All-Star Roll Call

In my exasperation after last night's 1-0 win over the Minnesota Twins, I failed to mention all of the players that were voted on to this year's All-Star team. As we know, the outcome of the game itself determines which league will have home field advantage for the World Series. The Sox haven't had much need for it during their championship campaigns sweeping the Cardinals in '04 and the Rockies in '07, although it could be argued that opening the series in Fenway for two games did set the tone for the next two on the road both years.

Along with the Chicago Cubs in the National League, the Sox will send seven players to the Bronx for the final All-Star game in Yankee Stadium, more than any other team besides said Cubs. I'm usually game for all the festivities surrounding the break, however this year will be ESPN's goodbye love letter to all things Yankees. I may need to keep a bucket next to my couch for when it gets a little deep.

The Sox will send two outfielders in JD Drew and Manny Ramirez, only one pitcher in the way of Jonathan Papelbon, one surprising (but not really) DH selection with the injured David Ortiz and position players Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek. I'm not sure how deserving Manny is for this year, however leave it to the fans to vote the guy in. I guess he gets points and entrance to left field (which is sort of a joke) for being a character.

Ortiz obviously won't play in an exhibition game while only taking his first BP since going on the DL June 3rd, but I'm sure his presence will be felt as it is everywhere while playing or not. I wouldn't expect to see Papelbon closing the game in a save situation as the nod would more than likely go to either the Twins' Joe Nathan, the "Mexecutioner" Joakim Soria of the Royals, or most likely Francisco Rodriguez of the Angels who just broke John Smoltz's save total record for the first half of the season with 35.

Sidetrack: A Simple Request

I encourage everyone to vote for Royals outfielder Jose Guillen for the final vote in player. Not because of his baseball acumen and playing ability, but because he's a giant asshole and does a good job of giving my hometown team's fans fits. It's a constant talk radio topic with Guillen either fighting with pitching coach Bob McClure, or telling the fans to fuck off and calling it motivation. The team sucks, and it's sucked especially hard for the past, well, couple of decades. The fans are complacent save for a few diehards and the community needs some sort of kick in the pants, even if it's from this jackass. I'm not defending Guillen by any means, the guy is clearly a jerk of epic proportions and has played for something like nine teams while only being 31 years of age. But the guy needs to be an All-Star in a Royals uniform, just for that reason alone.

In order to counter balance the picture at the top of this post, I give you my favorite stunt perpetrated by Sox fans at Fenway last year when A-Rod was going through a previous martial indiscretion while being photographed with the award winning exotic dancer in the category of "Best Man to Appear as a Woman Stripper." Enjoy.

The Hard Way

The Boston Red Sox, losers of their last seven of nine, entered into tonight's contest against the Minnesota Twins who are arguably one of the hottest and most surprising teams in baseball up to this point. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with the Sox seemingly going impotent against the Yankees this past weekend in the Bronx.

Luckily for the Sox, Dice-K had one of his better performances of the year. He was able to keep his pitch count down and battled his way to his 10th win on the season. One thing that was pleasing to my eyes tonight was the fact that no matter how hard Hideki Okajima tried to give the game away (as the bullpen has been doing this year) in the eighth, the Sox along with Okajima managed to see their way to the bottom of the inning with the games still knotted at 0.

Seeing that the pen has been a major disaster this season so far, Theo has decided to sent Justin Masterson down to the PawSox in exchange for Clay Buchholz entering back into the rotation this weekend. Sending Masterson down for the week to next 10 days isn't without a purpose. Epstein is planning on the young hurler having bullpen work take up 100% of his time while in Rhode Island with the idea he comes back to Fenway to help the floundering pen in the bigs. I think it's a smart move as the Sox really are sort of stagnant when it comes to arms for their middle relief. We'll see if it pays off likely after the break.

Speaking of bolstering middle relief, it's hard to say where or which direction the Sox will take, if any, before the trade deadline at the end of the month. I didn't think the Sox had a realistic shot at landing Sabathia, and I'm almost glad they didn't for the same reason I was happy they didn't sign Johan Santana. I'm still of the mind a trade for Dan Haren would have been a boon for the rotation now that Schilling seems to have been sent out to pasture, at least in Boston.

The next two nights the Sox will have their two best starters on the hill with Jon Lester getting the go tomorrow against Nick Blackburn and Josh Beckett closing the series against Livan Hernandez. The better game will probably be tomorrow night, but who doesn't want to see the battle of the dueling fatties on Wednesday? I know I do.

The New Style?

As if you didn’t know already, the Tampa Bay Rays are for real. I know some people who still think they are playing above their heads and are waiting for the reality that they are the Rays to settle in as they fade down the stretch. As much as I would like that, I don’t see it happening any time soon. I’m expecting that they battle all the way down to the wire or run away with the division if Boston can’t get healthy or New York can’t find their way.

Last night was the first game after the infamously embarrassing brawl started by Coco Crisp and Rays pitcher James Shields. For me, it was just flat out frustrating to watch given the fact that even though it was close for most of the night, the Sox just never seemed like they were in it. Plus the annoyance of the wondering if some Busch League antics were going to transpire.

So now with the Rays one and a half games in first, each time the put more distance between them and the second place Sox (gulp) it’s going to get more attention considering the Rays come All-Star Break are generally around 25.5 games back. If Boston continues to lose when the play at Tropicana Field I may give up watching Sports Center in the morning, as it will probably lead off each and every day with nothing going on in terms of anything interesting going on in sports.

The Sox are now officially on a slide being the owners of a three game losing streak. Hopefully they can get off the deck tonight against Matt Garza. They won’t get any freebees from him, so they’ll have to earn the W and try to avoid a forth straight loss and the prospect of being behind the Rays by two and a half games. Let’s see if Tim Wakefield can go back to his traditional modus operandi of owning the Rays in Tampa.