Hacks with Haggs

Time is running out on Manny Being Manny

Haggs — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:34:34 GMT

There’s no denying it.

The Red Sox have bent over backwards, forward, sideways and upside down while enabling Manny Ramirez to craft his “Manny Being Manny” persona – a seemingly small ransom to be paid while the mercurial Hall of Fame-bound slugger smacked home runs and piled up Cooperstown-worthy totals.

Starting at the top with Sox Principal Owner John Henry and trickling all the way down to aggrieved traveling secretary Jack McCormick, everyone associated with the company housed on Yawkey Way has made special exceptions on some level for the once-in-a-generation talent.

It’s allowed the Sox to capture a pair of World Series Championships over the last two seasons, and it’s also built up the Dreadlocked One into a folk hero on the main streets and back roads of Red Sox Nation. There was even a memorable column at the start of this season that tossed out the notion that Ramirez should have a statue built in his honor at the Fens when Manny finally closed up the shutters.

That’s why Ramirez’s ill-timed bomb-tossing actions toward the Sox ownership group and front office over the last week smack of something stuck between completely misguided and “in need of medication” delusional.

In case you missed it, Ramirez cryptically told both Channel 7 reporter Larry Ridley and the Boston Herald’s Rob Bradford: “I want no more (expletive) where they tell you one thing and behind your back they do another thing.”

The message was sent in two different interviews, and wasn’t an “off the cuff” or “taken out of context” quote.

This was something that Ramirez clearly wanted out in the open for public consumption.

Was Manny talking about Boston’s half-hearted attempts to accommodate his past trade requests when he arbitrarily wanted out of Boston? Was the 36-year-old outfielder hinting at potential contract extension talks that he hoped the Sox would engage in, or maybe even some other kind of unfulfilled promises that the Sox haven’t lived up to?

Nobody seems to know.

The intrigue is solely due to Ramirez throwing the Sox organization under the bus, but inexplicably refusing to acknowledge what set the wick burning in the first place.

So we’re left to speculate, and it’s stunningly obvious that there is one difference between the Ramirez this season and past Manny Being Manny incarnations during his seven plus seasons in Red Stockings.

Ramirez doesn’t have the warm blanket of contractual security to comfort him with each organizational “brush fire” he accidentally sparks this season. Ramirez doesn’t know if the Sox will enact his $20 million team option for the 2009 season, and the Sox have until Nov. 9 to mull it over.

It would be sheer folly for the Sox to activate that option any sooner than they have to.

The ball…leverage…whatever you want to call it, is utterly in Boston’s favor because A) Ramirez isn’t guaranteed anything for next year at this point and B> the left fielder isn’t going to find any $20 million suitors this winter as he turns 37 years old and hurtles toward full-time DH-dom.

Manny Being Manny has transformed from charming to something much more malevolent this season, a change in behavior that preceded a dugout shoving match with Kevin Youkilis, the despicable incident involving 64-year-old McCormick and the trash talk targeted for Epstein, Henry and Co.

If the Sox did take on Ramirez’s option for next season and endure one more year of Manny at $20 million, then what’s to stop this very same erratic behavior from Ramirez when another 2010 $20 million option hangs in the balance?

There were reports that – during the three day All-Star event in New York City – Alex Rodriguez was taking Ramirez to task for agreeing to the two $20 million team options in his contract to begin with – a stark contrast to the opt-out language that allowed A-Rod to escape his pact and ink a $275 million megabucks contract with the Yanks.

There are only a handful of teams in the big leagues that could pay Ramirez the kind of money he expects, and he doesn’t mean nearly enough to those teams as he does to the Olde Towne Team.

Nobody is going to lock up a petulant 37-year-old DH-in-the-making who has seen his slugging percentage and OPS tumble over the last two seasons. Manny is still dangerous, but he’s also not the same hitter that he used to be.

His best chance to see truly big bucks over the next two years is to stop insulting the guy who signs his paychecks and start producing the numbers expected out of Boston’s clean-up hitter over the last two seasons.

Things seemed promising this winter when Ramirez was working out at API in Arizona and seemed motivated to have the kind of career year that would have forced the Sox to pick up his option. Prospects looked even better when Ramirez jumped out of the gate with a .344 month of April that saw his smash five homers and 15 RBIs along with a 1.011 OPS – a great beginning for the notoriously slow starter.

But the Manny milk has gone sour over the last two months, and it’s time to finally cut things off once and for all at the end of this season. As always, Manny’s numbers talk and he simply isn’t irreplaceable enough anymore to excuse the churlish behavior both on and off the field.

This isn't about erroneous reports concerning ridiculous "six figure fines" or dopey claims that Ramirez tanked an at bat against the Yankees in what amounts to a contract season. It's about the OPS, stupid.

Bring in Matt Holiday or Mark Teixeira, or somebody else that’s younger and capable of hitting the 30 home runs and 100 RBIs that have become Ramirez’s ceiling over the last two seasons.

The Simple Truth: the Manny Being Manny era in Boston is coming to a close, and his statistics are no longer gaudy enough to protect him.

Lugo: I always prove the doubters wrong

Haggs — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:06:49 GMT

It's always difficult for any player to lose their job due to injury, but that's the danger that awaits Julio Lugo if Jed Lowrie blossoms as a shortstop over the next six weeks. Despite Lowrie's impressive college and minor league pedigree, the only way to prove you can play a Major League shorstop is by flawlessly fielding a grounder in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium in a 1-0 nail-biter.

Lowrie will get plenty of chances to prove himself, and the Sox will be able to explore any and all options out there at shortstop -- while also knowing that teams like the Orioles and Tigers are also looking for shortstops. Here's a conversation I had with Lugo a few weeks back, and there's some interesting insight in Manny Ramirez as a teammate and Lugo's mindset as a Major League Ballplayer. It's easy to forget that he was the lowest Houston Astros draft pick to ever make it to the Majors, and he's had to prove people wrong through his entire baseball career. He know will find himself once again proving the doubters wrong -- this time it will be the doubters that think he'll have a hard time reclaiming the starting shortstop when he recovers from the torn left quad.

Here's the Q and A:

Looking back at playing in New York City, what are your memories from those days?
JL: I remember back in those days we used to play on the first field in the league. It was a place called the Prairie Grounds and it was real bad. It was rough, and it was a really tough neighborhood. Both in Youth Services and on my high school team, we played on some really bad fields and it was tough, but there were some good players on those teams. That’s what stands out the most.

What did you learn most playing at that period of your life?
JL: That time of life was difficult for me because I had just moved to New York from the Dominican. It was hard and I didn’t really understand English. It was hard for me to get around. I was a tough kid and it was hard getting through. You’ve got to be tough to be a baseball player and get through that kind of thing.

Was baseball almost an escape for you at that point of time in your life?
JL: For me it was. There were a lot of bad things around me. I used to play for three teams at the same time. All day, all the time. There were a lot of bad things and peer pressure. [Baseball] was a good way to keep me away from a lot of things that I didn’t want to be doing. You always play baseball and you’re always staying busy and when you get home you’re tired.

Was it basically that trouble was right outside your door when you were growing up in New York?
JL: Yeah, there were gangs and people getting shot. I stayed away from that by just playing. A lot of my friends would invite me to parties, but I would be like ‘No, I’ve got to get up and play tomorrow.’ And I give my friends a lot of credit because they said ‘okay, you go.’ By playing I was able to stay away from that stuff because if I wouldn’t have been playing then I would have been getting into the same stuff that they did.

Who taught you the game? Was it your dad?
JL: You know, I’ve thought about that one a little bit. My dad did a little bit in the beginning when I was young, but my parents got divorced pretty early. I just loved baseball since the beginning, man, and I just practiced myself. We used to have a real small apartment in New York with my mother and my two brothers and I’d be practicing inside all the time. I used to practice my swing in the house in the living room. I’d be banging the baseball against the front office and I used to hear people in my neighborhood all the time yelling ‘Stop it!” I’d be banging balls against the door and the walls. My mom used to let me be, so that’s how I learned.

Was it good for you as a baseball player to come to New York rather than stay in the Dominican?
JL: Well, to play baseball it would have been better to stay in the Dominican. I used to live right next door to a stadium and I used to have a lot of people that taught me how to play. I was really young, but I came to New York at 13 and that’s a time when you’re really learning how to play the game. I had a lot of friends that played, but nobody that was really teaching me until I went to Youth Services [a New York City summer baseball program aimed at underprivileged Dominican immigrants in the city].

Did you have a group of players that you grew up admiring?
JL: Oh yeah. I used to love Tony Fernandez. He was a great shortstop. I used to love Manny Ramirez. Manny was the man. I used to love Barry Larkin. Then I make it to the big leagues and I’m playing against these guys. I remember one day me and my father were watching the game – and I think I was 11 years-old – and I remember Doc Gooden was pitching. And then a couple of years later I’m sitting in a clubhouse with Doc Gooden and I can’t even believe it. I remember seeing him and I didn’t even want to talk to him because he was a such a big name when he was in spring training with the Astros for a little while. I couldn’t even hold it back because it was so great to just see him there when me and my dad used to watch him on TV.

When you first placed in the Youth Services, was Manny somebody that they always talked about?
JL: Whenever Manny came up to the plate everybody is like watching Manny, and they were watching everything that he did. He was so serious and he knew what he wanted to do. It was amazing. There were times he would take batting practice and he wouldn’t hit any balls and he’d be like ‘Oh man, I feel good.’ Because he was working on one thing and nobody else would be working on anything like that. He was working at a totally different level than everybody else and way ahead of everybody. I didn’t play with Manny, but I hear it from people and I used to watch him with the big guys. I’d watch him play and he’d hit balls way to left field foul and he’d hit balls way up to centerfield everywhere. He was always really relaxed, comfortable and confident.

Any stories about Manny that come to mind when you think about him?
JL: I remember our coach used to be really hard on kids and when you did something bad he would make you run. I remember one time he made Manny run so much that he ran until he fainted. He threw up and fainted and that’s when he stopped.

Was Mel [the Youth Services coach] tough to play for?
JL: He could be tough on the players but he wasn’t tough to play for. He was tough on players to get better and get to the next level. It was tough because he would make you run and make you do stuff, but he was trying to make you better. As a kid you didn’t really understand it…it was impossible. To go to the next level or if you know you want to be there, you need to understand that he was trying to make you better.

Did you ever, as a kid, watch Manny play when he was with the Indians?
JL: I never went to Yankee Stadium, but I went to go watch him play at Double-A and he was with the Indians and he hit a home run to straightaway centerfield. The crowd starting going crazy. I remember that, and I still have the bats at my house.
One day when I was in the minor leagues I went to go watch Manny play in spring training, and I saw him before the game. I went ‘Oh Manny…how are you’ and he was like ‘Oh…how are you.’ We didn’t really know each other well, but he told me he was going to give me some bats after the game. And I told all my friends. I was like ‘Oh [expletive], Manny is gonna give me some bats.’ And I was waiting outside after the game, and I thought that Manny forgot. I was like ‘man…’, but then Manny showed up a while later and he had the bats with him. I remember that and I still have the bats in my house. It felt so good, and to this day that was one of the best moments in my baseball career.

What’s it been like to play with him…a guy you always looked up to?
JL: Everybody knows about Manny and how good a hitter he is. But nobody knows about how good a person Manny is. You’ve got to be there to understand. When I was struggling last year I didn’t want to talk to anybody. But I would check my voice messages and he would leave me messages like ‘Hey don’t worry about it. You’re going to be fine. Tomorrow is your day.’ That kept me up all the time. That kept me up. It was amazing. Every time I made a play, I would turn around and he would be like pointing at me. He stole my heart, man. People don’t see it on the outside, but he really cares about me. He cares about everyone.

Does that perception about him surprise you given how he is with you?
JL: It’s surprising because he don’t say much and he doesn’t express his feelings that much. You’ve got to be real close to him for him to express his feelings. But I never hear Manny say anything negative. If something negative happens, he’ll be like ‘don’t waste your energy on it.’

People that know Manny say that he was no idea how good he really is.
JL: He just wants people to leave him alone and let him be who he is. There is nobody in this game better than him…nobody…and he knows that.

Is he the best hitter you’ve ever seen?
JL: No doubt. Manny was lost last year, and I’m telling you because he told me. When I’m lost I hit .150 or .200, but now him. He’s in good shape, but he really turned it on this year.

Are you a guy that’s always had to prove people wrong at every level? I know you were the lowest Astros draft pick that’s ever made it to the Majors.
JL: Let me tell you something. I’m not supposed to be here. I always have people doubting me. Even now. I still have people doubting me, and I feel like even if my name is at the top of the list people will still be doubting me. I make a couple of errors and people right away say ‘oh he’s going to make 50 errors this year.’ Always people doubt me, but that makes me stronger because I prove everybody wrong. I’m not supposed to be the starting shortstop for the Boston Red Sox; I wasn’t supposed to be the starting shortstop for the Houston Astros. I wasn’t supposed to be the starting shortstop for Tampa Bay, and now I’m here. People always doubted me.
The season I had last year, when I was hitting .180 at the halfway a lot of people would have died. I know what I can do. Sometimes you’ve got to understand that you go through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff. People have always doubted me…always.

Did that help you through the struggles in your career?
JL: Absolutely. Those moments make you strong, and you know what you can do and what you’re capable of. As an athlete and as a human being, you’ve got to understand that you’re going to struggle and that you are good. The confidence has to be there. I’ve done it before. I hit my way into the big leagues. I didn’t come over because of my range or my fielding.

Handicapping the Rockies' crop

Haggs — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:04:44 GMT

Interesting handicapping of the available names on the trade market by Rocky Mountain News columnist and sometimes-Colorado Rockies mouthpiece Tracy Ringolsby on foxsports.com. That makes his opinions of both Brian Fuentes and Matt Holliday -- a pair of Rockies players that the Sox have been casually linked to over the last month -- pretty interesting to first pick apart and then try to read btween the lines.

There's also a good Q & A with Ken Rosenthal and Brian Fuentes here.

My own take: The Sox seem to be taking their name out of the race for both of the Rockies' players, which could be genuine or could be posturing on their part to reduce the price of either player. The Rays seem to be very interested in Fuentes as well, and that could do a lot to ease the burden on Troy Percival in the back of their 'pen (isn't it interesting that the Red Sox front office has two AL East teams to worry about this season when it comes to blocking trades and driving up prices for players).

If the Sox make a move, the two names that will pop up the majority of the time on other team's wish lists will be Michael Bowden and Lars Anderson -- considered the two top prospects in the Sox organization that haven't enjoyed the wonder of a Major League per diem. Fuentes has saved at least 20 games three years in a row for the Rockies while bouncing around the Colorado bullpen, and he brings more traditionally dominant reliever stuff from the left side than say a Hideki Okajima does.

I was hesitant to Justin Masterson's name being linked to either of these deals, but I've started warming to the idea of selling high on the 23-year-old sinkerballer.

It will be very interesting to track Boston's pursuit -- or lack thereof -- in Holliday, who is a clear long term replacement for Manny Ramirez in left field. Holliday's father, a college baseball coach at the University of Oklahoma, has ties with John Farrell during their time as Sooners ballplayers and has worked to improve defensively. He could be the classic Fenway left fielder -- in the mold of Manny, Jim Ed "6-4-3" Rice or Mike "Ellis Burks' worst nightmare" Greenwell -- that is pretty pedestrian defensively, but will learn to play the Green Monster like a baseball-playing maestro.

It may be that the .285, 30 home runs and 105 RBIs Ramirez is on pace for along with this year's murkier version of Manny Being Manny simply aren't worth the $20 million option price tag. Stay turned.

Here are Ringolsby's takes:

LHP Brian Fuentes, Colorado: Potential free agent has Rockies willing to deal him, but he's a three-time All-Star as a closer who has dealt with tough situations without whining. If team can't get what it feels is a package worth more than the two comp picks it would receive next June for letting him go as a free agent, the Rockies won't send him packing.

OF Matt Holliday, Colorado: The fact that he figures to test free agency after next season has made his name popular in trade talks, but teams back away once the Rockies make it clear that his agreed to salary for next year fits their budget. So they aren't dealing him without a return of two players who could make the big-league team better right now, and a prospect.

Gammons: Varitek's contract status could become a problem

Haggs — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:29:45 GMT

Here's another installment of Baseball Thoughts from Peter Gammons courtesy of his segment on the Mike Felger Show. This was from the end of last week, and so his comments came before Daisuke blanked the Twins and Manny started heating up again. But his comments about the Captain's contract status -- and the notion that the Sox could choose Brian Schneider over 'Tek for next season -- are both pretty interesting statements.

It's my understanding that Boras has been silent with the Sox over Varitek's contract for the balance of the baseball season thus far, and Varitek's latest statements that he wants to play for several more years make it seem like they'll be going for an unbelievable four or five years for his next deal -- a seemingly crazy notion for a 36-year-old catcher. If that's the case, the Sox would be will within their rights to move on to one of the imperfect solutions behind the plate, whether it's Schneider or a combo of a veteran and a youngster like Dusty Brown.

Anyway, here's Gammons.

Are the Sox going to start letting Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch deeper into ballgames as he gets more distance from the disabled list. [Haggs Note: This question was asked before Daisuke’s shutout performance against the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.]
PG: He’s only a few starts off a shoulder injury and anything too much over 100 is a little dangerous. What bothers me more is the question of whether [Daisuke] is willing to throw the ball over the plate against good hitters. Is he really afraid of American hitters hitting him?

That’s something the Red Sox have to ask themselves at this point, and I don’t see anything better about him now. If anything he’s regressed over a year and that worries me. I just don’t see him throwing his good pitches over the plate to good hitters, and it’s starting to get on my nerves. I say ‘what is it with this guy, and can he only pitch against National League teams.’ That’s something to watch. He doesn’t seem to change, make any adjustments or listen. We’ll have to see if he’s anything more than a No. 5 starter. You’d like to think he’s a three, but you have to wonder at this point.

I don’t panic about the ‘pen and you see that Manny Delcarmen didn’t allow a run for the entire month of June, so I know he’s good…but I’m not going to expect to just lock it down all the time. I didn’t like the look in Craig Hansen’s eye during the last road trip, though, but it could have just been a bad night in Tampa during the last road trip.
PG: Hansen just needs to slow down. When you’ve got three guys that throw 98-mph in the bullpen – and Okajima has gotten Major League hitters out and he did go through a down period last year before finishing brilliantly – there’s still hope. My feeling is they could use a veteran guy who could give them some innings, but I don’t know where they find him.

I think eventually Masterson will be out there, but I think he’s going back down to the minors and then come back up when he’s polished some things. They could use a guy to give them some more innings. [In the Tampa game] once they got to the sixth inning it was like they were in the runaway truck lane and they were just going down the side of the mountain and you were going ‘Oh no, is this ever going to end.’

I actually thought the Rays were going to end up with 12 or 13 runs because it was so out of hand. A guy with a mediocre fastball right now gets Manny out, but that’s not going to continue. He’s been through these things before. I believe his slugging in the last 18 days [before the current homestand] was under .300, which is a pitcher’s slugging percentage. I am very worried about Varitek at this point.

Is Varitek above and beyond at this point?
PG: Well, we don’t know. Where is he in his career? He’s a 36-year-old guy who has played his heart out for a long time. He was not exactly a gifted hitter. He really hasn’t had a good offensive year since 2005, so where is he at this point in his career. What worries me about this for the Red Sox is that this becomes ugly as it comes to the end of the year and he approaches free agency.

I know we have people saying you have to sign him no matter what, but if you have Jason Varitek for four years and $40 million or you have Brian Schneider for one-year and $3 million, there’s no question you take Brian Schneider for the $3 million in my mind.

As much as I really like Varitek, he’s at the point where you really worry about where he’s going to be. Two years at $7 million is fine, but I think that Scott Boras is going to convince someone out there that he’ll make the difference with the pitching staff. And you’ve always got the Mets. They offered Jorge Posada five years at the age of 36, which is one of the most laughable offers of all time. I think if they get down to the end of the year and there’s no progress and Scott is looking for those four years. Jason is a very loyal guy to Scott and it could create a chasm between Varitek and the club that could be a problem coming down the stretch.

Was Manny fined? What happened behind the scenes with the Jack McCormick situation?
PG: They fined him and disciplined him. Boras, I’m told, was a great help as he usually is in these kinds of situations – as opposed to agents that can’t be found when their clients get into these situations. They’re like the Patriots.

They’re not going to create a public hanging. They took care of it with money. I think some sort of program and a lot of work as far as the apologies and making it up to the club. They took care of it as they should take care of it: privately. I know its frustrating for people in the media, but I never understood why any team would let its ego get in the way and make it up public and say ‘Well we’re really tough and we’re making this guy do this.’
You’re much better off just taking care of the problems and from what I’m told Boras and Manny were very amenable to the Red Sox coming down on them…which made the process a lot easier.

Interesting detail about Boras’ role in this and continues to show the team’s good relationship with him.
PG: Let’s face it. Scott is very tough and he could make this Varitek thing very tough because he’s one of his most loyal guys. Varitek did get drafted as a junior and then went back to school and cost himself some money and years toward the big leagues by doing it. But he’s very loyal to him.

If you have a problem, and last year there was an issue – and it may have only been a medical issue with Craig Hansen – but talking to farm directors, if you say to Scott that you and I have a vested interest in this guy’s performance so help us…then he will work with teams and he’s really good. He does have 85 people working for him and he does have Harvey Dorfman working for him, and he’s one of the best sports psychologists in the game working for him.

He will do that, and I think he tries. What good would it do Manny to go off on a tangent and decide to sit? It’s part of Boras’ job to get his client to perform and get it straight with the club so that will make the club happy and make the client happy. They’ve put it in the past and moved forward, and I give the Red Sox a lot of credit for not giving in to the slings and arrows and screaming of the angry white minority and say ‘okay we’re really tough with Manny.’ I don’t think that does any good.

I think the team could have let us know they had taken disciplinary action against them for this event.
PG: Well, they don’t tend to make it a public matter and I think they’re taking a page out of the Patriots book. They did take disciplinary action, and it’s my understanding in talking to players that there is some sort of anger issue or something going on – I don’t know exactly what the program is but he’ll get help in that way.
He’s done a great deal of work with Jack McCormick to learn that ‘guess what you can’t have all of the tickets that you want.’ And the players helped.

There’s a pretty good support system on that team and a lot of players that he looks up to like Mike Lowell and Alex Cora, who I think are the two players that have the most influence on Manny.
Of course they want the team to do well and they want Manny to do well and completely understand that this was completely wrong. I also think that Manny has been pretty contrite about this whole thing.

Mid-season Awards

Haggs — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:11:21 GMT

My apologies for the long time between posts, but – in order to make my mind off the atrocious state of the setup department in Boston’s bullpen – I will hopefully be the last writer/blogger/talking head to put together my observations at the mid-way mark. I’ll be posting these on my way down to New York on the limoliner, so check in periodically for an updated version.

Biggest Surprise: J.D. Drew. No question about this one. He finally silenced every last critic that questioned his toughness, his fire and his baseball ability, and stepped into the breach created by David Ortiz’s injured wrist. I’m pretty sure Bob Ryan now has his answer from Theo Epstein concerning the right fielder, and any potential fascinations therein.

Biggest Disappointment: Manny Ramirez. There could be a lot of different answers for this question (Hello Hideki Okajima), but I’ll reserve my disapproval for a player that’s undergone some alarming personality changes this year. Manny has gone from goofy, misunderstood-but-lovable baseball character to a declining player that’s picking fights with teammates, mistreating team employees and arguing with umps at a much higher rate than normal throughout his career. Methinks the pressure of contract uncertainty is beginning to get to the Dreadlocked One after living in complete contractual comfort during his first seven seasons in Boston.

Biggest Blowhard (I originally said biggest jerk, but maybe that was the wrong word choice): Curt Schilling has thrown his last pitch for the Boston Red Sox. I wonder why that came to mind when I was brainstorming for this category. Hmmm. I’m going to ponder that one for a while.

Best Guy in the Clubhouse: David Aardsma. This is probably the question I get more than any other about my time in the clubhouse, and the Sox locker room is filled with good guys. Alex Cora, Javy Lopez, Kevin Youkilis and Julio Lugo are all among the most engaging in the Sox locker room, but Aardsma is at a different level. Not every ballplayer can quote lines from Sideways as if they’ve seen it six or seven times.

‘I told you so’ Award: Hideki Okajima. I remember a conversation I had with A-Rod last season that was punctuated with the mention of Oki-Doke as a novelty act. While A-Rod may be many things – including the latest in a long line of ridiculous suitors for the services of Madonna (is it bad to be part of the same group that also included Jose Canseco? Just asking?) – I think he’s also pretty right on about big league hitters catching on to Okajima in his second season with the Sox. They’re laying off the split/change and making him throw strikes with a batting practice fastball. Just be thankful for the 2007 World Series he helped win while only costing the Sox $3 million over these two seasons.

Primed for the Biggest Second Half: Josh Beckett. He’s struggled at times in the first half as the Sox have brought him along slowly since his…cough, cough…back injury that prevented him from taking the trip to Japan. I think Jon Lester and Tim Wakefield have been the two most consistent, and best, starters during the first half of the year (more on that later), but Beckett will take them where they need to go down the stretch. It would be good if the Sox could start scoring him a few runs along the way, as the offense has been shut out twice during his starts and scored a grand total of nine runs in his five losses on the season.

Primed for a Second Half Fall: Julio Lugo. Yes, his OBP is passable and he hasn’t as bad offensively this season as he was last year, but his days manning the shortstop position are numbered. I’m not sure that Jed Lowrie is the “answer” at shortstop or that his arm strength is good enough to regularly play the position, but he would bring a lot of offense to the table and would make the routine plays. Count me in the growing legion of people that would like to see Lowrie get a shot at short in the second half of the season.

The Bob “Fireman that can’t put out a fire” Stanley Award: Manny Delcarmen. I keep singing your praises, and then you go out and fire complete dud like the Wednesday night debacle in Tampa Bay. The stuff is all there and everyone within that organization wants Delcarmen to seize control of the eighth inning job, but he continues to show moments where the eyes get too wide and the moment gets too big. The shame of it is, there is nothing even remotely close to as good as Delcarmen on the trade market. Guys like 41-year-old Doug Brocail are not the answer. His ERA during his last go-round in the American League: 5.52 in 2005.

Favorite Moment from the First Half: Jon Lester’s no-hitter. There were some snapshots during the first half of the Sox season, but the emotions stirring from Lester’s accomplishment transcend the game in so many ways. There weren’t many dry eyes anywhere when Lester and Sox Manager Terry Francona lingered in embrace following the big game. The performance also seemed to give Lester some much-needed confidence that has allowed him to establish himself as a big league starter.

Worst moment from the First Half: Sweep in Tampa Bay. It was the Manny/Youkilis brawl in the dugout until that complete and utter bullpen implosion on Wednesday night. The days have truly turned dark in Red Sox Nation with David Ortiz still hurt, Jason Varitek completely lost at the plate, human sparkplug Jacoby Ellsbury struggling to get on base from the leadoff spot and the bullpen alternating between boom and bust. Theo Epstein has some work to do if this season is going to end with another champagne shower.

Team MVP: Jon Lester and Tim Wakefield. Both starters didn’t miss a turn in the rotation and gave the Sox 200 plus innings (217 2/3 to be exact) at a 3.50 ERA during the first half of the season. Combined they easily could have won another 5-10 games with a little more offensive support, but they did everything asked and allowed every other starter to take a breather during the season.

Sox Starter Most Likely to take the next 15-day DL vacation: Jon Lester. The 24-year-old was finally passed by Tim Wakefield in terms of the team-lead in innings pitched, but is still on pace for a 200 innings season-total that he’ll simply never approach. As was first noticed by Art Martone in his excellent ProJo Sox blog, there are a slew of Thursday off-days in the second half of the season and there will be at least one skipped start in Lester’s future, but don’t be surprised to see a twinge in Lester’s back that lands him on the DL for two weeks.

Most likely to be wearing a different uniform next month: Justin Masterson. The 6-foot-6 righty sinkerballer has been better than anyone could have expected after being thrust into the Sox starting rotation, and has raised his value all around baseball. It could be that his value will never be higher and the Sox would be wise to sell off an asset at its highest point. Masterson and some fellow prospects could yield some very big fish in July’s trade market. I think it’s already been determined that Masterson would be the surplus pitching available if a deal is made.

Most Likely Trade Acquisition that Red Sox Nation hopes turns out better than Eric Gagne: Brian Fuentes. A lot is dependent on David Ortiz’s return from a balky left wrist, but the bullpen seems to be the biggest need without a lot of quality supply to choose from on the market. Fuentes has saved at least 20 games over the last three seasons for the Sox, is left-handed and has the stuff to fill something similar to the Okajima role from a season ago – something the Sox sorely need right now. If Ortiz is down, I would love to see the Sox pursue Mark Teixeira as the Atlanta Braves fade off into the sunset and it becomes more apparent that the switch-hitting first baseman ain’t coming back to Hotlanta.

Gammons: Sox are setting the standard for breaking in players

Haggs — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:23:41 GMT

I really think the Red Sox are so good and so much on the cutting edge of pitching and protecting their pitching commodities, that sometimes we take foregranted the current methods and biomechanical theories that aren't exactly household philosophies with other MLB organizations.

The incremental limit in innings pitched for young pitchers, the built-in rest that the Sox are providing for all of their starters and the shoulder-strength measurements regularly administered that are key elements of the Sox pitching plan simply aren't a staple of many other team's programs. It's a big advantage the Sox gained when they hired Massachusetts native Mike Reinold away from Dr. James Andrews' surgical facility in Alabama. Reinold is listed as an assistant athletic trainer, but his presence among the Sox pitchers and their training regimens has been unmistakable over the last two seasons. He's pictured below -- with the glasses -- holding the World Series trophy at Coors Field last October with the other largely unheralded -- and all excellent -- members of the training staff.

Here's a bit more from Peter Gammons about the Sox and their pitching development methods from last week's appearance on the Mike Felger Show:

You nailed it on the head with Bartolo Colon. You said watch Colon after about five starts as he got off to a good start with Anaheim last year and then really dropped off after that last year. It looked like his velocity and stuff dropped off again this season after five or six starts with the Red Sox.
PG: They did maybe. The Red Sox really believe this is a good time to give him two or three weeks off.
He went from 85 to 95 in a very short period of time. They really believe if you give him time, which they can afford to do with the depth of their pitching, that he can come back and give them another 5 or 10 starts this season. If he does it’s a great deal, and even if he doesn’t it’s still a great thing. He goes on the DL and Matsuzaka is ready to come back.

But I’m not counting Bartolo Colon out yet. I think they think he pitched so much that he needs that kickback time, which he didn’t get in Anaheim. We’ll see. I wouldn’t write him off yet, but it was that five start window that you had to figure out how much was in there.

Now he settles back, gets back, keeps doing that shoulder program so maybe he comes back nearly as good as he was.

It seems the Sox have run into injury problems that many of the World Series teams have run into, but as soon as somebody gets hurt or fatigued somebody else steps in whether it’s Masterson or Colon. It seems like they’re almost a little bit charmed in that regard.
PG: Charmed, but I also think it’s a little bit of a byproduct of an excellent organization. Yesterday Coco Crisp, who has been playing great, gets hurt and Brandon Moss comes in and gets a big hit. I thought it was a fascinating story in the Boston Herald by Rob Bradford, and there was some great stuff in there where Masterson was talking about the support system that young players have when they finally get [to Boston]. Some of the most telling quotes were from John Farrell about the safety net that you have to develop for young players and how you need to prepare them.

I don’t think many other teams understand that, and I think they really get that. I have no doubt in my mind that Jed Lowrie will come back up here and be good, or that Michael Bowden will make three or four starts at some point and be very good. I really give them credit. It’s a combination of all that Mike Hazen and Ben Cherington and all of the minor league development people have done, and what John Farrell and all of the Sox pitching instruction people have done.

I absolutely marvel, and I talked to a lot of baseball people today, and I sent that story around to a lot of baseball people today and I got a lot of response from it. They were fascinated by that view of looking at a player when he comes up and goes 0-for-4 and rather than saying ‘get him out of here, he can’t play in the big leagues’…the Red Sox just have that constant support. Craig Hansen had a couple of bad outing in a row because he lost that slider, but they say ‘we’ll get that slider back.’ Manny Delcarmen was a fire drill one game and [then he
comes back] and he was absolutely incredible.

That constant work as if they’re coaching them in college, I think it pays off tremendously and it’s almost a totally different atmosphere with the Red Sox than it is with just about every other major league team. They know they’re a work in progress and they’re not afraid of it. And the veteran players have bought into the idea of bringing the young players up.

Anything behind the scenes with Daisuke Matsuzaka other than the shoulder fatigue when he was put on the disabled list?
PG: I think there was a little bit; in fact I know there was. Due to the Mike Reinold shoulder strengthening program. Daisuke had his own shoulder program, but they wanted him to strengthen it up and I’m told that he’s bought into it this time around. He got scared and now he’s really bought into it. It’ll be interesting to see because he was certainly pitching well prior to the shoulder fatigue.

That program and Mike, I don’t know if you read Will Carroll’s Under the Knife which I think is one of the best things in sports on injuries, he constantly refers to [Reinold] as being the best in the business and I think Daisuke has really learned from all this.

We’ve really seen them develop guys, and Masterson already acts so maturely like he’s a 30-year-old anyway. Just look at the development of Jon Lester and I firmly believe that we’ll see Clay Buchholz become a pretty important character for this team in the second half of the year. I give them a lot of credit. It’s almost like an instructional situation and it’s all very, very positive. It’s really a lot of fun to watch that.

How many teams do as good a job as the Red Sox of protecting their pitchers?
PG: I don’t know if anybody does. I used to talk to Bobby Valentine a lot about this and Bobby had very strong beliefs in it. I think Bobby was really right about in a lot of cases and he used to a lot of times go to a six man rotation at the end of August or early September to protect their pitchers. It seems as if they’re at the point where they expect to play in October and they want everyone from Josh Beckett to Clay Buchholz to be at their peak come October, so they’re perfectly willing to give every guy two or three weeks off.

I’m still firmly convinced that the reason the Red Sox won the World Series was the 50 less innings pitched that Josh Beckett threw as opposed to C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. I think those guys just hit the wall in that series and Josh Beckett was pitching in the World Series like it was April 20.

Lester is all grown up

Haggs — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:25:35 GMT

If Jon Lester continues to pitch like has over his last 11 appearances, then he's going to push himself right into the American League All-Star mix with a couple more starts. Quite simply, he's been everything that Sox management hoped he would be coming into this season and much of his improvement can be traced back to improved confidence and mound maturity. Just think about where the Sox might be right now in their starting rotation with the 103 innings that he's contributed from that distant trip to Japan until right now.
There are some people on Yawkey Way that look pretty smart right now for refusing to deal the 24-year-old lefty when everyone was clamoring for Johan Santana this winter.

Here's some of Sox pitching coach John Farrell's thoughts on Lester in the midst of his best stretch in the big leagues thus far, including some upcoming rest that will be required to knock him off a current pace that has him finishing out the season with 211 innings pitched.

In other news, old friend Bronson Arroyo had some interesting comments in comparing Red Sox ownership [John Henry] with Yankees ownership [George Steinbrenner] when an enterprising member of the fourth estate inquired about trade rumors sending the grunge-rocking righty to the Big Apple for an extra-slim Pinstriped uni. It would be very strange to see Goldilocks tossing curveballs and strumming Pearl Jam covers in the Bronx, but maybe then A-Rod would remember his name.

It's going to be a good long stretch before I have a Hall of Fame vote, but Curt Schilling would get the nod if/when I had the chance to vote in the Big Schill. On many occasions he could be the 'Big Mouth that Roared without Really Knowing What He Was Talking About' or prove that former Phillies GM Ed Wade's description of him was right on, but the guy had, as David Wells would say, "brass ones." The combination of his postseason performances, his heavy involvement in some pretty significant moments in baseball history and the ever-lowering criteria for HOF starting pitchers will aid him greatly. He may not be the first ballot Hall guy that I'm sure he's always dreamed of being, but it's seemingly inevitable that bloody-socked immortality awaits.

What’s been the difference for Jon Lester over the last two months?
JF: I think what’s happening is his confidence is continuing to grow and he continues to trust all of his pitches as the execution of them becomes that much more consistent. I think he has really begun to realize what types of weapons he has and what kinds of hitters he can use those weapons against. Part of it is he is in full understanding of himself better than he was back in April, but you can’t argue what good confidence will do for any pitcher.
He’s working quicker and he’s not thinking about the negative aspects that might take place.

Does it seem like his mechanics are better?
JF: He’s worked long and hard over the last year plus to not only get to the point where his delivery is more consistent, but when he comes out of his delivery, [he knows] what his checkpoints are so he can get back on it in the delivery of the next pitch. I think as we’ve seen Lester and a guy like Aardsma that can self-correct on the mound, the game isn’t speeding up on them and they understand what their needs are.

How much of everything come under the umbrella of Lester just simply maturing as a pitcher, and maturing into his stuff?
JF: It’s maturity. It’s an element of confidence. It’s keeping the pace of the game in his mind at an even one, and when that happens you’re able to read the reaction of a previous pitch to make a selection for the next one and continue to execute. I think he’s doing a much better job of finishing hitters off, and I go back to that Detroit game earlier in the year when guys were fouling a lot of balls off and he was having trouble putting hitters away. That hasn’t been the case, really, over the last four or five weeks.

Lester has been a horse for you guys and hasn’t missed a start yet this season. Is there concern about getting up around the 200 innings pitched mark for him this season?
JF: It’s something that we’re well aware of and there’s already been some internal discussions regarding that. When do we pick some spots to potentially control that a little bit more? It’s a fine line there because he’s pitching so well that you don’t want to do something to interrupt that. But at the same time there’s a certain amount of increase over last year that we’re comfortable with, and if he continues to pitch six or seven innings every time out he’s going to eclipse 200 innings if we don’t take a break at some point. We’re in the midst of five consecutive days off on Thursdays here, so I think all of our pitchers will benefit from an extra day off here and it will help us control innings.

What was the preseason limit discussed for Lester?
JF: I think going into the start of the year we had a target mark of 185-190 innings and he’s well within range of that with where he is right now. We’re going to pick some spots and we’ve got a little bit of a luxury here with what Masterson has come in here and done. And as Clay continues to get his work in down there [in Pawtucket] then he’ll become an option as these needs come up. We’re aware of it and we’ll pick a spot when the need comes up.

Manny, the teen-ager

Haggs — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:13:06 GMT

Can you imagine watching a prodigy in any field just coming into their own as a teen-ager? I was thinking this in my head the entire time I interviewed Mel Zitter, coach and director of the Youth Service in Brooklyn, who coached big leaguers like Shawon Dunston, Manny Ramirez and Julio Lugo when they were still up-and-coming teen-agers looking for a way out of their rough and tumble NYC neighborhoods

The program is predominantly targeted at the very large Dominican immigrant population in New York City and gives those kids an outlet to play sandlot baseball in the summer -- while also providing many of them with a way to further themselves and gain entry into college. It's a wonderful program, but you still always come back to a 16-year-old Manny Ramirez breaking down at bats and fervently working on nuances in the batting cage while playing for Zitter. I did this interview last year, but enjoyed a rare look into the mind of a Hall of Fame hitting prodigy so much that I wanted to get it up on the blog at some point.

So, here it is. A rare look at one of the people that helped Manny Ramirez harness the amazing ability to punish a baseball that's propelled him into the 500 home run club and beyond as he continues to carve out his legend in a Red Sox uniform.

What’s it been like to watch Manny and Julio playing together in Boston?
MZ: It’s obviously cool. We’d had it for a while when we had Manny and Shawon Dunston playing together for the Cleveland Indians, and then Julio and his brother Ruddy Lugo were playing together in Tampa Bay, but this is obviously shaking my lifelong tradition as a Yankees fan.

I always root for my guys. It ain’t that complicated. I knew Willie Randolph in high school and I’ve known Omar Minaya since high school, so it’s not a fan thing. It’s one of those things where I really root for the people that I know.

As far as Manny and Julio go, I’m really proud of both guys. Manny was a first round pick and Julio wasn’t even drafted out of high school.
He was drafted really late when he was a freshman in college. Body-wise, I think [Lugo] is probably one of the lightest players in the Major Leagues. I think both of those guys have a real New York determination that they’re going to work and work harder than anybody else out there. I think they both have a lot to be proud of in their careers.

What is the Youth Service, and what is its purpose?
MZ: Our organization has always been about hard work and about discipline, and obviously we’re attracting a certain kind of young man in the program. They’re obviously someone with ability, but they’re also really willing to give things up and dedicate themselves.

I don’t think you’re really going to make it in any sport unless you’re willing to really dedicate yourself and cut down on the partying so you can get the proper sleep and rest. Things have changed from 20 or 30 years ago when baseball was simply a sport that you picked up in the spring, and it’s a year-round thing now for all these players.

Do you still keep in close touch with the both of them?
MZ: I haven’t heard from Manny for a while, but Julio came down for a clinic this winter with the kids and we had a great time. It becomes hard to keep in touch with guys when they have families and they move out of New York.

Both of those guys have moved to Florida. Julio was great and I think he was touched by all of the kids there. The kids that are there now in the Youth Service are the same as Manny Ramirez and Julio. They’re 10, 15 or 20 years younger than those guys, but these are the same kids with the same backgrounds and the same hopes and dreams.

These guys come down and see the kids in the program now, and Julio even said it to the kids when he was down there: ‘Where you’re sitting right is the exact same place that I was sitting when I was here…same school, same gym, same coaches, same everything.’ He knows exactly what they’re doing with the running and we’re big into running. Our program is largely Latino-based with a big Dominican immigrant population, and it’s them all over again.

So, the way I’ve heard it…Manny was actually something of a hero to Julio when he was coming up through the system. What do you remember about the two of them?
MZ: Manny signed in 1991, and Julio came into the Youth Services program in 1992. They were never there at the same time. I think if you get Manny to talk then he’ll tell you that Shawon Dunston was that same kind of inspiration to him. Shawon got drafted in ’82 and Manny Ramirez started playing for us in 1987.

That’s the generations of kids. We had five kids out of our program drafted last year, and one of them his name is a pitcher named Pedro Beato. He was a sandwich pick as the 32nd pick in the country by the Baltimore Orioles last season, and he’s a Dominican kid and he was there when Julio visited us.

One of the kids raised their hand and asked Julio what he was going to do if Pedro got the big leagues and he had to face him. And Julio being Julio, he said ‘I’m going to hit him.’ And then Pedro goes ‘maybe I’ll stick one in your ear’ and that’s the kind of laughing and back and forth competitiveness you see in this program among these kids.

What were Manny and Julio like as teen-agers?
MZ: Manny was very quiet as a kid. One of the stories I tell about Manny is that most kids playing baseball are almost never as good as they think they are. Manny is one of those rare players who never thought he was as good as he really is. I don’t think Manny has ever looked at himself as being that good.

He’s one of those rare kids who is just a lot better than he thinks he is. And above and beyond the obvious skills, Manny was probably the most sophisticated young hitter I’d ever seen. The last two or three years he played for me he would get up at the plate and then he would come over to me and for 5-10 seconds he would tell me what he was looking for, what the pitcher did.

He could tell me that the last time I hit a fastball, I was looking for a curveball away and I swung at a fastball and popped it up. I was stupid to swing at it and got myself out. This is what I wanted to do, and this is what I did. You very rarely come into contact with teen-agers that have that kind of sophistication. You try to teach teen-agers to have a plan when they come up to the plate, but very rarely are they able to have a plan and follow through with it. Manny could do that.

I’ve always felt that Manny was a lot more intelligent than other people give him credit for. He has a focus of what he wanted to do at the plate. He loves hitting and he’s obviously always loved hitting. But he always had an understanding. You try to teach kids to go to a batting cage and work on something while you’re there; to go there for a reason. I would take Manny to the cages and he would work on one or two things until he was happy. If it took 1,000 swings to get whatever it was down, then he would take 1,000 swings and if he got it nailed down in 20 swings then he wouldn’t want to hit any more. I think that’s a supremely intelligent way of looking at it.

What about Julio?
MZ: Julio as a kid, on the other hand, was a lot more cocky than Manny as a kid. They’re just different personalities. Manny is a great guy and I don’t know anybody that’s had anything bad to say about Manny that’s gotten to know him personally. Julio was a little louder, a little more social about going around and talking to everybody when he was a kid. Manny was a lot more shy growing up.

Was Manny similar to the way he is now on the basepaths and in the field – where strange things seem to always happen to him?
MZ: Believe it or not, when Manny was a 17-year-old kid he ran 6.45 and 6.5 60-yard times. He was a tremendous centerfielder and a tremendous third baseman. Those are tremendous times and he was an excellent base stealer. He had times where he would lose focus a little bit, but it was always obvious to me from the time he was a kid that Manny loved the game of baseball.

Have you seen a lot of the Manny Being Manny stuff and what do you think of it?
MZ: He’s not a robot out there. A lot of Major Leaguers bore the hell of out of you because they look like they’re robots out there doing things. Manny plays with a lot of personality and that’s not the worst thing in the world. With everything Manny has been accused of, how many players on the Red Sox have come out and said they don’t like him. None, right?

I think the non-baseball parts of being a big leaguer ballplayer don’t really interest him; it’s baseball that interests him. I don’t think he has a mean bone in his body. How many people get paid that kind of money for something they would gladly do for nothing? People can say whatever they want about Manny, but you give him a couple of more years and he’s going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. I think he’s been the best right-handed hitter in the game of baseball over the last 50 years.

What were you thinking when you saw Manny and Lugo win World Series rings?
MZ: I love that we have three guys in Julio Lugo, Manny and Alex Arias that have World Series rings. I’m proud of every one of them. People can think that Manny Ramirez has this great ability and this and that. But this country is filled with kids that have great ability that will never be great Major Leaguers or even Major Leaguers at all because it’s a lot more than just ability.

It’s the desire to be great and the competitive edge that goes along with it, and that’s Manny. Everything that’s been said and done, he works his ass off to succeed in the game of baseball. People see an attitude and someone that isn’t very quotable. This is somebody that loves what he’s doing and works at it. I’ve got a lot of friends in the big leagues and people would tell me the hardest thing is getting to the big leagues, but they’re wrong.

The hardest thing is to stay in the big leagues once you’ve been there. How many hitters the last 20 years have been more productive than Manny? He’s got to be averaging close to an RBI a game over the course of his career. How many guys in baseball do you see that can hit .300 year-in and year-out without getting any infield hits and have the kind of power that Manny has?

[Youth Service] one of the top programs in the Northeast and it’s a program that’s similar to what it was when Manny and Julio were here. It’s largely made of minority kids who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and it’s for kids where baseball is a way out.

For most young men it’s not a way to get to the big leagues, but it’s a way out to get to college. One of my favorite phrases to my kids for a long time is that ‘you have to use baseball and you can’t be used by it.’ For every Manny and for every Julio, there’s a whole bunch of kids that aren’t going to be big league players.

Our job as coaches has to be more than how to turn a double play or how to hit a curveball, and it’s more about taking the discipline and the direction you get in sports to move your life forward. We have kids in college all over the country. The college that Julio went to in Oklahoma [Connors State Junior College] we have three kids there now and we send two or three kids a year there every year for the last 25 years. There are a bunch of schools like that in the country.

Were you surprised that Lugo ended up making it to the Major Leagues given the fact that he had to battle to get there?
MZ: Julio swears he’s over 170 [pounds] now and I have trouble believing it now. You’re talking about a guy that doesn’t have outstanding physical size but has made himself into a tremendous Major League ballplayer. They’ve come from different ways.

They’re both first-generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic and they’re both coming from New York, but one was a first round pick out of high school and the other had to come as a late draft pick and work his way up. I’m just proud of both of them. Julio’s brother Ruddy was a pitcher in the D-Rays organization and he had two of his cousins that have been in the program over the last 10 years.

Do kids in the program still ask you questions about guys like Manny and Lugo?
MZ: Some…some. We live in a me world, though. They want to know if they can be the next Manny. I’d never put that on a kid. I want a player to be the best him. That’s like when Manny was playing, I didn’t want him to be anybody else.

I wanted Manny to be the best Manny and Julio be the best Julio. I hate comparing kids to other people because it doesn’t do them any good. How am I going to compare a high school kid to Manny Ramirez, who is one of the best hitters in the world, or Julio Lugo, who is one of the best shortstops in the world. It’s not fair to them.

What was Manny like as a teen-ager as far as baseball went? What was it like watching him?
MZ: Manny has the best bat speed I’ve ever seen in my life. He is one of the few people in the world that could probably roll out of bed and start hitting. He’s done a lot of work to make himself better and really improve, but some of that is also God-given skill.

He’s smart enough and he’s worked hard enough to develop that skill, but some are just born to be athletes and Manny is one of those guys. Julio has really had to work to get himself up to the big league and work on himself to keep getting better and better.

I know Julio was really looking forward to becoming a Red Sox and getting into a situation where winning was the norm. The whole Yankees/Red Sox rivalry and the excitement and attention paid to that team on a nightly basis are things that Julio loves. That’s the overachiever mentality after not getting drafted out of high school. It was like Johnny Franco doing the same thing for years and years. Part of what he was going to do was to prove to you and show you [that he could play].

I hate to be corny, but it’s really about New York kids going out and playing with personality and showing you what they can do on the field with that huge love for the game. They’re not going to be those Major League robots where you can’t tell if they’re happy or unhappy. They’re going to show emotion and show their energy.

When I see Julio I think of Shawon Dunston as a younger player who would go out with that energy and would basically say [to an opponent] that you can’t beat me. One of the things that Julio told the kids was that ‘I go out there and play and I think nobody is better than me’ and I get up to the plate and I think ‘no pitcher can ever get me out’ because that’s the kind of mentality that you have to have.

I tell the kids that if you want to succeed then that’s the mentality that you have to have, and if you want a chance to enjoy success then that’s the mentality you have to have. Nobody is better than you, nobody is going to outwork you and nobody is going to beat you.

Gammons: A lot of upside in Lester

Haggs — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:57:26 GMT

Here's another weekly installment of thoughts from Peter Gammons during his segment on the Mike Felger Show on 890 ESPN. Some pretty interesting stuff here: Jason Varitek said that Jon Lester has the highest ceiling among the Sox starters and there's also some pretty good nuggets on some of the promising young players drafted by the Sox this month. Gammo also interestingly applauds Coco's passion during the dust-up with the Rays earlier this month.

Also, in case you missed it, Hacks with Haggs comrade "Downtown" Ian Browne has been doing an excellent job of breaking down the NBA Finals over at his MLB.com blog. Do yourself a favor and check out the hoops thoughts from an MLB guy who patterned his pick-up basketball game after the three-point stylings of Danny Ainge.

Enjoy:

I can’t imagine there are many teams around baseball that have greater pitching depth than the Red Sox, and if they do then that list is pretty miniscule.
PG: It is. You look and you still have Buchholz back at Triple-A Pawtucket, and he has great stuff. He can go back and learn at Pawtucket rather than go through what guys like Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain have had to do in New York. There are those who think that Michael Bowden, who is at Double-A right now, is the best of that whole group.

The depth they have is really important. I had an interesting conversation with Jason Varitek the other day. He was talking about all this and all of the fun that he is having with [the pitching depth]. He was saying that he thinks Josh Beckett is going to have a dominant second half. He said one thing that really stunned me. He said that Jon Lester had the highest ceiling of anyone on the staff.

He said that [Lester] is at about 60 percent of where he is going to be next year and he said that he’s going to be the best left-hander in the American league. He didn’t make it a maybe or an if, it was his belief. That kind of enthusiasm keeps everyone energized and the pitchers are feeding off one another. The depth has been the story. The Sox haven’t had a great year. They don’t have people having monster seasons, but their pitching depth is so good.

It’s still so projectible when you see the potential of what Hansen can be and I’m still a big believer in Delcarmen. They could have one of the best pitching staffs they’ve ever had, and I think from a fan’s standpoint that it’s fun to watch them develop. It’s more fun than bringing Ramon Martinez and Bret Saberhagen in every other season.

The other thing that absolutely amazes me watching Ellsbury is that the Red Sox consciously knew that the game was going to change in 2004-2005 and they zeroed in on Ellsbury at Oregon State. Now that I watch him run at will, you know he’s not Rickey Henderson but – you know what – people stopped running in baseball for so long that when you start running again…that it’s hard for catchers and they aren’t used to it.

You know pitchers hold the ball for a long time, but catchers aren’t used to being pressured and that’s really given the Red Sox a tremendous advantage early on. They’re one of the only teams and I think it’s one of the reasons for the success of the Angels. For a long time the Angels were the only team putting pressure on other teams, and now that the Red Sox are doing it and teams are almost defenseless against really aggressive baserunning.

Did the Red Sox go after a lot of toolsy players in this year’s draft?
PG: I think they do it in a couple of ways. They do it with some of the tools, and I think they did it with [first round pick] Casey Kelly. They really believe he’s the most projectible pitcher in the entire draft. They drafted him as a shortstop, but they believe he’s a pitcher. When he signs I’m sure he’ll play a half a season at shortstop, but they thought he was the best pitcher in the draft.

Also the kid from Rhode Island [Ryan Westmoreland] they felt was a number one pick and a very high tools guy, but was a tough sign because he was going to Vanderbilt. But the Red Sox can sign those guys: they not only have the money but they also have the appeal. Most of the college pitchers were big power guys that they hope they can develop.

I know a friend of mine that scouts for the Dodgers loves the kid from the University of Utah [Stephen Fife] that they took, but they usually draft a combination. They drafted about 5 or 6 very difficult to sign high school players with huge upsides, and they hope to sign 3 or 4 of them. We’ve seen them do this in the past. I think Lars Anderson has had like 17 consecutive multi-hit games in the California League and Ryan Kalish is as good as any prospect they have.

They can do that. One of the most interesting guys they took in the second round is a great athlete out of Seaford, Delaware named Derrick Gibson. Just looking at the video of him, he is unbelievably quick. He’s got a weird throwing delivery as a shortstop/second baseman, but that can be changed. He’s going to North Carolina and they were absolutely stunned by the Red Sox because that was the one team they didn’t want to see pick him because they figure [the Sox] will sign him. They think he would have been – if he had gone to school – a top 10 pick in his junior year if he’d gone to college.

One of the interesting things to happen in the brawl with the Rays was the dust up between Youkilis and Manny. What happened there?
PG: It was one of those things were Youk gets upset and bangs bats around and yells and screams, and occasionally people will say to him ‘awww…C’mon.’ I’m told Manny said something like ‘C’mon, please give it up’ and Youk said something back.

I’m trying to think who it was I heard talking about, I think it was Sean [McAdam] and these things do happen a lot. It wasn’t quite like Reggie Smith knocking Bill Lee out cold after a shutout in 1973 while shaking hands in the receiving line. I think these things go on a lot. I think with Youkilis, one of the reasons he’s such a good player is because he’s so driven. I think him getting so upset about making outs aggravates people. I don’t think it was a bad thing.

I think it was good that it was Manny that took it upon himself to say something and it just cleared some air. I just gathered that they felt they got a lot of things out of the way with this. They just have to make sure they don’t lose Coco for too long.

I can understand why this was a boiling point after a brawl had taking place, but is there a concern that Youkilis can’t be the same kind of player if he tones things down?
PG: I think he can tone it down and you don’t have to fire helmets and so forth. I don’t think he’ll change. In Youkilis’ defense, he plays first, he plays third, he’d play short if he had to, he’ll play right field and left field; he is a very good team guy, but he’s just a very emotional guy and at times that grates on people in the middle of the season.

I don’t think it’s fair for people to say it’s all Kevin Youkilis’ fault. I was talking to Lou Piniella about it, and he was saying that I’d sure rather have a guy like Youkilis or Carlos Zambrano who gets mad and really cares than have a guy who puts his glove down and say ‘well it must have been God’s will that I didn’t get a hit.’

Lou knows what it’s like to get really mad, but we actually had an incident where Zambrano had a terrible inning with errors, brutal calls at first base and then he gave up a couple of home runs. He destroyed a couple of Gatorade things. As long as he doesn’t get hurt, they don’t mind because Carlos cares so much.

He’s so competitive, and I agree that you don’t want Youkilis to stop being Kevin Youkilis. I remember watching him with Bourne in the Cape League and to think that he could become what he’s become is beyond me. He looked like Steve Balboni and now he’s one of the best conditioned athletes on the team. He’s a fanatic about his conditioning and how he eats and how he works.

To see how far he’s come, you don’t want to tone him down. You just don't want him firing equipment and affecting other people. I remember back when Rick Burleson first came up how annoyed other teammates used to get when he fired bats and helmets and everything. I remember one time he fired a helmet and hit Don Zimmer right in the face, and that can cause some problems. But Burleson never toned down and he was a tremendous player, and I don’t think Youkilis will either.

The one thing I really took out of that game is that I was taken back by the fire in Coco. I thought it was a good thing. The argument I always get from people is to slide in feet first, but a lot of guys don’t. It’s the old Gene Mauch play that Tim Foli and Bobby Grich used to do. You make the guy believe he’s diving [headfirst] into the bag and you drop the knee down and he hurts his hand. That’s an old play and Tim Foli used to get in fights all the time with that play. But I liked the fact that Coco got so mad. I loved it.

You’ve got more people that say slide feet first, but he knew that Coco was coming in headfirst. But I also thought that Coco’s slide into Iwamura wasn’t right. There’s no question he was being thrown at and – in Tampa’s defense -- I thought James Shields was doing it right and threw it at his hip. He didn’t throw at his head, and Coco said ‘you have a point but I just snapped.’ It doesn’t really bother me because I like to see that passion in guys. I was a little surprised because Coco didn’t strike me as a guy that was really emotional.

Maybe it’s a good thing. A little fire in a team, and I think that whole process will help Tampa Bay. As much as Joe Maddon is a great friend of mine, I didn’t think he needed to be yelling at Coco in the dugout. But at the same time I think it will galvanize Tampa Bay and it will galvanize the Red Sox a little bit, and it will make for some interesting situations later on. One other thing too was everyone came out talking about Tampa Bay’s young pitchers and then Jon Lester and Justin Masterson went out there and dominated. I think that was a huge thing for the Red Sox to have their young pitchers go out there and put them back in first place.”

Pap still holding a grudge

Haggs — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:25:49 GMT

Here's a press release from the good people at Comcast SportsNet, who have the ultra-excitable Jonathan Papelbon do a weekly segment on the Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight show. Apparently Pap is still fired up about the basebrawl that unfolded with the second place Tampa Bay Rays last week, and the Sox closer admits that it's not over with the upstart Rays. Should make for an interesting three game set at the Trop at the end of June. The closer vowes revenge, of course, in typical Papelbon fashion with a helping of Red Bull-filled bravado and a splash of Dropkick-Murphy fueled aggression. The highlight of Pap's warning: "Payback is a bitch." I wouldn't want to dig in against him if I were Johnny Gomes or Carl Crawford.

Good times.

Not even the free Dunkin Donuts iced coffees after a Sox win seem to be calming him down...

Here's the relase on Pap.

PAPELBON TELLS COMCAST SPORTSNET TAMPA-SOX FEUD NOT DONE

BURLINGTON, MA – Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon appeared for his weekly chat on Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight to discuss the tumultuous week that was for the Boston Red Sox. Papelbon weighed in on a number of topics including the Sox-Rays on-field fracas.

On the Sox-Rays fight…
“In my opinion it is a bunch of bull what they did. All I got to say is what comes around goes around. Payback is a bitch. In my opinion, and the way I feel right now, this thing isn’t all settled and done. We still got to play them a few more times and I know when we go into Tropicana things will be a little different than when went in there last time.”

On the Rays staying in the race…
“Those guys have a lot of talent over there. As you can see, it’s a war when we go play those guys. It’s the big leagues and you got guys that can pitch over there and you got some guy that can hit so we’ve got to do everything we can to stay atop of those guys and keep fending them off because they can play.”

For the full audio please visit: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1498095147/bclid1519719484/bctid1601302606

Please credit Comcast SportsNet’s Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight for any usage.

Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight is a must watch for the passionate Boston sports fan who wants more than the coverage provided by the local network affiliates. Live, twice-a-night, at 6:30 and 10 p.m., hosts Gary Tanguay and Michael Felger offer entertaining news, analysis and debate on the top sports stories of the day with leading beat writers and sports personalities from around New England.

Comcast SportsNet reaches more than 4 million households in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Comcast SportsNet’s programming includes the Boston Celtics, Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight, Celtics Now, New England Tailgate, and Net Impact. Comcast SportsNet’s partnership with the 16-time NBA Champion Boston Celtics is the longest team-regional sports network relationship in New England and the fourth longest in professional sports. Comcast SportsNet New England is owned and managed by Comcast SportsNet. Visit www.comcastsportsnet.com for more information.

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Sox interested in C.C.?

Haggs — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:19:05 GMT

Interesting little tidbit during a segment with ESPN Baseball Analyst Jason Stark on Mike and Mike’s morning show Tuesday morning. Stark was asked about whether or not Cleveland was out of the playoff race in the AL Central and if C.C. Sabathia would be moved, and – completely unsolicited – Stark threw the Red Sox into the potential Sabathia trade discussion by mentioning how heavily the Indians are scouting Sox players right now.

You kind of wondered how long it was going to take before the free agent to be would be tossed into a veritable cornucopia of trade rumors. Apparently that time is fast approaching.

While Sabathia got off to a bad start, he’s looked pretty damn good as of late and was simply overpowering in a complete game shutout win over the Twins last night. He’s also 27 years-old and just entering his prime pitching years, though the 256 1/3 innings he totaled between the regular season and playoffs last season certainly bear some close watching this year.

Sabathia’s strikeouts are up this season but opponents were hitting .296 against him this season heading into last night – and a 6-foot-7, 290 pitcher with Sabathia’s kind of oversized build can be a serious – and some would say untenable -- risk for a long term contract.

Indians GM Mark Shapiro could also be drawing in Hank Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees by putting the word out there that they’re interested in the young players within the Red Sox farm system. Something tells me if Theo Epstein wasn’t willing to give up a generation of prospects for Johan Santana, then he won’t be willing to do it for big C.C. either.
Anyway, here are Stark’s thoughts about Cleveland when he was asked if he thinks they’re out of the playoff race.

JS: “I’m not quite, but I’m getting awfully close. Here’s what’s going on with the [Sabathia] front. The Indians are telling everyone that they’re going to listen. At the same time they’re not ready to put him up for sale yet. They are still hoping they can get their act together and contend, but – if they don’t – they’re going to listen. They’re out right now scouting organizations that they think have the prospects it would take, the young players it would take. For example, they are all over the Red Sox organization right now. I can’t see how this is going to happen, but they’re going to listen.

Ramirez flexing his leadership muscles

Haggs — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:36:16 GMT

A couple things today: first off I wanted to link to an excellent pair of stories from Hacks Buddy "Downtown" Ian Browne, the Red Sox MLB.com reporter who paid a visit to renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Montgomery, Alabama recently and came back with some great material.

I remember the story about Sox Director of Player Personnel Ben Cherington traveling down to the Deep South to watch Andrews perform an elbow surgery several winters ago, and I've always been fascinated with the ground-breaking work he's done medically for baseball players -- and professional athletes in general.

Now on to the Local 9.

It was interesting that many immediately assumed that last week's dugout altercation between Kevin Youkilis and Manny Ramirez must have been caused by Ramirez's "Manny Being Manny" attitude and his general laissez-faire approach. But instead the backhanded slap and ensuing shove seems to have sprouted from the intense nature Youk brings to each and every at bat. It's the kind of tireless game of concentration and high-stakes intensity that has allowed Youkilis to win a Gold Glove, and has him poised to become both a .300 hitter and an All-Star.

I think it's folly to indict Youk for bringing a raging fire of intensity to each and every one of his plate appearances -- and it's similarly foolhardy to paint the first baseman as any kind of selfish given his readiness to play hurt, play multiple positions in the field including the unfamiliar outfield and bat just about anywhere in the lineup.

Maybe he throws a bat back into the bat rack or tosses a helmet every once in a while. Maybe he even mutters a dreaded expletive or two as he pouts his way back to the dugout.

Has Ramirez gone to all of the lengths for the team's overall success that Youk has, despite his prodigous athletic talent? Is Ramirez the right guy to be calling Youkilis out for anything? Did the New York Yankees ever have a problem with Paul O'Neill showing the same kind of explosive temper after making outs during the last Yanks dynasty?

I don't think so was my answer to each of these questions, but Ramirez actually began showing off his "leadership" tendencies during this offseason, and Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Carl Crawford saw it firsthand when he showed up late to one of their workouts at API in Tempa, Arizona.

I caught up with Crawford during Tampa's last series here (prior to the Coco Crisp hair-pulling incident) and here's what he had to say about Manny. Ask yourself one more question about the incident before reading the Q and A. What would people's reactions be if Youkilis got in Manny's face because he wasn't a vocal and fiery inspirational leader? People seem to accept Manny for who he is and praise him for his even-keeled, seemingly oblivious approach, and maybe it's time the Sox accepted Youkilis for being the bat-tossing, emotional perfectionist that he is.

Here is the Crawford Q&A:

People have mentioned that Manny Ramirez might have picked up some speed while he was working at API last winter, and that he looks faster this summer. Do you think that’s possible?
CC: I was there with him. I saw him. He did all of the same workouts that I was doing. I certainly don’t think it hurts and it wasn’t going to make him any slower. I think working out [at API] puts a little pep in everybody’s step.

How did he take to all the new exercises and workouts he was undergoing at API?
CC: I thought he looked good and like he’d done it before. He did everthing, man. I was surprised to see him doing all the running and stuff, but he did everything there. That’s probably why he was off to a pretty good start here. He worked pretty hard last year from what I saw.

Did you have any stories of Manny Being Manny from your time out in Arizona working side-by-side with him?
CC: No man. He was all business when he was out there. All work and no play. He was there really, really early every day. I think I came in late one morning and he joked with me that I wasn’t serious enough about it. He was all business. We joked about it and it was cool. But I wasn’t late again after that…I can tell you that.

Did that surprise you given the perception about him?
CC: Naw…I get to see him coming out of the weight room and how hard he works in there. All of the behind-the-scenes stuff. Everybody worked hard to get ready for the season, and Manny isn’t any different.

Gammons: Offense down around baseball

Haggs — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:17:12 GMT

Here's the weekly dose of Peter Gammons from his segment on the Mike Felger Show on 890 ESPN. Among other things, Gammons talks about the strategy the Sox seem to be using to give their starters additional rest during the season, and Boston's patience with Dice-K when "there are other managers that would have gone absolutely crazy managing Dice-K."

Also, a good little nugget about Boston's willingness to swoop in and grab Kei Igawa if the Yankees put him on waivers. Enjoy:

Peter, have you seen a drop in offense around baseball this season, and why?
PG: I think two years of testing has had something to do with [offense being down]. You don’t see those big gaudy fifty home run numbers anymore. You lift your head up and look across the board and you see that Carlos Quentin and Mike Napoli and Josh Hamilton are 1-2-3 in home runs. What does that tell me right there?

It’s going on all around baseball. The Angels right now are the best team in Major League Baseball and probably have been for much of the year, and they almost never hit. They pitch and they catch the ball, and that’s about it. The game has changed dramatically and some people saw it. I remember before the 2005 draft the Red Sox people were saying ‘you know what, the game is going to change.

The testing is going to change the game’. And they went out and took Ellsbury, Hansen, Lowrie and Buchholz and they recently became the first team that had their first four picks all play in the same game together.

Do you think it’s changed for the better?
PG: I loved watching those home runs, but it needs to be a different game. I think their needs to be more athleticism, but the problem is because baseball has been run so poorly in so far as helping out minority athletes. Particularly once Title IX came in and you had 17 women’s volleyball scholarships and 10 baseball scholarships for 30 players, it ended the opportunity for college baseball to be a poor kid’s sport.

Just watch the College World Series in the next few weeks, and you’ll be able to count on one hand the number of African-American ballplayers playing in the College World Series. That athleticism is something that needs to return to the game now that home runs are being diminished.

I think Tampa Bay emerging and giving the AL East some new blood is a great thing.
PG: All of a sudden it’s the series, the Red Sox vs. the Rays. It’s amazing. ESPN has moved it and they’re doing a game Tuesday night, and all of a sudden Boston and Tampa Bay has become an event.

I think it’s disappointing that they’re still drawing 13-14,000 in Tampa. Back in 1987 when they built that ballpark with the hopes of attracting an expansion team, Peter Ueberroth said the only thing that stadium would be good for would be tractor pulls. Now they’re playing Major League Baseball and coming over the bridge from Tampa makes it really hard to get to, and I realize that’s a problem.

I wonder if it’s really a baseball area. Now if they put it on the juncture of 4 and 75 then you would have something that would attract people from Tampa, St. Pete and Orlando and you would have a big-time franchise. But they were so stupid to get in this battle between Tampa and St. Pete and now it might end up killing the franchise.

With injuries to pitchers like Dice-K and Buchholz, it’s kind of a luxury with their depth that they’re allowed to rest their pitchers a bit with relatively minor injuries when other pitchers might continue throwing. Is there a risk of being a little overconfident there over the course of the regular season, and knowing that they’re going to be in the postseason?
PG: I don’t think that they know it, but what they want is the best performance they can possibly get in August, September and October. I don’t think it’s being done for October, although I also don’t think there’s any question that they won a World Series Championship last season because of the innings that Sabathia had pitched as opposed to Josh Beckett.

You’ve got to be very careful with Lester and Buchholz and you don’t want to those two going near 200 innings. It’s not bad that Josh Beckett had two or three weeks at the beginning when he was getting back. I suspect they’ll be conservative with Matsuzaka over the next few weeks and let Masterson and Buchholz fill in. That won’t be a bad thing.

The way Daisuke goes out and throws for a half-hour in the afternoon on every day that he starts, you wonder how many throws he has in that arm. There are those people in Japan that will tell you that you build the arm up by throwing – and I agree with that – but you wonder how much is too much throwing when you’re pitching in the American League East rather than the Japanese Central League.

Don’t know if you’ve heard my spiel, but I wonder if you just have to make a few exceptions for Dice-K and really let throw more pitches than you’re used to allowing and let him go to 120?
PG: They’ve done that and I think it’s a good idea. That’s one thing that the Red Sox have really done. Ron Guidry was the Yankees pitching coach and he took Kei Igawa and changed his delivery and he’s never been the same. The interesting thing was that if the Yankees put Igawa on waivers the Sox, from my understanding, were going to put a claim in on him.

He needs to go back to doing what he does when he was a very successful pitcher in Japan. I think that they’ve done that with Matsuzaka and allowed him to be himself. I think John Farrell has always treated the 11 or 12 pitchers like you would treat your children. You don’t treat any two people the same way, and they are who they are and you do what you do. You draw the line when you have to draw the line, but I think the Sox have done a good job of letting Matsuzaka be who he is going to be.

I think there are some managers who would have gone absolutely crazy managing Daisuke. That game where he had a 6-0 lead and he starts walking people…Ugh. Most managers would be up to get him out of there and the Sox have been very patient…and they’ve got a lot out of him. I do think he will get better, but it’s very hard to get him to change the way he pitches – especially in the American League East. It hasn’t gotten as good as it should be considering the kind of stuff he has.

On Bartolo Colon, I always invoke the notion that he totally fell off the map after a strong start last season. Do you have any early indication he’ll make it past five or six starts.
PG: I think that what’s been a little surprising is that his command has been so good and he’s been very economical. He didn’t have that kind of command last season. He is a bull and he used to love to throw 140 pitches. He’s figured out that he can’t do that any more and that’s been encouraging.

It’s just one of those things where it was a great signing and a great piece of work by the talent people with the Sox. If it’s five starts then that’s great and if it’s 20 starts then it’s phenomenal. This guy is a Cy Young Award winner and it’s fascinating to watch. He is throwing harder than he did at any point last season, and I know Don Cooper – the Chicago White Sox pitching coach – was pleading for the White Sox to sign this guy. I asked him why and he said that Colon is one of the most competitive people that he’s ever coached in his life.

I swear by him to the nth degree and you’ll remember that he had a very good season with the White Sox before he signed with the Angels.

Are we finding that Manny Ramirez cares about milestones in his career?
PG: There’s no question he cares. He’s asked me a couple of times this year about the Hall of Fame and questions like that. There’s no question that he cares about his place in the game. As carefree as he pretends to be, he does care about records and his place in history.

Lopez finds the rythmn

Haggs — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:49:37 GMT

Javy Lopez is one hell of a nice guy. Unfortunately the lefty specialist couldn't get left-handers out last season, but he's been a different guy thus far this year out of the bullpen for the Red Sox. He ranks among the top 10 in AL relievers in appearances, opponent's batting average against left-handers, and holds -- and Javy was more than happy to talk about some of the changes that have allowed him this season to once again proudly call himself a LOOGY.

Feel like you’re in a pretty good groove right now?
JL: I’ve been getting pretty regular work, and anytime you can get that kind of consistency then you’ll feel a little bit better about your stuff. That’s kind of where I’m at right now.

What about adjustments to left-handed hitters, as your sheer numbers against lefties are vastly improved over last season?
JL: It was a strength that I always had in the past, and it’s something I got away from and almost took for granted because I wanted to be able to get right-handed batters out as well. Last year the numbers were slanted more toward getting righties out because I was more focused on the off-speed stuff to get righties out. I kind of took for granted that I could get left-handed batters out. So I just needed to refocus on some things, and do whatever I could to even it out as best I can.

What kinds of things did you actually focus on against lefties?
JL: Obviously working ahead in the count is a good thing for me and I think I got into a little bit of groove where I was throwing fastballs away, and any left-handed hitter will tell that’s what they’re looking for from anybody out of the bullpen. Especially a lefty specialist is going to come in and throw that pitch because it’s the toughest to hit, so I worked on really being able to move the fastball around along with working on my secondary stuff.

You mentioned the regular work. How much of a key is that for any reliever to staying sharp and effective?
JL: Regular work has been good. I’ve been pretty fortunate that it’s been more than just one or two batters for me, and I’ve been able to work an entire inning in -- I think -- half of my outings this season. Pitching an inning or an inning plus helps you get a little more sound mechanically and really allows you to concentrate on your off-speed stuff. In the pen you can’t simulate game-speed and recreate when you’re just working on things out there.

Is the confidence-level in a pretty good place right now?
JL: Definitely. It feels good to get out there and be getting the ball in some pretty good situations and some key spots. I think every pitcher gets fired up to come into the game when everything is on the line.

In addition, here are some typically cogent thoughts from Sox pitching guru John Farrell about Lopez and what the left-hander is doing differently and more effectively this season.
John Farrell
“It was a clear objective to address some of his inconsistencies and one of the main things was getting inside on lefties and creating a little more depth to his slider. Last year I think he became a little too flat in his pitches to left-handers, particularly on the outside part of the plate, and I think also left-handed hitters took notice of the past success he’d had against them and were bearing down a little more. He had to counter-adjust and he’s showing exactly that. He’s throwing the sinker a little more to lefties and can change to two or three different arm angles, and I think the key has been his counter-adjustment to lefties.

Heat is the word for Clay

Haggs — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:28:46 GMT

It was obvious from the first pitch of Clay Buchholz’s rehab start at Triple-A Pawtucket on Sunday night that the talented righty had marching orders to work on his heater. Buchholz threw 63 pitches over four plus innings and threw 38 for strikes, with over 70 percent of the pitches qualifying as of the fastball variety.

The 23-year-old hit 96-mph on the fast Pawtucket radar gun at least three times and hit 95-mph a handful of times. While that likely means 93-mph and 94-mph in the real world of big league baseball, that’s still a pretty good velocity for the young starter to live at when he returns to a suddenly overstuffed starting rotation.

By the way, the outside assumptions that Buchholz will fill a bullpen role at some point this season for the Sox are much more fiction that reality. The Sox didn't like the way Buchholz's arm responded to attempting to pitch a role out of the bullpen last season, and they're not willing to risk his golden arm in a 'pen experiment this season. Not going to happen.

Here’s a few of the righty’s thoughts after his first PawSox start last night:

Was the nail a factor at all out there?
CB: Whenever it happened, it affected the fastball. I hurt it throwing a two-seamer, and whenever I would try to throw it after that I would feel pressure on my finger. That was the game where I really started going with a lot of curveballs and changeups and a lot of off-speed stuff. Today and in previous bullpen sessions I didn’t feel it at all and I really just felt natural and normal.

How did you feel on the mound today after the long layoff?
CB: I felt good and I felt rested. I was up in the zone a little bit, but I think that was a case of not having thrown in a little while and being a little anxious to throw. Feel like I got low in the zone after that and just overthrew a couple of pitches that I wanted low in the zone. Today was a good day for me.

Did you feel like you wanted to throw the fastball early?
CB: Yeah. They told me they wanted me to throw 60-65 percent fastballs, and there some counts where I could have thrown off-speed pitches and got some swings and misses. But I stuck with the fastball and overall felt like it worked out good.

Is that the ratio that they want you throwing at the big league level?
CB: Yeah. [The fastball ratio] was a really low because I guess I fell in love with the off-speed stuff because I had so much success with it early, but big league hitters catch on to it and they have video just like I have video up there. It’s easy to see what kind of routine somebody can get into whether it’s hitting or pitching. They definitely want me to throw a lot more fastballs, locate it, get ahead with the fastball and then maybe the second or third time through the lineup start mixing it up and throwing off-speed pitches on the first pitch and stuff like that.

Have they told you what’s next for you?
CB: From what I understand, I have another [Triple-A] outing in Durham, and it’s up to them from there. They said I was coming down for two outings and that’s what I am looking at right now…if I have to stay any longer than that, then so be it. I’ll be ready to go whenever they call.

It’s got to be a really weird situation with the six starters. Do you talk about it like [the media] does?
CB: Like I said, whenever they give you the ball and call your name you go out and do your job and do whatever you can to help the team win. You can’t really wonder what’s going to happen or where you’re going to be five days later. You’ve just got to make the best out of every outing that you make, and that’s what I’m on my way to doing right now. I want to get up there and stay up there regardless of whether it’s five starters or six starters.

You seem like you were anxious to get out there and get going.
CB: I was ready to go. It’s been awhile, it’s been like two weeks. It was a good day for me. I felt good. I felt strong. I felt like I was throwing harder than I have been on a consistent basis and it was a fun day.

Are you going to be disappointed if you make another Triple-A start after that next Durham start?
CB: No, I’m still pitching and still playing baseball. If it was something where I was hurt and I wasn’t going to pitch at all, then I’d be a lot more upset if that was the case. If I have to make another start then I’m still at Triple-A and just one phone call away. It is what it is.

Gammons: Colon is waiting

Haggs — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:20:25 GMT

Here's a bit of the segment with Peter Gammons on the Mike Felger Show last week, with the biggest Sox-related nuggets concerning what exactly the club expects/hopes to get out of Bartolo Colon on the eve of his Fenway debut.

If Colon is basically a facsimilie of the Big Bart that the Angels got last year, he'll put up the 3.69 ERA and five wins that he managed through his first six starts before producing a descending string of diminishing returns. Colon ended up with a 6.34 ERA after he simply ran out of gas with the Halos. That span could be just what is needed to give both Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester a blow in what's expected to be long, postseason-worthy summers for each of the young hurlers.

It's worth mentioning that Lester is currently among the 10 in innings pitched with 66.0 and is on pace for 220 plus innings this season -- a hallmark the health-conscious Sox organization will never allow him reach this summer.

Here's Gammons:

You think the plan for right now is to stick with Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen and wait for one of those two guys to straighten things out?
PG: They have no alternative.

There are no thoughts to look for somebody else around the league, or maybe make Masterson that guy?
PG: Maybe eventually…but you know they can look down the line, but if you have pitchers of that ability, you don’t go out and say ‘Oh I need to go out and find a guy that throws 85-mph’ because that’s all there is out there.

If you want to trade for Huston Street, who I think was blown out by Ken Macha and clearly isn’t the same guy, but if you want to trade for Huston Street then you’ll have to trade three prime players to get him. And he’s 86 or 87 now where he was 91, 92 or 93 before he started warming up in the sixth inning.

Do you think Clay Buchholz to the DL with a hang nail was inevitable given his innings pitched at this point in the season?
PG: I think it was a good idea because I think both Buchholz and Lester will be shut down at times just like Beckett has been shut down over the last two years. I think they’ll do that with everybody at one time or another, and they’ve got Colon sitting there waiting. I wouldn’t be totally surprised to see Masterson get a shot eventually to get some spot starting or Michael Bowden get an opportunity after he’s been the best starter in the Eastern League this season.

They’ve got a lot of ways to go on that, but if Colon can give them a month then that would be a huge lift. Mike Scioscia told me that last year that when Colon came back he threw great, 92-95 for about five or six starts and then he just ran out of gas. But if he could do that for a month with the Red Sox then that would terrific because he could let Buchholz get back to Triple-A and get the command of his fastball back and you could eventually let Lester start every sixth day or so.

The pitching staff could be a lot better off come September because I still think their pitching depth and the depth of their roster will be their greatest advantage. They’ve got a lot of good players and the depth will really save them as they go along this season. When Brandon Moss comes back and Jed Lowrie comes back, their depth is what separates them from the rest of their division as long as the pitching holds up.

Bartolo Colon seems really intriguing to me because the upside is so high with him?
PG: It is. I know they’ve been talking to Peter Greenberg about Freddy Garcia. My guess is he’ll end up going somewhere else like the Mets where they’ll give him quite a bit of money. Although, Pedro Martinez has now won 27 in four years for $52 million so how long are they going to go on with that. How long are they going to go on with that and bring in Freddy Garcia? How long do you want to go on with another pitcher with a history of arm problems if you’re the Mets?

It’s good to see the Brewers continuing the lay the foundation for their dynasty by signing Ryan Braun to eight long years, and continue a trend of the small-to-mid market teams locking in their young players?
PG: I think it’s a lot of creativity involved, but it also tells you that by and large these guys really enjoy the atmospheres they’re in.

It’s interesting that Kazmir is buying into the fact that the Rays are climbing, and the most interesting one I think was Hanley Ramirez. Hanley is already one of the three or four best players in the National League and I think that his agents felt that the six years, $70 million at this point in his career was probably under-market. I know the union was very opposed to it.

But Hanley wanted a deal, he loves it there and he really buys into the notion that the Marlins are going to be really good in time. I think it’s great that players are saying to themselves ‘you know what…enough is enough.’ I think any one of us can live off six years and $70 million even if the union think it’s undervalued.

I find it interesting to come up with a value for Braun giving up free agency value for him six years down the road when he would have gone to free agency.
PG: First of all I have great trust in Doug Melvin’s ability to evaluate players and he really thinks that Ryan Braun can be Mark McGwire, and that’s if you take away all of the side issues. He thinks he has that kind of talent. The question is what happens if they have a couple of other guys that come along and put up huge numbers.

What does this mean, and will every single one of them have to get a Ryan Braun contract? That’ll be interesting to see, but the game is awash in money and nobody is losing money. Bud Selig’s legacy is that he took a small business and turned it into an extremely wealthy business, and places like Kansas City and Milwaukee and Florida and Tampa Bay have enough money to keep their good young players. And that never used to be the case.