Sox Thoughts

Jed Lowrie went on the DL today with a bum left shoulder. Already, one of the local hacks wrote an article about trading for Jose Reyes. Let's be clear: It ain't happening. We have Scutaro, and Iglesias is the short stop of the future...period. Having home-grown players in your line-up is important to the long-term stability of any team. Constantly trading prospects for expensive stars is....expensive. Also, I think whichever team invests in Jose Reyes in the future will be disappointed...my gut tells me he isn't one of those guys whose going to be healthy and productive for a long time.

I'm intrigued by the impending call-up of Andrew Miller. He has been lights out since changing his pre-game routine and was once the most highly touted prospect in baseball. He'll take the spot of Buchholz while his back gets right and shit always seems to happen making it necessary to have starting pitching depth. Making his first start against a weak-hitting NL west team should be a confidence boost too.

Speaking of Clay...don't get too worried. He'll be fine. I think he'll hit the DL before Monday, take 2 weeks off and come back strong. The Sox have done this with pitchers a few times (given them a precautionary mid-season DL stint), and it seems to pay off when the pitcher is healthy in September.

Youkilis was limping after making a play on a ground ball last night. I wonder if he's banged up or just putting on a show for the Academy..he tends to be a hypochondriac when it comes to injuries, so it's tough to tell. If he IS injured, that would explain why his production has tailed this year.

Beckett's unseen performance in Tampa on Wednesday was his best performance in a Sox uniform...just an infield dribbler from a no-no. Good to see him bounce back this year...we really need him to be a horse, especially with Lackey struggling, Clay aching, and the 5th spot kind of in limbo (though currently being filled nicely by Wake, but for how long?)

Adrian Gonzalez is ridiculous. He is one of the top 3 players in the game and a joy to watch. even though Rizzo looks like he may be a stud, and Casey Kelly might be great too, I'd make that trade 100 out of 100 times.

A good closer is hard to come by. Year in and year out, there are always guys that have had incredible years, then fade away...it's a crapshoot. Aside from Mo Riviera....who else has shown that he can be a dominant closer for more than a year or two. Pap, Joe Nathan (who's done), Brian Wilson ...??? K-Rod, Lidge, Fuentes, Soriano, Jenks, Soria, Capps, Cordero...all guys who were great for a year, maybe two, then got hurt or disappeared. I think, even though he was inconsistent the last 2 season, Papelbon has shown that he is a top closer and the Sox should probably just lock him up. Yes, Bard is the closer in waiting, but he doesn't seem to have the fire in his belly that a closer needs. Bard will be a great set-up guy here, or a great closer in KC, SD, or Pitt..but in a pressure cooker like Boston or NY, only Pap and Mo have proved that they can do it.

I love that David Ortiz is having a great year. I love all that he has done here...but this contract extension talk is ridiculous. He has an option for next year, Theo WILL exercise it, and Ortiz WILL play here next year. IF he performs again, the he WILL get offered another year after next season...and maybe some other team will offer multiple years, but it won't be the Sox. He's aging and had two awful seasons before his resurgence this year, and Theo isn't one to offer multiple years to a player based on his past. Stop the talk, there wont be a new contract....Ortiz hasn't earned it yet with 2 good months in the last two and a half years.

Twitter Tough Guy

You remember Hockey Legend Chris Nilan, right?  No? Let me refresh your memory. Nilan was a goon for the Canadiens in the 80's. His primary function was to protect real hockey players...that's it. Basically, an ape could have done what Nilan did on the ice. He wasn't a star then, and he sure as hell is a nobody now. Aside from being a goon, the only news I ever remembered about Nilan was when he got arrested for stealing shorts from a Lord n Taylor a bunch of years back.

A couple months ago, when the NHL playoffs started, I came across a tweet from Nilan about the B's/Habs series, and decided to follow Nilan on Twitter just to see the Montreal perspective, he rooted for the Habs, tweeted thoughts on the series, and mentioned appearances he'd be making on the radio. All good. When the B's beat he habs in 7...I tweeted a "haha" to him to chide him a little and he responded to the tweet by asking me to fight him on the street and even sent me a direct message with incoherent ramblings about fucking my mother and sucking on tits and bragging about how many followers he has.(he apparently doesn't realize that some people aren't on twitter to act like 15 year old girls, but to actually just see the news updates) Since then, I've continued following Nilan just because I thought it would be funny to follow a washed-up, half-retarded idiot, and Nilan hasn't disappointed. Come to find out...this is an almost daily routine for this guy. He literally threatens to fight somebody everyday....Bro..it's over...you're 100 years old...you are an adult...act like it. Any idiot can threaten to fight people, and make bad mother jokes on twitter...thing is, most of those idiots are teenagers and drunken college kids....not grandfathers.

Maybe it's not his fault, maybe he was hit in the head too many times, either way the dude needs to grow up because he's embarrassing himself and probably his family too...what kid wants to see their grandfather (who by the way, can barely spell)make an ass out of himself online?

Lord Stanley back in Boston!

It has really sunk in yet, it may not sink in, I may just be numb to championships being from Boston...but, for the first time in my life, the Bruins are Stanley Cup champs.

I grew up with Bourque, Neely,  Janney, lemelin, Moog, the Sweeneys, etc....great teams and better guys. I'm lucky enough to know a handful of them, and I've met most of them...growing up a Sox fan 1st, and Bruins fan second, these guys were my heroes...at least I thought they were, I didn't know better. They weren't champions. They were perennial runners-up. Today's group of Bruins don't have nearly the household names that the 90's B's did, but they will forever be remembered for their memorable run to the Cup.

Hockey is back in Boston. The fans are all in. Pee-wee hockey teams will be loaded this winter. Ratings are up. merchandise is flying off shelves. And, the best part is: This team is young, under contract, and ready to compete for years to come. The team that takes the ice in 110 days will be almost exactly the same. Only Ryder, Kaberle, and Hnidy are free agents, and Recchi is retiring...that's it, and those guys, if they don't re-sign, aren't exactly irreplaceable.

Let's enjoy the parade tomorrow, let's enjoy watching how the Cup is mistreated for the summer, that's all fun...but, I can't wait for the puck to drop in the fall.

Now it's time to catch some Sox games and hope they can bring Boston it's 8th championship in 11 years this October

First Class Idiot?

The Boston Glob today posed the question.....is Johnny Damon a Hall of Famer? I'm not a stat geek, but I took a look at the numbers, and by the numbers alone, he is close. While the stats say "maybe", my eyes and my gut say "no". I think most voters want to think of Hall of Fame hitters as guys that dominated their era. Unequivocally, you cannot argue that Damon was a dominate player the past 16 seasons. A champion? Yes. A good guy? Yes. A leader? Yes. But he's never even been in the MVP conversation, was only a 2 time All-Star, was never one of the best two players on his own team, and is going to come up short of 3,000 hits.
If the Hall considered Watermelon tosses off of hotel balconies, epic beards, naked locker-room pull-ups, and saying "um" more than anyone ever...he'd be a shoe-in. Alas, they don't and I'm afraid, Idiot nation, that JD will not be on a plaque in Cooperstown

Game 7

For the first time in my life, the Bruins are one game away from winning the Stanley Cup. Getting steam-rolled by the Oilers in 1992 is a very blurry memory, in fact, the only thing that stands out from 92 is Rejean Lemelin standing on his head against Montreal in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Win or lose tonight, these NHL playoffs have been the most exciting, nerve-racking, and fun sports experience I can remember. While Vinatieri's Field Goal in the snow, Roberts stolen base, and Renteria grounding out to Keith Foulke will always be the highlights of my sports-fan life, these playoffs will always be remembered for two months of must-see TV. Coming back from an 0-2 deficit to the villainous Habs, exacting revenge in a swift manner against the Flyers, the Back-and-forth series with the Lightning,  the instant hatred that was created against the Canucks, Pacioretty, Over-Time games, Seguin's arrival, Nate Horton's heroics, then his injury, Finger biting, and Goaltenders getting pulled on a seemingly nightly basis will be the memories I'll be telling my grandkids about someday.

My hope for tonight is that the referees put away the whistles and let the boys play. Having outscored Vancouver 19-8 in the series and chasing the goaltender twice, one would have to think that the advantage is for the Bruins tonight as long as they can stay out of the penalty box. (as I write this Barry Melrose just predicted a Vancouver win, so fuck him, and his mullet)

I'm not one for predictions, but you gotta like the Bruins tonight. Let's win it for Horty!

Mission

This blog basically gives me a venue in which to think out loud. I'll blog about baseball, Boston sports, cooking, politics, pop-culture, current events, and whatever else pops into my head. I don't pretend to know everything about anything, but i do know something about most things and I'm interested to see if other agree, disagree, like, dislike, care or couldn't care less about what I have to say.