Off-Topic: Red Sox Hot Stove Rant

I can see how today's apparent Red Sox deals don't work out (Lackey's injury history, Cameron's advanced age), but I can also see how they do. If they were to sign Adrian Beltre, they'd have much improved defense at 3B, SS, and LF from the averages at those positions a year ago. The improved run prevention should cancel out the loss of offense firepower (and let's not forget Victor Martinez is the starting C now).

Maybe this is just fantasy, but from here (assuming the Lowell trade goes through), they could send Buchholz and a couple prospects (please not Casey Kelly or Jose Iglesias) to San Diego for Adrian Gonzalez and then shift Youkilis over to 3B. Such a move would have a marginally negative impact on defense in comparison to signing Beltre (Gonzalez is a Gold Glover, after all, plus Youkilis would still be an upgrade over Mike Lowell v. 2009), and would weaken the rotation and farm system a little bit, but the added offense could very well be worth it. Plus Beltre is a Boras client (aka will get grossly overpaid for his services), was hurt last year, and is probably few years older than his listed age, so as good as he is defensively, I'm not a huge fan. Gonzalez is a top-tier slugger in his prime who is still reasonably cheap for now (though his payday is coming soon).

Let me just project the pop the resulting lineup would have:

Ellsbury (5-10 HR)
Pedroia (10-15 HR)
V. Mart (20-25 HR)
Gonzalez (40-45 HR)
Youkilis (25-30 HR)
Ortiz (25-30 HR)
Drew (15-20 HR)
Cameron (20-25 HR)
Scutaro (5-10 HR)

If everyone hits the midpoints of those estimates, the starting lineup hits 188 HR in 2010. Not too shabby. That's an incomplete measure of overall offensive prowess, obviously, but it's still certainly indicative of a team that can hit the ball a little bit. Plus, in 2012 the four old guys at the bottom could be gone and replaced with younger players (Ortiz contract expires after 2010; Drew, Cameron, and Scutaro after 2011).

And this isn't a bad rotation either, even with the loss of Buchholz:

Lester
Beckett
Lackey
Dice-K
Wakefield/best of the rest (Bonser, Bowden, Tazawa)

So, even without making a move for Holliday/Bay, I think the Sox still are capable of winning around 95 games in this "bridge" year and winning the wild card, whether or not they go on to trade for Adrian Gonzalez. Or everything could blow up in their faces and they finish in 3rd place in the AL East. But that's why they play the games.

This team needs to have a melee...

...similar to this one.



Found this goodness over at SawxBlog.

Wake to DL, smells fishy but I'm cool with it

Back to blogging with a Sox-related post...

Call me crazy, but given Wake's history the past couple of seasons of breaking down in the second half, it's no surprise to me that the Red Sox today placed him on the 15-day DL with a "lower back strain." Sounds like they wanted to give him some recovery time tacked onto the All-Star break. Meanwhile, it's nice to see Buchholz getting a few more starts to prove he belongs, and hopefully nail down a rotation spot for the second half. Smoltz has not been a significant upgrade from Dice-K to this point, Penny has slipped a bit, and Wake, sorry to say it, is due for a bit of additional regression in the 2nd half, so nice to see Clay come up and hopefully strengthen the rotation. Letting him rot at AAA was stunting his development at this point, honestly. While not stellar, last Friday's 5 2/3 inning, 1 ER performance against Toronto was more than good enough, and better than what we've seen from anyone else in the rotation thusfar in the second half. That said, the Sox could still use a bat, but that's a discussion for another day.
[UPDATE: I was super wrong about Wake. He ended up having ugly bone chips in his back and only made four starts of progressively declining quality down the stretch.]

Start times for postseason games

In yesterday's Boston Globe, Bob Ryan captured my thoughts exactly on late start times for postseason games in professional sports:

"It's time those pampered PDT/PSTers had to live with World Series, baseball playoffs, NBA Finals, and Final Four starting times that either a) prevent normal working people from seeing the finish of games or b) preclude the youth of America from watching these games at all. That's the reality of life on the East Coast."

I remember all too well the sorry state in which I existed during one month in the fall of my junior year of high school, that being the Sox' October 2004 playoff run. The ALCS against the Yankees was especially brutal. I don't deal well with less than 8 hours of sleep now, and as you might imagine, 16-year-old me handled the chronic baseball-induced sleep deprivation even more poorly. When a Sox/Yanks game lasted until after 2 in the morning and I had to get up at 6:23 to get ready for school, it was trouble.

I'm tired (pun intended) of bending over backwards for the benefit of left-coasters and the networks. Thankfully, some start times are getting moved up for postseason baseball games this fall. It's not perfect, but it's a start. And in this world of maddeningly staggered progress, that's all one can realistically expect.

Fried-day

It's a dank one out there, and I'm .5/10-15 pages into this paper about how Reagan's economic policies screwed over the majority of Americans. Suffice it to say I'm gonna be bogged down working on this thing for a while. And then I've got three finals in 24 hours...At least I've got some sweet tuneage to help me push through...

Scattered thoughts from recent days:

• Jonathan Van Every does it ALL. His Dave McCarty impression was most admirable. If only I were a lefty, maybe I could also be a 30-year-old career minor league outfielder transformed into major league mop-up man with a 73 mph fastball and a fantastic Mississippi drawl...I don't think that's aiming too high for a dream job...
  
• Given the awful economic situation, I feel incredibly fortunate to have a job this summer. It pays to have a little bit of technical expertise and something vaguely resembling people skills, I guess.
  
• Cutting my own hair was a remarkably rewarding experience. On a par with beardsculpting, if not better. (Thanks for letting me use your buzzer/trimmer/haircuttin' thang Sean!)
  
• That last softball game was awesome. It was the best loss I've ever been a part of. Another example of why you shouldn't give up easily.
  
• The Andrew W.K. show kicked a serious amount of ass. Yes, I got on stage with the band. Yes, I got to touch him. No, I don't have a lock of his hair. Y'all are creepy for even thinking of it.
  
• So far in the medical-afflictions-which-are-a-giant-pain-in-my-ass category, tree pollen > "swine flu". I'm not buying the hype.
  
• How the hell is it May already?
  
• Shooting to scrobble 10,000 songs this summer. As long as neither my iPod nor MacBook die out of warranty, I think it's doable. Also, "doable" is a terrible-looking word whose pronunciation is utterly counter-intuitive. Yeah, I said it. [UPDATE: I ended up easily meeting this goal. Epic win.]
  
• I'm either going to learn how to cook this summer or order an awful lot of pizza. Hoping for the former, but wouldn't be entirely surprised if the latter occurs. I think a happy medium of the two would be optimal for maintaining my sanity. [UPDATE: I ate an awful lot of pizza and various other take-out for the first month or so of the summer, then wised up and started cooking low-maintenance food.]
  
• The whole time I was writing this I could have been working on that monstrosity of a paper. But wait, I'll rationalize this...simply honing my writing skills, gently massaging half my brain by churning out a few hundred words of sludge, warming up for the marathon of paper creation that will shortly ensue...
  Yeah, I feel marginally better now.
  Back to work.
  

Back again.

I have re-surfaced on this ridiculously nice day in the midst of my season of academic discontent for just long enough to make a post on this thing, which is a good a feeling as any. So here's some scattered thoughts, as that's pretty much all I have to offer these days: scattered thoughts broken by marathon paper-writing sessions, another one of which I'll begin all too soon:

• The Sox are going to lose today, but winning the last eight games in a row is now small feat, especially considering their inauspicious start. Last night's comeback was easily the best game I've watched so far this year. UPDATE: Tek just hit a grand slam...hopefully I'll have to eat my words.
  UPDATE: Jacoby Ellsbury of all people just hit a home run. I never said I didn't like this team...
  UPDATE: J-Bay just hit a two-run double. WOW.
  
• Youkilis and Bay continue to produce. Dusty's come around. Ortiz...well, if this keeps up a few more weeks I'll probably be ready to stick a fork in him.
  
• Can't say enough good things about Ramon Ramirez. I know it's a small sample, but a 0.581 WHIP in 10.3 innings is simply disgusting.
  
• Glad that the reason Lowrie was so bad at the start of the season was because he was hurt, but less happy that he was hurt. Hope he heals up OK. (Yes, I found his Twitter. Also found Tito's.)

UPDATE: As much as I hate to admit it, apparently Tito's twitter was a fake. However, I maintain the belief that Jed's is real. Also, Barry Zito's is an interesting read from time to time.

Assorted Observations From the Sox-Rays Series

• Matt Garza spits (and looks) like a camel.
  
• It's very early, and I'm probably jinxing him by saying this, but the Ramon Ramirez trade isn't looking nearly as bad as I had feared. He's been generating swings-and-misses like crazy in his first two appearances.
  
• I'll hold off on making any grandiose predictions, but Josh Beckett sure looked like he's rediscovered his '07 form on Tuesday. Unfortunately, one could say the same about Jon Lester on Wednesday.
  
• He's not exactly hitting for average, but 'Tek sure seems to have rediscovered his power stroke.
  
• Youk simply could not be hotter right now.
  
• Carlos Pena strikes out a ton, but boy can he hit 'em out. Part of me wishes we had kept him after '06, put Youk at third, and gotten rid of Lowell. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess...
  
• When's Heidi Watney going to interview Tek after the game? Talk about a conflict of interest. Heidi, you homewrecker you...
  
• Dice-K is what he is, and he's not going to change. In related news, Scott Kazmir and Dice-K might actually be the same person. Just look at the stats.
  
• Jason Bay has provided steady production for my fantasy team and the Sox thus far. And as if he wasn't already likable, the article in The Globe that I read about him the other day made me like him even more.
  
• Jacoby would be better served by becoming more of a slap hitter. The weak groundouts and popups just aren't doing it for me.
  
• Is it just me, or did the Sox and Rays pitchers have two different strike zones to work with in this series?
  

Curt's Pitch For the Hall

Of late, Curt Schilling's chances of getting into the Hall of Fame have been a matter of great discussion, and with the newly-retired big lug in the news, the Onion put this together (thanks to Chad Finn over at Touching All The Bases for bringing this to my attention). It made me laugh a bit.

Personally, wasn't a big fan of the whole take eight mil and run bit last season, and his political views don't exactly mesh with mine, but he was one cold clutch playa in the postseason. I'm hoping that gets him in.

Side note: Who's CHB going to write about now? Maybe he should retire too...

Epic Fail and Epic Acting

So in my infinite feeble-mindedness I managed to forget to bring the power cable for my laptop home for spring break. Unfortunately I didn't realize this until I had drained about 80% of the battery. I don't know anyone else in my town that has a MacBook. Sounds like fodder for something to post on fmylife, eh?

So, I'm typing this up on the ol' Wal-Mart bought POS home computer. Due to my technological limitations, it seems likely that I won't be posting nearly as often as I had wanted to over break. Oh well, such is life. I'm trying to convince myself that doing without the laptop for a week and a half will give needed perspective to my existence. Of course, I don't actually believe that, but keeping myself half-convinced of its truthiness helps to dull the pain (well, that and the tequila).

But enough of my technologically-induced moping. I do have something good to report. Something very good indeed, courtesy of Eric Wilbur over at Boston.com. Let's just say that Dustin Pedroia appears to have been working on his acting chops when he wasn't working out at API, and that the results are hillarious...

WHOOPS

If this is true, then it is assuredly a most epic fail:

"According to NESN's Red Sox reporter Heidi Watney, free-agent catcher Jason Varitek said he was not aware that teams would have to surrender a No. 1 draft pick in order to sign him and he takes full responsibility for his decision to turn down salary arbitration from the Red Sox." - Boston Globe

WHAT?! If I were making a decision like this, I think I would do my homework before I turned down a guaranteed $10-11 million to test the open market after a season in which I had been hopelessly overmatched at the plate. Furthermore, I would expect my agent, who I pay good money to get me the big bucks, to fully brief me on what my options were.

So if we are to believe Varitek's story, then apparently he has some major trouble with fiscal responsibility, and Scott Boras is an even bigger douchebag than anyone has ever given him credit for (and Lord knows they've given him credit).