Sports Writing

David Wells to Eric Milton: now that is how you succeed as a lefty in Fenway. Boy, was the Boomer ever on. As usual, turned on MLB.tv to catch the game as I was prepping for work… once I saw how big that curve was going, I knew it was going to be a great outing.

Look, the key words to this game were: Eric Milton, pitching in Fenway Park. You just knew a Milton meltdown was going to come, and you just hoped Big Adam Dunn wouldn’t rescue the Reds. Superb hitting all round by the Sox lately. Manny crushing the ball with authority is great to see.

That Tim Wakefield, he can do everything, eh? Besides rediscovering the knuckler (7 innings, 1 earned run), he had just as many runs scored (1) and RBIs (1) as the entire Cubs team today. I guess since he was drafted as a position player it makes sense to guess he’d hit at least decently for a pitcher… Woo! Some salvation for this interleague series.

Make of this what you will: “This is difficult to fix, to be honest with you,” a calm and controlled Theo Epstein said yesterday at Wrigley Field, where the spiraling Red Sox lost, 7-6, to the Chicago Cubs. “So many people are performing below our expectations and below our projections that this isn’t easy to fix. If this is the best that this pitching staff can pitch, then I really miscalculated and it’s time for changes.

Manny Ramirez is hitting for the season with an OBP of .339 and a SLG of .467, for an OPS of .806. 806! Ugh. That’s hot for a second baseman, but not for Manny. So at least he had that RBI double in the 9th. Hopefully that portends something better. But otherwise, what a disappointing game. Wade Miller with a 4-0 lead… then bam! 5 singles in a row. Todd Walker made a comment that reflected the general perception of Jason Varitek as some sort of guru on batters:

So the two storied franchises finally meet, and Greg Maddux got the win. Figures. The Sox seem to have trouble with two kinds of pitchers - flameballing rookie lefties, and extreme command pitchers. But giving up a homer to Maddux was somewhat galling. Who let these pitchers hit anyway? Heh.

Finally caught the game. So the Sox avoid the sweep thanks to David Wells, who has the nice habit of pitching great games at opportune moments. Before crapping the bed at other random times.

Meanwhile Lee Jenkins brings up the ‘curse’ blather in the Noo Yawk Times with regards to the Cubs-Sox series, even if he does at least seem to note that the Curse of the Bambino thing is of fairly recent provenance (*cough* Dan Shaughnessy money-grubbing *cough*):

Woo! Craig Hansen. A Scott Boras client. Interesting. Given the number of draft picks they have, I wonder how much signability will play a role in later picks? Edit: more on Craig Hansen. He has two brothers. They never sang “Mmm Bop” together, as far as I know. And with that, it’s 1.35 am, and I’m out. Baseball America, gurus of drafts, has a great draft blog to follow.

And the Sox pick at #23… Jacoby Ellsbury, CF, Oregon State University. Sabermetric-style pick. For Moneyball fans, Oakland’s pick was Clifton Pennington, SS, Texas A&M. College player. You could hear the surprise in the commish’s office.

Justin Upton goes at #1, as expected. Stupid MLB.com keeps flickering in and out of life - I guess the server’s overworked. Alex Gordon, #2, to KC. Jeff Clement, #3, Seattle. Zimmerman, #4, Mets.

Speaking of drafts, one of the most amazing feats to me - perhaps reflecting the fact that I became a baseball fan in the age of free agency - is that the Sox started all-homegrown lineups in games 1 and 2 of the ALCS in 1988. Here’s the game 1 and game 2 box scores:

John Sickels has a mock draft up on Minorleagueball.com that has the Sox getting Trevor Crowe with the first pick. Me like. Me like very much. Boston Red Sox 1—23rd—-Trevor Crowe, OF, University of Arizona 1—26th—–Colby Rasmus, OF, Phenix City, Alabama, HS 1S-42nd—–Chaz Roe, RHP, Lexington Kentucky HS 1S-45th—–Henry Sanchez, 1B, San Diego CA HS 1S-47th—–Reese Havens, SS, Sullivans Island SC HS 2—57th—–Chase Headley, 3B, University of Tennessee 4—138th—-Brandon Durden, LHP, Georgia College 5—168th—-Josh Sullivan, RHP, Auburn

Randomly funny quote from Ozzie Guillen, after being criticised by Chicago mayor Richard Daley: “Well there is a thing I would say to the mayor. I would say I’ve been in this country for 25 years and I don’t have American citizenship. He should help me do that. I’ll criticize him because they don’t give me American citizenship.” (Baseball Prospectus’ Week in Quotes)

Sox with a bonanza number of early picks. I always thought the ability to swap two players - e.g. Renteria and Cabrera (in essence) - and generating a couple of draft picks was a weird kind of inflation, but what the hey. I just hope Lance Broadway drops down to the Sox’s first pick… besides being a good pitcher he has the greatest name ever. It’s almost like he was named from that porn star name game with your dog’s name and the street you grew up on.

This rematch was a pathetic display of weak hitting. I mean, look at the box score! Morris got the complete game without being dominant at all - just 1 strikeout all in all, and the Sox only managed 4 hits? There better be some hits stored in those bats for today…

Hey, what do you know, a bullpen that works! Of course, Mike Myers has been awesome in this series, the only decent lefty in our pen thus far. And they said Embree-Halama-Myers was overkill.

On a lighter note - Bryan Person, one of the readers of my blog, sent me a link to Around Town Sports, a site he’s started on youth sports in Boston. Right now he’s focused on news and notes on Malden sports, but sounds like there’re plans to expand it… to sound like a cheesy radio DJ introducing the latest hit single: “check it out”.

Wow, I’ve never seen the wheels fall off the bus so fast. Okay, not seen, heard: stupid MLB.tv keeps insisting that I live somewhere in America/Japan/Guam and therefore am not allowed to watch it. You can call them and get a cookie to fix this issue, but 1) the cookie doesn’t seem to work on my computer and 2) if it works, it lasts a few days and then poof, it’s gone. Given that I have a Singapore IP address, why does it keep doing this to me?

Okay, who is this man, and what has he done to Alan Embree? Fookin’ 3-run homer to Garret Anderson. Is Mike Myers so much of a lefty specialist that he can’t pitch twice in a row?