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Baseball Today: Monday, April 2

A local (and sometimes not-so-local) look at the world of baseball . . .

THE OLD TOWNE TEAM: Sean McAdam identifies the five essential questions facing the Red Sox as they head into the season (projo.com) . . . Red Sox owner John Henry gives an interview to boston.com in which he calls the return of Roger Clemens ''a very real possibility'' (boston.com) . . . An interesting look at the pervasive Red Sox online presence from the Hartford Courant's Paul Doyle (Hartford Courant) . . . In the midst of a look at the home-run leaders of each franchise, Joe Posnanski writes that Grady Little wanted to keep a middle infielder over David Ortiz as the final roster cutdowns were being made in 2003. I've never heard that before and, thinking back to the '03 roster, I can't imagine who the middle infielder would have been. (Lou Merloni, maybe?) The reason it might be true: The Sox had also picked up Jeremy Giambi that offseason to do essentially the same job Ortiz would have done, and there was considerable sentiment back then that Giambi was the better hitter. (Oh, yes, there was.) They'd also traded for Giambi, meaning they had more invested in him than they did in Ortiz, whom they signed when he was non-tendered by the Twins. Ortiz only got to play regularly when a) Giambi imploded and b) the Sox traded Shea Hillenbrand, breaking the first-base/third-base/designated-hitter logjam that existed between Hillenbrand, Giambi, Ortiz, Kevin Millar and Bill Mueller. Little's thinking might have been influenced by the fact that he just didn't see a role for Ortiz at the time (thesoulofbaseballblogspot.com) . . . Of course, if he'd gotten his way, these two guys might just have imploded themsevles (survivinggrady.com).

TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM: Sorry, but I just can't forget 1967. (projo.com)

CAUGHT ON TAPE: The blog Balls, Sticks & Stuff has video of Daisuke Matsuzaka pitching against the Phillies Saturday. Note: You'll need Adobe Flash Player 9 to see it. (ballsstickstuff.com)

OUR FRIENDS TO THE SOUTH: The New York Post's Joel Sherman says an early goodbye to A-Rod, since ''there is not a person I talk to in the Yankee organization -- player or executive -- who thinks you are staying beyond this year.'' (New York Post)

SECOND THOUGHTS: Former Braves star Dale Murphy now thinks he should have spoken up about steroids when he was playing. (New York Daily News)

I PREDICT . . . On his always entertaining Baseball Musings site, David Pinto picks the Yankees over the Red Sox in the A.L. East. (Scroll down the page a bit.) He points out that 150 innings of Julian Tavarez in the starting rotation instead of 150 innings of Jonathan Papelbon means that, while the Sox will probably be better in protecting late leads with Papelbon as closer, there may not be as many leads to protect with Tavarez in the rotation (baseballmusings.com) . . . Old friend Tim Daloisio has listed his predictions on the terrific The Red Sox Times site. He has them winning 96 games and the World Series title (redsoxtimes.com) . . . Diamond Mind has calculated that they'll finish third, with the same 86-76 record they had last year (espn.com) . . . Science Daily is more optimistic. It says they'll win 87 games and finished tied with Toronto for second (ScienceDaily.com)

HE PREDICTS: I don't know what's more impressive: Cal Ripken's consecutive-games streak, or my good friend Lou DiLullo's consecutive-years streak of picking the Yankees to win the World Series and the Red Sox to finish third. (To be fair, though, Lou doesn't mention the World Series this time around, just the A.L. East.) It is, as he admits, a "A Very Yankee View" (From A Diehard Fan), but if you're a Yankee fan, you'll like Lou. If you admire passion and loyalty in any walk of life, you'll like Lou. And if you're a Red Sox fan, well, I think it's safe to say you won't like Lou, as will become easily apparent as you scroll down Louie's Lines (yankeetradition.com).

WE PREDICT: Come back around noon today to hear the latest Projo Sports Talk with Art Martone, in which we discuss the 2007 A.L. East race. (projo.com)

IT ISN'T? Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi makes an interesting comment -- that Blue Jays owner Ted Rogers' business "isn't baseball" while "[the] Yankees, Red Sox -- their business in baseball" -- in a Toronto Globe and Mail story about why Toronto won't get involved in the Asian market for players. (Toronto Globe and Mail)

NOT DEAD YET: Apparently, there's still a possibility the Extra Innings package will wind up on cable TV again, after all. The Biz of Baseball blog is following the negotiations, and will probably be a good place to check today if you're interested. (The Biz of Baseball.com)

OLD FRIENDS: Brandon Lyon will be the main set-up reliever in Arizona (mlb.com) . . . Nomar Garciaparra's brother Michael has been designated for assignment by the Mariners, throwing into doubt his future with the Seattle organization. He was the team's No. 1 draft choice in 2001 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) . . . Bruce Chen has found a job with the Rangers. Mama, let your babies grow up to be left-handed (Dallas Morning News) . . . Dustin Hermanson apparently thinks he can get a major-league job somewhere, because he accepted his release from the Reds rather than an assignment to their minor-league affiliate in Louisville (mlb.com).

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 6:47 AM to Martone , Projo Sox Crawl | Permalink

Comments

Tim Daloisio | April 2, 2007 8:34 AM link

Tim Daloisio | April 2, 2007 11:25 AM link

Louis DiLullo | April 3, 2007 11:05 AM link

Francine Henry | April 3, 2007 9:34 PM link

Patrick Simon | April 20, 2007 4:35 PM link