Hello,
FYI: < > indicates that I'm being sarcastic
Before I get to my Red Sox preview I just want to quickly comment on the #3 Duke- #5 Miami game at Cameron Indoor Stadium yesterday. I watched the second half and I was again reminded why I hate the Duke White Devils so much. For some reason every time I watch one of their games I hear lurp, lurp, lurp. I hate all the ungainly white guys Duke seems to get year after year after year. For instance, all of the lurpy Plumlee brothers. I also hate how they always get the benefit of the doubt in foul calls, about 2/3rds of the foul calls went against for Duke in the second half.
Ryan Kelly did have a great game for the Dukies, but like most Duke players he's going to have a very brief NBA career. Then what the hell was Coach K talking about when he said:
"I mean, me saying 'spectacular' or whatever doesn't do his performance justice," Krzyzewski said. "One for the ages. Probably as good a performance as any player has had -- a Duke player has had -- in Cameron."
I look forward to an early Duke flameout in the NCAA tournament and I'm glad Kelly is back. Now when Duke loses, and they will, they have no excuses. Without Kelly there was no way Duke would have won that game. Plumlee's poor long distance court pass and clanking free throws exposed how lame he is.
This is the second in what hopefully will be a 5 part series previewing each one of the five main MLB teams that I follow. Really I'm not trying to go with a weather theme for these MLB preview blogs. In spite of predicting sunny days ahead for the Braves and that the dark clouds will dissipate for the Red Sox. And as always to give due where it belongs, I get a lot of this information from ESPN Boston. That's especially when it comes to any of the previews. The review portion is mostly from my personal frustration with the Red Sox having their worse season in 36 years.
Before I get to the Red Sox preview, I'm going to review last season a bit. Thankfully the 1 year fiasco of Bobby Valentine managing experiment was mercifully ended. If the Red Sox only got rid of him alone, things already would be so much better for the Red Sox. However things got even better when they were able to dump all that salary in their big trade with the Dodgers mid-season. The further and further away we get from the trade, it becomes clearer how the Red Sox were the big winner in that trade. (Although I do wonder as also a Dodgers fan if Carl Crawford will ever play a game with the Dodgers? Or will he be another big acquisition like Andrew Bynum, but never plays a game for that team?)
And in further good news the Red Sox no longer have to pay $10 million to Daisuke Matsuzaka for being an injury prone ineffective pitcher. < And John Lackey will be coming back fully healthy and ready to dominate. >
Now moving forward this time the Red Sox were much smarter in getting a new manager. (Jerry Jones you could learn a lot about hiring a head coach from the Red Sox. They hired Terry Francona who led the Red Sox to two World Series titles, after a long stretch without a title. Sound familiar? Then when they hired a manager that simply didn't work, they dumped him. Next they went with a known quantity that had actually been a manager elsewhere. Read no Wade Phillips or Jason Garrett fiascos.) Instead of taking a chance on a prickly, temperamental manager they went with the known quantity, John Farrell. Farrell was a long time Red Sox pitching coach from 2007-2010, including being with the team when they won their second World Series title in 4 years.
Another known quantity is David Ortiz, he's already battling a bit of an injury bug. He may not start the season on time. But the injury bug is to be expected with Ortiz. We know he'll miss several games each season. However that will be okay as long as he remains a productive bat in the lineup. Although it's probably too much to ask for him to become the amazingly clutch hitter he was for the 2004 Red Sox. I also expect hard nosed play to continue to come from Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury.
One of the unknown quanities is their starting pitching staff. What will they get from Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, Lackey, Ryan Dempster and any other pitcher who starts for the Red Sox this season?
Also how will all the new players adjust to the Red Sox culture and the demanding fans of Boston? I don't know how good signing Shane Victorino to a 3 year-$39 million contract was. That seems like a steep price to pay for a player who had so many career lows last year. Especially in light of his 0-11 preseason start, although anything that ever happens in the preseason is very suspect. Victorino will be playing for the USA in this year's World Baseball Classic.
Other new player questions. How will former Cubby/ Ranger Ryan Dempster pitch this season? At this point he's projected to be their third starter. Also the Red Sox went out and got proven closer Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan was a very effective closer for the Pirates, he also was an All-Star. Hopefully he'll work out better than the last big closing stud reliever they signed.
The Red Sox signed Mike Napoli from the Rangers with a 3 year, $39 million dollar deal. However once it was discovered that he has a hip condition that was quickly replaced by a one year- $5 million dollar incentive laden contract. Also the Red Sox are giving Stephen Drew a one year audition to see what he can do.
Meanwhile one of the main players the Red Sox received in their big trade with the Dodgers was pitcher Rubby DeLa Rosa. Although he has looked good this spring, it looks like he'll start the season in the minor leagues.
The Red Sox play in the extremely tough AL East, I doubt that they'll make the playoffs this year. But hopefully they can start building to making the playoffs in the next year or two. I hope that Farrell is the manager for them that he appears he can be, and that he can eventually lead them to the 2007 glory that he was part of.
We'll find out a lot about the Red Sox quickly as they open the season playing 13 straight games against AL East opponents. There isn't a day off when you play an AL East team, it's definitely the strongest of the the 6 MLB divisions.
The Red Sox start off with a three game series in the Bronx against the Yankees. Then right after that they play a three game series against the Blue Jays. On April 8th they return home and play seven games against the Orioles and Rays. The Red Sox don't play a game out of their division until April 16th at Cleveland.
themusicaddict
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