Archive for May, 2009
The Red Sox might be looking to trade Brad Penny for a desperate team that needs starting pitching. Who might that team be, you ask? Well, it’s the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies. They’ve lost Brett Myers for the season with a hip injury, and Jamie Moyer and Chan Ho Park are looking like they’re in the final months of their respective careers and are struggling to get major league hitters out. They might be willing to trade for Brad Penny, and with their situation they’ll probably give the Red Sox more than he’s worth.
The David Ortiz Experiment failed on Tuesday as the Red Sox still lost to the Minnesota Twins by a score of 5-2. David Ortiz was moved to the 6th spot in the lineup and went 1 for 3 with a double. Jon Lester did not pitch exceptionally well and gave up a 3-run homer to Justin Morneau. Rookie phenom Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless inning with a strikeout and has now given up just 1 run in 6 innings pitched.
David Ortiz is out of the lineup for the second time in a week against the Twins today. The Twins have left-hander Francisco Liriano starting, so Red Sox manager Terry Francona decided it would be best to have Ortiz sit. Ortiz is still hitting below the Mendoza line and has just one home run on the season.
The Red Sox won 8-3 tonight behind the strong pitching of Brad Penny, but was his pitching really as good as the box score indicates? Actually, no. Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury tied a major league record with 12 putouts tonight. From my decades of experience in baseball, I will tell you that a lot of balls hit out to center field usually indicates that a batter is just missing the ball. Several of the fly balls Ellsbury caught tonight were on the warning track.
I’m sure the bigger news story of the night for most Red Sox fans is going to be the end to David Ortiz’s homerless streak. Big Papi hit a nice shot out to dead center field for his first home run of the season. The fact that this wasn’t some cheap shot around the Pesky Pole tells me that Ortiz still has some power left, it’s just a matter of putting it to work.
The Red Sox have demoted Javier Lopez to make room for pitcher Daniel Bard on the major league roster. Bard is the most highly-touted prospect in the Red Sox system. He has a fastball that has been clocked at 100 mph on a regular basis and his stuff has been tearing up AAA teams since the beginning of the season. He has a 1.13 ERA playing for Pawtucket so far this year.
- October 2009 (6)
- September 2009 (6)
- July 2009 (1)
- June 2009 (7)
- May 2009 (5)
- April 2009 (14)
- March 2009 (1)
