And That is Why Sports are Great

You wake up at 5am to watch the pregame show, the first pitch of your team’s 2008 season is at 6am and they are playing in Japan. A few hours later, it’s not Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, or Jonathan Papelbon on the front of ESPN.com, it’s literally the last guy on the roster. Brandon Moss gets the start in right field because of JD Drew’s back stiffness, drives in a run early in the game, then ties the game in the 9th with his first major league homer. Incredible.

It was a fun way to start the season, even though Daisuke looked shaky in the first two innings, Snyder sucked, and Papelbon allowed four men to reach in the bottom of the 10th. Manny’s drive for 150 RBI and a new contract got off to a good start with 4 RBI and the game winning hit. The guy is locked in, has inner peace and is even talkative with the media. Amazing.

Now all we have to do is wake up early again tomorrow, hope Jon Lester throws first pitch strikes, and hope the jet lag is easier to deal with being 2-0 on the season.

The First Red Sox Lineup of 2008

Red Sox vs. Oakland, March 25, 6AM ET

Pedroia 2B
Youkilis 1B
Ortiz DH
Ramirez LF
Lowell 3B
Drew RF
Varitek C
Ellsbury CF
Lugo SS

Matsuzaka SP

Really, this is an excellent lineup.  OBP masters at the top, mashers in the middle, and 2 speed guys at the bottom that can make things happen on the base paths.  Ellsbury wouldn’t have free reign to steal if he was table setting for Ortiz and Ramirez, this should maximized his value while taking a bit of pressure off the rookie CF.

Three hours till game time, tick tick tick…

Red Sox Flight to Japan

flightaware.com/live/flight/JAL8807

So as of 1:45am the Sox have flown 1,485 miles and have 4,822 miles to go, or only 9 more hours.

Papelbon brought a custom made poker table and plans on doing noting but playing Hold ‘Em. Kevin Cash brought a DVD player, but forgot his movies. Theo Epstein will be reading his three news books, while Terry Francona and Dustin Pedroia continue their never-ending cribbage series.

Manny Delcarmen Injured

Playing on a wet field, Manny Delcarmen fielded a ball this afternoon, slipped, and then came up lame.  After this play the game was put into a rain delay. Goddamnit.

As I wrote a few days ago, the only thing you have to worry about with veteran players in spring training is avoiding injuries and the Red Sox have had a million this spring.

Hopfully MDC can get back on the mound a time or two before the trip to Japan.

It’s too bad we don’t just send a Triple-A squad to play the A’s, we would still probably split the 2-game series and not have to worry about 30 billion miles traveled right before the start of a grueling 162+ game season.

Dougie’s Going Home Tonight

Interesting that Doug Mirabelli would be released at this point. Has Kevin Cash shown enough this spring to clearly win the job of Tim Wakefield personal catcher? Not possible. Has Dusty Brown or George Kottaras? Possible, I suppose.

I would think that the front office wants Kottaras playing every day, as he is the most suited to replace Jason Varitek long-term, and that is only going to happen in Pawtucket. So I can’t really see him on the major league roster yet.

Brown has been catching knuckleballer Charlie Zink for a few years in the minors, doesn’t have a lot of offense (more than Mirabelli or Cash), but plays good D and has a cannon for an arm. I don’t know how deals with the knuckleball, but he is ok at it I would like him to get the shot over Cash. It’s always nice infusing some young blood.

Jon Lester Dominates Mets for 4 Innings

Just watched Jon Lester’s outing on MLB TV. Wow. He looked good.

He was getting first pitch strikes, spotting his pitches well and getting his bendy curve over for called strikes.  His slider was the dominate pitch of the day, burying it down and under the hands of righties.

His only walk was given up to Jose Reyes on a 3-2 pitch after a long battle.  His control today was definitely a good sign.

Final line: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 5 K, 1 BB

Rules of Spring Training and Small Sample Sizes

The first rule of spring training: The stats don’t mean shit for a veteran player

The second rule of spring training: The stats don’t mean shit for a prospect

The third rule of spring training: The only things that do matter is avoiding injuries and seeing how a prospect carries himself

That said, let’s take a peek some stats (WARNING SMALL SAMPLE SIZE [but that's all we have]).

On redsoxstats.com I am posting daily updates of spring training stats just as I do during the regular season. The only change I have to make is substituting Runs Created for BaseRuns, since the BaseRuns formula needs some stats that aren’t readily available in the spring. Other than that, everything is included.

I find it amusing that with one of the main media topics this spring being the catching in the system after Jason Varitek, the two hottest hitters out of the gate have been George Kottaras and Dusty Brown. Kot has a 2.083 OPS in 8 plate appearances, with Dusty right on his heals at 1.667 after 9. It’s too bad we can’t morph Brown’s defense and arm with Kottaras’ batting eye and overall approach; that way we wouldn’t have to worry about handing Varitek a multiyear contract to get the privilege of watching him completely fall apart.

In the not-so-good department, Jacoby Ellsbury is giving a new meaning to the word ‘suck’. After 17 plate appearances he is hitting .063/.158/.125, an unbelievable .283 OPS. Not the slump to want to start your season off with, spring training or not. But at least he is playing, Coco Crisp has been in the trainers room more than he has been in trade rumors this spring and that’s not what we need.

Glancing at the pitching, 9 of the 25 pitchers we have used have a WHIP over 2.00 and 9 have a WHIP of 1.00 or under. Of course no one has thrown more than 6 innings. The good news is that only notable players that have been letting on such an obscene numbers of base runners are Jon Lester and Craig Hansen, both of whom are no stranger to pitching with men on base.

One of my first posts in this blog was about the acquisition of David Aardsma and he is having a nice spring so far. 3IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 2 K, 0 BB. He is pitching again today and I’m hoping he throws well again. Since he is out of options he needs to win a spot on our roster or he is up for grabs. With his type of arm, I say you let him pitch himself off the team before you allow him to get away without seeing what John Farrell can do with him.