SoxSport

Don't get too down on Mujica. He's better than that. Maybe he was pissed he didn't get a ring.

Mujica shocked everybody. But it was shocking earlier not to see JBJ in RF and Nava in LF. Carp has become expendable off this game, though they need a backup at 1B.

You win some, you lose some, some days it rains. But the fantasy world can breath again. Miggy got 4 hits and a HR.

Ah, dear old Fenway. I remember when it was Parnell and 4 days of rain.

I'm just sayin', this could be an awesome team. They put it together 2nd half last year.

100 wins? awesome team.

Well, you know, their ST emphasis has always been looking at the farm system--which has its advantages. They don't switch to the regulars until the last week or two--and maybe these guys aren't as sharp as they could be early in the season. Maybe. The record shows they don't usually get off to a fast start in April. Today, they are off to the White House--Jonny Gomes (who should have pinch hit for AJ against the lefty yesterday--Farrell not yet into his winning form) wearing his Uncle Sam flag jacket (see the tweets). 5 buses with police escort--2 buses of Red Sox players/staff, 3 buses of media. That says it all. LOL. I had the good fortune many years ago of singing with a group at the White House. That is a great experience.

Disappointing this club couldn't generate more offense other than that of the guy you least expected--Sizemore. Baltimore's pitching sucks, especially their "closer" Hunter, who has a reputation for throwing high meatballs. Farrell should have pinch hit for AJ against that lefty, especially with Gomes on the bench. In these close games, a manager has to play the percentages. Managers can easily lose these one run games with their late inning decisions. Mattingly lost a game last night taking Ryu out with a shutout after only 88 pitches. One more inning and he gets to his closer, Kenley J. who is very good. Teams are now waiting out starters, to build up their pitch counts. Baseball is becoming a game of pitch counts.

Strasburg isn't pitching like a Cy candidate today. Neither is Verlander. Harper is a guy who runs into injuries. Too intense. Almost got hurt today. Why does everybody always pick the Rays? They can't hit for crap. The Red Sox are still the defending champs, and we don't really know if they are better or worse. A chance they are better. The most overrated team in baseball might be the Dodgers. Poor game last night. Mattingly blew it taking out his starter in a shutout after only 88 pitches. The folly of pitch counts. They can hurt if used incorrectly. I go back to the good organizations--Cards, Pirates, Giants in NL; KC, Red Sox, Rays, As in AL.

Sure, as long as Lester doesn't set the bar based on what the Yankees do. They are paying a guy $22 million who has never pitched a MLB game to be a #3 starter, and Lester has to ignore that. The Dodgers are paying $30 million for Kershaw. The Yankees and Dodgers live in a different salary world. The limit each team can pay obviously varies. Players and their agents should be mindful of that, as well as the media.

Maybe sooner than you think. Vic tweaked his hammy swinging (!) , and is in Boston getting an MRI.

The Yankees already "scooped up" Aceves to go with Bailey and Ellsbury, and are pretty desperate for pitching. Cordero's problem is he didn't show anything more than what he had in Toronto, where he was hit pretty hard. ST can be a mirage--the competition is very spotty, and some players are not yet focused.

Vic tweaked his hammy swinging, and now he's back to Boston for an MRI. This is precisely what they were concerned about when they sent down JBJ. They have no backup for Vic in RF. Nava is a defensive liability in RF at Fenway. Are they rethinking things? Maybe.

Agreed. Carp is an important part of their depth. And depth is their strength--along with the pitching. Not too different from the Cardinals. They have JBJ and now Brentz in reserve 60 miles away if needed. I think JBJ has lost some confidence moving up so fast. Needs to regain it in Pawtucket. With the kids, it's often simply a matter of confidence. Plus experience.

Will has gotten hot. He's hitting HRs. If he gets his OBP up, he'll be a very good hitter. I guess JBJ opens in Pawtucket. But I'm reminded of Kalish, who got hurt in Pawtucket blocked by Drew in his contract year. You stash a guy in AAA so he can play everyday, and be ready when needed. But there is a risk he gets hurt,and then you don't have him. They may need JBJ as a backup for Vic, too. I hate to see Nava in RF at Fenway. Vic is as much a liability as Sizemore. I'm sure they are aware of this. He misses games.

It should be evident when a pitcher loses his stuff. And, as you say, the red line is about 120 pitches. Too bad Grady Little paid no attention to that when he kept in Pedro in that Yankee stadium game. Cost him his job. I remember when Schilling pitched for Philly, and Tito was manager. Tito kept him in for 140 or so pitches many games--his ERA in the 8th and 9th innings was about 5. Claimed he had a weak bullpen. Next year Schilling had to have a shoulder operation. There's obviously a limit, but 100 pitches taxes the bullpen and leads to unforced losses. The starters are better pitchers than their replacements, except for maybe the closer.

Well, here's the latest on current payroll in the Herald: http://bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox_mlb/mlb_coverage/2014/03/dodgers_top_spender_ending_yanks_15_year_streak The Dodgers and Yankees are by far the biggest spenders. No surprise since NY constitutes about 16% of the TV market and LA about 9%. About a quarter of the TV sports market for the two largest cities. No wonder you get a steady diet of Yankees and Dodgers in the ST games on MLB network. Expect the same this year on ESPN and Fox as well. The main source of the differences are local cable TV revenues, which are not distributed to other teams. This has been the source of the Yankee advantage for many years--with their YES network. Many cable subscribers around the country, including myself, have this channel stuck in their cable package--and are paying for it, whether they watch it or not. You folks in New England that subscribe to NESN get a steady diet of the Red Sox, so this isn't an issue for you. But those outside NE are pretty much force fed the Yankees and now the Dodgers on the national network channels. The salary explosion in MLB relates to the lack of a salary cap, and a system of over-rewarding free agents--with the richest teams most often pushing the price up. It's obviously an unfair system, but the surprising thing is PAYROLL DOESN"T GUARANTEE WINNING. Last year, for example, there was no correlation in payroll vs wins--if you plotted the two. Probably a large part of the reason is free agents are grossly overvalued in the system. The other is that some teams have strong farm systems--some helped by rebates from rich teams over the luxury tax--and use the draft system to their advantage. There are two things that could change all this--One would be a hard salary cap, much like the one in the NFL--which eliminates any market size advantage. The other would be FCC restructuring of cable TV packages, which would allow subscribers more freedom of choice in what they are paying for. Right now, sports channels are more than half of your cable TV bill--whether you watch them or not--and that is fueling the enormous salaries in sports compared to the rest of the society. If that changes, expect the sports salary bubble to burst. And the TV networks already have clauses in their league agreements to alter their revenue contracts should that happen.

The pitching plateau has always been 120. Gradually, it has diminished down to 100, which has put tremendous pressure on the BP and caused teams to add another RP. Any well conditioned pitcher can throw 120 pitches in a quality start. And if you listened to the experts, like Halladay, it depends more on the pattern of the game--not on the number of pitches--as to how fatigued a pitcher gets. This whole business of pitch counts is an art--not a science. And there is a lot of second guessing going on right now with all the Tommy John injuries. Good luck if you can find any experimental evidence on correlating pitch counts with injuries. As for the Orioles, the impact on their pitching without a reliable closer will be substantial in a tight AL East. Losing a guy with 40 saves is tough to replace. The Red Sox were very lucky last year to have discovered Uehara's mastery. Without him in the stretch, things might have been different. I wouldn't take those WAR's too literally.

Yeah, the OBP separates the men from the boys when the season starts.

ha. I had to look at that post to figure out who Johnson was. That was a bit of overstatement--even though it backfired when the Os didn't sign Balfour. Now they don't really have a reliable closer. Late inning relief is critical the way it's used in baseball these days. The starter almost never pitches the 8th or 9th inning. In some cases, you have to wonder why not. But that's the paradigm. The biggest mistake, of course, was the Yankees' letting their best player, Cano, go--and then going on a half billion dollar spending spree as if to make up for it. They blew it, and then quickly realized they blew it--so they spent wildly.

I wouldn't overestimate the Yankees--like much of the media always does. Too many surprises have to happen with their pitching to make them contenders. And not with that infield. It boils down to pitching. The Rays have it. The Red Sox should have it. The Rangers are injury-bitten. In trouble. The Dodgers could walk away with it if Ryu and Greinke come through. The Nats will have to have a strong year from Strasburg. The Cards will always be tough with their young players--especially pitching. Plus the Pirates--very good organization. In the AL, KC might be a dark horse. The Tigers are never quite there. Miggy doesn't have much lineup protection this year. Plus no Fister. Verlander has to be OK.

Looks pretty accurate. Never believed Tito was much of a field manager. Winning MOY over Farrell was a joke. On the FO, it's hard to get a perspective here, since the media rarely talks about the machinations upstairs in an organization. I do think James' departure in '07 plus the furloughing of several saber consultants ("cost cutting" was the explanation--though they pay those folks peanuts compared to everybody else) hurt them. They had no one to tell Epstein he's nuts for signing/trading for those $20 million dollar guys. Especially Crawford. And we now know AdGon has lost some of his power stroke. You know what the star struck media did--they declared the Red Sox World Series winners before the start of the season. The Dodgers are lucky they survived that trade with the Red Sox. It hasn't helped them a bit, except maybe for Mexican attendance. But they have so much Fox TV dough they can burn a pile of it every game. What helped them in the stretch last year was Hanley, Greinke and Puig. They were the difference, along with Kershaw. That kid Ryu is good, too. They are a team to watch--and not because of Crawford or AdGon.

Sizemore looked like an all-star today, hitting a HR, and circling the bases like a rookie. He is sure to start the season in CF, unless he has a setback in the next few days. He is gaining confidence--you can see it.

You can pencil Sizemore in the lineup after today. Finally showed some power, hitting a HR. Looks almost too good to believe. JBJ will have to patrol CF in Pawtucket, until Vic gets hurt--which is frequent.

A word about Tito in Cleveland. I think he's doing well there because he has a team that hasn't won and wants to. He is popular with the players and lets them play. His problem in Boston, I think, is he had guys who won and stopped wanting to win. When that happened, he had no leverage.Maybe he stopped trying to win, too. I always thought the team went downhill after '07. After James et al left the FO and Tito lost his bench coach-Brad Mills. In '13, James comes back to the FO, and what do you know, another championship. Not that others weren't involved as well. I hope the current championship team doesn't stop trying to win.