Here's a few minutes with Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan, who spoke with Hacks with Haggs about Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. The reigning AL MVP's batting average is down to .286 and he's been struggling for the entire month of June while batting out of the leadoff spot. Pedroia's numbers for the month are .178/.250/.455 in 73 at bats during a pretty decent sample size in May. This blogger felt it was a byproduct of hitting leadoff, but perhaps it's merely Pedroia attempting to mirror some of the power numbers from last season when he popped 17 homers en route to the MVP Award.
Magadan also pointed toward a stretch early last season when Pedroia was struggling with a nagging injury and hit only .260 during the entire month of May. The Little Second Baseman That Could is ahead of where he was last year in terms of everything but his home run numbers, but that hasn't stopped Lil' Pedey's frustration from bubbling over in his last few games.
Here's Magadan:
What have you seen out of Pedroia at the plate recently? Seems like he is scuffling. DM: It seems like I’m seeing a lot of what I saw last year. I looked at his numbers last year at this time after 250 at bats, and his numbers are actually better this year than they were last year at this time. He’s hitting for a higher average, he’s walking more, he’s got more doubles than he did last year, but he’s got two less homers than he did last year at this time.
I showed him (the numbers from last year) and I told him don’t let the weight of what you did last year at this time get in the way of what you’re trying to accomplish this year. He probably got a little too concerned with his home runs. He hit 17 last year and he’s only got two (this season). He’s pressing a little bit and just like everybody else he’s trying to get two or three hits in every at bat. He’s just got to slow everything down, let the ball come to him and hit the ball where it’s pitched rather than trying to do too much with it.
Just hit the ball where it’s pitched. Right now he’s just pressing a little. I think that’s what it is.
It seems like there’s been some times where he’s definitely shown a little bit of frustration out on the field. DM: He has high expectations of himself like everybody in here. Everybody’s got high expectations and high abilities. So he expects a lot out of himself, and when he feels like he’s not meeting those lofty expectations that he has in his head he gets upset.
I hadn’t even thought about the power thing. I had looked more at Pedroia’s less-than-great numbers out of the leadoff spot. Could that have had anything to do with the struggles? DM: He hasn’t said anything to me about (being uncomfortable leading off). If the numbers bear that out then maybe that’s something that’s weighing on him a little bit. Maybe when you’re in that leadoff spot you lose some of your aggressiveness a little bit and you maybe are trying to work the count too much. But I just think he’s pressing right now.
Just like anybody else when they’re not getting hits or trying to make it all up in one at bat. He knows. He’s frustrated, but he knows the process. That’s why I wanted to show him those numbers. Because I was trying to remember back at this time and I was like ‘You know what? I remember when we were in Baltimore and he got down into the .270’s. Let me look’. And I actually looked during (Saturday's) game and they were exactly where I thought they were going to be. He’s got more than double the amount of walks he had at this time last year, so at least he’s doing his job getting on base.
The rest of this stuff will take care of itself. He’s got 400 more plate appearances this year, and in mid-August he’s not going to be concerned with this at all. Just like he was last year.
The power thing seems to make a lot of sense. That he doesn’t have as many home runs this year, and Pedroia is powering up a little to get the homer totals up there. DM: All that stuff weighs on a guy. I was watching the Marlins game and Hanley Ramirez hasn’t hit a home run in 25 games. You think about that stuff. I just want to make it clear to him that if we need him to hit home runs for this team when we’ve got some issues.
We just need him to hit his line drives, get on base, hit whatever he’s going to hit and keep having good at bat after good at bat. The numbers will take care of themselves.”
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Sox manager Terry Francona thinks it’s merely the kind of coincidental happenstance that almost becomes ordinary in baseball, but – with Boston’s offense struggling to score runs -- it might be time to shake up the batting order once again and place both Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia back into in their rightful places.
Pedroia was inserted into the leadoff spot and Ellsbury dropped down back on May 31, and it was sold at the time as a move that was temporary in nature for a scuffling Sox offense. Pedroia has been hitting just .178 with seven walks in 72 at bats in the No. 1 spot ever since the lineup shakeup.
During his career Pedroia is a .250 hitter in 250 career at bats and really doesn’t seem as comfortable as a reigning American League MVP should. The Boston offense has also gone into semi-hibernation over the last stretch of games as they have scored three runs and managed only four hits in their last three games.
By contrast, the Sox second baseman is hitting .328 with a .419 on base percentage out of his customary No. 2 hole in Boston’s batting order. Over the course of his career, Pedroia is a .323 hitter with a .382 on base percentage in a comfortable spot where he’s accumulated the overwhelming majority of 1,521 big league at bats.
Ellsbury was hitting .299 with a could-be-improved .332 on base percentage in 211 at bats in Boston’s top lineup spot this season, and has the kind of top end speed that makes him a distraction to opposing pitchers when Pedroia and Co. come up to the plate.
The Sox skipper had become aware of the statistics before Saturday’s game, but felt that the statistics were more accidental than indicative of a trend.
“I actually looked at that today. I can’t put my finger on it and he doesn’t care where he hits,” said Francona. “I think it’s coincidental. I don’t think he ever changes his approach nor do we want him to.
“It’s like the other day when somebody asked me the other day about Ellsbury changing his approach when we put him lower in the lineup.. No, we don’t want Ellsbury to change his approach. He had just come off a 20-game hitting streak, and we just thought the way he was playing that it might make our lineup a little better. When Pedey went up to first we didn’t tell him anything. But I did see those numbers and I was surprised. It wasn’t like he was all of the sudden thrust into an important role in our lineup. He was the No. 2 hitter in our lineup. This guy is the MVP.”
Perhaps after another 0-fer on Saturday night for the reigning AL Most Valuable Player, Francona will change his mind.
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Here's the weekly segment with ESPN's Peter Gammons on the Mike and Mike Show on Friday morning. Among the highlights are:
*Serious doubt from Gammons that the Cubs are going to do much to add to their team with ownership in flux
*Texas needs a pitcher, but they are for real
*Angels need a pitcher or a hitter, but must do something at the deadline
*The Rays are looking for a veteran reliever to close out ballgames, but both David Price and Wade Davis will factor into the bullpen equation.
*The Yanks should be in the market for a middle reliever, but they want to see what they have in K-Rod Fan Club President Brian Bruney first.
*Pudge Rodriguez should be a Hall of Famer, but during his first year in Detroit he would tell Cleveland Indians hitters what pitches were coming because he was displeased with manager Alan Trammell and his spot in the Tigers batting order. Interesting. I thought only A-Rod did things like that.
I want to start with the Cubs. Is this a fixable team the way you seem them? PG: Well, it’s a fixable team if Alfonso Soriano gets on base 35-37 percent of the time rather than 28-30 percent. That’s a huge hole when you’re not getting on base out of the leadoff spot, and you’ve got to assume that Derrek Lee is not going to be a 40 home run guy after hurting his wrist. There are a lot of guys there that can hit. Milton Bradley is certainly capable of doing a lot more than he’s done.
So it’s fixable, and I think they will fix it. But I think it’s one of those things where they can’t go out and do a lot. The ownership situation is in flux, so I’m going to presume that means they won’t spend any money. They have to get their good players to produce and that hasn’t happened yet.
Instead of players that are on the trading block, what teams out there are in contention and have to make a move? PG: I think there are a few. If you to the AL West, Texas has to add a pitcher there. They have (Frank) Francisco back now and maybe in a few weeks or a month Brandon McCarthy will be back. They need a pitcher, but I think Texas is a pretty serious contender.
I think the Angels probably have to either add a bat or a pitcher. It’s astounding that they’ve survived the injuries that they’ve had, but one way or another before the trade deadline they have to do something. Tampa has to go find one veteran reliever. There are ways they can go with their young pitchers where they want to put Price back in the bullpen and pitch Wade Davis in the seventh and eighth innings.
But they need some veteran to go into clean ninth innings situations and stop the bleeding. There was a very interesting piece in Tampa last week about strength of schedule. They had had by far the toughest strength of schedule (in the first two months). They can come back and play much better in the second half, but they need stability at the end.
I think eventually the Yankees are going to have to get another middle reliever. I think they can do it, but they want to see what Brian Bruney is going to give them. But I think they’re another team that has to go out and do something. Then I look at the AL Central and NL Central and there’s so much up in the air that I’m not sure anybody has to do anything. It’s just a matter of who plays best. In the AL Central my guess is that Minnesota is a team that better than anybody else can heal themselves from within.
What’s your overriding feeling about the home runs at Yankee Stadium this season? PG: I just hate the idea of having anything at Yankee Stadium cheapened, and the home runs have cheapened it a bit. I don’t really understand how they didn’t plan it out a little better. I understand how building around ballparks can change wind patterns and therefore change home runs patterns, but the people that designed that ballpark could have done a little more.
They could have planned a little better. It’s too bad. But the amazing thing is that the first homerless game came against the Washington Nationals. That’s tremendous, and it wasn’t even Strasburg that was pitching.
Pudge breaks record for most games caught, and much has been mentioned about him. What’s going to be his legacy? PG: I think he will go down as a Hall of Fame catcher after catching the most games. And it is remarkable that he spent most of his career in that heat in Texas. That shortened the career by at least five years of an extraordinary catcher named Jim Sundberg because he was out there catching 150-something games a year in that heat for 8 or 9 years.
But I mean there’s been a lot said and written about conflicts with pitchers and Pudge. When Alan Trammell was the manager there in his first year (in Detroit) he got mad because Trammell batted him lower in the order and was sort of cryptically telling opposing hitters on the Indians what was coming because he was mad.
Those things happen, but you know they’ve happened with a lot of stars over the years. I think he’s a first ballot Hall of Famer, I really do.
There’s been some smoke around Pudge for all these years. Is that all part of the legacy? Should we whisper about guys like that? PG: There were a lot of suspicions around the players in Texas in the 1990’s. But unless somebody showed up in the Mitchell Report or is linked in a federal investigation or has failed a drug test, I don’t think it’s fair to throw it out there. I remember a couple of guys in the 80’s asking the question ‘how did you get so big’ and you dig and you try to dig, but you get nowhere trying to get any proof. I just think it’s hard just throwing it out there against guys.
Did Pudge get a lot bigger for three or four years there? Yes. Was he a workout fanatic? Yes. Do we know that part of the PED thing was to recover and continually work out? Yes. But unless we’ve got something concrete, I don’t think people in our business are qualified to make medical judgments just with their eyes.
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BOSTON -- The Sox won a baseball game on Wednesday night behind stalwart pitching of RHP Brad Penny and some offensive derring-do from 2B Dustin Pedroia and lengthened their AL East lead over the New York Yankees to comfy three games in the process.
But the biggest star of the night wasn’t Pedroia or Penny, but instead it was a Boston Red Sox franchise that sold out their 500th consecutive regular season game at Fenway Park dating back to May 15, 2003.
“I don’t think there’s any question about how supportive the fans and how much they’ve been here,” said J.D. Drew. “(Being in Boston) is something that’s awesome to be a part of.”
Obviously both Penny and Pedroia – as well as David Ortiz, who continues to watch his batting average climb as he finished 1-for-2 with three walks on the night – contributed and led Boston to an everybody-goes-home-happy 6-1 win over the Florida Marlins at Fenway.
If the Sox played National League teams 162 times a year they might just win 115 times and run away with the American League pennant, and they watched the Florida Fish comply with their celebratory wishes on a perfect June evening. With the victory, the Sox take a three-game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East and continue to take advantage of the soft NL teams on their schedule.
The 500 consecutive sellouts at Fenway represents the longest home sellout streak in Major League Baseball history, and the Olde Towne Team joins the Portland Trailblazers (744 from 1977-1995), Boston Celtics (567 from 1980-95) and the Chicago Bulls (515, 1987-2000) as only the fourth US pro sports franchise to sell out at least 500 consecutive games.
In honor of the mark, Fenway groundskeeper Dave Mellor shaved a gigantic ‘500’ into the outfield grass at the Fens and the ballclub gave out commemorative tickets and baseballs to the 38, 916 in attendance on Wednesday night.
The sellout streak is so long that it even predates Sox manager Terry Francona, who is the longest-tenured manager in the AL East and the fourth longest-tenured AL manager behind only Ron Gardenhire, Mike Scioscia and Eric Wedge. Francona is aware of the rabid following the unflagging support that the team gets from their adoring fans, but sometimes all of that gets lost in a pile of wins and losses.
Except for night’s like Wednesday when the Sox hit the sellout century mark five times over, and gives some of that love back to their Nation of fans.
“Maybe I take it for granted,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “I'll bet you we get caught up so much in whether we win or lose that we take it for granted. It creates an opportunity where I get to brag about our fans but probably our ownership. I think the best thing we can do in uniform is win games.
“This ownership group has tried hard to show the great fans that they also care about them. Tickets are expensive and we respect that so in the same aspect you try to make the fans feel very important. It's similar in the charity type events that they do. My dad (Tito) has a golf tournament and they run to help. I think that's pretty obvious through out the community. We're in the midst of a really unique time. I do probably take it for granted and maybe I shouldn't.”
Here’s a few other sights and sounds from a night that ended with me munching on a baseball-frosted cookie brought into the Fenway press box to promote the new On Demand option offered by Comcast to watch Red Sox games.
--Brad Penny took a Jeremy Hermida line drive straight off the chest in the first inning and was quick enough to recover from the play and make the play to first, but – much like Tommy Boy – Sox manager Terry Francona thought the ball “left a mark”.
“I just told him ‘If you collapse we’ll get (Justin) Masterson into the game’ You can’t hurt him. He’s a strong kid and he likes to pitch. But then again when the game was over I came in to pat him on the (back) and I thought he had a pacemaker. He’s got a pretty good welt on there.”
Penny stayed in the game for five innings and secured his 100th career victory after taking a liner in the breadbasket, and then got ready to celebrate with UFC fighting and FOP (Friend of Penny) Chuck Liddell, who showed up at Fenway before the game and was spotted walking around with a bodyguard that could have easily been the twin brother of Eric “Butterbean” Esch.
With tough-guy Liddell in the stands watching his buddy pitch, there was little doubt that Penny wouldn’t be leaving the game after absorbing the blow.
Liddell was in the Sox clubhouse again after the game while Penny was walking around with a pair of champagne bottles in his right hand, and then Liddell, Butterbean and somebody that I can only describe as a cross between Tattoo from Fantasy Island and Mini-Me followed Penny out of the home locker room and out into the Boston night.
No idea where they went, but I am sure they were about to have some fun.
--Jason Bay also had eventful evening out in left field when he had an impromptu introduction to Bruins great Bobby Orr between the sixth and seventh inning out in left field. Orr was walking around the Fenway grounds before the game, but Bay somehow missed a chance to meet one of his Canadian hockey heroes during the pregame and was more than a little disappointed.
So the Sox arranged for Orr to “hide” in the little scorer’s room behind the Green Monster and then have him pop out to say hello to Bay following the bottom of the sixth inning. J.D. Drew was out of the lineup on Wednesday and watching TV, so he saw Orr walk out toward the Monster seats and told Bay about it prior to the seventh.
So Bay had fair warning that Orr was out there, and the two Canadian athletes exchanged a warm handshake before Orr hustled off the baseball field prior to the start of the inning.
What did Bay think of the experience?
“We won, but more importantly I got to meet Bobby Orr,” said Bay, who called Orr a National Hero in Canada. “Big win, but big deal that I got to meet him. People say that he was huge for hockey in Boston, but he’s a huge hockey figure in Canada. There are only a few guys like that in that sport that you identify with. I’ve also heard form numerous people that he’s an extremely nice guy.
“I knew he was out there. J.D. was watching the game on TV and told he was out there. I don’t know if I would have known it was him from far away. He was being brought around before the game, and I told the person that was with him ‘why didn’t you bring him over so I could meet him?’ Little did I know it would happen between the sixth and seventh inning. It’s pretty neat. I should check my phone because I know that (my dad) will be calling me about it. He’s a huge Bruins fan. He’ll definitely have something to say about it. I know he will.”
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One thing to keep in mind when talking about the pitch surplus and when to pull the trigger on burly Sox right-hander Brad Penny: the big right-hander has gained a well-earned reputation as a guy that doesn’t slave for long hours on the treadmill and that’s sure to have an effect on his season.
Since 2005, the 31-year-old Penny has battled some very real second-half decline in his numbers and that doesn’t appear likely to change as he gets older and moves into MLB’s middle-age bracket.
The best course of action with the 6-foot-4, 230-pound slab of beef -- a pitcher that we’ve praised as “better than expected” but is still sitting with a 5.32 ERA, 1.52 WHIP and a .305 batting average against after his first 66 innings of work – is to make a deal before he hits the crescendo of this year’s comeback from shoulder problems, and then starts to sink back down in terms of overall value and performance.
Penny has clearly made some fans in the organization and has friends in high places dotted along Boston’s roster, and endeared himself to the fans when he drilled A-Rod between the shoulder blades with a heater last week.
"You get to know guys. When they come through that door the first day of spring training, we want them to feel welcome. It makes them easier to be better players,” said Sox manager Terry Francona last weekend. This kid has been such a pleasure. He just does everything you ask. He competes. He’s getting better. (I’ve) seen him getting confident. Pitches until you take the ball away. I’ve enjoyed the [heck] out of this. (He has) been unbelievable.
“He's bought into everything. Been nothing but, 'Hey what do you want me to do?’ He’s fun. He makes our job fun. When he’s not been the best, he hasn’t made excuses -- 'Sorry, I’ll do better.' And he goes to work. That’s kind of what we ask. That makes it fun. (It’s) nice to compete with guys like that.”
But just check out the numbers since the 2005 season when gauging just how much the Sox can expect to get out of their accountable righty going forward.
Penny’s pre-All-Star game starts since then have seen him put up a 30-17 record in 407 2/3 innings with a 3.51 ERA (159 earned runs allowed) that helped him get selected to a pair of All-Star game appearances as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers – and ultimately helped him hang on for a pair of 16 win seasons.
Penny’s post-All-Star break numbers aren’t quite so encouraging: a 15-14 record in 259 1/3 innings with a 5.00 ERA and a more than 30 point jump in terms of batting average against.
Some have said that the Red Sox should wait until they get an “over the moon” offer for Penny, who was hitting 98-mph with his fastball while tossing up six shutout innings in his last start against the New York Yankees. There’s a point where it’s prudent to hold on to an asset to make sure that the value has reached it’s apex, and then there’s a distinct point where holding on to an asset becomes a greedy exercise that ultimately hurts the team in baseball.
NL Teams like the Philadelphia Phillies, Florida Marlins, New York Mets and Houston Astros are still within striking distance of divisional titles and playoff berths while sitting in the bottom half of the big leagues in terms of starting pitcher’s ERA (Philly is dead-last in the NL with a 5.36 ERA from their starters this season), and would be willing to make the gamble that Penny throwing 95-mph could be all different kinds of light’s out toeing the rubber in the Senior Circuit.
Is it worth trading for 24-year-old Phillies prospect Jason Donald and strengthening Boston’s organizational depth up-the-middle with a kid that’s displayed an ability to hit for average, get on base, steal a bag or two and even occasionally hit a home run while playing solid defense – even if Donald is now out 4-6 weeks after getting a torn meniscus repaired – at the minor league level?
Is Donald even being offered in any kind of Penny talks, or will the Sox have to sweeten the pot to land that level of yield in return for their veteran starting pitcher?
All good questions, but the clearest answer with John Smoltz on the verge of a return this week and Clay Buchholz chomping at the bit in Pawtucket is an easy one. Deal Penny before the inevitable second-half swoon shows up, and you have nothing to show for such a prudent one-year signing this winter.
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The Red Sox are enjoying a deserved Monday off-day after a quick weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies, and it’s expected that Sox manager Terry Francona will roll out Boston’s full starting rotation plan on Tuesday afternoon. There are a number of questions given Boston's surplus of arms and the season-long struggles of Daisuke Matsuzaka since the 2009 season whistle was blown back in April.
Will the Sox brass ask a future 42-year-old Hall of Famer in John Smoltz to pitch one more game for Triple-A Pawtucket -- even though he threw six innings in his last minor league rehab and clearly believes that he’s ready for the big leagues – to buy themselves some time?
Is Brad Penny on the trading block – and potentially at his high water mark in terms of trade value -- after putting together a 3-2 record and a 4.10 ERA in eight strong starts during the months of May and June?
Daisuke Matsuzaka has been awful all season long after missing spring training while training and participating at the World Baseball Classic, and has been knocked around to the tune of a .372 batting average against. The calls have been for the 28-year-old Japanese hurler to retreat to the bullpen or build himself back up again after a false start coming off the 15-day disabled list in late May – but that doesn’t seem likely to happen.
Despite the lack of results that Matsuzaka has enjoyed in 24 2/3 innings since coming off the DL (1-3, 6.20 ERA), he still had the talent to be an 18-game winner with a sub-3.00 ERA last season and will eventually get better this season – provided his right arm is sound -- if patience prevails.
Tim Wakefield is 8-3 with a 4.50 ERA and has been his typically streaky-yet-consistent self through his first 12 starts of the 2009 season, and even volunteered to come out of the bullpen over the last few games when Boston’s bullpen was depleted. Wakefield has been playing with a partial tear in his right shoulder for the last five seasons, but has managed the issue with shoulder strengthening exercises and a period of rest through the season.
Jon Lester and Josh Beckett have been carrying the starting rotation for the last month, and will be disrupted as minimally as possible over the next few weeks as the Sox try to shoehorn six pitchers into a five-man rotation.
That covers everybody, right?
Well, not quite.
There’s also the forgotten arm down in Pawtucket that belongs to 24-year-old Clay Buchholz. The Sox prospect crashed and burned at the big league level last season, but has been aces at Triple-A this season to the tune of a 4-0 record and a 1.75 ERA in 11 games for Pawtucket, and has held minor league hitters to a .167 batting average in 67 innings of work.
The promotion of Smoltz from Pawtucket to Boston opens up a can of worms with Buchholz, who is aching for another shot with the Sox and beginning to talk about other place “where I’ll be able play and pitch every fifth day”. Buchholz mentioned in an excellent interview with NECN’s Mike Giardi that he’s been speaking regularly with his agent over the last six weeks about the bottleneck that seems to have developed in Boston – and the fact that he’s not getting his shot. Once Smoltz enters the rotation, it will mark the second time this season that the young righty has been passed over in an opportunity that went to somebody else.
First Justin Masterson slid into the rotation when Daisuke Matsuzaka landed on the DL just weeks into the season with a strained right shoulder, and now Sox officials are reconfiguring their rotation to wedge Smoltz into a starting staff that's been fairly solid for Boston over the last six weeks.
Buchholz is in a tough spot because the Sox basically own him for the foreseeable future and don’t have to do anything unless injuries decimate them at the major league level – or they’re bowled over by a trade proposal for a team desperate to land themselves the Texas slinger with the golden right arm.
The string-bean righty was coveted by the Texas Rangers during the winter and was the main target of Club President Nolan Ryan when trade talks kicked up around catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, but the Sox interest in a young catcher has waned with Jason Varitek rebounding offensively in 2009. The Sox have made it clear they won't be dealing Buchholz unless it's a "game changing player" type deal for them.
But their prized pitching prospect doesn’t sound all that happy with what’s going on in Boston right now. Here are a few highlights from an excellent interview with Giardi that also has Buchholz talking about some “mistakes” he made along the way related to his behavior in his first go-round in Boston. Buchholz saw his stock rise to astronomical heights after he threw a no-hitter in 2007 on Sept. 1 against the Baltimore Orioles, and every step wasn’t perfect for the youngster along the way through first few moments.
Do you feel like you’ve done all you can do and you should be headed to Boston?
CB: I was sort of in the same position last year. Not as much or as good as I’m doing right now. But all the way up through the system in the minor leagues there wasn’t that big of a hill that I had to climb. I’m not saying or trying to say that I’m better than anybody else, but it wasn’t until I got to the big league is whenever I faced as far as when problems arose. I feel like I’m more equipped with everything that I have right now as far as the pitches and the mental aspect and (being) physically healthy to be up there and help that team. If not (the Red Sox) then I want to be in the big leagues and I do want to go somewhere where I’ll be able to play and pitch every fifth day.
Is it frustrating at all mentally where you feel like you’re ready and you can succeed? CB: Yeah. I’ve had talks with my agent for the past month-and-a-half, two months and it’s been just basically the same thing. There’s nowhere to go and it’s sort of a logjam up there. They’re doing whatever they feel is right up there (in Boston) for the team to win. Whenever they come to a problem it seems like they come up with a way to fix it without me being in the picture. It is what it is. It’s frustrating at times, but I’m going out and every fifth day here trying to help this team win and trying to get better every time I go out.
Everybody knows that this game doesn’t last forever, especially for a pitcher. More position players have their long careers, and it could be any one pitch that you throw and then you blow out and your career is over or you have a year-and-a-half setback and it’s really hard to come back from something like that. I feel like I don’t want to waste bullets here (in Pawtucket) whenever I do feel ready to actually be there and help the team win. I feel like I’m ready to go and hopefully in the next month or so I’ll get that chance.
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The Sox may finally be settling on a workable solution at shortstop for the time being, and that answer begins and ends with 30-year-old journeyman SS Nick Green.
The Sox are an amazing 26-10 with Green in the starting lineup, and the infielder is hitting a respectable .279 with a pair of home runs and 19 RBIs in 43 games for the Red Stockings. Green and SS Julio Lugo had been engaged in something of a middle infield partnership after SS Jed Lowrie went out with surgery on his left wrist, but – amid serious defensive struggles by Lugo that led to some frustrating moments -- Green has closed a white-knuckled stranglehold over the starting shortstop job.
Lowrie will obviously be given every chance to claim his starting job back once he's ready to go at the end of June, but Green has won a spot on this Boston baseball team for the rest of the season. That much is just plainly stating the obvious.
“I feel better every day,” said Green. “I love playing shortstop, and I really enjoy being in the middle of everything. I just keep going and trying to get better.”
Green’s value to the team was never more evident than in Boston’s come-from-behind win over the Yankees on Thursday night as the former Bronx Bomber touched off a three-run, seventh-inning rally with his leadoff single. He ended up scoring on a Kevin Youkilis RBI single, and then showed exactly why he’s in the starting lineup in the top of the ninth.
Despite some erratic defensive play through his stint with the Red Sox that have led to nine errors in 35 games at short, Green started off the top of the ninth frame with a diving stab up the middle on a rain-soaked Fenway infield. Green quickly picked himself up off the water-logged Fenway lawn, spun around and gunned down a hustling Derek Jeter with a perfect strike at first base. In the span of two innings, Green showed the letter-perfect example of why he’s impressed so many Sox officials since opening eyes with both his hustle and his opportunistic bat this spring.
“I don’t know how many shortstops make that play,” said Sox manager Terry Francona of a play that clearly robbed Jeter of a hit. “It was wet up the middle and he had enough arm. A lot of good things went into that play: timing of it, leading off the ninth. That was a pretty special play.”
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Tim Wakefield is routinely taken fore granted as the venerable 42-year-old knuckleballer that’s more novelty act than true baseball pitcher. The right-hander has seemingly been an institution in Boston for just as long as the Bunker Hill Monument and the Bull and Finch Pub, and – like all things that just keep quietly producing at an efficient and consistent rate – it’s become commonplace to just simply rely on Wakefield always being there.
Wake was his old reliable self last night at the Fens when he was handed six runs of support by the Boston offense, and he handed things over to a Sox bullpen that was able to hang on for a 6-5 win at their home ballpark last night.
Wakefield has been outstanding at home this season with a 5-0 record and a 3.27 ERA in five appearances at Fenway Park, and ranks among league leaders in complete games (2), wins (8), win percentage (.727) and opponent’s batting average (.254) against in a solid campaign for the Old Man Knuckleballer.
The one little wrinkle here is what the knuckleballer can do over the next few starts headed into early July, and -- if he can drop his ERA significantly over the next few starts – Wakefield could be looking at his first American League All-Star berth should Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon do the right thing and bestow the 42-year-old with something of a career achievement award.
“It would be huge (to be an All-Star),” said Wakefield. “It’s one thing that you want in a career is to make an All-Star team. We’ve won two World Series; just add it to the list of things that you can say you’ve accomplished in your career.
“Obviously it would be nice to make that team, and hopefully I can continue to pitch the way I’ve been pitching and finally make one after 14, 15 years. It would be an honor, and hopefully I can be in St. Louis.”
Wakefield improved to 8-3 overall with a 4.50 ERA with six innings of workmanlike pitching on Wednesday night, and notched his 11th career victory against the New York Yankees – a triumph that puts him second on the active all-time list behind only Toronto ace Roy Halladay.
“Every time it seems like we talk about Wake, you look up in the sixth or seventh and you have a chance to win,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “Regardless, he finds a way. Whether he’s throwing a curveball (with his knuckleball) or he throws a couple of fastballs, he gives you a chance.”
It seems each year that questions are raised about whether this is the season that Wakefield will finally get supplanted by one of the young pitching guns in Boston’s stacked organization, but each year the longest-tenured member of the Olde Towne Team wins a spot and just keeps producing another 180 innings and 12-15 wins.
Earlier this season, when Daisuke Matsuzaka was on the shelf after winning an exhibition tournament during spring training and both Jon Lester and Josh Beckett were getting their feet under them, Wakefield was the knuckle glue holding the starting staff together – and for that his teammates would hope to see him get some recognition. The veteran put up a 1.86 ERA in four April starts and was clearly Boston’s best starting pitcher coming right out of the gate.
Guys like Zach Greinke, Edwin Jackson, teammate Josh Beckett, Jered Weaver, Halladay, Justin Verlander and Feliz Hernandez are clearly in front of Wakefield if the AL All-Star selections were to be made today – but injuries and unaccepted invitations to the Mid-Summer Classic could leave Wakefield as a viable candidate if he keeps floating knucklers and churning out W’s.
“Somebody asked me about that in the lunch room earlier and I wasn’t sure if he’s been an All-Star or not,” said Lowell. “That’d be pretty nice. I think anybody would be thrilled. More than his last couple of starts, he made huge starts for us earlier on when we’d been taxing our bullpen and he’s certainly pitched like an All-Star so far.
“I’m not too sure that people were expecting big things in spring training because everybody was talking about (John) Smoltz, (Brad) Penny and (Clay) Buchholz, but he really came onto the radar in a strong way right out of the gate.”
Just like a fine wine, Wakefield keeps going strong with each passing year spent twirling knucklers at the Fens – and there are no signs of stopping anytime soon.
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After struggling to gain solid footing during the first month of the season, the mound horses at the front of Boston’s starting rotation are taking some huge Clydesdale-sized steps forward for the Red Sox. Both RHP Josh Beckett and LHP Jon Lester nearly tossed no-hitters in their last two starts, and have much more resembled the respective No. 1 and No. 2 starters that everyone associated with the Sox assumed they’d be before this season began.
Beckett is scheduled to pitch on Monday night, and has put together six consecutive quality starts for the Red Stockings while going undefeated since a rough start against the Tampa Bay Rays back on April 30. Over his last six magnificent 2007-esque appearances, Beckett is 4-0 with a 1.94 ERA in 41 1/3 innings and has once again climbed back to the top of Boston’s rotational heap.
“We’re now seeing what we expected (out of Beckett and Lester). Any time you have talented pitchers you’re capable of dominating a game, and we certainly have those kinds of pitchers,” said Sox pitching coach John Farrell. “Guys feed off each other, no doubt. When one starter goes out and has a team in check and a game under control, you see that begin to breed confidence in the next guy the day before he’s slated to pitch.
“We’ve been on a pretty solid run here of late. A somewhat long-awaited run, but nonetheless our starters are now doing what we expected them to be doing (all year).”
Lester’s reemergence has been a much more recent development as he’s dominated in three of his last four outings, and has fanned 23 batters in his last two starts – the first Sox hurler to rack up consecutive double-digit strikeout games since some guy named Pedro Martinez was stalking the Fenway mound back in 2004. Lester is averaging a career-high 10.29 strikeouts per nine innings this season, which marks a huge bump from his career number of 7.28 K's per nine innings and clearly marks a pitcher that's showing moments of dominance. The 25-year-old is also third in the American League with 85 strikeouts behind a couple of guys named Zack Greinke and Roy Halladay.
Beckett and Lester both returning to form has had an amazing impact on the bigger picture of the Boston starting staff, as well. The starting rotation is finally close to submerging under a combined 5.00 ERA while currently sitting at a 5.02 mark following Sunday’s game. The bat-missing Sox starters also lead the major leagues with 26 wins and top the American League with 290 strikeouts this season.
RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka, who took the loss on Sunday afternoon, and RHP Brad Penny can be even better than they’ve been in the early going, but the Boston starting rotation is finally headed in the right direction with both Beckett and Lester again throwing with their normal authority. Things are only looking better with John Smoltz set to join the Sox roster on June 16 at the earliest, and Tim Wakefield in the middle of one of his "in the zone" with the knuckleball stretches.
Something will obviously need to give with Matsuzaka struggling, Wakefield older than some of the dirt that surrounds the Fenway pitcher's mound and Penny bringing all kinds of trade rumors with him every time he takes the ball -- but these are all welcomed issues to have in a big league baseball world where talented guys like Fausto Carmona, Ian Snell, Jeremy Guthrie and Francisco Liriano are flaming out in other hardball cities.
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A few helpings from Peter Gammons during his weekly radio spot with Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio this morning. Among the most interesting tidbits:
*Gammons lists the Texas Rangers and LA Dodgers as two teams that may end up kicking the tires on the recently released Tom Glavine.
*Gammons said he consulted with two clubs and the two pitching prospects received by the Pirates in the Nate McLouth deal are viewed as a three or four starter in the big leagues (Charlie Morton) and a potential No. 2 starter (Jeff Locke).
*The Mets could be in the market for a big bat, or a veteran starting shortstop, as a result of the deluge of injuries that seem to be befalling them -- including an elbow problem for JJ Putz and a torn hamstring for Jose Reyes.
Randy Johnson is the sixth left-handed pitcher to win 300 games, and you start to put together the list of best left-handed pitchers of all-time. How far do you go down the list before he gets into it? PG: Well, I think he goes into it. I think Lefty Grove is the greatest of all time, and I think Randy Johnson goes into that next category. You have (Warren) Spahn, you have Steve Carlton, you have Sandy Koufax and you have Randy Johnson. It’s hard to say one is any better than the others. I think you have Grove and then you have that next group of five.
What fascinates me about him is that I actually saw him pitch in Alaska between his freshman and sophomore year, and to think that he got where he got having seen him there as a long reliever for Palmer in the Alaskan League. The work, the effort that he put in. This isn’t a guy born a natural left-handed star. What he did is make himself a great player.
You look at his career and he went from Montreal to Seattle in a trade for Mark Langston because Montreal was trying to sort of save of their franchise, and that was a franchise-changing trade for Seattle. What he did in that run along with Junior Griffey in 1995 built the ballpark and probably saved baseball in Seattle.
Then he ends up going to Arizona as simply the greatest free agent signing of all time – four straight Cy Youngs – and then 300 wins, so it’s a remarkable career for a guy that was hardly a natural.
How about the modern era and pitchers overall? Where does he stand? PG: Well, you have Randy, you have (Greg) Maddux, you have (Roger) Clemens and very underrated in all of this is Tom Glavine. But I think Johnson, Clemens, Maddux are arguably the three greatest of the last 30 years and it’ll be really interesting to see where Clemens ends up because of the last couple of sort of unsavory years. But his performance was certainly great.
Have we seen the last of Tom Glavine? PG: I know he’d like to pitch again. I think there still might be a possibility. Whether it’s Texas, and I thought the Dodgers would be a natural (fit). I understand that they might not be big on it (right now), but they might reconsider that because their pitching is thin and they might have a chance to win the World Series.
I still think there’s a chance.
It was an odd thing. Understand there were some bumps in Tom Glavine’s day (in Atlanta). There was one negotiation in which he felt like he was insulted by the club president; he ended up getting ripped in John Schuerholz’s book. To go down this road and then all of a sudden be told ‘You know what? Nah, we’re not going to do this’ where they’re going to go with Tommy Hanson, which I understand, and they need the money for the Nate McLouth trade. So goodbye.
It seemed very funny that he was allowed to go as far as he did in this process to get back to the big leagues, and then he was cut short. But his leaving there is a bad taste just as John Smoltz’s leaving there left a very bad taste.
What is going in Pittsburgh? If you’re not going to build around players and you keep trading them away, why do people even bother going to the games? PG: Well, they’re trying to be good rather than some year win 83 games, which is what they’ve been trying to do since Barry Bonds left. It’s time for that franchise to build from the bottom up and they have a long way to go because of terrible trading and drafting that they’ve done. Nate McLouth is a good player.
He’s not a guy you build around, but he’s a good player. He won a Gold Glove, but I think there are a lot of people that would argue with you on that one and would say that (Andrew) McCutcheon is definitely a future Gold Glove winner in centerfield. They’re trying to rebuild their pitching inventory.
I got reports in from two clubs on (Charlie) Morton – they think he’s a three or four starter in the big leagues -- and (Jeff) Locke, they think he’s No. 2 starter in the big leagues. That’s the only way. They’re not going to go anywhere trading older veteran players, well they don’t have many older veteran players. It’s a long year.
They’re going to be in the top third of baseball in signing bonus money spent at this year’s draft, which is something they weren’t in the last 10 years and they’ve already tripled the money spent in the Latin American budget. They’re trying to build long term and that’s the only way you’re going to survive in a market of Pittsburgh’s size.
It’s a gamble and I understand that, but the Pirates have tried for 15 years to put out a .500 club that’s going nowhere. This ownership, Bob Nutting, is trying to build a franchise to at least be what Cincinnati has been.
The Mets got bad injury news with Jose Reyes and people think it’s ‘Uh oh’ time with them. What do you think? PG: I think it’s going to be difficult for them. I thought it was very interesting that Carlos Beltran erupted after last night’s game because I think Beltran has been misinterpreted. The guy plays hurt and he’s a really good player. I was glad to see him get angry.
But if indeed (J.J.) Putz needs elbow surgery that takes another chunk of the bullpen. It’s not mechanics, it’s his elbow. Then you take Reyes out of the lineup and you’re not going to get (Carlos) Delgado for a couple of months. I don’t know if the Mets can go out and trade for another bat, but they may have to unless they’re willing to take on a veteran shortstop that makes a lot of money. I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. They will have some problems.
The good news is that the division doesn’t appear to be great. The Phillies should be starting to scare them. Cole Hamels performance last night. There are some people in San Diego that didn’t like the (Antonio) Bastardo kid that much, and there are others that think he’s going to be a nice fourth starter in the big leagues, which is all the Phillies need right now. I think all the Mets have to do is keep an eye on the where the Phillies are and hope they don’t get over the horizon between now and the first of August.
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