To the Diamond

It's time for me to focus on the team that is actually playing. The Sox have been a bit of an anomaly to this point in the season. The bats have been producing (most notably with runners in scoring position and two outs--they're hitting over .300) but the starting pitching has been horrible. Couple the lack of pitching with an error every 4 games at shortstop and you'd think I was talking about a team from the American League West. Strangely enough, the local nine are a game up on the Evil Empire in the A.L. East thanks to their offense and bullpen. It was common knowledge that the Sox were supposed to have one of the top rotations in the majors this season given their talented top 3 in Becket, Lester and Matsuzaka a combined record of 7-8 in 22 starts. You know it can only get better when Tim Wakefield and Brad "Lucky" Penny are your top two pitchers when they're supposed to be the fourth and fifth guys in the rotation. The solution? Go to a six-man rotation and give Clay Buchholz the spot that he has earned with his ridiculous performance down in Pawtucket. The extra rest will only help Becket, Lester and Dice-K when September comes around and the stakes are much higher. Then again, the other side of this is the roster breakdown and adding another pitcher who can only be used every six days would be a bit of a waste, not to mention the time it would take for others to adjust to six or seven days of rest. Whenever the A. L. East is won, it won't be until late September (although Toronto won't be there in the end) and I predict that two teams from the division (Sox, Yanks or Rays) will be there. What can also be done is to deal Penny for a shortstop who makes half as many errors as the Green/Lugo platoon in the event that Lowrie isn't back in full form. Dare I mention Orlando Cabrera? He plays solid defense and can still hit better than Lugo--and he's cheaper! If the shortstop situation pans out and Lowrie is the answer (which I think will happen), Penny could be used in a package to get a hitter to replace David Ortiz's production. It's obvious that Ortiz and Lugo are unmovable and Papi is well-liked in the clubhouse. A package of Penny and perhaps Manny Delcarmen/Michael Bowden/Ryan Kalish might do it for a hitter like Victor Martinez. This would ultimately mean that Papi becomes your DH only against righties and probably would play only a third of the games remaining from the time of the acquisition, maybe less depending on how well whoever it is hits. He might even benefit from spending some time down in Pawtucket trying to get his swing back--Globe blogger Chad Finn mentioned his mechanics have declined and I agree. If they don't deal for a slugger, they should bring in Saltalamacchia and have him move in with Jason Varitek so that they at least have a long-term answer at catcher. I think that the Yankees will sign Joe Mauer the same way they got Tex. In the mean time, as long as Ellsbury, Pedey, Youk, Bay, Mikey Lowell and Nancy Drew keep the runs coming, the Sox can afford to have an easy out at short with the occasional ball sailing into the first base seats.

In other news, I can't wait for John Smoltz to come back in July and beat his old mates from Atlanta. Hopefully by then the starters' ERA won't be so astronomical and the bullpen will continue to shut everybody else down. Maybe even Papelbon will figure out that keeping the ball down and on the corners of the plate will make it a lot tougher to give up game-losing dingers to third string catchers and Mauer.


Lastly, what are your thoughts on the three man rotation that NESN has implemented to replace Jerry Remy? Personally, Buck Martinez's voices bores me to death because they featured his name in an old EA Sports MLB game. I'm glad they only used him for a few games. I like both Eck and Dave Roberts because Eck provides some pretty good insight about pitching and Dave Roberts is just a cool guy who had the most important steal in Red Sox history. Then again, he seems pretty uncomfortable while Eck has been a NESN analyst for a while and knows how to talk in front of a camera (except for the occasional slip-up that cost NESN a pretty penny from the FCC). Personally, I'll give Eck the slight edge but I miss Jerry Remy.

Good to Be Back

I took a bit of a break from blogging to finish up school. I graduated. I want to go back. Ok, now it's time to get back to business. Let me start off by saying that if the Celtics and Bruins never play consecutive Game 7s ever again, I'll be content for the rest of my life. Having the top-seeded Black and Gold losing to Carolina on a Scott "Bucky Dent" Walker overtime game-winner was bad enough but then the C's laying an absolute goose egg the next night to coach Ron Jeremy and the Magic made it hurt that much more. Sad times in the Garden for sure, I hope I never see it again.

Now for more on the B's. Apparently Marc Savard, David Krejci, Phil Kessel, Chuck Kobasew, Mark Recchi and Andrew Ferrence (and Aaron Ward) all played through injuries in the playoffs. This is just insane. It's painful to think what could have happened if these six guys were healthy, not to mention Captain Zdeno's apparent bumps and bruises. I'd also like to point out that the Kessel-Krejci-Kobasew line is the second unit of forwards on the Bruins power play. Granted, the first unit usually featured four forwards with Patrice Bergeron on the point, but the second unit seemed anemic to me in the Carolina series. On top of it all, Montreal had no business making the playoffs this season. Who cares if it sold tickets? The B's barely had to do a thing in that series and it carried over to their seven game tussle with the "Tropical Depressions" as Globe Writer Kevin Paul Dupont called them. I would've much rather have seen the Bruins beat the Panthers in five or six games in the first round, that would've definitely prepared them for a battle-tested Carolina team featuring Eric "Celebrates like Ovechkin after an empty net goal" Staal. Ugh. Then again, I wonder how many goals Staal would've had if he'd played with kidney stones, mad props to Mark Recchi.

As for the offseason moves, I have a few prediction as to what a healthy Bruins lineup will look like sometime in December when Kessel and Krejci recover from their surgeries:

Lucic-Savard-Kessel
Ryder-Krejci-Wheeler
Sturm-Bergeron-Kobasew
Sobotka-Bitz-Thornton (Reich)

Chara-Wideman
Stuart-Ference
Hunwick-Boychuk (Ward)

Thomas
Rask

I see no big signings, maybe a veteran to replace P. J., Yelle, and Recchi but nothing crazy. Their top priorities are Krejci and Kessel. Bitz and Hunwick shouldn't be very difficult to ink and they may even have some room left in the cap to perhaps deal a Kobasew or Ference at the deadline if necessary.

On the other hand, this is probably what the opening day roster will look like:

Sturm-Savard-Lucic
Ryder-Bergeron-Wheeler
Soderberg (if he decides to show up)-St. Pierre-Kobasew
Sobotka-Bitz-Thornton

Chara-Ward
Wideman-Stuart
Hunwick-Boychuk

Thomas
Rask

I really hope that Boychuk cracks the lineup this season. The B's could use a scoring touch from the blueline and I'm beginning to think that anyone, even Paul Mara, is faster than both Chara and Ward.