Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Mr. Brightside

Happy thoughts:
  • The Sox bullpen has pitched 7 scoreless innings.
  • Rudy Seanez has pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings.
  • Sr. Ramirez es en fuego.

Other random, slightly tipsy, thoughts:
  • Kelly Stinnett looks really really old.
  • Francona needs to start pulling his starters a couple batters before his gut tells him to.
  • That was Randy Johnson's 6th win, despite his ERA of 5.89. Every other AL pitcher with 6+ wins has an ERA under 4.2.
  • Two months into the season, I still find he Yankee dugout (when the other team is batting) ridiculous. Joe Torre, Larry Bowa, Tony Pena, Lee Mazzilli, Ron Guidry, and Don Mattingly. And Joe Kerrigan in the bullpen.
  • Big Papi fails to get The Big Hit two times in a row, and every Yankee fan in the world goes off about how he's "not actually clutch". It's sort of sad, really.

14 comments:

  1. The Unit and his 6 wins are like when D-Lowe won 15 games a few years ago - thanks to the highest run support in BB.

    The whole he is not clutch crap is absurd as A-Rod being a lightining rod, but fans will be fans. And i always got a kick out of Sox fans staunchly sticking to their guns of "Nomar's better" pretty much right up until July 31.

    But more importantly, the last two games may cite the Yankee fans to say that, but Boston fans will certainly not say anything of the sort. And you don't have to look far to see all the NY blogs questioning A-Rod's clutchness.

    As of right now it looks like it could be a 3 team race. TOR just cut Josh Towers and even though he sucks, am I the only one that thinks that this is the type of guy the Yankees will sign and he will make some rapid turn around. Kind of like Tanyon Sturtze. Or Aaron Small. Shawn Chacon....

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  2. The internet may be a sign that the apocalypse is near. It would be very easy to waste the entire day just watching You Tube clips like this one.

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  3. Papi is not seeing the ball well. He's taking way to many down the heart of the plate strikes...He'll snap out of it.

    Things to take away from the series.

    The Red Sox look like the better all around team despite losing 2 of 3.

    The pen is definitely better.

    The Sox could use another starting pitcher. Maybe Wells comes back strong and Clement can head to the five-slot.

    The Yankees could use 4 more starting pitchers and people in the pen. I'll have to take a look at who he's faced, but Wang looked terrible and did the Big Unit.

    I hate when Dustan Mohr starts. Play Nixon last night...Why not? Get him some more at-bats against lefties. Besides, Mohr is headed to Pawtucket in a few days anyway. No need to keep him "sharp" as Francona likes to put it.

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  4. By the way, that crap about injury-ridden again. Seriously, that should only apply to teams who can't (with some guys out) start 4 All-Stars (Jeter, A-Rod, Sheffield, Giambi).

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  5. I agree...Trot should have been in there. But only Manny is torrid now, and a hit or two from Papi and last night would have been different. Oh well, tonight's a Beckett game, and that has been a good thing recently.

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  6. What are the writers supposed to do about the injuries? Not mention them? Seriously.

    A couple of your posts in the last few days were spot on - the Sox should have won that series and had a huge advantage going in. and the Division is there for the taking. But they need to win games/series like this. The sox have to win games and gain ground when the Yanks are starting Melky, Bernie and T-Long in their OF.

    Sure the Sox have had their share of injuries, but with all due respects to Coco and Boomer, the guys that are out for the Yankees are All stars.

    I think Earl had a great point about Tito getting guys out of there more quickly.

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  7. I have no problem with writers mentioning injuries...It is the portrayal that gets me. It was like the Yankees were putting a lineup out there that couldn't win. And Damon being out last night was to give him two days off in a row. Yes, he had a broken toe, but that hasn't slowed him, yet.

    Honestly, I think the lineups out there at Fenway last night were pretty equal.

    Cabrera v Youk
    Jeter v Loretta
    Shef v Ortiz
    Giambi v Manny
    Philips v Varitek
    A-Rod v Lowell
    Cano v Pena
    Williams v Mohr
    Long v Gonzalez

    But, again, the portrayal was how could the Sox lose this game? And it wasn't Beckett or Schill against Randy Johnson...it was Clement.

    I still think that there are positives to take away...just felt the need to clarify the injuries thing.

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  8. Yeah, as I said in an earlier comment, it's totally okay to point out that the Yanks are hurting, but it's silly to do that while pretending like it was totally unexpected, and that nothing could've been done to soften the blow. It's their own damn fault they had no Plan B despite their aging lineup.

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  9. Of course the Yankees injuries should not be unexpected, that really was not my point. I do think there is some validity to the point that the Sox would be wise to put some distance between them and NY while NY have all these injuries.

    I think we all know that the Yanks will not be running out Melky and T-Long come that 5 game series in August - either they get healthy or they get help. And yes the Sox will get better and healthier between now and then, but the point really is that now is the time to capitalize. Last year the Yankees were 11-19 and this year they are 25-19 even with all the injuries.

    I agree with the sentiment that I like this club, especially in the pitching, yet I look up and see them with an ERA a half run better - thankfully the Yankee defense is pourous.

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  10. "the Sox would be wise to put some distance between them and NY while NY have all these injuries."

    Absolutely. Now's the time to get that distance, as it's hard to imagine things getting too much worse for them. It's just the "woe is us" attitude a lot of Yanks and NY media types are taking which drives me insane.

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  11. There is a solution to that - don't pay attention to it. That would be the same strategy I deploy after a Sox loss. don't read the game story or any columnist after a Sox loss. The notebook only.

    Last year the Yanks were 11-19 without injuries (seemingly) to half their team. This year with the injuries they are 25-19.

    And now the Sox have questions concerning two starters. Thank goodness Schilling pitched great on Monday - just as we had hoped for in this space. No more talk about the 133 pitch outing.

    For some reason I have a feeling that we are going to be talking about a three team race on August 1.

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  12. "No more talk about the 133 pitch outing."

    Except...The answer to the complaint I (and many others) made about Schilling's 4 bad starts after that outing is a valid one: small sample size. But then he has one good outing - an even smaller sample size - and all of a sudden everyone says "see, he's fine". I'm reserving my judgment...

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  13. Hey wait a minute. You had agreed with me that a good start Monday would shut every one up. I know we disagree on the topic of single high pitch, but I think the immediate cause and effect was the discussion as opposed to the real data which indicates the damage is on long term health from multiple high pitch counts.

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  14. said "one decent start against the Yanks and this will go away". "This" being everyone talking about the 133 pitches. I never said I personally would be convinced everything is a-ok after one start.

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