BoSox Blotter

This is something that I like to do every year. Last year I did not fare well. Ozzie Guillen as MOY was my only correct pick. I was close on the NL CY Young. Dontrell Willis finished second. This year there are a lot more close races in my mind. Only one award at this point is a guarantee in my mind. Let’s kick this off.

AL MVP: Jason Giambi-NYA: Now don’t rush to kill me all at once. Hear me out. Ortiz will get snubbed again! Papi will have slightly better numbers in HRs and RBIs. Giambi will have a better AVG and OBP. But the biggest difference will be that Ortiz is a DH. Do I agree…no, but I’m not a voting sports writer. But speaking on behalf of Giambi and this award, at the pace he’s going he’ll hit 50 HR (20+ short porchers’) and 130 RBI with Damon and Jeter setting the plate. You can also include Vernon Wells, Jon Papelbon and Joe Mauer in this tight race.

AL CY: Francisco Lariano-MIN: This guy is the next big thing. If facing Johan Santana is bad enough, in short series you may face Lariano too! Un-hittable is the word. He has a .203 Batting AVG against in 81.1 innings. He also sports a 10.4 k/9. With no signs of slowing down, he’s on pace for 18 wins and 190 Ks. This race could also make for an interesting one. Papelbon, Curt Schilling, Jose Contreras and Santana may have a say.

AL ROY: Jon Papelbon-BOS: The number of awards Papelbon gets this year will depend on how far he carries the Sox. He could be the first player to win the MVP, Cy Young and ROY if the Sox win the AL East and he saves 50+ while keeping a sub .075 ERA. I don’t think that the writers will don Papelbon the next Dennis Eckersley, but they may give him the ROY. This, again, another tight race with Lariano and Justin Verlander. I think that Verlander will slow down in the second half making it mostly a two man race.

AL MOY: Jim Leyland-DET: Finally, an easy pick for me. The only way that this falls thru, is if the Tigers take a 60 game swing in the loss coloumb. Leyland has been good wherever he has been. He had few heartbreak years with the Pirates in the early 90’s, but gave the Marlins their first WS win. Could he do the same for Detroit? I would say no just yet. After all he’s making the Tigers look awfully good. (One year late from my 05′ prediction)

NL MVP: Albert Pujols-STL: How can a player go on the DL for 15 days and come back, still leading the majors in HRs? Fat Albert is the breath of fresh air we all need. He’s steroid free, not grossly overpaid and overall a good guy. This award will be his to lose for the next decade. He will emerge as the one of the games greatest players.

NL CY: Bronson Arroyo-CIN: Why not? We’ve all said it. Give the NL a second look at BA and they’ll smack that looping curve all over Citizens Ballpark. Well…most teams have had that second look and BA has 9-4 record and a 2.58 ERA. Playing with a huge chip on his shoulder he might just make the Reds a division winner again.

NL ROY: Matt Kemp-LAD: Kemp is hitting .300 after being called up when the injury bug hit the Dodgers early. Kemp heads a pretty weak NL rookie class compared to the AL.

NL MOY: Jerry Narron-CIN: The Mets will win more games in a weaker division. But the Reds will win the central, fighting off a season long war with the Cardinals. Narron has done a good job with his starting pitching and definitely has the offensive power with Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr. and Felipe Lopez. If the bullpen can piece together, Narron will have completed a harder job that Willie Randolph will have done with the Mets.

Well there you have it. If I get one right again this year it will be a miracle.

S.

It is very nice to see that the Red Sox have the ‘young pen’ up. Delcarmen, Hansen, and Paps who has been there all season are expected to provide the missing pieces thus far in a far from dominating season. Jon Lester is in the starting rotation, and the others are, hopefully, going to sow the seeds of what has been talked up as a rebuilt farm system.

Delcarmen has been up before, and sent down on a few occassions. The same is almos true of Hansen. However it appears the brass and Tito are willing amongst all of the uncertainty of the Red Sox bullpen to try the young arms out for a bit.

The Sox dominated the Nationals in tonight’s 11-3 victory, but Hansen gave up a couple of runs over 2 innings. Is that something to worry about? I’m not sure since Hansen was a closer, not a long relife guy. Delcarmen has been hit or miss with his brillince, but has shown some talent and an ability to come through given the chance.

We already know about Papelbon and Jon Lester’s last start completely obliterated his first start; which wasn’t spectactular, but wasn’t too shabby.

It was a shame how last night’s game ended. I had a feeling that it was going to come to an end like that; where the score will not reflect the reality of the competition.

Schilling was defining — it would appear he’s figured a different way of pitching aside from the blowout strikeout method that’s been his career thus far.

Santana was Santana. Enough said.

For once, Francona didn’t leave a pitcher in there too long. That, I would have to say, is probably Tito’s weakest aspect of managing. Time and time again he’s gone with hurlers a bit too long and it’s cost the team. I don’t knock Tito for the Taverez home run, but maybe Theo shouldn’t have signed him to a 2 year deal

I think what’s really encouraging is that we should really start to see the younger guys begin to step up. It will be an early test to the farm system and the talent that is “supposedly” coming up.

Shortstop Orlando Cabrera has reached base safely in 38 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the majors.

It’s kind of pointless to re-iterate what nearly every other blog or sports news outlet is focusing on after last night’s Red Sox win over the Texas Rangers: Jonathon Papelbon’s blown save in the 8th and striking out the side in the 9th for the victory.

It’s probably also pointless to write about how dreadful the weather is in Boston right now as yet another rain delay looks to be impending the play of a make-up double header from the season’s earlier rain-out with the Rangers. But, this however probably has more impact than Paps perfection being only human.

Should both games be cancelled today, it not only presents a frustrating scheduling task, but messes up the rotation a great deal. Jon Lester was to make his debut this afternoon in the day game. Last I checked the rain was still coming down in Boston. Josh Beckett who has been solid at Fenway was to pitch the night game. If both games get called, that only means that now there’s one more game to get in, and I’m ruling out a triple-header.

Last night the Sox muscled a win away from the Toronto Blue Jays and avoiding being swept. Manny Rameriz and David Ortiz led the offensive assualt and bashed the club to a much needed 8-6 victory.

On the sour note, looks like Wily Mo Pena is out for several months as he needs surgery on his left wrist. Apparantly doctors will need to remove the hamate bone and he is expected to miss at least 2 months. This is very unfortunate, as Wily Mo has showed some great improvements both with discipline at the plate and improved defense in the outfield. He will be a missed piece of power in the lineup and a guy that was able to cover all 3 spots in the oufield if needed.

Last night Beckett got battered, as seems to be the case this year with him and the Toronto Blue Jays. For a team that was looking as if it was loaded with pitchers in the beginning of Spring Training, dire needs have arisen.

Matt Clement has been useless. He’s been a bigger flop, in my opinion, than Renteria was. Clement is by far the most overpaid pitcher. He’s making $9 million this year and I’d be surprised if he wins 9 games. I truly think he’s gonna be on the trading block and the Sox are going to have to eat some of his salary. With Clement’s performance to date as a member of the Red Sox, and the money he’s getting paid to perform so poorly, sure wish we had upped the offer to Pedro.

Eating salaries seems to be a new trend of this current front office with some of their acquisitions. Unfortunately, Roger Clemens will not be another acquisition as he’s decided to play for the Astros again; at least we won’t face him during the regular season.

With Beckett appearing like a hit or miss pitcher at the moment, and Schilling not far from that, our rotation is in shambles for the time being. David Wells is now on the DL and quite possibly may never pitch effectively again. Our former pitcher, Bronson Arroyo, is leading the NL in ERA and has anchored down as ace of the Reds. Delcarmen has been called up, but it’s too early to see if he has staying power. How’s Jon Lester doing? Any signs to possibly try a MLB start anytime soon?

David Wells makes his much anticipated return to the Sox rotation tonight to face Scott Kasmir and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It goes without saying that Kazmir has a very good history against the Sox, which means Wells will not only need to be himself and pitch well, he will most likely need a very strong performance to keep the club in the game.

Wells is 43 and hasn’t pitched a good game since the Divisional Series against the White Sox last season (which he lost, remember the T-Graff 5-hole error?). Fortunately if Wells can deliver ptiches with good location, the Tampa Bay line-up are swingers and could possibly have some easy ground outs to get Wells through the game. If he misses location, there will probably be a lot of balls flying over the monster.

It will be a tough night, even if Wells is right on. Kasmir is out to get his 8th victory of the season and enters the ballpark with a 2.45 ERA against the Red Sox.

It was a solid performance. Josh Beckett needed to throw over 100 pitches to get through 6 innings, but he didn’t allow a single run during that time.

It was a much needed performance by Beckett for the Sox coming off from losing 2 games to the Yankees at Fenway. The defense for the club was solid as usual (leading the Majors in fewest errors), and the offense did enough to get the job done.

With it still being early in the season, I’m not out to make any predictions at this time. However, I do think things could come together really well for this club. Assuming that when Coco comes back the offense gets another kick-start, that would require that Wily Mo can perform as he has while only playing part-time, the Red Sox should be able to produce a solid offensive front with minimal room for error by pitchers.

As was hoped, Curt Schilling was dominant against the Yankees last night. Granted it was a beat up line-up missing a couple of all-stars, but it was still the Yankees; evident by their late rally in the 9th inning.

It was more than just another victory for the Red Sox, as most Yankees games tend to be. But, it was a chance for Schilling to right his ship and get back on course. He did just that. Mixing in more breaking balls than I remember him ever throwing in a game, and it was effective. It seems to me that when Schilling can throw all of his pitches for strikes, he doesn’t need that mid-90’s fast ball to put people away.

Last night’s win was Schilling’s 199th career victory. What was nice to see was Schilling threw less than 100 pitches and went through 8 innings. That’s getting the job done, plain and simple.