BITCHIN' 'BOUT PITCHIN'

First of all, I'm sick of this weather. I drive all the way up to Kenebunk, Maine on my way to Portland to see the Sea Dogs. When I left my house, weather.com said the conditions in Portland were "foggy" so I figured I could catch a game and see some friends. As I drove through New Hampshire it became clear that Portland would be rainy and even if the rain stopped, they wouldn't have a dry enough field to play. So I had to turn around.

Everyone on WEEI and on their blogs and in their day-to-day conversations about the Red Sox have been complaining about the offense. Renteria isn't getting on base enough, Manny's average is low, Bellhorn is striking out too much, et cetera. The problem with this team isn't the offense. In fact, the Sox have scored more runs at the quarter of the season than they did last year at that point. 24 more runs in fact. That's 0.6 runs a game or 3 more runs every 5 games. This may sound small but it should be enough to wina few more close games. Unless, of course, your pitching is not doing its job.

This year, the Red Sox have allowed 31 more runs than they did through 40 games last season. Here are some scary numbers:

Starter's ERA 2004: 3.67
Starter's ERA 2005: 4.51

Bullpen ERA 2004: 2.80
Bullpen ERA 2005: 5.20

Last year, the starter's ERA was below average by about 0.90 which is pretty good. This is why we were winning alot in April. The bullpen ERA was outstanding at 2.80 whereas now it is crappy at 5.20. The pen is blowing games and the starters are having trouble keeping us in games.

Tuesday's game was just terrible. The Sox got out to their early lead only to watch their mediocre starter blow it. Then the Sox came back only to watch their crappy bullpen blow it. There some questionable pitching decisions by Francona but none were outright bad and it is alot easier to criticise Tuesday's game on Thursday morning.

The Man of the Game is Reed Johnson who went 2 for 5 with a pair of homers, 5 RBI, and the game winning shot.

The Bitch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Wells: 0.5 - 6.1 IP, 5 ER
Timlin: 0.1 - 2.1 IP, ER
Embree: 0.3 - 0.1 IP, 3 ER
Millar: 0.1 - 0 for 4, K, 2 LOB

Not surprisingly, the Red Sox were shut down by a mediocre lefthander Wednesday night. The Sox went a combined 4 for 31 (.129) The 1-6 hitters went a combined 1 for 22 (.045). Hitters 3 thru 6 were 0 for 14. The Red Sox did not get an extra base hit. Their sole run was knocked in by Damon with a bases loaded groundout. Renteria followed with his usual groundout in a big spot.

The Man of the Game is Russ Adams, a light hitting shortstop who went 2 for 3 with a double and a triple. He scored twice.

The Bitch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Arroyo: 0.5 - 6 IP, 5 R, 2 ER, Error
Millar: 0.2 - 0 for 4, Error
Ramirez: 0.1 - 0 for 4
Damon: 0.1 - 0 for 4
Renteria: 0.1 - 1 for 4, choked in biggest AB of game

This team has not been able to win in the division. This team has not been able to win on the road. These trends need to be stopped. Half of the games are played within the division. Half of the games are played on the road. Three fourths of the games are played against the division and/or on the road. Only one fourth of the games are against non-divisional opponents at Fenway Park. These are the only games which the Red Sox have consistently won.

Theo has his work cut out for him. The bullpen obviously needs another set-up man because Embree isn't cutting it and Francona seems unwilling to use Mantei in that role. The Sox could also use another frontline pitcher especially since Schilling's condition when he returns will be an unkown. The Red Sox also need to look at a replacement for Millar. I think Olerud will work out nicely and mixing in Youkilis will also work. I don't think Millar should be benched but perhaps he should only be used against lefthanders for the time being. Renteria is here to stay for awhile but I think he needs to be moved down to the bottom of the lineup. He is killing us. I hope he'll come around, but at the moment, he is seriously hurting the team. If he were back in the bottom of the order maybe the Bill Mueller effect will take hold and he will be relaxed enough to hit well.

BOSTON DIRT DOGS KEEP MAKING STUFF UP
Boston Dirt Dogs is the best looking, best maintained, most popular, and most succesful blog in Red Sox Nation. However, it thinks that it is a news outlet like the Associated Press or the Boston Globe or CBS 4. It is not. The Dirt Dogs ran a story today about Keith Foulke. Here's the story. Mind you, this story has been reworded, re-edited, and revamped about half a dozen times on Wednesday as real information became apparent. Here's what happened:

Boston Dirt Dogs published a story claiming Keith Foulke cancelled an autograph appearance at a Cooperstown store because he had to fly to Alabama to see an arm surgeon. WEEI's Dale and Holley contacted Foulke and the Red Sox. Foulke denied seeing any doctor in Alabama. The Dirt Dogs updated their site claiming the store owner was sticking to his guns. Later in the evening, it is discovered that Foulke went down to Alabama to be in the presence of an expert analyst who was looking at Foulke's pitching mechanics. This makes sense to me given Foulke's struggles this year and his inconsistency which suggests a mechanical problem not a health problem which would probably result in consistently bad performances.

I knew this whole story was a bunch of BS from the moment I heard about it. One of my friends in Cooperstown told me the night before the game that Foulke was supposed to appear at the store at which one of his friends worked at but he cancelled at least several days prior. I didn't think anything of this at the time but when I heard the story, I jumped on it and e-mailed Dale and Holley who read my e-mail on the air telling the truth.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Boston Dirt Dogs is not a news source and shouldn't act like it is.

HALL OF FAME GAME PICTURES

I put the pictures from Cooperstown up on WebShots. Here they are

SOX BEAT THE DESPISED BRAVES

When the Red Sox are at home, they can beat anybody consistently including the team that has won a division title for the past 13 years. I don't know what it is about Fenway and Boston, but it justs gives the team an edge.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, I missed most of the Saturday and Sunday games. I saw highlights on ESPN and was able to see snips of the game on TBS while playing poker at the Turning Stone Casino just outside Syracuse (made $321 by the way). More on upstate New York later.

In the last post, I mentioned that the Red Sox were facing a pitcher making his MLB debut. This meant the World Champion Red Sox would be facing an inexperienced kid in a loud, hitter -friendly ballpark on TV viewed by millions on NESN and TBS. So the Sox, with a great offense, should have killed this guy. But the Sox have a weird tendency to make random pitchers look like Aces. This happened on Saturday as Davies went 5 scoreless innings.

The Man of the Game is Marcus Giles who went 3 for 5 with a pair of doubles. He scored twice.

The Bitch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Bellhorn: 0.2 - 0 for 4, Error
Wakefield: 0.8 - 5 IP, 6 ER

The Sox rebounded nicely on Sunday and got nice performances out of Ortiz, Manny, Varitek, Mueller, and most of all Clement. Matt the Missile has been on an absolute tear lately. His numbers from Sunday are pretty impressive. Only 5 Braves reached base on him. He kept his pitch count down and finished with 110. He didn't walk anybody.

The Man of the Game is obviously Matt Clement with his complete game win.

RED SOX NATION TAKES OVER UPSTATE NEW YORK VILLAGE
Cooperstown, New York is a small village in the middle of nowhere. It is 30 miles from any major highway, and 67 miles from any real city. Only 2,032 people are residents of the town. On Monday, that population ballooned to around 10,000. It was obvious that there were more Red Sox fans from New England inhabiting the town than local Cooperstowners.

I stayed at a friends house just outside of the town and watched the parade, which was reminiscent of my hometown's 4th of July parade. You know, politicians in classic cars, some marching bands, people giving out candy and toys to kids. Throw in the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile, a brand new Ford GT, and the World Champion Red Sox on a trolley and that is what the parade was. We couldn't get tickets for the game due to the high demand for tickets and large number of tickets bought up by scalpers. We found a few good places to watch the game for free though. It was kind of like watching a game in 1900. Plus, it was a good feeling that in order to watch this game, you had to be there. There was no television broadcast even in Cooperstown. Anyway, the game was somewhat dull after the Red Sox starters were out and I was getting sick of hanging onto a fence behind the center field bleachers. Johnny Damon was a treat though playing catch with fans and conversing with us about beer and stuff like that.

I took a good number of pictures in Cooperstown of the parade and the game and once I figure out a way to get them from my camera to this computer (which is not mine) and onto the internet, I'll post a link.

Not shockingly, the Red Sox are back on the road once again. A 3 game set with Toronto, and the same with the Yankees before coming back to Friendly Fenway.

ARSENAL BEAT MAN. UNITED FOR FA CUP

If you didn't know, Manchester United, the most famous sports team in the world and the most valuable sports franchise in the world was recently bought (well an overwhelming majority of it was bought) by non-soccer fan and Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer for 790,000,000 pounds or just under $1.5 billion. Of course, Glazer isn't paying cash nor can he use the valuable Buccaneers as leverage on any deal due to NFL rules so he is going to transfer his personal debt from buying the team (650 million pounds/$1.2 billion) to the team itself. That's just ridiculous. Why the hell would you buy something only to transfer the debt to what you just bought? That could only hurt the asset you just acquired. Which it will. Ticket prices will go up for Man United and they will attmept to make more off merchandising which is nearly impossible. Man U is perhaps the best run sports organization in the world and their revenues are basically maximized as it is. I'm not complaining because I hate Manchester United, but could you imagine if some Englishman who didn't even like baseball wanted to buy the Red Sox? Then, in order to pay for the purchase, he would put the team in say $600 million in debt? I don't know about anyone else, but I'd be pissed beyond pissed.

Anyway, before going to the Casino, I bought the FA Cup on Pay-Per-View and it was well worth the $25. Arsenal and Manchester United have played each other many times over the decades and are about dead even head-to-head over the course of history. They played 4 times this season in 3 different competitions. Each team won twice. Arsenal, my favorite team, beat them in the FA Cup on penalty kicks 5-4. It was great seeing Manchester United, the New York Yankees of English soccer, get defeated by the equivalent of the Boston Red Sox.

SOX ESCAPE SCARE

Mueller and Miller both had great nights. Mueller got his first homer of the season and Miller got his first win of the season. The game was too close though. The Sox squandered a few big opportunities to blow the game wide open but they failed to get the big hit. And by they, I mean Edgar Renteria. Then Foulke came in and nearly blew what should have been a routine and easy save.

The Man of the Game is Johnny Damon who went 2 for 2 with a single and a triple. He also walked twice. He only scored once but that was mostly due to the 2, 3, 4, and 5 hitters oging a combined 1 for 15.

Tim Wakefield will take on Kyle Davies who will be making his Major League debut. you'd think that this game would be a lopsided victory for us but the Red Sox have been known to make random pitchers look like Cy Young.

For the first time all season, Wakefield won't be pitching to Doug Mirabelli. Mirabelli injured his wrist in an at-bat on Wednesday in the blowout loss to Oakland. Francona had take Varitek out in order to give Mirabelli some plate appearances and rest Tek and it backfired. This is the first time in his career that Mirabelli will be on the DL. Francona made no public decision as to who would catch for Wakefield. It will be either Varitek or Shawn Wooten who was brought up from Pawtucket. Francona might also have Millar catch because for some reason, he beleives Millar can do anything.

Sick of seeing Johnny Damon on TV? Then don't watch Fox tomorrow afternoon because Damon will be hosting This Week in Baseball.

Posting might be light in the next few days because I'm going to a casino in upstate New York and then going to Cooperstown to hopefully catch some of the Hall of Fame game. Then I might go up to Portland to see the Sea Dogs but that's still up in the air.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS TEAM?

There's been alot of talk on WEEI and amongst fans of the Sox about what is wrong with this team. The focus of this ameteur analysis has been individual hitters. Kevin Millar is being slammed for his lack of performance. Mark Bellhorn is receiving his share of criticism for his strikeouts. People are finally realising that Renteria isn't that great of a player. The player escaping his share of criticism is Manny Ramirez.

Something is up with Manny. He isn't on pace for the RBI he is supposed to be getting. His batting average is almost .100 points lower than it should be. The most telling thing are his strikeouts. It isn't the number of strikeouts, its the way in which he has struck out and the situations in which he has struck out. He's taking alot of called strikes recently and he is having alot of swings that don't look like Manny Ramirez swings. Lately, he has been a hole in the lineup. I don't know if he is still hurt, but you can tell he is tentative at the plate. This, in my opinion, is the result of being hit by so many pitches.

Manny is pretty sensitive when it comes to being hit. Remember the beanball incident in the 2003 ALCS when he nearly charged the mound for a pitch that was merely slightly inside? Manny also seems to be a fe winches farther from the plate than he used to be. He isn't using the outside part of the plate. He hasn't been hitting the ball hard the other way. This is understandable if he is standing farther from the plate and isn't diving to hit the outside pitch. Even though being tentative is understandable, it is unacceptable. Manny needs to dig in and if he gets hit, he gets hit. I know its alot easier for me to say it than for Manny to do it, but it is his job to hit and drive in runs. Our cleanup hitter can't be a hole in the lineup if we hope to win the World Series again.

Another group of people escaping criticism is the pitching staff. No-one seems to care that the Sox allowed 23 runs to the terrible offense of Oakland. One sixth of Oakland's annual run production has been against Boston. That's simply pathetic. The Red Sox have been scoring about the same amount of runs as they did at this time last year. However, the pitching staff is less than what it was last season. Much less. This staff reminds me of the 2000-2003 Red Sox. One Ace and then 4 pitchers capable of solid starts but also capable of terrible outings.

I think this team has some sort of complacency to it. This wasn't acquired from winning the World Series. I think this team gained a sense of confidence from coming back and winning the ALCS last season. They didn't turn it on until they needed to and perhaps this season they're hoping to do the same thing. This can work out, but what if Baltimore or New York also turn it on and no matter how many games the Sox win in August and September, it might not matter.

Just imagine if we had kept Cabrera or signed Eckstein (and then been able to afford Pedro) and signed Tino Martinez. The Red Sox made very little effort to improve themselves in any way even though it was obvious they would be losing something in the rotation with Martinez and Lowe leaving and Schilling being a question mark. The only position at which the Sox attempted to improve themselves was at shortstop, a position at which they were fine at with Cabrera.

One thing I learned last year was that it isn't over until the math says so. We aren't failing as bad as the Yankees were a few weeks ago. We still have alot of work to do.

SOX GET CLUTCH HITS, THEN GET HIT

In this series, the Red Sox allowed the 2nd worst run scoring offense in baseball and the 2nd worst hitting team in baseball (batting .211 as a team, ranked below 15 NL teams that have pitchers batting) to put up 24 runs in 3 games. This is why we lost the series. It doesn't get much easier with the Braves rolling into Fenway this weekend and then going back on the road to Cooperstown and Toronto.

The Man of the Game for the 7-5 win on Tuesday is Edgar Renteria who went 2 for 4 with 2 runs, and 2 RBI. He also walked. It was one of his token good games that will be overshadowed by some 1 for 5 performances coming up.

The Man of the Game for Wednesday's 13-6 loss is Eric Byrnes who went 4 for 5 with a double. He scored three times and knocked in a run.

The Bitch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Wells: 0.7 - 1.1 IP, 7 ER
Gonzalez: 0.1 - 3.2 IP, 3 ER
Halama: 0.1 - 2 IP, 3 ER
Francona: 0.1 - No Renteria after 2 for 4 day, no rehab start for Wells

SOX LET ONE SLIP

The Red Sox had every opportunity to break this one open but they failed to get the big game breaking hit at every point. It seems as though when Arroyo is pitching, when the Sox get a lead they just settle in and don't do anything to add to their lead. Usually Arroyo is able to get out of jams and keep opponents to 1-3 runs but this game he was human. Plus, Damon and Nixon appeared to misplay some balls in the outfield and Renteria bumbled a ground ball with a runner on 3rd allowing Kotsay to score.

Let's look at the big opportunities the Red Sox had.

Top of 2nd, bases loaded, 2 outs: Bellhorn singles
Top of 2nd, runners on 1st and 2nd, 2 outs: Damon strikes out
Top of 4th, bases loaded, 0 outs: Bellhorn strikes out
Top of 4th, bases loaded, 1 out: Damon strikes out
Top of 4th, bases loaded, 2 outs: Renteria flies out
Top of 7th, runners on 1st and 2nd, 0 out: Renteria singles
Top of 7th, bases loaded, 0 outs: Ortiz doubles
Top 7th, runners on 2nd and 3rd, 0 outs: Ramirez strikes out
Top 7th, runners on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out: Nixon intentionally walks
Top 7th, bases loaded, 1 out: Varitek strikes out
Top 7th, bases loaded, 2 outs: Youkilis grounds into FC
Top 8th, runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out: Renteria strikes out
Top 8th, runners on 1st and 2nd, 2 out: Ortiz grounds out
Top 9th, runners on 2nd and 3rd, 2 out: Mueller flies out

In 14 situations to score runs, the Sox capitalized only 3 times and got an intentional walk. Ten times in situations which made scoring alot of runs possible, the Sox failed utterly. They didn't even get sacrifice flies or groundouts that advanced runners. They utterly failed.

Myers didn't do his job either and in my opinion, he shouldn't have been in to face Durazo. Durazo was 11 for 33 against left handed pitching on the season and was 3 for 8 against Myers in his career. It was a freak hit but a hit nonetheless.

I don't know what it is about the Pacific Ocean but it seems to have some sort of effect on the Red Sox. Against Seattle and Oakland last week, we took 5 of 6. Now, we've been beaten 3 out of 4 and need to take the last two against Oakland to go .500 on the trip.

Renteria should not be batting 2nd. It just isn't working. Hopefully he'll come through and he's had a few good games to make you think he might be coming around but right now, I think he is a bottom of the lineup hitter and nothing more. I'd still like to see Bellhorn have a shot at batting 2nd. If not, I think Varitek should be up there.

Tek is batting .325 compared to Renteria at .246. This means Varitek is getting another hit more than Renteria every 8 at-bats or about every 2 games. Varitek's OBP, which is a crucial stat for the #2 hitter in this lineup, is .379. Edgar's is .296. This means Tek is getting on-base an extra time every 10 plate appearances, or once every 2 games. Their walk and strikeout numbers are similar. Renteria is faster and has stolen 2 bases but batting in front of Manny and Ortiz usually means the #2 hitter, if he gets on base, will stay put and avoid the risk of running into outs. So there is very little point in having speed on base in front of Manny and Ortiz. Maybe once or twice in a year, Tek might not be able to score from first on a double whereas Renteria could, but to me, this isn't worth the offensive downgrade from Renteria to Tek.

Not only does Tek hit more and get on base more, he has more power. Tek has 7 HRs and is hitting one out of the park once every 16 at-bats. Renteria only has 2 HRs and is hitting one every 71 at-bats. Tek is on pace to hit 30 HRs this season and Renteria is on pace to hit 9. Renteria typically gets in between 10-13 HRs a season and Varitek typically hovers near 20 in about 100 fewer ABs a season. Varitek has 14 extra base hits compared to Renteria's 8. This means that Tek gets into scoring position or scores on his own with a homer almost twice as often as Renteria.

I think Varitek would be a better set-up man for Ortiz, Manny, and Trot because he gets on base more, gets more hits, and gets more extra base hits. In this lineup, however, the #2 hitter often has opportunities to knock players in. The Sox have a lineup that has quality hitters from 1-9 so there are always runners getting on base from the 7-9 spots so the leadoff hitter and #2 hitter have to be able to knock guys in. Damon does this pretty well with 20 RBI so far. Varitek only has 15 RBI but compared to Renteria's 11 in more at-bats, Tek has an edge over Renteria.

Tek also does alot of the little things that a #2 hitter is supposed to do. He can hit for contact and when the opportunity presentes itself, he will steal a base here and there. He is an intelligent baserunner and an intelligent hitter. He should be given a shot at the 2 spot for a week or two.

The Man of the Game is Mark Kotsay who went 1 for 3 with a bases loaded triple. He then scored on a groundout. The next inning, he made a heads-up play in right center field to cutoff a double off the wall by Ortiz and keep Renteria from scoring what was the go ahead run at the time.

The Bitch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Arroyo: 0.2 - 7 IP, 4 ER
Myers: 0.4 - 0 IP, 2 ER
Ramirez: 0.1 - 1 for 5, 2 Ks, 2 LOB
Damon: 0.2 - 0 for 3, 2 K, 5 LOB, misplay in CF
Renteria: 0.1 - 1 for 5, 5 LOB, misply at SS

Oil Can Boyd pitched 3 innings for the Brockton Rox against the Worcester Tornadoes. If I ever get a little bit of money, I'm gonna start a Can-Am League team in my backyard. We wouldn't be a good team, but we'd be entertaining.

The Red Sox play the A's again tomorrow night. Clement pitches for us and is due to have a bad start. Meanwhile, the Yankees are winning like crazy against these AL West teams. They've won 9 straight.

MANNY GETS 400, SOX GET A LOSS

Manny Ramirez became the 4th player to hit 400 Homeruns and the 5th to do it in a Red Sox uniform. Gil Meche was the 262nd different pitcher Manny hit a homer off of.

Unfortunately, Manny's homerun was not enough as Wakefield couldn't hold the Mariners and the offense couldn't really capitalize on any baserunners.

The Man of the Game is Miguel Olivo who went 3 for 4 with a double and a homer. He wasn't even supposed to play but Gonzalez was injured. He knocked in 2 and scored 2 runs.

The Bitch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Millar: 0.2 - 0 for 4, 4 LOB
Renteria: 0.2 - 0 for 5, 3 LOB
Wakefield: 0.6 - 7 IP, 5 ER

The Sox should roll in and out of Oakland this weekend.