A Rolling Stone?
The Red Sox have won 11 straight and have virtually erased any concern of their 2-6 start.
What's working? Jason Bay. He's hit for power while getting on base. Bay has 5 home runs and has walked an MLB leading 20 times while getting on base at a .506 clip. Mike Lowell leads MLB with 22 RBI. An impressive accomplishment considering he was an after thought during the Mark Teixeira negotiations and given his hip surgery.
Kevin Youkilis is hitting .414, getting on base 52.3% of the time and hitting for power with a .709 slg%. Dustin Pedroia has dragged his average up to .286 and the rest of the line-up has stepped up their game. David Ortiz continues to struggle, but has done better of late, showing a willingness to go opposite field with a few doubles. Ortiz has always used all 90 degrees of the baseball field and now that he is back to doing that, I expect better production. Not vintage Ortiz production, but certainly good production.
And of course a steal of home by Jacoby Ellsbury will always get an offense (or the crowd) fired-up. Then again, had he been thrown out, with 2 out and the bases loaded, he'd have been demoted...
Tim Wakefield has, for the 3rd start in a row, bailed out the Red Sox bullpen by pitching deep into a game. Wake has allowed only 16 hits in 29 innings and has managed to avoid the long-ball in 2009 (did I just create a jinx?).
Even the young kids in Hunter Jones and Michael Bowden have done their part.
The Red Sox are playing well as a whole. The concerns are: Josh Beckett and his 6.00 ERA and Javier Lopez. I am thrilled that my biggest bullpen concern is Lopez, but he has been terrible having allowed 14 hits/walks in only 5 2/3 innings. His 4.76 ERA isn't reflective of his inability to keep batters off the base paths. Beckett is just...annoyingly inconsistent. He is walking too many players and just seems to lose focus. He is my 2009 downer so far.
I'll hold off on any further complaints, but I also recognized it is early with only an 1/9 of the season in the books. The Rays have not played well and the Yankees will have an important player returning soon, so the Red Sox cannot afford to fool around.
Notes: Julio Lugo is back and should slowly resume his shortstop position, given what Terry Francona said today, don't expect Lugo to be the starter in the immediate future. Nick Green has done a great job offensively and will probably get 75% of the innings over the next week with Francona slowly dialing the innings more towards Lugo over time.
I'm still very much looking forward to John Smoltz being an option.
Comments
Youk and Bay seem to really thrive in Boston. One is overtly intense and the other is quietly effective.
Bay's contract should be a no-brainer assuming he wants to stay.
An awesome run to get things going and create excitement, all done with two important parts of the rotation down and out (DiceK and Smoltzy).
If Youk can stay hot, it is a matter of time for Ortiz to get going, the pitches are there, he is starting to make better contact. Even some of his outs are hard hit balls now.
I don't worry about Pedroia, Youk or Bay. 3/8ths of the lineup should be worry free, not too shabby.
Ellsbury, Drew, Lowell and Ortiz will be up and down all year. Hopefully more up than down.
Varitek and the SS position need to just try to combine for .250 and play defense.
I spent a bunch of time blasting Lopez last year despite his "good" stats. I would not ever trust him in a big situation. Walks and hits, all day long.
The energy of this team is positive so far. We'll see how it is if/when they have any kind of losing streak.
Posted by: blmeanie![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 27, 2009 11:13 PM
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ok, so last night's game shoulda/coulda gone into extra innings but my friend, Lopez, blew teh play at first to end the game.
If I were GM, no offense to Theo, I would put him on waivers right now!
Posted by: blmeanie![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 29, 2009 08:01 AM
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Lugo had an awful error in that game too (2nd game in Cleve) which let the Tribe tie it up on a 3 run homer from Ben freakin' Francisco who was hitting .208 with one hr for the other 17 games played this year. They were bound to have a let down game after 11 in a row but the 3 errors to lose a game they could have and probably should have won really sucked.
That said, I really like this team now and see the only wobbly weak spot being SS with Lugo as the emerging starter. Catcher and CF have been a bit weak on and off but a grand slam and an outright steal of home will definitely get the critics off your respective backs. Drew should just change his first name to Nancy but every now and then he comes thru so I can live with him and all his injuries.
What do you guys think about the Sox going after Hanley Ramirez again this year at the all star break? They have the pitching to trade and could throw in Lugo and lots of cash to provide a veteran replacement player. With a SS like HanRam, the Sox would be virtually unstoppable and Theo's SS problem would be over. I know it will probably never happen but the Marlins are already falling down on the job after a hot start and the Sox have a lighter payroll compared to past seasons and have the talent to move to get a star at the break. I would love to see it.
Posted by: jack | April 30, 2009 04:06 PM |