SOX DUMP BARD... AGAIN

Once again, Josh Bard is leaving the Red Sox. George Kottaras has been named the backup catcher. And the worst position on the Red Sox has gotten even less productive.

Kottaras has power. He hit 22 homers in AAA Pawtucket last year. But he also struck out 110 times in 395 at-bats and only hit .243. He has 5 career Major League at-bats.

Perhaps this is prelude to a trade for another catcher. Perhaps not.

Bard had been hitting .429 in Grapefruit League play. Kottaras is hitting .286. Varitek is steaming along at a .160 clip.

Hopefully this move is not because Bard is struggling with the knuckleball. Sacrificing offense to help one mediocre over-the-hill pitcher would be a shame.

Sources:
Extra Bases
BostonRedSox.com

2009 RED SOX PREVIEW: CATCHERS

What a sad way to start the season preview. Jason Varitek has given us years of service, helped win two World Series, caught 4 no-hitters, et cetera, et cetera. But after the shit he pulled, or rather tried to pull in the offseason; he warrants no more mercy, and no more excuse-making.

Jason Varitek is an offensive black hole, and he's been one for about 1,500 plate appearances. 37 year old catchers almost never improve at the plate, even if their numbers have nowhere to go but up.

Varitek hit .220 last year, with an appalling.313 OBP and a weak .359 slugging percentage. He struck out 122 times, only walked 52 times, and was an abysmal .201 against right handed pitching.

Varitek's numbers were actually inflated thanks to teams like Baltimore (9 of his 43 RBI or more than 1/5, came off the O's. He also hit 5 of his 13 HRs off them), and Kansas City (Tek hit .429 agianst the Royals).

And how bad can a man do in the postseason? He was 4 for 34 in October, or .118. He hit .050 in the ALCS.

What's my point? There is nothing, absolutely nothing to suggest that the Red Sox will get any significant production from their starting catcher. He can't catch up to the fastball anymore, he struggles against mediocre pitching, and he's slow. Hopefully I'm wrong and he hits .260 with 20 homeruns. But I just don't see it.

So who's backing Varitek up? Ithaca, New York's Josh Bard, formerly of the Padres, formerly of the Red Sox.

Bard was a solid acquisition for the Sox. He was injured for most of 2008, but when healthy, he's got a little pop in his bat. In '07, he hit .285 with the Padres, with a nice .364 OBP.

George Kottaras is the 3rd option. But he only has 5 career MLB at-bats, and has been a .240 hitter in 3+ years in AAA.

Another possibility is Dusty Brown, who hit .290 in AAA Pawtucket last year. Expect to see Brown pass Kottaras on the depth chart. If Bard struggles, or Varitek is a complete waste, Brown will be in Boston by late summer.

It will be interesting to see how Bard does catching the knuckleball. It will also be interesting to see just how often Tim Wakefield actually starts. Also, don't be surprised if Bard catches non-Wakefield games. For instance, day games after night games. This would give Varitek a rest, and perhaps help the Captain's production. At this point, nothing could hurt Varitek's offense.

PEPPERS WANTS TO BE A PATRIOT

Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers wants to be a Patriot. Or, at the very least, no longer wants to be a Panther. The Cowboys were another team mentioned as a desirable destination for Peppers', according to the AP.

Peppers doesn't want to be a Panther, and doesn't want to play in a 4-3 defense. He wants to be an OLB in a 3-4.

The Panthers have denied alleged talks with New England about Peppers. Vic Carucci of the NFL Network reported that Peppers had been targeted by the Pats. Fellow NFL Network reporter Adam Shefter insists "That trade is not gonna happen. ... Julius Peppers will not be a New England Patriot next season."

The thing with Peppers is that the Panthers aren't going to let him go cheaply. The Pats have reportedly tried to use their newly acquired 34th overall draft pick to get Peppers. This probably wouldn't be enough for Carolina.

Peppers had 14.5 sacks last year, and would certainly make the Patriots pass rush a fearsome one. I've got a feeling this deal will happen, just not for awhile.

Sources:
Associated Press
Reiss's Pieces

A VERY BOSTON FINAL 4 IN HOCKEY EAST

The basketball tournaments weren't the only ones with upsets this weekend. 5th seeded UMass-Lowell went up to Burlington and swept Vermont, possibly knocking the Catamounts out of NCAA tournament contention. 6th seeded Boston College, who got swept by UNH a few weeks ago, took 2 games from them in Durham, advancing to the semis. The two top seeds struggled big time. Regular season champs BU needed 3 games to knock out Maine. Northeastern also needed 3 games, and then overtime in game 3 to knock out 7th seeded UMass.

So now it's UMass-Lowell vs. Northeastern, then Boston College vs. Boston University. Northeastern swept UMass-Lowell in 3 games this season. BU also won their season series against BC, winning 2 games and tying the 3rd. But BC seems to have found themselves, albeit a bit late. BC's 5-0-1 in their last 6 games, with 3 of those wins against nationally ranked teams.



The semis are at the Garden Friday night, with the Hockey East Final Saturday. Remember, Northeastern and BU are probably already in the NCAA tournament. And the winner of the HE tourney gets an automatic bid. So BC or UMass-Lowell can find themselves in the national tournament with only 2 more wins.

BC GETS A 7 SEED, AND A DATE WITH USC

I was expecting Boston College to get an 8 or 9 seed, so this is a nice little surprise. BC will travel to Minneapolis for the opening round, and will face 10th seeded Southern Cal. BC is in the Midwest Region (Indianapolis), and if they can beat USC, will play either Michigan State or Robert Morris.

USC was 21-12, and surprisingly won the Pac-10 tournament. They were 5th in their Conference, so this is a solid 1st round selection for BC. They should beat this team. Michigan State is tough, but BC is fortunate not to have to face a 1 seed in the 2nd round.

The only other "New England" school to get into the tourney was UConn. The Huskies got a 1 seed, despite losing their opening game in the Big East Tournament. UConn gets to start off in Philadelphia, but they're part of the West region, so they'll have to go to Arizona to make the Final Four.

The TD BankNorth Garden will host the East Regionals. Pittsburgh is the #1 seed in the East bracket, and Duke is the #2. Here are the 14 other schools who might invade The Hub:

#3 Villanova
#4 Xavier
#5 Florida State
#6 UCLA
#7 Texas
#8 Oklahoma State
#9 Tennessee
#10 Minnesota
#11 Virginia Commonwealth
#12 Wisconsin
#13 Portland State
#14 American
#15 Binghamton
#16 East Tennessee

Boston College was one of 7 ACC teams to get in. The Big East and Big Ten were the other Conferences with 7 teams in. Here are the other teams to get in:

#1 North Carolina
#2 Duke
#4 Wake Forest
#5 Florida State
#7 Boston College
#7 Clemson
#10 Maryland

The tournament starts Thursday, and BC plays Friday.

BRUINS STILL CAN'T BEAT GOOD TEAMS

After compiling 2 wins in a row (for the first time since February 26th), the Bruins headed into Pittsburgh, had a 3-2 lead going into the final period, and were outscored 4-1. It only took the Penguins 61 seconds of sloppy Bruins' hockey to turn a 3-2 lead into a 4-3 deficit.

Apparently, 60 minutes of hockey is too much for the Bruins. To be fair, they had 5 penalties to kill. The refs called much too tight of a game, against both teams. Lots of nit-picky hooking, holding, and interference calls.

Since February 7th, the Bruins are 2-6-2 (6 points) against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended right now. That's abysmal. In the 10 games against playoff teams before that, the Bruins were 8-1-1 (17 points). 10 games against playoff teams before THAT? 8-1-1.

Before February 7th, the Bruins were 18-3-4 against playoff teams. That's 40 points, or 1.6 points per game. In the last 10 games, it's been 0.6 points per game. Horrible. Dreadful. Shitty. Tragic.

The Bruins will win the Northeast division, but securing the 1 seed or the 2 seed is looking less and less likely. There are 12 games left, folks. 6 at home, 6 on the road. 4 against playoff teams, 8 against non-playoff teams.

The big games to gauge whether or not the Bruins are out of this extended funk:
3/22 vs. New Jersey
3/29 @ Philly
4/9 vs. Montreal

How the Bruins perform in these games will tell us if they're destined for a first round exit, or if they can go deep into the playoffs.

The B's have a few days off to sit in the corner and think about what they've done. They host the hapless Kings Thursday night.



Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

MORE BIPOLAR BRUINS ACTION

The Bruins exploded to a 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of this one, then in the remaining 50, it was a 3-2 Senators game. 2-2 until Kessel's empty-netter sealed the win.

Finally, the Bruins got a bit of good fortune when Aaron Ward came out of the penalty box at precisely the right moment, scoring on a breakaway thanks to Zdeno Chara's stop in front of an open net, and a perfect pass from Patrice Bergeron. PJ Axelsson also scored after being released from the box.

The Senators have three threats on offense. That's pretty much it. Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, and Daniel Alfredsson. As an opponent, if you shut down these three, Ottawa's offense is essentially contained. The Bruins didn't do this. 2 minutes after going up 3-0, Blake Wheeler got lazy in front of his own net, giving Spezza enough space to make it 3-1, keeping Ottawa in the game.

The 2nd period saw no scoring, but plenty of Bruins' possessions that ended in the neutral zone thanks to poor puck protection. Savard had some breakaways, but couldn't finish. It's kind of sad that Aaron Ward has a better finish than Marc Savard lately. More laziness in the defensive zone followed. If the Senators were a better team, they would have came out of the 2nd with a lead. The B's were fortunate to be up 3-1 after 2.

Early in the 3rd, Kessel showed the finishing touches he demonstrated in October and November, and he was sprung by a vintage Savard pass. The 4-1 lead seemed concrete... for 2 minutes, when Schubert took advantage of lackluster defensive play, then Spezza scored thanks to a failed assignment. The Bruins had to sweat out a 1 goal lead, with Kessel hitting an empty net.

The Bruins showed both of their natures last night. They showed their explosiveness, their toughness (Kessel and Ference were particularly hard-nosed), their defensive excellence. Then they showed their laziness, their lack of coordination, slow and confused line changes. They haven't played a full 60 for a few weeks now.

Although there were some bright spots. Kessel looked sharp in all three zones, and was especially fierce on the defensive end. Andrew Ference had a great game, despite the -3 on his stat sheet. PJ Axelsson finally had a good game offensively. It's been awhile. Montador was very good with the puck all night, making some nice moves in his own zone to kickstart the neutral zone offense. Krejci had some more misses and mistimed passes, but played a good physical game.

Here's the heavyweight fight between Milan Lucic and Chris Niel:



The Bruins host the worst team in the NHL Saturday as the Islanders come to town.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credits:
AP Photo/Winslow Townson

HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

The OTHER March Madness. #1 Boston University won the Hockey East regular season crown, #4 Northeastern fell 1 point shy, losing to Boston College the last day of the season. Those two teams are essentially guaranteed an NCAA berth, but #7 Vermont and #9 New Hampshire need strong showings, and perhaps to win the Tournament, in order to continue their season.

Heres the bracket:



The first round is best of 3, so BU and Northeastern shouldn't have much trouble advancing. UNH swept BC a few weeks ago, but you never know with the Eagles when it comes to hockey. Last year, they were 4th in Hockey East, won the Hockey East Tournament, then rolled through the NCAAs. UMass-Lowell is also a surprisingly solid team, but Vermont is a hard place for visiting teams to spend a weekend.

Prediction: BU beats Northeastern in the finals in a repeat of the Beanpot.