SoxSport

Dempster is doing better than I thought, checking his numbers. Good enough today. Their pitching might be OK if Lackey and Doubront can give them .500 W-L or so. Webster figures to fit in there by June.

I have to laugh when I look at the Oakland As. I don't know how Beane does it. They have a bunch of nobodies, but they win. Oh yeah, they have Cespedes. Good sign, Billy. I would rank the Orioles higher. They look pretty good.

The trick is to have 3 solid starters. That's what you need in the playoffs.

Those two guys are skewing the starter data. The rest of the starters have done nothing. You have to wonder what Webster would do slotted in the #3 spot.

Olney tweeted Machado has saved 4 runs at 3B this year. I don't recall any of the Boston sportswriters speaking about Red Sox players like that. They are too busy talking about offense. How many runs has Bradley saved in LF this year? Iggy at SS? At least a couple each. Selig lamenting the small number of Afro-Americans in MLB. I think 7.7% was mentioned. The Afro-American population is about 13%, so the MLB numbers are actually closer than Football and Basketball, where the numbers are well over 50%. Also, MLB is not counting the number of Afro-Caribbean players--some of the Latin Americans have African parentage on one side. Ortiz, I believe, is one.The situation is oversimplified in the media--it isn't all black and white.

The story today is Hanrahan tweaked his hammy in NY. So he's been pitching with a bad hammy? I don't know why, with 3 other guys who can close. Cost them a game. The problem with one closer is they inevitably get overused--and then they blow a save and cost you a game. You lock in on one guy, he never gets a rest.These guys aren't machines. You can't throw them out there every day and expect them to be sharp every time. OK to have a principal closer, but you need a backup to spell the closer when you have too many consecutive save ops. Bochy does that in SF. The Red Sox have the luxury of 4 guys who can close, but you don't want to overuse any one of them.

Hanrahan needs some time off closing. They should rotate the closer. Cripes, they got 3 other guys who can close--Uehara, Bailey, Tazawa. Rotate 'em. Don't lean too hard on one. Ells picked a good spot to finally steal a base at home. Use that speed, Farrell.

You lean on these closers too hard, they snap. You can't throw them in there on successive days too often. Better to rotate if you have other guys. Farrell will come around to that yet.

These guys aren't hitting a lick in this homestand after a good start on the road. Ells has no SBs in 4 games. Have they changed their style? Iggy and Bradley add speed and defense to the lineup that could help in these type of games.

TB has not started the season well--thanks partly to Price. Hamels has been in a similar funk. Shows you how unpredictable April can be. But they usually scrape out wins against the Red Sox, so we'll see. The 3-4-5 rotation spots are the soft underbelly of the Red Sox right now. Doubront might be the best one, but he gets pushed back from the rainout. Don't know why.

Ellsbury hasn't had a stolen base the last 3 games. The Red Sox come into Fenway, they stop running. Different brand of ball from last week on the road? I don't know, but they were winning last week using all phases of the game. The Drew change at SS was definitely a letdown, as Iggy is hot and Drew is cold.

Amazing the mileage the Yankees get out of retreads.

Just lay off the slow crap out of the strike zone you're going to get from now on.

Gives them a chance to regroup after giving the O's a couple of games. We'll see which Red Sox team re-emerges.

He sucked '08 and '09. Way off his performance previous years. He has come back last two years. Maybe he's juiced up again, maybe he got himself in shape.

Salty just isn't a great catcher. Just watch Ross behind the plate if you want a comparison. Any fool can see that.

April is a bad month to judge players. The hot ST hitters go cold and the cold ST hitters get hot. Drives fantasy players nuts. A guy hitting .500 in ST is bound to cool off. At least most of them do. I would say right now they are better off with Iggy at SS and Bradley in AAA, but it's the opposite--because they have more money at SS than in LF. Nava's play, however, makes Bradley's move to AAA imminent. I think he's become tentative at the plate. Tillman threw only two slow curves last night in the early innings-both to Bradley. And he missed both. That will get around fast. At SS, they miss Iggy's defense and speed. Drew just watched that grounder go by him last night to score the tying run. Iggy would have dived for it. Maybe saved the run. But the FO has sunk $10million in Drew, and that's their priority. But the real problem with the Red Sox is the 3-4-5 starters. They need an upgrade to contend. Last night, Aceves threw just 79 pitches. That's unacceptable if you expect to keep a bullpen from burning out in August. The BP has had 9 appearances the last two games. One inning each appearance. That's a lot of pitches, when you consider they are throwing about 20 or so heating up in the BP. They've got to get at least 100 pitches out of their starters if they expect the BP to hold together. Already too much pressure on them.

Iggy hit a 2R HR tonite in Pawtucket. He might have had that grounder that tied the score tonite. Drew looked slow footed on that play, which you might expect from a guy pushing 30 coming off a bad ankle break. You can't underestimate the value of defense. Nice effort by Aceves tonite. Better than Dempster. But Dempster is the money, so Dempster pitches. Same old Red Sox. 5 relievers tonite, 4 last night. 2 losses. At this rate, bullpen burnout might come earlier this year. It's the appearances, not the innings.

They missed Iggy tonite at SS. He might have had that grounder that tied the game. Drew looked slow footed on that one. He's a guy pushing 30 coming off a bad ankle break. On his last legs, maybe as a SS. Bradley a great catch early, but looking tentative at the plate swinging at slow stuff low and inside. You figure he'll be going to AAA soon. Not sure the tradeoff of defense for hitting losing Iggy and Bradley will help the pitching. Aceves pitched better tonite than Dempster, but Dempster is making the money. Same old story, same old Red Sox.

Sounds like just about every closer in Baseball. You can look it up. Pap, Soriano and Rodney have all blown saves this year. High ERAs. Motte's arm is wrecked after 2 seasons closing. Tough business, going out there night after night to win or lose a game.

Ha. He could be one of the best hitters on the team. He was the first part of last year, as I recall. Has a good swing. Knows the strike zone. Maybe he'll surprise everybody and hit a ton--like he has in some places in the minors.

Can't tell anything about a pitcher based on one outing. Last night, Farrell brought in 3 relief pitchers pitchers in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings to replace Dempster--a guy they're paying $13 million, and he can't go beyond the 5th? He lucked out on the 3--they all had their stuff. But he pressed his luck bringing in a 4th guy--the "closer" Hanrahan, who did not his stuff. The result was a loss that should have been a win. Fault Hanrahan? Yes and no. The guy has what--3 saves? So he doesn't have it one night and loses the game. Closers are set up to win or lose games. That's the way it is. Soriano and Rodney have both s*** the bed this year--once each so far. ERAs out of sight. Closers do it all the time. They aren't machines. They don't have their stuff every appearance. Now today, Farrell and Hanrahan have to face the music in the media for one blown save. I don't like the ideology of one RP per inning. They used 4 last night in 4 innings. The odds of one of those guys not having his stuff and getting hit are very high. When you have a guy who is getting people out, leave him in there for at least another inning. If they did that last night, they might not have needed Hanrahan. But wait. That means Hanrahan doesn't get a save. Heavens. His agent will throw a fit. Not to mention fantasy players. They have a pretty deep BP right now. Maybe 4 guys who could close on any given night. I know Farrell is risking shaking up the baseball world, but why not distribute some of those saves?

classic example of how the one pitcher an inning cookie cutter regimen can lose you games. You use 4 pitchers in 4 innings, one of them is almost bound to s*** the bed. Tonite, the first 3 had their stuff, the 4th didn't. All managers do it these days. Trying to fix what isn't broke. It does backfire. Better to stick with a guy for another inning if he's effective. In the old days, they took a pitcher out only if he got into trouble. Now, they play musical chairs every inning--no matter what. It just ain't logical.

More likely lucky. Farrell is the game changer. We'll see what happens when Iggy and Bradley wind up in AAA.

So they optioned Iggy to AAA to make room for Drew. Funny, I recall some years ago they optioned another kid named Kalish to make room for another Drew. Kalish wound up getting hurt seriously, which has sidetracked his career. Drew played out his final contract year to a cool $14 million. Talented player who played about 2/3 of the time. What's the connect? Epstein loved Drew. Overpaid for him. Cherington, part of the old regime, still loves Drew. Hope it doesn't backfire. They are clicking right now.