Looking Back on April
Despite Tuesday night’s debacle – three errors leading to four unearned runs – which brought the Sox winning streak to an end, April will conclude with Boston at or near its goal of five games above five hundred. That’s amazing, considering the terrible start, and the fact that they still aren’t getting many quality starts from their pitching staff. Beckett and Lester have been uneven; Penny much worse than uneven; Dice-K AWOL after leading his countrymen to the WBC title; leaving Wake to step in as the ace of the staff. Barring injury, Wake looks like he should be able to pitch into his early sixties, allowing him to challenge Cy Young for many RedSox career pitching records.
Fortunately, as inconsistent as the starters have been, the bullpen has been pretty reliable. The big change for 2009 seems to be the addition of Ramon Ramirez, who has stepped into the role of Pap’s setup man. That’s especially important, because Oki no longer mystifies the opposition. It’s difficult to know why the change, but Okajima never had overpowering stuff. It was more that opposing hitters could not figure him out. Now that he’s been in the league for three years, maybe batters know him better. Or maybe he just isn’t hitting his spots. Still, he continues to perform well more often than not, and is a good contrast to all the fireballers on the pitching staff. Delcarmen has been solid so far; Masterson great in middle relief when called upon (although he looks more and more like a starter before too long); and didn’t Michael Bowden look awesome on Sunday? Two hitless innings, against the Yankees no less; including a strikeout of Derek Jeter. Not bad for 22 years old. A number of good young arms in the organization, and I haven’t even mentioned Buckholz, who last time I looked was shutting down the IL.
The one big question mark in my mind is whether Pap is OK. I know he’s five for five in save opportunities, but he doesn’t seem like the same guy this April. Too many walks; not enough Ks; and far too many pitches in most of his outings. What happened to those 1-2-3 innings where Pap would throw only six pitches, all of them strikes? One reason the pen was so good the past few years (and in 2004 as well), was that the other guys only had to get us to the ninth inning. Once it was the ninth inning, I could start calling the boys and recapping the game. Time will tell, but if the past decade demonstrates anything about baseball today, it’s that the team with the invincible closer had a big advantage come October. (Just picture Pap and Lidge in the past two Series.)
Enough about the pitching. During the early going, when Sox were coming up short in many games, the bats were silent, aside from Youk. The home stand seemed to have changed that. Jason Bay has continued to fill in adequately in Manny’s absence. (To read that is startling on two levels. First, Bay has been more remarkable than adequate of late, with two ninth inning home runs, and consistently productive at bats. Second, to suggest that anyone could fill in for Manny, who’s only the best right handed hitter of the modern era, is equally remarkable. But true. Plus Bay can actually catch fly balls; how about that running grab and tumble into the stands last night?) Lowell looks more like the Mike Lowell of 2007, who anchored the offense, and cleaned up all the base runners that the three and four hitters didn’t knock in. Even Tek has looked far better than he did in 2008. And here’s the other thing: this recent run production has mostly come from the right side of the plate. Papi is hitting better, but still not displaying much power; and Drew has been mostly MIA. If either of those guys comes to life, the lineup will be close to devastating.
I like the combination of young and old; I like the fact that there’s much room for improvement; I like the fact that there doesn’t seem to be much drama; I like the speed (I had to make some mention of Jacoby stealing home on Pettite. Not just that it’s perhaps the most exciting play in baseball, but he does it against the Yankees on ESPN.) I’ve got to go see when the Sox are coming to Toronto this year. Barring injuries, this is beginning to look like an entertaining season.
Fortunately, as inconsistent as the starters have been, the bullpen has been pretty reliable. The big change for 2009 seems to be the addition of Ramon Ramirez, who has stepped into the role of Pap’s setup man. That’s especially important, because Oki no longer mystifies the opposition. It’s difficult to know why the change, but Okajima never had overpowering stuff. It was more that opposing hitters could not figure him out. Now that he’s been in the league for three years, maybe batters know him better. Or maybe he just isn’t hitting his spots. Still, he continues to perform well more often than not, and is a good contrast to all the fireballers on the pitching staff. Delcarmen has been solid so far; Masterson great in middle relief when called upon (although he looks more and more like a starter before too long); and didn’t Michael Bowden look awesome on Sunday? Two hitless innings, against the Yankees no less; including a strikeout of Derek Jeter. Not bad for 22 years old. A number of good young arms in the organization, and I haven’t even mentioned Buckholz, who last time I looked was shutting down the IL.
The one big question mark in my mind is whether Pap is OK. I know he’s five for five in save opportunities, but he doesn’t seem like the same guy this April. Too many walks; not enough Ks; and far too many pitches in most of his outings. What happened to those 1-2-3 innings where Pap would throw only six pitches, all of them strikes? One reason the pen was so good the past few years (and in 2004 as well), was that the other guys only had to get us to the ninth inning. Once it was the ninth inning, I could start calling the boys and recapping the game. Time will tell, but if the past decade demonstrates anything about baseball today, it’s that the team with the invincible closer had a big advantage come October. (Just picture Pap and Lidge in the past two Series.)
Enough about the pitching. During the early going, when Sox were coming up short in many games, the bats were silent, aside from Youk. The home stand seemed to have changed that. Jason Bay has continued to fill in adequately in Manny’s absence. (To read that is startling on two levels. First, Bay has been more remarkable than adequate of late, with two ninth inning home runs, and consistently productive at bats. Second, to suggest that anyone could fill in for Manny, who’s only the best right handed hitter of the modern era, is equally remarkable. But true. Plus Bay can actually catch fly balls; how about that running grab and tumble into the stands last night?) Lowell looks more like the Mike Lowell of 2007, who anchored the offense, and cleaned up all the base runners that the three and four hitters didn’t knock in. Even Tek has looked far better than he did in 2008. And here’s the other thing: this recent run production has mostly come from the right side of the plate. Papi is hitting better, but still not displaying much power; and Drew has been mostly MIA. If either of those guys comes to life, the lineup will be close to devastating.
I like the combination of young and old; I like the fact that there’s much room for improvement; I like the fact that there doesn’t seem to be much drama; I like the speed (I had to make some mention of Jacoby stealing home on Pettite. Not just that it’s perhaps the most exciting play in baseball, but he does it against the Yankees on ESPN.) I’ve got to go see when the Sox are coming to Toronto this year. Barring injuries, this is beginning to look like an entertaining season.
posted by pops | 7:54 PM
1 Comments:
Now for the Yankees Fan Prospective:
Our starting pitching has been very uneven. CC and AJ have still not earned their huge contracts and Joba needs to have more than one good start. Hughes showed why he was the best pitching prospect in the minors for 2007 but needs to prove he is back. Our position player rooster is a mess. No stability in the outfield and a failed experiment at 3rd while A-Rod rehabs. Teixeira is on the Interstate and Matsui and Damon are old and injured. Posada and Swisher have been carrying the team. The bottom of the line-up with minor league players has produced in the last 2 nights. Let's see if they can continue after the scouts figure out their weaknesses.
That was pretty much the view during the humiliating weekend in Fenway that was extended for one game in Detroit.
Having said all of that we now sit on a 4 game winning streak 2 games into an 8 game home stand. BTW the Yankees had the least number of home games (6) before this home stand (redsox/12 and toronto/11). Let's see what the standings look like after the schedule evens out. Toronto is still at home but the redsox are playing in the 'hell hole' Tampa this weekend. Now the standings have the top of the AL East is pretty knotted up.
Long season and I hope we can exact some revenge in the 'new house' Monday/Tuesday against the very happy redsox dugout. Yeah the Yankee players noticed the mocking and over the top celebration 16 games into the season.
Let the games continue.
G-man
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