Commander In Chief

Starting pitcher Josh Beckett is off to one of the best starts in Boston Red Sox history. Sure, he's got the 2nd best run support in all of Major League Baseball (9.35 per start, wow), however this minor nugget of info should not diminish the fact he came into tonight's game with a 2.51 ERA with an equally strong 1.03 WHIP. Beckett turns 27 next Tuesday and I'm hoping that he turns into a long term type ace and provides the Sox with strong starting pitching for years. Something Boston has missed with the departure of Pedro Martinez after the 2004 World Series Victory. For all of his issues and Jheri curl problems, I still missed him in '05.

Fact: look up "Jheri Curl" on Wikipedia and scroll down to the bottom section of famous people that sported the 'do. He's last on the list.

Despite Beckett's success and in my humble opinion, he is still the second best starting pitcher on the team behind veteran knuckleball king Tim Wakefield. He's only 3-3 on the year but is sporting an ERA of 2.11 and batters only hitting .197 off of the 40 year old. Now if he had the same run support as Beckett, we'd have two six or seven game winners. The Sox are only averaging a little over 3 runs each time Wake takes the mound.

The game I was bitching about in my last entry where the Seattle Mariners were up 5-0 in the top of the 1st inning ended in a 8-7 Sox win. Reliever Mike Timlin, after getting the save against Oakland the night before, was placed on the 15-day DL last week making way for AAA pitcher Devern Hansack. This is the same dude who pitched a five inning gem against the Baltimore Orioles last year to close out the disappointing 2006 campaign.

This weekend saw the Sox go out on the road for the first leg of their six game road trip taking two of three from the perennial American League Central Champion Minnesota Twins. The Metrodome in Minneapolis has not been kind to the Sox over the years since the Twins finally decided to put together a real team and avoid contraction earlier this decade. The games were very low scoring yet very exciting. I'll never get over when people complain about a 2-0 or 4-3 game being "boring." I missed most of them since I was in Sarasota/Long Boat Key, Florida this weekend. My Fiance' said watching baseball while in Florida on a beach while she was on it wearing a bikini was "unacceptable." Anyway, my favorite pariah Julian Tavarez was the pitcher that gave up the only loss, however he still pitched well striking out 7, walking 3 and only giving up 2 runs. The problem was Twins Cy Young winner Johan Santana was on the mound and the Twinkies only ended up giving up one run on Saturday.

Tonight Beckett took the mound in an attempt to capture his 7th win of the year. He did so by only giving up one run in the 1st inning and striking out five. Surprisingly, he struck out three of the five on off speed pitches. Credit this to veteran catcher and team captain Jason Varitek. After giving up a home run in the 1st and surrendering a double immediately after, Varitek took over the calls and ordered up a blend of Beckett's 12-6 curve, controlled change up, and award winning fastball to get out of the inning. God bless you Tek.

The game also saw 2B Dustin Pedroia hit his first home run of the season, a three run shot in the top of the 2nd with two out. Toronto Blue Jay's starter Victor Zambrano, one year off of Tommy John Surgery, gave up two 3 run two out home runs in the ballgame. Both coming when the bases were empty after getting the second out each time, and the second coming to slumping 3B Mike Lowell. Timlin's replacement Devern Hansack pitched 2/3rds of an inning giving up one run and putting too many runners in position to make the game respectable than I'd care to remember. Looks like he needed one to shake out the rust. Better tonight than if the Sox were actually in a situation that called for an experienced reliever to get them into the 9th. JC Romero came in with one out to go in the 8th and stopped the mild bleeding. Usual long reliever Kyle Snyder, who was picked up on waivers from my hometown Kansas City Royals last offseason, finished out the game to give the Sox a 21-10 record overall and 12-6 record on the road. If they keep playing like this they may be a playoff contender. However, I've been a fan long enough to know that the second I get ahead of myself, they go on a huge skid. For now they enjoy a six game lead over the New York Yankees who are working their way back to what we are used to winning seven of their last ten.

Speaking of the most hated team in my life, the weekend's biggest news was that the Yankees picked up the soon to be 45-year old Roger Clemens. I just have a few things to say about this in no particular order of importance. I wasn't a big Sox fan when Clemens pitched for them, so I have no warm gushy feelings about the old days of The Rocket pitching in a Red Sox uniform again. He hasn't pitched for the Sox in almost 10 years so if you do care, get over it. He's still good, but nowhere near as good as what the Yankee's need to help their starting pitching problems. With Carl Pavano likely pussing out for the rest of the season and Mike Mussina not getting any younger, they have a lot of gaps to fill. Even $20+ million pitcher Kei Igawa didn't pan out like they'd hoped and is now on assignment in Steinbrennerville, better known as Tampa Bay, Florida. So is Clemens enough to correct the damage? I'm not sure. I'm expecting the Yankees to come around, I just wouldn't credit Clemens with this happening. As far as the special treatment? I could really care less other than the fact that it sets a precedent. Hopefully most GM's, agents, and players will realize that it's sort of anomaly and shouldn't expect to see it get out of control in the future. Then again, this is baseball we're talking about. For all the people that bitch about it, you just saw the crack team of Yankee negotiators in action led by GM Brian Cashman. Is there any more coinsidental name in all of baseball? Imagine the conversation with Roger's agent, Randy Hendricks and one of Cashman's staff.

Randy Hendricks: "I want my client to get a prorated salary of $28 million over four months, no questions asked."
Special Yankees Road Secretary George Costanza: "You got it, no problem. We've got plenty of over the hill money to burn now that Randy Johnson is gone."
RH: "Oh yeah, and he only has to show up on days he pitches. And he gets a plane, no questions asked."
GC: "Super, this deal is as good as done. When can your client start?"
RH: "I'm thinking around the end of the month or sometime after June 1st. My client is all about helping your team win a championship."
GC: "I can assure you and your client that we only have the same thing in mind. You know if we don't win a World Series it's not a success in our organization? You're aware of that right?"
RH: "Well, my client did pitch for you in the 2000 World Series, remember? He threw a pitch and almost killed the other teams catcher."
GC: "That's our Rocket! How does he feel about cotton by the way?"

So yeah, something like that. I'm not upset he's not pitching for my team because my team doesn't need him. Sure any team could use him, but not every team needs him. Especially a team with a record of 18-9 coming from their starting rotation already. The Yankees showed their desperation over the weekend and total disregard for team chemistry. Of course with starter Andy Pettite back in the fold starting this year if you didn't see Clemens going back to the Yanks you either don't pay attention, or you're an idiot, or both. As far as Padres sumo wrestler/starter David "Boomer" Wells slamming a former teammate I say good for you Boom. I'd also like to see them square off in some celebrity boxing match. I'd take Clemens if it goes past two rounds by way of technical knock out,with Wells dying of heart attack 2 minutes into round 3.

Dice-K is on the mound tomorrow night and the Jays are tinkering around with the idea of moving up Tomo Okha's start to tomorrow so they can get ace Roy Halladay on the mound for Thursday's game on short rest. Halladay suffered his first loss of the year against the Texas Rangers giving up 9 earned in 5 and 1/3 innings last Saturday. Damn it, Boston better take this series against the Jays, I'm sick of losing to them.

Road Trip

First, congratulations to this guy. That’s relief pitcher Hideki Okajima who won April’s American League Rookie of the Month Award.

Currently, I’m sitting at my desk about ready to listen to the first few innings of the Red Sox Mariners game before I go home. Hopefully they can get a quick pick me up against the M’s before heading out on the road to face the Twins this weekend. I, personally, would like to see the Sox retain the Mayor's Cup this weekend. Anyway...Dice-K is on the mound and his last outings against the New York Yankees were solid. He looks like he’s really starting to settle in the three spot behind last night’s winner and Major League Baseball’s only current six game winner Josh Beckett. Here’s what they’ll need to do tonight and this weekend.

- RF JD Drew, who is getting over the flu this week, needs to heat up again and drive in runs. Early April was all systems go for the formal National Leaguer, until he started to slump between the two series against the Yankees. He’s left more than 10 on in the last two and a half weeks.

- Manager Terry Francona needs to get Closer Jonathan Papelbon out into a save situation ASAP so he can redeem himself from Tuesday nights first blown save. I thought he should have put him in last night instead of Mike Timlin, but that’s why I don’t manage in the bigs I guess.

- LF Manny Ramirez needs to continue his hitting trend. He started off April very slow and looks to be back to his old self. When you’ve got SS Julio Lugo, 1B Kevin Youkilis, and DH David Ortiz ahead of you and getting on base consistently, you need to hit more often. It’s that simple.

- The bottom two of the starting rotation needs to pitch well against the Twins Friday and Saturday night. If the Minnesota lineup figures out Tim Wakefield early and Julian Tavarez can’t do a serviceable job then it’s going to be a long weekend.

- Bit players need to continue their success from April. OF Wily Mo Pena needs to play well despite being his usual human strike out machine-self. IF Alex Cora also should continue to do well filling in for rookie 2B Dustin Pedroia. Of course Francona may stick with his normal lineup over the weekend road series, which wouldn’t surprise me at all.

- When called upon, reliever Hideki Okajima will have to prove himself now that he earned the AL Rookie of the Month award for April yesterday. Rookies sometimes have a tendency to regress after some noted success.

- Lastly, but maybe most importantly, the defense needs to step up and stop committing so many fucking errors. It’s getting old.

Right at the moment the Sox are down 4-0 to the Mariners in the TOP OF THE 1^st. Damnit. I’ll be out of town until Monday as I’ll be in Sarasota, Florida. Hopefully I’ll have something good to write about.

P.S. Lugo has fucked up twice, now it’s 5-0 with only one out. So much for the defense cutting back on those errors. This sucks ass.

The Dirty Dozen

Not that the BoSox pitching staff is comprised of ex convicts or court marshaled military men, but they are made up of a mostly patched together group. After the month of April that patchwork of starters, relievers, and one homegrown closer came together and looked pretty goddamn good in the process.

Overall, the Sox 3.28 ERA is second-best in the AL, they posted a 3.14 ERA in the past 19 games, and are tied for first in opposing batting average with .228 against them. The Sox have allowed three or fewer runs in 12 of those 19 games. The Sox accomplished it by establishing their pitching staff as the premier dozen in the majors in the month of April and hopefully in the months to come.

Boston’s starters are averaging more than six innings a start, which is almost unheard of when in this day in age when a starting pitcher will rarely go six innings consistently. Just as a note, the New York Yankees are averaging less that five innings per start in the month of April. This kind of output from the starting rotation put less stress on some weaknesses that are in the Boston pen, namely JC Romero, Joel Pinero, and even Brenden Donnelly to a lesser degree.

After Curt Schilling’s meltdown opening day in Kansas City he’s gone 3-0 with giving up only one or no earned runs in each start. Josh Beckett has been nothing but short of dominant in four out of his five wins. Daisuke Matsuzaka is even beginning to show his talent, tenacity, and mental toughness that made him a phenom in Japan. Tim Wakefield is off to a slowish start reprising his role this year as old reliable and coming out of April with a 2-3 record. His ERA is low though, in the top ten of the AL, showing that the losses are not out of control. Julian Tavarez (while ripped on by me quite a bit) has even shown signs that his eventual move to the bullpen should be fruitful, as he’s good for about two or three solid innings at a time. He knows it, and everyone knows that he’s just keeping Jon Lester’s spot warm until he’s done with assignment in Triple A.

On to the bullpen now, that sweet sweet bullpen that is a big change from last year. Sox relievers have a 2.18 ERA, which is the lowest in the majors, with a dazzling 1.07 mark during the past 17 games. Are you seeing a theme with that last stretch between the relievers and starters? The bullpen has allowed only one run in the past 21 1/3 innings on the road, pointing to the Sox AL best road record in April. That stretch of games also came against mostly AL East opponents, and division games are the ones they need to win.

The bullpen, led by Papelbon’s 0.00 ERA along with lefthander and former Nippon Ham Fighters ace Hideki Okajima who has a surprising 0.71 ERA (surprising because he sucked in spring training), hadn't allowed a run in 14 innings before Derek Jeter's homer off Mike Timlin Sunday, and has stranded 24 of 28 inherited runners. Which basically means that not only do they take care of their own, they take care of those that the starters cannot handle at the end of their day. To me that seems to be the best statistic there is when it comes to relief pitching. Getting out of jams, and I’m cautiously confident that it will stay that way.

I’d like to close on the fact that Okajima’s dominance has been eye-opening. I touched on it a bit, but I want to go back to it because I am that fucking stunned at his performance. Even though he spent parts of 11 seasons playing for the Yomiuri Giants and the Ham Fighters in Japan, the Sox didn’t exactly know what to expect from the lanky left-hander even though the guy’s not exactly a rookie. Despite the considerable experience, he surrendered three home runs in 13 innings during spring training and was taken deep by Kansas City’s John Buck on his very first major league pitch April 2. I’ll credit that to the Royals playing like overachieving world beaters that afternoon though. They’ve been known to do that. How about the 2003 Opening Day Royals fans? Anyone?

Since then, however, Okajima has been nearly perfect. He has tossed 12 scoreless innings in his past 12 outings, allowing only three hits, and 15 of his past 26 outs have been strikeouts. Okajima quickly and obviously has earned the confidence of Francona, who opted to use him to close against the Yanks on April 20 after mounting a serious 8^th inning comeback when Papelbon was given a prescribed night off after working the previous two games. Papelbon, meanwhile, continues to dominate as the closer and has saved all eight opportunities while striking out 15 in 9 1/3 scoreless innings. Hey, I’m big on Papelbon, sue me.

Tonight on the mound will be one half of the book end of the ageless wonders, Curt Schilling. Schil’ is 3-1 with a declining ERA of 3.27 and batters only hitting .232 against him. His 23 strike outs show that he can still hit the payoff pitch this late in his career. Opposing will be fellow fat guy Joe Blanton for the A’s. Blanton (2-1) has been solid but not great the past few seasons for the East Bay A’s, even though he docks into Fenway with similar season numbers as Schilling. Blanton also has two no decisions from this year as well.

**Oops**
In my entry from Thursday, April 26^th I had said that Curt Schillings bloody sock from Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS was in the Hall of Fame. Actually, it is his other bloody sock from Game 2 of the 2004 World Series that is in Cooperstown. Sorry, I gave my fact checker the week off.