Thunderstick: Another week into the season and things continue to be as fragmented as ever. It's tough to get a good read on this team right now because we keep getting cold weather and rain outs and that rhythm that every real baseball fan feels during the season has yet to be established for the Sox so far. It's been too many off days and too many games in lousy weather to really get a feel for what's good and what's bad with this team. That said, I think there are a couple observations to be made from this past week:
1. While I'm not ready to completely discount Schill's first start in KC, I'm one more good start from doing so. He was dealing this weekend. And while DiceK's start against Seattle might not be considered great by a lot of people because of what King Felix did, it was still a good start and given the cold weather, his inexperience pitching outdoors in such weather and the nerves he had to have been feeling from his first start in Fenway, it's a good starting point. But right now I don't think we can feel anything less than fairly comfortable with the way the top 4 starters have performed. The off days and rain outs have meant that we've only seen Tavarez once so far in that five spot--good news because he sucks. Bad news as we are robbing ourselves of valuable chances to see him have a completely psychotic episode on the mound. I love Tavarez.
2. The bats still haven't been great, but the approach was much better in the Anaheim series. I was frustrated by how few runs were scored against starters in those two games, but I did like that the Sox did start being a lot more patient at the plate--really paid off in that second game when they were into the pen early and did a lot of damage there. I remain hopeful that this approach will continue to improve.
That's about all I've really go to comment on with this team. The Patriot's Day game has already been pushed back from 10 to 12 today and I imagine it'll be pushed back further. Hopefully they can get it in--I hate to stockpile all these make up games so early in the season and have them suck up off days later. As much as we as fans hate offdays, they become precious in the second half of the season when there aren't as many and you hate to have to see them taken up with make up games. But at least after today the boys head to Toronto where we know they'll get the games in. Toronto has started the season playing well and I think we'll see Halladay during this trip, so it'll be a tough series to win. But then they come home for Round 1 with the Spanks. The forecast here is calling for rain all week until Friday at which point we're supposed to see the start of spring really kicking in with temps in the low 60s all weekend and mostly sunny. The Spanks now have 3 pitchers on the DL, so this is a prime opportunity to get a couple games of distance as they rebuild to full strength. I think the Sox are 1.5 up on them now--it'd be nice to see that lead maintained or increased a bit before the weekend and then to take 2 of 3 and on Monday be 4-4.5 games up. But we'll see.
dcat: The funny thing about last week is that it does not feel like anywhere near as good a stretch for us as it was because of both the weather issues hat made the week seem like an Escher painting come to life and the fact that of all of the games, the most hyped one proved the most disappointing. But the reality is that the Sox have won four of the last five and they have done so with lights-out pitching, with maybe the best regular season save I have ever seen in Papelbon's five-out gem last Sunday, and with the bats finally coming awake. We keep saying the same thing: It's early, it's early, and while it is true that it is way too soon in the season to make any projections, the reality is that every win in April is mathematically as important as every win in September, and for a while there we looked like a .500 team.
Let's talk a bit about Papelbon, who has opened up this season in absolutely dominating fashion. The saves he has had have been astounding --if anything, better than what he accomplished last season. And yet one of my favorite little moments of the young season came in his non-save in Friday night's game. The Sox were up with a 4-1 lead. Waker had pitched another near-gem (his first two outings have to be the best hidden aspect of these early weeks) but had runners on first and third with the Angels' number three and four hitters set to come to the plate. Tito went to the pen, brought in Papelbon, who shut down Vladdy Guerrero and Garrett Anderson on six pitches. The Sox went on to score six in the next frame, and with the game in hand and the leverage lowered, Papelbon was done.
I've said it all along -- despite the fiasco that was the closer by committee role (I'll say it forever -- the problem was a dearth of personnel, not a strategic blunder) in 2003, the reality is that the 9th is not always the highest leverage inning. On Friday the most important moment of the game came in the 8th. Tito had the situation down, brought in Papelbon who, in the lexicon of the Fenway Faithful Pap-Smeared the Angels' two best hitters, and the Sox then turned what was a close game late into a laugher. If we can continue to be that savvy, and if the other guys in the pen can carry their weight, maybe Papelbon can help revolutionize the closer's role in a way that Bill Campbell, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, Dennis Eckersley, and, yes, the Fruitbat (for readers not familiar with the SoSH lingo: do a Google image search of the two) Mariano Rivera. I'll admit it -- I still am unsure about the miracle transformation in Big Pappy's shoulder that now allows him to do what we were told all offseason would be to his detriment, but color me, well, relieved.
I basically agree with all of your other points -- Schill is coming into shape, and I cannot help but wonder if his coming in slightly more orotund than usual means that in Kansas City he still was not in complete pitching shape, but right now he is back to top-of-the-rotation form. As is stands we have three aces, with Waker starting off like he did in his first season with the Sox. And as for the bats, I could not agree more with your take. If the Sabrmetrician, Moneyball, Bill Jamesian, whatever you want to call it approach has shown us anything it is that the more pitches you see, the better it is for you. In a world where smart people understand that on-base percentage is leaps and bounds better than batting average in grasping a hitter's worth, the ability to take pitches is as valuable a skill as a guy can have, especially if his role is not to be a huge production guy in terms of the power stats.
I'm bummed about the game being cancelled yesterday and I hope they can get the confrontation in this morning, seeing as it is Patriots' Day, that peculiar and great New England holiday that we all know best because the Sox play the only morning game on a local MLB schedule and the Boston Athletic Association holds its annual little race. But I bet you're glad you are not running the Boston Marathon today. Piling up these games for later in the season is no good, but neither is running guys out to get hurt.
I for one cannot wait for them to get into the once-spectacular sanctum beneath Toronto's retractable roof that will almost-surely not be retracted. Three games against potential playoff contenders the Jays will be a nice test against a divisional foe to whom we owe a sent message or two. But we may as well keep an eye toward the weekend's little confrontation: Sox v. Yanks back in the Cozy Confines. I see a special Friday Sox-Yanks version of Dirty Water in our future if I can find a way to write from England, where I'll be starting Wednesday. Maybe we can even invite Holmes to give his perspective from the shallow, fetid, chlamydial end of the gene pool.
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