Wednesday News and notes

I hope you caught the Celtics game last night, with out KG it was a tough game but they were able to pull it out with an amazing last second shot by Ray Allen. It is great to see the Celtics win 12 in a row well anyway here are some news and notes form the Boston area.

- So as I mentioned the Celtics won last night, and I hoping that with Jameer Nelsons injury that Ray Allen will find his way onto the All Star squad where he belongs. The latest is that Nelson has torn his labrum and will most likely miss the rest of the season. Here is an article from Robert Lee in the ProJo that talks about Ray Allens Chances. If your not watching the Celtics, WATCH THEM!!!

- Great article on Boston.com today about Carl Yaztrzemski and how he is working with his grandson Mike who seems like a pretty good prospect. You don't see a lot of prospects coming out of this area but this would be the second decent prospect from St. John's Prep. For those of you who don't remember Matt Antonelli, he was drafted 17th in 2006 by the Padres. He made a brief appearance las tyear and will most likely spend most of the year in Triple A.

- Final thing I just wanted to get out there for all of you who are debating the whole Matt Cassel Franchise Tag issue. By Franchising him you not only control him for 2009 but you also control him for 2010, as long as the collective bargaining agreement remains as is, 2010 will be a capless year, and players will go from having to have 4 years of service to 6 years of service in order to be a free agent. It makes him more attractive in a trade as well.

All I have for you now, I am still working on my Red Sox Prospect preview for spring training, we still have a couple of days until the Truck leaves so I will try and get on that. Read more!

Everything You Wanted to Know About...Brad Wilkerson?

The Red Sox just signed Brad Wilkerson, I have three thoughts/notes on this:

1) When the Expos moved to DC and became the Nationals back in 2005, the Nationals decided to make Brad Wilkerson the "face" of the franchise. No, you aren't missing anything on Brad Wilkerson, but that does say a lot about the Nationals doesn't it? Sure he was coming off a 32 home run campaign, but the fact of the matter is that if Brad Wilkerson is the face of your franchise, your team probably sucks.

The post-script to the above is that ironically 2005 was the best year the Nationals have had since their arrival, winning 81 games.

2) Brad Wilkerson was the centerpiece of the trade from the Rangers standpoint that sent Alfonso Soriano to the Nationals after the 2005 season. Ironically again, at the time it was the RANGERS that were seen to have gotten the best of this deal. Of course Alfonso Soriano then went out and posted a 40/40 campaign in a contract year for the Nats before fleeing to the Cubs while Wilkerson played in 95 games and hit .222.

3) I can't say I totally understand this signing. From where I sit, it seems like Wilkerson is just a poor man's Mark Kotsay. I understand the need for another bat off the bench to fill out the roster but it just seems like they could have done a little better than Brad Wilkerson. Maybe I will be proven wrong, but this seems like another one of those "Theo signing a guy he has always been bizarrely infatuated with for no apparent reason" moves, even if it is only a minor league deal. Read more!

Some quick notes for Thursday

So I am super busy at work but I thought I would take a quick break and make some notes about todays news. Also thought I would include some links so you could read what I am reading. I also want to let you all know that I am lucky to be alive today. Last night my wife made me drive to North Reading to some sketchy house where the messiest lady alive sold us a bedroom set that as of not does not fit up our stairs at our new house. Anyway onto the links.

- I mentioned this a several months ago but Yi Jianlian is still in the top ten for all star voting. Seriously. Mark Spears wrote about Yi on Boston.com, and while I like the article I hate writers who act like we are all idiots. I quote Spears "With each weekly update of the NBA All-Star balloting, Celtics fans may be asking themselves one question: Who is Yi Jianlian?" Really Spears who is Yi Jianlian? As I recall the Celtics almost drafted him and he was the focus of about 300 stories from the time they lost the lottery till the draft that all said that he would be suiting up for the Celtics. I digress though, take a minute and go to NBA.com and vote for Kevin Garnett. Make sure that a middle of the road Chinese player is not worthy of the All Star team just because he comes from a company with 1.3 billion people.

- I have a google watch on Lars Anderson and this story came up. He is going to be our first baseman in the future. It is the first time in a long time that a legitimate power threat has come up through our system at a power position. Youk may have worked out well and has some decent power but Anderson is a true power threat. Look for him sometime in 2010

- Mike Reiss seems to think that things are going to work out well with Pioli's replacement, Nick Caserio, I am going to have to agree for now. Lets see how his first draft goes, the Patriots are possibly going to have 5 first day picks so it should be interesting to see if they can get younger and hit more than they have missed in the past few years.

So that is all I have for now I have work to do looking at the quality of our New York Auto Business exiciting I know. Read more!

Whew!!

I am really happy to right this, I have been waiting since the middle of November to write this, C.C. Sabathia is officially a Yankee. This thrills me, in the past when the Yankees have signed the top free agents I have been concerned of course, but this time I am relieved. I didn’t want him for the Red Sox and even though I may eventually eat my words on this one I am thrilled that he is a Yankee for the next 7 years. Here are some reasons why.

1. CC is 28 years old, he will be 35 by the time this deal is done and there is a good chance that by that point he will be roughly the size of the goodyear blimp. He is a big guy, there is no way around it, and he is a very good pitcher but there are plenty of examples of fat pitchers who eventually just lose there stuff. Unless he goes on some kind of crazy workout regiment like Clemens(without the various performance enhancers) he could be good for 2 or 3 seasons and then end up pulling a Carl Pavano while pulling in double the money.
2. Have you seen how many innings he has pitched. Even if his weight wasn’t a problem he throws an enormous amount of innings. In 2007 he threw 241, and in 2008 he threw 253. While this is abnormal for this day in age you could say that it was fine as long as it didn’t start to falter in the playoffs. In 2007 while with the Cleveland Indians he ended the year with a record of 19-7, an era of 3.21 and beat out our very own Josh Beckett for the Cy Young award. As we all know the Indians were in the postseason that year. As his teams ace he managed to go 1-2 with an 8.80 ERA. What good is a pitcher if at the most important time of the year he bombs? I won’t even discuss his postseason numbers from 2008 he lost the one game he pitched and pitched only 3.2 innings and gave up 5 ER.
3. Is he going to be able to handle the bright lights of New York(It is just as bad in Boston)? I dont think he is very well prepared, Milwaukee and Cleveland are not exactly the hotbeds of baseball that Boston and New York are. It’s gotten to a lot of players, Edgar Renteria, Roger Clemens(in NY), Chuck Knoblauch, Arod, and Julio Lugo to name a few. Is C. C. going to be able to keep his head on straight?

That is all I have for now and at some point I may regret every word. He may win 100 games over the next 7 years and win 5 world series titles, but something tells me that this is not going to work out the way he or the Yankees want to. Read more!

This Week in Baseball

Last night was crazy in the world of Major league baseball, we had the sox coming from 3 down in the bottom of the eighth to win on a Vartiek bust slumping double, an umpire in the Colorado Vs. Kansas City game started bleeding after being struck by a bat, and the New York Mets lost big and saw their manager and one of their best players ejected after the umpire started an argument. So since the Boston sports scene is a little slow now that the Celtics are done, here are some notes of my own from the world of Baseball.

- Can the MLB please just Ban the maple bats. So far this season there have been quite a few injuries although none truly serious who knows when there will be one that is. At some point soon someone is going to get killed and then MLB will be up shits creek. Ban the Maple and let the players use Ash.

- I am all for umpires kicking New York players out of games(whether it is Mets or Yankees I don't care) but last night was just embarrassing. Carlos Beltran was up at Bat and could be seen saying that was low that was low, the umpire Brian Runge came out from behind the plate and pretended to clean the plate while saying something to Beltran. Next thing you know Jerry Manuel the Met's new manager was out on the field arguing with the ump. Then in what took it from a normal run of the mill argument to a whole new level the UMP BUMPED MANUEL. There are all kinds of rules about not touching umps but what gives the ump the right to touch the manager. The ump of course tossed Manuel in attempt to cover his tracks and then tossed Beltran a couple minutes later when Beltran said something about the ump bumping the Manuel. The Ump should serve a suspension just like they would have given to a player.

- J.P. Ricciardi is a local boy who has been the GM of the Toronto Blue Jays for the last 7 years, and hasn't really done a whole hell of a lot to turn the franchise around. Last week on the Radio he gave a speech essentially calling Adam Dunn a bad player. Not the smartest move for a guy who may have to trade for Dunn to save his job.

- Bronson Arroyo got absolutely rocked last night. It was good to see I can't stand him, he reminds me of Kevin Millar and his unrequited love for the city of Boston.

- C.C. Sabathia is on the market and I truly hope that the Red Sox do not try and get him. Steve Phillips was on the radio last night saying the sox would have to give up Lester, Bucholz, or Jacoby, if they weren't willing to do it for Santana why would they do it now.

- They finally identified the guy who caught Griffey's 600 HR ball, he caught the ball then threw down a batting practice ball to fake everyone else out. He doesn't know what he is going to do with it yet though. I say he should just give it to Griffey, get a signed ball or bat in return try to finagle a way to get Jay Bruce's autograph to and he should be all set.

That's all for now. Read more!

Weekend Notes

It was a slow sports weekend here in Boston. The Sox hosted the Red Birds and managed to lose 2 out of 3, and only squeaked out a win thanks to Youk's two run homerun in the 13th. Other than that it was quiet, the Celtics are done for the year, although the draft is coming up this week although I can't see the team doing much with the 30th pick. The Bruins had their draft last week but as we know, no one really cares about the Bruins. So with all that said I am left to some lesser sports for this weeks weekend in review post.

- Nascar was on this weekend, I didn't watch Nascar as much as missing Rootbeer and Bacon writer Nick, but I will stop if it is on as I flip through. I did not flip by it this weekend, I will say that this young kid Joey Lagano is kind of intriguing.

- There was some golf on as well but I will not watch any Golf unless I am trapped at my inlaws and it is on, or Tiger Woods is back.

- I was sorry to hear that George Carlin died this weekend, I loved his humor and in particular his Baseball and Football speech I will post the whole thing here later today. I think his funniest movie role was when he played the bishop in Dogma which was a great casting job.

- I am started to get excited for the Olympics which will be coming up in August. Today they will announce the Basketball team today, they have begun to announce the gymnastic teams and the diving teams as well in the last couple of days. It is always fun to watch the Olympics and then see the still pictures on Sportscenter because NBC is so anal about protecting their copyrights.

- Hazel Maes last day is coming up I can't wait I can't stand her

- When will Jerry Remy's last day be cause I can't wait for that either.

- Right now you can bid for Doc River's Gatorade stained shirt signed by him and Paul Pierce along with the Gatorade Jug that Paul used to douse him. All the money is going to Charity, last time I heard about it on WEEI it was up to 10,000 dollars. It is raising money for the Shamrock Foundation and is a much better clothing auction than that stupid Ortiz Jersey.

- I am heading to the cape in a couple of weeks and I will be attending a Cape Cod League baseball game. I have been going to the games for years whenever I am visiting my grandparents. I have seen some great players, just to give you an idea in 2007 there were 212 playes in MLB who had played in the cape league. Over the years I have seen some good players who became major leaguers, Tony Gwynn Jr., David Aardsma, Chris Ray, David Murphy, Craig Hansen, Andrew Miller, Evan Longoria, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Braun, Jason Bay, Joe Blanton, Kevin Cash, Pat Neshak, and Micah Owings. The games are free most of the time although they do pass the hat but it is worth it, and sometimes if it is the all star game Peter Gammons will be there to.

So that will wrap this up for now, I will try and post about the draft, and the Sox later this week. Read more!

Coco Vs. The Rays

Last night as I sat on the couch resting my aching back(exercsing after years of being lazy can hurt like a bith when you are starting out), I sat up to eat my dinner of pasta and sauce with some vegetables(I don't know what kind of vegetables they were my Fiancé put them in) and I took this opportunity to change the channel from a rerun of Everybody loves Raymond to the Sox game which was on an hour earlier due to the Celtics game. And there it was number 10, Coco Crisp getting hit on the hip by James Shields acting like he was walking to first and instead running at the pitcher.

I will be honest with you I didn't think that Coco had it in him, you knew he was going to get hit yesterday, the manager of the Rays practically guaranteed it after his slide on Wednesday. As Jerry Remy said a thousand times in the next 10 minutes as the umpires tried to figure out who should be tossed "I thought he was heading to first". For those of you who are unaware of this here is a little recap.

Wednesday: 6th inning, Coco steals second base and in the process jams his finger when he slides into Jason Bartlett's leg that is blocking the second base. Coco takes offense to that.

Wednesday: 8th inning Coco attempts to steal second again, this time going in feet first unfortunately Barrett is not covering the bag instead second baseman Akinori Iwamura is and Coco completely takes him out.

Wednesday: 8th inning, Rays manager Joe Maddon yells at Coco who is in the dugout while he makes a pitching change.

Then Thursday in the Second Inning pitcher James Shields hits Coco like we all knew that he would, Coco faked to first to lose the catcher and charged the mound, he avoided the first punch and then kind of hit Shields in the head and then the catcher took him down. It was here that it got dirty, 4 separate Rays ran at Coco and started punch him while the sox tried to drag them off. Jonny Gomes came from the dugout and started punching him in the side, second baseman Akinori Iwamura went for his head, Carl Crawford arrived last and just hit what ever open spots he could find, and through it all Dioneer Navarro held Coco down. I would expect all four plus Shields and Maddon to be suspended along with Coco.

Some things that I think that Coco failed to think about. One why would you ever get into a fight with Big Papi on the DL, Manny isn't going to do anything to protect you, Big Papi is a force that no one would want to mess with. Two, you have pissed off half the Rays already and there is no one on base for the Sox so you are just going to take them on by yourself. It took awhile for the Sox to get there to help him they were all in the dugout, Jacoby was the first one there but he couldn't do it alone. If you want a fair brawl overreact to an inside pitch with the bases loaded then at least you have reinforcements instead of Jacoby and a very lost looking DeMarlo Hale. Finally I think Coco should have taken a page out of the great Izzy Alcantras booke, Karate kick the catcher so he falls down and charge the mound, it gives you the most 1 on 1 time with the pitcher and gives you more time to have reinforcements because its usually the catcher who takes down the charging player.

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Live at Fenway Park

So yesterday I got to do something that I rarely get to do, go to a Sox game on a weekday afternoon. I work for a living so long gone are the days of my youth when I could hop on a train at the Beverly depot when ever I thought that I could get tickets. This time though not only was going on a work day, work was why I was going, and they gave me spending money to boot so it was all gravy.

Anyway for the first time in about 5 years I sat in the bleachers and watched as the Red Sox hit two grand slams and kept letting the Royals back into the game until Paps finally slammed the door in the 9th. I have now been to three games this year, a Friday night Yankees game, a Saturday night rangers game, and a Thursday afternoon Royals game and I have some observations.

- At the Yankees game things were hectic, people were everywhere outside the ball park, we must have passed 10 scalpers on our way in trying to get us to sell our tickets. Once inside you could hardly move and people were just rude. At the Rangers game more of the same, most likely because it was Patriots day weekend and all the running nuts were in town. Yesterday though for the royals it was dead, the game was sold out and they claimed that 37k people were there but it was easy to walk around and there were guys trying to get rid of tickets out front instead of buying.

- At the Rangers game we had Lance Armstrong throw out the first pitch, I think at the Yankees game we had Jacoby Ellsbury's cousin (It was Native American Night), and then yesterday we had the Mass Teacher of the year.

- At the Yankees game it was obvious the Sox were going to lose, Wang was on his game and the Sox were just not hitting but everyone stayed to the final out, the Rangers game was close and Paps was going to come in so everyone stayed, yesterday even with a three run game most of the stands were empty by the end. The group in front of us about 7 guys who wore way to much cologne disappeared twice for 3 innings at a time.

- The signs are interesting at a Royals game it is obvious that the crazy people can't afford a regular game and they came out in force yesterday. The best sign I have included a picture of.

So to wrap up it was a good game, a friend of mine got to go to her first game, the way home on the bus was particularly interesting, especially when the bus driver got off route one and drove us around the back roads of Revere and Malden only to get back on route one less than a mile later. Also I got to watch most of My Cousin Vinny which is always a good movie. The Sox are on the road for the next 10 an are the west coast for 6 games so there will be some late nights.

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Red Sox Walk off with the Win

I have been to several walk off wins over the years that I have been attending Red Sox games. The most memorably is probably the two run bomb that David Ortiz hit in the bottom of the tenth to win the game and the American League Division Series against the Anaheim Angels. The past two nights though as I watched from afar(a red neck yacht club, and my sofa) I was tempted to think that there might be something special about this team. I know that we are only one month into this season and for all I know I could be writing a post in September about how disappointing the Sox were but in this early season the Sox have won 8 games on thier last at bat this season.

The pressure will be on tonight as Red Sox Stalwart Tim Wakefield will take the hill following one of the most impressive spans of pitching by the Red Sox starters that I have seen in my lifetime. Despite losing on Saturday Buchholz pitched 8 innings of 1 hit ball, on Sunday Josh Beckett also lost but managed to strike out 13, on Tuesday Jon Lester had one of the best starts of his career pitching 8 innings of one hit ball(He could be a great pitcher all the time if he just threw strikes, this bull shit nibbling on the corners thing is ridiculous), and finally last night Daisuke coming back from the flu pitch 7 strong innings of 2 hit ball. The worst thing though was none of them got the win.

The Sox may have come through in the clutch but they have not come through any with the bats any other time. Big Papi has been breaking out of his slump but that flu that ravaged the clubhouse in late April, mixed with injuries to JD Drew and JAcoby the offense has been sputtering. I think they need to get rid of Coco, find a setup man who can take Delcarmans place as he has been god awful the last few weeks and looked like a real ass last night when he threw the snack container onto the field after getting pulled. I'm sorry but when you have given up runs in your last three appearances you lose the right to get angry when you are pulled for giving up a hit. Let's be honest to he is not Mariano Rivera, or Trevor Hoffman he has no track record that allows him to act like an ass.

They need to get back to basics, pair Dustin and Jacoby at the top of the lineup and allow them to set the table for Manny and Papi. JD needs to go back to the 5 or 6 spot and I am sure Lowell will find his stroke once he gets comfortable again. The key is going to be the offense this season the pitching will come through but they need to be able to score. They are still 6th in the MLB in scoring, 3rd in the American League and that is with an awful 5 game stretch. I look forward to tonight's game and just have to say go Celts!! Read more!

Nice to See Ben is Back

It's good to see that our founder Ben has decided to grace us once again with his presence. I imagine that I am the one he is referring to as a member of Red Sox Nation, and I do admit it I am a card carrying member. There are two reasons for that though, A. because I have enough money to, and B. because it gets me tickets, whether it is a RSN only sale or the grandstand seats that come with my level of membership. Do I think the whole thing is ridiculous? Yes, but at the same time I think it is way to hard to get tickets and I unlike Ben are not willing to sacrifice visiting the ball park.

So it was a busy weekend in Boston Sports, there was the draft, the Celtics played, and the Sox lost three games in Tampa Bay. The last two didn't exactly go according to plan. Some notes from the weekend.

- The draft flew by this weekend, I am used to the days when it could take literally hours to get through the top five picks. By 4:30 an hour and half after the draft started the Patriots had made their first selection. I am excited about Mayo joining the aging group of linebackers that we have. I think they will be around long enough to mentor him and then he will be able to take over. I would like to point out to ever national sportscaster, our LB's maybe getting older but we still went 18-1 with the 4th best defense in the league, so they are obviously still getting the job done.

- I laughed on Saturday morning when I heard on the radio Herm Edwards say that he projected the KC Chiefs to get 6 or 7 starters out of this draft, then he went ahead and actually did it. They managed to get Glenn Dorsey at number 5, he was projected as the best player in the draft, they moved up and got Branden Albert, and they got a CB in Brandon Flowers I was hoping the Pats would have found a way to take. That was all in just the first day I was pretty impressed.

- The Sox got rocked this weekend in Tampa, I don't think its the end of the season or anything but they have been hurt and haven't had a day off in three weeks. I think with Mike Lowell back things will get better. They need to make sure they keep Jed Lowrie up here, the kid is going to be good and should be the starting short stop soon, if not this year then next.

- The Celtics did not look themselves on Saturday night. They will bounce back tonight in Atlanta. Al Horford taunting Paul Pierce was not a smart thing to do. Something tells me that KG would smack the crap out of the Hawks if he could get away with it. They are playing like a bunch of school yard punks and the Celtics need to put there foot down. Is it just me or does it seem like the Celtics are having the longest first round series ever? They have had three days off between a couple of the games, they are just traveling to Atlanta I can't see why it would take so long.

- Finally I am a proud owner of a Nintendo Wii, and I was able to add Mario Kart to my collection yesterday after a very frustrating wait in line at best buy. I have not always been thrilled with the wii, there is to much movement involved it makes it hard to veg out like I want when I play but this game makes up for all of those drawbacks, especially the online mode. Read more!

Quick Post

I have spent most of my day hard at work rating out Utah Home policies, I know it sounds like a ton of fun, anyway as the day was winding down I surfed on over to SI.com to see if anything had happened all day that I need to know. In there truth an rumors section I had to see my local teams in a negative light.

First of course I see that Matt Walsh has agreed to speak with the Commissioner about his former job with the Patriots. Am I the only one out there who thinks that he can't have anything that exciting to say. I mean Kraft and the Coach wouldn't have moved on like they have if this guy had anything. He is a hack golf pro just trying to make a name for himself.

Second, I had to read about how the Red Sox fans are a bunch of racists according to Torri Hunter. Now I love Torri's 2007 Allen and Ginter baseball card with the greatest Oh face every, but what is he smoking. Saying we threw batteries at him, that we chanted the N word at him. I have been to many games including games against his former team the Twins and I never saw anything like that. Would anyone do that in this day and age, and if someone did throw batteries and beer at him like he claims why wouldn't he have told security. As I witnessed at the Yankees game they will not hesitate to throw someone out or at least yell at them.

Finally, Mike Bibby needs to shut the hell up. Are Celtics fans band wagon fans? Maybe we are, but I don't know if he saw the team last year but they SUCKED. Tickets are way to expensive so why would people pay to cheer on a team that was trying to lose. Let me say that again THEY WERE TRYING TO LOSE. Mike Bibby we don't all make 10 million dollars a year, and I don't care if it makes us bandwagon fans but who is going to pay that kind of money to see the likes of Sebastian Telfair. I would also like to point out that Bibbys Kings only visited once last year in the middle of an 18 game losing streak!!!! I'm sorry your on the Hawks now Bibby and you are going to be watching the Celtics play in the next round as soon as they kick your ass, but GET A CLUE!!! Basketball is a product and when the local team offers crap not nearly as many people are going to go or pay attention. Read more!

Same, Better, or Worse

While trying not to yell at my radio this morning (D&C had some how gotten it into there heads that it is easier to manage in Boston than it is in a place like Kansas City because the pay roll is bigger and it is easier to win, completely ignoring the fact that the Sox play in about 100 meaningful games a year where the scrutiny is almost unbearable, whereas the royals only play about ten meaningful games a year, and six of those are against the Sox.) Anyway while I was listening them they announced there next segment which they called "Same, Better or Worse", I did not get to hear the segment though as I got to work so in a blatant rip off I am going to do it here on the Blog.

So here we go....


SAME, BETTER, OR WORSE

First Base: Kevin Youkilis - SAME - Youk will always be a fan favorite for his hustle, Boston fans tend to cling to the Blue Collar guy. You can expect the same superior Defense from him and he is good for 80 RBI's and a .285 BA. He will never be a true all star unless the Sox fans find a way to vote him in which is a possibility this year with Ortiz listed as a DH on the Ballot since the All Star Game is in Yankee Stadium an AL Park

Second Base: Dustin Pedroia - WORSE - I love Pedroia but I cannot see him continuing on the pace he was on last year. I can see him continuing the gold glove caliber defense, but I would be surprised to see him hit .317 again. I would be happy if he is more consistent this year and isn't awful for the first two months like he was last season

Shortstop: Julio Lugo - WORSE - I can't stand Julio Lugo, I was pissed when they signed him and I am still pissed now. He is horrible, he is not very good defensively and he is the black hole in the line up. Best case scenario is that they trade him or he gets hurt and Jed Lowrie steps in and hits .300.

Third Base: Mike Lowell - SAME - Many people are saying that he will decline this year, now that he is another year older and just signed a new deal. I think we are looking at another solid year from Lowell, his defense is always solid and in this line up he is never going to the be THE GUY so I predict another all star campaign from Lowell.

Left Field: Manny Ramirez - BETTER - My first better, you can say whatever you want about him, and he is normally clueless but with a new agent in Scott Boras he is going to be ready to rip it up this year and make up for a down year last year. Plus his dreds are longer which can only help right??

Center Field: Jacoby Ellsbury - BETTER - Now you must remember I am rating the position not the player, this of course the only position that we are having a change. Do I think Jacoby will keep up his play from last fall, NO, he played out of his mind. He will however be a much better option than Coco Crisp was.

Right Field: JD Drew - BETTER - He has had an amazing spring training, when I saw him he looked a lot more comfortable both on the field and with his team mates. I don't think he will ever be worth what they paid him but I do think he will be better this year.

Catcher: Jason Varitek - SAME - It is time to admit that Varitek is on the back nine of his career but I see him having another marginal season. We all need to be honest about Tek though, we are not expecting MVP type numbers from him, he is here to be the Captain and to manage the pitching staff which overshadows his .255 batting average.

Pitching Staff - BETTER - The bullpen is just as strong as it was last year, and I would rate that as same but as the rotation matures this year I can see them be Better than last year. Beckett will end up starting the season once they are back in the states and has a good chance of winning the Cy Young. Dice-K will be just as strong if not stronger. Bucholz and Lester will finally get there chances and I would rather have one of them than Curt the blowhard.

So overall I do think the Sox will be better than they were last year, at some point they are going to have to get younger, luckily they have the prospects coming through the system that will be able to replenish them when the time comes. Well I am off to get some work done and I will write tomorrow when I get up at 6 to watch the opening game.
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Leap Year

So it has been awhile since I have posted, my normal mundane job has been jam packed with work the past few weeks, this along with me being ill I have not found the time to add my little bits of wisdom to R&B lately. Since it is Friday and I have cleared off my desk I thought I would get a post out now.

I was really hoping that I could find a famous athlete who was born on 2/29 to write about but after a little googling I was disappointed to find that there were none so instead I choose to list some of the mosre interesting famous people who were born on 2/29.

2/29/1980 - Taylor Twellman: everyone knows that he plays for the Buffalo Bills of the MLS the New England Revolution.

2/29/1976 - Ja Rule: He is listed as an actor and a rapper. I will not deny that he is a rapper but I don't think that appearing in such classics as Fast and the Furious, and Scary Movie 3 make you an actor. Although I am sure some of my rapper loving colleagues will disagree.

2/29/1972 - Pedro Zamora: You most likely would recognize him as Pedro from Real World San Francisco aka the season with Puck. Once in a book store I saw Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss and What I Learned by Judd one of his housemates I convinced my Fiance to buy it, she was surprised to open it and find out it was a comic book.

2/29/1916 - Dinah Shore: Best remembered for the line about her in the Adam Sandler Classic "The Chaunakah Song", "David Lee Roth lights the menorah. So do James Caan, Kirk Douglas, and the late Dinah Shore-ah"

That pretty much finishes up the list unless you could Pope Paul III(born 2/29/1468), I guess you should because he is most famous for opening the Council of Trent and for having an illegitimate child who went on to become a Duke.

That's enough of the Leap Year Stuff. I am happy to report that One week from today I will be traveling to Port Charlotte to visit my future in laws. While there I will be attending a Red Sox Spring Training game against the Mets, and hopefully another game or two since there are 8 Spring Training Sites within an hour of their house. I will of course be bringing my lap top and will have a full report and pictures for you our loyal readers. Read more!

Sox Prospect: Jon Lester

Last night I had to go to a work social, which took place after our 2007 year in review meeting. It was on the way to this social(Bowling at the classy Sunnyside Bowlodrome, and drinks at Speros) that I turned on ESPN the radio and heard Mike Felger discussing Schillings injury with baseball god and official member of the Rootbeer and Bacon hall of fame Peter Gammons. It is not looking good, I have mixed emotions about this, Schilling has been good for us but he is also a fat, republican, blowhard who was a borderline 3rd starter last year and was probably going to be a waste of money this year. Out with the Old and in with the new.

With that I continue my series of Sox Prospects, with Jon Lester.


Name: Jon Lester
DOB: January 7,1984
Drafted: Second Round, 2002 Draft

Jon Lester played his high school ball in Tacoma, Washington where he was a three time team MVP, three time All-Area selection and was the Gatorade State Player of the year in 2000. The Sox drafted him in 2002 and gave him the highest signing bonus of anyone in the second round, 1,000,000 dollars.

It took Lester awhile to get out of Rookie/A Ball but he found his way out in 2005 when he joined the Portland Sea Dogs. It was in Portland that he started to make a name for himself, he went 11-6 with a league leading 2.61 ERA. He was named the Eastern League pitcher of the year, and the Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the year.

In 2006 he moved on to Pawtucket where he went 3-4 before he was called up to the Red Sox. In the last half of 2006 he went 7-2 with the Sox and posted a 4.76 ERA. On August 27th, 2006 he was scratched from a start against the Oakland A's due to a sore back and was placed on the disabled list. It was believed that he was sore from an accident that had taken place earlier in the month. On August 31st, 2006 Red Sox nation found out the truth as he was found to have anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a treatable form of cancer.

On December 5, 2006 it was reported that there were no signs of the cancer and on July 23, 2007 Lester made his first appearance back with the Red Sox in Cleveland. After struggling through his first few starts, Lester proved to be Crucial in the Red Sox world series run and he even won the clinching game in Colorado.

Lester is a highly coveted prospect for the Sox he has been considered untouchable in any trade, several teams tried and get him from the Sox over the past 4 years. Texas wanted him in the proposed Arod deal, Florida wanted him in the Beckett deal, and Minnesota wanted him in the proposed Santana deal. Its easy to see why the Sox are so attached to him. He is a very athletic Lefty, he has a 2-seam fastball, a 4-seam fastball, changeup, and an excellent curve ball. His delivery is smooth and very similar to that of Andy Pettitte. The more experience he gets the better his control should be. He is obviously a very hard worker, as it only took him 4 months to go from Chemo to the pitchers mound again.

Projected ETA: He is here to stay

Projected Position: With Schilling's injury he is either the third or fourth starter this year, if he continues to develop and works on his control he could be the number 2 starter on the team behind Beckett.
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