Daniel Bard’s stats for his last 5 appearances:
It’s going to be hard for a reliever who’s not a closer to win the Rookie of the Year. Yet, if he does not have a dramatic drop off, Bard will have to get serious consideration.
godspeed to Arturo “Thunder” Gatti.
One of the most entertaining fighters from the past 15 years. His wars against Mickey Ward were some of the best & most competitive fights this sports fan has ever seen.
Maybe an arm to watch for on the trade market next month
The 32-year-old Tichenor, up from the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, gave the boot to both catchers and both managers during a wild seventh inning that ended with Red Sox starter Josh Beckett giving a dismissive wave toward home plate in disgust.
If Smoltz sticks with his schedule, his first Red Sox start would be June 16, a home game against the Florida Marlins.
Two things to keep in mind:
Could there be a trade in the works? I can’t say for sure yet but it wouldn’t surprise me if he takes a day or two off, he is injury prone after all, while Washington mulls over some offers.
The Red Sox have to be thinking long & hard about adding another quality bat. How about a deal that looks like this:
Nats send: (1B/DH)Nick Johnson & (UTIL)Anderson Hernadez(that’s about $6 mill in salary)
Sox send: (RHRP)Manny Delcarmen, (SS)Julio Lugo(plus about 1/2 of his salary), (LHRP) Javier Lopez or Hunter Jones, & (1B) Chris Carter
That gives the Nats 4 players for their 25 man roster at roughly the same price as two. They end up with a seasoned but young closer/set up man, a SS, a lefty for the pen, and very solid bat in Carter but has a cement glove
I always tend to conceive of trades in a bigger scope than they need to be(I’m sure the Nats would rather not take a discounted Julio Lugo and instead get another young arm) but this at least has the framework of one that does help both teams.
Good to see Terry Francona sitting him down again, something he may not have done in the past & definitely not 2 days in a row fearing that the players psyche would suffer. Nick Green is not a perfect solution but at least he puts forth the effort on defense and has enough offense to justify his defensive shortcomings being overlooked.
Trade suggestion: Sox need to make a minor move & trade for Omar Vizquel of the Rangers until Jed Lowrie gets back in July.
Wait when did the Mets acquire Jason Varitek?
Meanwhile as NESN was busy embarrassing Sox fans by making us listen to temporary fill in Dennis Eckersley…
While watching tonight’s Mets/Red Sox game on Boston’s NESN, color commentator Dennis Eckersley (after letting an expletive fly during last night’s game) bestowed the following piece of baseball wisdom on the viewers during the seventh inning with Ramon Martinez at the plate and runners on first and third:
You gotta get this guy out…you gotta punch this guy out, is what you gotta do…
[after Beckett goes ahead 0-1] See how he throws without trying to punch him out…I mean punch out, pop up you can’t punch anyone out on the first pitch obviously…so…you gotta wait til you got two strikes on somebody to try and punch him out…
Eckersley goes on to say the phrase “punch out” about seven more times before Martinez eventually does strike out.
If I were a Boston fan I would be embarassed that NESN chose Eckersley to replace Jerry Remy in the broadcast booth. What a joke.
He must have gone to the Joe Morgan school of broadcating.
Lets not forget Eck has not done many games, his experience has been in the studio, and is filling in because of a medical emergency. I’ve heard much, much worse, John Sterling & Suzanne Waldman of the Yankees come to mind. They also had Rex Hudler fill in for a few innings while out West a few weeks ago. Your definition of embarrassed would be redefined entirely. Trust.
One more thing, as a Sox fan I cant muster up any real concern about the issue as we were not given a choice ny NESN. At least not me. Eck will be on TBS tomorrow, someone must like him.
