where is manny?!?!?

manny was scratched from tonight's lineup against the twins. apparently he didn't take batting practice either so he probably was never going to play today. i really hope this isn't what it looks like. moving manny would be one of the stupidest moves for this team right now. seriously, who are we going to get to replace him? i am really hoping theo is smarter than that.

manny's not going to no mets...

the idea of trading manny is ridiculous. he may be unhappy playing here but he's still been plenty productive. if theo wants to try moving him in the off-season that's one thing, but i think this team can ill afford to lose the offensive numbers manny has put up so far. there is no one that the sox have a shot at getting that would have the same impact as manny does for us, no one.
last year when theo traded nomar, he was said to have a bad attitude in the clubhouse, his production was down, and we got a solid defensive 1st baseman to go along with the flashy glove of cabrera (roberts came in a separate deal, right?). manny's production is down for manny but still very strong. and i don't think he is too much more of a distraction now than he has been all along. plus, the idea of sending him to new york for more privacy, seems pretty silly.

huff and cameron combined have 3 more rbi than manny does. and as far as the $60+ million still owed to manny, big deal, boston is a rich team.
unless we are getting pedro back and beltran too, i don't think manny has much of a chance to leave boston by the trade deadline.
the sox should concentrate on a starter and another solid outfielder to help out kapler - who is still probably not an everyday player.

now i'm back (from outerspace)

last night's game against tampa bay was the first i had been able to watch in over a week. i went down to LAs finest "boston" bar, sonny mcclean's, which is really the only acceptable place to watch new england sports here. even tom werner was there last night. what should have been (and started out as) a runaway game by the sox turned out to be an extra inning thriller. this would have been an incredible game had it not been against the 18 1/2 games out devil rays.

with clement leaving the game due to injury so early it was really just a matter of time before the devil rays overcame the 5 - 0 deficit. manny, sveum and schilling to an extent, tried their best to lose the game for us but damon and captain 'tek foiled their plans.

graffanino looked sharp defensively with at least four excellent plays. i haven't seen him bat but his stats look decent. does anyone know if bellhorn if supposed to be getting his job back? what about cora when (if) bellhorn comes back?

young delcarmen looked good last night. this seems like the perfect stretch to bring him up since neither minnesota nor kc are offensive powerhouses. he'll have a number of innings before having to face texas or detroit.

with nixon out and manny wanting out of boston (again) and kapler on the dl for now too, i'm am eagerly awaiting the trade deadline. c'mon theo, work your magic.

the bats are dead

don't everyone get too worked up about this half a game out business. our bats are dead right now, not the first time and certainly not the last. yes, the timing sucks since the yankee bats are on fire but it won't be forever. look back to the first half of their season, very streaky. eventually the gaping holes in their starting rotation will catch up with them. they have mussina today, aaron small tomorrow (who?) and tba for thursday. come on, there is no way a team is going to end up with the division when they can't tell you who is pitching in two days.
the sox bats will wake up and we'll go on a streak of our own. maybe not the kind where we win multiple games in a row (because that's just not our style) but a streak of some sort will come.
as for baltimore, not even the addition of aj burnett will mean a playoff spot for these clowns. they're not getting the wild card and most definitely not going to have the al east title. they have a lot of talent on that team but not enough to beat both the sox and the yankees in the end.

it's go time!

ok, the 1st half of the season is behind us now and we're leading the al east by a couple games. like most sox fans, i think that number could have been 6+ games considering the yankees inconsistent play and the orioles slide prior to the last series, but 1st place is 1st place.
imo, the yanks will continue to run hot and cold especially since they currently have just johnson and mussina as proven starters. both pitchers have shown major vulnerability on the mound too. the o's pitching isn't going to hold up down the stretch either so the division is ours to lose.
i am still looking for epstein to mastermind at least a couple more (relatively) major moves to improve the club. whether that means more (or improved) arms, trading for millar, signing kapler, or anything else he can dream, i don't know. but he has proven in the past to make great deals that benefit the team now with the least amount of sacrifice for the future so i have all the trust in him.
the sox upcoming schedule looks pretty good including a million games against tampa bay, kc, and detroit, also i am pretty sure there are a lot of home series coming up.
i've read others write about how huge this series against the yankees is. i agree, in part, since it could mean a big shift in the standings but i really don't expect anything other than to trade games. i think the pitching matchups end up slightly in our favor but i'm thinking most will be slugfests.
this leads me to a couple of comments. sheffield has proven to be a bigger idiot than i had previously suspected. he seems like such an ass, first bithing about being traded, than yappin' about next year's 'world classic' or whatever it's called, now he's talking about how the sox better not mess with a-rod. wtf does he care, everything that comes out of this man's mouth is me, me, me, me, me but all of a sudden he's trying to be a team player. i certainly don't wish harm/injury on any player but if a pitch happened to get away a nail this idiot in the ass, i wouldn't be that upset.
one more quick subject that i hope to expound on in a later post... i think francona needs to grow some nuts and be more firm in the dugout or hit the pavement (no, yelling at payton when he was probably already cut from the team doesn't count). i'm not suggesting he's doing a terrible job but a few games were definitely lost by his mismanagement. at least a couple games have been lost due to bonehead roster moves which i think come from catering too much to his players. i don't know, resting practically all the starters in the same game just seems dumb. yeah, i read that the team got in really late from texas, but come on, this is the big leagues. as i said, i'd like to go into it more and see what others think. maybe i'll have a chance this weekend.

yeah, i've got nothin'

last weekend was entirely devoted to wedding activities, then recovery on monday and between work and school, i have not seen a game since last week. all that will change in less than an hour though as i should be able to watch the rest of the series against the o's.

since i last posted foulke has gone to the dl, schilling has designs on the bullpen, jay payton and ramon vasquez are gone and we are welcoming alex cora and adam stern, among others. there are a number of rumors out there about a deal for payton, about kapler returning, millar wanting a trade, about jason schmidt... to me the last one is the most intriguing. our starting rotation is packed right now but who would turn down schmidt? having a rough year, he still has a great arm and maybe a change of venue and a boatload of run support might cure his woes.

we can really throw a monkey wrench in the o's whole program by kicking some ass the rest of this series. and since it sounds like all of our starters are rested up i am looking forward to a lopsided game in our favor.

missed opportunities

my call for a clean sweep of the blue jays didn't really work out. the sox had plenty of opportunity to beat one of the best pitchers in the league but couldn't manage to take advantage of base runners. we stranded 8 men today including bases loaded with no outs.

is there anyone else out there scratching their head about why bellhorn wasn't pinch hit for in the 9th? he was 0 for 3 with 3 ks. with bases loaded, 1 out and batista crumbling on the mound i think a fresh bat off the bench could have made a difference. even though batista wasn't sharp, bellhorn swings at the 1st pitch he sees and pops up to the infield. that at bat certainly wasn't the reason we lost the game but it's disappointing to me to see francona not make a move in that situation.

the homeplate umpire today was worthless. he blew a key call on what should have been a strike to end the 9th inning. instead the missed call lead to a walk that would later score and help put the game out of reach. he was totally inconsistent, especially in the later innings and was probably still bent out of shape about well's outburst yesterday.

tomorrow we start a series against texas which should produce a nice homerun show between the two offensive powerhouses (go with the over everyone). i have decided not to jinx the team with any predictions. i'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

disappointing game today but we're still in first place. happy 4th of july all.

you should be ashamed of yourselves (according to foulke apologist)

i just read this lame ass article by tony massarotti regarding foulke's comments following game 2 of the recent indians series (the one with the grand slam in the 9th - as if you had forgotten). the article starts out with this...

we set the expectations absurdly high here, though that is hardly anything new. And then, when our standards are not met, we seem to take great pride in lambasting those who fail to measure up.

is this some kind of joke? this is major league baseball, right? isn't the expectation of having your closer actually close a game within the realm of what would be considered normal? massarotti says foulke "performed even worse" when making comments like "if they don't want me to do the job, tell 'em to go tell management" and "i've done a lot of good for this team. let 'em boo." next massarotti makes up this stuff about how johnny from burger king (read: boo birds) expect foulke to keep his mouth shut and take the heat. truthfully, i don't know of a single fan that is at all concerned with how foulke responds to the boos off the field. we're all a bit more focused on what he does on the field.

for his poor performance in that game, foulke deserved the heat the crowd was giving him, all of it. yes, the strike zone was postage stamp small and the ball was hit to the shallowest part of the stands, but it wouldn't have been a grand slam without the hit and two walks that preceeded it.

it's true foulke did a fansastic job last year and was pivotal in the sox winning the world series, but that was then. all the reminiscing about him being lights out last year won't do us a damn bit of good right now. should he be given some slack for last year's performance? i don't think so. having a bad game is one thing, it's unavoidable, and the stretch of games preceding this one were pitched well. but trying to distract fans from the fact you got your ass handed to you in the top of the 9th by reminding them of past glory seems pretty cheap.
i have faith that foulke will find his form again and as long as he does he can say whatever he wants. he may sound like an idiot doing so, but that's his right.

as for massarotti, i hope his attempt to shame red sox nation, at least that made up segment unhappy with foulke speaking his mind, works.