August 28, 2008
Yeah, that isn't good. While there is some precedent for a pitcher to visit Andrews in Birmingham and come back without scheduling a date with a scalpel for the dreaded tendon transfer surgery (a/k/a "Tommy John surgery," after the gentleman pictured above, the first to undergo such a procedure.) But more often than not, it's the case. The negative side is obvious, of course - Beckett would likely be out for most of next season. On the one hand, the Red Sox could easily still make the playoffs in 2008. On the other hand, without Beckett at their disposal, their chances for repeating are much slimmer than they were this morning.
August 21, 2008
The scene at Hadlock Field this morning
So Clay Buchholz has been sent down to Portland, presumably so he can work with his old pitching coach.
People have been debating Buchholz and considering his struggles all year; perhaps it's luck, maybe it's his mechanics, maybe the issue is mental, or maybe he just wasn't ready. Regardless of the reason, things had simply reached the point where the Red Sox could no longer afford to let him work out his issues at the Major League level. Perhaps if the standings today were more similar to how they were on August 21 of last year, then they'd be more inclined to keep him around. But with the White Sox and Twins breathing down their neck in the Wild Card race and the Rays still very much within reach, it just made too much sense to let him figure things out elsewhere.
What's really important to remember, though, is that this is hardly unprecedented. Young pitchers do struggle sometimes when they try to adjust to Major League hitters. To suggest that Buchholz is now doomed to be a #4-type or that his future belongs with some other organization is reactionary lunacy.
Consider the case of Roy Halladay, who put up a 10.64 ERA in 2000. The following year, the Blue Jays sent him all the way back to A-ball as a 24-year-old - same age as Buchholz - to get himself figured out. Just two years later, he won a Cy Young, and may win another this year. Or even last year, the Indians sent Cliff Lee down to Triple-A, two years after his outstanding 2005 season. A few months later he was starting the All-Star game.
Obviously just because these guys got themselves straightened out doesn't automatically mean Buchholz will follow the same path. These are three very different pitchers. Ultimately it's all on Uncle Buch to put in the work. But it's absolute folly to write him off completely. And to you connoisseurs of schadenfreude out there, I would say the same thing about Phil Hughes.
As for the rotation in the meantime, why not rescue Justin Masterson from low-leverage pen exile?
August 18, 2008
Is it getting Dusty in here?
No, I'm not talking about pitchers.
Since 2003, the Red Sox have felt the need to assign their backup catcher to near-exclusive duty as Tim Wakefield's personal knuckleball valet. With the exception of Doug Mirabelli's crazy-good 2004, that has meant that the Red Sox (like most teams, to be totally fair) have found themselves carrying an offensively-deficient glove man.
Currently, that man is Kevin Cash, he of the career line of .179/.237/.279. But with Wakefield currently on the disabled list and Charlie Zink not looking like he'll make another start any time soon, Cash's main purpose on the roster - specifically the ability to successfully catch a knuckleball - is rendered moot. While the Sox likely would not want to lose Cash's services should Wake recover in time for a playoff start - assuming there are playoffs in the Sox' future, they could perhaps find some space on the roster (Cash could go down with a phantom injury perhaps?) to call up either George Kottaras or Dusty Brown from Pawtucket to give them an extended audition and see what they can produce at the Major League level.
One of the more interesting situations with the Red Sox these days is the future of the catching situation - Jason Varitek has not had a good year (on or off the field) and, at his age, the next few years don't look too bright either. Around the league, he's revered for his ability to handle a pitching staff, and so because of that, it's probably for the best if the Red Sox try to find a way to keep Varitek - an impending free agent - around next season. But surely not at the rate of his current contract, and, ideally, he wouldn't be starting four out of five games in 2009. An ideal situation would involve Varitek handling a reduced workload while also mentoring a young backstop - grooming his own replacement, essentially. Many assume that replacement would come from outside the organization, someone like Texas's Jarrod Saltalamacchia or the St. Louis' Bryan Anderson. But with Brown and Kottaras both hitting acceptably well in Pawtucket, why not see what they can provide first?
August 13, 2008
"You messed up, dood."
The hotdogs
were cheaper.
It seemed
so logical at the time.
By the time
Sox Blogette met me at the Lower Depths last
night, Charlie
Zink had already retired the side in the top of the first. I had half a
beer left. Rather than book it on over to Yawkey Way and pay four bucks for a
Fenway Frank, we figured we’d just stay put, order another quick round, watch
the bottom of the inning on TV, and avail ourselves of the Depths’ dollar hotdog
deal.
In
retrospect, that was a mistake.
A walk, a
single, a home run. 3-0.
A single, an
error, a steal, a double. 5-0.
A walk, a
single. 6-0.
A single.
7-0.
Another
homer. 10-0.
“Man, I’d
hate to have tickets and be late to this game,” said the guy next to me.
I couldn’t
help but agree with him.
So we head
to the park, anticipating more fireworks. Instead, then it all started falling
apart.
We got a
couple runs in the bottom of the third, and they got eight in the fifth. We got a couple more in the bottom of the
inning, and they got five more in the top of the next one.
If the
first inning was exhilarating, by the seventh, the game was getting excruciating.
The
bullpens couldn’t get anyone out. The at-bats were long. Things were dragging.
(One of the
few bright spots was the discovery that Jed Lowrie uses the Undertones classic
“Teenage Kicks” as his at-bat music. Derry punk
power pop forever! John Peel, RIP!)
It was past
10:30 now. Sox Blogette had to get up early the next day. And, truth be told, despite
getting a run in the seventh, I was not especially confident that we could pull
this one out. So we did something I’ve never
done before in my long baseball watching career: we left early.
My reward?
By the time we got home and scrolled back the TiVo a bit, Don Orsillo was
losing his shit: “You kidding me?!?!”
Nope.
And yes. Yes,
Pedroia had notched his fifth hit of the night, an RBI double. Yes, Youk, who’d
struck out twice in the first inning, had blasted his second homer of the night,
a three-run shot. Yes, the Sox were back on top. And yes, with a little
difficulty, Papelbon finally closed it out.
Yes, I had
tickets to the wildest win of the year and missed pretty much all the good stuff.
Oh well. On
TV or in person, it sure was one for the books.
The Sox gave
up 17 runs and still won. They scored 19 runs and still got out-hit. You don’t
see games like that come around very often. More, from the official post-game
notes:
* Boston
and Texas
combined to score 36 runs, tying the single-game A.L. record set on June 29,
1950 when the Red Sox beat the Athletics, 22-14
* The Sox set a season
high with 19 runs, the club’s most since scoring 25 on June 27, 2003 vs. Florida. (And Boston’s 10 runs in the
1st inning tonight are the club’s most in a single frame since scoring 14 in
the 1st inning of that game.)
* Boston
blew a 10-0 1st-inning advantage, matching the largest lead lost in club
history, done June 4, 1989 vs. Toronto
* It was the Red Sox’
30th inning of 10 or more runs, a major league record.
* David Ortiz became the
4th player in Red Sox history with 2 home runs in an inning …he’s the first
Sox player to accomplish that since Nomar in 2002.
* Ortiz’s is the 3rd Sox
player with 6 RBI in a single frame, the 1st since Carlos Quintana in the 3rd
on July 30, 1991.
* Ortiz now has 224 home
runs in his Red Sox career, passing Jimmie Foxx (222) and Bobby Doerr (223) for
sole possession of 7th place on the club’s all-time list.
* David Aardsma and
Charlie Zink became the 1st pair of A-to-Z Red Sox teammates to appear in the
same game since Harry Agganis and Norm Zauchin on June 2, 1955 at Chicago.
August 12, 2008
RED SOX ACQUIRE RIGHTHANDED PITCHER
PAUL BYRD
FROM CLEVELAND INDIANS FOR A PLAYER TO BE NAMED
LATER
OR CASH
CONSIDERATIONS
The announcement was made by Executive Vice
President/General Manager Theo Epstein.
Byrd, 37, has been added to Boston’s 40-man roster. The
Red Sox will make a corresponding move on the active roster once Byrd reports to
the club.
Byrd is 7-10 with a 4.53 earned run average
in 22 starts with the Indians in 2008. The righthander ranks second on the
Indians staff in wins, starts, and innings (131.0) and has issued just 1.6 walks
per nine innings, the eighth best ratio in the American League.
He has won all four of his starts since the
All-Star break with a 1.24 ERA (4 ER/29.0 IP) to lower his season ERA from 5.47
to 4.53. Byrd is tied for the major league lead in wins since the break and has
the second lowest ERA among pitchers with at least 20.0 innings behind
Arizona’s
Randy Johnson (0.66). He has worked at least 7.0 innings in each of his last
three starts, allowing six hits in going the route to win at Toronto, 4-2 in his last
appearance on August 9. Byrd has not allowed a home run in his last five starts
with a 1.80 ERA (7 ER/25.0 IP) in that span.
Byrd has a career major league record of
104-91 in 330 games/242 starts with the New York Mets (1995-96), Atlanta (1997-98; 2004), Philadelphia (1998-2001), Kansas
City (2001-02), Los Angeles Angels (2005), and Cleveland (2006-08). He has
won 10 or more games five times, including four of the previous five seasons
(2002-07). Byrd has issued just 2.12 walks per nine innings in his career, the
sixth lowest figure among active major league pitchers with at least 1,500
innings. He was a member of the 1999 N.L. All-Star Team with the
Phillies.
Byrd established career bests for wins
(17), starts (33), innings (228.1), and strikeouts (129) with Kansas City in 2002. Last
season, he was 15-8 with a 4.59 ERA in 31 starts for the A.L. Central Division
champion Indians and led the A.L. with a ratio of 1.31 walks per nine innings.
Byrd was 2-0, 3.60 in his two post-season starts, including a 7-3 victory over
the Red Sox in Game 4 of the ALCS on October 16 in Cleveland. He also won the
fourth and deciding game of the ALDS on October 8 at New
York.
PAUL BYRD—2008 AND MAJOR
LEAGUE CAREER
W-L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H
R ER BB SO
2008—CLE 7-10 4.53 22
22 1 0 0 131.1 146 70 66
24 56
ML Career 104-91 4.37 330
242 17 6 0 1614.0 1752 881 783
235 886
