Outside of Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez and David
Ortiz, what player in their lineup scares you as an opposing player? Yes Ellsbury, Carl Crawford, and Kevin
Youkilis are hurt, but does anybody even know what your going to get out of
Crawford when he returns? Will Youkilis
ever return to the player he was a couple years ago? Don’t even get me started on this team’s
starting rotation. For a team that
spends the amount of money they spend, to have a rotation and bullpen that this
team has is embarrassing. Jon Lester is
a #2 starter at best, Beckett is inconsistent, and Bucholtz is a decent #3 or
#4 starter on a good team. Alfredo
Aceves is the team’s closer.
Really? I’m sure his 24.00 ERA is
all Bobby V’s fault. How is that Mark
Melancon trade looking right now? I know
Andrew Bailey is hurt, but guess what Red Sox fans, he’s ALWAYS hurt. That’s why Oakland traded him in the first
place. Get used to it.
In my opinion don’t blame Bobby V for all the issues in
Boston, blame upper management and the players (mainly the pitchers). It’s time for this team to start making some
significant trades. The group they have
here now just isn’t working. This team
hasn’t been in the playoffs since 2009, and even then got swept by the Angels
in the first round. Their last playoff
victory was in 2008. For a team that has
spent on average $152 million a year in that timeframe is embarrassing. While Bobby V will get all the blame, my
finger is pointing at the guy currently trying to turn around the Chicago Cubs
and the current players on the field.
This team is not as bad as they are currently playing, however, at best, I don’t see them finishing above 4th place in the East this year. One of the only good things I can say about this team is that at least their defense has only committed 4 errors all season, which is tied with the Yankees for the least in baseball. For a team that has spent $172 million on payroll this year, I would think that is unacceptable.
On the Diamond…
·
Great series coming up in Texas this week. Both the Yankees and Rays come to Texas to
battle with the best team in baseball. A
solid matchup tonight with CC facing Derek Holland. Texas just dominated Detroit winning 3 of 4
in Detroit. To say Josh Hamilton is on
fire would be an understatement. The
only problem with this team is health.
Adrian Beltre will miss some time this week with a hurt hamstring. It’s always just a matter of time before
Hamilton and Nelson Cruz get hurt as well.
If healthy, this team might win somewhere in the neighborhood of 110
games this year.
·
Congrats goes out to Phil Humber on his perfect
game on Saturday against the Mariners. That
last strike call will be one that is debated for a long time by Seattle
fans. Not a bad outing for a guy who was
skipped in his previous start in order to keep the other pitchers in the
rotation on track to start every fifth day.
With this performance, he is now the 7th former NY Mets
pitcher to have thrown a no hitter or perfect game (Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver,
Mike Scott, Dwight Gooden, David Cone, Hideo Nomo, and now Humber). The Mets have yet to have a no-hitter or perfect game thrown in their history.
·
I forgot to give credit to Curtis Granderson for
his 5-5 day, which included 3 home runs last week. When a player does that, he should get some
love in this blog.
·
There are significant problems in
Philadelphia. The offense is
terrible. Hunter Pence is supposed to be the big run producer for this team in Ryan
Howard and Chase Utley’s absence and he only has 7 RBI’s, which is actually the
most on the team. If this offense can’t
get going sometime soon, they may not be playing October baseball this
year. With Cliff Lee on the DL now, they
are going to need the offense to step it up. Hopefully the Cliff Lee injury is
not significant. Roy Halladay and Cole
Hamels can only do so much.
·
I am not going to say that Bartolo Colon is
going to continue pitching at the rate that he is pitching now. I am sure that he will have some struggles
this season. However I do not think that
he will struggle the same way he did in the 2nd half of last
season. Last year, he threw about 70
innings of winter ball to get ready for the season. This year, he did not pitch in winter
ball. Hopefully, by not pitching he has
saved his arm in order to make it through the entire season this year.
·
Congrats goes out to Ivan Rodriguez who is going
to call it a career and retire. In my
opinion, Pudge is the best defensive catcher of my lifetime. Not sure where he might stack up all time,
but this guy had a 46% rate of throwing out base runners for his entire 21 year
career. Now a days, if a catcher comes
anywhere close to 40% for a single season it is considered a solid year. Pudge was amazing, and his intensity and
ability to command the game from behind home plate should get this guy in the
hall of fame.
·
I’m excited for Wednesday night’s
Oakland/Chicago game. Oakland is calling
up prospect Jarrod Parker to make his first start of the season. This guy was the center piece of the Trevor
Cahill deal this winter and will hopefully become the front line starter this
team is looking for.
On the Gridiron…
·
I’m sorry, but consider me someone who is not
excited for the NFL draft. I totally
respect all of the scouting that goes into it, the amount of man hours it takes
to make sure each team selects the right guy, and the potential impact that the
correct picks can make. I think I blame
ESPN for my current view on the draft.
There has been way too much media coverage of this draft, too many draft
specials, and too many hours of television with Mel Kiper and Todd McShay in it.
On the Court…
·
Glad to see Metta World Peace go “Ron Artest” style
yesterday and throw the most blatant elbow I have seen since the last NHL
playoff game I watched (which was Saturday).
Metta deserves to get suspended for longer than the last game of the
regular season. My guess is that he will
get a 3 game suspension, which would cause him to miss the first 2 games of the
playoffs.
On the Homefront…
·
The next time someone hears me talking about
changing the shutters on my house, please remind me about how much “fun” I am
having now. Seriously, this is one job
that is taking me a lot longer than I thought it would.
·
Tough loss for Rashad Evans on Saturday
night. Jon Jones deserved to win. He dominated the fight for the most part. I was a little disappointed with the lack of
action in the fight though. Both
fighters were defensive and were scared to make a mistake. The build up to the fight was great
though. Also, it had to be a great night
for all local bars and restaurants. I
know where I was, the place was packed all night, with people ordering food and
drinks in the waiting area because nobody was leaving their tables in
anticipation for the fight. Luckily I
had a table. How cool was it that a guy
from Rochester, NY fought a guy from Niagara Falls, NY in one of the most
anticipated UFC fights in a long time?
That has to be great for this area.
That’s all I have for now. Until next time...
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