AL East 2010

[Hart5150]

IMHO, the Red Sox could still be making a run at the playoffs if they never let Jason Bay go in free agency.

I said it then, and I'll say it now- he was a great fit in Fenway, and his presence/hitting may be sorely missed in 2010.

2010 MLB Team Batting Stats - Major League Baseball - ESPN

The Red Sox are 2nd in MLB in runs scored. Jason Bay doesn't make a lick of difference where this team is going to finish this year. Scoring runs in not their problem.

Here is the problem -->

PITCHING

Starting, middle relief and closing have all a problem this year.

BTW, here are Bay's stats this year.


BA HR RBI OBP SLG
.259 6 47 .347 .402

Here are Darnell McDonald's

BA HR RBI OBP SLG
.276 8 31 .343 .436

Essentially the same same.

EDIT: WHY DOES AN ESPN LINK SHOW UP AS A VIDEO????

 

[Jimbo]

EDIT: WHY DOES AN ESPN LINK SHOW UP AS A VIDEO????

I have been asking this for a few weeks now and have yet to figure it out.

 

[AntAltMike]

The Red Sox scored 12 runs on 9 hits, so for one day, I don't have to plow through a dozen "comments" letters in the Boston Herald on how many runners they leave on base.

Are they still alive? Well, someone famous once said, "It ain't over 'till it's over". If they win today and tommorrow, the loss column differential becomes five games, and then when they play doormat Oakland while the Rays play possibly the best fourth place team in the history of divisional baseball... their odds are about the same as those of an NFL team that, with three weeks left, can win all its remaining games to go 8-8 and needs four teams ahead of it to play one tie game each so that they can all finish 7-8-1. The Washington Redskins get to that point with three weeks left to their season nearly every year. The Red Sox are at that point now.

 

[BillD1984]

Rays laying waste to the Red Sox tonight......14-5 in the 9th.

The Sox must be looking ahead to their annual big game against BC in late February!

 

[AntAltMike]

The Rays presently project to 99 wins. The Red Sox have 77 wins with 23 games left to play, so if the Red Sox win all of them, they will be most likely to overtake the Rays for the wild card by one game on the last day of the season.

BTW, when annual payrolls are compared, the so-called "posting fee" that the Red Sox paid to be able to negotiate with Dice-K is not included in it. That means that when the Red Sox annual salaries add up to about $160 millon, they really add up to about $170 million, and because the fact that the REedSox paid about as much in posting fee for Dice K as they do in salary, he is really a $16 million a year fifth starter.

It's white flag time. If I were running the Red Sox, I'd go with a six man rotation for the rest of the year, with Wakefield starting Wednesday and four more times. I'm sure he's not coming back next year, and he deserves a chance to go out throwing.

 

[AntAltMike]

...If I were running the Red Sox, I'd go with a six man rotation for the rest of the year, with Wakefield starting Wednesday and four more times. I'm sure he's not coming back next year, and he deserves a chance to go out throwing.

Through two innings tonight:

Pitcher     IP  H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA 
T Wakefield 2.0 4 4  3  0  1  1 43-35 5.32

On the other hand, we could let the regular rotation get in as many starts as possible, so as to aid Buckholtz's and Lester's standing in the Cy Young Award voting, and give Wakefield a day commeratng his long and distinguished Red Sox career next spring!

 

[BillD1984]

Pitcher     IP  H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST ERA 
T Wakefield 2.0 4 4  3  0  1  1 43-35 5.32

On the other hand, we could let the regular rotation get in as many starts as possible, so as to aid Buckholtz's and Lester's standing in the Cy Young Award voting, and give Wakefield a day commeratng his long and distinguished Red Sox career next spring!

That sucks! If 2010 is indeed Wake's swan song, he deserves a much better fate on the way out the door!

And as much as I love Lester (my favorite pitcher), he doesn't have a shot at the Cy. OTOH, Buchholz has a decent shot, but right now Sabathia is the odds on favorite.

 

[AntAltMike]

Wake-field! Wake-field!

Pitchers              IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PC-ST  ERA 
T Wakefield (W, 4-10) 5.0 6  5  4  2  4  1 86-65  5.26 
S Atchison (H, 6)     2.0 0  0  0  0  2  0 24-18  3.76 
D Bard                1.0 1  0  0  1  0  0 14- 6  1.77 
H Okajima             1.0 1  0  0  1  0  0 12- 8  5.15 
Totals                9.0 8  5  4  4  6  1 136-97

Now up to 179 wins in a Red Sox uniform, trailing only Roger Clemens and Cy Young, who have 192 each. I just updated Wakefield's mistake laden Wikipedia page, and will continue to do so for the remainder of his career.

Wakefield is under contract with the Red Sox for 2011 for $1.5 million minimum, with the possibility of it going up based on his cumulatives this season.

 

[BillD1984]

Wakefield is under contract with the Red Sox for 2011 for $1.5 million minimum, with the possibility of it going up based on his cumulatives this season.

He's now up to $2 million guaranteed next season, thanks to Wake going over the IP incentive.

Good for him! :up And good for Francona and the Red Sox for giving him the oppurtunity to do so!

 

[BillD1984]

What a pitcher's duel between CC Sabathia and David Price in St. Pete last night!! :up

The Rays eventually won the game, 1-0 on Reid Brignac's walk-off HR in the bottom of the 11th. The Rays are now in first place, a half game in front of the Yankees.

Game 2 of the series is tonight at 7pm ET on MLB Network.

 

[AntAltMike]

What a pitcher's duel between CC Sabathia and David Price in St. Pete last night!! :up

The Rays eventually won the game, 1-0 on Reid Brignac's walk-off HR in the bottom of the 11th. ...

Too bad they saw the finish from the locker room.

When Marichal and Spahn Dueled for a Game and a Half

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: July 2, 2008

(Marichal's) ...pitching line: 16 innings, 8 hits, 0 runs, 4 walks and 10 strikeouts.

Spahn’s line: 15 1/3 innings, 9 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 2 strikeouts....

Marichal and Spahn’s performance nearly duplicated an August 1954 game when Jack Harshman of the Chicago White Sox pitched a 16-inning shutout against the Detroit Tigers. Detroit’s starter, Al Aber, gave up the only run of the game in the 16th.

“Pitchers of the generations up until Marichal had a belief that ‘this game is mine,’ ” said Steve Hirdt, executive vice president of the Elias Sports Bureau. He added, “The idea of doing permanent harm to a pitcher’s arm didn’t come into anyone’s mind....

Marichal was not finished with spectacular long games. In 1966, he beat the Phillies, 1-0, in 14 innings, but in 1969 suffered a fate similar to Spahn’s: he lost to the Mets, 1-0, with one out in the 14th, on a home run by Tommie Agee.

 

[BillD1984]

What an absolute joke that 26,000+ fans showed up for the Yankees-Rays game last night.


There's 18 games left, and you have the two best teams in baseball fighting for first place, AND the top two Cy Young candidates going head to head! If that game was played at Yankee Stadium it would have been SRO!

 

[BillD1984]

Yankees 8, Rays 5.......................bottom of 7th

 

[BillD1984]

Yanks win, 8-6.....................now with a 1.5 games lead.

 

[BillD1984]

Yankees defeat Rays, 8-6........Yanks now 2.5 games in front.

 

[BillD1984]

The Red Sox have three pitchers in their starting rotation making a combined $40 million THIS YEAR...............the Sox OTHER TWO starters are 19-8...2.96 and 16-7....2.39 and BOTH in the discussion for the Cy Young Award.

All that, and the Sox will not make the postseason!

Baseball: a VERY funny game indeed!

 

[BillD1984]

Red Sox going for the sweep tonight in the Bronx, are ahead of the Yankees 1-0....6th inning.


IF the Sox hold on tonight, they'll be 4.5 games behind NY. The Yankees go to Toronto for three games starting tomorrow night. IF the Blue Jays win just one of those games the Sox would (believe it or not) control their own postseason destiny. Of course, the Sox would have to sweep a four game series in Chicago, AND sweep the Yankees again next weekend at Fenway. Talk about a longgggggggg shot!

ALL of this is moot if the Sox don't win tonight.

Hey, a guy can dream, right?

 

[SabresRule]

Red Sox going for the sweep tonight in the Bronx, are ahead of the Yankees 1-0....6th inning.


IF the Sox hold on tonight, they'll be 4.5 games behind NY. The Yankees go to Toronto for three games starting tomorrow night. IF the Blue Jays win just one of those games the Sox would (believe it or not) control their own postseason destiny. Of course, the Sox would have to sweep a four game series in Chicago, AND sweep the Yankees again next weekend at Fenway. Talk about a longgggggggg shot!

ALL of this is moot if the Sox don't win tonight.

Hey, a guy can dream, right?

2007 Rockies and last year's Twins proved that nothing is out of reach at this point in the season.

 

[BillD1984]

Well, Yankees go ahead, 2-1 on an A-Rod A-Bomb!

 

[Hart5150]

Pap gets squeezed in the 9th, blows the save. Yankees win. Red Sox season over. Thank you Josh Beckett.