Archive for June, 2009
A list has been released labeled “Rumored steroid list (UNCONFIRMED)”. This list was clearly an attempt to smear the Boston Red Sox and probably also other popular teams in the Northeast including the Yankees and Mets. I’m going to re-post the entire list here, but I want to remind everyone that this list is a fake. Although it includes the same total number of players that we know were on the Mitchell Report list, at least one of the confirmed names from the Mitchell Report list does not appear on this list (Jason Grimsley). Here is the list:
1.Nomar Garciaparra
2.Manny Ramirez
3.Johnny Damon
4.Trot Nixon
5.David Ortiz
6.Shea Hillenbrand
7.Derek Lowe
8.Pedro Martinez
9.Brian Roberts
10.Jay Gibbons
11.Melvin Mora
12.Jerry Hairston
13.Jason Giambi
14.Alfonso Soriano
15.Raul Mondesi
16. Aaron Boone
17.Andy Pettitte
18.Jose Contreras
19.Roger Clemens
20.Carlos Delgado
21.Vernon Wells
22.Frank Catalanotto
23.Kenny Rogers
24.Magglio Ordonez
25.Sandy Alomar
26.Bartolo Colon
27.Brent Abernathy
28.Jose Lima
29.Milton Bradley
30.Casey Blake
31.Danys Baez
32.Craig Monroe
33.Dmitri Young
34.Alex Sanchez
35.Eric Chavez
36.Miguel Tejada
37.Eric Byrnes
38.Jose Guillen
39.Keith Foulke
40.Ricardo Rincon
41.Bret Boone
42.Mike Cameron
43.Randy Winn
44.Ryan Franklin
45.Freddy Garcia
46.Rafael Soriano
47.Scott Spiezio
48.Troy Glaus
49.Francisco Rodriguez
50.Ben Weber
51.Alex Rodriguez
52.Juan Gonzalez
53.Rafael Palmeiro
54.Carl Everett
55.Javy Lopez
56.Gary Sheffield
57.Mike Hampton
58.Ivan Rodriguez
59.Derrek Lee
60.Bobby Abreu
61.Terry Adams
62.Fernando Tatis
63.Livan Hernandez
64.Hector Almonte
65.Tony Armas
66.Dan Smith
67.Roberto Alomar
68.Cliff Floyd
69.Roger Cedeno
70.Jeromy Burnitz
71.Moises Alou
72.Sammy Sosa
73.Corey Patterson
74.Carlos Zambrano
75.Mark Prior
76.Kerry Wood
77.Matt Clement
78.Antonio Alfonseca
79.Juan Cruz
80.Aramis Ramirez
81.Craig Wilson
82.Kris Benson
83.Richie Sexson
84.Geoff Jenkins
85.Valerio de los Santos
86.Benito Santiago
87.Rich Aurilia
88.Barry Bonds
89.Andres Galarraga
90.Jason Schmidt
91.Felix Rodriguez
92.Jason Christiansen
93.Matt Herges
94.Paul Lo Duca
95.Shawn Green
96.Oliver Perez
97.Adrian Beltre
98.Eric Gagne
99.Guillermo Mota
100.Luis Gonzalez
101.Todd Helton
102.Ryan Klesko
103.Gary Matthews
John Smoltz has been one of the most versatile pitchers of his generation. He’s a starter, he’s a reliever, and he always gets back up when he’s knocked down. His latest comeback will be with the Red Sox, the first time in his 20 year career that he won’t be wearing an Atlanta Braves uniform.
Smoltz has lost a lot of the stuff that he once had, but he’s still among the craftiest pitchers in baseball — a term usually designated just for lefties with little velocity. He might not have the same athleticism as the hitters he’s facing, but he’s smarter. If a hitter is looking for a change-up, they’re probably getting the fastball. If they’re looking for a fastball, they’re probably getting a slider. By staying one step ahead of hitters throughout his career, Smoltz has put together stats that will some day land him a spot in that Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Boston has two great arms waiting down in Triple A Pawtucket. One is Michael Bowden, who has said it’s worth the extra stay in the minors if it means he gets to pitch for the Red Sox, the other is Clay Buchholz, who said he would like to be a starter for the Red Sox but also added that “I want to be in the big leagues”, seemingly indicating that he’d rather be traded than stew in the minors. Although Buchholz has that valuable big league experience that Bowden lacks, they are both major league quality pitchers who are bound to have successful careers. The Red Sox would like to do something with these arms right now, but there’s a bit of a traffic jam in their starting rotation, and it won’t get any better when John Smoltz comes back. The obvious solution is to move Daisuke Matsuzaka to the bullpen, but they’d rather not admit the Dice-K mega-deal was a bust, even though they got a few good seasons and 1 World Series championship out of him.
John Smoltz is scheduled to return to the Red Sox rotation later this month, which likely means somebody has to get moved out. Going into the season it looked like Brad Penny would be the obvious choice, but he’s been showing a lot of promise in his last couple of starts. Now it looks like Daisuke Matsuzaka and his 7.00+ ERA will likely get moved to the bullpen when Smoltz returns. That is, unless the Red Sox can figure out some physical injury that’s to blame for Dice-K’s performance, in which case he’ll go to the DL until he’s ready to pitch in the majors again. I’m sure Red Sox officials are still fuming over Dice-K’s disappearance during the offseason and then his marathon performance in the World Baseball Classic, which his home country of Japan won by putting more inning’s on Dice-K’s shoulders than the Red Sox put on him in the first month of the season. Dice-K’s arm probably thinks it’s early November right now with all the innings he’s pitched since mid-February.
Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz said in an interview the other day that he’s frustrated with the way he’s being treated by the Red Sox. He feels that the organization seems to be going around him when they attempt to fix problems with their pitching. Terry Francona shrugged off the comments and said they were just throwaway lines from an otherwise “really mature interview”. Looks like Boston has some trade bait to add in with Brad Penny. Any takers?
David Ortiz went 0 for 4 on Sunday in the Red Sox 6-3 loss to the Rangers, dropping his average back down below the Mendoza line. He also was caught stealing for the second time this season, something you probably wouldn’t expect to see in your morning paper box score. Daisuke Matsuzaka gave up 10 hits and 5 earned runs in less than 6 innings pitched and is clearly not fooling anyone. I think we need to send him to the DL again and give him some time to rest his arm and maybe figure out why things aren’t working right now. Jonathan Papelbon got some work in and pitched a scoreless 9th inning in the non-save opportunity.
On a side note, Omar Vizquel went 2 for 4 yesterday for the Rangers. I didn’t even realize he was still an active player until this series, but apparently he’s hitting nearly .350 in limited work this season.
Jon Lester struck out a career high 12 batters and only gave up 3 hits (all weak “dribblers”) as the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays on Sunday. David Ortiz batted 6th in the lineup, giving more at bats to some Boston hitters who have actually showed up this season. Kevin Youkilis is one of them, as he had 2 home runs in the game.
With the Yankees loss yesterday, the Red Sox are now in prime position to take back the AL East lead early this week.
- October 2009 (6)
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- March 2009 (1)
