STATEMENT FROM RED SOX MEDICAL DIRECTOR DR. THOMAS GILL REGARDING WILY MO PENA

BOSTON, MA -- Wily Mo Pena underwent diagnostic testing and further examination on Tuesday. He has an injury to the hamate bone in his left wrist. The plan is to perform a surgical procedure on Thursday morning to treat the injury.

Wily Mo will immediately begin rehabilitation on the wrist. He will be able to continue his throwing and conditioning programs throughout the entire post-operative period.

So long, next six to eight weeks....

5/31/2006 2:44:45 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Done deal. Time to move on.

I'm fine with this. Who knows what he actually would have brough to the table, even if he had signed? This is the American League East, not the NL Central. He's gonna be 44 in two months.

As Jose Melendez astutely noted at the beginning  of the season:

Clemens is like Italy in the first World War. Rather than jump into the flames that engulfed Europe in 1914, Italy stayed on the sidelines, waiting to declare its allegiance until the tide of the war was clear. Italy eventually entered on the side of the Triple Entente on April 26, 1915. When the war ended with an Entente victory, Italy attempted to claim territories promised under the secret Treaty of London, including the spectacular Dalmatian Coast and South Tyrol, prizes out of all proportion to its contribution to the victory.

Roger Clemens is Italy to the World War I of the 2006 season. He will jump into the battle late, demand huge compensation and ultimately contribute little.

But if he thinks he's going to the World Series with this Astros team, he's got another thing coming.

5/31/2006 12:46:44 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I hate the Toronto Blue Jays more than the New York Yankees.

There, I said it.



That is all.

5/31/2006 12:25:25 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [1] |  

If you believe Newsday, "Roger Clemens will take the mound once again, and he's not straying far from home."

Newsday has learned that Clemens, 43, has agreed to terms with the Astros, the team for which he pitched the last two seasons. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner could be pitching in the major leagues by the end of June. He will earn from $3.5 million to $4 million per month, netting him roughly $12 million for about a half-season's work.

An announcement will likely come this week.

This despite Steve Phillips's prediction today that the Rocket would be in Boston by the end of next week, and another rumor to the same effect floating around cyberspace.

Whatever. I'm fairly sick of this whole silly drama by now, no matter how much he might help a team whose fourth and fifth starters are a gigantic question mark and total disaster, respectively. (And, as I type this, Josh Beckett has just given up his fourth home run.)

It might just be time to throw Lester and Hansen into the fire and have them learn on the job. Better now than in September.

All the same, this should be taken with a huge grain of salt. This deal ain't done, say the Astros and the Hendricks brothers both.

And also, it's Newsday. Remember this, from October '04?

5/30/2006 9:04:20 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Some good stuff happened this Memorial Day weekend. Some bad stuff, too.

Good: David Wells pitched brilliantly.

Bad: For just four and a third innings. Until he was kneecapped by Travis Lee’s hard line drive and fell to the ground into a writhing, roly-poly heap of excruciating pain.

Good: Despite initial doom-saying, subsequent examination showed it only to be a deep contusion, with no structural damage. He might only have to miss one start. (A dialing-down of some initial optimism.) Of course, he might also have to go on the DL. Let’s hope for the best, but proceed guardedly. 

Good: Ortiz beat the shift, and we beat Scott Kazmir.

Good: Jonathan Papelbon set a rookie record for most successful save opportunities to start a season with his 17th. (He got another one the next night for an even 18.) And he got a day off for his troubles.

Bad: Manny missed two games due to back and knee problems.

Good: Kevin Youkilis filled in ably in left field — for the first time ever.

Good: Curt Schilling won his 200th game. (I was there, and screamed myself hoarse hollering for his curtain call.)

Bad: Mike Timlin and Wily Mo Pena went on the DL with a tired arm and sore wrist, respectively.

Good: Coco Crisp came off it after 43 games, playing his first Fenway game on Sunday and hitting his first homer in a Red Sox uniform on Monday.

Good: We rode a dominant Tim Wakefield performance for eight strong innings.

Bad: We almost blew it thanks to some truly asshatian ninth-inning pitching from Seanez and Tavarez. (Five walks — four of them with two outs — between them, not including a Mirabelli passed ball on a swinging strike three that would have ended the game.)

Good: We secured the four-game sweep, barely, thanks to even more asshatian third-base-coaching from the (Devil) Rays and Willie Harris’s dead-on throw.  

Good: En fuego Mark Loretta extended his hitting streak to 14 games. He’s batting .317 now. (.448 in the last week.) Remember when it was at .207? You should it was barely three weeks ago.

Bad: Matt Clement continues to cast a pall over this team. We all knew what was gonna happen last night. And despite two scoreless innings to start, the Incredible Sulk fulfilled our worst expectations of him. He’s just not a good pitcher at this point. He’s abominable. Just awful. And we’re stuck with him. Or are we? We should DL him. Even if it’s with a case of the Hellenic Flu. Then, two weeks hence, send him to the PawSox for a lengthy stint to get his head together. In the mean time, Jon Lester or Craig Hansen certainly couldn’t be worse. At the very least, they could give us the three or four innings he gives us, probably without digging us in a six-run hole.

Good: Homers from number eight hitter Coco Crisp, and Manny and Tek were enough to erase the deficit Clement had buried us under after just three and a third innings.

Bad: David Riske’s meatball across the plate on an 0-2 count to Shea “I’ll Swing at Anything” Hillenbrand was the difference maker. The fact that Jermaine Van Buren and Manny Delcarmen had pitched so well just prior was only salt in the wound.

Oh well. You take the good with the bad.

And right now, at least, there’s more of the former than the latter. Let’s get ‘em tonight.

5/30/2006 12:13:06 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Good game last night. Josh Beckett pitched a gem, and he did so against a team that, even though it's a cellar dweller, features a lineup that can hit

(“He’s got no-hit stuff,” Tito told to Nip in the middle of the first inning. This despite the fact that he gave up a base hit to the second batter of the game.)

The cause was helped by a heads-up play by “good baseball player” Mark Loretta.

And, of course, an excellent bullpen, led by the Best Closer in Baseball™.

In other new Manny Ramirez is happy. His hitting shows it.

David Ortiz must be pretty copacetic too, because even with Joe Maddon’s bizarro shift he still managed to go 2-5 with a ribbie.

Matt Clement, on the other hand is another story.

I feel bad for the guy, I really do. But I sure do hope we’ll soon be able to change the last letter of the name inked into his spot in the rotation from a T to an S.

Assuming that doesn't happen, Jon Lester has finally come around and may just be the answer we seek.

And, of course, David Wells’s start tonight — word just in that he’ll be taking Dustan Mohr’s roster spot — will tell us a lot. But seldom has an IF been so big. Just wish he wasn’t going up against Scott Kazmir.

Even if Edes doesn’t “believe Boomer has many bullets left — 43 years old, bigger than ever, bad knees ... Friday may be a real struggle” it’s also possible that with his return, and with Coco’s on Monday, SI’s John Donovan is correct when he says “The Sox could get a lot stronger in the weeks ahead.”

Fingers crossed.

But Coco’s return raises some very interesting questions.

Or one of ‘em, at least: Should he really bat lead-off?

Tito has already gone on record saying Crisp is going to hit first. I know it’s a baseball truism that you want a speedy contact hitter at the top of the lineup, but I’m not so sure that’s the best idea here.

The discussion here brings up some valid points. Chief among them:

* Kevin Youkilis has the highest OBP among leadoff hitters in the game (.432). Do we really want to take that away from the top of the lineup? For comparison’s sake, Crisp’s OBP in the five games he's played so far was .385. It’s never been above .350 for a whole season. (And, not entirely immaterial: while Youk’s career average of pitches seen per plate appearance is 4.51, Crisp’s is 3.55.)

* Isn’t Coco’s considerable speed wasted a little when he’s slotted in front of the big boppers? Wheels don’t matter when you’re trotting around the bases thanks to someone else’s home run. Wouldn’t we be better served batting him lower in the lineup in front of guys like Lowell or Varitek? As “Tudor Fever” puts it:

[I]t's an absolute no-brainer that Youks and not Coco should lead off. In a nutshell, Coco's speed is much more useful in the lower part of the line-up, batting in front of weaker hitters, where it makes sense to try speed strategies. In front of Papi and Manny, you should just try to get on base and play station-to-station baseball. Youks is the ideal lead-off hitter in this line-up (and possibly any line-up).

It's debatable whether Loretta or Crisp should be the one to move to the lower part of the line-up, although I'd lean towards Crisp. It would be clearly wrong and counterproductive to move Youks down there.

* It’s a moot point, of course. The manager has spoken. But I’ve gotta say I’m intrigued by the lineup “RedOctober3829” suggests, which mimics the old “two clean-up” model used to great success by Tony LaRussa’s Oakland A’s.

Youks
Loretta
Ortiz
Manny
Nixon
Crisp
Lowell
Varitek
Gonzalez/Cora

Youks' ability to get on base can't be overlooked by Tito. He has to be in front of Ortiz and Ramirez. It is set up to be two 4 man lineups in one, with AGon thrown in at the bottom. You have the first four man lineup with Youks getting on base and Loretta moving him over with good situational hitting and also getting on base in front of Papi and Manny. Then, the second 4-man lineup leads off with Nixon(.418 OBP) and Coco to get on base in front of Lowell and Varitek(if he can snap out of his funk). AGon has to be in there so he bats 9th. I love this lineup and it would score lots of runs.

I suppose we should thank our stars that these are the dilemmas we’re facing. (Rather than, say, these.) If Coco hits like he did in the tiny sample size we saw in April, I’m sure we’ll score runs no matter what formation we go with. Just some food for thought.

In the mean time, to clear his mind of such weighty questions — and taking a break, I presume, from finding us some pitching depth — our rock star GM did some Pearl Jamming over at that other Boston sports venue last night, sneaking onstage dressed in a wig and big sweater. (Check out Marsh1077’s snaps here, here, and here.) What a master of disguise he is! I see a career as a secret agent or CIA spook should he ever decide to walk out for good.

P.S. Speaking of Coco, anyone who’s dismayed by the proliferation of ads on the Fenway walls should first take a look at this one, from 1942. And then take a gander at this photographic relic from our centerfielder’s past to see how bad it could be. Yikes. Distracting much?

5/26/2006 6:01:29 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

5/26/2006 12:00:11 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Matt Clement needs to leave this team. I’m sorry. I’m sure he’s a very nice guy, but at this point, anyone could pitch better than him, and have twice as much testicular fortitude. Ship him off to the NL for a league-average pitcher and hope for the best. Put him on the DL until a deal can be made. I don’t want to see him pitch against Tampa Bay or Baltimore. Let alone the Yankees.

I feel bad he got another comebacker hit right at him. It looked like it hurt. And maybe he is still reeling from last year’s nightmare in Tampa Bay. It would explain a lot. Because last night, even facing a threadbare Bombers lineup, without Damon, Matsui, or Posada, Matt Clement was awful.

Yeah, he struck out Jeter, A-Rod, and Sheffield once each. He also hit number nine batter Kelly Stinnett with a pitch. He walked Melky Cabrera and let him advance to second on a wild throw. He gave up an RBI single to number eight man Terrence Long.

Eight earned runs. Nine hits, four walks, and a hit-by-pitch in four and a third innings.

The guy has amazing stuff. Sometimes. And that’s his biggest problem. He’s horribly inconsistent, and seems often to have no control whatsoever over the gifts God gave him. He’s all over the place, and has a hard time finding the strike zone. He gave up 68 walks last season. This season, he’s given up 28 already, on pace for almost 100. Meanwhile, surprise surprise, his K rate is down.

Then there’s this telling tidbit, courtesy of Rotoworld: “The league is batting .439/.538/.683 in 41 at-bats against him with RISP”

Ye gods.

Whether that points to mechanical problems when pitching from the stretch, or some sort of despondent, Derek Lowe-esque mental block is immaterial. What matters is that he folds like cardboard when faced with the slightest bit of adversity, and I have no confidence whatsoever that he has any ability to gut his way through tough situations.

At least D-Lowe could come through with gems every once in a while. And I don’t think anyone can reasonably expect any surprise postseason heroics from meek Matt Clement. (Remember this?)

What a horrible way to waste another huge Manny Ramirez performance. (With considerably fewer theatrics this time.)

What a horrible way to waste another shaky Randy Johnson start. (And give the creep a W to boot.)

It was an excruciatingly frustrating night.

Why did David Ortiz strike out four times, the last with the bat on his shoulders?

Why was Kevin Youkilis, who otherwise had a stellar night at the plate (and around the bag), unable to loft a simple sac fly with Wily Mo Pena on third in the eighth? Scratch that; why was Wily Mo Pena the only guy in the 617 area code who didn’t see a wild pitch rattling around the backstop that same inning, and why couldn’t Demarlo Hale tell him to, like, RUN?

Perspective is in order. It’s only May. Still very early. As great as it would have been to really stomp on their throats in their moment of weakness, we are still in first place.

Yes, they’ve got an easy series against the woeful Kansas City Royals coming up.

But we’ve got a four-game stretch against the Devil Rays. Sure, they’re no pushovers. Especially with Kazmir going against the mysterious David Wells on Friday. But we’ve got Beckett tonight. And Schilling on Saturday.

And hopefully our erstwhile bachelor GM will soon be putting Clement on the DL and calling up someone else (Ginter? Alvarez?) to take his place. A guy can dream, can’t he?

5/25/2006 12:16:50 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I think Alex “Jesus Loves Me” Rodriguez has found the motivational tool he needs. Every time his boss or some New York rag tears him a new one for failing in the clutch, he comes out in the next game and unleashes a bomb. It happened a couple weeks ago, and it happened last night.

Good for him.

Do I wish Tito had opted to take Wake out early instead of letting him give up a three-run jack to Mr. McBluelips?

Yes. But there’s certainly no guarantee that Julian Tavarez would’ve gotten the guy out either.

Sure, it would’ve been nice if Manny’s three-run shot had tied the game instead of slicing the lead in half.

And sure, it would’ve been nice if his RBI single in the eighth had given us the lead.

But it also would have been nice if Jaret Wright had remembered that he is Jaret Wright.

It would have been nice if we had not left 13 MEN ON BASE.

It would have been nice if Doug Mirabelli didn’t allow three passed balls for an unearned run.

If would have been nice if we didn’t have to see Doug Mirabelli, representing the tying run in the seventh, strike out swinging three times at three breaking balls.

It would have been nice if we didn’t have to see Willie Harris coming to the plate with runners on first and third and two outs.

It would have been nice if Francona could’ve pinch-hit Wily Mo Pena instead of forcing us to watch Dustan Mohr make the last out. (You were just being cautious last night, right Tito? He can play tonight but couldn’t pick up a bat in the bottom of the ninth? Very strange.)

Oh well.

Randy Johnson has a lot to prove tonight.

And Matt Clement (hopefully) has a shot of confidence after his last start.

Other bright spots are there: Coco is back soon. Wells will give it a whirl on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ bullpen is terrible. In a game the Yankees were once leading 7-1, Mariano Rivera was compelled to come in and get a five-out save.

But if David Riske can keep pitching anything like he did last night, and if Jonathan Papelbon can continue being the best closer in baseball, ours is not.

And despite what Joe Torre says, Manny can keep admiring those majestic blasts for as long as he wants. 

“You’ve got to pretend like you’ve been there before," says the game’s guardian of moral rectitude. Well, he has been there before, 444 times, in fact. And he’ll be there again. And again.

5/24/2006 11:27:47 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

That was nice. As effortless and systematic a dismantling of the New York Yankees as we’ve seen so far this year.

Some third-inning laboring aside, Schilling was masterful: five hits and a run in eight innings with nary a walk. (And, as Bob Ryan points out, only two three ball counts.) Slump? What slump?

Sure, this was a “distinctly different team,” a considerably more dissipated lineup than we’re used to seeing. Even guys who played were injured: Johnny Damon has a broken toe (?!) and had to DH instead of playing the field.

All the same, as Keith Foulke demonstrated in spectacular fashion in the ninth, this Yankees team certainly not incapable of rattling off four runs off five hits in a row, including two homers and two doubles. Let’s just chalk that one up to the fact that Foulke hadn’t worked in a week and try to focus on the good stuff. Right?

As Schilling took care of his end, the lineup did their job. We hit, and we hit when we needed to.

When we had two guys in scoring position, with a 3-0 count to David Ortiz, David Ortiz didn’t take, he swung, hard, rocketing one towards a slip-slidin’ Terrence Long and knocked those two runners in.

When Manny Ramirez stepped to the plate immediately following that, he did not strike out, or hit into a double play. He did his best Manny Ramirez impression, unleashing Chien-Ming Wang’s pitch into the deepest part of the park, depositing it a few rows up into the center field bleachers.

Even Willie Harris, subbing for late-scratch Wily Mo Pena, got in on the act, lacing a base hit to lead off the seventh. Then Alex Cora -- who, as usual, made his presence felt, going 3 for 4 and turning two spectacular double plays -- poked a sweet bunt down the first base line, reaching toeing the bag just ahead of Jason Giambi's tag. Kevin Youkilis took his opportunity, doubling to left, scoring Harris. Then Ortiz singled, scoring Cora. Then Manny lofted a sac fly, scoring Yoooook.

In the eighth, we scored some more. Jason Varitek walked. Mike Lowell barely missed a home run (having to settle instead — ho-hum — for another double). RBI machine Willie Harris knocked Tek in with a sac fly. And Cora singled Lowell home.  

Finally, our lineup, top to bottom, seems to be firing on all cylinders. And that defense ain’t to shabby neither.

And it could be getting better soon. Coco Crisp hasn’t passed his kidney stones yet (OW!) but the finger feels good, he’s been taking his cuts, and could start rehabbing this week.

Gabe Kapler is on the road to recovery, too. Although I’ve got to confess I’m perplexed by all the talk of him as if he’s simply going to leap back into the fold as soon as he’s healthy. I know he’s a well-liked player, but where would he play? As long as Wily Mo and Trot are healthy, and with Coco coming back, his services would seem extraneous. If things stay the way they are — a big if, of course — I’d be surprised to see him in any meaningful capacity save perhaps a September call-up (more for PR purposes than anything on-field).

Meanwhile, another right fielder, Gary Sheffield, has a slot waiting for him — desperate for him — and could be in the Yanks’ lineup tonight. He’ll be a difference maker for sure.

In the mean time, we should savor last night. Last time I gloated, we got our come-uppance the very next game. So instead, I’m going to let the New York tabloids do that job for me.

A-Rod hit another stat-padding homer last night. Of course. Always dependable when the game is already lost.

“When it doesn’t count, count on A-Rod” chortles Newsday.

“Rodriguez has to stop living his life as a self-fulfilling prophesy, comically grounding into double play after double play in game-changing situations and hitting home runs over the sky in meaningless blowouts, his two signature at-bats from the past two nights,” writes Mike Vaccaro.

“Even at 24-19, the Yankees are only a couple of more losses to the Red Sox away from a full-blown crisis,” panics the Daily News, remind us that the Bombers “may only be one day away from Randy Johnson taking the mound with the weight of the world on his shoulders, trying to avoid a Red Sox sweep while proving he still has some Big Unit left in him.”

That should be fun.

Wake goes tonight. He’s a Yankee killer. There seems to be a lot of ‘em on this team these days.

5/23/2006 11:32:37 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Interleague play been berry berry good to us.

So far. At least when our starting pitcher goes more than two-plus innings and, preferably, hits a home run. Two out of three ain't bad. Now comes the good part.

Friday night was a nice start.

Mr. Ortiz did serviceable work at first, and was prodigious at the plate.

Lowell and Tek went deep, too.

And Matt Clement confirmed that he pitches better to NL lineups. He even hit a double!

Toward the end of the game, Papelbon almost gave me a heart attack, but he got the job done with aplomb. Again.

On Saturday, after watching A.J. “The Most Disliked Player in Baseball” Pierzynski get his clock cleaned, after watching the Yankees annihilate Billy Wagner (poor Petey, the guy just can’t catch a break), it was our turn.

The revelation of the night, of course, is that Josh Beckett has light tower power. And he isn’t afraid to lace a game-tying RBI single every once in a while. He can pitch a little too.

His was the first homer by a Sox pitcher since this guy did it in 1972.

That’s a pretty big deal.

Hell, even Alex Gonzalez was inspired to get in on the act. (Ours, not theirs.)

Sunday? The less said about it the better. You can’t win ‘em all.

Lenny was lacking after two weeks idle. His soft tosses were hit hard.

The good news? Wells is doing well. (His mouth has never been better.)

But beware: just because the big man says he’s “absolutely” ready doesn’t mean he is.

One decent start against AAA kids does not a return to form make. Remember this and this?

Anyway, welcome back, Abe; you pitched well for couple innings at least.

(Meanwhile, Mike Lowell homered again. If he keeps this shit up all season and doesn’t get comeback player of the year, there is no justice in this world.)

Meanwhile, even as they salvaged a game from us, were hear Philly phans bitching about us coming to their house.

Boo-freaking-hoo.

Watching their reaction to the ball J-Roll bobbled, you would think the Red Sox had one the World Series on that very play. The Red Sox were already up. The game was in hand. Dancing and hugging and high fiving after that error was uncalled for. Other than maybe the Heilman play on Abreu's swinging bunt a couple weeks back, dancing and hugging after any error is simply not warranted.

You’ve gotta be kidding me. Uh, it’s called being a baseball fan. Look into it. Cheer on your team’s successes and your opponents’ failures. It's what fans do. At least this guy had things into perspective:

I can’t blame Red Sox fans… they come out in DROVES to support their team. Unlike Phillies fans who stay at home and let their ballpark be filled up with fans of the opposing team night after night. That is the real shame IMO.

Say what you will about the Yankees, but at least their fans are as passionate about their team as we are about ours.

Luckily, Fenway is too small to accommodate many of them.

All in all, it was a pretty decent weekend. But now the work week has started. Time to punch-in.

They’re battered, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Luckily, no one thinks it will be.

It’s time to add to our lead in the standings. Let’s do this.

5/22/2006 11:18:05 AM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I shoulda known that sooner or later Kevin Millar and Willie Harris would conspire to get revenge on me for all the fun I’ve made of them.

Last night it happened. The streak had to end sometime, of course, but to have it happen like this was pretty galling.

Harris “didn't need a Harvard symbologist in the mold of Robert Langdon standing next to him at first base with two outs in the ninth inning last night to know that the sign relayed to him ordered him not to attempt to steal,” writes Snow. “He saw and correctly interpreted that sign. He simply didn't obey it."

Well, as Rudy Pemberton puts it: “I hope he doesn't miss the sign waving him back to Pawtucket.”

For a guy with a noodle bat, whose sole redeeming quality is his speed, baserunning mistakes like that are inexcusable. He didn’t lose the game for us, but that’s a really, really silly way to end it.

Trot Nixon was diplomatic. (“That's Willie's game. Obviously, I did want to bat, but I'd never blame a guy for playing hard to get in scoring position.") But you know he's just talking nice. A dead-red hitter, facing a fastball pitcher with a 2-0 count, he had to be pretty pissed he was robbed of the chance to put us ahead with one swing.

We wouldn’t have needed to worry about late inning heroics — thanks for trying, Papi! — had we been able to score more than one run on two hits in the first eight innings.

And we woulda been in much better shape had Kevin Millar, the man who managed to hit a grand total of nine home runs for us last year, not put one over the fence in left in the fourth.

Oh well. “As the saying goes,” says Silverman, “even the blind squirrel will find a nut now and then.”

A night off tonight, then onward to Philly for interleague. They’re a good team. But not invincible.

Ortiz will play first. He’s not crazy about the idea.

(Better he than J.T. Snow, who may not play at all — which is why he’s requesting a trade.)

Papelbon will close, and he’ll like it. Most likely so will we.

Timlin will keep being one of the best set-up men in the game.

Two starts each for Ortiz, Lowell and Youks will get in a couple games each.

There will be a lot of mixing and matching. Not ideal, but we’ll make it work. This is a team, a team that plays well together.

The estimable Thomas Boswell has a great piece about the remade Red Sox in today’s Washington Post.

Yet with all the change and the continuing search for a new identity, Boston still finds itself in first place. Somehow, these New England dudes abide. Shake them up, shuffle the roster, misplace General Manager Theo Epstein, then coax him back into the fold again and yet, at least for the moment, the Yankees still aren't in front of them. Every day, the way the Red Sox see it, New York seems to find more problems, like Hideki Matsui's broken wrist or Randy Johnson's imitation of The Lost Unit, while the team from Fenway Park learns more about itself and begins to discover its future.

"We're getting a personality. We're developing loyalty toward each other," Manager Terry Francona said of his 23-15 team. "You'll see eight or 10 guys go to dinner together. When you have players who want to do it, when they want that atmosphere, it's a big part of becoming a team. I saw six or seven of them in a bar together last night. That's good."

Cover your eyes, kids. It was probably the hotel bar, before midnight and they were all drinking diet sodas.

The Red Sox were once the team that was famous for leaving the ballpark in 25 separate taxis. Now they bond, they communicate, they talk things out. Boston is one place you go if you want to see a true team in the making.

Etc.
It’s a night game Saturday, which will give stat-heads plenty of time to spend the day at the spring regional meeting of SABR Boston, the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research.

It’s in the BPL’s Rabb Lecture Hall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., it’s free, and it’s open to the public.

Guest speakers will include:

* John Thorn, noted hardball historian, author of Total Baseball and The Hidden Game of Baseball, and the guy who uncovered evidence a couple years ago tracing the game’s origins to all the way back to Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1791.

* Brown University math professor Steven J. Miller, author of The Pythagorean Won-Loss Formula in Baseball: An Introduction to Statistics and Modelling

* Dr. Andy Andres, who teaches Sabermetrics 101 at Tufts

* Tom Tippett, creator of Diamond Mind Baseball

* David Grabiner, who’s currently surveying the research on clutch hitting

For more information, contact Seamus Kearney (skearney@tmfnet.org) or Cecilia Tan (sabrpublicity@yahoo.com).

5/18/2006 1:25:33 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

Quite suddenly, Curt Schilling seems to have a big problem with home runs.

A week after surrendering long balls to Giambi, A-Rod, and Posada in that 7-3 loss in New York, our ostensible ace watched balls hit by Ramón Hernández, Jay Gibbons, and the all-powerful Brandon Fahey (he weighs 160 pounds, folks) leave the park.

Luckily, we had some firepower of our own early on, with Manny and Trot both going yard in the second. As it turns out, we’d need those two runs dearly. 

Schilling got the win last night (his 198th) but it was a close one. Luckily Mark Loretta (3 for 5, still on fire) and David Ortiz (2 for 5, coming out of the slump) were able to knock in a couple to give us back the lead in the sixth. And luckily Mike Timlin and Jonathan Papelbon were able to combine for three perfect innings to preserve that slim one-run advantage.

14 for 14. 0.42 ERA. 0.66 WHIP. Just ... wow.

But when that man is on the mound, and you’re up 4-0 in the fourth, you never expect to lose the lead in the first place. You expect to build on it. A strong start notwithstanding, Schilling seemed to be struggling mightily toward the middle innings, however. As has seemed to be a recurring problem lately, he’d get two strikes on guys but just couldn’t put ‘em away.

And, three times, he turned around to face the outfield, looked past his helpless outfielders, and mouthed disgusted profanities to himself.

More home runs than strikeouts. I’m a little concerned. And rationalizing won’t do any good.

“Ultimately, he's thrown two bad fastballs tonight,” someone wrote in the SoSH game thread last night.

“That's what Torre used to say about Pavano and we’d laugh and laugh,” came the reply.

But Schilling thinks he has an explanation: 

Seven two-strike hits, four 0-2 hits — I'm still overthrowing the ball in situations I can't be Thirty-six pitches tonight with two strikes, and I got two swings and misses.

I know, stuff-wise, I'm different than I was two years ago. I don't have that 96, 97 anymore consistently when I need it with two strikes. But I'm not translating that on the field. I'm overthrowing the ball with two strikes and it's costing me and it's costing us.

Let’s hope that’s the answer. And that, having identified the problem, he can work on fixing it.

And let’s pray and pray with all our might that there are no problems with the ankle, as BP’s Will Carroll wonders this morning. That would be, shall we say, rather unfortunate.

The good news? Beckett doesn’t have a blister. And don’t you #$%&@ doubt him.

The bad news? The Rangers blew a nine-run lead against the Yankees last night, came back ahead in the seventh, lost that lead, regained it in the ninth off the suddenly-mortal Mariano Rivera, then blew it in the bottom of the inning thanks to clean-up hitter Jorge Posada’s two-run blast. All that with probably the weakest on-paper lineup the Bombers have fielded in recent memory. Oh well. Doesn’t change the fact that their team has a lot of problems.

As an astute fan noted on NYYfans last night, “This wasn't really a classic. This was a disaster of epic proportions that we just happened to win."

"Guys! I hit a homer! Yaaaaay!"

In other news, we still have to pretend we’re interested in Barry Bonds.

Get this thing over with already. In the mean time, send your your message here.

5/17/2006 12:35:06 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

So is Rodrigo Lopez.

They are sad because their team is terrible.

And because they are playing a team that is very good.

A team that can pitch well.

A team that can field well.

A team that can hit for average.

A team that can hit for power.

A team that can get on base.

A team that wins.

These players are sad because our team has beaten their team 12 times in a row.

And might beat them again tonight.

And no, it's not just that Melvin Mora looks like he's on the verge of tears even when he's happy.

He's actually sad. For real. And you can't blame him.

A modest proposal?

5/16/2006 12:13:28 PM by Mike Miliard | Comments [0] |  

I'll admit it. I was wrong. And I love being proven wrong.

The very day after I after chastise little Willie Harris for his miniscule batting average, he pinch runs in the seventh, scores, and then steps to the plate in the ninth against The Greatest Closer In The Game and, lo and behold .... strokes a single into short right.

He advanced to second on A-Gon’s ground-out, Youks knocked the speedy little dude in, and presto! A valuable insurance run for our indomitable closer to take with him to the mound.

And that was the game. Deep sigh of relief.

I have to admit, I’m surprised, in a way, that we ended up pulling it out.

Leaving fifteen men on base — 15! — and being robbed of two home runs can be awful demoralizing sometimes.

But Wake (3-0 since Dougie’s return) held the line, and we capitalized when we needed to, thanks in large part to Bernie Williams’s unfamiliarity with right field and Derek Jeter’s killer intangibles.

Finally, after so many squanders, we made something happen. That’s what good teams do.

The RBIs in the seventh came courtesy of Mark Loretta, who (four for six last night, 17 for his last 32) is apparently no longer in a slump.

(In one week he’s raised his average from .207 to .280 — hey, at that rate Willie Harris could be batting .184 before we know it!)

Hideki Matsui, on the other hand, is suddenly in a big slump. He rolled over his wrist while diving for Loretta’s sinking bloop in the first. The thing snapped, and was flopping around like it was made of rubber. 

[Shudder.]

First of all, props for having the fortitude an