Entries Tagged 'Playas' ↓

I had a tome of a post planned for today and then got completely torn in fifty directions. I’ll now condense my thoughts to bullet form as not to kill you like a Curt Schilling diatribe.

The Good

• The Sox are back in first place (by 1.5 games).
• The Rivalry continues, with or without Daubach or Nixon.
• Ellsbury’s hand did not get separated from his body when he made the play against Longoria.
• Sean Casey is a “company man” and is willing to kinda’, sorta’ play the role of Trot Nixon.
• That whole “what do we do with the Ellsbury / Coco platoon thing” is over for a while…
• The Rays have left the city after going 0-6 at Fenway this year.

The Bad

• The Rays have left the city.
• Jonny Gomes is now one notch above Posada on the disgust-o-meter (and that’s saying something).
• Carl Crawford is now a mortal enemy and a TOTAL punk… (insert other choice expletives).
• Jon Lester hit two people and will be suspended.
• J. D. Drew had NOTHING to do with the fight. NOTHING.

The Stupid

Coco Crisp has become an insane human being over a small, silly chain of events. When he woke up yesterday morning, there was no question that if he got hit he would charge the mound and take a swing. It was premeditated and it wasn’t even warranted in my opinion.

He went after the wrong player and then instead of taking it like a man and walking to first base, he charges the mound like a little super freak.

All kinds of baseball etiquette was blown away this week with the Rays and the Sox. Let’s hope they put this away and forget about it.

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).

So we’re 12 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting and they don’t seem to have their bench worked out.

While I realize this should be (and apparently is) the least of their worries, Theo’s minions should be trying to land a left handed bat pretty soon. I’m sure Hinske is still available…

Regardless of who they find, my guess is that it’ll come together as part of a Coco trade. Keep your eyes on a hot, Triple A prospect or someone’s veteran fourth outfielder to go along with the pitching they’d be looking to grab (you can never have enough pitching).

Side note not related to this topic: Picking up David Aardsma might actually be a solid decision. He is injury-free and even though his numbers were downright atrocious before he went back to Triple A, he may be young enough to shake it off and do a nice job as a middle reliever.

Pavano and his monster bust of a contract. I am most certainly the LAST thing from being a Yankees fan, but I can absolutely see how the crowd down south is major-league ticked off at this point.

Here’s the thing: The Yankees want Pavano to sign a minor league deal and get the hell off the 40 man roster. Can’t blame them.

Pavano doesn’t want to sign a minor league deal, regardless of the fact that he’ll STILL make over 12 million dollars this year even though he won’t likely throw a ball off the Yankees mound. He states that his rights will be taken away from him under the collective bargaining agreement.

If I were the Yankees brass, including Daddy Clone Hank, I’d go to the Commissioner’s office and really dive into how this could be forced.

It’s one thing to miss a month or so because of a dog injury (Manny?), but it’s a totally different story to have a lying, cheating idiot who knowingly takes millions of dollars without any semblance of performance.

Pavano is my dog of the year.

When my youngest son was very little, he watched a show on PBS called Between the Lions which featured a cartoon segment called “The Adventures of Cliff Hanger”, his signature song/catchphrase being:

“Can’t… hold… on… much… lonnnngerrrrrrr….”

Every time the Sox lose a game this year I’ve had this stupid catchphrase in my head. It’s been a horrid week of disappointment from the Fenway 9 with Beckett and Lowell supplying the only real badge of courage and champion behavior. How amazing is it that we find the Sox making their own troubles and creating an even tighter race? With the lead cut down to 3.5 games, it’s not without some element of doubt that we live our collective lives in the Nation.

Wakefield has truly struggled since he announced a stiff back a few weeks ago. It can’t possibly be feeling better with his pitching the way it is. Don’t blame Mirabelli’s absence, Timmy. We can’t take it as an excuse. You’re a 41 year-old who schooled at Florida Institute of Technology. You should have the brain juice and rationale to be able to pitch without a security blanket.

So… in the Wake of last night’s game… Can they hold on?