Yeah. Martinez is a very good hitter and def belongs in the 3 hole. Ortiz needs to get his bat going or let Mike Lowell or Hermida hit @ DH.
As we should expect big things out of him. He was one of the top 5 or 6 pitchers in the AL last year and is only getting better. Make no mistake about it he is the best pitcher in the Red Sox organization.
Well there goes that undefeated record. Lester looked great out there in the 1st and just struggled with command after that. Just like Beckett I'm not worried about Lester, he'll bounce back. Side note: the umps at least for the few games I've seen in the past 3 days so far have been awful, good to see they're in post season form already.
I thought Lackey was excellent last night but that Yankee lineup is tough as always. They really grind out at-bats. To be as effective as Lackey was and only able to get through 6 innings is tough. I agree though, the bullpen is setting up to be a huge issue moving forward. When does Delcarmen go on the DL? And just to reiterate my displeasure with the lineup -- Drew batting 7th is unacceptable. He's the 2nd best hitter on the team. Cut the ****, Tito.
I think I heard on the post game that Lackey had to deal with a family issue earlier in the day and he said he was distracted on the mound last night? If so that's even more impressive. I was very happy with what I saw with Lackey last night, especially letting up so many ground balls. The infield defense is just going to suck those up, especially Beltre at 3rd. The whole bullpen scares me right now, although its nice to see Papelbon throwing the splitter more. That pitch he threw to Granderson I think I could have hit out, it was belt high right over the middle of the plate, just a bad location. But how the hell can you walk Brett Gardner? I mean seriously? The guy would need to hit the ball 4 times to hit it out of the park, just throw the ball down the middle, if he gets a hit he gets a hit. A walk is the worst thing you can do in that spot. Also Daniel Bard, in a big spot you don't want to throw your 3rd best pitch to a hitter especially in a pitcher's count. Throwing that change up to Swisher made no sense. EDIT: I also must mention how I hate playing the Yankees so early in the year, especially to open the season. These two teams shouldn't play a single game against he each before Memorial Day.
Well this is interesting: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5066650 Hopefully the MLB fines Joe West for his comments. If a MLB player called an ump's call pathetic and embarassing that player would be fined and possibly suspended. West should keep his mouth shut and worry about his strike zone. What does he suggest that the pitchers throw nothing but strikes or that each batter swings at the first 3 pitches thrown? If he's complaining about the time the players take between pitches well then fine he should enforce the rules then. The game is about the players not the umps.
The arrogance of the Umps is beyond reproach. And the obvious RISK for any Umpire to not grant a Batter TIME when its requested as a Sphere will be hurdling toward them is beyond ridiculous. I don't care what game you are trying to speed up, if a Batter is asking for time (PRIOR TO THE PITCHER STARTING ITS DELIVERY) you grant it.....the unknown of its potential to be "an eye thing", or just a lack of concentration and the batter requesting time to get their head straight, so be it, you grant it...nuh said. Country Joe West should focus on his music career if he has forgotten what the game is about.
Both the Yanks and the Sox just need to let things settle from an arms standpoint....H2H will always show cracks...but against the rest of the AL teams when it comes to EAST and WILDCARD time will show the rotation and bullpen strategy and it will shake itself out. Glad Yanks took 2 out of 3 of course.....
I completely agree with the arrogance of these umps. They act like the fans pay money to see them instead of the players. And not only that nothing annoys me more than the crap they pulled yesterday in the Sox/Yankee game. Do they honestly think that either Pettitte or Lackey were throwing at people? Especially in a 1 run ball game? I think the funny thing about Joe West is that has been ranked in the bottom 5 as being one of the worst umps in all of baseball yet he's mouthing off. He seriously should be both fined and suspended for a game. He should just keep his mouth shut and work on being a better ump.
Extremely happy I didn't have the to watch this game tonight. The pen sucks. Seriously has Okajima gotten anyone out yet all year? Is Bard going to pitch in every game too?
Our Bullpen is bull****. This is ridiculous when Wakefield and Lackey pitch that well. ****ing makes me sick!
Before people want to run Papelbon out of town, just remember who his replacement(s) would be. I'm sorry but Bard just screams Farnsworth Jr. to me. I hope I'm wrong but I don't trust the kid at all in a big spot, granted Ankiel got jammed and fought the ball out of the inning.
Bard made a quality pitch and Ankiel's bat exploded. That's baseball. Although, I agree with your overall statement regarding the jury still being out on Bard. And it does appear that the other shoe has finally dropped with Okajima. His "stuff" has never been good and you got the feeling that he was getting by simply on deception. Well, it appears that AL hitters are finally catching up to him. I'm not too pleased with the handling of the bullpen, either. Can someone explain to me what Ramirez's role is? If Tito doesn't trust him to pitch in any situation then he shouldn't be on the team. And another point -- people went on and on about how the offense wasn't going to be a problem this year. The Sox put up some crooked numbers during the Yankee series and everyone said "see, they're going to be fine." Well, I would counter that by saying, even last year, this team was fine offensively at Fenway. The problem was on the road and I know its only been one game, but if last night was any indication, those issues have not been rectified. Oh, and now we get Greinke tonight. Yeesh.
I don't think you can really judge the offense yet, especially this early in the year as hitters are always behind pitchers at the beginning. But I absolutely agree with you that this team needs to prove it can hit on the road. That was their main problem the last few years. I'm not worried about the offense but the bullpen just scares me.
Still wanna complain about offense? lol Bard is scary at times the problem is he can be just as scary good as bad. I dont wanna run Papelbon out but I dont know if he is worth the money he wants
Seriously why isn't Varitek playing everyday? The guy gets 1 start and hits 2 home runs (one off of the best pitcher in the AL last year), what has Victor Martinez done in the 5 games he played, only 1 home run, he's a bum? Varitek must play everyday from here on in!
Your team hit 6 HRs against mine ... and you are still complaining about offense? Big props to Kevin Y ... too bad KC has no bullpen ...
I got a warm feeling in my heart when I heard CC lost his no hitter to former Sox player Kelly Shoppach.
Went to Rays Yankees yesterday. I had a good time but it would have been better if the Rays won. I am not a Rays fan (I was however wearing a Rays shirt) I do strongly dislike the other team.
Ortiz has now K'ed 12 times in his last 20 at bats, 13 Ks in 25 at bats so far this year. If I was Francona I'd bench him tomorrow in favor of Lowell since Liriano is throwing and then on Friday I'd have him batting 7th and Drew batting 5th. It's sad to see Ortiz utterly useless at the plate right now. I'm really liking Hermida as our 4th OFer right now.
Hermida is doing great and so glad we got him for nothing. I am just thankful that Ortiz will be gone after this year. Another good performance from Lackey!
Great night for Lackey and Hermida keeps hitting.. Ortiz is now 26 at bats with 13 K's, but it sounds like Francona isn't ready to make a move for a while..
Ortiz isn't playing today, but I don't blame Francona for not making a move yet. It's less than 2 weeks into the season no reason to panic right now. I think the Sox can live with him until mid May, then if he's not hitting they should make a move. With that being said him striking out left and right has to concern them a great deal, especially since he's swinging through fastballs in hitter's counts.
Can we all just forget today even happened? We can't even blame it on Ortiz lol. Theo please get someone for out Bullpen. Thanks
Normally when a team loses 8-0 there aren't any positives, however not today, not in this game. Here are the positives: -Ramon Ramirez lowered his ERA from over 33.00 to a solid 15.00. -Red Sox pitchers and Victor Martinez held Twins base runners to 0 SB today. -David Ortiz didn't strike out or even make a single out in today's game. -J.D. Drew didn't hurt himself (as far as we know). -Tim Wakefield hopefully stopped the media's dumping of Clay Buchholz from the rotation for at least another start. -Youkilis, Pedroia, Scutaro, Hermida, Drew, Lowell, Wakefield, Schoeneweis and Ramirez committed 0 errors today. -Red Sox pitching held Mauer hitless today in 4 at bats. -We got to rest Papelbon, Bard and Okajima. -Red Sox hitters loaded the bases up in the 8th with 0 outs. -Red Sox pitching stopped the Twins from scoring in the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 8th innings of today's game. -The Sox are currently only 1 game under 500. And the best news is we get to head home to face Tampa Bay! See how much fun staying positive is!
I had the pleasure of taking in today's game at the new Target Field....amazing stadium and personally am very, very impressed with Minneapolis, MN as a city....well above my expectations. Head back to DC tomorrow. P.S. Today was your classic get out of town game for the visitor...they were ready to go long before 1st pitch.
Their new field does look great. Of course comparing anything to that dome they used to play in would. Hopefully they keep filling up the ballpark.
And seeing it on Jackie Robinson day with everyone wearing 42 was neat. (of course the Yankees fan in me kept wondering why everyone was wearing Mo's # )
Doesn't really matter how easy the questions are since most Yankee fans would fail out anyway. Right?
I was rooting for my Fantasy team (2 Twins on it....no Sox on the squad) (fyi...Hughes is my only Yank)