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Daisuke Matsuzaka was so bad Friday night I thought he might be trying to be bad in order to get his release.  It was that terrible.  His first inning was a joke and to his credit, he pitched well in the 2nd and 3rd only to give it up again in the 4th and 5th.  After further evaluation, I think Matsuzaka wants to be here and pitch well, he is just struggling.

With John Smoltz here, ready and willing, the Red Sox can go with a 6-man rotation.  A 6-man rotation risks extra stress on the bullpen and certainly will annoy any starter with incentives based on innings pitched, strikeouts, etc.  More importantly a 6-man rotation just doesn't make sense.

I'm hoping the Matsuzaka accepts either a minor league assignment (he has to give the ok per his contract) and/or a DL rehab assignment.  That will give management time to evaluate Smoltz and Matsuzaka at the same time.

With Brad Penny showing some serious pop on his fastball, he has apparently become the top pitching trade target of teams in need.  The good news is that the Red Sox have this supposed glut of pitching, but if Matsuzaka can't figure it out, perhaps not.  Let's not forget Clay Buchholz.  He and Michael Bowden are knocking on Boston's door and will probably start to get wordy in their respective desires to get a promotion.

A good problem to have...right?  Right.

BTW, notice David Ortiz's move from 6th to 5th in the order the past 2 games?  Slight, yes, but a sign of improved confidence from Tito?  Yes.

Posted by Andy (Red Sox) at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those of you worried the Red Sox would have to shell out $16mm a year to re-sign Jason Bay, relax, he isn't going to hit .400 this year.  I predict a 4 year, $44mm deal sometime before the end of the year.

I don't know about you, but I thoroughly enjoy Dennis Eckersley as an analyst.  He is blunt, raw and very funny.  I appreciate his every-fan approach, something the Red Sox tried with billionaire Jack Welch (perhaps sub-billionaire given GE stock over the past year) a few years back.  Eck says what's on his mind.  He is far more open to letting you know when a Red Sox has not done the right thing.  Surely this kind of candor will catch up with him as the players might start giving him heat, but until he is named the everyday analyst, I suspect he'll get away with his honesty.

More than anything, Eck just cracks me up.

I wonder if when Jerry Remy is ready to return NESN will consider a 3-man booth or a rotation of sorts?  I like Eck in the booth.

Without getting too excited, David Ortiz has been showing a bit more of late.  He is hitting .289/.372/.579 over his past 12 games, but what I like most is that every ball he has hit, including outs, have been hit hard.

With Jed Lowrie semi-close to returning, I think Nick Green will hold the SS position until Lowrie returns.  As for Julio Lugo, I expect a release (or a swap of cruddy salaries with another team).  The Red Sox have not properly addressed the SS position since, well, quite a few years.  Lugo has been creaming the ball of late, but that won't last, right?

The Red Sox drafted a familiar name last week selecting Michael Yastrzemski with the 1098 pick in the 2009 amateur draft.  Carl's grandson was taken out of St. John's Prep (Danvers, MA).  He has committed to Skidmore College, er, wait, Vanderbilt University, so the Red Sox have a somewhat slim chance of landing him (ok Michael, here's $10,000 from us, the Red Sox, or a full-ride to Vanderbilt worth 4 x $37,005 annual tuition, room and board and a good education equaling $148,020.  Your call).

The Red Sox badly need some power to percolate through the minor leagues.  AAA Pawtucket Red Sox Aaron Bates is making a name for himself with his new low/no-kick stance and Lars Anderson at AA Portland could be a late season helper, but there is no definitive power hitter just waiting to break through.

Lastly, the Red Sox face a decision with John Smoltz set to return this Thursday.  A NESN interview suggested he was ok with one more AAA start, but beyond that the Red Sox have to either decide who to send to the bullpen (Beckett, Wakefield, Matsuzaka, Penny or Lester) or they need to trade someone.

Most feel Penny is the odd man out as he really doesn't represent a long-term commitment and doesn't figure into the Red Sox long-term plans.

Until David Ortiz can convince Red Sox brass that he is all better, I bet we might be see a 6-man rotation for a few weeks.

At home at Fenway for a stretch starting Tuesday.

Posted by Andy (Red Sox) at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

MLB is holding the 2009 Amateur Draft tonight, starting at 6pm.  Rounds 1-3 will be held tonight.  The Red Sox have 3 picks today, 28, 77 and 107 overall.

Peter mentioned his desire for the Yankees to add position players in this year's draft.  The Red Sox have done a decent job of in recent years with drafting, but the one missing ingredient is the classic slugger.  Lars Anderson at AA Portland might be that player, but he has been slow out of the gate and hasn't shown his power yet in 2009.

Sure Kevin Youkilis (a Duquette pick) has developed more power than any of use would have imagined, but his power seems to be in the mid-20 home run range.  The Red Sox did take Matt LaPorta 2 years ago, but couldn't sign him.

It'll be interesting to see where they go and if any of the players taken in the 2009 draft have the chance to be helpful in the next 24 months to the big league club.

MLB.com and the MLB Network will televise the draft offering us insight we've never previously had access to.  The fact remains, however, that because the MLB draft covers so many players from so many different places, very few people, including hardcore baseball fans, really knows much about the inner workings of the draft and the potential draftees involved.  We all know Stephen Strasburg will go first overall, but beyond that, we don't know much and once you get past the first 5 picks or so, there is a good chance you won't recognize the players being taken.

That said, local media outlets give you decent exposure to the Red Sox minor league teams (The Boston Globe has a weekly minor league report as an example).

As for the Red Sox team, tonight marks the start of another Yankees vs. Red Sox match-up.  The Red Sox are struggling with their defense and much has been made about Julio Lugo's lack of range at shortstop.  Also, with David Ortiz still struggling overall (he is hitting .300/.333/.500 over his last 5 games), there is talk about what can be done to boost the offense.

My take is that the Red Sox will make due at shortstop until Jed Lowrie is back (3-4 weeks) and if Ortiz doesn't come around, they will address that issue closer to the trade deadline.  They might package Brad Penny and a prospect sooner than that of course because with John Smoltz one start away from being ready, the Red Sox have a starting pitching logjam.  But we know a glut of pitching has a tendency of fixing itself (a trip to the DL by Matsuzaka, a hang-nail to Tim Wakefield and suddenly the Red Sox are calling up Charlie Zink as an emergency starter).

For a look at the Red Sox first round picks over the years, take a look at this feature by Baseball-Reference.com.

Posted by Andy (Red Sox) at 10:31 AM | Permalink

The more I watch, the more I am starting to wonder if the David Ortiz of yesterday is gone.  Gone is the feeling of excitement, confidence.  Instead I worry, dreading each at bat.  "At least make a hard out" I tell myself.

The man who hit 232 home runs in 7 seasons has been reduced to a warning-track power, bottom of the order hitter.  Some of the local sports personalities say they can sense him coming around, it's just a matter of time.  Well, I'm starting to doubt he can turn it around.

It is such a disappointing feeling too as Ortiz was so often the source of late-inning heroics and helped fuel the Red Sox offense in this decade.  He was as important if not more so than Manny Ramirez (save the jokes).

Now the Red Sox find themselves with an aging/declining slugger hitting 6th, and soon to be on the bench.  Sad to be sure, but a major impact on the line-up.  Theo Epstein needs to figure out his options and pull the trigger on a power bat.  The current regime has yet to draft a power hitter that has contributed in the major leagues (Hanley Ramirez was a Duquette pick...just ask Dan Duquette) and they are paying for it now.

The Boston.com ran a feature today on the "10 players the Red Sox should consider" and boy were some Red Sox fans way off base.  Just how could 29.8% (as of 9:40pm, 6/1/09) think Victor Martinez is a better option than Adrian Gonzalez (27.9%)?  Please, come on now.

Victor is a fine hitter, but he is/was a catcher and has logged many miles at age 30.  Gonzalez on the other hand is just 27 and entering his prime.  He already has 20 home runs this season (Victor has 5) and won this thing called the "gold glove" at 1st base in 2008.  No offense to Mike Lowell, but imagine Gonzalez hitting 3rd playing 1st base with Kevin Youkilis playing 3b and Lowell at DH.  Youkilis could spell Gonzalez and take an occasional day off in the field to play DH.  A wonderful solution.  Wonderful because I thought of it.  Me alone.

Here's the problem:  While it is easy to say Gonzalez is the best player of Boston.com's top 10 list, he is likely to be one of the most difficult to pry away from San Diego.  Can you say Clay Buchholz and Lars Anderson?

My preference, based on impact and ease of acquisition, would be Adam Dunn.  Yes he strikes out more than I did at high school dances, but he can hit the bomb and wouldn't have to touch anything resembling a glove while in Boston.  And at 2 years and $20mm, he isn't cheap, he sure isn't a longterm commitment.  His current team, the Washington Nationals are not contending this year and could use an ETF of handy Red Sox minor leaguers for the years ahead.

The fact I've written this much on David Ortiz's replacement is an indication of where my thoughts are on the subject.  Big Papi, please turn it around so we (read: me) can put this discussion to bed and go back to the way things were.  I like things much more when you were hitting.

Posted by Andy (Red Sox) at 09:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)