Watching CSN’s “The Baseball Show” this morning, Sean McAdam informs that the organization thinks NESN analyst Jerry Remy could return to the booth after the All-Star break.
There has been little in the way of news from the popular announcer- this is actually the first update I’ve heard about him since he took his indefinite leave in April.
I know that all of my readers here are very curious about the Rem Dawg’s status, though, so I’ll be sure to keep my ear to the ground.
Today’s Boston Globe has a piece by Adam Kilgore that focuses in on Jason Bay’s contract situation. Bay and the Red Sox made a lot of progress towards coming to an agreement during spring training this year, but the depressed free agent market, especially for corner outfielders with power (Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, Manny Ramirez) has caused the team and the player to disagree on how much the outfielder should be payed.
I found this comment from Bay very interesting:
“In spring training, we said we would revisit it at some point. Now we’re two months into the season, so there’s still a lot of time left. It’s not really something that I’m hung up with. If it’s in the cards, it’ll get worked out. If not . . .”
but he did add:
“I don’t think putting a deadline on anything really benefits anybody.”
In other words, it looks to me like Bay is angling for an extension during the season, which is something that the Red Sox and most teams don’t usually do.
I’ve heard a lot of talk that the Red Sox don’t want to sign Bay right now, because he’s at the top of his game, and therefore could never demand more in the free market than right now. According to this logic, the team should wait until AFTER the season, and then sign Bay, hoping that they might get a discount from his current price tag.
I think this is ridiculous.
As the Abreu, Burell, and Dunn contracts show, the market is very depressed right now, and I think this may be reason to jettison the usual thinking that you don’t involve players in contract talks during the season.
Thanks to the recession, the Red Sox probably couldn’t hope for a better time to get a discount for Bay, who has said he wants to stay and will no doubt understand the nature of the current market.
If the team waits until November or December to sign Bay, though, who knows how the market could shape up? With some signs of the recession easing, there’s very good reason to believe that teams will be much less wary of spending money next off season, and the Red Sox might find themselves paying far more for Bay, or even losing out to a team desperate for Bay’s patient and powerful approach at the plate.
We all know that possibly the biggest wart on a very good Red Sox team this year is their defense. The worst spot in a pretty bad defense this year has unarguably been shortstop, with Nick Green and Julio Lugo (to a much greater extent) both sucking it up royally in the field.
Naturally, then, there’s talk that the team is looking for a shortstop in the trade market. Personally, I think this is misguided, because the team already has Jed Lowrie on the way back, who has the potential to be a very good player because of his superior eye and steady defense.
All that Boston needs out of its shortstop is some on base skills, some power (but not necessarily home runs) and solid defense. Lowrie will provide exactly that when healthy.
That’s why I think Rob Neyer’s reaction to some of the rumors being spread around by Nick Cafardo at the Globe are perfect. Cafardo basically said:
the Red Sox have “left no stone unturned” in their search for a shortstop. Rounding out the list of names are Omar Vizquel, Jack Wilson, J.J. Hardy, the aforementioned Orlando Cabrera, Bobby Crosby, Jason Donald, Miguel Tejada and a mystery shortstop with the Braves. Ideally, Jed Lowrie would make a speedy return from the DL before they begin making any decisions.
To which Neyer responded:
This sounds to me like a bunch of idle chatter from within the bowels of Fenway Park, smart guys wondering what would happen if they added Vizquel or Wilson or Cabrera or whoever to the lineup. What’s most likely, I think, is that Lowrie comes back and plays shortstop on those days when Terry Francona just can’t stand to write Lugo’s name on the lineup card.
Like I said, I think this is exactly right.
With a fan base like the one we have in Boston, there tends to be a bit of an “echo chamber” effect, I think. Someone suggests that a trade for Yunel Escobar or J.J. Hardy is possible, and enough people repeat it that even the writers for major newspapers like Cafardo start to think its true.
Never mind that both of those teams are squarely in pennant races and their fans would never forgive them if they blew it and traded away their young starting shortstop, people think the Red Sox can just go out and get anyone.
New Yankee pitcher and former Toronto Blue Jay A.J. Burnett has been suspended six games for throwing at Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers yesterday.
Following a hit by pitch earlier in the game, Mark Teixeira was visibly angered, and several innings later Burnett launched an obvious message pitch at the Texas outfielder. Both sides were promptly warned, but no ejections were issued.
Burnett is going to appeal his suspension, but I wouldn’t expect him to win his appeal like Josh Beckett did earlier this season. That sort of thing is extremely rare, especially when the pitcher blatantly throws at a batter on purpose.
Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie continues to make steps in his comeback. Today Lowrie took light swings of both underanded and overhand tosses, hitting 30 from each side of the plate in increments of ten.
Previously, we had seen Lowrie out on the field catching some flips at shortstop and keeping his arm in shape.
Lowrie is very excited for the next step in his comeback; he’s planning to take live batting practice once the team returns to Boston tomorrow:
“We’re going to test the grip strength again [today] and see how that goes and see how hitting goes [today],” Lowrie said. “Hopefully, all things considered, I can take BP. That would be awesome to get back out and actually take BP. I think that’s a legitimate goal to shoot for, and if everything goes well, hopefully you’ll see me out there taking BP when we get back.”
Lowrie makes it seem like taking live swings is the biggest step, but it’s really swinging the bat at all. The fact that Lowrie was able to take 60 total swings is very, very encouraging news, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the shortstop began his rehab appearances in the Red Sox minor league system by the end of the week.
As always, it will be interesting to watch what the Red Sox do with Julio Lugo when Lowrie comes back. The highly-paid shortstop has sat out each of the last four games.
As I have been mentioning, and bloggers elsewhere have repeatedly surmised, there’s a good chance Brad Penny is on the move, thanks to John Smoltz’s return and the success of Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden at Pawtucket.
However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves on what Penny can bring back. There has been some talk that Penny could be a significant part of a package that brings back an impact bat that could fill the void left by David Ortiz’s rotting corpse, and I think this is totally misguided.
There’s a tendency to over-value your own players and prospects, while under-valuing the worth that other teams place on their own players, and I think a lot of that might have been be going on with Penny in the last couple of weeks.
Penny has been pretty decent for the Red Sox this year, and there’s no doubt that he could help another team that has more use for him and less pitching depth for Boston. Especially if he is moved to the quadruple-A National League, I think there’s a very good chance that he could help a contending team a lot.
The thing is, though, that contending teams like to trade prospects, and not impact bats, to improve their teams. For instance, why would Cleveland, who still considers itself to have a shot in the A.L. East, want to trade for a pitcher to help them win, only to give away one of their most important bats, Victor Martinez, and at the same time weaken their team?
Conversely, team’s that WOULD be likely to give up a big bat, like, say, a Cleveland that has fallen out of the race or the Washington Nationals, don’t really have much use for a guy that’s on a one year contract and isn’t going to be a building block for the future.
A team like Washington is going to want young players who they could build a winner IN THE FUTURE around, because they already know they are out of contention this year. They don’t need a veteran pitcher like Penny to help get them over the hump, because the hump is more like a mountain this year.
Now, I don’t doubt that the Red Sox could get a solid B-/B prospect in the mold of George Kottaras, who was acquired from San Diego several years ago in a similar situation where the Red Sox had depth and the Padres thought they were in contention.
But to think that Penny is going to be a significant piece of a deal that nets Boston a bat is to fundamentally misunderstand how the baseball trade market works, in my eyes.
Amalie Benjamin has the scoop on Julio Lugo, who has sat each of the last three games in favor of Nick Green, who has been merely bad, as opposed to epically, tear your hair and eyes out bad, at shortstop.
The truly amazing part of Benjamin’s article, though, came when Lugo said this:
“I’m here,” Lugo said. “I’m ready. When he asks me to play, I’ll be ready. I ain’t going to worry about it anymore. Everything is fine, everything is perfect. I feel good mentally, physically. That’s his choice.
“Of course, I want to be out there every day. I’m ready to be out there every day. I feel good now. Everything’s fine. I think I’m playing good right now.”
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagesbyferg/2433304374/
Um, excuse me Julio? You think you’re playing well right now?
Do you also think the economy is booming, especially in Detroit, and the Rays have an untouchable lead atop the A.L. East? Do you have weekly meetings with Carl Everett to discuss your dinosaurs-never-lived craziness?
Just for a little perspective here, Lugo has so far cost the Red Sox five runs in the field, and over 150 games he’s on a pace to cost the team nearly 40 runs. That’s by FAR the worst defensive numbers I’ve ever seen from a player.
But anyone reading this doesn’t need to talk about the defensive numbers, all you would have had to do was watch any game Lugo played, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.
All you’d have to do is look at Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and even Brad Penny’s early season ERA’s, which are artificially inflated thanks to horrendous defense behind them, the chief perpetrator being Lugo.
Benjamin’s article goes on to discuss the situation at shortstop, and what is on the horizon when rookie Jed Lowrie is able to return from wrist surgery. In all likelihood, Green will be shipped down to Pawtucket until another spot on the roster opens up, and Lugo and Lowrie will continue to split time as they had been in spring training before the $12MM shortstop went down with a cartilage tear in his knee.
Over and over again, I’ve urged the Red Sox to eat Lugo’s contract. Shortstop is one of the few positions where this team has a chance to significantly upgrade itself, both offensively and defensively, and money is probably the team’s most abundant asset.
Boston should use that asset to improve itself the best way they can, by getting Lugo as far away from the playing field as possible, especially in favor of a guy who looked very promising when he was healthy last year.
The Red Sox head to Detroit for a three game set with the Tigers, who lead the American League Central on the strength of their somewhat surprising starting rotation. For the year, Detroit has a league best 4.31 ERA going in to tonight’s game, along with scoring a slightly above average 5.2 runs per game. The pitching matchups are as follows:
Matsuzaka v. Porcello
Beckett v. Galarraga
Wakefield v. Willis
Game One
Game one pits to pitchers that have been on very different tracks against one another. For the Red Sox, Daisuke Matsuzaka takes the hill for the fifth time this season, and the third time since his return from the Disabled List with a tired arm.
So far this year, the Japanese pitcher has an 0-3 record with an ugly 8.82 ERA. Although he has pitched slightly better since returning from the disabled list, especially in his first appearance versus the Mets, Matsuzaka still has a lot to prove. He has been much more hittable this year, allowing quite a bit more than double the hits per nine innings he did last year when he led the league, up to 15.4 so far on the year. At the same time, he’s been walking batters a little more frequently than his already too-high pace from his first two seasons in Boston.
Matsuzaka has had a lot of success against Detroit in his career so far, though, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the righty bounced back tonight.
On the other side, Rick Porcello has won his last five consecutive starts, and has been one of the best pitchers in the game of baseball in May. Just 20 years old, Detroit’s number 27 overall pick in the 2007 draft has been living up to his “top prospect” billing.
The 6′5, 200 pound Porcello features a dominant sinking fastball which he has been using to get ahead of batters and then induce groundballs. On the season, the West Orange, New Jersey, native has a 6-3 record with a 3.48 ERA, a 134 ERA+, and a 1.2 WHIP.
Game Two
Josh Beckett has finally been rounding into form for the Red Sox, and it seems to have been just what the team needed from its ace. After a great start against Baltimore to open the season, Beckett had struggled against several A.L. East opponents until recently turning things around, culminating in his seven inning, three hit, one run masterpiece last time out against Minnesota.
Beckett has been controlling the four and two seam fastball much better than earlier in the season, and has been able to get the curveball over enough to keep the pitch in the back of batters’ minds. When combined with his passable changeup, he can be nearly unhittable.
Armando Galarraga has struggled this year, getting the loss in five of his last six starts. So far this year, the former Texas Ranger prospect has a record of 3-5 with a 5.50 ERA, an ERA+ of 85, and a 1.6 WHIP. The right handed pitcher features a low 90’s fastball that has good sink, which is his best pitch, a hard slider, and an average changeup.
This would appear to be a game that the Red Sox should win
Game Three
Tim Wakefield began the season with a hot start for the Red Sox, and largely carried them through the early part of the season as Jon Lester and Beckett struggled. He is struggling himself now, though, as he’s given up 18 earned runs in his last four appearances. On the season, though, the knuckleballer’s number are still solid. He has a 6-3 record with a 4.55 ERA, a 106 ERA+ and a WHIP of 1.4.
Dontrelle Willis has been one of the most intriguing stories in the MLB over the last couple of years, and he’s going to be making another one of the most important starts of his career on Thursday against the Red Sox.
After dominating as a rookie and in his third year, with ERA+’s of 127 and 151, respectively, Willis has all but fallen apart. He was traded from the Marlins to Detroit as part of the package that sent super-prospects Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller to Florida in return for one of baseball’s best bats, Miguel Cabrera. Since then, the left handed pitcher with the wacky delivery has pretty much had no idea where his pitches are going, and he was sent to double A last year to try to figure it out.
After returning this year, he once again went on the DL, this time with anxiety, and was sent down to the minors for more work. Finally, though, Willis was called up earlier this year, and he has been up and down since his return. Although he is just 1-4, he encouraged Detroit fans by shutting out a hot-hitting Texas ballclub over 6.1 innings in his second start back and allowing just three runs over 6.2 to Colorado in his third appearance.
In his first start back and his last start before Thursday’s outing against the Red Sox, though, Willis gave up four runs in 4.2 innings and seven runs in 5.0 innings, so Detroit fans truly never know what they are going to get from the pitcher.
He is left handed, though, and he had a lot of deception in his delivery. If he can get the ball over the plate, he’s just the type of pitcher that has given Boston hitters fits for years, so keep an eye on that.
Aaron Bates won the Eastern League’s player of the week award for the second time in three weeks in what is fast becoming a breakout year for Portland’s corner infielder/outfielder.
The 25 year old has posted a line of .344/.413/.525 with seven home runs and 35 RBI’s to date, and doesn’t seem to be cooling any time soon.
Source: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2008/05/06/O8KKImt7.jpg
Scouts have always believed that Bates would show well above average power, but it has never really showcased itself in the upper minor leagues until this year. Thanks to his above average pitch selection and his newly shortened swing this year, don’t be surprised if you see a mid-season call up to triple-A for Bates.
John Smoltz appeared in a Red Sox uniform for the third time yesterday.
In his best effort since he started his road back to the major leagues eleven days ago, Smoltz pitched five innings, giving up a run and four hits to the Charlestown River Dogs.
Despite the somewhat pedestrian numbers, Smoltz left the fans thirsting for more when he retired the final seven batters he faced, including striking out his last three batters faced on fastballs looking.
According to reports, Smoltz topped 90 MPH consistently on the stadium radar gun, and seemed to have his best stuff yet.