Thursday, April 03, 2008

Welcome back to my periodic quick update on things Sox-related.

-- We already miss Tina Cervasio [left], but a former California beauty queen is reportedly the frontrunner to replace her.

-- Kudos to the ever-scrappy Youk!, who has set the MLB record for consecutive error-less games at first base.

-- My Boston Phoenix colleague Mike Miliard offers a look at Sox proto-stathead Bill James. A brief excerpt:

How much time each week would you say you spend not thinking about baseball?
Not thinking about baseball? I would answer this way: the only time in my life that I ever go an hour without thinking about baseball is at, like, a really good movie. And if it’s not such a good movie, my mind will wander back to baseball.

Well, that’s good for us Red Sox fans. Looking forward, what are the promises and the challenges you see in the coming season?
Keeping the starting rotation healthy is gonna be a huge thing. We have young pitchers coming along. But nonetheless, I think everyone would tell you we would have been happier coming into the season if we’d been able to make the pitching deeper — getting the young pitching in position to help, but also keeping the pressure off them, so they can develop, is going to be a huge balancing act. It’s going to be really tough to keep both of those objectives in mind all the time.

But you’re optimistic we can at least make a good run at a world series repeat?
Hopefully we’ll have a decent season.