Wednesday, March 26, 2008
A bad man.
And a not-great game.
So, we shan't be winning them all.
At least
Manny is happy. (And
¥1,000,000 richer.)
Remy says he's gonna hit the hallowed 500th homer before the end of the April. At the
rate he’s going, he just might. He might have had two in two days if you count the near-miss yesterday. (And, yes, hank the maker
he chugged into second on time.)
Yeah, he
should’ve left the box immediately. Lucky for him, it all worked out. But I’ve
heard a lot of grumbling the past couple days about the showboating yesterday,
about the fact that he pimped after a solo shot this morning with his team down
by four. Someday people will realize that that’s just what he does, and it’s never gonna change. That
day may be long after he’s retired, but that day will come. Someday. I think.
Anyway, Lester
didn’t pitch terribly. (Aardsma and Lopez looked good too.) Unfortunately Emil
Brown just picked
the worst possible way to atone to his team for yesterday’s base running
buffoonery. And unfortunately Rich Harden pitched
his ass off. These things happen.
(I’m just
miffed at myself for foolishly picking JD Drew for my fantasy team. Yes, yes, I
knew the risks. But I was feeling lucky that night! Figured I was being bold. I
wagered he was gonna shock the haters and have a breakout season. Couldn’t be worse than last
year, right? Maybe .310 with 35 HR, and 103 RBI? And he seemed to be bearing
this out — in two
exhibition games, against mediocre pitching, halfway across the world. Then
he had to go and miss
the first two games of the season and who knows how many more. Oh well.)
This was a fun.
Matsuzaka
got a start. Okajima
got a win.
Papi
got some sake. Manny
got a little extra scratch.
Brandon Moss got a
chance to strut his stuff. (And
we will be seeing him again. Count on it.)
Remy
got to know the locals.
Many
thousands of fans got new Red Sox caps and jerseys.
Selig and
the Sox brass got many thousands of dollars.
It was a great
trip.
And it’s
gonna be a great season.
Just can’t
believe we have to wait
until next week for another game that counts.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
O-KA-jima on the mound. And the flash bulbs coruscate. Suzuki swings so hard on an 87mph fastball that it looks as if his body may tear in two... One down. A walk, a fly-out, a ground-out, and it's on to extra innings...
Lowell flies out. C'mon. Two more chances. Don't let Snyder lose this game for us. MOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!Ho-muraaaaaaaaannnn!!!!
NAISU CACCHI! But wow, that looked like it hurt. Hope Ellsbury's OK. Also, Bryan Corey is gonna be a huge part of the bullpen this season. I'm calling it right now.
Good to see Foulkey again. Yooooook...wait, never mind. These Japanese fans keep Truping me. And a loud out from Ortiz and a strike from Manny and we're probably gonna lose. Yay.
And down goes the mighty Cust.
Ellsbury with his first hit (of many, hopefully) of '08. Single up the middle. And.... erased, thanks to Lugo's easy DP. Pedroia grounds out. We gotta get this lead back.
We need some of those girls with the keg backpacks at Fenway. This must happen. Aw, c'mon Snyder. Way to give back the lead. (And rob Dice-K of his win.) Hannahan? The guy has three home runs in his whole career!
Pedroia with a booming double, all the way back. Let's go, let's put something together here. Let's win this thing. Manny!!! Tie game, bitches! Yee-haw, Brandon Moss. 3-2! Naisu hitto!
Wow. Beautiful inning. If you'd told me an hour ago that he'd make it through five, I would not have believed you. And the crowd salutes him.
Tek Ks swinging. Ellsbury grounds out to first. Lugo grounds to short.
Wow. A 1-2-3. Dice-K looking much, much better. Can he keep it up for a while?
C'mon, Manny. Ho-muran. Nope. Second fly-out to right of the day. Remy pointing out that Japanese fans seem to think every fly ball is a homer. Proabably tough to get a read in the vastness of the Tokyo-dome. I will say that I'm surprised at how sedate the crowd is. I realize these aren't their teams, but I was expecting a bit more pandemonium. Lowell flies out the center. Moss grounds out to first. Dice-K returns for what will probably be his last inning
Two down quickly. Dice-K sharper. But also not getting squeezed as much as he has been. And, just as I type that, he walks batter number five. Buuuut... Lugo makes an amazing leaping snag to end it. Naisu cacchi!
Ellsbury goes down looking. Lugo singles to center. Pedroia flies out to deep center. Youk scorches one down 3B line, books it, and is safe at first. C'mon Papi. Dagummit, grounds into the shift.
Walk. Bases loaded. 55 pitches so far. This is painful to watch. Even his countrymen are groaning. Yeah! Crazy Julian warming, but Dice gets the K to leave 'em loaded. Not a moment too soon.
MVP Mikey scorches a single to center to start '08. D'oh. Moss force-out at 2nd and a Tek DP. This is going quick. Buckle down, Dice-K.
Pedroia singles to center. Youkilis grounds to third. Ortiz pops to third. Manny flies deep to foul territory in right. Gambatte, Dice-K!
I don't care what Eric Wilbur says. This is fun. It's 5:55 in the morning, I'm still sorta groggy, and I'm watching the most surreal pre-game ceremonies I've ever seen. Wally and the A's Elephant dancing on the dome turf with assorted wood nymphs, drummers, flutists, colorful dancers, all to the sound of a trippy version of C+C Music Factory. It's great. If you can't get up early once or twice a year for stuff like this, you can't call yourself a fan.
Monday, March 24, 2008
 But I must. Early wake-up call tomorrow. Gehrig38 has already weighed in from the other side of the world. It is on. See you at six(ish).
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
I don't have much to say about this potential boycott, especially since things are still so up in the air.
(The Herald has been doing a great job of posting updates.)
I will say this, though: Major League Baseball better get their act together, and quick. They are the ones who will look bad if this ends up falling through, not us. And they will look really, really bad.
There is immense money to be made from the Far East. And for baseball brass to allow this trip to be scuttled at the eleventh hour, all for the sake of a little pennypinching -- and make no mistake, that's exactly what it is -- would be a huge black eye for everyone.
Despite what some moronic Yankees fans are saying in the comment section here, the Red Sox are not doing this for themselves. Obviously. They're standing together as team, and standing up for their hardworking coaches (some of whom stand to get paid as much as two fifths of their annual salary for making this trip).
If you believe what you read, MLB has already reneged on allowing families to travel with the team. Allowing this to happen makes them look almost unfathomably miserly.
But I still think everyone will be getting on a plane (maybe not the scheduled flight) and things will go off more or less as planned. It's far to valuable to the money guys in the game for that not to happen.
EDIT: The A's are on board, too. MLB has to cave. Has to.
EDIT #2: And it appears they have.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Blogs were
down late last week, but I’d composed an entry on Friday that offered an early
assessment of Mr. Bartolo. It read, in part:
Might
we have ourselves a pitcher here?
I
never would’ve thought so, but man, the guy can throw hard. Of
course, no one can judge by two
innings of a spring training game. But given the way the ball’s been coming
out of his hand so far this spring, I’m cautiously optimistic we may have
struck riches.
Well, I
snuck out to the Baseball Tavern this afternoon catch the first couple innings
of the only Sox-Yanks game of spring training — where
were the green uni’s? — and, uh, never mind.
For now, at
least.
He made
Damon look foolish with a quick, four-pitch punch out to start things off.
And then he
labored — mightily.
He said
he felt strong, but the pitching line didn’t show it.
He was
throwing hard and fast — but his control wasn’t there. He was leaving balls up
in the zone, and ended up tagged for four runs on two singles, two walks, and a
ground-rule double. Forty two pitches in total (19 balls, 23 strikes) and he
didn’t even make it out of the first.
No panic
here. He’ll get better.
He has to.
Because we might need him a lot more than we thought. Last week,
I mentioned the potentiality of having to lean on Wakefield’s aged shoulder early.
Despite the
fact that he was perfect
for five innings yesterday, there is cause for concern.
I’d
forgotten that Wake’s got a “SLAP tear”
in his labrum.
The other night on NESN’s Globe 10.0, Christopher Gasper said, “That’s something that
I actually have — and my doctor said, ‘If you were a pitcher, I’d tell you to
have surgery immediately.’”
Great.
Schilling a
long shot, even for late summer. Beckett only “closer.”
Buchholz struggling. (And now it seems Manny Delcarmen has “come
up lame.”)
What’s that
they say about pitching depth?
Anyway, Colon is obviously a
reclamation project. But there is reason for hope.
“Does he
still have the stuff that made him the 2005 Cy Young?”
Who knows.
Hardball Times tries
to get at some answers here. Meanwhile, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. 
Here's a list of Irish baseball players. Just because. (Going to see Dropkicks at the Paradise tonight. I hear they've been playing "Tessie" again.)
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A fond
farewell to one of the 25. 
So long,
Dougie.
Next time
you’re in town, hit me up. I’ll buy
all the chicken
parm you can eat.
 On the serious, what exactly is the plan here?
I know he's no great shakes, but it's worth repeating (again and again) that Kevin Cash's bat makes Mirabelli look like Piazza in his prime.
Is Kottaras finally ready to catch the knuckleball? Because given our dinged up rotation, we're gonna be needing Wake more than ever this spring.
Or is there a trade in the works?
Whatever happens, hats off to you, Dougie.
I hope you fall asleep happy tonight (after killing it for the third time and one last piece of cheesecake, of course.)
Thursday, March 06, 2008
RED SOX
AGREE TO TERMS WITH 18 PLAYERS ON 2008 CONTRACTS
FORT MYERS, FL—The Boston Red Sox today announced
that the club has agreed to terms with 18 players on the major league roster on
one-year contracts for the 2008 season. No further terms were disclosed.
The
announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.
Agreeing to
terms were pitchers David Aardsma, Craig Breslow, Clay Buchholz, Bryan Corey,
Manny Delcarmen, Devern Hansack, Kyle Jackson, Jon Lester, Edgar Martinez,
Jonathan Papelbon and David Pauley; catchers Dusty Brown and George Kottaras;
infielders Chris Carter, Argenis Diaz, and Dustin Pedroia; and outfielders
Jacoby Ellsbury and Brandon Moss.
With the
agreements, all 40 players on Boston’s
major league roster are under contract for the 2008 season.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Hey, hey,
hey! C’mon fans! All that verbal
jousting between Henry/Lucchino and Hammerin’ Hank Steinbrenner is just
for show! There
will be no cage match. (Heck,
they may even be friends some day.) It's good to get into the team spirit early, but this is just
taking things too far:
A
group of men — some with Irish accents — beat up a 23-year-old Cambridge man
and sent him to the hospital after they spotted him sporting a Yankees baseball
cap.
Witnesses
told police the group of apparent diehard Red Sox fans beat up the victims
after an argument inside a Central
Square bar. The group then ran away on Mass. Ave. towards Harvard Square.
I knew baseball has established a tentative
foothold in Ireland,
but didn’t think they took it this seriously.
All I can say is that Little
Joe Cook would not let shenanigans like this happen on his watch.
And when’s
the first Sox/Yanks game of the Grapefruit League Season?
Saint
Patrick’s Day, of course.
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
| Notes from an irrational Red Sox fan. Mike Miliard with news, views, analysis, and rants about happenings on-field and off. |
|
|
|
|
|
| July, 2008 (1) |
| June, 2008 (10) |
| May, 2008 (9) |
| April, 2008 (17) |
| March, 2008 (27) |
| February, 2008 (4) |
| January, 2008 (2) |
| December, 2007 (5) |
| November, 2007 (7) |
| October, 2007 (23) |
| September, 2007 (13) |
| August, 2007 (16) |
| July, 2007 (13) |
| June, 2007 (12) |
| May, 2007 (19) |
| April, 2007 (36) |
| March, 2007 (18) |
| February, 2007 (6) |
| January, 2007 (6) |
| December, 2006 (7) |
| November, 2006 (2) |
| October, 2006 (5) |
| September, 2006 (12) |
| August, 2006 (21) |
| July, 2006 (19) |
| June, 2006 (29) |
| May, 2006 (29) |
| April, 2006 (48) |
| March, 2006 (23) |
| February, 2006 (8) |
| January, 2006 (8) |
| December, 2005 (7) |
| November, 2005 (6) |
| October, 2005 (11) |
| September, 2005 (17) |
| August, 2005 (18) |
| July, 2005 (17) |
| June, 2005 (14) |
| May, 2005 (18) |
| April, 2005 (16) |
| March, 2005 (26) |
|
|
|
|