Red Sox Reality Check

The old saw about 'momentum lasting only as long as the next day's starting pitcher' proved true, as the Sox stuffed the Birds from Baltimore 5-1, to even their four game series at one apiece. Wade Miller pitched seven strong innings to capture his second win of the season and he lowered his ERA to 4.85. Mike Timlin and Mike Myers came in to close out the final 6 O's. Edgar Renteria, David Ortiz, and Mark Bellhorn each had two hits, and John Olerud, replacing Johnny Damon in the lineup offensively (multiple switches defensively) delivered a key double to left-center. Damon ran into the bullpen projection in right center chasing an extra-base hit and the extent of his injury is not known, although he had four stitches above the right eye. The Sox chased hard throwing righthander Daniel Cabrera with four runs in the fifth although Cabrera lasted into the sixth. Sox fans were treated to an inning of premier closer B.J. Ryan in a non-save situation. Ryan has a 1.33 ERA with...

Tonight Jon Papelbon allowed one run, one hit, and one walk at AA for Portland as they visited New Hampshire. Portland and NH are tied 1-1 in the 12th. Papelbon (3-2) lowered his ERA to 2.10, with 32 hits, 15 walks and 48 strikeouts in 55 2/3 innings. The best correlation with ERA at the major league level is strikeout to walk ratio, higher than previous ERA. At least so far, the Sox have had the luxury of not rushing minor leaguers before they were ready, and Portland has several starters who have been pitching well including Papelbon, LHP Jon Lester (2-1, 3.44), and David Pauley (2-1, 3.08). Also noteworthy is Brandon Moss' recent offensive surge, entering tonight at .255/.333/.404, and delivering a homer tonight. Moss has been on an 8 for 18 tear, with 5 runs scored, two homers, and 6 RBI in the past 5 games as he adjusts to AA pitching. Keep up with the Sox' minor league clubs at their web sites or at www.minorleaguebaseball.com

If you're here, you love sports. Here's an incredible story and an incredible play that is one of THE most electrifying sports plays I have ever seen. See the play, then read the story. The play: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sportpub/goldstein_goal.mov The story: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2069239

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/general-manager-rankings/ David Gassko uses a multidimension tool to rank GMs in MLB, including maximizing home field advantage, payroll efficiency, and midseason acquisitions. Master Theo grades out high in the Piolian School of Team Management.

My mother used to have an expression, "let's you and him fight," the implication that there's nothing better than seeing a little set-to, as a bystander, of course. Today at www.bostondirtdogs.com I have a column that brings out that spirit in people. There's nothing wrong with actually showing some respect to someone who's filling an entertainment niche, with as he might put it, 'funny pictures and two-bit headlines'. Does that deserve any credit in this town? Everybody has to judge for themselves. Boston has the reputation for being a great sports town. No doubt that sports radio and a lot of talented print journalists (Chris Snow being the latest terrific addition) advance that agenda. Everyone doesn't have to agree about everything; the truth has a way of playing itself out over the long pull. I'm an avid sports talk show listener, but I take everything in perspective; ergo the joke about doctors, just people doing a tough job, not visitor...

Living on the road my friend Was gonna keep you free and clean Now you wear your skin like iron And your breath's as hard as kerosene. You weren't your mama's only boy But her favorite one it seems She began to cry when you said goodbye And sank into your dreams. Poncho was a bandit, boys His horse was fast as polished steel He wore his gun outside his pants For all the honest world to feel. Poncho met his match you know On the deserts down in Mexico And nobody heard his dyin' words Ah, but that's how the story goes. All the Federals say Could've had him any day Only let him slip away Out of kindness I suppose. Lefty he can't sing the blues All night long like he used to The dust that Poncho bit down south Ended up in Lefty's mouth. -- Poncho and Lefty by Emmylou Harris Statistical analysis and commentary from Conor Sen One interesting statistic at the 50-game mark is the struggles of playoff contenders vs left-handed pitching. In 2004, here were the rec...

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago? Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls have picked them everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing? Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago? Where have all the young girls gone? Gone for husbands everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing? Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago? Where have all the husbands gone? Gone for soldiers everyone Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing? Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago? Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, everyone. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing? Where have all the grav...

The psychology of being a fan affects our perception of 'our team' and 'our players'. We all have biases, and 'ownership bias' alters our valuation of players. All players have strengths and weaknesses, and intangibles including toughness and leadership. One enigmatic player who has overachieved but continues to struggle with injuries is Christopher Trotman (Trot) Nixon. Nixon had a dual pedigree in football and baseball and came up slowly through the system, delayed by a fractured transverse process (a small bone off a vertebral body). He had a breakout season in 2003 and was beset by injury limiting his playing time in 2004, and continues to work around an unspecified knee injury. A look at his three-year statistics (2002-2005) on www.sports.espn.go.com reveals a lot. For the period he is hitting .366/.518/.884 with a .946 OPS against RHP and only .641 in 227 at bats against LHP. His home/road OPS splits are even .888/.881. He is a devastating hitter ahead in...

The Red Sox, a.k.a. Road Warriors completed yet another road trip cuffing the Yankees 7-2 in the rubber game of the series in the Bronx. The victory brought the Sox back to second place, three games behind the Orioles and half a game ahead of the Bronx Bombers. On the surface, David Wells played the underdog to Mike Mussina's favorite, and the Sox got off to a fast start with a David Ortiz upper deck two-run shot in the first. The Yankees battled back early, with rockets by Derek Jeter and Gary Sheffield tying the score in the first. However the Sox continued to pound away, with Edgar Renteria (four hits) slamming his fourth homer of the season, followed by Ortiz's second, a monster shot into the centerfield bleachers. Meanwhile, Wells regained control of the strike zone (no longer wild IN the zone) and mixed up a variety of speeds on his curveball to battle the Yankees. Wells lasted into the ninth allowing just the two runs in the first before yielding to Keith Foulke with one...

If there's one ingredient the Red Sox have lacked in the modern (post 1966) winning era, lefthanded pitching stands out. Yes, Bill Lee did win seventeen games three years running with his constant Perils of Pauline pitching and Leephus, but the Sox haven't had lefthanded dominance. From the right side, they've had Luis Tiant, Dennis Eckersley, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, and a season of Curt Schilling. While the great Martinez won 20 games twice for the Sox, Tiant won twenty three times, with equal style if less dominance. All of which brings me back to left-handed pitching and one of Boston's epic pitchers, Warren Spahn. Roger Kahn profiles Spahn and others in his baseball masterpiece The Head Game. Spahn isn't a baseball memory for me, but his accomplishments stagger the imagination. His creative pitching intelligence produced 363 victories and THIRTEEN twenty game winning seasons. He and Johnny Sain led the 1948 Boston Braves to the pennant pitching almost hal...

Nothing, but nothing, encapsulates the mercurial reality of Red Sox Nation better than less than 24 hours in the Bronx. Last night it was deja vu all over again with baserunning blunders turning 5 hits in an inning into one run. After a Varitek rocket off Randy Johnson and a potential rally snuffed out by two runners thrown out at the plate (forget about Jerry Remy's absolution of Dale Sveum), the Yankees answered back with Dr. Longball off Tim Wakefield and Alan Embree to win 6-3. Robinson (Crusoe) Cano took Wake into the bleachers in right, and then Sheffield launched an Embree toss into the stratosphere for a three-run blast. The Space Shuttle received an 'incoming' alert on the 'juice guy's' shot. After last night's follies, Red Sox fans everywhere sought shelter in cheap beer and straight jackets, in preparation for today's action. Predictably unpredictable, the Sox came out swinging, bashing out 27 hits, including at least two for everyone in the s...

I have no idea what percentage of readers have ever experienced random drug testing, particularly in its more humiliating forms. Having served for ten years in the Navy, I can speak from experience, having been subjected to at least 15 (passed without studying...)... Who speaks from a legal standard for the testing? Also, testing mistakes do occur (false positives), aside from clerical errors, or administrative errors (samples mixed up). The system isn't foolproof, although generally of high quality. Congress has taken it upon themselves to demand testing. Were I Donald Fehr (a scary thought) I wouldn't be able to say what he must really think, "Our union supports drug-free professional sports and remains committed to the highest standards of quality and ethics in society. Nothing is more important than the preservation of liberty and clarity of thought among our elected officials. We agree to a two-year ban for a positive test, and lifetime ban for two positives...providi...

"If a cow can't eat it, then you shouldn't play baseball on it." The Sox have owned the Blue Jays the past few years, but the Jays are taking it to the locals again, courtesy of Wade Miller's first blow up and yet another episode of 'Power Outage'. The Big Dogs just haven't gotten off the porch. Tuesday's disheartening walkoff loss, led to yesterday's dope-slapping as Bronson Arroyo couldn't recover his pre-suspension form, and today's outing hasn't gotten any better. As mentioned a few days ago, my son put forth a strong argument why the Wild Card will go to the Central Division this season, as the AL East teams kill each other off, with much improved Baltimore and Toronto making 95 wins for a second place team very unlikely. The Sox had better get in gear pretty quickly, facing the Yankees and Orioles, or they could be running uphill for quite awhile. Farming for dollars. Portland is getting rained out for the third night in a row...

Yes, I will whine about tonight's disheartening loss, another painful exercise in mediocre but not average pitching. David Wells had the 'one bad inning' exercise going, but the bullpen again earns the slings and arrows of the Nation. Reid Johnson smashed two homers off Sox relievers, Mike Timlin in the seventh and a walkoff three-run shot off Alan Embree in the ninth to give Toronto the victory. I've been beating the dead horse about the bullpen for weeks, and also recognize that Terry Francona can only throw what's out there. Timlin has been outstanding overall and Embree inconsistent, but if the Sox are going to challenge, they need a more dominant and consistent relief corps. My son's statistical analysis shows the White Sox to have a major leg up on grabbing one slot and obviously the AL West runnerup grabs the second. Minnesota, absent the in-division competition existing in the AL East has the advantage for the Wild Card. That means the Red Sox will have ...

Well, I didn't get to see the game today, although I was in Kenmore Square, more precisely up the street at graduation at Boston University. There was a Red Sox connection, however, as BU bestowed an honorary Doctor of Letters degree upon Red Sox principal owner John Henry. Meanwhile, Matt Clement (5-0, 3.34) dispatched the Atlanta Braves with a complete game 4 hitter, the best of quality starts, and Manny Ramirez pounded out three hits and a homer to raise his average to .242 on a blustery Boston day. The Sox top three pitchers (Clement, Wakefield, and Arroyo) are tied with a number of others for number 6 in quality starts at six. Believe it or not, Kenny Rogers leads the AL with 8. I've noted before that the statistic that tends to correlate best with ERA is K/BB ratio. This inherently makes sense, as strikeouts and few walks both limit baserunners and strikeout pitchers can often keep runners in scoring position out. The Twins with Brad Radke, Johan Santana, and Carlos Silva...

From the redoubtable Conor Sen and his magical computer: "If history is any indication, the White Sox have already locked up aplayoff spot. Here are the 11 teams that have won at least 31 of theirfirst 43 games in the 162-game era: 1970 Reds (won 102 games) 1974 Dodgers (won 102 games) 1976 Phillies (won 101 games) 1977 Dodgers (won 98 games) 1984 Tigers (won 104 games) 1986 Mets (won 108 games) 1988 Mets (won 100 games) 1990 Reds (won 91 games) 1998 Braves (won 106 games) 1998 Yankees (won 114 games) 2001 Mariners (won 116 games) Four of the eleven won the World Series, seven of the eleven made theWorld Series, and ALL made their respective League Championship Series.It's pretty incredible that Minnesota, Baltimore, Boston, and New Yorkcould be playing for two playoff spots, but that appears to be the case. With Toronto poised for an 80-90 win season, creating a four-headedmonster in the AL East, Minnesota is in the driver's seat to grab the wildcard. If Baltimore's...

Losing exerts regular pain, but losing on a damp, cold, rainy night inflicts a special pain. Dan Shaughnessy's article suggesting we lose the Sox-Braves 'natural rivalry' struck a chord long before this game. It started off with enough promise, Trot Nixon making a couple of terrific plays, one faintly reminiscent of the 1975 Dwight Evans Game 6 game saving grab off Joe Morgan (okay, so the drama is about 3 percent of that). However, the Sox made the Braves rookie pitcher look like the second coming of Catfish Hunter. Worse still, the infield defense reminds us that the remake of the Bad News Bears soon will be upon us. Occasional panoramic stadium views reveal the extent of the addiction known as Red Sox Nation. On an evening fit mostly for otters and waterfowl, the faithful mostly remain entrenched in their seats. The Sox started their traditional tease here in the seventh pushing across a couple of runs, only to have a Furcal 6-3 doubleplay erase the threat. The tone of t...

I wrote this piece over at www.uwritesports.com on July 25th, 2004, just 6 days before the Nomar trade. I was dead wrong discounting the solution but Master Theo and the Stat Pilots saw the problem and enacted the solution. Keywords: Boston Red Sox, baseball, baseball statistics, infield defense Anyone Can Criticize. True. Analyzing problems pales in comparison with developing solutions. Assisting Robo-organization in breaking down stats and facts can’t come easily. But that doesn’t mean we won’t try. The big picture shows the Sox having the third most wins in the American League, but under the hood we see Boston with the second greatest disparity in home versus road victories, second only to the A’s. The Sox have virtually identical runs scored versus runs allowed record versus the Yankees, yet trail by 8 ½ games at about the 5/8ths pole. The Sox are 7-10 in one run games compared to the Yankees 17-10, and rank among Detroit, Montreal, Kansas City, and Arizona in close game futility....

Wade Miller made his third start for the Sox against 'natural rival' Atlanta, and the Sox held on to be the Braves 4-3. Miller proved a bit more parsimonious with his pitches, delivering 106 and a quality start with one run allowed in 6 1/3 innings. Mike Timlin pitched 1 2/3 innings of solid relief, and Keith Foulke held on by the skin of his teeth to get the save, allowing two runs in the ninth. Johnny Damon led off the game with a booming triple to the triangle, scoring on an Edgar Renteria groundout. Renteria later left the bases full twice. Jason Varitek hammered his 9th homer just left and above Conig's Corner, and Bill Mueller had his inaugural homer of the campaign off the Pesky Pole to give the Sox a 4-0 lead off Tim Hudson. The Sox squandered numerous opportunities with the left on base struggle, but kicked off the brief homestand with a victory. Focusing on the positive, Varitek continues to hit, Mueller appears to be swinging the bat better with a homer and a do...

I don't have anything against David Wells, but if his incentives trigger with 11-20 and 21-30 starts, they aren't getting done in Portland or Pawtucket. Every time he gets out to the hill, he's that much closer to another (ka-ching) pardon-the-expression 'fat payday'. This isn't discovering the wheel, it's reality. AND we are in the business of reality, right?

After forty games the Sox are on pace to win 93 games, it just doesn't feel that way. Perhaps after 85 years in the desert, receiving a drink makes you thirstier. David Wells returned to face 'Goliath' as the A's hammered him for 9 hits and 7 runs in an inning and two-thirds. There were no tickets available at the Oakland bat rack. We used to call that 'ouch my E.R.A." and Wells ballooned to 6.75 as Oakland pounded out thirteen runs and nineteen hits against Wells, Jeremi 'Going, Going' Gonzales, and 'Long' John Halama. The Sox got Eric-slapped by Eric Byrnes (four hits) and Eric Chavez four RBI as they lost their second consecutive series. The Sox answered too little too late with a four-run eighth, after Jason Varitek (8) and Mark Bellhorn (2) had homered earlier. Minor Details. At Portland, the Sea Dogs moved to 22-13 with a 1-0 shutout against Erie. Chris Smith led the talent-laden Dogs with seven innings of scoreless ball to lower his ERA i...

Prior to 1967 (most of those reading probably have no recollection of those dark days), the Red Sox held far less fascination for both fans and media. Mostly they were amusing losers, held back in part by racism (Willie Mays wasn't good enough to play for Boston?), and by mediocre pitching. After the miracle 9th place to pennant turnaround in the Impossible Dream season, the Sox have generally been competitive, although not always on any championship cusp. Although the Sox don't have the All-Star power of let's say the Yankees, they have a number of All-Star players, and even the reserves have more talent than that on a lot of Sox teams. Which brings me to my point...what is the worst lineup that one could field with some former Red Sox luminaries (career stats only, please). I can't guarantee the All-Futility team, but I'll give it a try, and no cheating. Average, on base percentage, slugging percentage. C - Marc Sullivan .186/.236/.258 (it's who you know that ...

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." - Mark Twain Let's not get too highbrow here, after all, this is just a hangout for diehard Red Sox baseball fans, literally from all over the world (believe it or not)... Last night on the Left Coast gave us another episode reminiscent of Last House on the Left in vintage horror story genre. To set the stage, the Sox have loaded the bases with no out, with Bellhorn, Damon, and Renteria coming up against the right-handed twenty-first century version of Mike Cuellar, Kirk Saarloos. Saarloos is tossing up rotten grapefruit, and you know how tough it is to hit rotten grapefruit. Anyway two strikeouts and a harmless pop out later, the game isn't 5-0 or a reasonable facsimile, it's the A's on the comeback trail. Meanwhile, last season we watched mediocre defense nearly sink the ship before Jedi Master Theo righted the defense with the acquisitions of the O.C. and dear departed horsehider Dougie Defense. Last night...

Rainy days and Mondays get me down. The roof came on, the Sox came off the track, beaten among other things by Miguel Olivo with three hits, a home run, and an infield single scoring a run from second, as the Sox lost at Seattle 5-4. From an 0-27 streak to 'man of the match', so it goes for Olivo. Tim Wakefield took the loss, not pitching so effectively as courageously. In the 'Manny doesn't care' department, he ripped the cover off the ball, including a three-run dinger (his 4ooth) and narrowly missed tying the game with a shot to right center that the redoubtable Ichiro tracked down. Ichiro (as noted by Jerry Remy) is worth watching every day, and one has to wonder whether he will someday be enshrined at Cooperstown. The infield, after showing some signs of life, went 1 for 15 and continues to drag the offense down. Editorial comment. It has become fashionable to criticize the critics (of anyone and anything) as lacking credibility because they 'never played t...

Keywords: Red Sox, Orioles, White Sox, Yankees, statistics My son, Conor, is exceptionally gifted with respect to mathematics and has degrees in both computer science and economics. He also loves baseball and growing up in Maryland, he is naturally an Orioles fan first, a Yankee hater second, and he tolerates the Red Sox (previously not much of a threat). Here is an email he sent to me today... I made my first foray into the world of baseball statistical extremism. Not content to read the articles where people write about how April records translate into full-year records, I wrote a perl script that grabbed the day by day standings for all teams in the 162-game era from www.baseball-reference.com . I then allowed it to input partial season records and had it spit back the year-end records of those teams sorted into buckets. Here are the Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees, and White Sox through Saturday's games (note that only records where teams ended upplaying at least 160 games are count...

(originally published at www.uwritesports.com ) by Ron Sen, May 2003 (author's note, Mom passed on in January 2004) May brings us Mother’s Day, which means thinking about Mom. Moms are special, as the sideline reporters catch the ‘Hi, Mom’ and nouveau riche athletes buy mom the dream house she never had. Even if Dad were teaching the fundamentals, everybody knows Mom was the law. From the time a boy or girl is old enough to crawl, Mom is usually the one who rolls them the first ball. With time and practice, the little one starts to enjoy their first game with the rolling ball, the precursor to chasing some other ball on the diamond, the court, or the field. Mom probably signs them up for T-Ball and Little League, and does more than her share of driving to and from practice. Moms even earn the special moniker of ‘Soccer Moms’, a ‘focus group’ for political parties, a constituency of van-driving, referee-baiting power. Mom always tried to make a game of everything, Spelling Bee or Ma...

Wade Miller got his second start for the Red Sox and paid the price for a prolific pitch count, weakening in the sixth inning to allow consecutive 'taters' to Richie Sexson and Raul Ibanez to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead. Earlier, Manny Ramirez had cranked career homer 399 to tie the game at 1. In the top of the seventh, after J.J. Putz, doing his best Goose Gossage imitation had fanned Manny with high gas, Trot Nixon launched an 0-1 97 mph fastball into the rightcenterfield bleachers for his eighth career grand slam. At the time of publication/exhaustion, the Sox lead the Ms 6-3 headed to the bottom of the eighth. Meanwhile, the 'hated Yankees' won their seventh game in a row, hammering the A's 15-6, moving to within a game of the Tony Mazzarotti Fortune .500 line (they make a fortune a play .500). The Orioles remain on top in the AL East at 23-13, beating the White Sox 9-6. B.J. Ryan got his tenth save and has 32 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings since taking over the ...

The Red Sox weren't able to pull out the victory last night, failing to execute the two-minute drill properly, winding up losers by a touchdown to the Seahawks, er, Mariners at Safeco Field. Jeremi Gonzalez mediocre effort led to more bullpen carnage under the direction of John Halama and Cla Meredith. On the bright side, Keith Foulke kept the humiliation to a minimum. Johnny Damon had two hits to keep his streak alive. Asked to comment about the game, Yogi Berra would have offered up, Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets. Statistical ramblings. Despite the 'sense' that the Sox aren't knocking the cover off the ball, they are tied with the Yankees for first in the AL in runs, second, in OPS (.813), first in combined doubles and triples (which correlates best with runs scored), first in OBP and second in Slugging, behind the Orioles. They are third in wins, 9th in WHIP, 6th in K/BB ratio, 8th in ERA and 12 in opponents ...

Pitcher ----- IP -- ER -- W -- L Martinez - 56 -- 21 -- 4 -- 1 Lowe ------ 52 -- 17 -- 2 -- 4 Total ------ 108 -- 38 -- 6 -- 5 -- ERA 3.17 Salaries $17,875,000 Clement --- 50 -- 17 -- 4 -- 0 Wells ------ 29 --- 16 -- 2 -- 3 Total ------ 79 ---- 33 -- 6 -- 3 --- ERA 3.76 Salaries $10,575,000

Going, going Gonzalez working tonight, as Sexson and Ibanez go back-to-back jacks. Of course, both Tom Petty and the Sox 'won't back down' as Mark Bellhorn (1) and Trot Nixon (5) go yard for the locals. Nixon has two hits and is up to .311 and Johnny Damon keeps his hitting streak alive at 18. The Sox have cranked out six runs and eight hits in five innings, but Gonzalez is getting beaten like a rented mule, as Francona finds the map to the mound. Adrian Beltre greets Halama with a gravity-defying blast to left. Halama can only admire his portion of the engineering feat. Well, it's late and like Foulke, I'm having trouble finishing. Like Snow? Melrose's Chris Snow updates us on life on the farm in today's Boston Globe , and the progress happening at both Pawtucket and Portland. The Sea Dogs managed only three hits tonight, including a homer by Jared Sandberg, losing 3-2 to Bowie. Meanwhile, the Mud Hens didn't lay an egg, thrashing the PawSox 13-4. Chip ...

We talk a lot about Manny being Manny, but today's victory expressed vintage Red Sox from the grapes of baseball. The Red Sox sent Matt Clement to the mound against the remaining A's ace from the big three, Barry Zito. Fortunately, for the Sox, Zito wasn't particularly on his game (like all working stiffs, I didn't actually see the game)...and Clement was, allowing only one run in seven innings. Keith Foulke came on in the ninth for a 'garbage time' save with a 4-1 lead, that was promptly squandered, keyed by a two-run shot by Sox nemesis Eric Byrnes, as the A's assumed a 5-4 lead. Octavio Dotel, no slouch despite last night's effort came on for the A's to try to save it (at least until Houston Street is named the New closer)...Dotel came into the season with 709 strikeouts in 585 major league innings, including 122 in 85 innings last season. David Ortiz greeted O.D. with a walk, and Millar got under some heat with a fly to left. Jason Varitek then a...

The Sox entered the second quintile of the regular season, throwing ace Bronson Arroyo against the A's and won with a spectacular finish, a walk-off homerun by Kevin Millar. Arroyo, undefeated since last August, had trouble finding the plate early, and made a questionable fielding play in the seventh allowing Bobby Kielty who had led off with a double to score on a chopper back to the mound. Arroyo couldn't hold the runner before throwing to Millar, who inadvertently also missed first base. Arroyo surrendered one earned run in 6 2/3 innings, lowering his ERA to 2.91 before yielding to Alan Embree and Matt Mantei. Hard-throwing righthander Octavio Dotel came in for the A's in the ninth, leading off by fanning Manny Ramirez with inside heat. David Ortiz then walked on a 3-2 pitch. Millar, a 'dead red' hitter, sat on an inside fastball and drilled a rising line drive into the Monster seats, clearing the wall by several feet. Notes . Johnny Damon (.387) had three hits t...

Very little to write about last night's game, which lacked a certain, how do you say, drama. Danny Haren was terrible, and Tim Wakefield muddled through with the 5% solution (6 IP, 3 runs, the 5% quality start) to get his fourth win at the 20% mark of the season. Kevin Millar hit his first, and the infield's third homer of the season, and Trot Nixon also went deep. Manny Ramirez took a slider off the coconut and had to leave the game. Cla Meredith got his second action and again had trouble finding the strike zone, although I thought he got squeezed by the home plate umpire. If Ques-tec is giving out grades lately, there must be some pretty low passes.

I've been following the Red Sox for about 43 years, so I can't say Ted Williams was my favorite player or nobody turned the double play like Bobby Doerr. So, I'll have to settle for players whom I found had a special achievement over the years. They might be great players, or just fascinating for some reason or another. Catcher - Jim Pagliaroni; I may be hallucinating this, but somethow I think I recall listening to a game in which Pagliaroni, anything but fleet-footed, hit for the cycle. First base - Dick Stuart, Doctor Strangeglove. Stuart hit 42 homers in 1963 and had 29 errors at first base. He was meant to be a DH. He led the AL in extra base hits in 1963, so he had to be a pretty good hitter. Second base - Dalton Jones; Jones was one of those lefties with the sweet swing that you knew was going to be a great hitter. Only it never turned out that way, as he never had 100 hits in a season. Making matters worse was that he didn't have great range or a great glove. St...

As a colleague reminded me about business the other day, "some days you're gonna be the windshield and some days you're gonna be the bug." The Sox entered Game 2 with free agent acquisition Wade Miller making his first start, a solid one with five innings pitched, two runs allowed, and six strikeouts. John Halama followed, and when he ran into some trouble in the seventh, Terry Francona opted to call for the rookie, Cla Meredith . There are a couple of philosophies at work, first, throw the kid into the fire, and second, let him break in without maximum pressure. The 21 year-old sidearmer had trouble finding the zone with two walks, and then Richie Sexson took him into the right field grandstand to give Seattle a four-run lead. The Sox rallied back with two in the eighth, spurred on by David Ortiz's third RBI of the game, sending reliever Ron Villone to the showers, or maybe to a psychiatric facility after he contested the call on Ortiz's chalk scraper to ...

All of us have our favorite players, guys we 'grew up with' or whose performance somehow seemed larger than life. One of the problems with the qualitative approach is that it may not be valid. In Michael Lewis' Moneyball , Billy Beane asks rhetorically, 'if the guy is such a good hitter, then why doesn't he hit better?" Which brings us to our 'quick look' at a couple of former Red Sox players, whom I'll identify as player A and player B. Games R HR RBI OPS HOF Standards HOF Monitor ------------------------- Ave HOF 50 ----- Ave HOF 100 A--1987--1123--314--1092--855 ----- 35 --- 63 B--1969--1063--306--1111--844 ----- 33 --- 83 Player A was Reggie Smith, who played eight seasons with the Sox before having a very successful NL career with the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Giants. Smith had as good an arm as I can remember. I saw him throw ...

At home, drawing pictures of mountain tops With him on top lemin yellow sun, arms raised in a v And the dead lay in pools of maroon below Daddy didn’t give attention Oh, to the fact that mommy didn’t care King jeremy the wicked...oh, ruled his world... -- Jeremy, Pearl Jam Seattle fell victim to King Jeremi, who celebrated the 157th consecutive Fenway sellout with his first Red Sox victory. Gonzalez showed a live fastball and fewer mistakes, going 5 2/3 innings and allowing two runs to garner the victory. The Sox trotted out a parade of relievers including Mike Myers, Matt Mantei, Mike Timlin, and Keith Foulke (save) to capture the series, headed into Game 2 at 5:00. Here are the details on Olise (Cla) Meredith and the confirmation that Blaine Neal was designated for assignment. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/08/sports/s094339D29.DTL ; http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle% The latest on the Anibal Sanchez watch http://sports.ma...

The Sox got off to a fast start against the Mariners on a very raw and windy May Sunday. The Sox and M's square off in a day-night doubleheader. Jeremi Gonzalez is working game one. Kevin Millar (he of the homerless drought) smacked a double off the Monster against gale force winds to clear the bases and give the Sox an early 3-1 league against Joel Piniero. The Sox and Sea Dogs both were rained out yesterday, and the Celtics were in the deep freeze while eliminated by the Pacers. Cla Meredith (called up to Pawtucket only Friday) was summoned to Boston today; I didn't hear who was sent down (or released) but I have to presume it was Blaine Neal who has shown good stuff and poor command. Wade Miller goes in Game 2, and I presume that means Lenny Dinardo is not long for the roster. Statheads delight. Click-through to http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/teams/aleast/ to get a great overview of AL East trends and the numbers behind them. We have to remember that this is the 'a...

Over at www.baseball-reference.com you can find a lot of fun facts. For example, among retired players, the highest ranking hitters in MVP 'shares' who are not in the Hall of Fame are: 1) Pete Rose (at number 17) 3.68 shares 2) Dave Parker (tie 25) 3.19 shares 3) Jim Rice (tie 28) 3.15 shares This squares somewhat with Bill James' argument that Parker is the best right fielder not in the Hall-of-Fame. The MVP Shares top 10 all-time : Barry Bonds (7 time MVP) Stan Musial Ted Williams (2 time MVP and left off the ballot vindictively once) Willie Mays Mickey Mantle Hank Aaron Lou Gehrig Joe DiMaggio Mike Schmidt Frank Robinson The highest non-Barry Bonds active player? Frank Thomas at number 11. Babe Ruth ? Evidently they didn't have the MVP at that time. Roger Clemens is number one among pitchers, active or not.

Over at The Hardball Times, Studes presents a fascinating review of Schell's Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters . I am an enormous fan statistically of the use of standard deviations for comparisons, in conjunction with the concept of 'mean reversion'. The bad news for 'mean reversion' fans is that exceeding expected performance is often followed by 'normal performance'. Mark Belanger, who earned eight Gold Gloves at shortstop, hit .287 in 1969. A career .228 hitter, he hit .218 the following year. He played in four World Series and six ALCS , which reinforces (for me anyway) the importance of shortstop as primarily a DEFENSIVE position. I think that watching Orlando Cabrera for three months also vividly demonstrated the same point, with due respect to Nomar. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ten-things-i-learned-from-a-book/

"Baseball is like church, many attend, but few understand." - Wes Westrum Keywords: Boston Red Sox, baseball statistics, statheads, OPS, Boston Dirt Dogs The Sox, who have played the fewest games of any team at home, won their fourth in a row behind Matt Clement (4-0), downing Seattle and old friend Jamie Moyer. Clement worked seven strong innings allowing jut one run, with yet another quality start. " Good pitching always stops good hitting, and vice versa." - Yogi Berra The Sox pounded out ten hits en route to the victory, which denied Moyer his 131st victory in a Mariner uniform which would have tied him with Randy Johnson. Traded in 1996, Moyer came into the season at 192-145 for his career, including two twenty game seasons with Seattle. He won two games in the ALDS against Cleveland in 2001, has been in the top 4 in winning percentage four times, and his 'similarity scores' equate with such luminaries as Dave Stewart, Orel Hershiser, Frank Viola, Ric...

Okay, okay, not everyone here is even a Red Sox fan, let alone a basketball or a Celtic fan. Growing up in suburban Boston, I was spoiled, and didn't know it. There were Russell and the Jones', Cousy, Satch Sanders, Heinsohn, Havlicek, and Cowens. Later on, Bird, Parish and McHale blessed Boston with the Auerbachian Brinks job that was Parish and McHale for Joe Barry Carroll. Sixteen titles, a dynasty of Biblical proportions, with perennial playoff contential were all we knew. The times they have changed. Sometimes the Celtics make the playoffs, and few seasons since 1986 have they made anything approaching a title run. Cocaine killed Len Bias before he got on the parquet and Reggie Lewis' death remains something of a mystery even today. In the talent depleted Eastern Conference of 2005 they won the third seed, courtesy of 'Ron-amok' Artest along with miscellaneous Indiana suspensions and injuries. Danny Ainge has clearly assembled a higher talent level through a ho...

The latest matinee idol in Boston, Bronson Arroyo, spun a three-hitter over eight innings, and Keith Foulke nailed down the victory with his seventh save as the Sox tamed the Tigers 2-1 in Detroit. Arroyo fanned eight, allowing only two walks in extending his unbeaten streak to nine, dating back to August 2004. Trot Nixon had four hits coming off his suspension, raising his average to .324, doubled in by David Ortiz in the ninth. Old friend Ugie Urbina suffered the loss for the Tigers. Edgar Renteria injured his index finger while trying to bunt. If the extent of his injury were unclear, it would present an intriguing dilemma for the Sox in finding a replacement for the intermediate term (above and beyond Ramon Vazquez). Who am I kidding? I didn't see a second of the game, so I can't really comment about it beyond reading the box. Arroyo had a no-no going into the seventh when Carlos Guillen put one in the seats in right. Sox talk. Melrose's own Chris Snow had a pair of art...

ARROYO, a record cut to be proud of.

Tim Wakefield (3-1) combined with Mike Timlin and Keith Foulke to defeat the Tigers 4-3 at Comerica Park as the Sox won the third game of the series. Kevin Youkilis (The Talisman) plated Jay Payton with the game-winning hit in the 8th inning and Keith Foulke picked up his 6th save. Edgar Renteria made several outstanding plays snapping out of his defensive funk. At the one-sixth point in the season, can we make any generalizations? I'm hearing a lot of talk from the baseball fans in my peer group about how the Orioles and the White Sox are flukes. Chicago has had outstanding pitching, and the Orioles have improved with more experienced pitching and Ray Miller, their fine pitching coach ("work fast, throw strikes, change speeds"). The Red Sox have struggled with the O's and we'll see how they match up against the Pale Hose. Offensively, the Sox two big guns, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz haven't really put together extended hot streaks. Overall, the offense has...

"Familiarity breeds contempt." - Aesop How many times have we heard that Boston has the 'most sophisticated fans in baseball?' Arguably, we sometimes overestimate our familiarity with the 'inner game', strategy, matchups, and day-to-day milieu confronting management daily. We wonder why 'our' manager sits out a player (injury or illness, bad matchup, or home problems). Players were notorious for wanting to avoid certain pitchers throwing smoke and control problems. We also have 'ownership bias' about our favorite players, overvaluing their ability or contribution potential. Years ago a local sportscaster (I'll omit his name) told me that although Jim Rice wasn't a great interview, he respected his work ethic (particularly his efforts to improve his defense) and willingness to give interviews after poor performances or 'a tough loss'. In other words, he was a 'standup guy'. On the other hand, other players work the media,...