RED SOX 2008 PREVIEW: DESIGNATED HITTER

Since coming to the Red Sox in 2003, David Ortiz has hit 208 homeruns, and has knocked in 642 runs. He's also hit 11 post-season homeruns, and knocked in 38 more RBI.

Despite battling a knee injury for most of the season, Ortiz still put up the kind of numbers we're used to seeing from him. He led the team (and was 3rd in the AL) in homeruns with 35. He was 2nd on the team (6th in the AL) in RBI with 117. He led the Sox (5th in the AL) in hitting with a .332 average.

In October, he somehow found a way to improve on his outstanding regular season performance. In 14 post-season games, he hit .370, with 3 HRs, 10 RBI, 6 doubles, 16 runs, 14 walks, an OBP of .517, and a slugging percentage of .696.

But he was still hurting. The experienced eye of a fan could just tell. He'd take a big cut, hit the ball hard, we'd expect it to leave the park, and it'd go off the wall, or fall on the warning track. There were just certain swings that lacked that last gasp of power to lift the ball over the wall.

In 2004, Ortiz had 91 extra-basehits. In 2005, he had 88 extra-basehits. In 2006, he had 85. In 2007, he had 88. That's a very consistent range for four seasons. But in '07, Papi set a career high in doubles. Normally that's a good thing, but when you hit X amount of extra-basehits, the more doubles you hit, the fewer homeruns you hit. This was where the knee seemed to hurt his production the most.

Ortiz had surgery in the off-season to repair it. This is the first time since coming to Boston that he's come back from a major injury/surgery. It will be very interesting to see how his body handles it. So far in Spring Training, he's doing just fine.

But you never know...

Ortiz, like everyone else on Francona's squad, will not play every day. He'll probably have 150 games in total. Sean Casey is your most likely replacement DH. He's the best bat off the bench, and I guarantee Francona will find ways to get Casey a lot of at-bats.

Manny Ramirez will also see some time at DH, giving Ortiz a night off, and being replaced in left by Kielty or maybe Crisp. Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell are both potential DH candidates if Francona wants to give them a night off from playing the field.

(Re)sources:
Baseball-Reference.com
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
NBA.com

HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT BEGINS FRIDAY

Now I know that not many people care about hockey, and even fewer people care about college hockey. But it's my blog, and I like college hockey; the OTHER March Madness.

Here's a bracket for the Hockey East Tournament. For the first round, it's a best of 3 series played at the home ice of the better seed. The semi-finals and final are played at TD BankNorth Garden. #1 UNH hosts #8 UMass at the Whittemore Center in Durham. #2 BU hosts #7 UMass-Lowell at Agganis Arena. #3 Vermont hosts #6 Northeastern. And #4 Boston College hosts #5 Providence College at the Conte Forum.

I'll be at the BC/PC games, working as an usher.



Source:
Hockey East

LESTER MATCHES SANTANA IN DUEL

The Red Sox travelled to the Atlantic coast once again, this time to take on the Mets. Luckily for the Sox who made the trip (only 3 starting position players did), the team is willing to charter flights for the 150+ mile trip, as opposed to taking the bus.

Jon Lester got the start against Johan Santana. But both pitchers had surprisingly similar pitching lines. Lester went 4 innings, allowed 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, and struck out 5. Santana also went 4, also allowed 2 hits, also allowed 0 runs, didn't walk any, and struck out 4.




Ellsbury, one of the few regulars to make the trip, went 2 for 4 with a pair of singles. Jed Lowrie continued to struggle, going 0 for 4 with a strikeout and 4 men left on base. He was also picked off of 1st base. Julio Lugo can relax a bit as his potential replacement is currently hitting .107 in grapefruit League play.

Jason Varitek went 0 for 3, but backup George Kotteras went 1 for 1 with a double. Kotteras is hitting .625 this spring, and is making a good case for himself to be the #3 catcher on the depth chart.

Hideki Okajima pitched 2 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 hit and striking 1 man out.

Brandon Moss had the only RBI for the Sox with a sac-fly in the 9th. Craig Hansen continued to struggle, allowing the only Met run to score in the 8th. The game ended a 1-1 tie after 10 innings.

The teams also set an attendance record for Tradition Stadium at 7,353. But according to Hank Steinbrenner, nobody cares about the Red Sox.



Source:
BostonRedSox.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/James A. Finley

BECKETT'S BACK SPASMS

Maybe it was the weight of the team resting on his shoulders that caused them. Perhaps it was the World Series hopes and dreams of Red Sox fans riding on the one reliable arm in the rotation that caused them.

Beckett left Saturday's spring training game against the Marlins with back spasms. The spasms occurred 6 pitches into his warm-ups, before the game had even started.

On Sunday, before the Sox played the Dodgers, Terry Francona said that Beckett "looked way better than we expected." What does that really mean? I have no clue. It could mean his back looked better, or that he looked better even though his back didn't. My theory is that Tito was giving one of his token answers to the media. It sounds like he says a lot to the press, but when you really think about it, he doesn't give them much.

The word of the day on Beckett seems to be "iffy." Both the Globe and the Herald use that adjective in their headlines on the Sox Ace.

The problem appears to be muscular in nature, which is a good thing. If it were a problem with a disk, then that would require more time to heal.

But there is a problem compounding this injury: the Red Sox leave for Japan on March 19th, only 9 days away. It's a 14 hour flight to Tokyo, which would be uncomfortable for anyone, let alone someone with back spasms. I would be surprised if Beckett made the trip to Japan. It's just too soon, too much of a hassle, and there's no way he'll have enough time to build his innings up to start a Major League game.

So that means that Matsuzaka might not go to Japan because his wife is expecting a baby soon. Beckett would stay home with back problems. Schilling is still hurt. Bartolo Colon has yet to do anything but throw bullpen sessions. So who are the two starting pitchers the Red Sox will send across the Pacific? It looks like it will be Wakefield and whoever the #5 starter will be. Yikes.

For the record, Johan Santana has thrown all of his spring training warm-up pitches without incident.

Sources:
Extra Bases
Boston Herald

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Charles Krupa

RED SOX "LOSE" TO DOGERS

The Red Sox fell 9-6 to the Dodgers, but 7 of LA's runs came in the 9th off minor leaguers. Wakefield was strong in his start, going 3 innings, allowing 0 runs off 1 hit and 2 walks. He struck out 3 and pitched around a big Pedroia error (that was really Jed Lowrie's fault).



Ellsbury went 1 for 4 with what could have been an RBI triple if it didn't bounce over the wall for a ground rule double. Pedroia was 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI. Sean Casey was 2 for 3 with an RBI double and a run scored. Lowrie didn't look so good, going 0 for 3 with a sac-fly RBI and some miscues in the field. George Kotteras went 1 for 1 with an RBI, and is hitting .667 so far this spring.

Mike Timlin didn't look so hot in the 4th inning. He allowed a leadoff homerun, which was 1 of 2 hits he yielded. David Aardsma pitched 2 scoreless innings, scattering 3 hits.

Former Sox starter Derek Lowe looked awful. He was slated to pitch 3 innings, but could only get through 2+. The Sox tagged him for 6 hits and 5 runs. He also walked 2, hit Doug Mirabelli, and threw a wild pitch.



The next televised spring training game is also against the Dodgers. It's Sunday at 1:05 and will be on NESN. The game will also be on the radio in Boston.

The Red Sox and Jonathan Papelbon also agreed to terms on a one-year, $775,000 contract. This makes Papelbon the highest paid pre-arbitration closer in baseball.

Source:
BostonRedSox.com
Extra Bases

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Steven Senne

RED SOX 2008 PREVIEW: RIGHT FIELD

One thing has always perplexed me about JD Drew. His real name is David Jonathan Drew. So why is he JD Drew? Does he simply omit the J in his full initials of DJD? If so, wouldn't that make his unpacked new name Jonathan Drew Drew? This question bugs me. It's like ITT Tech. What the hell do the two T's stand for?

JD Drew's name isn't the only thing that worries me. But I'm not as worried as some, or even most Red Sox fans.

JD came to town last year with two major expectations:

#1: He'd get injured and miss 30 to 60 games

#2: He'd produce as a solid #5 hitter in the games that he did play

Neither one of these expectations came true. He played in 140 games, missing some time with minor problems. But he didn't produce that much.

His average wasn't horrible, .270 for a career .284 hitter isn't the end of the world. His OBP also wasn't horrible at .373. But these not horrible, not great numbers combined with a poor .423 slugging percentage. That's a significant drop from JD's career slugging of .500.

Let's try to figure out what JD's strong points were, and what were his biggest weaknesses.

JD's biggest weakness was against left-handed pitching. This is not a new thing for him. Since 2005, there's a .060 decrease in his average when facing lefties. His slugging also plummets .169 points.

In 2007, JD hit .224 against lefties, with an OBP of .285, and a slugging percentage of .353. Against righties, he hit .286, with a .400 OBP, and a .446 slugging percentage. But he still wasn't much of a power hitter.

JD didn't struggle at Fenway Park, either. He actually hit much better at home (.284 BA, .392 OBP) than on the road (.259 BA, .356 OBP). So adjusting to a new ballpark wasn't too much of a problem.

Drew's biggest problem was a lack of power. Every conceivable measurement of a hitter's power indicates this. And all us Sox fans who watched him during the year already knew it.

In his career, Drew averages hitting a homerun once every 21 at-bats. In '07, it was once every 42.4 ABs. His IsoP (Isolated Power, one of those stats Bill James and his cadre of baseball nerds came up with to show how much power a hitter had) was down from his career average, as was his Secondary average (again, Bill James).

What's strange was that his other numbers were within his career norms. He saw the same amount of pitches per at-bat. Walked and struck out at his normal rate. Hit groundballs to flyballs just as often as usual. Everything is the same, except the power numbers.

Perhaps it was adjusting to new pitchers in the AL. Against NL teams, Drew hit very well. In 58 Interleague at-bats, he hit .329 with a .391 OBP and a .603 slugging percentage. Granted, this was almost entirely against the NL West, which was particularly weak at the time. Nevertheless, that's pretty good for a 58 at-bat stretch.

Against AL opponents, Drew's average dips slightly to .262, and his slugging falls to .397. And oddly enough, against an NL team in the World Series, Drew hit .333 with a pair of doubles and two RBI.

So will JD Drew pull a Josh Beckett and explode in his second year? I think he will. At least, I think he'll improve. Look for Drew to hit .280, with 23 HRs, and 85 to 95 RBI.

One problem, though, is the lefties. And it's a problem which lacks much of a solution. If Crisp is still around, Ellsbury could move over to right, and Crisp could play center. But then you're replacing a guy who can't hit lefties with a guy who just can't hit. You'd also be keeping Ellsbury in against the lefty. Then again, Crisp hits lefties better than righties. Maybe it's not such a bad idea.

Whatever Drew does in 2008, the Sox are depending on him more than last year. Last year Mike Lowell came out of nowhere, and Ortiz played through his knee problems. This year, Lowell is another year older, God knows how Ortiz's knees will be, Manny's been falling off slowly the past few seasons, and there's a rookie in center field.

The Sox could really use Drew as a contributing member of the lineup. If he produces the way he's capable of, the top 6 in the order starts looking very good. And as a lefty Drew slots in behind Ramirez and in front of Lowell (both righties) very nicely.



Sources:
Baseball-Reference.com
ESPN.com

RED SOX ADD MORE SEATS YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO SIT IN

The Coca-Cola corner will sit atop the roof overhanging the left field grandstand. It adds 412 new seats to the ballpark, as well as room for 100 standing room patrons. The Red Sox say tickets will be $75 for seats in the section, and $25 for standing room.

This section replaces a makeshift "luxury" box which had been an auxiliary press box for the 1999 All-Star Game. The Sox claim that they are trying to increase the number of seats in the ballpark that cost $100+.

If the $75 seats and $25 SRO tickets are sold for every home game, about $2.7 million in new revenues will come to the Red Sox, not including additional concessions, and the naming rights fee Coca-Cola paid.

This is yet another desperate attempt to cram more seats into an already overcrowded facility. And I'm sorry, but $75 a seat isn't exactly cheap. I love how this new ownership group has turned the team into a winner. But Fenway Park is a run-down, small, shanty. Moreover, it doesn't maximize the potential revenue the team could be taking in. More revenue=more spending money=better players. And with the Yankees moving into a new baseball cathedral, with luxury boxes, and 50,000 seats; the Red Sox might be left in their dust. And who wants that?

Source:
Boston.com

PATRIOTS OFF-SEASON THOUGHTS: TIGHT END

Ben Watson tied with Jabar Gaffney for the 5th most receptions on the team last year. Combined with Kyle Brady, and David Thomas; Patriots tight ends totaled 46 receptions for 468 yards. That's a pretty good yards per reception average (10.2) for tight ends.

With Watson andThomas; the Pats are pretty much set at tight end. It isn't the best group of TEs. There aren't any Tony Gonzalezes or Dallas Clarks in this bunch. But they do their job. They're good blockers for the run and on pass protection. And when the receivers are covered, they are solid outlets.

It would be nice to see Watson get more consistent touches. He got about half of his receptions (17 of 36) in four games (Week 2 vs. SD, Week 5 vs. CLE, Week 14 vs. PIT, Week 17 vs. NYG). In the other 8 games he played in, he averaged 2.4 receptions, which isn't keeping him very much involved in the offense.

In 2006, Watson was a big part of the Patriots offense. He was second on the team in receptions (49) and receiving yards (643). Obviously with the addition of Moss, Stallworth, and Welker; these numbers were bound to drop.

When the Patriots ran into a formidable, and nearly unstoppable pass rush, they were lost. After relying on deep passes and complex combination routes all year, they seemed to have no idea how to play old school (4 years ago) Patriots field position football. This was where the tight end was needed, both to pass protect and to to punish defensive ends that were running straight upfield. Quick outs, tight end screens, quick passes on the flat. These types of plays were needed. With no running game working, dumping off to big tight ends like Watson (255 lbs.) and Brady (280 lbs) would have served as a good replacement.

Ben Watson had 0 receptions in the Super Bowl. Kyle Brady had 1 for 3 yards.

I don't think the Patriots need to go out and acquire help at tight end. But they should consider getting the tight end more involved in the offense.

One thing to look forward to in 2008 will be David Thomas. We haven't seen much of him, but when we have, it's been fun to watch. Against Jacksonville in '06, he filled in for Watson and had 5 catches for 83 yards and a TD. He re-aggravated a foot injury and was unable to play for most of the 2007 season. If healthy, he could become a serious force in an already deadly offense.



(Re)sources:
ESPN.com
Pro-Football-Reference.com