Entries Tagged 'Craig Hansen' ↓
June 15th, 2008 — Coco, Craig Hansen, Papelbon, Standings, Youkilis
It’s happening already: the talk about the Sox taking on the Cubs in the World Series.
Right now? I’m not sure anyone wants to face the Cubs. They seem to be on a holy war effort to claim a post season spot, and even with Soriano taking a six week break, the Cubbies are on pace to keep the best record in baseball by the All-Star break.
Papelbon bailed out…
It took back-t0-back home runs by Youk and Crisp (you may want to cut and paste or bookmark this page since I believe it’ll be the last time that happens in Boston) to save Paps from a loss. He blew the save (his first blown save since May 9), and it looked like Hanson was going to cough it up again in the 10th, but the Sox stuck it to them and Youk can have his ALMOST cycle day in Cinci’ (he was just missing a triple).
May 6th, 2008 — Craig Hansen, Dice-K, Papelbon
Dice-K gave up EIGHT, count ‘em, EIGHT walks last night in a WIN in Detroit. How he could possibly escape after issuing eight walks is beyond me. Just to put this into perspective: Dice-K just gave up more walks in one game than David Wells did in his last partial season with the Sox. So far, the Dice-K gamble is paying off because the rest of the team seems to give him a ton of run support.
His starts haven’t been quality starts, but they’ve been wins. He’s 5-0.
Oh, and as far as Craig Hansen goes: I don’t think he’s major league ready. I’m not sure he ever will be and I don’t fully blame him. He came from St. John’s and pitched in his first-ever season in professional baseball, got knocked around and then sent back to the minors without much fanfare. They tell him, hey, it’s not going to work unless you get that changeup going. It’s still not going. His slider, I will say, is coming along pretty well. Also, I saw a level of anger that he’ll need to tone down; it’s absolutely affecting his delivery.
Want controlled anger (read: insanity)? Paps has his 10th save in 10 tries. He’s like a machine.
The Sox won, in Detroit, and they lead the division by 3.5 games. Not bad for all the issues they’ve had in this young season.