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Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: A shot of Colon »
May 22, 2008
Journal photo / Gretchen Ertl
LOOKING GOOD: Granted, these are the flea-swinging Royals, so you probably should take it all with a grain of salt. But Bartolo Colon won his Red Sox debut last night (details provided by Joe McDonald), and there's more to it than that. Steven Krasner says Colon was better than his pitching line of 5 innings, 6 hits and 2 runs; he goes Inside The Game to break down Colon's performance and notes that every one of Kansas City's six hits was either a blooper, a bunt or a seeing-eye grounder. It's part of a pitching upswing that's explained by McDonald, Krasner and Paul Kenyon in their notebook, which also includes items on J.D. Drew, Manny Ramirez, Brad Mills as third-base coach, a suddenly rejuvenated bullpen, and more.
Before ordering the champagne and balloons, however, listen to Kraz:
"The Royals entered last night’s game 14th — dead last — in runs scored this year. They were 12th in slugging percentage and 12th in on-base percentage, and Kansas City had been shut out 12 times, the league’s second-highest total of whitewashes. The Royals also were 14th in home runs, 13th in total bases, 14th in RBI, 13th in walks and 7th in strikeouts . . . Just consider this information a dose of perspective."
Considered, Steve.
MAYBE SO, BUT . . . The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo talks to baseball people who think Colon will help the Red Sox this year.
ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL: Kenyon catches up with Brandon Moss, who's recovered from his emergency appendectomy and is headed to Pawtucket to begin playing again.
ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION, BOB? I have this friend who probably wouldn't qualify as the world's biggest Jason Varitek fan. So I strongly urge him to click this link, where Baseball Musings' David Pinto talks of 'Tek's offensive "renaissance".
NOTHING BUT BLUE SKIES: Chad Finn declares that David Ortiz' slump is over and that he's not worried about Josh Beckett among Celtics tidbits in his latest Touching All The Bases entry.
OH, THAT'S WHAT THAT IS! The Boston Herald's Michael Silverman reports that the blue thing in Ramirez' mouth these days is a high-tech mouthpiece called a Pure Power Mouthguard.
THEY'RE THE TOPS: The Red Sox are now 19-9 when Jacoby Ellsbury leads off and Dustin Pedroia bats second. (Boston Herald)
MISSED OPPORTUNITY: In light of Jon Lester's no-hitter, Justin Masterson's two strong starts and Jacoby Ellsbury's overall play, Sportingnews.com's Sean Devaney says Twins GM Bill Smith "badly misplayed his hand by not jumping at" one of the two trade offers the Red Sox made for Johan Santana.
MORE NO-HIT MEMORIES: The Globe's Gordon Edes tracks down Mel Parnell, the last Sox left-hander to throw a no-hitter prior to Lester, and he talks about his own gem on a 1956 afternoon that started in rain and ended in sunshine . . . literally and figuratively. And in the Unbelievable Coincidence department, Parnell was diagnosed in 2002 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the same blood cancer Lester had. Thankfully, Parnell's -- like Lester's -- is in remission.
HISTORY LESSON: Baseball Analysts' Patrick Sullivan reminisces about the night Grady Little destroyed Byung-Hyun Kim's career.
HANGING UP THE PEN: At the bottom of an examination as to whether or not Mike Piazza was the greatest everyday player in Mets history, Joe Posnanski has a tidbit about Carl Yastrzemski, newspaper columnist. And that's all I'm giving you; if you want more, click the link.
SAVING GRACE: Writing for Sportingnews.com, Pinto explains why the Royals' signing of closer Joakim Soria to a long-term deal was a good move.
FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET, MORE POWERFUL THAN A LOCOMOTIVE . . . and able to leap the A.L. East standings in a single bound. Sports Illustrated (above) has taken notice of the Tampa Bay Rays. And who wouldn't notice Carl Crawford tossing Derek Jeter like a rag doll, I ask?
MISSTEP: After winning the first two games of their series in Oakland, the second-place Rays -- still sounds a little funny, doesn't it? -- dropped the finale of their road trip to the A's, 9-1 (Tampa Tribune), a loss the St. Petersburg Times' Marc Topkin called easy to explain but not to excuse.
IT'S OFFICIAL: The Yankees are beginning the process of transitioning Joba Chamberlain from the bullpen to the starting rotation. Brian Cashman said Chamberlain "looked me right in the eye and said 'I want the opportunity to start,' '' so last night he pitched two innings in the Yanks' 8-0 win over Baltimore. (New York Post) But while Cashman made it sound as if Chamberlain got things moving, Joe Girardi says the move comes not as a reaction to anything that's happened recently; this, he asserts, was the plan all along. (New York Daily News) The news took the spotlight away from Darrell Rasner, who continued making his bid for this year's Aaron Small Award by improving to 3-0 since his arrival from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. (New York Daily News)
SO LET THE DEBATE BEGIN: Peter Abraham, who's been pushing for Chamberlain to start, says it's all good because "the Yankees will have a top-notch young starter and those are the most valuable commodities in baseball." (LoHud Yankees Blog) The New York Post's Joel Sherman presents the opposing viewpoint, the "whadda we gonna do in the eighth inning??" wail. (The blog It's About The Money, Stupid feels strongly both ways.) In any event, the Daily News' Bill Madden says it's a symbol of changing times in the Bronx. And that change should stay in the Bronx, says Pinto; writing back on Baseball Musings, he doesn't buy the notion that Chamberlain needs to go to the minors to be stretched out.
RED FLAG: The Yankees' one reliable starting pitcher (if you don't count Rasner) is Chien-Ming Wang, and he has a strained right calf. (New York Post) As of now, the Yanks are still calling it minor.
THE HOT LIST: Coming on the heels of Tuesday's 12-2 pounding at the hands of the O's, the Daily News recounts the worst Yankee regular-season losses of the last five years. One Red Sox game is among them.
KEEPING THE FAITH: Hank Steinbrenner says he's "very down" about the Yankees' slow start but is confident things will get better. (mlb.com)
MUST-SEE TV: Earl Weaver's long-ago tirade against Terry Crowley -- "He's lucky he's in (bleeping) baseball" -- was recorded on tape by someone and has been kicking around the Internet for years. Last night, somehow, someway, it actually got on the air during the YES broadcast of the Yankees-Orioles game. The blog NYY Stadium Insider has the video clip. [Warning: They didn't bleep it out, so keep your speakers down if there's someone you don't want to hear it.]
THAT'S THREE IN FOUR DAYS . . . AND COUNTING: The umpires did it again last night -- and did it again at Yankee Stadium -- as they blew yet another home-run call, this time on Alex Rodriguez. (New York Times) After this, their nationally televised blunder on Carlos Delgado Sunday night and their less-publicized miss of the Cubs' Geovany Soto's home run Monday night in Houston, expect the instant-replay train to start chugging down the track.
FROM EXPLANATION TO APOLOGY: Willie Randolph took that step yesterday as he said he was sorry "for his remarks on race and his feud with the Mets' TV network." (New York Post)
FROM THE PENTHOUSE TO THE OUTHOUSE: After sweeping the Yankees in the Bronx last weekend, the Mets proceeded to Atlanta, where they fell to .500 after their third straight loss, 11-4, last night. (New York Daily News)
LOCAL BOYS The blog MLB Trade Rumors says Chris Iannetta's surge in Colorado may make Yorvit Torrealba expendable.
IF YOU PLAY A BALLGAME IN MIAMI AND NO ONE SEES IT, DOES IT COUNT IN THE STANDINGS? The Marlins handed Brandon Webb his first loss of the season last night with a well-played, fun-to-watch 3-1 victory over the Diamondbacks. (Miami Herald) Pinto, however, notes with sadness that the Marlins aren't exactly a hot ticket in south Florida and urges the fans to better support the franchise. (Baseball Musings)
THE MODEL TO EMULATE: Miami fans can take a lesson from those in Houston, where the Chronicle's Jose de Jesus Ortiz says Astros fans rock. And he explains why.
MAKE YOUR CASE The Cleveland blog WaitingForNextYear . . . when maybe someone other than Boston will kill our title dreams -- it's an all-sports blog, so the Celtics' dispatch of the Cavaliers ranks up there with the Red Sox' ousting of the Indians -- has asked fellow A.L. Central bloggers to explain why their team will win the division. First up: Detroit, on the Mack Avenue Tigers blog.
'MAY THE BEST TEAM WIN': Jim Leyland works in Detroit (and his boss owns the Red Wings). But he comes from Pittsburgh. So he's conflicted about this year's Wings-Penguins Stanley Cup final. (mlb.com)
WASH, RINSE, REPEAT: This is a recording. Major League Baseball is instituting measures to speed up games. (New York Times) This is a recording.
YOU WANT FASTER GAMES? Put Sidney Ponson in the mound. (Dallas Morning News)
OLD? OR WASHED UP? That's what the Chicago Sun-Times' Greg Couch is trying to determine about Jim Thome.
HERE AND THERE: Albert Pujols was shaken after hitting a line drive that broke Chris Young's nose and later causing injury to Josh Bard on a collision (more on that below) in the Cardinals' game against the Padres last night (mlb.com) . . . Braves manager Bobby Cox thinks John Smoltz, Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez will all return within the next two weeks (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) . . . Both Carlos Zambrano and Lou Piniella say the Cubs' ace is just fine (Chicago Tribune) . . . Ryan Church, who suffered his second concussion in two months on Tuesday night, hopes to be playing again for the Mets by week's end (New York Times) . . . Dontrelle Willis is back with the Tigers but he's headed to the bullpen. (mlb.com)
OLD FRIENDS: Pedro Martinez has left the Mets to be with his ailing father in the Dominican Republic (New York Daily News) . . . Josh Bard sprained his left ankle in the Padres' game against the Cardinals (signonsandiego.com) . . . David Eckstein's hip is still sore, meaning his activation by the Blue Jays has been delayed (Toronto Globe and Mail) . . . The Brewers don't know when the sore-shouldered Eric Gagne will pitch again. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
-- ART MARTONE
Posted by Art Martone 
at 6:36 AM | Permalink
