Red Sox Starters… Dominant, Disaster, Neutral

Numbers are based on Pure Quality Starts, which ranks starts on a 0-5 scale based on innings, hits allowed, strikeouts, strikeouts to walks, and home runs allowed.

Scores of 0-1 are a Disaster, 2-3 are Neutral, and 4-5 are Dominant.

Team
Starts	52
Dominant	24	46%
Disaster	10	19%
Neutral	18	35%
Beckett
Starts	10
Dominant	8	80%
Disaster	2	20%
Neutral	0	0%
Lester
Starts	11
Dominant	5	45%
Disaster	2	18%
Neutral	4	36%
Wakefield
Starts	10
Dominant	4	40%
Disaster	2	20%
Neutral	4	40%
Penny
Starts	10
Dominant	3	30%
Disaster	2	20%
Neutral	5	50%
Matsuzaka
Starts	5
Dominant	1	20%
Disaster	2	40%
Neutral	2	40%
Masterson
Starts	6
Dominant	3	50%
Disaster	0	0%
Neutral	3	50%

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Notes:

- Wakefield’s first four starts were his only Dominant starts of the year

- Penny had two Dominant and four Neutral starts in May

- Beckett started the year with three Dominant starts, then had two Disasters, and is now working on a five game Dominant streak

- Zack Greinke has ten Dominant and one Neutral on the year. His Neutral start was 5 IP (no point), 6 H (no point), 0 ER, 9 K, 2 BB.

Which Brad Penny Do We Get Tonight?

Anyone have any idea what Brad Penny is going to being to the table tonight against James Shields and the Rays?

Didn’t think so.

Opp	Rslt	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	GSc
LAA	W, 5-4	6.0	5	3	3	2	2	2	50
BAL	W, 10-8	3.0	6	8	8	5	1	1	11
MIN	W, 7-3	6.0	6	3	2	1	2	1	51
CLE	L, 8-9	2.7	7	7	4	3	1	1	20
TBR	L, 3-5	6.0	6	3	3	2	8	0	54

Positive start, horrible start, positive start, horrible start, positive start…

It will be interesting to see how the Rays change their apprach after Penny finally started to strike people out against them last time out. It would be nice if he has his mid-90’s velocity from the outset instead of it showing up in the 2nd or 3rd inning.

All You Need to Know About Brad Penny

		IP	K/9	BB/9
2006	LAD	189.0	7.0	2.6
2007	LAD	208.0	5.8	3.2
2008	LAD	94.7	4.8	4.0
2009	BOS	17.7	3.1	5.6

Brady Penny’s dominance is in a four year tailspin; his control is also on a four year slide. Pitchers who are over 30-years old and who have arm troubles are not the type you expect to turn around these trends.

The defense really shit the bed tonight in Cleveland, but without being able to strike people out or prevent the free base runners, there are about six better options in the Red Sox system to be starting games.

Opening Day

I guess the only things taking away from a perfect Red Sox Opening Day were Jacoby Ellsbury’s quick 0-4 in which he only saw 12 pitches total and Hideki Okajima hitting and walking his first two batters. Other than that there isn’t much to complain about.

Every hitter 2 though 9 got their first hit of the season out of the way, and Jason Bay got screwed out of a 2-3 day when Carl Crawford trapped a ball and then threw out Kevin Youkilis at third for a fielder’s choice.

Josh Beckett was just painting all day, he lost his curveball for an inning there, but other than that he was dominant.

Jonathan Papelbon was back up to 95 MPH on the gun after sitting in the low 90’s all spring.

Red Sox announce Wed-Sat starting pitchers

Figures with five interesting pitchers going, NESN gets Wakefield. Miserable.

At least we will see Josh Bard catching him.
—

Wednesday	vs. Boston College	Josh Beckett
Wednesday	at Minnesota	Tim Wakefield	NESN, WRKO radio
Thursday	vs. Pittsburgh	Jon Lester
Friday	at Tampa Bay	Michael Bowden
Saturday	vs. Northeastern	Kris Johnson	WRKO radio
Saturday	vs. Cincinnati	Clay Buchholz	WRKO radio

Red Sox Announce – A Terrible – ALCS Rotation

Game 1: Matsuzaka
Game 2: Beckett
Game 3: Lester
Game 4: Wakefield
Game 5: Matsuzaka
Game 6: Beckett
Game 7: Lester

Unless there are injury concerns, which Francona is not saying in the press conference, this is really mindboggling to me.  You need to get your best starters in two games as early in the series as you can.  Beckett and Lester needed to be one and two, you worry about a game seven starter and bullpen use when you get there, not before the series begins.

The Red Sox set this up so they could lose the series 4-1 and Beckett and Lester would have only pitched in one game.

Daisuke Matsuzaka’s Horrible ALDS Pitching

Not a terrible performance: 5 innings, 3 runs, 5.40 ERA… but his pitching might have been the worst I have ever seen. Horrible location, ultra nibbling, pitching on eggshells with a 3-run lead and no one on base to the middle of the Angles order, 7.2 pitches per out recorded, 108 pitches to get through 5 innings even after his efficient first two innings.

Just… maddening. Hope the bullpen lock down the final 12 outs and step on the Angles throats heading back to Boston.

Happy Yankee Elimination Day!

W: T. Wakefield (10-11)
L: C. Lee (22-3)
S: J. Papelbon (41)

The Boston Red Sox will be defending their World Series Championship in the playoffs this October.

Red Sox Should Lock Up A Playoff Spot Tonight

- Magic Number: 1
- Playing at Fenway Park
- The Yankees having an off day
- A pitching matchup of Josh Beckett versus Zach Jackson

After a relatively dull few weeks of baseball and with the Patriots dominating the headlines it finally looks like the stars are aligned for the Red Sox to clinch a playoff berth and hold a Yankee Elimination Celebration at Fenway tonight versus the Indians.  A win and we can keep the pressure on the Rays for the AL East crown, while also being smart about resting players and setting up our playoff rotation, be it order of pitchers or just cutting back workload a bit. It would also be a nice shot in the arm for everyone, a sort of warning shot for The Nation to be ready for the late nights and tense times of playoff baseball.

Beckett has already flipped his switch, knowing that his arm is perfectly healthy, and has a 0.95 ERA and 0.84 WHIP over his last three games. With another dominating performance tonight, and a few more in October, we should be all set.

10:45pm Update: Sports don’t generally turn out as planned; 4-3 loss on a frustrating night at the Fens.

Beckett to Visit Dreaded Dr. Andrews

Per the Boston Globe, Josh Beckett has been scratched from tomorrow’s start and will visit Dr. James Andrews in Alabama.  Any time a pitcher is sent for an opinion from Dr. Andrews it is terrible news, even if the Red Sox are calling this a precaution.

Beckett has “not been the same” this season as last, mainly because he luck has normalized, especially in the homer department.  Still, he has posted peripherals of a top 5 starter in baseball and his 3.17 FIP tells a better story than his 4.34 ERA.

Daisuke Matsuzaka will get bumped up and start tomorrow versus the White Sox at Fenway Park.