To begin a congratulations is
due to the CY Young award winner Zack Greinke.

I know it has been
awhile but it was a tough postseason with a twenty seventh world series win for
the New York Yankees…but there’s always next year!

As another seasons
ends speculation begins! Who is going to go where, free agents trying to get
the best deals and veterans staying, going, retiring?! Tek, although it’s old
news we all know that Tek got a 3 million dollar deal with Sox as the back-up catcher
(ouch!) but I get it, his batting AVG was…not good I mean I love the guy but
he hit like a .209 AVG for the season. So now the returning Victor Martinez
will be the number one catcher for the Sox in 2010. When it comes to Bay I say
why try and fix what’s NOT broken. Bay had a great season this year in Boston
.267 AVG, 36 homers, 119 RBIs, 13 stolen bases, and 142 hits. It is said that
the Sox have been involved in the Matt Holliday talks which is great, but I
don’t think I want to lose Bay for Holliday, yes Holliday is a great hitter .313
AVG, 24 homers, 109 RBIs. Sadly, the likelihood of keeping Bay and getting
Holliday is slim since Holliday is going for a ‘Teixeira’ type deal and Bay
asking for just a bit less. I’m on the fence about what the Sox should do, we
really need some help in the hitting department I can’t keep blaming everything
on pitching, you need to earn runs to win a ballgame! And the Sox had trouble
doing that this season.  Boston trading one great hitter (Bay) for
another (Holliday) wouldn’t make any difference. The Sox need to sign one of them and then new young hitters who are willing to take less
money, wait that sounds familiar… HELLO! the farm that is why it there, use it! So let’s hope that some minor
league players are ready for the big leagues in 2010. So the question for this off season, what is Boston’s big move going to be…

A great six to one win last night over the Chicago White
Sox, leaves the Red Sox three games over the Rangers in the wildcard and seven
and a half games behind the Yankees in the AL East standings. Yet, it’s no
longer the time to chase the Yankees but it is the time to keep a steady lead
in the wildcard because the postseason is looming.  I know the Sox can make it to the postseason,
but can they win the pennant, the world series? It’s possible they have so many
good offensive players just not enough spots in the lineup.   When it comes to defense, well it could be a
rocky road.  Dice-K is ready to come
back, but Boston wants to give him one more game in the minors before he goes
back to Fenway and Beckett as we all know is struggling. In his last four
outings he has been handing out home-runs like that’s what he is getting paid to do and with a 8.88 ERA , it hasn’t
been his week.  But, let’s remember
pitchers go through high points and low points, so as long as the real Josh
Beckett comes back soon there should be little to worry about.  Beckett has led two ball clubs the Marlins and
the Sox’s to world series victories, he is a postseason pitcher.  Speaking of postseason pitchers I can’t not
talk about Jon Lester who pitched seven innings of shut-out baseball last
night.  The past few months Lester has
been outstanding. This season he currently has a ERA of 3.44 with twenty-eight
games and seventeen wins.  With Beckett
pitching in today’s game the Sox can hope for a win to increase their wildcard
lead.      

The Red Sox are rolling along despite the fact that they are
seven games behind The New York Yankees, the Sox currently lead the wildcard
race by one game, in front of The Texas Rangers. Tonight they will go for the
sweep of The Toronto Blue Jays to advance their place in the standings.  In last night’s game there was great pitching
from Buchholtz and three homeruns.  In
Buchholtz’s fifth start of the season   (2-3) there was only one run and four hits
while he also struck out three.  Not to
mention the three homeruns last night by, Bay, Martinez, and Ortiz. Bay hit his
twenty-seventh homer while Martinez hit his nineteenth dinger out of the park
and last but not least Ortiz also hit his nineteenth homerun in doing so ‘Big
Papi’ has hit homeruns in four out of the last five games played a feat he hasn’t
repeated since 2006.  Looming in the air
is the upcoming Yankee, Red Sox series at Fenway the Red Sox need to win that
series or else,  well it would be a long
road back in the AL East and the wildcard ,and there’s only forty more games
left of this season.  The series will be
tough especially when it comes to pitching for Boston we have Penny, Tazawa,
and Beckett and the Yankees have all their aces rested, ready, and waiting.
While we have one ace Beckett who is having a great year (14-4) I’m thinking CY
Young but that’s another discussion.   I’m
hoping for a win tonight and preparing myself for a tough series against the
Yankees and I hope the Sox are doing the same.

—KellyM

 Things have gone
from bad to worse in the past two weeks and I can admit it. The Sox are five
and a half games back from the number New York Yankees whose pitching has
become stronger while ours has become weaker and inconsistent.  Our hitters have been spending more time
charging the mound than getting runs; pitchers have been blowing saves instead
of ‘saving’ them.  Yet, slowly but surely
I think we can come back from this struggle. 
After Youk’s attack on the pitcher (which was well deserved) he was served
a five game suspension, which won’t help the Sox hitting issues but Bay is
finally coming back to his normal slugger self he even had a two-run homer in
last night’s win against the Detroit Tigers. This is the first time in a long
time that I can say I’m worried about pitching with Bard struggling and losing
Smoltz it looks as if the Sox bullpen depth is starting to wade toward the
shallow end.  Hopefully tonight the Sox
can complete a sweep of the Tigers and keep climbing up the totem pole closer
and closer to where they should be, the number one slot.  

Once
again another leak has been let out, and with it two names released off a list
of one hundred four names that tested positive for any type of PEDs
(performance enhancing drug) in 2003. One name, the famed Manny Ramirez a
former Sox slugger, who now plays in LA and just finished a fifty game
suspension and David ‘Papi’ Ortiz.  I am almost
speechless at this new information, David Ortiz and PEDs shouldn’t even be used
in the same sentence except for when talking about how much he is against them.  He even said that any player who tested
positive for PEDs should be banned from the MLB for a year.  So, where does this leave Papi, well it seems
he is as confused as the public.  He
claims that he doesn’t even know what he tested positive for and he is planning
on finding out and has nothing to hide. 
But what should we believe the little voice in our head telling us that
we knew this was coming and in this day in age we shouldn’t trust any
power-hitter or do we trust Papi who has led the Sox to, two Red Sox world
championships and whose heart and dedication has kept the clubhouse alive and
well, even when he wasn’t playing at his best? I’m at a crossroads I want to
believe Ortiz so I’m going to, but I hope he doesn’t have to eat his words he
said in spring training: “I think you clean up the
game by the testing.  I know that if I
test positive by using any kind of substance, I know that I’m going to
disrespect my family, the game, the fans and everybody, and I don’t want to be
facing that situation.  So what would I
do? I won’t use it”  It won’t be
long before Papi can (hopefully) clear his name and set things straight, maybe
I’m being too optimistic but I don’t care. But, until we hear more about Papi
we have wonder when we will finally know all the names on this ‘oh so private’
list.

Where to be begin, it has been a very busy few days in Boston
and no one is complaining. The Sox have acquired two players Adam LaRoche and
Chris Duncan, they lost Lugo and a few good minor league players, they snapped
a losing streak, cut Kotsay from the roster to make room, and are getting ready
for Jim Rice’s induction into the Hall, and cut down the Yankees lead over the
Sox.  First, two new players LaRoche who
was put right on the roster and Duncan who is trying things out in Triple-A, both
were welcomed with open arms especially LaRouche who was reunited with past teammates
in Smoltz, Bay, Green and  Drew.  In gaining LaRouche Lugo was lost, I do not
consider that a disappointment but a step in the right direction. Kotsay, a
player who always seems to step up his game when he is needed  was cut from the roster due to his injury
which added a perfect opportunity for adding Adam LaRoche to the roster.  Despite all the roster drama the Sox had a
win tonight against the Baltimore Orioles with a final score of three to one
and with nine hits and one stolen base (Ellsbury) it wasn’t a bad effort on
Boston’s part.  With tonight’s win the
Sox cut the Yankees lead to two and a half games instead of three and lets not
forget, if the Yankees can come back from a three game deficit so can the Sox!
Lastly, a big congratulations to Jim Rice because on Sunday he will become
apart of The Hall of Fame which holds so many great legends and stories that is
only fitting for a deserving Rice to be a member.  I can’t forget to also congratulate Mark
Buehlre for a perfect game his second no- hitter.

–KellyM