WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!

Lester pitched fantastically well and got us (with bullpen help) to another title! I'm going to go party some more so I all I can say is pump up "Shipping Up to Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys and rock out with Ace and Bot doing a jig!

Beckett as Best

From the Herald:

The legend of Josh Beckett keeps on growing. Further research by Major League Baseball determined that Beckett now ranks as the all-time postseason leader (minimum 40 innings) in opponents batting average after his win in Game 1.

Beckett, who allowed only one run on six hits in seven innings, lowered his opponents average to .159, moving ahead of George Earnshaw (.174), Mariano Rivera (.176), Sandy Koufax (.180) and Eddie Plank (.186). Beckett’s .209 opponents on-base percentage is also the lowest all-time, just ahead of Rivera’s .211 and Koufax’s .223.

The Pap-ajima show

"This was the Pap-ajima show tonight,'' starter Curt Schilling said after Boston's 2-1 victory.

Anyone have any issues with how Papelbon was handled all year, and how Okajima was handled in September? Here's how they are doing in October:

Hideki Okajima 9.2IP 5H 3BB 9K 0.00ERA 0.83WHIP
Jonathan Papelbon 7.2IP 4H 4BB 6K 0.00ERA 1.04WHIP

Francona (and whoever else was involved in the decision making) deserve a lot of credit on this one.

Nice Shot...

8:53 pm: J.D. Drew all is forgiven.

Game Five: Sawx @ Tribe

Josh Beckett vs. C.C. Sabathia. It all comes down to this. If we can win this one and bring it back to Boston then we have a shot. The hitters have had a great approach against Sabathia which has beaten him once. If we can keep that going then we're looking good.

In other news, do the Rockies lose baseball games? Ever? I mean they have played a full eighth of a season and lost ONE game. This is just ridiculous.

Kielty Likely Over Drew in Game 1

According to the Herald,

Manager Terry Francona wasn’t ready to announce a Game 1 lineup but acknowledged Kielty was under consideration because of his past success against lefty C.C. Sabathia, who will start the opener for Cleveland at Fenway Park.

“I haven’t spoken to any players yet about what we might do roster-wise or lineup-wise, (but) Bobby certainly has had some success against Sabathia,” Francona said.

Ronnie Mac should definitely get the start over JD when Sabathia pitches, and it has little to do with a few ancient AB's.

Here is Kielty's 3-year line vs. lefties: .313/.372/.494 (.866)

Here is Drew's: .234/.338/.347 (.685)

In fact, Kielty should probably pinch-hit for Drew in any meaningful late-inning situation vs. any lefty reliever, and particulaly against Perez who has an insane platoon split.

An Open Letter to Eric Kuselias

I pity your soul, Eric. You crossed the line from favorites to chumps in my mind today. Today on First and 10 you were critiquing the ALCS and pointing out holes in each team's line-ups. I am in no way naive enough to believe that the Red Sox are invincible, have no weaknesses, or are even immeasurably better than the Indians or anyone else for that matter. That's baseball. And that's why we love it.

However, you pointed out a few facts that are inexcusably wrong. You brought up that Manny Ramirez was still injured. Wrong. Where were you last Friday night? Obviously, not in Boston because you would have seen an object launched into space that still has not returned to Earth's surface.

I understand that you are often forced to up the ante with such a blowhard sitting across from you. Skip Bayless may be one of the most narrow-minded sports commentators and reporters I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. I would have expected his attitude from a bigot or a politician, but not someone getting paid to write about sports.

But you on the other hand are different. You fill in for people on ESPN Radio and I actually prefer you to many of the regular hosts and religiously listen to The Sportsbash. But to accuse the Red Sox of having inadequate middle relief is simply wrong. Try this: Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okijima, Jon Lester, Javier Lopez, and Hideki Okijima. Heck, when we decide a game is hopeless we throw in a former-Cy Young-winning closer: Eric Gagne. Our bullpen (meaning all of them) was statistically the best over the course of the entire season. It's just a fact.

I am writing this because I labor away day after day and still follow sports religiously and am outright ashamed when commentators get stuff that wrong. And I'm writing this to make an observation about how excellent out bullpen is. So please, take some notice. We have a great bullpen and Manny Ramirez is a great hitter. And he is playing. If you want to pick on someone, go after J.D. Drew whose season averages look bad enough that its perfect for mid-afternoon sports talk fodder.

Nevermind that over the past two months he has had numbers similar to Alex Rodriguez.

Better luck next time,

A Blessed Red Sox Fan

Wake Us for Game Four?

When it comes to game four of the ALCS, the Red Sox have an interesting choice to make. Assuming he is able, should Tim Wakefield start or should the Sox pitch Josh Beckett on three days rest?

Pros of starting Wakefield / Cons of starting Beckett:

• Beckett would get 5 days rest for his 2nd start, instead of 3.
• Schilling would get 6 days rest for his 2nd start, instead of 5.
• Dice-K would get 5 days rest for his 2nd start, instead of 4.
• Historically, pitchers have not been at their best in the postseason on 3 days rest.
• If the Red Sox win in 7 games, Beckett could start game 1 of the World Series.

Pros of starting Beckett / Cons of starting Wakefield

• Wakefield has not pitched since Sept. 29, and has been nursing a balky back.
• Beckett on 3 days rest may be better than Wakefield, even if Beckett is not at his 100% best.
• Beckett pitched a complete game shutout (5H, 2BB, 9K, 107P) on 3 days rest in the 2003 World Series against the Yankees.
• Beckett could make 3 starts, including a potential game 7 on normal rest, instead of Dice-K starting a game 7.

Comments?

The Adventures of C. Montague Schilling & Sons

It's official: ESPN reports that Curt Schilling will pitch Game 2 of the ALCS against Cleveland. The game will be played in Fenway Park. Presumably, Dice-K will follow him in Game 3. I'm thinking this extra rest will be a good thing for Dice.

Don't Blame A-Rod This Year

Guess who was dead last in OPS among Yankees with at least 8 plate appearances in the ALDS? Cap'n Intangibles at .353 was worse than the Sox lowest OPS player in the ALDS -- Drew at .364. And at least Drew had 3 RBI vs. 1 for the Teflon Yankee.

The Amazing Mr. Ortiz

Feast on the Papi line from the ALDS:

.714/.846/1.571 (2.418) 5 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI

Manny also had a monster line, suffering only in comparison to Ortiz:

.375/.615/1.125 (1.740) 3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI

Honorable mention, Mike Lowell:

.333/.264/.556 (.919) 1 R, 3 RBI

J.D. Drew was last among starters with a .364 OPS, but still drove in 3 runs (tied for 2nd with Ortiz and Lowell).

Hope for Drew

Mike Lowell has been one of the bright spots for the Red Sox in 2007, while J.D. Drew has probably been the biggest disappointment. As a result, there seems to be a groundswell of support to resign Lowell (34 next year), and a wish that there was some way to ditch the remaining three years on Drew's contract (32 next year).

I'd like to present a few facts and figures here. The purpose is in no way to detract from Mike Lowell's contributions this year, but to give the Sox faithful some reason to have hope for Drew in the coming years.

1. Lowell has often come up in discussions for team MVP even though his 2007 OPS (.879) was .187 less than Ortiz (1.066). Drew's 2007 OPS (.796) was only .083 less than Lowell's. So, the difference between Lowell and Ortiz was more than twice the difference between Drew and Lowell. Or, to put it another way, Lowell's offense was much closer to Drew's than to Ortiz's.
   
   
2. The younger Drew has a career OPS of .890 (including 2007), while Lowell's is .812. So, any regression to the mean strongly favors Drew next year.
   
   
3. When Lowell was 31 (same age as Drew this year), he had an off year far worse than Drew's 2007. In 2005 Lowell's OPS was .658, vs. 796 for Drew this year. That is why the Marlins insisted that the Red Sox take Mike Lowell as part of the price for getting Josh Beckett.

So, if Drew can stay healthy (admittedly a big if), there is every reason to expect J.J. Drew to significantly outperform Mike Lowell over the next three years. Not sayin' don't sign Lowell -- just sayin' be patient with Drew.

Surgeon on the Mound, Patience at the Plate

All facets of the Red Sox game were in post-season form last night. This is from Peter Gammons blog:

[Beckett] gave up a leadoff single to Chone Figgins. After that, he faced 30 batters, threw 27 first-pitch strikes, and to those 30 hitters did not throw a ball to 16 of them. "I had great defense behind me, I tried to pitch to it," said Beckett.

But while Beckett may be the pitcher you'd most want pitching the most important game, the Boston approach against John Lackey was huge. On Monday, hitting coach Dave Magadan went through advance guru Dana Levangie's report and begged hitters to try to lay off Lackey's slider and curveball out of the strike zone.

Not one Boston hitter swung at a pitch out of the strike zone from Lackey.

Read that last line again : Not one Boston hitter swung at a pitch out of the strike zone from Lackey. Amazing.

Said hitting coach Dave Magadan, “I wasn’t sitting there thinking, ‘We aren’t swinging at a bad pitch,’ but that’s the way we are most of the time. It’s impressive, especially with a guy like Lackey, who lives with guys chasing breaking balls out of the zone. We did a really good job of making him get that up and seeing the ball out of his hand.”

Also, only Christy Mathewson (4) has more post-season shutouts than Beckett (3). Two others are tied (Whitey Ford and Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown).

Beckett's game score of 87 is the best by any starter in the post-season since -- Josh Beckett (93) for the Marlins in 2003.

ALDS Playoff Roster

Regulars:
Jason Varitek
Kevin Youkilis
Dustin Pedroia
Julio Lugo
Mike Lowell
J.D. Drew
Coco Crisp
Manny Ramirez
David Ortiz

Bench:
Eric Hinske
Alex Cora
Jacoby Ellsbury
Bobby Kielty
Doug Mirabelli
Kevin Cash

Pitchers:
Josh Beckett
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Curt Schilling
Jon Lester
Jonathan Papelbon
Eric Gagne
Hideki Okajima
Mike Timlin
Manny Delcarmen
Javier Lopez

Biggest surprise: no Tim Wakefield. See article.

Other more-or-less surprises:

• no Tavarez or Snyder
• both Mirabelli and Cash with Wakefield out

DP: Just give him rookie of the year already...

It seems like most people are calling for DP to get Rookie of the Year honors based on his exceptional defense. He plays a skill position extremely well (Gold Glove-type well, actually) and hits extremely well.

DP got of to a rough start in April but since then has completely turned it around. Offensively, there are three powerhouses at 2B in baseball right now: Chase Utley, Placido Polanco, and our boy DP. Consider these numbers: .317 BA, .380 OBP (Polanco is first at .388), and in nearly the same number of place appearences (520 for DP, 530 for Utley), he has struck out less than half as many times (42 vs. 89). Bottom line: he does what a #2 needs to do. He walks some, he gets on base a lot, and he doesn't strike out.

And he's a cool guy...for what it's worth.

Mr. Ortiz, Could you please have a down year next season too?

Maybe the general perception that David Ortiz has had an off season in 2007 is because he hasn't had his usual quota of walkoff hits. But let's consider the facts ...

He had the best OPS of his career -- 1.066 vs. 1.049 last year. This was second in the league behind only ARod at 1.067. That's right, Mr. Consensus MVP was only .001 ahead of Ortiz in OPS. Furthermore Ortiz led ARod by a wide margin in OBP, which is the more valuable component of OPS.

He had the best batting average of his career -- .332 vs. .301 in 2004. (He hit .327 his rookie year in limited action). His 2007 batting average was 5th in the league.

He had the best on-base percentage of his career -- .455 vs. .413 last year. This led the league by a wide margin -- Ordonez was second at .434.

He set the all time record for doubles in a season by a DH (52). Only Ordonez had more this season (54).

He led the league in extra base hits with 88 (ARod was second with 85).

He led the league in RC/27 (runs created per 27 outs) at 9.97 (ARod again second at 9.70).

As Bob Ryan pointed out in his blog, Papi is the first Red Sox to have 80 or more extra base hits in four consecutive seasons. Not Jim Rice, Double X, Fred Lynn, Yaz or Manny did that. Not even Teddy Ballgame. ARod has done it four times in his career, but not consecutively.

Papi and Jack Rabbit Honored

David Ortiz was named AL Player of the Month and Jacoby Ellsbury was named AL Rookie of the Month for September, according to a statement released by the Red Sox.

Ortiz hit .396 with nine home runs and 27 RBIs in 26 games. He led the league with an .824 slugging percentage and had 21 extra base hits. This is the third time Ortiz has won the award.

Called up for the second time this season on Sept. 1, Ellsbury hit .361 with 17 RBIs in 26 games during September.

From article in Boston Globe.