It is hard to write anything after hearing this stunning news. What a sad and tragic thing – 22 years old and with a world of potential. I believe two other people were killed in the car Adenhart was a passenger in. My condolences to all.
Hug your family …
Opening day finally arrives!
Beckett faced off against James Shields and, but for the third inning, Beckett was dominant. In 7 IP he allowed only one run, struck out ten, scattered two hits, and walked three. His fastball was consistently 93-95. For example, his last batter faced, Gabe Gross, faced this cheese:
Not bad for pitches 91, 92 and 93.
I saw something on MLB Tonight that said Beckett was only the 4th opening day pitcher to allow 2 hits or less and strike out more then 10. Impressive.
On the Rays side, Shields looked pretty good but not as sharp as Rays fans have come to expect. One thing that has bugged me about Shields is his nickname – Big Game James. I mean, come on. He got this name before he’d even pitched one playoff game. That just isn’t right.
. . . . . . .
Other things I noticed from yesterday’s games:
Two on, two out, one-run lead, eighth inning.
Jim Thome batting.
You have Joakim Soria.
You use Kyle Farnsworth.
Gone.
I know it happens all the time, but it’s really freaking stupid every single time. This is what the creation of the closer position has wrought: teams losing games, frequently, without using their best reliever, for no reason other than the misguided notion that getting three outs is their role, and getting four isn’t.
(For that matter, you also have Ron Mahay. Why did you acquire him if not to have him face Jim Thome in the eighth inning of a one-run game? Ron Gardenhire lost the division last year for want of a similar clue and Jose Mijares.)
Some people deserve to lose.
Today’s Sox game – Lester v. Kazmir, the battle of the lefties.
Trevor Cahill makes his major league debut tonight for the Oakland A’s against the Angels and Dustin Moseley. The other pitcher most often discussed with Cahill is Brett Anderson who makes his debut (skipping AAA as well) on Thursday.
The A’s five man rotation (now that Duchscherer is on the DL) is made up of pitchers who are all 26 or younger. That has not happened since the 1978 Brewers and the last team before that was the 1968 A’s (with a rotation of Hunter, Dobson, Nash, Odom and Krausse).
Cahill has had an impressive two seasons in the minors and made the starting rotation this spring. I find it a lot of fun to watch the young guys work their way into a big league rotation and will no doubt watch some of Cahill’s start tonight.
This is what he did in the minors:
2008 Statistics – Age 20
Level W L ERA IP K BB WHIP
A+ 5 4 2.78 87.1 103 31 0.95
AA 6 1 2.19 37.0 33 19 1.16
2007 Statistics – Age 19
A 11 4 2.73 105.1 117 40 1.18
He is definitely one worth watching. He was the A’s Organization Pitcher of the Year for the last two years and has a world of potential. The question, though, is whether he is ready to face major league hitters with no AAA experience and only seven games at the AA level. I like Cahill a lot but you have to wonder if it’s a good idea to let him face major league hitters at such a young age. Cahill’s spring was less then stellar so there is some concern that he may be in over his head.
Ah, to be 21 and taking the mound in a major league game. That’s gotta be a thrill.
Rain, rain and more rain. Whose idea was it for the Sox to open in Boston? The last time was 2002 and before that was 1996. I would suggest that the Sox should never open at home. My son’s little league season the past three years has been plagued with rain cancellations. You get all ready for opening day and then … nothing.
So, instead of the Sox I watched some of the Mets v. Reds game. Santana looked pretty good – wild in the first inning but then pretty good after that. Not his best, but acceptable. I am not a Mets fan but I have Santana on two of my fantasy teams and I love the guy. I hope to read that he felt no lingering tightness in his elbow or whatever his issue was this spring. I imagine Mets fans must have breathed a sigh of relief.
The Reds should be pretty excited about their offense. Jay Bruce was fooled by a Santana offering and still managed to flick it off the wall in deep left center. He looks impressive.
. . . . .
Now, I don’t want to get too giddy about CC’s poor outing against the O’s (he looked out of sync) but, I am a Sox fan. As the info on the TV indicated, he had a bad April last year and then went wild so there really should be no cause for concern; it is just nice when the season starts off not as the Yankee’s expected.
In terms of the O’s, I liked what I saw from Adam Jones. He looked more selective and really in control of himself (a four pitch walk in his first at bat). He may be headed to a big year and really make the Mariners regret their trade.
Last on my viewing radar tonight is the Liriano/King Felix matchup. I have them both on one of my fantasy teams. They are the kind of pitchers you stop everything to watch. Here’s to hoping we see a pitching duel tonight.
Sox lose 7-2 to Tigers to fall to 4-5.
I would think the Tigers are very relieved to get their first win of the season. I am, as usual, frustrated with John Lester – 97 pitches in 5 1/3 IP. That just won’t cut it. Admittedly, Bonderman wasn’t that much more efficient – he just escaped his jams.
Bryan Corey does not belong in the bigs. He just won’t be any solution this year.
Sox win 5-0 behind an impressive performance from Dice-K.
108 pitches from Dice-K in 6 2/3 innings. 4 hits, 4 walks and 7 Ks. Clearly a very good outing against an allegedly fearsome offense that has only been able to score a total of 15 runs in their first 7 games. Not that fearsome.
Anyway, Dice-K looked very good. He mixed up his pitches well and seemed to have the Tigers baffled. He didn’t leave many balls over the plate and was very confident. If this continues, Dice-K is going to have a very good year.
In terms of offense, Youk and Pedroia keep getting on base, Manny smashed a triple that was fun to watch – this time he didn’t admire his blast but busted around first and chugged to third. He was lucky that Polanco made an errant throw (I think this was Polanco’s first error since 2006) or he likely would have been out at third.
The opening ceremonies were the usual fare. The “surprise” guest for the first pitch was Bill Buckner, who was very emotional walking in from the Green Monster and while on the mound. He made one of the best first pitches I’ve seen and one of my All-Time favorite players, Dwight Evans, caught the pitch. I thought Buckner had been back before, but clearly not in this manner. I hope it makes up for all the grief he caught for his game 6 error. There were others who should have caught more of the blame for that meltdown.
Today’s game is Bonderman v. Lester.
Interesting Fact of the Day
Edgar Renteria has 1,940 hits in his 12 year career. I was surprised to find this out. He is 32 years old and has never had a 200 hit season, so it looks like he may not have a shot at 3,000 hits. His one year in Boston was not good to him, but I’ve always thought that he seemed like a very nice guy and solid ball player.
Minors Update
AAA Pawtucket
Chris Smith went 4 innings last night for the Pawsox. He allowed 2 hits, issued 1 walk and struck out 7 in his 75 pitch stint.
AA Portland
Justin Masterson’s second start of the season went very well – 5 IP, 2H, 0BB, 7 Ks. Dominant. He may be on his way to Pawtucket pretty soon.
I was not able to watch either game much. The Jays completed a four game sweep with with a 10-2 trouncing on Saturday and a 7-4 loss on Sunday.
Sox drop to 3-4 on the season.
The problem? The bullpen (excluding Papelbon and Okajima).
They have all stunk up the joint at one time or another – Delcarmen has given up some big hits, Corey got toasted, and Kyle Snyder undermined what was an adequate outing from Buchholz on Saturday. If the Sox don’t straighten this out, its going to be a killer; Okajima can’t pitch every day!
And, what was with Lugo and his three errors? Does he want to be benched for Lowrie? That won’t happen unless the Sox trade Coco, but Julio may find himself on the bench if he doesn’t get his act together.
Minor League Update
AAA Patwtucket
David Pauley – On 4.5.08 – 5 IP, 2 Hits, 1 Run, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 Ks; Pauley is not 1 or 2 material, but he could help the bullpen and be a decent fill in for an injury. He is still pretty young – turns 25 in June.
Craig Hansen - so far this season 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 Ks. Both outings were 2 inning stints. Will he get the call at some point to replace some of the stiffs that are screwing things up with the big club, if he shows he has figured things out?
AA Portland
Michael Bowden – Another highly thought of Sox prospect in Portland. He got off to a good start with solid outing against Twins prosepect Anthony Swarzak. Bowden went 4 2/3, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 Ks. Last year Bowden split time between Lancaster and Portland. 142 IP, 140 H, 41 BB, 128 Ks, 3.34 ERA. Keep an eye on him and see if he better adjusts to the AA batters this year.
Kris Johnson - Ranked as one of the top 20 Sox prospects, he underwent TJ surgery in 2005 while in college. He opened up in Lowell last year, started 13 games, 30 IP, 25 H, 7 BB, 27 Ks, 0.88 ERA. He moved up to Lancaster where he struggled a bit. Yet, the Sox moved him up to Portland this year. His first outing was a no decision. He went 4 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO. It looks like he met his pitch count and was removed. I have a sense he is someone to watch.
Jays outpitch Sox to take series opener 6-3.
First off, I don’t like the Jays retro baby blue uniforms; never did, never will. Now that that fashion comment is out of the way, onto the game.
This was quite a pitching duel through 6 innings before each team managed to push 3 runs across the plate in the next two half innings – the Jays in the bottom of the sixth and the Sox in the top of the sixth. Really, though the story was (1) Shaun Marcum and (2) the Toronto bullpen vs. the Boston pitching of Aardsma, Lopez and Delcarmen.
Marcum was fantastic. He doesn’t have the lights out fastball, but he does have control, a good mix of pitches, and the ability to change speeds. He was on last night and seems to have picked up where he left off last year. It was really something to watch, the way he used both sides of the plate and kept batters off kilter the whole night by changing speed and mixing up his pitches. He was good.
The Sox pen did not get the job done. In the top of the 7th JD Drew tied the game with a three run blast off Marcum. Marcum had fooled JD all night long until he left a 85 MPH fastball just a bit over the plate and JD smacked it into the right field stands. Aardsma then came on to start the 7th and walked Eckstein after an 11 pitch struggle. Eckstein fouled off 4 straight 95 MPH fastballs until Aardsma missed high.
Lopez was brought in to face Stairs but the Jays countered with Shannon Stewart who drilled a line drive past Pedroia into center. This brought on Delcarmen. This makes one think that Tito messed up. If Lopez left after Stewart because Rios was up, why even use Lopez but replace him with Delcarmen for Stewart. Call me crazy, but I just don’t like Lopez against righties. But then I looked at the numbers and was a bit surprised. Here is Lopez’s platoon split for 2007:
Why do we think Lopez is a lefty killer? Perhaps it is because 2007 may have been an aberration. Here are th stats for 2004-2006:
2004
2005
2006
This is really puzzling. Lopez used to get killed by righties but in the last two years it is lefties who have hit him better. I wonder what deeper analysis the Red Sox have done on this – Bill James must have something interesting to say about this. Anyway, I take back my comment about Tito, maybe he did know what he was doing keeping Lopez in against Stewart. Stewart had never faced Lopez before and Stairs was 1 for 2 with a double. Maybe Tito thought Lopez’s sidewinder deliver would throw Stewart. Whatever the thinking, it didn’t work – Stewart laced the 4th pitch for a single.
Delcarmen came on and got Rios and Wells to pop up. Things were looking good until big old Frank Thomas smoked what looked like a change up that Manny left over the middle of the plate for a 2 run double. And, that was really the game. Toronto’s pen allowed only 1 single over the next two innings. A nice ball game, but one that went the wrong way.
Toronto’s offense is not that scary, but the Jays pitching is going to be tough if Marcum continues to pitch like this and Burnett can stay healthy.
Minor League Update
AAA Pawtucket – rained out
AA Portland – rained out
A Adv Lancaster – 1B Prospect Lars Anderson is 2-9 to start the season with 1 walk and 1 strikeout; last year he finished up the last 10 games in Lancaster at .344/.489/.486 with 1 HR and 2 2Bs in 35 at bats.
A Greenville – rained out
Interesting stat of the day
Youkilis broke the 1B errorless mark on Wednesday; he is at 195 now. Youk’s streak started after an error in Tampa Bay on July 4, 2006. Since then he has handled 1640 chances – 60 shy of the MLB 1B errorless chance record set by Stuffy McInnis from 1921-1922. Go Youk!
Next game – 4.5.08
Buchholz v. Litsch
