Why Mark Bellhorn is not better than a fork in the eye.

Hey there, y'all. I'm K-rocka and I'll be filling in on this edition of Curse of the Big Papi/ Smellhorn debate forum. So without further ado, let's jump right into the fire.

Ok, so I like Mark Bellhorn. Seems like a great guy. I mean, hell what Red Sox fan wouldn't love to crack a brew with him and just shoot the shizznit? We could play some foosball, maybe discuss some politics, start a canned good drive for the poor or even have an arts and crafts activities day. Those would all be some fun things I think Mark and I could both enjoy and with the exception of foosball could both excel at. But I wouldn't under ANY circumstances EVER EVER EVER talk to him about baseball. Cause then he would start to piss me off.

Let's expound on my main man's post from earlier and take a more in-depth look at Bellhorn through today (may 28th)
.242 BA 2HR 12RBI .353 OBP .409 SLG 13 doubles, and 54 SO through 44 games. Not too good, even if you think a second baseman should be primarily a defensive-type guy. Since the days of Spike Owen we haven't seen such an anemic output from our 2 bagger. It almost makes me long for Jose Awfulhands, er Offerman (just imagine him AND Millar on the right side of our infield shiver). Combine that with (and in my opinion, the deal-breaker) poor range in the field and it makes me wonder what the Sox front office is really doing here. Are they waiting for Hanley "only good prospect less than three years away" Ramirez to come up and play 2nd later on this year or are they hoping to swing a deal for a Junior Spivey-type for the strech run? Do they just not want to pay any more money on an established guy? This, like the 1st baseman issue, must be addressed, either by a dramatic improvment of the existing players at those positions, or the removal of Bellhorn and Millar from the team. I don't like having to be so blunt as to say that because these guys helped Boston win the Series with a combination of goofy antics,timely hitting(interspersed with weeks of ineptitude) and a resilience to criticism heretofore rarely seen in the Boston clubhouse. But that was last year, and even though as a whole the team may have some years to flub up and we won't go crazy that doesnt mean that we won't lose our friggin minds if one guy keeps blowing chance after chance to knock guys in and can hardly put the bat on the ball. Let's face facts here, the Sox are absymal offensively from the right side of the infield. The sole reason we have those two guys in the lineup everyday is to produce with the bat. And they aren't doing it so why are they still there, in the lineup making out after out? For the love of God, I would go 3 for 4 one night if you put me in there 162 times. That doesn't justify my being in there in the first place does it?

My take on the situation is this, let's survive with Olerud and Millar platooning at first, with Olerud starting the majority of the games, leaving Millar to pinch-hit off the bench when we need a little more pop than Olerud can provide. The Bellhorn situation needs to be resolved in a different way. He doesn't provide the clubhouse boost that Millar does and is consistently bad both offensely and defensively in comparison with other 2nd baseman across the league. I don't think he is capable of being an everyday major league ballplayer at this point of his career and we should explore every option to upgrade 2nd, whether solely on the defensive end or someone that can produce day after day at the plate. Move Youk over, Play more Mueller at 2nd, bring back Pesky, anything. The Sox have established themselves under this administration as being proactive when it comes to solving problems in the field, and while Francona's willingness to stand by his guys is admirable, it is certain in my mind, that the Sox are in dire need of a change.

take the k-train from seattle

my pansy-ass blog is about to get some legit content from the one and only k-rocka. kevin, born and raised in southie (currently calling seattle home), has an insane amount of baseball knowledge and a lot of time on his hands. stay tuned.

saving it for the yanks

turns out i wasn't able to watch any of the games this week and i must say i am rather glad. this team needs to turn things around in a hurry and hopefully a bit of intensity in the bronx will give us a spark (and slow the yankees down at the same time). woudl be nice to have some momentum heading down to camden yards too where the orioles always seem to play us well.

i read that olerud will be called up for the yankees series and i have a feeling that is going to be pivotal. late game defense plus a chance for him to stick to a team that didn't want him anymore. i only hope that it's not youkilis that goes back down. i think sending jeremi gonzalez down makes more sense.

i'm sure this weekend's series will be memorable. here's hoping the sox will seize the opportunity to start a nice run.

baseball withdrawals

due to terrible scheduling at work i haven't been able to watch a game since late last week. should be able to catch most of the games the rest of this week though.

why are we losing to the blue jays???? they aren't that good. the yankees are on our heels after being what, 7 games behind us a couple weeks ago? and we certainly haven't made up any ground on the orioles.

since we have both the yankees and the oriole series' coming up, these next couple games (and hopefully wins) against toronto will be very important.

a boring day in baseball

baltimore and toronto both lost today leaving the AL East as follows:
Orioles -
Red Sox 3.0
Toronto 5.5
Yankees 5.5
Tampa Bay 12.0

short outing for wells

i ordered the mlbtv package from mlb.com today just in time to watch wells last 1 1/3 innings. maybe should have pitched that rehab game in the minors after all.
final score oakland 13, sox 6.
good news: back to fenway
bad news: we'll be facing hudson and smoltz.

bellhorn back on top

bellhorn reclaimed his major league lead for strikeouts with two more in last night's loss to oakland, including a whiff with bases loaded and no outs. i only get a chance to watch about one game a week but it seems that so many of his ks come at just the wrong time. i do realize he was responsible for 2 of the runs last night and he certainly wasn't the only one who stranded runners.
checking out some stats on yahoo's mlb page i found his obp is .333 and half of his 26 hits to be doubles but his hrsp for this year is .179 down from .304 last year.

1,225nd red sox blog is here!

because the first 1,224 sox blogs were clearly not enough...
is it just me or do you have to try really hard to lose 2 out of 3 to the mariners? hadn't they lost 10 of the previous 11 games prior to this series? hopefully we will have our way with oakland again. i'm trying to be optimistic but i wonder if the a's are getting tired of being swept.