Last Year
I for one am sick of hearing about last year. I’m sick of hearing about how Schilling pitched, how effective Foulke was. I’ m sick of hearing about Millar’s great second half and Bellhorn’s postseason homeruns. Sure I appreciated everything that happened last year getting us a long, long, very long overdue championship. I will never forget last year but you will not hear me living in last year. I have cut ties with everything last year as for as individual performance. Schilling has not pitched well so stop gauging this year’s performance on last year’s heroics. Foulke is about 60% of what he was last year, so stop expecting him to shut it down the rest of this month. The season is 5 months in, so I don’t think Millar will be having that “hot” second half. And I really don’t need to say anything about Bellhorn.
Now that we all get the picture that anything that happened last year doesn’t matter, can we move forward? Can we just worry about the next 4 weeks? If it hasn’t happened thus far, it probably will not happen at all.
That all being said. We have at least 4 big series left. Two with NY and one apiece with Oakland and Anaheim. Of course the other series are important, and this weekend is very important with NY playing the A’s and us against the O’s. But with 13 games against NY, Anaheim and Oakland we need to win 8 to gain a split in every series. I think everyone would agree that we have to take 4 of 6 against NY if we are to play in October. Right now Oakland is heating up again and NY took a couple of losses in Seattle so if we can sweep the O’s and the dirty bird (Palmero), it’s possible to be up 5.5 games on Monday.
Just one more last year for everyone: Last year we were in 2nd place behind the Yanks by 3.5 games on September 1st.
S.
September 2nd, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Last year, last year last year… Much can be learned from last year, without living in last year. For instance, in the case with Millar, he contributes more than numbers for the Sox. Perhaps an unaccountable statistic is his spirit, team confidence and moral building. Remember that mythical notion of chemistry, u know the one that happened last year
That said, Millar’s OBP is over .350, and actually 10 points higher than Renteria’s; he has more walks than Renteria in 100 less at bats. I could go onto other sabermetrics numbers, but I think Shawn’s only really interested in the 1st baseman’s homerun totals 
That said, last year was last year. Schilling and Foulke, are Schilling and Foulke this year. Fortunately, last year’s Yankees are last year, and this year’s Yankees are pathetic. In the end, we need to find a way that works this year. Whether it’s using the young arms when possible, or seeing our strategic plans of the old arms coming into prime shape when it counts, either work for me if the end result is another Series!
September 2nd, 2005 at 4:28 pm
I’m not so worried about Millar’s HR totals. But people that keep saying that ” maybe he’ll heat up now” every week and keep refering to his bi polar season stats of last year, are starting to annoy me. I wont argue that both Millar and Renteria are rally killers, but Renteria did have 40 hits last month and has gotten quite better since May. Where as Millar has been playing the same way all year.
If the Sox needed the uncountable statistic of spirit, team confidence and moral building that Millar provides, I could do it for a much cheaper price. If they hired me to be a clubhouse cheerleader I could dye my hair 2 or 3 times a week, feed Manny apple sauce between innings and play jokes while never wanting to play 1b. That way Olerud and Petagine could get the playing time they need.
All that being said, I don’t think Millar is a bad guy. He’s got a big mouth and is always in front of camera. Last year he was better, but this year…..well, is not last year.