Entries Tagged 'Manny' ↓

Manny stood at the plate and took a massive but fluid swing at the first pitch from former Sox pitcher Chad Bradford and hit the ball about 410 yards to the opposite field. It was, without question, his nicest home run this year.

Ramirez will never win a gold glove, but he is one of the best natural hitters the game has ever seen.

Alright. The Rays couldn’t handle the Cardinals, and the Brewers couldn’t get anything out of the Sox, so the Fenway Faithful get to see their boys back in the top slot of the AL East.

Interestingly enough, I didn’t think the Sox would fare as well as they did (even with all the errors this weekend) against the Brewers. In fact, I had my mental prediction the other way around. If I were to pick a group of National League players to follow, I’d follow J.J. Hardy, Braun, Fielder and Gwynn. They all have a massive amount of talent and the Brewers will definitely do some major damage once their pitching is settled.

Speaking of pitching, Justin Masterson will make his second MLB start tomorrow (Tuesday) against the Royals and … drum roll… is that the smell of “Colon”? Why, yes… it’s Bartolo Colon, who will make his first Red Sox start on Wednesday. Personally, I think this is going to be a HUGE difference maker to the season. Bartolo is currently throwing in the upper 90s and seems to have his head back in the game. It’s like picking up a #4 free agent for nothing.

Other thoughts:

• Ellsbury got caught for the first time in his career. 25 straight without being tagged. That’s two shy of Tim Raines’ record.
• Varitek is such a great catcher, but he looks so weak at the plate sometimes.
• BOOM, Papi. Boom.
• Pedroia takes every opportunity he can find, doesn’t he?
• Beckett found his long ball pitch. Let’s put that back in the locker and hide it again, shall we?
• Craig Hansen is nowhere near the prospect he was when he pitched at Saint John’s. It may be one contract and out for that kid.
• The Yankees don’t have a chance this year unless they find a way to hit out of the cellar; pitching is not going to do it for them.
• Manny is deeply mired in a lack of power; no doubt putting pressure on himself over the next 2 homers.
• The Sox need to keep it going against the Royals. Losing this series will hurt them in the long run.
• The Celtics game was WAY too close. Par for the course on their season. Hopefully they won’t end up with the same destiny as the Pats (all this way for nothing).

Again, it’s a roller coaster of walks and biting the nails sometimes with Dice-K, but he was saved by the numbers 8 (Crisp) and 9 (Lowrie) and Paps to remain unbelievably undefeated. He has a Jon Lester record this year; squeaking out wins despite weird and sometimes erratic pitching.

Congratulations to Jed Lowrie, who will no doubt be a big-leaguer someday, who hit his first MLB home run. He golfed it out of the park just in to the third row, but that’s a huge deal for the kid. He explained to the reporters that the person gave him the ball from the stands if he received a Beckett-autographed baseball (which Beckett did… but probably tainted with chawjuice just to show he’s not a pansy when he signs balls and dates your sister).

Manny went 0-5… Not the quickest way to hitting 500.

Ortiz went 0-4. Expect him to be taken out of the lineup this year for his knee again. If not only for the DL rest, then possibly for another trip under the arthroscope.

Mr. Greg Maddux, please come forward to accept your award. Future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, holder of four Cy Young awards, a World Series ring and 17 Gold Gloves has finally reached a hell of a milestone: he’s the 9th pitcher in MLB history to record 350 wins. Simply, totally amazing. A career that, so far, spans 23 years in which only ONE season was not above 15 wins… this guy is one of the best pitchers of our generation and it’s been a pleasure to follow his career.

Finally, Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there. Children: do something nice, but do it yourself.

Between the lazy chase of Manny in left to miss a play (resulting in a two-run lead), to Jon Lester’s lazy afternoon, laboring through 5 and 1/3 innings of awful pitching and Julio Lugo’s  13th (!!) error of the young season, the Sox need to wake up and get hungry.

Right now, there are a few people who have their heads in the right place but it seems like the team as an entity is experiencing some trouble clicking on all cylinders.

Last night’s game in Minnesota (one of my all-time least favorite places to see a televised game — probably the top one now that the Seattle Dome of Doom is dead) looked like an exhibition game or Spring Training.

The Sox need to get a little fire going. Maybe some frustrating losses (and a couple more blown saves, perhaps) will put the fire into the team. Who can say. It just seems like they mailed it in last night.

In the next few days Manny will reach the magic plateau for getting in the Hall (not like he didn’t belong there already, mind you). Ramirez currently has 496 home runs; this tally becoming evident when in the eighth inning his blasted shot went over the wall like the 495 before it.

I’ve always been amazed at Manny’s power. Even to opposite field, this guy has always been a true power hitter. And, it should be mentioned, without being brought into the scandal of steroids. In Tom Verducci’s piece for SI.com, he points to Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas, two players in particular who have risen above the scandal and become the true Hall of Famers in an otherwise scandalous era. While I’m not 100% convinced that Griffey is safe from eventual scrutiny (or found documents suggesting he did something), I do believe that it’s time to recognize that there still exists (and always have) players who can play at such a high level without succumbing to the evils of PEDs.

I’m not sure that Manny will play out the full extent of his next contract, regardless of where he signs, but I am pretty sure that he’ll get to his personal goal of 600 home runs.