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Sunday, May 08, 2005

So Who Are They?

The Sox don't exactly look like the fun loving idiots on my WS DVD these days:

* Wade Miller acquitted himself pretty well today, mostly cuffing around a weak Seattle lineup at home. Perfect way to ease himself back into major league pitching. I don't want to get too excited yet: it's Seattle, and there's still this new delivery he's airing out. That said, it sure was nice to see the offseason's most intriguing investment start off looking so good.

* Speaking of Millers, how long do we have to tolerate Millar's power outage before we declare his offseason a resounding flop? His overstuffed biceps have produced a steady stream of opposite field flyouts in virtually every big situation. Fortunately, they haven't really needed him.

* Anyway, the big picture is looking pretty good. Clement has been brilliant since the Baltimore debacle, hanging tough in Texas and dominating the Mariners at home. Wakefield got his rough spots out of his system. And Arroyo has been the team's best starter, something for which you can make a case going back to last midsummer. Halama filled in decently, the two nobody starters from Pawtucket held their own, and the Sox just won their third straight series. We're back to wondering how they're going to handle the delicious dilemma of having sox quality starters.

* And to top it all off, the Yankees hit last place after dropping three straight to the Devil Dogs. If that's not fun, I don't know what is. The establishment is starting to catch on to the Bombers' bizarre lineup and nonexistent karma. And I thought 2004 was a good year...

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Quick Check In

The Sox' start has seemed slightly, um, uninspired... as stud batter after batter fails to produce in the clutch, as the bullpen gives up run after run, as Edgar Renteria's average plummets and Bellhorn's strikeouts rise. That and injuries are much of what's gone wrong.

But uninspired? They just won their fourth of six on the road in Texas and Detroit, with 3/5 of the rotation and suspensions from Tampa scrambling the lineup. They are currently 15-12, three back of Baltimore and not that it matters but 4.5 games up on the Yankees. The season is in its infancy, and the run support has hardly dried up. Let's look at some subplots.

* Team Chemistry: it's fair to wonder, as a lot of people seem to be doing, whether the partial breakup of the team will cost them their legendary chemistry, which was so instrumental in last year's Glorious Triumph. Clearly it's not the same, but the season is very young. Remember, nobody was talking much about the Sox' chemistry while Nomar was sulking around for the first four months of 2004.

* Bullpen: they have royally sucked, with Foulke's struggles the most noticeable. And nothing gets a team down like bad relief pitching. But there is plenty of reason for optimism. First, Timlin and Embree both went through plenty of rough patches last year, so any scuffling now should not be read too expansively. And Foulke seems like he's coming back around. He had little trouble tonight in the Sox' 4-3 nailbiter. And the homer he gave up in yesterday's win was a total fluke, and was surrounded by three relatively easy outs. Seriously, that ball was at least shoulder-high, and I have no idea (a) how Thames hit that ball; and (b) why he was swinging there in the first place. Don't worry about Keith Foulke. So I says.

Update! Foulke just threw a 1-2-3 ninth (1st time??) to nail down a one-run win in Detroit, against the 3-4-5 hitters. All on soft popups, classic Foulke outs. So the struggles may be just about done.

* Newcomer Starters: Wells has been toggling back and forth between spectacular and a disaster, so you never know what you're getting. Miller is set to make his Red Sox debut this Sunday. Clement, meanwhile, has been about as advertised: very tough, sometimes spectacular, and his 3-0 record makes one wonder what the problem with his record in Chicago was.

Bottom line, it's still only MAY!
I Did It!

I have officially changed Red Sox policy with regard to their lineup!! After a determined, fire-sucking campaign that spanned the entire offseason, I have successfully coerced Tito to use Mirabelli as the DH against lefties!! Seriously, this is a winning strategy (OK, I hope I have this opinion three hours from now) because he KILLS lefties, and because benching either Nixon or Ortiz or both makes it virtually impossible for an opposing manager to summon a righthanded reliever at a key moment, lest they lure Big Papi or the underrated righty-crushing Nixon off the bench. So let's check in later on this experiment, assuming we can have a reasoned discussion based on 3-4 at-bats.

Update! Mirabelli whiffed a couple of times and went 1-for-4... with a grand slam, in a 5-3 game. That puts his slugging alone against lefties at 1.000 for the evening. Score one for me.
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