Entries Tagged 'Bartolo Colon' ↓

I look at the standings and I keep my cool. The Rays are a legitimate contender until someone kicks them in the private parts. The best part about this? I AM SO HAPPY IT’S NOT THE TYPICAL YANKEE RIVALRY. I yell because I care.

Clay Feet

The Clay Buchholz experiment is simply not working out so far this year. The kid is having a hell of a time adjusting to his first year in the Bigs and it looks like his confidence takes a hit each time out of the gate. I can’t help wonder if maybe a flip-flop between Masterson and Buchholz (starter vs. ‘pen) would have been a better decision; recognizing the no-hitter and the length of service.

It might be time to speed up the progress for Colon and see if he can jump in there for a couple starts.

Manny Being a #$(%$* ?

Listen, Manny can do whatever he wants and the club won’t do much about it. Whatever happens to his contract from here on out is anyone’s guess. Is he worth $20 million per year? Is he only worth that if he’s protected by Ortiz? His mischief does not bug me, but having an all-out fight with a 60-something year-old man wasn’t obviously very bright. He’ll still be here next year, I’m sure. It seems that he’s a necessary evil when things aren’t going his way and it’s a guaranteed hall of fame player when things are. Where’s Schilling in all of this? I’m surprised he hasn’t spoken up about the situation.

Yesterday was a day of milestones. Personal ones. For Colon and David Ortiz.

Colon (4-1, 3.41 ERA), the bargain of the century,  has done what Clay and Schilling should be this year, but didn’t even show up until he dropped a few pounds and learned to harness his control.

Granted, Colon isn’t going to put a hole in Varitek’s hand anymore, but his 91-93 MPH fastball is extremely effective when he throws a mean 85 MPH change.  Who knows if he’ll keep this up all year, but wow, what a total bargain. Nice call, guys.

Big Papi, an icon of today’s baseball world, celebrated his naturalization as a U.S. Citizen. Red Sox President Larry Lucchino was in attendance.

With Bartolo pitching as well as he is and Buccholz struggling, the call was made to option the pitcher down to Pawtucket. I don’t blame them one bit. Buccholz and Lester have roller coaster experience this year and no one is sure where they’ll wind up (W or L).

I’m sure with the way Bartolo is going, this wasn’t too hard a decision. One small thing, though, is that Buccholz doesn’t seem to do well when he’s frustrated, so we’ll see if this has any long-term impact.

The thought of Bartolo coming in as a 5th starter and taking Clay’s place while he deals with his fingernail issue is just as predicted: Bartolo is like picking up an in-season free agent. The start last night by Colon was so economical that he looked like he could have taken another 4 innings.

Papi, you sir, are a rock star. By the way, Papi is making his presence known off the field as well. He’s been speaking out about the pace of games and has made some comments in the direction of Bud Selig about how MLB should stop pressuring people to quicken the pace.

Pedroia is the kind of player everyone should have on their team, but one or MAYBE two would be enough.

The baseball gods keep smiling on Dice-K. How else do you explain 432 walks and 17,344 pitches? The fact that Dice-K is 8-0 is incredibly deceiving to people who don’t read box scores.

In other words, how ’bout that run support?

Two grand slams by Drew (who must have a non-aching knee cap) and Lowell (washed up, WUT now!?). I’m impressed. Not as impressed as I was seeing Colon get out there and look all smug when he gets a strikeout (incidentally, that same look made me want to throw something at the television when he was doing it for the Angels).

The Sox have a great amount of momentum heading out West where they’ll either be met with a really angry and pumped Oakland team or a rolling over, playing dead group who really wish they’d just get this thing over only to realize that they aren’t even at the All-Star break yet.

I’m not one of those people who makes it past the third inning when they start at 10PM, but I’m more comfortable knowing they head out West riding a seven game winning streak and a rested Varitek.