First Post From Boston

So I'm back in Boston right now. It's pretty much the greatest city in history.

Anyway, first, about Diasuke. I saw the top of the first and two Royal batters in the bottom of the first. I was not impressed. He looked extremely shaky. He allowed a lead off base hit and got a fielders choice before really slowing down the pace and taking forever between pitches. He looked a bit out of place. However, after my class I raced back to my room, turned on the TV and it was 2-1 Sox with Diasuke pitching in the 6th. And he was going strong too. He was making Kansas City hitters look foolish. I believe the line was 7 innings, 10 K's, 1 earned run, a win, and the right to have John stop writing Dice-K and start writing Diasuke (which pronounced Dice-K in case you were wondering...). Plus, in the post game show, former two time Red Sox pitcher and current Hall Of Famer Dennis Eckersly was gushing over him. I'm pretty sure the Eck is in love. He went on and on about Diasuke's command, his breaking ball, his setting up the fast ball with the breaking ball, his average fastball looking stupendous as a result of the breaking ball, the seven or so different types pitches he threw during the game, the 15 or so different types of pitches he hasn't thrown yet. So, the fact he impressed the Eck says something.

So anyway, Diasuke passes the first test. I'm still not 100% sold. Let's see him do it against the Yankees before we get carried away.

I didn't catch today's game at all, which again started at 2Pm. This is ridiculous. Friday games should start at 7 PM East Coast Time. However, I hear the Sox blew a pretty good Wakefield outing. Tim, the only person on the current team left from the '95 squad that finished ahead of the Yankees in the regular season, pitched 6 innings, let up 3 hits and only surrendered 1 run, and lost. With a line up that consists of Manny Rameriz, David Ortiz, and J.D. Drew (a combined 2-11 on the day...). Robinson Tejada went seven shut out innings for the Rangers. It's kind of dispicable.

However, there is hope!

JULIAN TAVAREZ STARTS SATURDAY against Kevin Millwood. I'm predicting Tavarez goes six, lets up three runs and gets the victory.

I'm also gonna start referring to days Tavarez starts as "automatic win day." This is probably the most serious line I've ever put in this blog as well as the most serious line I ever plan to put.

Also, I'd like to point out that if the Red Sox continue with the season as they have, they'll win the next two games and take the series. Then if they keep it up, they'll go 104-58. That's 10 games better than I predicted.

life around the left field foul pole...

random quotes heard throughout thursday's 'game' in 40 degree weather, with 40 mph winds, with an incompetent left fielder, a lousy starting pitcher, and an inability to drive in runners in scoring position:

"hey guys!! what time's kickoff?" [get it? cuz it was so cold.]

"yo burrell! leave your wallet in the dugout next time so you can run faster!"

"is jogging the only speed you've got, burrell??"

"learn how to run, you lug!!!!!!!!!" [that was me. to burrell, of course.]

"E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!!!!!!!" [this is a common practice in philly. when the phillies stink, the eagles fight song can be heard multiple times during a game... like on thursday. and vice versa... when the eagles stink... people cheer for the phillies.]

"GO FLYERS!!!!" [now that's just an insult.]

and of course....

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..." [incredibly common in philly. we boo everyone from each of the opposing players being announced at the start of the game to pitchers throwing to first to ryan howard striking out... again... to santa claus to mike schmidt to donovan mcnabb when he got picked instead of ricky williams. i love this town. :) ]

i will say... i've never been to a baseball game in 40 degree weather with 40 mph winds... and SNOW before. i've never been to the 3rd game of the season before either. it was quite an adventure. the stadium sold out of hot chocolate and gloves. i had on 4 top layers, 2 jackets, and 2 blankets. plus long underwear pants and 2 pairs of socks. and i was STILL cold. we stayed through the entire game, though... hoping that maybe the phils could pull off the win... but hoping even more that the game wouldn't go into extra innings. [one game we went to had 16 innings and lasted until 1:30 am... and then concluded with fireworks!!!]

as for the game itself...

the phillies blew it. first of all... the braves had 8 runs on 9 hits. the phils had 4 runs on 12 hits... and two of those runs came in because the atlanta pitchers loaded the bases on walks and walked two players in. there's a disconnect. howard's having a TERRIBLE spring. he went 0/4... with runners on base every time he was up... i think. utley had a great game... with 3 hits including a double. burrell even hit a few.

okay... but about burrell. the man can't run to save his life. first inning... howard overthrew a ball to utley in the 2nd, allowing 2 men to stay on base. next batter hit what should have been a pop up to left field [whether or not it would have been a sac is debatable]... which burrell couldn't get to... allowing those 2 guys to score. 2-0 braves. oh man... did we let burrell have it. in my aunt's words, "he's a liability." i have no idea what on earth he's doing in the starting line up. you can't trust him in the outfield... and he can't run the bases very well. TWO TIMES he was on 2nd and should have been able to get home when someone behind him had a hit... and both times he had to stop at 3rd. it's absolutely abhorrent. he gets some good hits sometimes... but the only hits that are really safe for him are homers cuz he only has to jog around the bases. the management should at the very least have stuck a pinch runner in for him. it's just terrible. the phils have been trying to get rid of him... but no one'll take him b/c he gets paid too much and isn't worth the cost. so we're stuck with him. maybe the management thinks that they'd be wasting money if he sat on the bench. personally, i think they're wasting more money by having him play when other people can run faster and read the ball more accurately in the field. my aunt thinks that he and manuel have something going.

speaking of ole' charlie... it's time for charlie to go. larry bowa was too much of a hot-head... but manuel is too much of the opposite extreme. they need a solid coach who'll tear into them when they need it... but not throw temper tantrums... and not coddle them or treat them like little leaguers. they're pros... and they should be playing like it.

ps... the relief pitchers weren't the ones who blew the game this time. that was nice.

those boys've gotta pull it together.

OH! and get this... they picked up a relief pitcher for cash from toronto. apparently he doesn't have a great track record... but throws between 94-97 mph. charlie's hoping that if he can be consistent, that he could be a powerful force. um... hey charlie? usually not having a good track record means not very consistent.

God help us in philadelphia.

Red Sox Pregame Report

So today, Dice-K pitches. And yes, I type out Dice-K cause I can never remember how to actually spell his name. I'll wait till he wins a game before I bother with that.

Anyway, the game starts at 2:10 local time. I have class from 2:30-3:45, meaning I'll miss a good chunk of the game. I plan on watching the first ten minutes or so, which will probably be the Red Sox hitting, miss Dice-K's first few innings, then hopefully catch the last 4 or 5 innings.

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until next time around the rotation to get an indepth scouting report about him. I'll give you what I see, provided I see something. I'm hoping for at least an inning or two.

I hate how Baseball always does this in April. They have early afternoon start times for games on week days. They do it in the Divisional Round of the playoff too. It drove me nuts when I was in grammar school and high school, and now it's driving me nuts in college. How are you gonna make a good deal of the population miss Dice-K's first start? Games should start at 7:00 PM on the East Coast on all week days. Unless it's Patriots Day. Then the Red Sox should play the traditional 11:15 AM game. That way, when the game gets out you get stuck in the Boston Marathon traffic and it takes an hour or two to walk three blocks to Kenmore Station. Good times.

Since 2004

I'm sure everyone wants to caution Pirates fans not to get too excited. Fair enough, but pay attention:

This is the first time the Pirates have been three games over .500 at any point in a season since early 2004.

TWO THOUSAND FOUR.

So just let us rant and enjoy our good opening series and just smile and nod when we talk about hope.

Duke, Snell, Gorzalanny and Maholm are all 25 or younger. They're bound to have plenty of rough starts this season. But oh man, do they have some exciting talent.

Now if only The New Guy could help us out.

(I think I will refer to LaRoche as The New Guy until he hits a really important home run.)

The Pirates are off Thursday after a hard-fought sweep. I'll post again Friday night.

State of the Nation

I'd go with the red howard shirt.

The Red Sox got their first win of the season today against the lowely Kansas City Royals, 7-1. It wasn't all positive. Beckett struggled with control, walking 4 in five innings. He also twice fell behind Royals hitters 3-0 in the count and then both swung at the 3-0 pitch and popped out. It wasn't pretty, but it doesn't have to be.

Tomorrow Dice-K pitches. After tomorrow, I'll know exactly where the Red Sox stand, just based on him. Expect a full update tomorrow.

i can't stand it.

2 games. 2 overtime losses. 2 great starting pitchers. 2 nights of inadequate relief pitching and an inability to score runners on base.

i can't stand it.

if this is what the entire season is gonna be like... well... i guess it won't be too unfamiliar. but still... frustrating and heartbreaking all the same.

"Hope springs eternal, unless you're a Phillies fan. Then it lasts for about three hours." ~ Martin Frank, The Wilmington News Journal.

seriously.

i know they looked for some relief pitchers during the offseason and were willing to pay a decent bit of cash to get some quality arms. that hope faded away though... and we're stuck with suckers who don't seem to be able to realize that their starting pitchers just threw close to perfect innings. relief pitchers are supposed to maintain the opponent's current score... not add to it. but alas... in philadelphia... it just doesn't happen that way.

let's review:

"But nobody will know how much it hurts until the end of the season. The Phillies, of course, shrugged this off as just one game out of 162, and nobody ever won a pennant on April 2. At the same time, they missed the playoffs last year by just three games and the year before by just one game. Do the math and they're played 324 games over the last two seasons. Just four of them were enough to keep them out of the postseason." ~ Kevin Noonan, The Wilmington News Journal.

and again... from martin frank...

"Manager Charlie Manuel spent much of spring training preaching about the importance of a good start this season, especially after the last two seasons, when they went 10-14 in each of the past two Aprils and missed a playoff spot by a combined four games."

oh well, right? get up tomorrow and win.

especially since i'll be at the game!!!! yup... that's right. my first phillies game of the season. we'll be out by the left foul pole... and it's supposed to be pretty cold outside... but... it's a baseball game!! besides... most seats are good seats for the most part in the new stadium. it's not like the vet... where the outfield was really out there. miles away it seemed. i miss the vet. ahhh... childhood memories. ps... i watched a bit of baseball on tv today and it warmed my soul. especially when i heard harry kalas' voice [phils' announcer for the past 30-some years].

so anyway... the game tomorrow. i just can't decide... should i wear my pink chase utley shirt? or my red ryan howard shirt??!?!

What happens when you leave early

It was an interesting opening day.

First, my condolences to my fellow bloggers. Rough starts for your teams.

Second, MLB.TV sucks hardcore. Apparently, New Concord, Ohio is in the Pittsburgh market and I cannot watch Pirates games on MLB.TV from here because of local black outs. Now, don't miss this: The Pirates game was not in any way available to me on TV. Whether there's some secret TV package I can obtain to watch it I do not know. But all I have is college cable. We get Indians and Reds and Cubs games. So MLB just hates me I guess. That's okay, because they won't be getting my money any more.

Oh well. I listened to the game on MLB Audio. At the middle of the eighth, I had to leave to pick up a friend who was stranded at Olive Garden. Zach Duke had given up 2 runs in 7 innings to the improved Astros. Very impressive, Zach!!!

Anyhow, I had resigned to the loss. This is fine. The Pirates do not have the offensive talent to put up runs against aces like Roy Oswalt (especially with Sanchez on the DL). I thought they played well.

So then, I get back and find out that with 2 outs in the 9th, Xavier Nady, who missed much of Spring Training with a stomach problem, hit a tying home run! Then, in the tenth, Bay hits the go-ahead home run and Torres earns his first save with a perfect half inning! Hooray! What a great start!

The only thing that concerns me is that we hit 3 home runs and got a total of 4 runs. This is the typical Pirates way, although hopefully when Freddy is back next week, we can end that kind of nonsense.

Phillies Prediction

I realized I forgot my Phillies prediction. They're currently tied 3-3 in the ninth with the Braves, whom I also can't stand. Any team that thinks they're too good for Boston is by definition evil.

Anyway, I'm predicting the Phillies finish in 2nd place in the NL East. I'm not sure about the win total. Keep in mind, for my previous predictions to be right, the Mets, Padres and Dodgers all have to have better records than the Phillies. Hmm. I'm going with the Mets winning 95ish. I guess I'm going with Dodgers and Padres tying with somewhere between 88-90 wins and the Dodgers having the tie breaker of head to head record. I'll say Phillies win 85 games and barely miss the playoffs again.

When Jon Scholl joins, I'll give you my Reds prediction. And then when Andy joins, you'll get the Tigers prediction.

Rumor has it...

...Jon Scholl may have given in to joining this blog.

"i think barry bonds should retire. like i wrote on my other blog this afternoon... 'don't steal what you can't earn honestly.'" - Laura

I'll explain my ideas fully on here some day, but for now I'll say I don't care about steroids anymore. I blame MLB more than the players. Let McGwire in the hall of fame. Be happy that we get to see Bonds break the record. Do you really think Barry Bonds is never going to get into the hall of fame? That's laughable. If he doesn't someone will have to start a new committee because the old one has gone whack-o. Yet I bet Bud Selig will be in there. Who's more to blame? When I was eight years old, I knew players were on steroids, but Bud Selig was oblivious or helpless? Please. There have been hundreds of pro basebal players on steroids, but only one saved baseball and only one has over 700 home runs. Those players are McGwire and Bonds.

Happy opening day everyone. I'm gonna buy a month's worth of MLB.TV to watch the first month of the season here on my iBook.

no love for the phils from either of you. i think they'll surprise you!!!! and i think they'll end up winning the nl east this year.

tonight's game was difficult... as i loathe both mets and cards. but tomorrow... glorious of all glorious days... the braves come into town to play the phillies. ps... i loathe the braves even more.

i made two trades in my fantasy league, btw. i got rid of sexson and picked up adrian gonzalez... and dropped jose valverde and replaced him with hector carrasco. we'll see how that goes.

as for predictions...

al east: red sox
al central: TIGERS
al west: angels
al wild card: indians [it's a stretch... but they seem to have pulled together a decent team]
nl east: PHILLIES
nl central: cubs
nl west: padres
nl wild card: mets

as for who'll win what... i have no idea. although... the al seems to have mastered the nl... [in both baseball and football... which is unfortunate]... so my bet is that they win both the all-star game... again... and the world series.

but who knows. we might be in for an interesting year!

i think barry bonds should retire. like i wrote on my other blog this afternoon... "don't steal what you can't earn honestly."

How 'bout them Mets?

The 2007 Season is shaping out exactly as I expected. The Mets are in first in the NL East and the NL Central has yet to win a game.

Bucco Stats this year

Yesterday or so I predicted the Pirates will go 77-85. Here's why:

(These first eight players are the expected regular starters in projected batting order.)

CF Chris Duffy: Duffy is a good center fielder but I don't think he will be a consistent leadoff hitter in the near future. This is our biggest weakness as a hitting club. Eventually, we'll try someone else at the leadoff spot, without much success. 7 HR, .260 average. His speed is all that allows him to get even that high an average.

SS Jack Wilson: Jack will rebound defensively to deserve the Gold Glove (of course he won't actually get it). He will surprise some with his relative competance at the plate. 8 HR, .280.

2B Freddy Sanchez: Sanchez will start slow coming back from the DL, but will pick it up and will do OK, although of course he won't get near that .344 he got last season. He will be a great 2nd basemen (he's moving over from third because Jose Castillo is lazy). 12 HR, .310.

1B Adam LaRoche: Alright, this is the tricky one. The new guy will continue to improve on his numbers as he has every year. The ballpark is on his side. .290, 40 HR.

LF Jason Bay: Steady, dependable. .280, 38 HR.

C Ronny Paulino: I really like this young catcher. I don't know if he's any good, but I like the guy. .295, 13 HR.

RF Xavier Nady: This guy improved when he came to Pittsburgh last year. (How often does THAT happen?) We actually got the much better end of this deal when we gave the Mets Oliver Perez. .290, 16 HR.

3B Jose Bautista: Earned his job in Spring Training. He'll split a lot of time with Castillo. 15 HR, .240.

Starting pitchers (I will not predict wins, as it is pretty much all luck for a Pirates player to get a win, considering our bad run scoring):

Zach Duke: Will be solid and steady. 3.25 ERA.
Ian Snell: Breakout star. 2.75 ERA.
Paul Maholm: Will hit some rough spots. 4.75 ERA.
Tom Gorzelanny: Eeeeh. Will have some good starts, but will not be a competant major league starter. He'll be replaced at some point. 6.00 ERA.
Tony Armas: Whatever. 4.75 ERA.

Bullpen will be fine. Torres will be a good closer. I like Torres.

McCutchen will be in the Major League by the end of the year.

Once again, 77-85 is the prediction. Although I'd love to see us do better. Really, with these stats, and decent help off the bench, we could reach 81 wins for the first time since 1992. But that would mean that everyone outside of Chris Duffy and a couple pitchers would have to have at least a good season, and LaRoche would need a career season (although I'm fully expecting this anyway).

All the pitchers are gonna get roughed up once and a while. They are very young.

But we'll still finish ahead of the Cubs.