weei's big show asks plls delivers

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Not for sure who (sean mcadam?) asked on the big show yesterday but I deliver the goods thanks to Baseball Musings database. The question was the breakdown on Beckett's games, specifically his ERA in his wins, losses and no decisions. As I think most people know when Beckett was good, he was very good and when he was bad, he was very bad. Anyway, here are the breakdowns.

Wins
In 16 wins he pitched 109 2/3 innings with a 2.22 ERA. In all but one of the 16 wins these were quality starts (6 innings 3 earned runs or less). The one bad start was on 7/8 vs the White Sox. Other things to note, he gave up 12 HR's in those starts, 26 BB's, 83 K's.

He had 3 wins where he pitched shutout ball, 5 wins giving up only 1 earned run, 4 wins giving up 2 earned runs, 3 wins giving up 3 earned runs and 1 game where he gave up
5 earned runs (3 hr's). 1/2 of all his wins no home runs were hit against him.

He won 8 games on the road ( 2 at Yankee stadium) and 8 at home. His 16 wins came against 14 different teams with only the Yankees and Phillies being the only with 2 wins.
These 11 of the 14 teams had overall winning records and combined all 14 had a .513 winning percentage.

Losses
In 11 losses he pitched 57 1/3 innings with a 10.36 ERA. Only 2 of these games did he pitch a quality start (7/3 at Tampa Bay and 8/29 at Oakland). The worst start was his 6/5 game at the Yankees where he pitched 1 1/3 inning giving up 7 earned runs on 7 hits (2 hr's, 2 BB's and 1 K).

20 of his 36 home runs allowed came in these losses, he also issued 34 BB's and only had 49 k's.

His 11 losses came against 6 teams with 2 losses to the Yankees, Cleveland, Toronto, Oakland, and Tampa Bay. Each of these teams beat him at Fenway and in their home stadium. 4 of the six teams had winning records and combined their winning percentage was .526.

No Decisions
In 6 no decisions he pitched 37 2/3 innings with a 5.02 ERA. Half of those were quality starts. He gave up 4 home runs, issued 14 BB's and struck out 26. He had 2 no decisions against Toronto and KC (1 at home and 1 away in both cases). 2 of the 4 teams he faced had winning records.

Road Starts
In 16 road starts he went 9 and 5 with a 5.21 ERA. He faced 12 different teams on the road and 10 of the 16 starts were against teams with winning records. 11 of the 16 were quality starts his pitching line went like this:

Innings	Earned Runs	Homers	BB's	K's
95	55	24	35	75

Home Starts
In 17 home starts he went 7 and 6 with a 4.84 ERA. He faced 13 different teams at home and 10 of the 17 games were against teams with winning records. 9 of the 17 were quality starts his pitching line went like this:

Innings	Earned Runs	Homers	BB's	K's
109 2/3	59	12	39	84

Vs winning teams
Beckett started 20 games against 8 teams with winning records. He went 10 and 7 with a 5.50 ERA. 11 of the 20 games were quality starts. Other parts of his performance were:

Innings	Earned Runs	Homers	BB's	K's
121	74	23	53	85

Vs losing teams
Beckett started 13 games against 7 teams with losing records. He went 6 and 4 with a 4.30 ERA. 9 of the 13 games were quality starts. Other parts of his performance were:

Innings	Earned Runs	Homers	BB's	K's
83 2/3	40	13	21	73

Other things noticed
Vs Toronto he went 1 and 2 in 5 starts with a 6.21 era, giving up 28 hits, 20 earned runs, 8 hr's, 12 BB's, 17 k's in 29 innings. The only quality start was his first start which he won.

Vs Yankees he went 2 and 2 in 4 starts with a 9.45 era, giving up 24 hits, 21 earned runs, 5 hr's, 16 BB's, 14 k's in 20 innings. He had his quality starts in both wins, his first and last start against the Yankees.

Vs Tampa Bay he went 1 and 2 in 3 starts with a 5.03 era, giving up 19 hits, 11 earned run, 5 hr's, 5 BB's, 21 k's in 19 2/3 innings. He had 2 quality starts (his first 2), 1 win - 1 loss.

Vs Baltimore he had 1 start on 5/15, which he won giving up 2 hits in 7 innings with 1 hr, 0 bb's and 6 k's.

See you later.

Playoffs and NFL Week 4 wrap up

Ugh, Green Bay started out alright then Philly brought out the stick and beat them senseless. Ugly! Still, 8 and 6 for the week and 35 and 25 for the year against the spread.

Baseball playoffs start today and my initial thoughts are Yankees in 4, Twins in 3, Dodgers in 4, and Padres in 5.

Update: added link to cardinals series.

The Hardball Times has a comprehensive breakdown of the Yankee series here. The Twins series is here. The cardinal series is here.

Firebrand has a playoff power ranking here.

Like I said I think Yankees, Twins, Dodgers and Padres move on in the first round. Second round I think will be the Dodgers and Yankees. With (gulp), the spankees winning it all.

Idle thoughts on 10/2/2006

After 40 games record of 25 - 15
After 50 games record of 30 - 20
After 54 games record 0f 33 - 21
After 81 games record of 50 - 31
After 100 games record of 61 - 39
After 108 games record of 65 - 43
After 120 games record of 69 - 51
After 150 games record of 81 - 69
After 162 games record of 86 - 76

Hard to think that at the 100 game split was the highlight of the season. The last 62 games of the year the Sox went 25 and 37.

NFL Football week 4 - Going into tonight have went 8 and 5 with my upset specials of Houston, Baltimore and Washington winning. For awhile there I also thought that the Raiders would pull it out also. Still at worse I will be 8 and 6 but I fully expect Favre and the Packers to cover the spread. See you tomorrow.

NFL - Week 4

Well its week 4 of the NFL and time for my picks of today's games. Last week I went 9 and 5 to bring the total to 27 and 19 for the first 3 weeks.

Here are my picks for this week:

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
Kansas City	- 7 1/2	San Francisco	San Francisco
Miami	- 4 1/2	Houston	Houston
Dallas	- 9 1/2	Tennessee	Tennessee
Indianapolis	- 9 1/2	New York J	Indianapolis
Buffalo	- 1 1/2	Minnesota	Buffalo
San Diego	- 2 1/2	Baltimore	Baltimore
Carolina	- 6 1/2	New Orleans	New Orleans
Atlanta	- 7 1/2	Arizona	Arizona
St. Louis	- 5 1/2	Detroit	St. Louis
Cleveland	- 2 1/2	Oakland	Oakland
Jacksonville	- 2 1/2	Washington	Washington
Cincinnati	- 6 1/2	New England	New England
Chicago	- 3 1/2	Seattle	Chicago
Philadelphia	- 10 1/2	Green Bay	Green Bay

As far as upsets, I think Houston, Baltiomore, Oakland and Washington will win their games.

Game 161 and other thoughts

Well, as far as I am concerned last nights game sums up the last third of the season. A 1 run game gets derailed by the inablility of Timlin to close the deal. At least the streak is over because when we wake up on Monday morning the Sox will be looking up at both the spankees and the jays.

Once again, the phrase through out New England will be "wait till next year".

College football was pretty good today. Watched most of the Florida Alabama game. No matter what the scoreboard shows this game was close. A late interception return for a TD finally put the game away. I really thought that Florida would win this one by a bigger margin. They had the revenge factor going for them, the hangover effect due to Alabama's choke last week against my beloved Razorbacks and the coach factor was in their favor also. They surprised me though as their defense came to play and the running game was solid. I now wouldn't be surprised if Bama went 5 and 2 the rest of the way to close with an 8 and 4 record.

I can't believe that I picked Utah to beat Boise State. I watched most of the first half of this game also ( I love PIP). Boise State is a lot better than I thought. Will be interesting to see how their season goes.

Still, all in all, I can't complain as I went 8 and 2 for the week. After 5 weeks (remember I'm not picking against the spread) the record stands at 40 and 10.

College Football picks week 5

Well another Saturday and we know what that means. Yep, that's right, its time for College Football. Just as a recap, last week I went 10 and 0 which brought my season picks to 32 and 8. My picks this week in the College Pickem at ESPN are as follows:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Navy	1	Connecticut	UCONN
Bowling Green	2	Ohio	BG
Purdue	6	Notre Dame	ND
Boise St.	5	Utah	Utah
Alabama	8	Florida	Florida
Oregon	4	Arizona St.	Oregon
Northwestern	7	Penn State	Penn St.
Georgia	9	Mississippi	Georgia
Washington	3	Arizona	Washington
Ohio St.	10	Iowa	Ohio St.

Really no surprises here unless you want to say that #22 Boise State being beat by Utah is a surprise. This was really a tough choice for me, but I feel like Utah has the advantage by being at home.

Another tough game to pick was the Navy - Uconn game. As you can see from my email address being an ex swabbie I almost always root for the goats, but I live in Connecticut. In this case the home town team wins.

Possible blow out of the week, Florida over Alabama. I watched the entire Bama Arkansas game last week (and yes I had my hog hat on) and I really think that the loss in double overtime of a game that everybody who follows College Football knows they should have won will just devastate the Bama team. Plus I have no faith in the coaching abilities of Shula.

game 160 - Vs Orioles 16th of 18

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

The final 3 games of the season (thank god) start tonight. There is only one reason to watch these last three games. BIG PAPI. Can he drive over 55? We'll, see, but I hope he knocks out 8 in these three games (before the massacre had him picked for 62). Tavarez tonight against Bedard who is 2 and 1 this year against the sox with his las 2 games being Gems.

Go Sox, Go razorbacks, Go cowboys. See you tommorrow.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

game 159 - Vs TB 19th of 19

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

A couple of thoughts on Becketts year:

1) 32 games started this year, for his career 135 starts.
2) Career highs in starts, wins, losses and innings.
3) A 4.82 ERA this year which is not great, but is not horrible either.
4) Last 10 games he is 3 and 5 with a 4.95 ERA.
5) Last 5 games he is 2 and 2 with a 2.91 ERA.

What does all of this mean? Beats me, but it looks like as the team went so did Beckett, but since that Angels game where he got the split finger, Beckett has been a different pitcher.

Only reason to watch this team right now is to see how many Ortiz smacks out of the park this year. Was good to see Gammons being loquacious last night on NESN, one of the few Red Sox Nation prayers that were answered this year.

Playoffs, is it the Padres? or the Dodgers? Decisions decisions. Right now I lean toward LA LA land.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

game 158 - Vs TB 18th of 19

No stats, not much to talk about as the season continues to wind down. I really wish the Sox had been able to do a Tejada for Manny trade this spring. At least then we wouldn't be filled day in and day out on Manny watches.

As a side note, the Rays have to take both games to have a winning record vs the Sox this year. Look at that sentence again! The Sox have to win one of these two games to avoid a losing record vs the Rays. A team that only has 1 winning record vs any teams (any guesses?). What a disater this year became.

Oh yeah, thanks to that dismantling of the Falcons last night I ended up going 9 and 5 vs the spread last week. YEAH BOY!!!!

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 157 - Vs Jays (19th of 19) and other crap.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Today's matchup has Wakefield vs Marcum. Wakefield's history against the Blue Jays looks fairly good, while Marcum's is good but is small with no start's.

Wakefield will end up with a losing record this year. Which is too bad because he has pitched better than his record indicates. Against the Blue Jays in Toronto, Timmy looks fairly good. Let us hope he pitches one of his better games today because a loss would drop the Sox into 3rd place in the division.

Moving on to other things:

1) Went 10 and 0 on the College Picks

2) Am 8 and 5 so far on the Pro's

3) Just heard Gammons interview on WEEI from Friday?, not sure when it was originally but it appears that Coco never fully recovered from his finger injury. After watching Manny pull his Manny being Manny crap over the last 20 + games while at the same time Coco, Schilling, Loretta, Lowell, Youkilis and others were out there playing while hurt because they know that not only is it a game but it is also their JOB, just makes me want to puke about this season.

4) Only six more games this season and part of me wants the Jays to finish in second just to break the streak.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here (Sunday's pass). If there is one for today it should be here.

NFL - Week Three

Well its week 3 of the NFL and time for my picks of today's games. Last week I went 11 and 5 to bring the total to 18 and 14 for the first 2 weeks. Of course what I would really like is to be as good as I was yesterday in the college games (yeah, baby, 10 and 0).

Here are my picks for this week:

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
Inianapolis	- 8 1/2	Jacksonville	Jacksonville
Chicago	- 3 1/2	Minnesota	Chicago
Washington	- 3 1/2	Houston	Washington
Buffalo	- 5 1/2	New York J	NY Jets
Miami	- 10 1/2	Tennessee	Tennessee
Carolina	- 3 1/2	Tampa Bay	Carolina
Pittsburgh	- 2 1/2	Cincinnati	Pittsburgh
Detroit	- 6 1/2	Green Bay	Green Bay
Baltimore	- 6 1/2	Cleveland	Cleveland
Seattle	- 3 1/2	New York G	NY Giants
Philadelphia	- 6 1/2	San Francisco	Philadelphia
Arizona	- 4 1/2	St. Louis	Arizona
New England	- 6 1/2	Denver	Denver
Atlanta	- 3 1/2	New Orleans	N'awlins

As far as upsets, I think Green Bay, Jacksonville, Ny Jets, and the Giants to win outright.

Saturday games - football and sox

Ok, sorry, but I have nothing to say about the loss at Toronto because it was on at the same time as my Razorbacks. Was too busy sweating bullets and yelling at the freshman QB for the hogs to even go back and forth. How about them Hogs.

Game 155 vs Toronto 17 of 19

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

MLB.Com's pitching matchup:

Scouting Report:

The 28-year-old from Nicaragua will make his first Major League start. Hansack is fresh off of pitching Double-A Portland to the Eastern League Championship. He went 8-7 with a 3.26 ERA in 31 games for Portland this season, 18 of which were starts. Hansack was signed by the Red Sox last December as a Minor League free agent. He previously spent four years in the Astros' farm system.

Burnett threw a solid seven innings against the Yankees last time out but was hurt by two-run homers by Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. The loss was just Burnett's third in his last nine starts. The Blue Jays right-hander has recorded 29 strikeouts compared to just eight walks in his last 31 innings.

Burnett has been a pain this year against the sox throwing a complete game in a 5-1 win on the 2nd of this month. Even though he is 8 and 8 he has a very respectable ERA of 3.97.

This is really a thank you start (in my opinion) for Hansack since he just helped the minor league team to a championship. Not sure what to expect but it would be nice to see Manny in the lineup to help protect Ortiz.
ESPN's preview here.
Yahoo's preview here.
MLP.com's press pass is here.

College Picks week 4

Well another Saturday and we know what that means. Yep, that's right, its time for College Football. Just as a recap, last week I went 6 and 4 which brought my season picks to 22 and 8. My picks this week in the College Pickem at ESPN are as follows:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Wisconsin	5	Michigan	Michigan
Minnesota	4	Purdue	Purdue
Iowa St.	8	Texas	Texas
W. Virginia	3	E. Carolina	W. Virginia
Kentucky	6	Florida	Florida
Boston College	1	N. C. St.	N. C. St.
Notre Dame	7	Michigan St.	Notre Dame
USC	9	Arizona	USC
Arizona St.	2	California	Cal
Penn ST.	10	Ohio St.	Ohio St.

surprising Picks This Week: NC ST. over BC. I just don't think that BC is that good, but am not that confident about it since I only have this as a 1 pick. The rest are pretty much by the board (#20 Cal would be a slight upset over #18 Arizona ST.). The game I think is most likely to become a blow out is the Notre Dame game. Look for ND to come out steaming in this one.

Game 150 vs the Twins

From MLB.com:

Talk about big shoes to fill. Garza will step in for Francisco Liriano, who will miss the rest of the season with a sore elbow. The Twins don't expect Garza to give them the same results, of course, but they will need him to keep the team in games. The Twins are 2-4 in his six starts and only two of his outings have been considered quality starts.

The dependable knuckleballer took a 4-0 loss to the Orioles in his return from the disabled list last week. The big thing was that Wakefield suffered no ill effects from the stress fracture in his right ribcage that kept him off the mound for seven weeks. Wakefield is 3-3 with a 3.33 ERA in 10 starts at Fenway this season. He lost his only previous start to the Twins this season, giving up eight hits and three earned runs over six innings.

As usual all stats are from the Day by Day database at Baseball Musings.

Wakefield goes tonight and I expect big things from the knuckler. Timmy is 5 and 0 in 11 games (8 starts) against the Twinkies at Fenway Park. His Era is a sparkling 3.36 and half of his starts against the Twins have been quality starts. He averages 7.8 k's per 9 in those games and only 2.2 average BB's. Look for Tim to dominate tonight.

Yahoo's preview here.
ESPN's preview here.
Mlb.com's press pass is currently showing Sunday's game here. If there is a new one it will be here.

NFL football week 2

***** Tuesday's Update *****

Finished the week 11 and 5 Atta boy

*************************************

*** Updated - So after Sunday's games I went 10 and 5, not great, but not horrible. It was good to see three of the four dogs that I had picked to win out right to do so. Only surpises of the day for me were the results of the Tampa and Skins games. Is Tampa Bay's offense really that bad? Will the Redskins beat anybody in the East with that offense? Both teams looked simply horrible. ***

Along with playing the college pickem at ESPN, I am also playing the Pigskin Pick'em. Last week I won a whopping 7 games (all picks are against the spread). Can't do much worse than that, but this week is a different story. Home team underdogs are in bold.

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	Pick
Carolina	-2 1/2	Minnesota	Minnesota
Chicago	- 8 1/2	Detroit	Chicago
Indianapolis	- 13 1/2	Houston	Indianapolis
New Orleans	- 1 1/2	Green Bay	Nawlins
Philadelphia	- 3 1/2	N Y Giants	Giants
Baltimore	- 8 1/2	Oakland	Oakland
Atlanta	- 5 1/2	Tampa Bay	Tampa Bay
Cincinnati	- 10 1/2	Cleveland	Cincinnati
Miami	- 6 1/2	Buffalo	Buffalo
Seattle	- 7 1/2	Arizona	Arizona
St. Louis	- 3 1/2	San Francisco	San Fran
San Diego	- 10 1/2	Tennessee	Tennessee
Denver	- 10 1/2	Kansas City	Kansas City
New England	- 6 1/2	N Y Jets	New England
Dallas	- 5 1/2	Washington	Washington
Pittsburgh	- 1 1/2	Jacksonville	Jacksonville

I expect Minnesota, NY Giants, Tampa Bay, and San Francisco to win out right. All other underdogs I just expect them to cover the spread.

Last 2 games vs the Yankees

***** UPDATE: Thanks to Youkilis, the spankees have to keep the champagne on ice one more day. ********

The last two games vs the Yankees this year. Right now Yankees lead 11 games to 6 in this season series. My only hope is that the Sox get at least a split, yes I know the division race is over, but hey, let them celebrate later in the week.

First game has Snyder versus Wright. Two up and down pitchers facing each other. For Kyle's career stats you can see them here. Jaret Wright's stats are here.

This is just the type of game that the bats should be out in force. Wright's stats vs the Sox are horrofic. A 6.45 ERA in 12 games (11 starts) with a 2 and 5 record. The good news with Snyder is he has had ok, bad, ok, bad games. His last game he got lit up, so he should be due for a good game. Let us hope so.

Yahoo's preview of the games is here.
Espn.com's preview of game one is here.

As for the Second Game, I know Tek played last night, but I am begging you Tito, play him in the first game, not the second game today. The man is like 0 forever against Mussina. Please, please, don't have him playing the second game.

Espn.com's preview of game two is here.

1st game done

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

First game done and the Sox won. This was the Beckett we expected to see this year, 6 innings pitched, in and out of jams but only gave up the two runs on a (what else), Cano home run. In the last 5 games (including todays), Josh has pitched 32 innings with a 3.38 ERA. 4 of the 5 starts were quality starts and he went 2 and 2 in those games.

ESPN.com's 1st game recap is here.
Yahoo sports recap here.

2nd game ESPN.com preview is here.
2nd game Yahoo sports preview here.

College Picks

UPDATED: ********************************
My worst week yet, but I actually moved up in to the upper 3rd of the game. Went 6 and 4 yesterday with the Clemson and Florida wins being my big shockers. Of course Florida had to come from 10 down to win by one, and Clemson scored a TD with 8 seconds left in the game. Oh, well, that is the way it goes.

****************************************

Have been playing College pickem at ESPN.Com fantasy. So far I have gone 16 and 4 in my picks. So I feel like I have done a pretty decent job, until I realized that 39 percent of the people playing have done a better job. Oh, well, what can I say, just have to put the nose to the grindstone and do hours of research (right!!!), and pick better. So, here are my picks for this week:

Away Team	Confidence	Home team	Pick
Brigham Young	4	Boston College	Boston College
Iowa State	2	Iowa	Iowa
Michigan	3	Notre Dame	Michigan
LSU	1	Auburn	LSU
Miami (fl)	5	Louisville	Miami
Oklahoma	6	Oregon	Oregon
Texas Tech	7	Texas Christian	TCU
Clemson	10	Florida State	FSU
Nebraska	9	USC	USC
Florida	8	Tennessee	Tennessee

Really the surprise picks would be #13 Michigan over ND, #7 LSU over #4 Auburn, #15 Miami over #12 Louisville, #18 Oregon over #11 Oklahoma, and #17 Tennessee over # 6 Florida.

Notre Dame hasn't impressed yet this year and this rivalry tends to go in streaks. Right now Notre Dame has the winning streak (3 of last 4) but I look for that to end today. However, would not be surprised if touchdown jesus helped the home team, thus my low confidence of 3 out of 10.

LSU's quarterback is 16 and 2 as a starter. He also appears to be one of those kids who lives his life right. After reading the story about him in USA Today this week LSU has became my feel good root team (except for the day after Thanksgiving) for the rest of the year.

I expect Corker beat his players senseless this week preparing for this game. Middle of the road game since my confidence is 5 out of 10. Louisville has a good offense but I really think that Miami has the better players and the better team.

Oregon over Oklahoma in my view is not an upset. I really think that Oklahoma is rated way to high and Oregon could easily be a top 10 team by the end of the year.

Tennessee is playing at home, barely won last week against Air Force and Fulmer probably brought out the ice picks, the cattle prods and every other torture device available in the Volunteer state. Florida has not impressed me yet and I think we will soon see another fire coach website sprouting soon.

Back with a vengeance

Been a busy and also a horrible last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I get this way leading up to that DAY. The last few years, there was escape because of the Sox, but not this year.

So, here we are, coming down the home stretch, and there is no hope for the Sox this year to pull it out and make the playoffs. Personally, I think the loss of Wakefield was the beginning of the end this year. So, what do we look forward to in these last 3 weeks. I personally, think the Yankees, will not win the Series this year, I still have doubts about thier pitching in the playoffs. Will be interesting to watch that. Tonight we start the last 4 games against the Yankees this year. I fully expect to see them celebrate thier east division championship with the Sox in the other dugout.

Next year I want the following, A-Gon back at shortstop, Lowell at third, Youkilis at 1st, Wily Mo in right, Coco in center, Pedroia will be Ok as the second baseman. Keep Hinske as the Left handed bat off the bench who can play Right, 1st and 3rd. Would love to have Loretta stay around, but I expect he will be gone. Cora will be still available to come off the bench also. Lots of talk about Soriano at second base, but I just don't see it.

As far as pitching goes, I expect Foulke to be gone, Timlin gone. For starters I expect it to be Beckett, Schilling, Wakefield, Snyder and maybe Zito. Look for a big push by the Sox to get him. Papelbon, Hansen, and Delcarmen will be the anchors in the Pen.

********Breaking News - Game postponed tonight. 1 o'clock game tomorrow.****

Game 131 - A's game 8 of 10

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

So, how do you follow up a sweep by one of the worst teams in baseball? If you are Boston you start a 3 game series with one of the hottest teams around against one of the hottest pitchers around. Maalox here I come. Tonight we have Kason going against Loaiza. That is a rookie who has pitched in 3 games going against a veteran who has started over 300 games. Furthermore said veteran is 3 and 0 in 5 starts during August with a 1.77 ERA.

Of course it doesn't help that the A's are one of the hottest teams in baseball, 18 and 6 in August, and winners of 6 of their last 10. Hmmm, six of their last ten? Maybe this team is starting to cool down.

Loaiza has made 9 starts against the Red Sox in his career. His record is 3 and 2 with a 4.17 ERA. This ERA is better than his career ERA of 4.63. The bad thing about Esteban's starts against the Sox is out of 9 starts he has thrown 7 quality starts. The good news is in his last start against the Sox on 7/13/2006 of this year he went 5 innings in a now decision giving up 3 earned runs. Unfortunately that was the start where Loretta muffed a ball in the 11th inning which allowed the A's to win.

What to say about Kason? Not a lot, he has never faced the A's in his to short major league career. In fact he has only started one game. That was against Seattle, a loss but he did pitch respectably, going 5 1/3 innings only allowing 2 earned runs.

How will this team do tonight? Well, not sure, it seems to be imploding right before our eyes, with signs of even Tito losing his patience with Manny. Remember, in 2004 it was Tito who went out faced the music after every loss and then after every win with the same stoic face and passion. Our job is just to win tomorrow. We can't look pass tomorrow. Just win tomorrow and the rest will take care of itself. For Tito to use four letter words to reporters about one of the players (quick name the last time Tito ripped some one in the press), means even Tito is getting tired of the B.S. and is barely hanging on to calm and coolness. Should be an interesting 3 games.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Pitching woes should make for an interesting off season

The Douglas from Obstructed Seats has posted a post about Excuses for this team.

The following is part of our ongoing conversations about the pitching woes and hopefully where the pitching staff should be headed in the off season.

Oh I agree, the pitching staff was put together with baling wire and hopes and dreams.

If you go back to almost any of my posts on Clement you will see I have never liked him, in fact I call him the DIHL for Deer in head lights. He was and is an inning eater though and that does help the bullpen.

As for Wells, I think he has shown that he is still a good quality starter, if you can get him out there. Unfortunately for him, his last year (or so he says) was a bit unlucky and a bit expected since he has never been Mr. Jack Lalaine about taking care of his body.

Lester is a rookie and the best thing about rookies, to paraphrase a well known former basketball coach is that they become sophomores. The question is will he become a Lily or a Zito?

As for the up and down Beckett, I have taken the wait and see attitude, since he has shown me enough good things to make me want to believe that he is the ace of the future. I also like his competitiveness, which successful power pitchers have to have.

Wakefield is what he is, a knuckleball pitcher which means when his ball is fluttering it is almost impossible to hit, but if it is not knuckling then watch out in the bleachers. The age factor with a knuckler is also less important as long as they are aerobically fit. The rib injury was just a little freakish as it seems he hurt it while sleeping?

Of course with the way this season is quickly imploding in front of our eyes, it will be interesting to see what happens to the pitching staff in the off season. Right now I am guessing that Clement will be shipped off with the Sox picking up a sizable portion of his contract. A big run will be made for Zito, but with Boros being his agent you just don’t know (Kevin Millwood anyone). The other free agent pitchers don’t impress me.

Right now for the 2007 season I see our starters being Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield and Lester. It is possible that Papelbon may become the fifth starter even though he has been effective as a closer. However, you have to have a solid starting rotation so that you can get to the closer and too often Papelbon has been sitting in the pen with no chance to come in, see saturday night for the latest of that. What may make the difference is who they can get as either a starter or closer type in the off season.

As for the bullpen, look for it to be Foulke, Delcarmen, Hansen, Tavaras and Snyder plus some other type of middle relievers that they find on the market.

Right now all I can say is bring on the football season as both my Razorbacks and Cowboys look to be decent this year.

Game 130 - Mariners 10th of 10 (M's lead 5 - 4)

Seth says that if Timlin had just held the line the over the last week plus the Sox would be 2 1/2 games out. (Ed- why can't you come up with stats like that? (because I am a freaking moron while he gets paid the big bucks smart***!!!)).

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Ok, we have Snyder going against ??? Baek???, give me a freaking break, another pitcher that these hitters haven't faced before because he has only pitched in 8 games in his career and only made 6 starts. As if this weekend and last weekend weren't bad enough we get to sit through another (most likely), new pitcher baffling the boys from 1 through 9. Sheesh

Snyder has pitched against the M's earlier this year. Getting the win by going 5 innings and not allowing any earned runs. You might remember that game. Seems like just about everbody went deep agains Moyer. Of course it was a typical start for Snyder, as he went 4 innings giving up four hits and only facing 3 men over the minimum before struggling in the 5th. Both runs that he allowed came in the 5th and Hansen came in to start the 6th. If the dude could get past five innings he probably would have a couple of quality starts this year.

Fortunately the team plays 500 behind his starts, but they only average 4.3 runs per game in his starts. As a Sox Snyder has a 5.35 ERA in 11 appearances with a 5.61 ERA in his 5 starts. His shortest outing as a starter was against Oakland where he went 4 2/3 innings.

Baek only appearance this year was against the spankees, in which he pitched 5 innings only giving up 3 runs in a no decision. Overall his career record is 2 and 4 with a 5.40 ERA.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass (if there is a new one for today is here, otherwise look at yesterdays here.

****************

As a side note, there has been a lot of talk about how the Sox can't use inuries as an excuse for falling out of 1st place. As a whole I agree, injuries are part of the game and the Yankees have had their share of them this year also. At the risk of sounding like a New England Liberal I have a but to throw in to the discussion.

The yankees have used a total of 10 pitchers to start games this year, 4 of those pitchers have started 104 (all of them have started over 20) games combined or 81% of all their starts, which would be exactly what you want in a 5 man rotation. Only 6 of their starters have pitched in 5 or more games and that sixth one is Cory "freaking" Lidle and he just got there. The Sox, on the other hand, top 4 (only 2 of them have started over 20 games) pitchers have made 89 starts out of 129 games which is 69%. Nine, count them, nine pitchers have made 5 or more starts. Injuries killed this pitching staff and that always has a bigger impact on your record than the loss of position players.

t

Game 129 - Mariners game 9 of 10

3 freeeaaakkkking K's in the ninth. Mariners win their 3rd straight against pitchers who have over 200 wins and started against them. Mariners also lead the season series 5 games to 4. SHEEEEESSSSSH.

Let me get this straight - the first 2 batters are batting 300 against Timlin, so let's bring him in anyway? Geez Tito, do you have a freaking clue???? Top of the ninth and Hinske and Lopez go down by the K. What a waste of a good pitching performance by Wells.

Wells gets out of another jam and we go to the top of the 7th at 2 - 1. Lots of agita being generated. (what else is new - ed.).

Ingame - Coco went deep in the third, the M's tied it up, Loretta gets a 2 out single to score Kapler and now Wells just got out of a major jam to keep it 2 to 1 Sox.

**************

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Wells vs Meche tonight.

Surprisingly Wells is only 11 and 11 against the Mariners in his career and he has never faced the M's as a Sox. 2 of his 11 losses came in relief appearances, making him 11 and 9 in 27 starts. At Seattle he is 6 and 5 in his starts. As a starter vs the M's he has made 12 quality starts winning 7 of those starts. In his other starts he usually goes 5 innings with various results. Let us hope tonight is quality start night.

Meche is 3 and 1 versus the Sox with a 4.73 ERA (the same as Wells vs the M's) in 5 games only 2 of those games were quality starts with one complete game in his past. In his last 2 starts against the Sox he has went 6 innings giving up 4 earned runs in 2005 and this year. Let us hope this is a trend that goes upward tonight.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

game 128 - Mariners game 8 of 10

Sometimes I just want to bash my head into a brick wall. What a fiasco, Schilling goes out and pretty much matches Woods pitch for pitch in the first 4 innings only to watch this team bite the bullet in the field and at the plate:

1) in the first 2 innings the Sox have men on 1st and 2nd with 1 out and get zero runs by going 0 for 4 (2k's in the first, infield fly in the second followed by another k).

2) 1 - 2 - 3 innings in the 3rd and 4th.

3) A freaking triple because Coco tries to be a superman in the 5th instead of playing it safe.

4) For the second time in 2 nights Cora tries the backhand flip of the ball to the second baseman only for it to be wide of the mark. Of course if Schilling had just picked up the ball instead of trying an off balance throw to 3rd it would have been 1st and 3rd with 0 outs instead of a run scored and a man on 2nd (looked like a little league game being played). This is just another reason in my book why the Sox should resign Gonzalez. In my opinion on both nights he would have gotten at least one out both times (don't get me wrong, I like Cora as a backup not as an every day player).

5) The bats disappeared again.

The only bright spot is that the spankees and White Sox lost, but the Mariners are now 4 and 4 against the Sox this year. Sheesh!!

***********

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Schilling goes against Jake Woods. Woods has only pitched against the Sox in relief apperances, so it will be interesting to see how he does as a starter tonight. Schilling has made apperances as a reliever (with Baltimore) and 3 starts with the Red Sox against the Mariners.

First looking at Woods, we see that this will be his second major league start (a no decision on 8/20 against the Angels was the first). In his three relief appearances against the Sox he has pitched 4 1/3 innings giving up 4 hits, 2 runs, walking 2, striking out 3 and only 1 loss (while with the Angels). It should be noted that in 4 1/3 innings this year he has not allowed any runs and only 3 hits.

From MLB.Coms probable pitchers:

In his first Major League start, Woods -- who took the place of Joel Pineiro in the rotation -- tamed the Angels on Aug. 20 to the tune of one run on five hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out two. Better yet, of the 74 pitches that he threw 52 were strikes. Woods got a lot of mileage out of his breaking ball and changeup against his former team.

Schilling will be going for his 3 win in 4 starts against the M's as a Sox. His one no decision was in 2004, a 12 inning win for the Sox. Curt went 7 2/3 inning in that game and only allowed 4 earned runs. His two wins came in 2004 and this year. Both of these were good quality starts. Overall as a Red Sox he has a 2.78 ERA in 22 2/3 innings with 16 K's. The K's might be big tonight, as he is only 8 K's short of 3,000 for his career.

From MLB.Coms probable pitchers:

Once again, Schilling provided the only consistency in Boston's starting rotation. In the biggest game of the season, Schilling allowed three runs and six hits over seven innings against the Yankees, leaving in position for the win before the bullpen blew the lead. Schilling has not picked up a win in his last three starts.

Should be an interesting game but I look for Schilling to follow Beckett's stellar performance of last night with one of his own. The key will be if the boys brought the bats that have some hits in them on the plane.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 127 - vs Angels game 6 of 6

Updated:
2 in a row and from Ian Brownes column "Of Ortiz's 46 blasts this season, 26 have either tied the game or put the Red Sox ahead"

ESPN.com recap is here.
Yahoo sports recap here

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Just consider the previous post as a quick take on the day with the wrong starting pitcher for the Red Sox. Since then have had some time to really look at Beckett vs 500 teams this year and was surprised at the result. So lets look at what he has done vs 500 teams:

In 17 starts he has 8 quality starts of which he has won 7 of them. His record is 8 and 5 with a 6.22 ERA. He has not lost any quality start against these teams.

Now compare that to his starts against 500 teams:

He has made 9 starts and has pitched 7 quality starts. He has won 5 of those starts. His record is 5 and 3 with a 3.81 ERA and he has not lost any quality start.

In some ways he has actually pitched better against teams over 500. The killer is that in less than 50% of his starts he pitches quite well. When he does pitch well he wins 7 out of 8 times, when he pitches bad he loses 5 out of 9 times. Unfortunately though he has just been plain terrible lately with his last 2 starts against 500 teams he has given up 14 earned runs in 11 2/3 innings. Not good at all.

So, has he turned the corner who knows, what I do expect is that this team might be getting the feeling that everyone is against them and that can be good. Stay tuned tonight to find out which Beckett will pitch, the one who can be lights out, or the one from 8/19 against the spankees.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass is currently for the 23rd. If there is a new one for today it will be here.

Game 2 of the Angels series

Well, not much to say, Weei was rampant with speculation about the HAMMY. All I have to say, is if it is true that Manny is putting his wants above the teams, why should any one be surprised. Manny is Manny, and this would not be anything new so just let it go. Nothing we say, the coaches say, WEEI says or the management says will change Manny's attitude.

Big disappointment, otherwise known as Josh Beckett takes the mound tonight. Since the Angels are over 500 and since his record is not great with teams over 500 I fully expect this to be a nail biter. Hey, he could surprise me but I sincerely doubt it.

95 wins now looks impossible. In order to reach that this team will have to win 26 out of their last 37 games. Just ain't happening (what happened to the opptimism - Ed? hey that went out the window a few days ago). Would like to see them do it of course, but with 10+ games left against the Jays and the spankees I don't see a lot of hope for it.

Take care, as I need to go work on the munckin's computer since she has been having problems with the virus scan and such. See you later.

Massacre 2 is over

Thank god this weekend is done. The Sox had chances to win 3 games out of the 5 and blew each and every one. The bullpen stunk, each and every pitcher in it should be hanging their heads, except for Schilling and Wells the starters stunk, the batting was pathetic with runners in scoring position, especially today and the 9th inning last night. Truly a pathetic performance in front of the home crowd. YECCH. This season is over, there is no chance of the division, no chance at the wild card. What a waste of talent.

Says it all

Its Sunday and its obvious Hail Marys don't work

Have been sitting here, cruising through the usual places and finding that everyone is pretty much down on the Sox right now and who can blame them. The last three games have been atrocius. One bright spot of course is that sometimes great minds think alike but my mind right now is just mush. However, as you can see here I had a feeling that these five games would go badly, I just didn't figure it would be this bad. Pathetic, pathetic, pitching from 1 - 11, and the way the others have pitched, you have to figure that even Papelbot might have gotten lit up.

Schilling pitches tonight against Mussina, but the moose has a pretty decent record at Fenway.

MLB.com's press pass is still showing Fridays but if they do one for today it will be here.
ESPN's preview is here.
Yahoo sport's is here.

See how depressed I was, I didn't even give you any stats on Schilling or Mussina. Now excuse me as I break out the bottles of bud, corona's and whatever else I have in the house because the sun is up over the yardarm and its time to become a sailor again so that I can watch tonights game with bleary eyes, hopefully, it will improve the outcome of the game because the animal sacrifices and the hail mary's sure didn't work.

As my knees hit the floor to do hail mary's etc.

Update: fixed links

Well, 5 games in the next 4 days against the hated spankees. The latest probables show Johnson vs Wang, Lester vs Ponson, Beckett vs Johnson, Schilling vs Mussina and Wells vs Lidle. If you look at ERA's only the series would go Yankee Win, Boston Win, Yankee Win, Yankee Win and Yankee win. What does that remind me of? Of course if that was to happen then the spankees would leave town 4 1/2 games ahead 5 games in the loss column and with 6 weeks left in the season that would mean looking at the wild card again.

If you looked at the pitchers winning percentages then it would go Yankee Win, Boston Win, Boston Win, Boston Win, and a tie. That would be better result for everybody in Boston for sure. Of course the problem is that Denton at Surviving Grady has said 4 wins for the good guys, which means that the first scenario is more likely to happen.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Now, just because I am a sucker for punishment I did a little digging over at Baseball Musings and dug up these for you (caution strong stomach required):
Stats from the Sept. 1978 massacre at Fenway:

Yankee Batting Stats here:
Yankee Pitching Stats here:

Red Sox Batting stats here:
Red Sox Pitching stats here:

Those four games were not pretty so lets hope we have better success here.

Idle thoughts since the spankees got spanked today. I took a look at the next few games after the Yankees lost by 10 or more runs this year.

On May 9 the Yankees lost 14 to 3 to the Sox then won their next game (Mussina over Schilling), lost one game (Wakefield), won 2, lost 2, won 2 and then lost 1 at Yankee stadium.

On July 4th at Cleveland the Yankees lost 19 to 1 and then won the next 4 on the road.

On July 29th they lost to the Devil Rays 19 to 6 and then won 5 straight at home.

As you can see, when the spankees lose big, the next day they pull on their pants, shrug their shoulders and forget all about the loss and then start winning games. That was not was I was hoping to find out when I looked at their schedule. Oh, well!

Espn.com's previe here.
MLB.coms press pass should be here sometime before the game 1.

Game 119 in the books

Well, been absent for awhile due to some personal problems. Of course the lackadaisical play of the Red Sox have done nothing to pick up my spirits. 16 and 16 since the All Star break which had 21 games at fenway during those 32 games and watching them just blow a 3.5 game lead and are now 2 games back with 3 more losses just makes me want to relive my Navy days and go on an all night bender that ends with me not remembering anything during the night while I end up praying to the porcelain gods.

Of course this weekend could rejuvenate me, but my feeling is that the Yankees are going to come in and win 4 of the 5 this weekend. The question is can we win 95 games this year, which was my preseason prediction.

Later

Game 108 - Devil Rays 15th of 19

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Schilling vs James Shields tonight at the beginning of a Six game road trip, followed by an eleven game homestand with the last 5 being against the spankees (1 double header). The Sox need to go no worse than 4 and 2 on this trip and then real off a string of wins. The next 2 and half weeks can make or break this team for this year.

Shields has started one game against the Sox earlier this year. In 5 innings he gave up 5 runs, 3 hrs, 3 walks and 5 k's. Overall in his career he has a 5.43 ERA in 12 starts and a 4 and 5 record. Half of his games have been quality starts and he is 4 and 0 in those starts. Its simple with him, get him out before the 6th inning and you can win baby win.

I am not going to give you any stats for Schilling. I will tell you that he has lost both games at the Trop this year. A recap of the games can be found here and here. The first one was against Kazmir who is not facing us this series. The Devils are 5 and 2 against the sox at the trop. and 1 and 6 in boston. This is a little bit better than against all teams as they are 2 games over at home (27 and 25) and 18 and 39 on the road. Still this is a team that the Sox should stomp all over. Lets go for 3 in a row here boys.

Tonights game will mark the 2/3 point of the season, will be working on a review of the second third to go along with my first third of the season review, which you can find here. I expect to post that sometime on sunday.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
Not sure if there will be a press pass before this game but if there is it will be found here.

Game 107 - Indians 7th of 7

UPDATE: Well that sucked, the Indians win this years series 4 games to 3. grrrrrr

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Game 107 tonight which closes out the Indians for the year. So far 3 and 3 against these turkeys. We need to get this one badly especially since the Spankees have already won their getaway game today against the Blue Gags. It is definetly turning into the usual 2 team race in the division with the boys in red chasing the pinstripes (however, I think we are alright since we have more wins, can't take those wins away).

As for last nights game well, what can you say, another meltdown by the Indians and another walk off by Loretta. Hey, 12 more and he will catch up with Big Papi. Lets look at today's starting pitchers.

We have Westbrook pitching for the Indians. In his career he has made 4 starts against the Red Sox. You could say that he has had an up and down career against the boys. He has started 1 game at Fenway and was terrible. 6/22/2000 while pitching for the Spankees he went 2 2/3 innings giving up 4 runs for a 13.50 ERA and took the loss. Overall he is 2 and 1 with all of but one his starts in Cleveland being quality starts. In 3 games in the Jake he is 2 and 0 with a 1.59 ERA. Career against the boys he has a 3.20 ERA.

The troubling stat is that this is a sub 500 pitcher (48 and 50) with a 4.39 ERA in 159 games (119 starts). That means he has the soxes number. Let's hope his fenway stats hold out as opposed to his career stats against the boys.

Beckett was pummeled by the Indians earlier this year. This was his first start after the meltdown in Toronto. He went 3 2/3 innings with a one game ERA of 19.64. He only struck out 6 while walking 5. In the last three games Josh is 2 and 0 with a 2.7 ERA. All three of these games have been quality starts. (the last 2 barely qualify). The thing to remember is that he can bounce back after getting drubbed. On 7/14 of this year he got pounded by the A's but on the 24th he got the win by going 6 innings and only gave up 3 runs in his six innings. One, we know that Josh is ultra competitive and he just watched Lester gut out a solid effort last night. Two, Beckett normally gets good run support, as in 5.9 runs per in 22 starts. Thirdly, he is 6 and 1 in 10 starts at Fenway with a very respectable 3.22 ERA. The previously mentioned debacle against the A's has been his only loss at home. He also has seven of his 14 quality starts at home. I look for a big night from the former World Series MVP.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 105 - Indians 5th of 7

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Tonight its Jason Johnson (one of 3 sox starters who have team records under .500) vs CC Sabathia. Did Johnson rediscover his sinker ball in the minors? His record with the PawSox was 2 and 0 with a 3.32 ERA. This will be his first start at Fenway as a Sox. Has started 16 games with the Indians and the Sox this year with a 3 and 10 record ( 0 and 2) and a 6.35 ERA. Can he duplicate Snyder and knock off a run on his ERA?

CC is 7 and 7 this year with a 3.82 ERA. Sabathia has started 5 games against the Sox since 8/29/2001. 3 of these games were quality starts with his first game being his only win. Overall he is 1 and 3 against the Sox pitching 33 1/3 innings giving up 36 hits, 20 runs (19 earned), 7 home runs, 7 BB's, 20 K's, 3 HBp with a 5.13 ERA. His career Stats are 76 and 52 with a 4.07 ERA. This year he has had 11 quality starts in 17 starts. However, his defense has let him down as he has 9 unearned runs in 4 games. All have been losses.

At Boston CC is 0 and 1 in 2 starts with a 3.00 ERA. Both of his starts were quality starts.
* * * * *
As for last night's game? What can we say, as you can see I added Coco's quote to the top of the blog. That says it all.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 103 - Angels 3rd of 6

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Schilling against Lackey in the Series finale. Lackey is 9 and 6 with a 2.89 ERA and Schilling strides to the mound 13 and 3 with a 3.60 ERA. From MLB.com's probable pitchers:

The big right-hander has won his last three starts. The Red Sox are 17-5 when Schilling takes the ball in 2006. At Fenway, he's been masterful, going 8-0 with a 2.71 ERA in nine starts. Lifetime against the Angels, Schilling is 4-0 with a 2.17 ERA.

Lifetime Schilling has started 3 games and appeared in a total of 8 games. As a starter he is 3 and 0 with a 2.25 ERA with 3 quality starts (shortest outing 7 2/3 innings) for a total 0f 24 innings pitched in those 3 games. In two of the games (7/13/2001 at Anaheim and 7/18/2004 at Anaheim) the only runs he allowed were off of 3 home runs. The other start was in Boston and went 7 2/3 innings, 9 hits, 3 runs, 0 hrs, 0 BB and 4 K's.

Lackey has made 8 starts against the Sox with a lifetime record of 0 and 4 with a 6.04 ERA. Half of the starts have been quality starts but his record is 0 and 2 in those. Overall, I think it looks like the Sox have his number. Still this year he has pitched quite well and is 4 and 1 in July. Lets hope, that the Ortiz walk off leads to the bats staying awake tomorrow.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 102 - Angels 2nd of 6

Update: Two words to describe this game: BIG PAPI

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Beckett versus the Angel wonder kid Jered Weaver. Beckett is 13 and 5 with a 4.77 ERA this year. To say the least Beckett has been a streaky pitcher this year. Won his first 3 starts going 7 innings in each of them and all were quality starts. His next 3 starts he went 0 and 1 giving up 5 runs in 7 1/3 innings, 8 runs in 3 2/3 innings and 4 runs in 5 innings. His next 4 starts were all quality starts going at least 6 inning. In his next 3 starts Josh wen 0 and 2 and he had no quality starts giving up 7 runs in 4 2/3 innings, 7 runs in 1 1/3 innings and 3 runs in 5 1/3 innings. His next 3 starts (all against NL teams) he went 3 and 0 with all three starts being quality starts. He then alternated his wins over the next 5 starts with all of the wins being quality start and all of the losses being horrendous.

Weaver is 7 and 0 with a 1.15 ERA in 7 starts this year. All seven of his starts have been quality starts and he has allowed 0, 2, 2, 0, 1, 0, and 1 run in those starts. He has gone at least 6 1/3 innings in each start but has not gone more than 7 innings. To quote Bob Ryan of the Globe "This guy is the goods".

Weaver has never faced the Sox in his short time in the majors, let's hope that he is like his brother when he does face them today. Jeff has made 11 starts and 2 relief appearnces with a 3 and 4 record and a 6.05 ERA. In those 11 starts he had 5 quality starts against the Sox and won 2 of them. At Fenway Jeff was 2 and 2 with a 6.28 ERA in 7 starts (3 quality).

As for the Spankees they get to face Jae Seo of the sparkling 2 and 9 record and 5.71 ERA. I would not be surprised if tomorrow we find the Sox looking up at the Yankees in the standings.


ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 101 - Angels 1st of 6

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Escobar Vs Lester today. Lester has never faced the Angels so it should be interesting to see how Varitek calls the game for him today. I hope that Lester is able to go 7 plus innings but would settle for 6. Escobar has started 9 games against the Sox in his career with 2 wins and 3 losses.

This year Lester is 5 and 0 in 9 starts with a 3.04 Era. In those 9 starts he has had 4 Quality Starts and the team is 6 and 3. He would have more quality starts if he could consistently pitch past the 5th inning. So far he has 5 starts of 5 innings or less.

Escobar is 6 and 9 this year with a 3.88 ERA. This is .45 runs lower than his career ERA and is .42 lower than his career era as a starter. Out of 18 starts he has 12 quality starts this year. Hmmm, 12 quality starts and yet he has a losing record. Looking closely in his 12 quality starts he is 5 and 4 with 3 no decisions. The key to beating him is to come out firing and get him out of the game early.

Escobar at Fenway is 2 and 2 with a 4.70 ERA in 6 games. He has thrown 3 quality starts with his last 2 games (7/18/2003 and 6/3/2005) in Fenway being by far his best starts against the Sox. In his career he has a 4.82 ERA against the Sox as a starter (compared to 4.30) and in all 26 games that he has faced the Sox he has a 4.66 ERA (compared to his 4.33). It looks to me like the Sox have his number compared to the rest of the league in ERA, but his overall record is 78 and 78 and is 5 and 6 against the Sox (62 and 61 as a starter).

It should also be pointed out that the Angels are also in a pennant race as they ar 1/2 game back of the Oakland A's.

Of course I fully expect the lead for the Sox to disappear this weekend. We have 3 games vs the Angels and are facing their top 3 pitchers, while the Yankees are facing the Devil Rays at the Bronx and as usual, no Kazmir in sight for the Spankees. Come Monday morning I expect the Sox to be up by 1/2 game over the Yankees since I find it hard to see a sweep of the Angels.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 100 - A's 7th of 10

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Snyder tries to continue his good starts by facing Oakland for the 5th time in his career. In 24 1/3 innings he has a 4.44 ERA against the A's with his worst start being 10 days ago in Fenway. Personally I thought he pitched ok in that game and was 1 pitch away from getting out of a bases loaded jam with no outs with only 1 run being scored. Unfortunately for Kyle he was replaced by Seanez who promptly allowed 2 more runs to score.

At McAfee Colisuem he is 0-1 having pitched there in 2003 while with KC. In that game he went 7 innings (one of 2 quality starts against the A's), giving up 10 hits and only 2 earned runs. In his 4 starts against the A's he has struck out 16, walked 5 and given up zero home runs. All in all not a bad outings against the A's, just a little unlucky it seems to me.

Haren has started 3 games against the Sox, all of them in Fenway. He is 0 and 3 with a 4.60 ERA in 15 2/3 innings. His last start against the Sox was 11 days ago when he matched up with Schilling. Only one of his starts has been a quality start.

Danny has a career record of 12 and 9 at McAfee, with a 3.75 ERA and as a starter for the A's he is 20 and 21 with a 3.85 ERA. The Sox seem to have his number so lets hope that continues this afternoon.

ESPN.com's baseball preview is found here.
MLB.com press pass is found here.
Yahoo.com baseball preview is found here.

Game 99 - A's 6th of 10

Update: A close game becomes a laugher thanks to plays like these (Nixon sliding in on Teks 3 run double). AP file picture found at Weei.com

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Schilling goes for number 13 and a tie with Beckett for the lead in victories tonight. Schilling has never started at McAfee stadium. He is however 4 and 0 as a starter against the A's with a solid 3.12 ERA. All but two of his starts has been a quality start, and in the non quality starts he went 5 1/3 innings giving up 3 runs and 6 2/3 innings giving up 4 runs. He has also averaged over 6.5 innings per start against this team. I think the competitive juices will be flowing and when they are flowing in the ace of the staff you can look for him to come out firing on all cylinders. A win tonight would also tie the season series at 3 games each (presently the Sox have losing records against the Indians, Twins, Blue Jays and the A's).

ESPN.com's baseball preview is found here.
MLB.com press pass is found here.
Yahoo.com baseball preview is found here.

Game 98 - A's 5th of 10

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Well Beckett gets to see if he can exact some revenge for the last time he faced this team (see that disater here) in this opening game of a 3 game series in Oakland. On the road his ERA is over 6 (6.33 to be exact) so there shouldn't be a lot of hope for a quality start by the number 2 man in the rotation. I think that he will respond though. I also expect Randy Johnson to dominate Texas so a win will be necessary to keep that 2.5 game lead in the standings.

The Sox are 16 and 16 against Lefties this year and Zito has already pitched a good one against this team this year, however, I think the Sox typically do better the second time around on these guys and the bats are starting to wake up. The key will be to get to Zito early in the game and not let up on these guys.


ESPN.com preview is here.
MLB.com press pass here.
Yahoo sports preview here.

Game 94 - Texas Game 9 of 9

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Schilling goes for his 9th straight win at Fenway today. He does it with the following lineup:

Rf - Coco Crisp
2b - Mark Lorretta
1b - Kevin Youkilis
Lf - Manny Ramirez
C - Jason Varitek
DH - Willy Moe Pena
Rf - Gabe Kapler
SS - Alex Gonzalez
3b - Cora

So for all of those WEEI callers who have been calling for Youkilis to bat somewhere else than lead off and for Coco to jump back to the top of the order, you have your wish. Of course if you were to look at my Ideal Line up you will notice that I have Coco leading off, and today shows another reason why this is the way it should stay that way. Two people have jumped around in the order this year Youk and Lowell. Though Lowell has not done well when batting above the 6th spot, Youkilis has been consistent no matter where he starts.

Schilling has made two starts against the Rangers as a Red Sox. In 2004 at Fenway he went 8 1/3 innings giving up 5 hits (2 hrs.) for 3 runs in a quality start that led to a win. This year he started in Texas on opening day going 7 innings with 5 hits (1 hr.) for an opening day win. His only other appearance against the Rangers in a Sox uniform was a relief appearance last year going 2 innings and getting the win for his 1 hit shutout pitching. Overall, 3 appearances for 17 + innings with 17 K's and a 2.60 ERA.

Rheinecker has faced Boston once this year, going 5 2/3 innings with 9 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 bb's and 1 K for a 4.76 era, this game was on 6/10 of this year at fenway park and he had a no decision.

Overall, you have to like the matchups and you know that Schilling is going to try to go 9 innings of shut out ball. Lets hope the bats finally wake up today though or it will be another nail biter.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Wakefield update

According to Gordon Edes, wake is out up to a month with a cracked rib. Hold on to your horses, the next 3 weeks could be a killer.

Game 93 - Kansas City 3rd of 9

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Beckett against All Star Pitcher Mark Redman today. This will be Beckett's 20th start of the year. In 19 starts he has 11 quality starts and the team record is 12 and 7. Out of 8 starts at home he has had 5 quality starts, all of them wins. His only loss of course was his last one against the A's in which he just stunk, giving up 7 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Even with this stinker though his ERA at home is still a respectable 3.58. The question with Beckett is which pitcher shows up. Troubling trend is that his last 3 games he is 1 and 2 with a 7.79 ERA.

Redman has started 8 games against the Sox in his career. Overall he is 1 and 7 with a 9.32 ERA and the only win was a quality start (his only one vs. Sox) back in 2002 when he was playing with Detroit. At boston his numbers are actually worse having started 4 games, losing 3 of them with a 10.00 ERA. In his last 3 games he is 1 and 0 with a 5.00 ERA.

What I expect is for the competitor in Beckett to emerge in which he says to Lester, hey kid, watch this as I go out and no hit these boys. Ok, Ok, thats what I hope happens. I honestly think that he will go out and give up 2 or 3 runs, which the way this team is sucking at the plate on this homestand means that he could easily lose this game. Still, you have to like the match up.

ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Game 92 - Kansas City 2nd of 9

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Lester goes for win number 5 tonight against Brandon Duckworth. Number 5 would be the most wins in a row for a rookie starting pitcher since Suppan had 6 and Duckworth is a good one to try to get that from, since he is 7-17 with a 6.43 ERA in his career on the road. Right handed batters are batting .417 against him this year. Lets hope the bats break out early and often tonight (no more of these late inning come backs in this series ok?).


ESPN.com preview is here.
Yahoo sports preview here.
MLB.com press passe here.

Game 91 - Kansas City 1st of 9

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

What a pathetic performance against the A's this weekend. Only Schilling brought his A game. The worst team in baseball is in tonight and anything less than a sweep of the Royals will, and should be considered a complete failure, especially since you know the M's will choke against the Spankees.

ESPN.com preview is here.
MLB.com press pass is here.

Game 84 - Vs Chi Sox (game 1 of 6)

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Well, its the Rookie against the grizzled veteran tonight and bragging rights between the last two world series champions at stake. The Sox need to sweep to go 6 and 4 on this road trip (the last long one of the year), chances of that? Who knows? I sure don't, but I think that it is possible to win 2 and that would make them 5 and 5 which would be acceptable. (unlike Surviving Grady I am an optimistic gus)

In 5 starts Lester is 3 and 0 with a 3.08 ERA, but has not faced the ChiSox this year. This is a dangerous lineup so he will need to be on his game to win, personally, I give it a 50 - 50 chance. Too, many times this year we have seen the Red Sox get into a city at 4:30 a.m. only to play flat at the plate.

Of course Buerhle will have a big say in this and if you look at his record against the Sox it is more than respectable. In eight starts, he is 4 and 2 with a 3.93 ERA. The good news, he is only 1 and 1 at home vs the boys with a 4.93 ERA. So, he is hittable at home and we can always hope that the boys come out swinging like they did last night.

ESPN.Com preview here.
MLB.com press pass here.

Tampa Bay wins 3 in a row

You have got to be kidding me. TB wins three in a row! Way to roll over and play like dogs. In order to have a winning record on this road trip the Sox will have to win 4 in a row. Yeah right, like that is going to happen. What a freaking joke.

Game 81 - Tampa Bay (game 12)

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings.

Well the last game of the first half of the season (all star break is really past the mid point), and the boys are 2 and 2 on this current road trip. Today (it is after midnight right?), Schilling goes against former Sox Casey Fossum. This will be the second Left Hander to start this series for Tampa Bay and the second time this year that Fossum will face the Sox at home.

Schilling has a 7 and 3 record against the Devil Rays as a Sox starter. In those games he has had 6 quality starts with a 4.08 ERA. His numbers at Tampa are actually better than his overall numbers, with a 5 and 3 record, 3.86 ERA and 5 quality starts. He has one loss at Tampa this year (another Kazmir gem) but he did go 6 innings only giving up 3 runs. Curt is 1 and 0 in his last 3 starts this year pitching 19 innings and only allowing 7 earned runs for a 3.32 era. In 13 of his 17 starts this year he has 13 quality starts with the team going 14 and 3 in those starts.

Fossum faced Boston at home once this year going 6 innings and allowing no runs and getting the win back on 4/28. Overall, he has faced the Sox as a starter 4 games with a 1 and 2 record (3 quality starts). His last 3 starts he has went 1 and 1 pitching 16 2/3 innings and allowing 9 earned runs. Casey has made 14 starts this year with 8 being quality starts and a team record of 7 and 7.

With numbers like those I am going with Schilling for the win. (the only disturbing thing that I noticed and makes me pensive, is that the Sox are only 3 and 10 on the turf this year).

ESPN.com preview is here.
If there is a MLB.com press pass it will be here.

Game 80 - Tampa Bay (game 11)

Update: Well a good pitched game by Beckett (another Quality Start 11 this year), but the three solos were more than enough against that Sox killer named Kazmir. Speaking of Kazmir. Do you think the Mets are regretting the trade of Kazmir for Zabrano?

ESPN.Com recap can be found here.

Tampa Bay is the next stop in the 10 game road trip that leads to the All Star Game. Am still catching up on some of my data collecting, been hit or miss here for a while as both work and home activities (see below picture) took up some of my spare time. Should be back to a regular type of posting now though.

Beckett goes against Kazmir tonight, the lefty for the Devils has given us fits in the past but the Sox solved him the last game. I haven't seen any starting line up yet but I fully expect it to be Youkilis in the lead off spot tonight.

ESPN.com's preview is here.

Will post more later, but have to go mow the lawn and do some other outside work.