all things BOSOX thread

Didn't they pickup Andre Agassi?

I read on BP that their only middle infielders right now are Nomar, Pokey Reese, and Bellhorn? From his time with the Cubs and Rockies, I believe Bellhorn played 3B and 2B most of the time. I'm sure he could fill in at SS, but it might be kind of ugly. I'll not even get into the offensive ramifications.

the globe is reporting that trot nixon will be out until may as well. looks like he didn't respond well to the epidural they gave him last week.

nomar is fine, nixon is out for the first month.

according to nick cafardo francona may use pokey reese at short and either bellhorn or terry shumpert at the keystone.

Griffey will break his spleen next week while eating a bacon burger dog.

Hypergonadism in June.

the correct answer, of course, is elephantitis.

http://www.asstastic.org/images/griffey.jpg

with thanks to mattbot.

Damn that tonic!

But, yeah, Red Sox - I (a Red Sox fan vociferously against what the Red Sox Nation stands for) have been commissioned by a webzine to write an essay about Red Sox / Yankees relations (which, of course, I haven't started), so I feel I have to say SOMETHING here that pertains to crimson footwear.

So I guess, assuming Nomah & Trot aren't available for Opening Day (well, Trot's a given no-show), the line-up will look like:

C: Varitek
1B: Millar / Ortiz
2B: Bellhorn
SS: Pokey
3B: Mueller
LF: MANNY!
CF: Frozen Caveman Flycatcher
RF: Kapler
DH: Ortiz / Burks

I'd love to see Ellis out in the OF in place of Trot, but his knees & back & bursitis & glaucoma might prove to be a hindrance out in the field. I fear Mueller's going to hit more like Pokey than Nomah this year, but experts are supposing Millar's going to improve on last year (which means he'll start off shit hot & not fall off the face of the earth after the All-Star break), so that could possibly balance out. (Note: I am not doing any math, so feel free to crunch numbers and prove me wrong.)

However, I also heard that Ortiz might decline from last year (his 1st year seeing regular platoon-free action), which I doubt will happen, given his age and resemblance to a kick-ass Mo Vaughn. Bellhorn & Pokey MIGHT equal Walker in terms of OPS type numbers, but only if Bellhorn hits more like he did for the Cubbies a couple years ago, and Pokey hits less like he has for most of his career. Both of them should be a lot better in the field than Boot-Boy, though.

Regardless, any loss in the hitting dept. should be offset by the improvements in the pitching dept. If all they did was heave-ho Burkett & replace him with a pitching machine, there'd be improvement. As is, a rotation featuring a cancer-free Derek Lowe, a Questec-free (cough) Curt Schilling, a contract-seeking Pedro, Wonderboy Tim Wakefield and His Conniving Knuckler, and the helping friendly bird-free Byung is a nice rotation to have. And sweet crap, that bullpen is gorgeous, especially compared to the leprotic toothless hag that crawled out of Florida last Spring. Not that Grady's inconsistent usage patterns helped any.

Even if Nomar misses about a month with his troubles (AND BARRING FURTHER INJURY) (NO GIMPS), there's plenty of chance for this team to do very very very well. As in "best team in majors" well. And, you know, it'd be nice if the team with the 2nd highest payroll in baseball actually shook off that idiotic "underdog" mantle.

my most vivid (and perhaps the one that leaves the worst taste in my mouth) fenway memory is of a game against the d-rays 4 or 5 years ago in which a yanqui fan wearing a jeter t-shirt responded to taunts and jeers by extending both middle fingers on outstretched arms as he entered the mens room. once inside the cinderblock walls he was set upon and stomped (there's no other word for it) by maybe 8 or 10 fans. it was ugly and it pretty much says all you need to know about the state of red sox/yanqui relations as far as fans go.

my guess for opening day (assuming there's no nixon [it's becoming more obvious that his back was killing him before he signed that low-ball contract] and no nomar):

c- varitek
1b- ortiz
2b- bellhorn
ss- reese
3b- mueller
lf- manny
cf- chalie manson
rf- millar
dh- burks

what do you think about kapler playing 3rd this spring? or how about d-lowe and his sub 1.00 era? he's been so efficient that the sox aren't sure he's throwing enough pitches in his tune up starts (something rediculous like 50 pitches in 6 innings in his last outing)? if lowe can be the d-lowe of 2002 things will be a LOT more interersting.

No one will ever supplant Mueller at 3b. Except maybe Russ Davis.

hey david, i for one would love to see that article when you're; hope you'll hook us up.

your analysis was spot on although kim could certainly be the number three man and not just a nice back end as you implied.

nomar is going to miss like 4 days at most from what i heard; i can't tell if you guys know that or not. and burks was a nice little pickup, eh?

ahem "when you're DONE"

Shit, I forgot Millar plays OF too! Otto is OTM, then, and that awful story is Reason #4682 why I'm not so fond of RSN. I mean, the level of hatred should never rise above the level of "Yankees suck, Jeter blows!" / "You know why he wears #2, don'tcha?" rhetoric, and MAYBE (just MAYBE) the occasional fart in the face.

I haven't been following Spring Training @ all this year, so Lowe's uber-eficiency is (welcome) news to me! I was a bit skeptical re: his excuse for the poor start last year - his excuse being that the removal of the cancerous crap on his nose set him back about 6 weeks re: his pre-season training regiment, & he never got on track because of it - since, being the cynical bastard I am, I figured Lowe 2K2 was a big fat ol' fluke. But if he's doing this well right now, I would like to think that he could approach 2K2-like levels - I think a large part of his success that year had to do w/ the shock of it all, coupled with his unerring efficiency (he went a LONG while between home runs given up, if I remember correctly).

And Rey Sanchez @ 2nd base! Did I mention Todd Walker's defensive ineptitude yet? He should be a Yankee, he's so bad (ha ha) (oh, but I kid - the Yankees would be lucky to have him) (ha ha). I've read a few writers drool-laden praise of Pokey's elan around the bag, so, yeah, those grounders better watch out.

I hope the hitting coach makes Pokey do push-ups every time he flies out to an outfielder in BP, though. If I see him pop out to second with men on 1st & 3rd w/ 1 out, I'm going to forget I'm such a fucking nice guy.

Oh, yeah - and the modified batting lineup (with what I thunk be thar plate side):

Shaggy (L)
Mueller (S)
Manuel (R)
Ortiz (L)
Burks (R)
Varitek (S)
Millar (R)
Bellhorn (S)
The Pokinator (R)

And, John, I'd be more than happy to pimp that essay when / if it gets itself written.

Lee, the heir apparent to Mueller is obviously Mike Blowers. Get it straight, chief.

Pokey Reese will do fine, as long as you are not expecting bunches of offense. He did well for the Reds, the couple of years he played in Cinci (at 2b or ss when Larkin was hurt).

if they're looking to play up the fatalistic 'always tantalizingly close but never there' angle and tie it in with the collapses of the past i would suggest "and now they're coming for us" as a title.

"GRADY PULL HIS DEAD ASS OUT"

Are you saying that wasn't the biggest NYC story to come out of spring training yesterday? What's your point?

Shaq, could you stop beating around the bush and just say what you mean?

I'm not huge on over-moderating but you really need to chill out.

well a couple of things:

#1 this isn't ilm

#2 you may think that a trolly internet persona is edgy, fun and exciting but i don't consider myself a fan of that particular style

i don't mind smack talk, but keep the immature personal attacks and instigating off this board. if you don't think you can handle that, you're gonna have to find another place to troll.

so it looks like derek lowe is playing his last season in boston. i wonder, if (and this is a HUGE if) pedro is only marginally more effective than lowe if the sox would choose to part ways with pete rather than lowe. that would save them a large chunk of change and get them under the luxury tax limit, which they currently exceed by $5 million. they've got to re-sign varitek. they've got to re-sign nomar. hopefully pedro will have a year that will make it impossible for the sox not to re-sign him but what if he doesn't? what's the market for starters going to look like next year?

they've got shoppach in the minors (who may be ready next year correct?) and renteria is a FA. unless lowe returns to 2002 form (doubtful, imo) or pedro goes down, he's not close in value. i see them splurging on pedro (15M?), signing edgar (if nomar won't compromise), bringing shoppach up (if he's not ready, i still don't see them re-signing varitek unless he has a great year), and finding a ~4.00 ERA guy to replace lowe (arroyo?).

oh, re: the market, it was looking pretty good about a year (especially for non-boston teams) ago but it's since thinned out. aside from lowe and pedro, i think the big name is matt morris, but i would assume he stays in stl if renteria goes. i think millwood accepted arbitration in philly so he's a FA again. i feel like there's one more "name" pitcher but i can't remember who. either of those guys plus lowe would probably cost upwards of 20M and none of them look at all like sure things right now.

i think lowe is going to have a fantastic year. he wasn't as bad as his numbers looked last year. becuase of his cancer scare he didn't work out over the winter. consequently he was never in shape in spring training and sucked dog ass until the end of may. by august he was again the sox second best starter and his work in the playoffs wasn't bad. from what i hear and have read his sinker is falling off the table again. granted i know it's only spring training but i'll take a sub .200 average against and a sub 2.00 any time.

pokey reese will be a huge help as well. before spring i was figuring him for a ~3.75 ERA. it appears he may best that, but i still don't see a return to 2002 in the cards.

i don't really see him returning to boston next year no matter what, due almost entirely to scott boras. epstein & co. are not the type to overpay, and i believe that will be a prerequisite for retaining lowe.

If you think about it logically, D. Lowe is bound to have an awesome year this year...... Once the team are all healthy again, he'll have pokey at 2nd and Nomar at SS. As a sinkerball pitcher, there's going to be a hell of a lot of groundballs hit towards those two guys. It's going to be double-play city out there. I don't think much will get past them... Which in turn, will make D. Lowes stats look awesome. I'm totally buzzing about this year. I think this could finally be the year for us. WOO HOO!

that's true; i gave a mention to the pokey factor above. he probably could've shaved a half point + off of lowe's ERA by himself last year (just speculating there). if lowe pitches better, and i think many expect he will, he's an easy 12M dollar pitcher.

mendoza out, malaska in. let's hope he's a quality lefty out of the pen.

trot's back is coming around.

most encouraging part of the article was this: "Nixon dutifully reported that he barely feels any pain anymore; in fact, he upgraded his condition to "a nag."

"On a [pain] scale of 0 to 10, I'd say it's a 1 1/2," he said"

What the fuck is Pete's problem tonight? I'm not watching the game.

God, I love Pedro. I mean, I hate him, but I love him.

i just hate him.

good news for bh kim and the remaindermen, kim is going to skip his last rehab start and take the hill against tampa. also updates on rehabs of trot nixon and nomar.

nice, i got byung hyun off the waiver wire in my other league.

I got my yankees hater hat in the mail yesterday. Its brilliant.

www.yankeeshater.com

i saw the one schilling was wearing at the bruins game. ugly.

thats the one i got. Not ugly at all.

I hate that Yankee hating has become commercialized. Red Sox Nation sold out, man! What happened to non-commodified bile and rage? I don't need no steenkin' hat / shirt / glow-in-the-dark condom - well, maybe I could put the last one to use. In bed.

the boston globe presents the stars of the boston red sox sequel.

pedro was my favorite.

I liked this story.

Management's got it covered
By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff  |  April 30, 2004

For years, the seats in the center-field triangle have been covered by a black tarp during day games, in order to provide hitters a backdrop unimpeded by white shirts that would make it difficult to pick up the baseball leaving a pitcher's hand.

But yesterday afternoon, Sox management came up with an ingenious way to make use of those seats, helping them to resolve how to accommodate the spectators who had purchased those seats for Tuesday's night game, which was rained out and made up yesterday.

The 420 fans who had seats in the two affected sections, 34 and 35, were given green T-shirts and a handbill asking them not to move around except between half-innings. Duct tape also was placed over the seat numbers, so as not to pick up any reflections.

henry is one cunning little miser.

"little"

I had a dream last night that I saw some of the Red Sox walking out to the team bus after the game and Damon had cut his hair and shaved. The dream also somehow involved a Civil War battle re-enactment.

well Pedro the little gerri curled bitch is off and complaining again about his contract. Hey Pedro, there is no I in TEAM.

but there is a ME.

errr, pitching quantrill with the game on the line is pretty riske, if you know what i mean.

nice one.

one or more of quantrill/gordon/rivera will either spend time on the dl or develop a serious case of deadarm before the end of the season/postseason. hopefully the yanks will make a hard charge at guardado, who would both fill the lefty role and give them much-needed depth. i'd say that should be priority #2 after getting a good starter.

brown had a so-so rehab start and, i'm guessing, will make at least one more. i haven't heard anything suggesting moose will be out for an extended time, but who knows.

sheff has been our offense for the past month and half, so if he goes...

Is Giambi looking like the worst Yankee signing in recent memory or what?

i dunno.

at this point, it looks like he's pulling an albert belle, but i suppose it really depends on how he finishes this year. he was pretty damn good his first year w/ the yanks and at least put up some decent power numbers last year.

but more and more i start thinking...steve balboni.

Ken Phelps

Kevin Maas?

Alex "the best player in baseball" Rodriguez?

(ie, how do his VORP, RC, RARP #s compare to previous seasons?)

Giambi's VORP thru the years:

2001 OAK 123.6
2002 NYY 101.0
2003 NYY  57.2
2004 NYY  10.0

Ouch.

similarly:

A-Rod VORP
2001 TEX 111.6
2002 TEX  94.7
2003 TEX  96.3
2004 NYY  40.0

park effects are probably playing a big role for a-rod this year, but a lot of the time's i've seen him it really looks like he's pressing. he's been dreadful in any kind of pressure situation you can think of so that might give some weight to that theory.

with giambi's knee, you never know. he could be at the end of the road, or he could just be feelling the effects of those parasites. he was rolling around may but has since fallen off a cliff. and sheffield is looking like the next to go. this in addition to the pitching problems, so my worst fears/predictions are coming true. plus, this team just doesn't look like a playoff team. the starting pitching is completely unpredictable.

how much of A-Rod's "greatness" do you think is attributed to playing in The Ballpark for a last place team for 3 seasons? i have a friend who's a big A-Rod fan and this is the angle I take with him.

I'm still wondering why A-Rod was ever called "the best player in baseball", while Bonds and Pujols are around (and the fact he was a SS prior to this year doesn't mean much in my opinion). Plus he was helped by playing in Arlington as well

arod's road numbers 01-03:
.278/.375/.564

04:
.255/.356/.543

the only diff is 23 points of batting average, which can be made up in a hurry. he's got 15 HRs on the road and only 9 at home. (from 01-03, 86 HRs at home, 70 on the road)

if you wanna see why arod was called the best, check out 2000-2001-2002, where, in his mid-20s, he put up pujols-like offensive numbers while stealing bags at will and fielding a GG caliber shortstop. he was called the best because he WAS the best. i'd still say he's the best all-around player in baseball.

ramirez also seems to be underrated now that pujols has splashed onto the seen..since '99 he's mashed as well as anyone this side of barry bonds and is having an amazing year (as good as pujols '03) but doesn't seem to be getting much attention. which is fine with me, actually.

i like your logic:

HE'D BE THE GREATEST PLAYER EVER IF THE YANQUIS DEALT HIM TO THE ROCKIES!!!

Is he even the best SS on the Yanquis?
Isn't Michael Young having a better year than A-Rod at SS in Texas?

ahh but in 2000-2002 no one could come close to touching Barry, not even A-Rod, and in '01 Sosa would have beaten him as well. I'm not as high on the overall importance of SBs and defense as others, though.

or "importance of position" either

2000 was safeco, dude.
young has an .873 ops, so...no.

erm, position is vastly important...just a sec

ah okay, i checked on M.Young vs. A-Rod a little earlier in the season and M. Young was cleaning A-Rod's clock.

I believe somewhat in the marginal utility of a good hitter in a position normally not known for such but I feel there is way too much emphasis when you overvalue it.

first, the raw defensive aspect of it...http://www.tangotiger.net/UZR9903TT.html. that's got arod at +10 runs, barry at -9, so that's a 19 run diff per season. as for offense (and i hope i'm not double counting here), assume we're talking about barry + average offensive SS vs. arod + average offensive LF. the avg shorstop has an eqa of .258; the avg leftfielder, .283. this season, that's roughly the difference between (on offense) carl crawfod/luis gonzalez/moises alou and craig counsell/chris gomez/royce clayton, which is pretty considerable.

Are we taking into account ballpark factors?

yeah. i can't get an exact runs number but i'd guess if it was calculated that way it'd amount to about 40 runs per season in favor of a-rod.

just using epsn's not-park-adjusted RC, that would put bonds from 00-03 at 666 runs created (hmm), arod at 733 RC. the huge park factor differences would put bonds in the lead again. still, the gap wasn't all THAT huge (even if i'm way overvaluing the position diff), and a-rod tromped bonds in 2000 when the "best player in baseball" talk really got cooking. people have a natural bias against one-dimensional players and toward guys who can beat you in multiple ways, so i don't think this is a big deal.

I'd venture a dropoff similar to ARod's home/road splits in his RC, I imagine the Park Adjusted #s would show Bonds (and a few others) way ahead of A-DropInVorp.

A-Rod is of course a great, great player who might well finish with 3500 hits, 800 HR, and 2000 RBI, but I'd still take Bonds over him right now, and probably Pujols.

i would too. i think. definitely bonds, who's basically a one-man offense.

Watching the first few innings of the Red Sox shellacing Tampa, they flashed some interesting stats. The Red Sox record in 1 run games was 8 below .500, at something like 7 and 15. The Sox had also had something like 78 un-earned runs. Take out Schilling and Pedro, the rest of the staff is four games under .500.

Take out Schilling and Pedro and this team is a pile of shit. Its halfway there anyways.

And that was said AFTER they drop 14 on the D-Rays!

they may as well take a steaming dump on home plate. this team sucks and in my opinion has no shot at the playoffs

I don't disagree w/ that assessment, though I'd change "sucks" to "has bad luck & a VP with piss-poor PR & people skillz".

A 7-15 record in one-run games is staggeringly unlucky for a team around .550. I think that alone indicates they're at worst co-favorites for the wild card.

"has no shot at the playoffs..."

American League W L GB Left
Anaheim 63 51 -- 48
Boston 62 50 -- 50
Texas 61 51 1.0 50
Cleveland 60 55 3.5 47
Chi White Sox 56 55 5.5 51

I'd say they are in pretty good shape considering the problems they had in the first half. After hearing that stat about the unearned runs and the losses in one run games, it is no wonder they went out and got a 1b and ss that could field the position well. They could use another good starter, but most teams in baseball could use another one.

The Angels may have a better bullpen, but they don't have a starter as good as Pedro or Schilling and their hitting is good, but not as deep as Boston. Texas has less pitching and hitting than Boston. It is more likely that Cleveland can overtake the Twins than get hot enough to win the wildcard. I think the injuries are catching up to Minnesota and they really lack a big bat in their lineup.

Boston season is similar to the Cubs, they have had problems, but are in pretty good shape. I think that trade, while not popular, may be what the Red Sox needed. Getting Williamson healthy would definitely help, but it doesn't look like he will be ready for a while.

boston are easy favorites for the wildcard because:

i)they're better than all the other teams
ii)the other teams will be taking big bites out of each other due to the unbalanaced schedule

I heard Williamson's forearm swelled up during a throwing session & he's getting shut down for the year. Given that the bullpen's rec'd questionable stuff from any currently healthy pitcher not named Foulke (though Ramiro's looked quite good during Francona's "ease him back into meaningful appearances" campaign) (and there's always the chance that the mercurial Byung can contribute, but I read a minor league report about BYK getting freaked out by large crowds, so maybe he's not an option), it would behoove the starters to pitch efficiently.

Or it'd behoove the offense to slap crooked numbers on the board at all possible opportunities. Millar's had a fine 6 weeks, & while Bellhorn's injury did suck, the Greek God is holding the fort down nicely (and, from what I've seen, Youk / OC / Mueller / Minky is a better defensive IF than Mueller / OC / Bellhorn / Minky, but I can't definitively say that). I don't know Trot's status, though - will he come back this year? if he does, will Millar & Nixon platoon RF?

Right now, with the injuries they've incurred, the Sox are fielding their best post-NG hitting lineup. The big assbite's gonna come when Bellhorn & Nixon become available, and someone's bat is going to have to ride the pine so that OC & Minky can make like Tom Emanski training coaches. Which will then lead to Francona offering different lineups almost every night (cf. Bobby V, Jimy Williams), which will undoubtedly lead to more pissmoaning (cf. Millar's recent outburst). Which will lead to a situation where the Sox might be on the outside looking in at a Yankees / Angels NLDS in October.

Why are the BoSox so intent on keeping Youkilis on the bench?

he's also the greek god of bench warming.

He bruised his leg Sunday, X-rays and DL pending.

Home plate collision during the ChiSox series. Alomar got hurt in the hit, too (shocking, yes, I know, Sandy Alomar getting hurt).

Minky @ 2B = not a good look (aesthetically speaking).

White Sox catchers haven't had the best luck with collisions at the plate. Coincidence or not, they seemed to lose it from the moment Torii Hunter laid their catcher out a few weeks back.

Arroyo's curveball is NASTY when it's working. He's a very good pitcher!

hmm, i should be watching that game but when i checked in it looked like a slugfest and those always suck.

wow, manny is just destroying those guys.

oh GOD so i tune in to see the worst strike call of the year, on a 2 out, 2-1 timlin fastball to everett w/ the bases loaded. 8 inches outside, it was pathetic. everett struck out on the next pitch.

at least it was crazy carl at the plate. he vented my rage for me pretty nicely.

varitek is insanely hot right now. i've always hated that swarthy bastard.

That 2-1 pitch was frickin' brutal. If I was crazy Carl I would've slugged that ump, that was such a travesty. It was a traveshamockery. And listen to McCarver, "that pitch may have been outside, but close enough to call if it's not strike 3". What in God's name is that moron talking about?? He is the absolute WORST. God bless Deion Sanders, that's all I have to say.

I'm sorry, I'm not one to complain about umpires, but that was flat-out RIDICULOUS.

yeah and it was a TAILING fastball going AWAY from the outside corner of the plate. it wasn't a strike from the moment it left his hand. i guess i was fuming too much to hear mccarver's comment, thank god.

The Boston Red Sox repay their fans by raising ticket prices 7%. Who said buying a championship was hard work?

g!, the bitterness stench is making my eyes tear up over here. Please to rein in the incredulity.

Haha!

"Yeah, sure they don't spend as much as NYY but they're the lesser of 2 evils...." sounds like something out of an early John Kerry campaign roundtable.