Archive for the ‘Blog Entries’ Category

So now the Red Sox are only 1.5 games out of first but with only two series remaining against the Indians and Yankees it is an uphill battle.

That means that the Sox will have to face 20 game winner Cliff Lee (Game 2) and then you know the Yankees are going to want to play spoilers against the Sox.

Therefore are they better off accepting the Wild Card spot and therefore getting their players rested for the playoffs or go full guns to try to win the division and thus avoid playing Los Angeles (1-8 record against this year) in the first round of the playoffs?

This is a tough call.

It has been an amazing run for the Red Sox the past few weeks while the Yankees continue to struggle. As of today, the Red Sox have cut the Rays lead to 1.5 games for first place in the AL East while the Yankees have dropped to 4th place after falling behind the surging Blue Jays.

It would seem to me that the biggest difference between the two teams this year is depth. While both have been hit hard by injuries, the Red Sox have found away to survuve its injuries with key contirbutions from their minor league system such as Lowrie, Masterson et all along with key additions via trades such as Bay, Kotsay and Paul Bird.

For those of you holding your breath regarding the potential of Bartolo Colon helping the Sox rotation down the stretch run to the playoffs, here is a sobbering fact.

Last night Bartolo pitched for the Paw Sox (AAA) and had another short outing. This time he went 3 innings giving up 4 runs on 4 hits and he threw 60 pitches. Not exactly a dominating performance by Colon against AAA hitters. He did however eat 5 cheeseburgers after his performance and was thrilled with the french fries that came with them.

Any chance Mark Kotsay can pitch??????

After an 11-0 blowout to the Jays on Saturday, it is time to ask the question are the Sox running out of time to make a run at the AL East division title?

The good news is that they still have plenty of head to head games remaining with Tampa however while Tampa has been able to overcome some of their more serious injuries (Crwaford & Longoria), the Red Sox injuries seem to be taking a large toll on them (Lowell, Drew, Wakefield, Beckett).

Hard to imagine a Red Sox team competing for the playoffs in late August with players such as Jeff Bailey and Chris Smith on their roster before September call ups.

It is finally dawning on the fan base of Yankee Nation that their team is utterly without character and heart. They do nothing better than any of the teams they would have to catch to nab the wild card: defense, baserunning, situational hitting, clutch hitting, rising to the occasion, effort level. They are a $200 million dollar embarrassment. And Hank’s comments are deeply mistaken. They are not losing because of injuries; and they will not be dangerous next year if they simply add one or more high-priced stars to the ill-fitting roster. They have to go back to the drawing board and build the foundation of a new dynasty almost from scratch. The problem is that they are moving into an enormously expensive new park which they want to fill with wealthy suckers who will demand immediate gratification. And the second problem is that they are committed long-term to ARod, Posada, Cano and Jeter: all of them are not worth what they will be paid. The best thing that could happen to the Yankees is the sale of the team. Some New York multi-billionaire should step up and save us from our owner-tormentors. Winning teams are not made up of highly compensated “superstars”; they are assembled from hungry, overachievers like Paul O’Neill (and Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Lowell and Jon Lester). We are entering a dark age. My friend Harmon — a Red Sox fanatic — calls it “the curse of the ARod”. Sadly, he may be right.

It looks as if the Red Sox are going to need some starting pitching help. With Clay really struggling and now Wakefield on the DL, I think the Sox need to make a move.

Colon isn’t ready to pitch so what is the answer? Could it be Paul Byrd from Cleveland or how about Greg Maddox? They really need to do something.

I am so glad that the Red Sox finally did the right thing and got rid of Manny and I do not care if he is one of the greatest right handed hitters of all time and a first ballot Hall of Famer.

At the end of the day Manny was a selfish jerk who did not care about the organization, its fans and his teamates. To Manny, it was all about the money and more important than winning was to make sure that the Red Sox did not pick up his $20 Mill club option becuase that would hurt his chances to sign another big multi year deal.

The problem with that is that the Red Sox paid him over $140 million for the right for that club option. He had no problem collecting the money from that contract but had a problem with the Red Sox picking up his option. Therefore he was willing to tank games by either choosing not to play or by playing but not hustling. For any fan that was not willing to believe that Manny took three called strikes in the ninth inning of a game against the Yankees earlier this season in order to send the Sox management a message, think again.

I do not care how many home runs he may or may not hit in Los Angeles. It is only a matter of time before Joe Torre will get sick of his act and good luck to the next team that falls into the trap of signing Manny to a long term contract.

How much longer should we put up with Manny? The Red Sox play their single most important game of the season (Game 1 vs Yankees) and he pulls himself out of the lineup again! The Sox had been waiting for Big Pappi’s return and then Manny tkaes another night off and they end up loosing 1 to 0 and only getting 3 hits as a team.

Tito has always been a player friendly manager so when he originally put Manny in the lineup, you have to think that he believes that Manny is OK. I do  not know about all of you, but I personally am getting sick and tired of the Manny show and I think he has finally punched his ticket out of town once and for all.

The Sox need to win the last two games of this series. If Manny returns, I hope that Red Sox fans don’t boo him too much because he would probably either just take himeself back out of the lineup again or just strike out without swinging the bat. Manny being Manny means that it is all about Manny and clearly not about the team!

The treament given to Jonathan Papelbon before and during this years All Star game was absolutley horrible and Yankees fans should be ashamed of themselves.

Papelbon was clear to say that while he would like to be able to close out the game, he understood that the night would belong to Mariano Rivera since this is the final season of baseball at Yankee Stadium.

Papelbon now claims that his pregnant wife’s life was threatened at the red carpet event prior to the game. If that is so, then Yankee fans REALLY need to get a life! I guess they must be getting sick of loosing all the time.

I hate to see anyone suffer an injury  but I think the injury to Lugo was the only way that Francona was going to sit Lugo in favor of Jed Lowrie. Francona is very loyal to his players.

However peoples expectations should not be too high when it comes to Lowrie butmaybe he can cotruibute a little production and then Lugo can come back strong during the second half of the season.