were outstanding, they certainly were not unbelievable, since Ellsbury has been prone to make plays like this in the past.  Does anyone, anyone, who has watched the majority of 2009 Red Sox games opine that Ellsbury has been even below average in the field this year (never mind one of the worst defensive CFs in the game)?

The only flaws I can think of are his throwing arm (poor, but certainly not atypical for a center fielder), and his shaky play on the wall/warning track (which is improving).  In my perhaps biased opinion, neither of these flaws are glaring enough to warrant a net negative defensive rating, and certainly not one as extreme as -14 runs per 150 games.

I realize I probably sound like an insufferable fanboy here (”Jacoby’s sick, dude! The stats must be wrong!”).  Am I just suffering from rose-tinted tunnel vision, or are we seeing a crack in UZR’s armor?

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By Jimmy, 8/27/2009 8:33 am

Ortiz hits a walk off HR (AP)

It’s been a while since we’ve seen David Ortiz circle the bases and end up in the middle of a raucous mob of celebrating teammates at home plate.  Roughly two years, if you can believe that.  After watching it go down last night, it seemed like only yesterday when such a scene was considered an ordinary occurrence.

David “The Natural” Ortiz.

His OPS since June 6th (Dry Eye Day)? .930

His training regimen?  Who cares.

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By Jimmy, 8/25/2009 8:49 am

We have two pitchers, both with good stuff, and both with their fair share of problems.  One is older, out of shape, and relies too heavily on his fastball.  The other is young and promising, but displays what could be viewed as an abysmal lack of confidence.  Pick your poison.

Clay Buchholz was conjuring up memories of 2008 with a performance that the WEEI crowd might call “gutless” but I’ll simply refer to as “poor”.  Luckily, the baseball gods were in a generous mood, as a Jose Contreras error allowed the Sox to post a 6-run inning in the third.

"Ow. There goes my fibula. And my tibia. And my clavicle. And my scapula. And my femur. And my patella. And my metatarsals. And my....ass bone."

The error itself was just very fortunate.  David Ortiz was apparently conceding the out as he slowly cruised down the first base line after weakly tapping a 3-0 pitch to the mound, but lo and behold, he apparently found an extra gear and increased his running speed two-fold after seeing Contrares boot the ball.  Yes, Papi’s initial approach is what some might refer to as (GASP) not hustling.  Let’s just be grateful that he doesn’t wear dreadlocks, or all hell would be breaking loose right now.

Hey, it’s another ugly win, but I’ll take it.  With the Rangers and Yankees playing each other, I found myself in an emotional dilemma for about 2.5 seconds, and then quietly decided that I will be happy if the Rangers lose the majority of those games.  The Sox can separate themselves from Texas in these next few weeks, which could make September a little less miserable for us all.

Next up – we’ll take a look at some promising news from minor league rehab land.

Comments (4)

By Jimmy, 8/19/2009 9:04 am

For a game to be labeled “The Ugliest Win of 2009″, it needs to be extraordinarily ugly, because the 2009 Red Sox have played their fair share of stinkers.  It needs to be uglier than that dog who wins the “ugliest dog” contests, the one who resembles a microwaved gremlin.  Uglier than that British reality TV star who looks like John Candy in drag.  Yes, last night’s victory surpasses all of that on the scale of hideousness.

Things Nick Green Can't Do, Volume XVII

The usually dominant trio of Josh Beckett, Dan Bard, and Jonathan Papelbon combined for 7.1 innings, 13 hits, 4 walks, and 9 earned runs.  Thankfully, some timely offense coupled with some untimely Toronto errors allowed the Red Sox to reclaim a share of the Wild Card with the Texas Rangers.

If you didn’t realize how old this team is, hopefully you do now.  On top of the usual issues Terry Francona has with trying to keep Mike Lowell from wandering aimlessly around the room during Wheel of Fortune, we now learn that Jason Varitek was a late scratch with a “stiff neck”.  The ol’ rheumatis, I reckon.  Yup, I guess that means rain tomorrow night.  Seriously, as skeptical as I am of Varitek’s god-like status as a handler of pitchers, I cannot completely dismiss the theory that his absence had at least something to do with one of the most dominant pitchers in the game having one of the worst outings of his career.  I think there will be a period of adjustment for Victor Martinez as he slowly usurps Varitek’s regular catching duties over the next month and a half, one that hopefully won’t lead to too many more outings like last night.

NOTES:

• Dustin Pedroia is on paternity leave.  Not sure when he’ll be back in the lineup.
• Rocco Baldelli will make one more rehab appearance for Pawtucket before returning from the DL, hopefully bringing the Brian Anderson Era to a merciful end.
• John Smoltz appears to be on the verge of joining Julio Lugo on the St. Louis Cardinals.  That’s the first place St. Louis Cardinals.  If the Sox don’t make the playoffs, the irony of watching these two on national TV in October will be about as enjoyable as ripping out my eyeballs and cooking them in a fondue pot.

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By Jimmy, 8/17/2009 9:21 am

As suspected, the Red Sox didn’t exactly set the league afire during the league-mandated unpaid vacation levied upon their best hitter.  Exacerbating their misery has been the absence of J.D. Drew (groin strain).  Their replacements, Brian Anderson and Casey Kotchman, have combined to go 3 for 18 as replacements for Drew and Youkilis.

Hey there, champ. Whats that? Beat the Red Sox for you? Why, sure thing, champ. Sure thing.

Anderson, in particular, was painful to watch yesterday afternoon.  His approach in a key 8th-inning at bat was just heinous.  Full count, tying and go-ahead runs on base, one out in the inning, and he’s facing a reliever with a 2.7 K/BB ratio.  With #9 punch-and-judy hitting Alex Gonzalez on deck, Anderson has to be trying to make solid contact here at the very least.  Instead, before C.J. Wilson even threw his pitch, Anderson made up his mind that he was going to take all the way on anything close, and hope for ball 4.  Of course, the 90 MPH fastball sailed in at the knees, and despite Anderson immediately beginning his triumphant jog towards first base, the umpire, correctly, wrung him up and killed Boston’s best chance to tie the game.

With a career .287 on-base percentage, Anderson has to be the last guy you want to see at the plate in a key situation.  Hopefully, J.D. Drew’s groin strain isn’t serious.

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By Jimmy, 8/12/2009 7:54 am

Never underestimate the rallying effect a Furious Bald Guy will have on an organization, whether it’s a labor union, a Los Angeles police precinct, or even a Major League Baseball team.

After Rick Porcello “unintentionally” his Kevin Youkilis right between the numbers on the first pitch, Youkilis went into raging bull mode, charged the mound, and hugged the pitcher for a bit before a mutual tackle ended the melee.  While this move might seem inspiring, it will probably cost the Red Sox their best hitter for a period of five games or more.

Stuffing clumps of grass down the shirt of your opponent results in automatic victory, according to ancient Greek wrestling rules.

Look, both sides of this were in the wrong in some way or another, but Rick Porcello is a textbook New Jersey douchebag.  This was apparent when we witnessed his reaction to getting tossed; pretending to be “held back” while spitting and swearing uncontrollably.  He’s textbook.  Porcello should just embrace who he is, and start using a Dodge Charger with a “Tap Out” bumper sticker to transport him to and from the pitcher’s mound.

Did I enjoy Youk chasing him around the infield for a bit?  Sure.  But the consequences are going to hurt a team with some tendencies to enter prolonged offensive lapses.

Anyway, the Sox hit a few bombs after the brawl and ended up beating the Tigers.  The true stories of the game were Mike Lowell, who had two home runs, and Junichi Tazawa, who showed incredible poise for a guy making his first MLB start amidst a very heated environment (more on Tazawa later today).  Lowell is beginning to look more and more like a platoon partner for David Ortiz at the very least.

Given Lowell’s lack of range at 3B, it’s difficult to insert him into the lineup in that capacity for any regular amount of games, but at some point his defensive shortcomings will be offset by the offensive improvement he brings over Jason Varitek.

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By Jimmy, 8/11/2009 8:43 am

I’ll admit this straight away; when the Tigers tied this game in the 7th inning, I went to sleep fully confident that the Red Sox would lose their 7th straight game.  As Barry Bonds once said to a bloodthirsty group of reporters; “I’m tired.  I’m just tired.”

Watching bad baseball is really, really exhausting, isn’t it?  During that 15 inning loss to the Yankees, I was delirious and hallucinating.  After the 5 hour mark, I thought I was “Bib Fortuna”, Jabba the Hutt’s henchman.  I was afraid to walk over the center of my living room, for fear that my obese cat would pull a lever and sacrifice me to the rancor.

We’ve been spoiled over the past 2 years (my entire stint writing on this blog), and sometimes we take success for granted.  This is hard to do when the Red Sox are playing like a jar of spoiled mayonnaise.  So, this result was a nice little surprise to wake up to in the morning.

"WASSSSAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

I managed to catch Brad Penny’s outing, and despite a hiccup here and there, he looked fine.  As much heat as he’s received over the season, he’s been just fine for a #5 starter (his original purpose).  The problem is, Penny is now our #3 starter.  However, with Daisuke Matsuzaka throwing a bullpen session and Tim Wakefield throwing a simulated game, reinforcements could be on the way.

A solid win against a solid team.  Thank you sir, may I have another?

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By Jimmy, 8/10/2009 9:12 am

Hard throwing rookie Daniel Bard arrived at the abyss of his young MLB career last night, yielding an 8th inning lead to the Yankees and cementing a humiliating sweep at the hands of the Bronx juggernaut.

"Wait a minute...I'm the steroid user here. Why don't MY forearms look like that?"

Fittingly, it was the big money players who did the most damage in the series; C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Alex Rodriguez, and of course…Mark Teixeira.  With the struggles of guys like John Smoltz and Brad Penny, you could almost hear a message being whispered to the Sox front office: forget the “creative” approach next winter.  Spend, spend, spend like a rapper after his first record deal.  The creative approach will work when you’re lucky, but the smart money should always be on the $200 million dollar machine.

I’m not saying that we should be pressing that big red Panic Button just yet, but, let’s just say the admiral and the first mate have taken their keychains of their necks and are awaiting orders from the Pentagon.

If you’re looking for a silver lining in this nuclear meltdown of a weekend, here are a few:

• Beckett and Lester are pitching as well as anyone in baseball.
• Victor Martinez is looking like a terrific pick up.
• Despite this tailspin, the Sox are still tied for the Wildcard lead.
• Ehhh, that’s about it.  Things are quite shitty right now.

We’ll see how this team handles themselves at home against the Detroit Tigers (first place in the AL Central), and the Texas Rangers (tied for the Wildcard lead).  Two tough teams, not quite as strong as New York.

It will be a very telling week.

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By Jimmy, 8/7/2009 8:32 am

That two game series against Tampa Bay was quick and humiliating; it was an undignified fart in the middle of the 2009 MLB schedule that we will soon mercifully forget.  This four game series against the Yankees, however, is shaping up to be more of a prolonged torture session, one that Red Sox fans will remember for some time.

Throwing stones from a glass house. A large, overpriced, publicly funded glass house.

The team is beaten and battered, missing several of the key players used to rack up those 8 straight wins against the Yanks.  The criminally ineffective John Smoltz and Billy Traber were used as cannon fodder for the surging New York lineup, hence the lopsided score in the first game.

Today, with Josh Beckett on the mound, there is at least a chance for some redemption before Clay Buchholz is thrown to the wolves on Saturday.

Some more good news: you remember Jed Lowrie’s surgically repaired wrist?  Yeah, it’s experiencing “numbness and tingling”.  Not the good kind of numbness in tingling, like the kind I get when I snort model airplane glue every Tuesday morning.  This is the bad kind you get, when one or more of your bones/tendons are not functioning as they should.

So, brace yourself for some more playing time at SS for Nick Green (ugh).

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By Jimmy, 8/5/2009 9:03 am

A lot of folks are going to blame this one on a combination of bullpen failures and managerial mistakes, but I don’t think the return of Boston’s offensive ineptitude should slip under the radar here.

This Red Sox lineup is making a decent pitcher look much, much better than he actually is. The hitters have seen him enough times; this simply should not be happening anymore. J.D. Drew and David Ortiz, our major left-handed weapons, came up especially small in a combined 0-9 effort.

For some reason, I’m not entirely confident in the team’s chances tonight against David Price, a hard-throwing left-handed rookie.

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By Jimmy, 7/27/2009 9:17 am

I could probably just cut and paste sentences from a couple of recent posts, and it would capture yesterday’s story well enough.  John Smoltz displayed flashes of dominance mixed with flashes of putrescence, as has been his standard practice this season.  A relatively unknown pitcher baffled our $100 million dollar lineup.  Deja vu, anyone?

We’ve been seeing the Smoltz Face far too often.  You know the Smoltz Face: eyes clenched shut, screaming in rage, veins popping out of his neck while an opposing batter circles the bases in the background.  Frankly, this sort of thing can’t be very good for a guy his age.  Since we now know that celebrities die in groups of seven (inflation has apparently taken its toll on this law in 2009), it would benefit Smoltz greatly if he started giving up fewer hits, thereby limiting the occurrence of the Smoltz Face.

In case you were interested, Smotlz’s ERA minus FIP is now a whopping 3.43 (more than twice the qualified league leader), and his BABIP resembles something you would expect to see on the back of a Ty Cobb baseball card (.396).

PGA Tour...yeah, that sounds nice.

My stance on Smoltz doesn’t really change.  His current problems present a perfect example of the difference between command and control.  His control is just fine, as exhibited by the fact that he hasn’t been walking very many hitters.  However, his command has experienced some severe lapses; fastballs over the heart of the plate just begging to be tomahawked by opposing batters.   Sometimes, this sort of thing will correct itself.  There is a very thin line between a well placed pitch and a poorly placed one, and Smoltz has done a horrid job of walking that line.  They need to just send him out there again in five days, and hope (again) that his fastball placement is a little better, and some batted balls start finding gloves.

There is plenty of favorable quantitative and qualitative evidence that suggests he can still pitch at a high level, despite the ERA.  I think the hysteria is starting to build up a little bit; the impending trade deadline coupled with the team’s recent struggles in certain areas are forming the perfect storm of overreaction among fans and media.  Fortunately, Terry Francona appears to be approaching this situation with prudence and reason, and will not be making any rash decisions regarding Smoltz.

As for the pitcher who shut down the Sox, he might be a relative unknown here in Boston, but the guy has plenty of talent.  He had pitched 57.1 innings in AAA this year, and had struck out 79 batters with only 18 walks while featuring a fastball in the mid-90’s. This is a guy who will probably put together a decent MLB career if he remains healthy.

Hey, these games are incredibly frustrating to watch.  There’s loads of talent here that just happens to be dormant at the moment.  These days it seems whenever I put NESN on, I end up with fewer ceramic objects around my house.  I would prefer if that stopped happening.