Bleacher Report - Articles by Matt Dolloff

Anxiety Becoming a Prominent Issue Among Major League Ballplayers

Matt Dolloff — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:17:48 -0400

It's highly unlikely that social anxiety disorder—irrational nervousness toward big social situations and physical symptoms like muscle tension and increased heart rate—only started manifesting itself in professional baseball players within the last 25 years.

We don't know too much about the condition nowadays, let alone earlier in the 20th Century when it might as well have not even existed.

In recent years, however, we've seen an alarming number of established major league talents falter to almost career-threatening levels. Today's MLB.com article by Doug Miller makes light of the situation.

Royals ace Zack Greinke almost let social anxiety ruin his career. He failed as a Major Leaguer after carrying the pressure of becoming a top-shelf pitcher and letting the anxiety crumble around him.

But he made it back in 2008 showed he had the potential to deliver as a frontline starter.

After learning to cope with his anxiety, Greinke has established himself as one of the elite starters in the game this season with a 9-3 record, 1.90 ERA and 111 strikeouts. This makes him the odds-on favorite to start for the American League in the All-Star Game.

There are, however, cases of anxiety popping up in baseball this season. Baseball is starting to take further notice of the condition.

Cardinals shortstop Khalil Greene has been hitting around .200 since the 2008 season. He let it eat away at him to the point where the Cardinals had to place him on the disabled list because of anxiety.

Dontrelle Willis of the Tigers also suffers from the anxiety.. A former Cy Young candidate, Willis has shown no imminent sign of the form he had in 2005, when he won 22 games for the Florida Marlins. The Tigers also placed him on the DL with anxiety issues earlier this season.

Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds returned from the disabled list, also as a result of anxiety, Wednesday night. He suffered through bouts of anxiety and depression since losing his father at 52 over the summer.

It seems pretty obvious that this is an issue baseball executives will have to monitor more closely. Players earning derisive reputations as "head cases"—Gavin Floyd, Milton Bradley and Rickie Weeks come to mind—could be underachieving at the major league level because of this condition.

It's great to see mental disorders like anxiety are finally starting to be combated as it is likely something that has always plagued professional athletes.

Despite whatever fans may say, playing a sport in front of tens of thousands of people can have a profound effect on a player's nervous system—especially if the fear of failure has already manifested itself inside the player.

The more we take notice of anxiety disorders, the better off MLB and its players will be this season and for years to come.

Celtics: What Will They Really Do with Rajon Rondo?

Matt Dolloff — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:33:16 -0400

Tuesday was an unexpectedly busy day for the NBA, which garnered several headlines leading into this Saturday's draft. The Spurs traded for Richard Jefferson and the Timberwolves moved Mike Miller and Randy Foye to Washington for the fifth overall pick, giving them four in the first round this year. But the most intriguing story of Tuesday was about a trade that didn't happen.

The original report came from Yahoo! that the Celtics had offered the Detroit Pistons Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen for Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey. The rumor sent buzz for the Celtics skyrocketing, and called for an almost immediate press conference. Of course, the Boston media always feels entitled to an explanation for rumors of this magnitude.

Celtics President and GM Danny Ainge was quick to debunk the notions that the Celtics were trying to deal Rondo, but made it clear that the Celtics love Rondo as much as one would expect.

What's obvious from Ainge's comments is the speculation that arose from the trade rumor, like the dissatisfaction with Rondo's character and work ethic (he apparently showed up late to a playoff game against the Magic) or his contract situation, is merely just speculation.

Like any great GM, Ainge would only make such a drastic move as trading two core players if he feels the Celtics will improve as a result of it.

But what's also clear is that the Celtics are not ruling out the possibility of a major trade in the future. Ainge doesn't see anything big happening this offseason, but what they will do between now and the 2010-11 season is still up in the air.

Rondo is set to become a free agent after the 2009-10 season, joining perhaps the greatest free agent class in the history of sports. If the Celtics do not extend Rondo's contract in the next year, his name will be added to the likes of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudamire, Chris Bosh, Steve Nash, and yes, Allen as well.

Allen's contract expires after 2010, making him the most likely player to be moved. The Celtics will remain in control of Kevin Garnett's contract through 2012 and Paul Pierce through 2011, owing them over $40 million combined during the 2010-11 season. This will make signing Rondo to an extension very difficult for the Celtics, especially if he commands a top-tier salary.

But with the way Rondo has improved over the last two seasons, it's looking like he's on his way to a hefty payday. After helping the Celtics win their first championship in 22 years in 2007-08, Rondo took his game to another level in 2008-09. His points, rebounds, assists, and percentages all improved, and he averaged a triple double (16.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, 9.8 assists) in 41.2 minutes per game during the playoffs. And he's still only 23.

Needless to say, Rondo will be seeking a raise over the $2.6 million he'll make in 2009-10. To reward his movement into the upper echelon of NBA point guards, the Celtics will need to dish out some serious dough. Can they afford it?

If you ask me, keeping Rondo in Boston for his prime years would be worth moving Garnett within the next year. That may mean sacrificing another championship run, but I think it's still worth it to keep Rondo in a Celtics uniform for the long-term.

It's pretty clear that Garnett is beginning to decline in terms of both health and performance, which is pretty normal for a man of his age and build.

The window of opportunity for the Celtics' "Big Three" is closing quickly, and soon enough they will have to look toward the future. That said, it wouldn't be easy for the Celtics to find a taker for Garnett's enormous $21 million-plus contract that doesn't expire until 2012.

But if he can prove to still be able to remain healthy for a full season, it would be tough for a contending team in need of a veteran presence to turn down a man of Garnett's ability and experience.

But I digress...If- and it's a pretty big if- the Celtics were open to moving Garnett and could find a deal that works, I would be all for it—provided the main motive is to retain Rondo on the roster.

Rondo doesn't shoot the ball very well at all; it's always been his achilles heel. He'll never be an elite scorer at the point guard position like Chris Paul or Deron Williams.

But he more than makes up for his shooting woes with deft quickness to the hoop, magician-like hands, and tremendous determination and confidence. He has a rare combination of skills that could make him an elite point guard even without great shooting ability.

He may already be there; I personally wouldn't quite call him elite yet, but he's already at the All-Star level and still has plenty of time to improve. I think all he needs is to develop a reliable three-point shot, and he can easily be mentioned among the likes of Paul and Williams.

He can already do everything else with his hands at a very high level. He quickly became my favorite Celtics player and arguably the most exciting player to watch since he came into the league in 2006.

It would pain me as a Celtics fan to see Rondo running all over the place, never tiring or letting up, always looking for the best possible pass or pestering an opponent for a steal, constantly wreaking havoc on the opposing team's game plan, in a different uniform. It wouldn't come as a surprise if a team like Cleveland, Houston, Phoenix, or- gasp!- the Lakers were interested in his services come 2010.

Whatever the Celtics do with Rondo, I'm just hoping it doesn't come devoid of benefits. Trading him would be disappointing, but would also only happen if Ainge feels the Celtics would be better off doing it, and the Celtics would likely end up with some nice players and/or draft picks in return.

Letting Rondo walk to free agency and join another team would be extremely painful to watch, especially if he dons a yellow and purple jersey.

At this point, I would be open to seeing Garnett move elsewhere in order to make room for Rondo to stay here for the future. He's the most exciting, talented young point guard the Celtics have had in years, and without him for the future the Celtics could be headed straight back to the league basement by 2012.

The Five Most Significant NBA Draft Moments In Boston Celtics History

Matt Dolloff — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:29:04 -0400

To say the Boston Celtics’ draft history is a storied one would be an enormous understatement. They have experienced agony and ecstasy, passed on future Hall of Famers and stolen others over five decades of selections.

With this Saturday’s draft looming, it’s only appropriate to cover the five most significant moments in Celtics draft history.

Honorable mention: Selecting Paul Pierce in 1998; Passing on Kobe Bryant along with 12 other teams in 1996; the sudden death of 1987 top pick Reggie Lewis

5. Larry Bird Falls to Celtics at No. 6 in 1978 Draft

Larry Bird’s draft class is proof of how pivotal top selections can be. Even the Pacers passed on the Indiana State University star and French Lick native, who turned out to be one of the NBA’s all-time great players.

Though this draft produced some other good players such as Maurice Cheeks and Reggie Theus, no 1978 draftee had nearly the career Bird had with the Celtics.

Thirty-one years later, the decision of the first five teams to pass on Bird still stands as one of the great draft mistakes in league history.

4. Celtics Select John Havlicek with Last Pick of First Round of 1962 Draft

While the 1962 Draft produced several good players who had solid pro careers, only one from that class would end up in the Hall of Fame. John Havlicek scored 26,395 points in his 16 NBA seasons—all with the Celtics, and first in franchise history—11th all-time.

Oh, did I mention the Celtics already had Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, and Tommy Heinsohn? And they were coming off a fourth consecutive NBA championship? After adding Havlicek, they would go on to win six of the next eight titles.

Havlicek carried the torch from Russell admirably, leading the Celtics to two more championships in the 1970s. As the subject of one of the NBA’s most famous calls (“Havlicek stole the ball!”), he’s engraved himself permanently in Celtics lore.

3. Celtics Miss Out on Tim Duncan in 1997 Draft Lottery

To their fans’ dismay, the biggest story of the Celtics’ 1996-97 season was where they would end up in the draft. They finished 15-67, giving them the second-best chance to land Wake Forest stud Tim Duncan with the first overall pick. It was clear that Duncan was a transcendent talent, which made the 1997 lottery one of the most exciting in NBA history.

Celtics fans’ hearts dropped as soon as the San Antonio Spurs, who finished 20-62, were revealed as the lucky recipients of Duncan’s services. The Celtics landed the third pick, with which they selected a young point guard named Chauncey Billups.

Unfortunately, Billups lasted only 51 games in Boston, several years before reaching his full potential, as Rick Pitino traded him to Toronto for Kenny Anderson.

As for Duncan, he only went on to be one of the greatest power forwards to ever play the game, winning four titles in 12 seasons with the Spurs. And at 32, he may not yet be done winning. It certainly would have been great for New Englanders to see Duncan assert his greatness in Celtic green.

2. Celtics Lose Out on Top Picks in 2007 Draft, Trade for Garnett and Allen

From one rough year to another, the Celtics also stunk 10 years later, in 2007. The Celtics stumbled throughout the season to finish 24-58, again second in the draft lottery.

The imminence of the Celtics owning a top-two selection in the draft had the Boston media salivating over the likely prospect of landing Texas’ Kevin Durant with the second-overall pick. But the ping pong balls once again did not bounce Boston’s way, as the Celtics got saddled with pick No. 5, the lowest possible pick they could have had.

President Danny Ainge traded that pick, Jeff Green, to Seattle for Ray Allen and Glen “Big Baby” Davis, a move that would pale in comparison to the massive five-for-one deal weeks later that brought Kevin Garnett to Boston.

We all know what happened next. The Celtics completed the biggest single-season turn-around in NBA history, winning 66 games on the way to their 17th NBA title.

I still enjoy imagining what the Celtics could have been had they ended up where they should have at No. 2. They might not yet have a championship, but a starting five of Durant, Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Al Jefferson, and Kendrick Perkins looks great on paper.

1. The Death of Len Bias

In any sport, a first-round draft pick, especially one in the top three, is meant to turn around the fortunes of franchises. Len Bias did just that, just, unfortunately, in a severely tragic way. It seems disrespectful to label Bias a “bust,” but the 23-year-old Maryland star’s shocking death after the 1986 NBA Draft stunned the nation and left the Celtics reeling for nearly two decades.

In April 1984, then-President and GM Red Auerbach traded guard Gerald Henderson along with cash considerations to the Seattle Supersonics for their 1986 first-round pick. It turned out that it would become the second-overall pick for the Bird-led Celtics, who had just defeated the Houston Rockets for their 16th NBA championship.

The reigning NBA champions, in the midst of another mini-dynasty, selected Bias, the 1986 ACC Player of the Year, who had been compared favorably to fellow ACC star Michael Jordan. Had Bias lived up to his big-time expectations, the Celtics could have won several more championships after adding him to a team that included four future Hall of Famers.

Instead, Bias took his draft celebration down a dark path. He snorted an excessive amount of cocaine in his Maryland dorm, which led to his fatal heart attack less than 48 hours after being picked.

The Celtics floundered through much of the 1990s after the original Big Three declined, and they were left to wonder what Bias could have done for their franchise.

Red Sox Head to Philly On Heels of Thrilling Sweep of Yankees

Matt Dolloff — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:09:58 -0400

As C.C. Sabathia continued to mow down Red Sox hitters, working in all of his pitches and consistently hitting the mid-to-high 90s with his fastball, it looked more and more inevitable to Red Sox Nation that the Yankees may finally prevail after seven straight losses against Boston in 2009.

Brad Penny pitched a gem to maintain the 1-0 lead for the Red Sox, but that lead never felt comfortable, nor should it have.

Alex Rodriguez, who certainly felt due to inflict some damage on the Red Sox, silenced the Fenway faithful with his two-run double in the eighth inning that missed the center field bleachers by about three feet. A-Rod’s hard line drive felt like a cannon blast the way it broke open such a tight game in the late innings.

Even then, in the torrential downpours, the fans remained. But with the game being Red Sox-Yankees, they were pretty much obligated.

And in one big inning, they were handsomely rewarded.

The Yankees’ bullpen, which had been taxed by the dismal outings of A.J. Burnett and Chien-Ming Wang earlier in the series, imploded with a chance to close the Red Sox out. Sabathia had been overpowering the Red Sox lineup, the one blemish before the eighth inning being David Ortiz’s fourth home run of the season.

But he simply ran out of pitches in the eighth, getting worked as hard as he had been all night by Dustin Pedroia, who drew a walk in an 11-pitch at-bat, and J.D. Drew, who singled to begin the scoring rally.

“I was just fighting,” Pedroia told Ian Browne of RedSox.com of his subtly game-changing walk. “I haven’t been feeling that well at the plate. Obviously, facing C.C., he’s one of the best in the game. I’m just trying to put a good at-bat together and hit the ball hard — just trying to find a way to get on base. That’s pretty much it.”

Yanked after 123 pitches, Sabathia could not finish what he started, and the bullpen could not save him.

Alfredo Aceves took the ball to try and get to Mariano Rivera for the save chance, but he loaded the bases with a Kevin Youkilis single then allowed another hit to Jason Bay to tie the game at three.

The only out Aceves made was a sacrifice fly by Mike Lowell. J.D. Drew instinctively broke for home on Lowell’s shallow pop-fly knowing it would be very tough for center fielder Brett Gardner to make a strong throw in the treacherous rain, and scored easily.

It was at that point that Fenway officially made the transition from agony to ecstasy.

“We get down by a couple, and then all of a sudden, Greenie gets the hit and Pedey has an extended at-bat and things happen like we’ve seen happen here before—good players doing some pretty special things in a pretty special place,” said manager Terry Francona. “It was electric. You could feel it.”

Sabathia took the tough-luck loss as Jonathan Papelbon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the sweep for the Red Sox.

Boston is now 8-0 to start the season against the Yankees. They haven’t had this kind of win streak against New York to start the season since April 1912, days before the Titanic sunk. The sweep left them in first place in the AL East, and the entire league, at 36-24.

The Red Sox continue to assert their dominance over the Yankees this season, and also continue to dominate at Fenway Park, heading to Philadelphia with a 21-8 home record. And in a season where only two AL teams are over .500 away from home and the collective road record of the league is 180-242, home play is especially important.

The Red Sox will now take part in an exciting weekend for all of baseball as extended interleague play kicks off for the 2009 season. We got ourselves a taste of interleague action in May, which has become customary for Major League Baseball. But now the meat of the AL vs. NL schedule takes place, as has become a June tradition.

This weekend features some highly-anticipated matchups, including the New York Mets’ first trip to the new Yankee Stadium and the Bay-area showdown between Oakland and San Francisco at Petco Park.

But the series that stands to be the most competitive and interesting—at least for East Coast fans—is the three-game series between the Boston Red Sox and the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Boston and Philadelphia own the third-best and second-best records in baseball, respectively. The Phillies are 7-3 so far in June and are coming off two straight victories against the Mets.

The Phillies have struggled at home (12-14) and have achieved most of their success on the road (23-9). They are also dealing with key injuries, as starter Brett Myers and All-Star closer Brad Lidge are currently on the disabled list and won’t be back for this series.

The biggest surprise for the Phillies this season has to be left fielder Raul Ibañez, who signed a free agent contract in the winter. On a team that includes big-time hitters like Ryan Howard and Chase Utley producing like the All-Stars they are, Ibañez has risen above them all.

His 21 home runs are the most in his career before the All-Star Break and two off his total from last season. His career-high is 33, and he should easily eclipse that total this season barring an injury, even if and when he slows down.

Rollins has been the biggest disappointment for the Phillies, posting a .226 average and .596 OPS through 57 games. He hit well in the just-completed Mets series, though, going 4-for-13 with a home run and four RBI. He briefly hit sixth in the batting order and hit well there, but Phillies manager Charlie Manuel insisted it was a matter of sparking Rollins to assume his role as leadoff man and offensive catalyst.

“The only thing I was trying to do was give Jimmy a different look, a little different feel,” Manuel told Todd Zolecki of Phillies.com. “I also think Jimmy knows his hitting.”

Rollins and the rest of the Phillies have a tough challenge ahead of them tonight as Jon Lester takes the mound for the Red Sox. Lester has allowed one run or fewer in three of his last four starts and compiled 23 strikeouts in his last 15 innings. He is beginning to consistently show the form that made him a breakout star in 2008.

His most recent outing against Texas was a near-perfect game that broke up in the seventh, but Lester completed the game, allowing one run on 107 pitches to improve his record to 5-5.

He will try to bring his ERA below 5.00 for the first time since April 24 as he faces a tough Phillies lineup, albeit one loaded with lefties.

The Phillies will send default No. 2 starter Joe Blanton to the mound. Blanton has also pitched well of late, allowing just four earned runs in his last 20 innings. He has not lost a decision since May 9 against Atlanta, and after a rough start his record stands at 4-3.

Both teams are hitting their stride in June after somewhat inconsistent starts to the season. The Red Sox’s rotation woes are beginning to settle into a groove, and the Phillies continue to mash the ball while ace Cole Hamels recovers from a disastrous start to the season.

Francona is always excited to return to Philadelphia, where he managed the Phillies from 1997 to 2000. But it’s even more exciting knowing his team is entering Philly for a potential World Series preview.

When asked by Jim Silverman of the Boston Herald about the upcoming series, Francona said, “It’ll be a fun series for the fans, but from our standpoint, it’s just another part of the grind to see if we’re good enough to be there at the end.”

Is Big Papi Finally Coming Around for the Red Sox?

Matt Dolloff — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:37:27 -0400

It’s still premature to deem any sort of triumphant return to glory materializing for David Ortiz, but the Boston Red Sox designated hitter has shown more signs of turning it around in the past 10 days than he has through the first 10 weeks of the season.

He’s driving the ball to gaps, driving it to the opposite field, and most importantly, driving it out of the park.

Big Papi has two home runs in his last 13 at-bats after hitting just one through his first 193. He has six RBI in his last seven games, and has hit safely in each of them.

He lined his second home run of the season off the Rangers’ Kris Benson into the right field seats in his strongest showing since moving to the sixth spot in the order. He had already shown signs of a turn-around by the time he hit that home run.

“That’s how you getting back to hitting balls and start hitting well, put a good swing on a ball,” Ortiz told Ian Browne of RedSox.com. “Even though you don’t get the good luck, it will come.”

Then the real good sign came Tuesday against the Yankees, when he took a pitch from A.J. Burnett on the outside edge and drove it into the center field seats for his third home run of the season. And this one was a true bomb.

Like Ortiz’s first home run of the season, it was 400-plus feet and landed comfortably in the bleachers. But it was more of an opposite-field drive off a pitch that was almost off the plate, as opposed to something in his wheelhouse.

This recent six-game snippet of success doesn’t guarantee that Ortiz is going to tear it up and have 20 home runs by the All-Star break. But a streak is a streak, and right now Big Papi is on a good one.

The home run off Burnett showed that he still has the ability to drive the ball out to the deep part of the park. He hit several deep fly ball outs in Detroit’s cavernous Comerica Park that may have been home runs at Fenway, Yankee Stadium, and several other ballparks.

Despite failing to homer in Detroit, Ortiz still delivered his share of production, shooting a long double into the gap in right-center to score two runners.

Again, Papi’s recent success still doesn’t mean he’s going to produce like the 2003-2007 Ortiz for the rest of the season.

And in all honesty, it wouldn’t shock me or many others if he went right back to slumping horrendously. But considering he’s produced more in the last six games than he has pretty much all season, it’s reasonable to believe Big Papi is back.

Yankees-Red Sox: New York a Different Team Since Last Fenway Visit

Matt Dolloff — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:34:48 -0400

The New York Yankees should almost be synonymous with “early-season struggles” these days. Their combined record in April since 2006 stands at 48-49, not a stellar figure for a team with as consistently deep a roster and high a payroll as them.

The Yankees’ 12-10 April record this season doesn’t look bad on the surface, but that included a three-game winning streak to close out the month. A three-game sweep at Fenway Park at the hands of the Boston Red Sox left them at 9-9 and looking for scapegoats.

But the Yankees are 25-14 since the last game of that series, and they come into Fenway tonight in first place by one game and having won their last four series.

It’s not too much of a coincidence that the Yankees reversed their fortunes around the same time Alex Rodriguez returned from his hip injury. His presence in the lineup alone has proved to be a big help for Mark Teixeira, who hit 13 home runs in May after hitting just three in April, and leads the league with 18 bombs.

Perhaps more importantly for the Yankees is their pitching has stabilized. CC Sabathia is 4-0 with a 3.26 ERA in his last six starts, one of which was a complete-game shutout at Baltimore on May 8. His presence at the top of the rotation is essential to the Yankee’s success, and he looks to have found himself after a rough April.

A.J. Burnett, Joba Chamberlain, and Andy Pettitte have also delivered quality outings in recent weeks.

Despite the Yankees’ correction of early-season struggles, the Red Sox also appear to have turned a corner at the top of their rotation. Josh Beckett, who takes the mound for the Red Sox tonight, has been dominant since allowing seven runs against the Rays on Apr. 30.

Beckett is 4-0 in his last six starts with a 1.94 ERA. He has thrown over 110 pitches in each of his last five, but has shown no signs of wear or fatigue. His last start, in fact, was his most dominant of the season, as he took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and ended up allowing two hits and two walks in seven-and-two-thirds innings.

Jon Lester also appears to be turning the corner after a wild start to his season. In his last two starts, Lester is 2-0 and has allowed two runs in 15 innings with 23 strikeouts. He made a bid for his second no-hitter in as many years last time out against Texas, but had to settle for the complete-game victory.

Though these two teams are not without their flaws, they seem to be correcting the major problems that plagued them in April and May, which is the main reason for their places at the top of the American League East standings. While the Blue Jays have fallen back to Earth and the Rays continue to underachieve, the Red Sox and Yankees continue to win games and build momentum for their legendary rivalry to take the stage once again.

Tonight’s series opener, which pits Beckett against Burnett, will obviously depend on the performance of the pitchers. To say the two struggled the last time they faced each other would be an understatement; they combined to allow 16 earned runs in 10 innings, in a game the Red Sox eventually won, 16-11.

Considering how much better Burnett and Beckett have been in recent starts, it’s reasonable to assume a slobberknocker like that Apr. 25 game would not happen again. It seems more likely that tonight’s game would either be lopsided or a pitcher’s duel.

We wanted it last time and didn’t get it, so let’s hope we get the duel this time.

What Will the Red Sox Do With This Rotation?

Matt Dolloff — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:43:53 -0400

John Smoltz is getting closer to returning from shoulder surgery, most recently pitching five strong innings for Class A Greenville in a rehab start Sunday. He will make the jump to AAA Pawtucket for a couple more starts before finally joining the Red Sox.

His arrival will add fuel to the burning question of the Red Sox’s 2009 season: What to do with this surplus of quality starting pitching?

Clearly, something needs to be done. The Red Sox have a great problem on their hands, perhaps the best problem they could possibly have. They have five rotation spots, and seven quality pitchers who could fill those roles.

Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Tim Wakefield decidedly have their spots locked up. The final spot has been occupied by Brad Penny thus far, but he may not hold down that spot with Smoltz and Clay Buchholz waiting their turns.

Buchholz has been outstanding in the minors this season as he battles to earn a spot in the Boston rotation. He went 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA in May, including coming within three outs of a perfect game. He would certainly face a much greater challenge in major league hitters, but Buchholz is nonetheless doing what he needs to do to pitch his way to the big leagues.

On just about any other team, Buchholz would easily lock down a rotation spot. But he happens to be on one of the deepest teams in baseball.

In his way is Brad Penny, who has pitched well as the No. 5 starter. He allowed eight runs in three-plus innings in his second start against Baltimore, which inflated his current ERA (5.63) by over a run.

Overall, seven of Penny’s 10 appearances have been quality starts. Opponents are still hitting .310 against him, but he has walked only two in his last 24.1 innings.

Matsuzaka has struggled mightily this season, posting an 0-3 record and spending time on the disabled list. Dice-K is frequently frustrating to watch with his refusal to give in to hitters and throw the ball over the plate.

Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald expounds upon the magic act Matsuzaka put on in 2008, in which he held opponents to a batting average under .200 with men in scoring position and hitless with the bases loaded.

But Matsuzaka has certainly earned himself a spot in the rotation. Despite his tendency to get into trouble, he has been able to get out of it, earning a 33-15 record in his first two big league seasons.

However, this season has been painful to watch for Matsuzaka, as the base runners he has always allowed are scoring at an alarming rate. His groundball-to-fly ball ratio is about 0.58:1, another very disturbing trend for a pitcher like Matsuzaka, who has had trouble keeping the ball in the park in the past.

A big positive is that the one-two punch of Beckett and Lester has shown signs of turning it around.

After a laborious stretch of two starts each against the Rays and Yankees, Beckett has settled down in his last three starts, allowing just three earned runs in his last 22 innings. He has also thrown over 110 pitches in each of his last three starts but has only shown signs of getting stronger.

Lester pitched brilliantly on Sunday against the Blue Jays in arguably his strongest start of the season. Despite only making it through six innings on 111 pitches, Lester struck out a career-high 12 and allowed three infield singles. The lone run he allowed came on a Vernon Wells sacrifice fly in the first inning.

After an excellent start to the season, Tim Wakefield has come back down to Earth, just like he always seems to do. He mixed eight brilliant innings against Toronto in with three rough outings, most recently unraveling against those same Blue Jays late in the fifth inning.

Wakefield has been around long enough where Red Sox Nation knows what it’s going to get from him. All I would ask of him is to finish the season over .500.

With four spots in the rotation locked down (barring injury), it comes down to asking what the Red Sox should do to consolidate this deep pitching staff. Before making any drastic moves, the Sox should give Smoltz and Buchholz chances to pitch. Penny is no lock to stay healthy, as is Matsuzaka, so things still have a chance to work themselves out.

But what’s certain is that Buchholz has earned his chance. After pitching extremely poorly in 2008, he has come out blazing this season. He had an outstanding spring in hopes he would earn the fifth rotation spot and has continued to pitch extremely well overall.

Smoltz is still a few rehab outings away from joining the Red Sox, but the veteran hurler clearly deserves a chance to see what he can still do in the big leagues. It’s unlikely his stuff has gone anywhere, so it becomes a matter of Smoltz making sure he’s 100 percent before joining the Red Sox, and remaining healthy once he is.

It likely won’t be until July when the Red Sox even think about making a move. But once that time comes, it’s also likely they’ll still have the same glaring holes: shortstop and designated hitter.

It’s too bad to have to deem David Ortiz a “hole” in the Red Sox lineup, but it’s gotten to that point. Through 178 at-bats, Ortiz has 15 extra-base hits and a .570 OPS. He has gone 2-for-21 in five games batting sixth. Clearly, the lack of protection is only making it worse for Big Papi. His only promising at-bat in the last week came against Toronto when he hit a double to the center field wall, but that’s about it.

Despite Ortiz’s struggles, the Red Sox still have enough patience to wait him out another month or so before deciding to do something drastic with him.

The shortstop issue is a little more glaring, and a little more urgent at this point.

Julio Lugo has been up to the usual shenanigans on defense, and Nick Green is simply not a major leaguer, let alone a starter for a team like the Red Sox. These two have played poor defense, costing the Red Sox some games (Remember Green’s throw 10 rows into the stands at Seattle?), while not compensating with offense.

The Red Sox will need to assess their options at both of these spots. The offense could certainly use a big boost, either by way of a Matt Holliday trade or perhaps moving Buchholz, among others, for a prized young hitter like Matt LaPorta.

But in my opinion, the infield defense is the biggest issue that needs to be solved. Shortstop is about as important a position as any on the field in terms of defense, and Lugo has shown no signs of progress or improvement upon his below-average fielding in over two seasons in Boston. Green can’t last too long in any kind of regular role.

There are few good, economical options for the Red Sox at shortstop, but Jack Wilson of the Pittsburgh Pirates is a possibility. Wilson has been pedestrian at the plate this season, as he usually is, but he couldn’t do much worse than Green or Lugo in that regard. The big upgrade Wilson brings is on defense. The slick-fielding shortstop would probably have a Gold Glove or two by now if he was a more prominent hitter.

But at this point, all the Red Sox need at shortstop is someone who can field. Wilson can not only make the standard plays, he can flat-out dazzle. The offense could survive having his bat in the lineup if he is preventing runs at a high rate. He also makes $7.4 million, about $2 million less than Lugo.

As for trade options for Wilson, that’s where it gets tricky. He certainly isn’t worth one of the Red Sox’s top prospects like Buchholz, Michael Bowden, Daniel Bard, or Lars Anderson.

But if Theo Epstein feels it’s important enough to shore up the defense (and he may think so—remember 2004?), he may move someone like outfielder Josh Reddick or 22-year-old Junichi Tazawa, who is 5-3 with a 2.82 ERA at AA Portland this season, to get Wilson.

For a team like the Pirates, who all things considered will not need a rental like Penny or Smoltz, acquiring a middle-tier prospect for Wilson seems to make the most sense for them and the Red Sox. A big-time trade would make at least one, probably two out of Penny, Smoltz, and Buchholz the top candidates to move.

The Red Sox have their problems, that’s for sure—some good ones and some bad ones. The positive thing is that they can use the good problems (pitching surplus) to solve the bad ones (shortstop defense, mid-lineup power).

With the way the Yankees have been playing, and how competitive the AL East and the entire league looks this season, it looks more and more like a necessary action.

Boston Red Sox: Francona's Lineup Changes Produce Powerful Results for Red Sox

Matt Dolloff — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:56:49 -0400

The Boston Red Sox were just 15-14 in May, going through some tough road swings and suffering from inconsistency on both sides of the ball. They could have easily finished 14-15 if not for yesterday’s 8-2 victory at Toronto, and who knows how the game would have ended up without the changes manager Terry Francona made to the lineup?

The Red Sox entered Sunday’s game 1-4 in their previous five games, and they scored only 13 runs in that span. Francona felt it was time to make a radical change in order to spark the offense to produce like they had as recently as the beginning of May.

He mentioned how the lack of production from the majority of the lineup was becoming more prevalent.

“When everybody is hitting on all cylinders, that can maybe not be noticed,” Francona told Ian Browne of RedSox.com. “But when we’re not, it becomes a little more noticeable.”

It certainly helped that Jon Lester had perhaps his strongest outing of 2009 on Sunday, allowing just one run and striking out a season-high 12 in six innings. But with everyone’s new spot in the batting order came a sudden abundance of power.

The biggest hit of them all came off the bat of Dustin Pedroia, who busted open a 1-1 game in the fourth inning with a three-run home run to left field. What looked to be a pitcher’s duel changed completely as the second baseman pulled the ball just barely over the wall between the foul pole.

It was Pedroia’s first home run since his first at-bat of the season on Opening Day. It had almost been long forgotten that Pedroia, who hit 17 home runs in his MVP 2008 season, has a little pop to his bat.

“It’s in him,” Francona said of his power. “I think when his groin was bothering him, I think it was hard for him to do that. He finds ways to still be a good player. It was easier for him for a time period there to just use the whole field and not take those swings. In [Sunday's] game, that was huge.”

Kevin Youkilis, who batted third for the first time this season, hit two home runs of his own, his eighth and ninth of the season. The first bomb came in the first inning into the second deck in right-center. The other was a hard line drive into the left field bullpen in the eighth inning.

Jason Bay immediately followed Youkilis with his 15th dinger of the season into almost the exact same spot. Bay is off to one of the best starts of his career, putting up elite numbers (.288/.415/.627, 49 RBI) and not yet experiencing a prolonged slump.

David Ortiz, still batting sixth after moving behind Mike Lowell, nearly hit his second home run of the season when he hit the ball all the way to the center field wall to lead off the fourth inning. He settled for a double and scored on Pedroia’s home run.

Perhaps the most curious move in the lineup was Jacoby Ellsbury dropping to eighth in the order rather than his customary leadoff spot. He went 1-for-3 with a walk and a sacrifice bunt in the fourth to put runners in scoring position for Pedroia’s eventual home run.

Because the changes were so radical, and that Ellsbury is infinitely more valuable leading off rather than hitting in the lowly 8-hole, it’s likely the Red Sox will revert back to a similar lineup they had been fielding as they head to Detroit to take on the first-place Tigers.

With his speed, Ellsbury is the clear leadoff man. With their high contact rates and on-base percentages, it’s only natural that Pedroia and J.D. Drew would remain 2-3. And Youkilis and Bay are about as good a 4-5 combination as any in the league right now.

Needless to say, the Red Sox offense is not in dire straits. But a reboot was needed, and it looks like Francona did just the right amount of fiddling with the lineup to get the spark they were looking for.

Red Sox-Twins: Bad Inning Derails Lester Again

Matt Dolloff — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:00:57 -0400

I pointed it out last week as an alarming trend in Jon Lester’s starts this season for the Boston Red Sox, but I wasn’t totally convinced it was something he needed to fix—and Lester rewarded my optimism with a good start against the Blue Jays.

But Tuesday night was back to the same bad habit for Lester, as the Twins derailed the Red Sox lefty in a single inning with much of the damage done on one bad pitch.

Justin Morneau capped a five-run fifth inning with his 14th home run of the season as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Red Sox 5-2 Tuesday night to split the first two games of their four-game series at the Metrodome.

Lester made it through six innings and 100 pitches, but the bad inning that has haunted him for much of the season reared its ugly head once again. He breezed through the first four innings, allowing only three baserunners before unraveling once again in the fifth.

The Twins began chipping away at Lester with three singles and an RBI groundout. Joe Mauer drew a walk before Morneau came to the plate with two men on. Morneau didn’t waste much time drilling a 1-0 fastball out of the park to right field, instantly blowing the game wide open 5-0.

Minnesota batted around in the inning, with Delmon Young getting a second at-bat. But Jacoby Ellsbury robbed the Twins left fielder with an excellent running catch deep in center field to save Lester and the Red Sox from even more damage.

Lester certainly seems lost right now, and Terry Francona shared his sentiment on the disturbing and baffling frequency of bad individual innings in his starts.

“He looks like he has a chance to get out of it, and then one pitch and all of a sudden there is a crooked number on the board,” Francona told RedSox.com. “I know he is frustrated.”

It is a frustrating season indeed, so far. Lester has now allowed four or more runs in a single inning in six of his 10 starts this season. He is 3-5 with a 6.07 ERA and opponents are hitting .306 against him.

The fifth inning looks like a specific point of deterioration in many of Lester’s outings. He has allowed 19 fifth-inning runs this season—including six of his 11 home runs—while yielding 19 in all other innings combined.

When asked by RedSox.com reporter Thor Nystrom if his single-inning struggles are a point of concern, Lester said, “Yeah, I guess…I don’t know what to tell you guys. I don’t really have any answers for you.”

There were bright spots for the Red Sox in Tuesday’s loss. Jacoby Ellsbury extended his career-high hitting streak to 21 games, the longest for the Red Sox since Kevin Youkilis hit for 27 in a row in 2007.

David Ortiz also had a solid night at the plate while batting sixth in the order, the first time he batted anywhere other than third since May 2005. Ortiz went 1-for-3 with a walk, legging out a line-drive double in his first at-bat in the second inning.

His resurgence would obviously be a boon for the Red Sox offense, which is close to firing on all cylinders right now. But the more important issue is solving the inconsistency issue with Lester and the rotation.

If a drastic problem or unexpected injury arises, the Red Sox do have the luxury of quality pitching looming in the minor leagues. Clay Buchholz took a perfect game into the ninth inning Tuesday and finished with a one-hitter, lowering his ERA to 1.30 in the minor leagues so far this season. Buchholz continues to dazzle at AAA and put more pressure on the Red Sox to make room for him.

John Smoltz is also making progress in his rehabilitation, and could arrive by mid-June. If the Red Sox suffer mightily due to Ortiz’s prolonged struggles, their surplus of pitching could lead to a mid-season trade to solidify the middle of the lineup.

The acquisition of an immediate-impact hitter like Matt Holliday would not surprise, nor would a top-tier prospect like the Indians’ Matt LaPorta or the Pirates’ Pedro Alvarez. And let’s not forget that the Red Sox also have first baseman Lars Anderson getting some seasoning at AA before possibly making an appearance sometime this season.

I guess my point is, the Red Sox are one of the deepest organizations in baseball. They have some issues to work out, team-wise and individually, but if anyone’s capable of plugging all the holes, it’s them.

Everything Goes Red Sox' Way in Three-Game Sweep of Toronto; Mets Are Up Next

Matt Dolloff — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:12:33 -0400

The Red Sox had to at least have a feeling that good fortune was on their side heading into their first series with the Toronto Blue Jays when they found out they wouldn’t have to face Roy Halladay.

It turns out that it was, as just about everything the Red Sox could ask for went right.

The three-game sweep of Toronto (27-17), which leaves the Red Sox (25-16) only a half-game out of first place in the American League East, almost goes without mentioning.

In the series, Red Sox Nation was treated to the first home run of the season for David Ortiz, a franchise record-setting 11th consecutive multi-run homer by Jason Bay, a strong return to the lineup for Kevin Youkilis, and an even stronger bounce-back outing for Jon Lester (3-4), who picked up the win in Thursday’s series finale.

Big Papi’s slump has been the most well-documented story so far this season for the Red Sox. But Ortiz is in the best mindset he’s been in all season after lifting the burden of his first home run off his shoulders in Wednesday’s win.

“I feel good, man,” Ortiz told Ian Browne of RedSox.com. “Let’s keep it that way.”

Ortiz didn’t homer again Thursday night, but he did get enough wood on the ball to scratch home a run with an RBI groundout in the first inning. The real story of Thursday’s game, however, was Lester’s performance.

The Blue Jays worked Lester hard all night, with eight hits and two walks and at least one runner reaching base in each of the first five innings.

But Lester battled through every jam (including a two-on, one-out situation that ended in a 4-6-3 double play) and did not allow a run until the seventh, when Ramon Ramirez allowed the inherited Jose Bautista to score on an Aaron Hill single.

Lester finished with 109 pitches in six-and-a-third innings, striking out four. He clearly wanted to finish the seventh inning, but Terry Francona (wary that Lester’s start could end up like his last two, when he unraveled in the late innings) removed him before it got out of hand.

With a 3-4 record, a 5.91 ERA, and 1.61 WHIP, Lester still has a hole to dig himself out of to return to his 2008 form. But his Thursday outing allowed him to think positively going forward.

“I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew I’m not throwing in the towel,” Lester told Browne after the game. “It’s a long season. You’re going to have some bumps in the road, and sometimes those bumps are pretty deep, and you’ve got to dig yourself out of them. Tonight was definitely a step towards getting out of that hole.”

Also a very encouraging sign for the Red Sox was the return of Kevin Youkilis from an abbreviated stint on the disabled list with oblique soreness. In two games in the series, Youkilis went 4-for-8 to raise his batting average from .393 to .402.

“I just went up there and tried to get my timing down,” Youkilis told Adam Kilgore of the Boston Globe. “You’ve just got to work on your timing. Once you get back in there, your body feels good, you should be fine. The timing is going to be off just a little bit. You’re just hoping to find a rhythm and get your body back in sync.”

The timing apparently is not a problem for Youk. Despite none of his hits in the series being for extra bases, he singled in the third inning Thursday to drive Dustin Pedroia home.

He doesn’t quite qualify for the batting title after his time out, but a few more games should change that.

Bay’s 13th home run in the first inning Thursday tied the Red Sox franchise record for consecutive multi-run home runs at 11. He is one off the major league record, shared by some pretty decent company: Hank Aaron and Ken Griffey Jr.

In a contract year, Bay is off to one of the best starts of his career, with 13 home runs and 44 RBI in his first 42 games. While his home run streak is quite impressive, he acknowledged that only some credit is due to his own work.

“Well, I can’t do that without guys getting on,” Bay told Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald. “I can’t do it on my own. It’s a testament to [the rest of the lineup].”

Next up for the Red Sox are the New York Mets in the first interleague series of the season Friday night. Boston immediately gets a big test in two-time Cy Young award winner Johan Santana, who is 5-2 with a league-leading 1.36 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 53 innings.

Santana is coming off his first start of the season in which he yielded more than two earned runs, allowing four on 11 hits in seven innings at San Francisco.

This will be his first start at Fenway Park since Sept. 21, 2006, when he took the loss, allowing two earned runs in five innings.

Perhaps a good omen for the Red Sox is that Ortiz smacked his 51st home run of the 2006 season (which gave him the single-season franchise record) in that game on the first pitch of his first at-bat off Santana.

Boston will counter with the returning Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is back from the disabled list after recovering from arm fatigue, likely stemming from his MVP performance in the World Baseball Classic.

On facing Santana for the first time, Matsuzaka expressed his excitement over the opportunity. But he made sure we knew his focus was completely on his own performance.

“He is one of the greatest pitchers in the game, and I always thought there would be an opportunity to one day face [Santana],” Matsuzaka said. “I just have to concentrate on my pitching.”

For David Ortiz, The Mission Is Home Run No. 2

Matt Dolloff — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:51:28 -0400

The relief, satisfaction and glee that poured through Red Sox Nation Wednesday night was palpable through our TV sets.

David Ortiz finally broke out of his home run drought with a near-400-footer to center field, and sent the city into a frenzy. But the cruel reality of the blast soon set in: Big Papi just hit his first home run—on May 20.

For any designated hitter in the third spot of a major league batting order, zero home runs after 20 at-bats is kind of crazy, but after 149 at-bats is just absurd.

Ortiz hit only eight extra-base hits in 87 at-bats in April. He entered Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays homerless and batting .203.

Numbers like that, under any circumstances, are unacceptable for a player in Ortiz’s position. It wasn’t long before every kind of scrutiny unearthed itself and reared its ugly head at Big Papi.

Talk of Ortiz’s lingering injuries, diminishing bat speed and yes, possible past steroid use, dominated the media when discussing the Red Sox.

Credit is due to Terry Francona for remaining faithful to his designated hitter, knowing his breakout would come.

He had made it clear that Ortiz’s benching for the Seattle series (after an 0-for-7 performance against the Angels in which he left 12 men on base) was for the purpose of giving him a mental break, and that moving him to any other spot in the order was not an option.

“If I said I hadn’t thought about the lineup, that’s not true,” Francona told Ian Browne of RedSox.com Tuesday. “But I knew all along I really didn’t [want to move Ortiz]. David and I talked about that a little bit.

“This is hard, because I don’t want to tell a player, ‘Hey, if you keep struggling, we’re going to move you down.’ I don’t want to do that. I want him to hit. I think our best lineup is with him hitting third.

"Now, saying that, when you’re looking for production...and I told him, if I ever decide to change that, I’ll tell you first. And he understood that. The one thing I don’t want to do is start bouncing the lineup all over the place.”

The west-coast relaxation looks to have paid off, at least for now. Ortiz looked like his same-old slumping self Tuesday as he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, but he busted out Wednesday night for his first homer and a 2-for-5 night at the plate.

I’m going to play the role of “reality check” for Red Sox Nation right now: Ortiz is still mired in an early-season slump.

The whole first home run thing was great to finally see him achieve, but it’s only the first step to regaining the form of the Ortiz we all know. If he goes the next five or six games without a home run, what then will we think of him?

We probably won’t be as hard on Ortiz as we have been, but we do need to stay on his case if he keeps failing to deliver.

Terry Francona remains supremely confident in Ortiz’s ability, and was even back when he was still homerless. But it’s his job to have confidence in his players. We as fans aren’t so obligated.

Ortiz surely heard the boos resonating throughout Fenway when he was still pressing and struggling to get anything out of the park.

Despite all Ortiz has done for the Red Sox, he deserved to be booed off the field with the way he was hitting. As long as he’s hitting third in the order, he can’t continue being a near-automatic out.

Perhaps getting the proverbial monkey off his back was all he needed. Although it will take more time and at-bats to know whether Ortiz is really out of his slump, but one thing he knows is that we’ll let him know about it if he’s not. But he can rest assured that if he finds the form he thinks he finally has, we’ll be the first to stand and cheer.

“The fans, they’ve always been so supportive since I’ve been here,” Ortiz told Browne after the game. “That’s unbelievable. There’s not too much I can say about it. I try to come every day and get it done for them.”

We will remain supportive, as long as he continues to get it done. Not just this one time.

Posted in baseball Tagged: baseball, big, blue jays, boston, david, david ortiz, first, game, home run, mlb, ortiz, papi, red sox, season, terry francona, toronto

Red Sox-Blue Jays: Two of the AL's Best Clash for the First Time This Season

Matt Dolloff — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:57:53 -0400

One prediction that was extremely low on my list at the beginning of the 2009 season is that on May 19, the Toronto Blue Jays would be in first place in the American League East. Those who predicted correctly might still be shocked by the Blue Jays’ early success. Can anyone even name their rotation beyond uber-ace Roy Halladay?

Whoever they are, they are pitching the Blue Jays to the league’s best record at 27-14. Toronto will send three of those no-names to the mound at Fenway Park as they face the Boston Red Sox for a three-game set in arguably the most highly-anticipated AL series so far this season.

The Red Sox are coming off a rough six-game west coast road trip, their final one of the season, in which they went 2-4. Two of the losses came in the form of frustrating walk-offs, first against the Angels in a 12-inning game where the Red Sox left 34 men on base- 12 by David Ortiz.

The other walk-off defeat came at the hands of the Seattle Mariners, who scored just the second earned run off Ramon Ramirez all season with a Franklin Gutierrez RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning. Ramirez’s ERA rose to 0.86 with the loss.

The key to the Blue Jays’ success this season has been their offense. They lead the American League with 234 runs scored, and third with 51 home runs, trailing only the Rangers and Yankees.

Most of the damage is being done by unlikely sources, as stalwarts Alex Rios and Vernon Wells have had inconsistent starts.

Second baseman Aaron Hill is having a career year, with a .345 batting average and 11 home runs, good for third in the league. Outfielder-turned-designated hitter Adam Lind is also having an outstanding season, sitting third in the league in RBI (35) behind only Evan Longoria and Jason Bay.

With a team ERA of 3.49 in 2008 and 3.85 this season, pitching depth has been there for the Jays in recent years. It’s the offense that hadn’t stepped up to support them, until now. The hot start for the Toronto offense has led to their league-best +60 run differential.

Halladay is picking up right where he left off from his Cy Young-caliber season in 2008, with eight wins to lead the league, a 2.78 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. On pace to pitch 269 innings this season, Halladay has not thrown fewer than seven in any of his starts.

The Blue Jays have scored 69 runs of support in his nine starts, which if they keep up could earn Halladay the third 20-win season of his brilliant career.

But unfortunately for the Blue Jays, Boston will avoid Halladay in this series. Instead, the Blue Jays will roll out Brian Tallet, Brett Cecil, and Robert Ray, who are a combined 5-2 on the season.

Tallet is having a very good season, better than his stats would indicate. Not counting his one nightmarish outing at Kansas City (4+ innings, 10 earned runs), Tallet is 2-0 with a 2.82 ERA.

He is 1-1 with a 4.22 ERA in his career against the Red Sox. Tallet’s last start at Fenway, a six-inning effort allowing no runs, came on Sept. 16, 2002 when he was a member of the Cleveland Indians.

The Red Sox will counter Tuesday’s series opener with Tim Wakefield, who is coming off his worst outing of the season against the Angels. After allowing just 13 runs in his first 40 innings, Wakefield took a beating in Anaheim, allowing seven runs in four-and-two-thirds innings of work.

The Red Sox have spent the last few weeks trying to remain healthy after suffering through various injuries. Ortiz might as well be on the disabled list with his .208 batting average and astonishing ZERO home runs in 130 at-bats.

He will likely return to the lineup tonight after sitting out of the entire Seattle series, but unfortunately for Red Sox Nation will likely be put right back in the third spot in the batting order. What exactly is the threshold for the Red Sox to move Ortiz down in the order, 150 at-bats without a home run? Two hundred at-bats???

Despite Ortiz’s mammoth struggles at the plate, the Red Sox will get a boost in offense as they get Kevin Youkilis back from his DL stint Wednesday.

They will hope Youk’s oblique injury didn’t slow him down, as he was off to a tremendous start with a .393 batting average and 1.224 OPS. Daisuke Matsuzaka is also close to returning to the rotation, although Justin Masterson has been making his case to remain in that spot.

Even though the Blue Jays’ starters are pitching well- and the Red Sox’s starters, for the most part, are not- the key to this game and the series for the Red Sox will be to slow down the Blue Jays’ offense.

Despite the depth the Blue Jays have in their bullpen, the advantage in close late-inning games should go to the Red Sox, so as long as the Blue Jays don’t pound the Red Sox early or often, Boston will remain in contention.

The key to this series for the Blue Jays is to simply keep rolling. They have won seven of their last 10, and have done it with all-around performances. Some of their players may be overachieving, and this success may or may not last like the Rays did last season.

But there is one undeniable fact about the Blue Jays: Right now, this team is the best the league has to offer.

Boston Celtics' Window of Opportunity Closing

Matt Dolloff — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:40:08 -0400

There will be no Eastern Conference finals for the Celtics or the City of Boston this year.

No Paul Pierce-LeBron James showdown sequel. No Lakers rematch. The Celtics instead have an offseason to reflect on an undermanned, inconsistent conclusion to 2008-09, in which the Celtics lost to the Orlando Magic in game seven at The Garden, only the fourth game seven home loss in franchise history.

When General Manager Danny Ainge overhauled the roster of the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2007, the team underwent an almost miraculous transformation from league laughingstock to championship contender.

At that point, it was realistic to give them a four-year window for championship-level success, because by the fourth year the Celtics might not have their Big Three at all, let alone in their mid-30s and the twilight of their respective careers.

Now, two years have passed, and the window is halfway closed. The Celtics had to battle like lions through this postseason without Kevin Garnett, their emotional leader and defensive anchor. They struggled throughout two series to figure out different ways to stop their opponents’ offenses.

The Magic ultimately defeated the Celtics with their prowess from behind the three-point line. Dwight Howard turned out to be something of an x-factor in the series, as the Celtics obviously could not ignore him on defense but ended up giving way to the open man as Orlando drained three after three to send the Celtics’ season swirling around the drain quickly and convincingly.

Without invaluable members of the bench who were vital to their championship in 2008—guys like Leon Powe, P.J. Brown, and James Posey—the Celtics replaced them with mediocre-at-best role players like Brian Scalabrine and Mikki Moore and underachievers like Stephon Marbury. Eddie House at times had to play way over his head for the Celtics to have a chance to win certain games, something he never had to do last season.

But make no mistake, the biggest loss for the Celtics by far was Garnett. His ailing knee never fully recovered, and now Celtics fans are left to wonder if he could have made a magical return had the Celtics advanced beyond the second round.

What was a four-year window for the Big Three-led Celtics is now two at most, with Garnett looking to already succumb to the injury-riddled decline years of his NBA career.

There’s no doubt that Garnett’s desire and intensity that could make him a coach some day is still there. He still has the fire in his belly that drove his motor and infected the rest of the Celtics in a way that they rallied around each other and reached the summit as a team, a complete unit.

But his body is betraying him. His 6′11″, 240-pound frame can only sustain the rigors of an NBA season for so long, and at 32 years old, Garnett could already be burning out.

How did head coach Doc Rivers feel about the game seven loss and the Celtics’ season? As usual, he made no excuses for his guys, no “We missed KG” posturing, no blame to be placed. He acknowledged that they clearly didn’t play well in game seven, but also that the Magic deserved credit for the win.

Above all else, the sweaty, emotionally-drained Rivers made it clear how proud of his guys he was at how hard they fought to repeat their magical playoff run.

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Garnett will be right back in the Celtics’ starting lineup come this November as the pivotal 2009-10 season kicks off. What also commences at this point will be Garnett’s three-year, $60 million extension. With his age, injuries and missed games on the rise, the Celtics will need to be even more careful with Garnett throughout the season to avoid another 2009-like disaster.

Garnett’s minutes will need to be monitored even more closely than in his first two seasons as a Celtic. He averaged 32.8 and 32.2 minutes in his first two seasons, respectfully. That number might now need to dip below 30 for the first time since Garnett’s rookie season in 1995-96 to keep his legs and knees fresh and 100 percent for the postseason, which even with Garnett out they should plausibly reach again.

A positive in the Garnett situation is that Glen “Big Baby” Davis really stepped up his game in the postseason and showed his ability as a future starting power forward in the NBA. He will likely receive a bigger workload than the 21.5 minutes per game he averaged this season, and it would come as little surprise if he and Garnett split their minutes down the middle from now on.

The Celtics were very impressive during the regular season, perhaps more than they got credit for, going 62-20 despite missing Garnett for 20 games. But in the postseason, where their opponents got better and took their games to another level, the Celtics struggled. Almost every game was a battle, and the defense often looked disorganized.

Now the Celtics need to start thinking about the future. Garnett will likely be around for at least two-and-a-half of the three years of his extension, and potentially could become an albatross by then. Ray Allen will likely enter the epic free agent class of 2010, where someone might be willing to dish out a five-year deal to get him. The Celtics, however, like aren’t one of those teams.

Paul Pierce will be the final domino to fall in the Big Three’s departure from Boston, but he is by far the most likely to stay with the team for the remainder of his career. As the third-leading scorer in the history of the franchise, putting him behind only John Havlicek and Larry Bird, it’s only right that Pierce would never don another jersey in his career.

In this age of free agency, athletes who stay with one team throughout their career are only getting more and more rare.

Pierce has a legitimate shot to pass Bird and possibly Havlicek if he stays with the Celtics for the rest of his career, so because he’s won a championship and will see his #34 raised to the rafters one day, why not make him a Celtic for life?

The Celtics will need to be patient with Pierce, but not too patient. There’s no doubt Pierce has an undying love for this team, its fans and the City of Boston. But with his last chance to cash in coming in two years, what reason is there to believe that Pierce wouldn’t at least consider a lucrative offer to play near his roots on the West Coast, say for the Clippers, Warriors or even—gulp—the Lakers???

For the next three years, deciding what to do with the big three will be the biggest task to manage for Ainge and his front office. But what also needs to be considered before it’s too late is what to do with their young stars who have already blossomed into at least above-average NBA players.

Davis averaged 15.8 points in 14 postseason games, including five games of more than 20 points scored and a game-winning shot at the buzzer of game four against the Magic.

Kendrick Perkins is also developing into a reliable-enough scorer in the paint area, averaging 11.9 points on 57 percent shooting, while being a great rebounder. He still fouls too much, but he is still young and developing.

At the very least, Perkins figures to average double-digit rebounds as he enters his prime, and could even develop into a Marcus Camby-type when he reaches his peak. It’s hard to believe this kid is still only 24 and has been in the league six years.

Despite Davis and Perkins’ accelerated maturity, the biggest rising star on the Celtics is undoubtedly Rajon Rondo. The 23-year-old, fleet-footed, deft-handed point guard was absolutely spectacular in the postseason this year, averaging a triple-double (16.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, 9.8 assists) and giving the sports world notice that he belongs in the discussion of the league’s very best point guards.

Rondo still doesn’t have the shooting ability of a Deron Williams or Chris Paul, but he is a high-percentage scorer who can drive to the hoop with the best of them, and once Jason Kidd is done, Rondo could take over as the very best rebounding point guard in the league.

His long arms and enormous hands give him the ability to move the basketball with efficiency and deception, and his quick feet make him a dangerous target at any spot on the floor.

I think it’s realistic for Rondo to average something like 17 points, six rebounds and nine or 10 assists per game in his prime. And it also can’t be stressed enough that he is one of the most reliable defensive point guards in the game. Celtics fans must hope that Ainge does not forget about locking this young star up with a long-term contract before another team makes him an offer he can’t refuse.

In June 2007, the window of opportunity of Celtic championships was closed, dirty and dusty, and the locks had gathered plenty of rust. But in just one year, Ainge cleaned the window, removed the rust and opened it as wide as he could as the culture of the Celtics in Boston completely changed.

They took on a life energy that had not been seen since the teams of the late-1980s. And like those teams, they delivered a championship. They took home a title while the window was most open.

But now that window is starting to close. The rust is starting to recollect itself. Aging stars are starting to break down. And worst of all, LeBron James is entering his prime. Yes, he’s entering it. He’s not there yet. But neither are Rondo, Perkins or Davis.

At this turbulent and uncertain crossroad for the Celtics, it’s ultimately most important that the young stars stay around long enough, and that the Big Three are healthy enough to keep this window open for several more years.

Red Sox-Mariners: Jon Lester in Hometown Seattle

Matt Dolloff — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:55:38 -0400

The Boston Red Sox sit comfortably at 21-14, despite a lack of consistency from their top two starters.

Jon Lester is one of them, as his first full season under the scope of high expectations has been rough, to say the least. But the Boston Red Sox No. 2 starter will take the mound Friday as he continues to try to get back on track against the Seattle Mariners.

Born and raised in Puyallap, Wash., Lester usually treats starts at Seattle like a home-coming party. But this time, he’s only concerned with fixing what has been a disappointing season thus far. Lester is 2-3 with a 6.31 ERA, despite three quality starts.

Strikeouts haven’t been a problem so far, with 33 in 30 innings and 10 against the Yankees two starts ago. Lester’s biggest problems so far have been high pitch counts and a propensity to allow big innings.

In two starts against the Rays, Lester allowed two huge individual innings—a five-run fifth in his first start of the season, then a six-run fifth in his most recent start. The Athletics also had one big inning against Lester, scoring five runs in the second inning of his second start at Oakland.

Lester is frustrated because he feels he’s throwing well but it’s just not going his way. Right now he’s determined to simply maintain focus and keep executing.

“I threw a lot of good pitches that game that got hit through the hole and there’s not a lot I can do about it,” Lester told Ian Browne of RedSox.com.

“Like I said after the game, it’s frustrating and I’m getting tired of saying I’m tipping my hat to good hitting. That’s the way baseball is.

"It doesn’t seem to be going my way right now and I just have to put that aside and try to execute as many pitches as I can and hopefully it will eventually turn around.”

In his only start against the Mariners at SafeCo Field in 2008, Lester went seven-and-a-third shutout innings, striking out six on 103 pitches and earning the win.

He is 1-0 with a 4.67 in his career against Seattle.

Seattle starter Chris Jakubauskas has not had any better of a season than Lester in 2009. He is 1-4 with a 7.67 ERA and is coming off his worst start of the season against Minnesota where he allowed nine runs in four-and-a-third innings.

Still, Jakubauskas was only slightly worse than Lester in his last start. Both pitchers will likely rebound from their last outing, but the first one to struggle will likely come out of this game empty-handed.

Bruins Set Up For Thrilling Comeback…Or Immense Disappointment

Matt Dolloff — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:05:18 -0400

Five years ago, before the NHL lockout, Claude Julien led his now-former team into Boston, where the the Montreal Canadiens took the decisive game seven to complete the comeback from down three games to one. Now the Boston Bruins head coach and a Jack Adams award nominee, Julien would like nothing better than to do the same with his current team, except on their home ice.

“I’d love to be able to return that favor,” Julien told the Associated Press Wednesday.

Julien will have a chance to do so Thursday night in Boston where the Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes will clash in game seven to decide who will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the conference finals.

Last Friday, Boston Bruins fans drowned their sorrows at the many landmarks and bars around the city after watching the Bruins’ season go down in flames—well, almost. Carolina had outplayed the Bruins in just about all aspects in game four of their conference semifinal series, out-shooting and out-working the black & gold and beating them to every loose puck.

Despite that, it was still a tight battle for two periods until Jussi Jokinen added to his recent playoff magic with the go-ahead powerplay goal. That’s where the Bruins totally unraveled, losing focus on defense and allowing two more late goals to ice the game and put the Bruins on the edge of elimination. The way the Bruins were outplayed in games two through four, it looked like the Hurricanes were an unstoppable force on an improbable run.

But now, the series has taken on a whole different look after the Bruins’ back-to-back victories in games five and six. The B’s took care of business on their home ice, thoroughly dominating game five on both ends. Boston took 40 shots while Carolina could only muster 19 on Tim Thomas, who recorded his first career postseason shutout.

Game six wasn’t so easy, but Thomas was even better than in game five, turning away 31 Carolina shots as the Bruins scored four while shooting only 19. Carolina did what they could to try to close out the series, out-shooting and out-hitting the Bruins, but looked helpless despite all their effort. Boston went up 4-1 by the end of the second period, making a very competitive game look like it was out of reach.

Now the Bruins are exactly where they aimed to be as soon as game four ended. Knowing they could not lose another game, the sense of urgency engulfed the Bruins and lit a fire under them. The important thing is that they did not just win game five, but won it very convincingly. They absolutely needed that kind of a momentum-changing win to have a chance to beat the Hurricanes in Raleigh, and it turns out that they had just enough to force the series back to Boston.

Home-ice advantage is something rarely discussed when projecting the outcomes of series, but Boston’s is one that has a chance to be the real momentum-swinger. The typically intense Bruins fans will be going all-out all night in hopes that their energy will transfer to their team. Boston’s Patrice Bergeron believes they will need them to diffuse the magical run that Carolina is on.

“Yes, we’re home, but they’re a good team on the road as well,” Bergeron said of the Hurricanes. “So we have to feed off the crowd.”

Like game six, the outcome of this game will likely rest on the shoulders of Thomas. It will be difficult for either team to gain an advantage in the energy and effort department. It can be expected that, for the most part, each team’s skaters will be ready to play. The most likely difference is which goalie is more ready to play, Thomas or Cam Ward.

The last two games have gone way in favor of Thomas, but Ward has played exceptionally well and the 2006 Conn Smythe trophy winner is the No.1 reason the Hurricanes are where they are right now. If he brings his A-game, Thomas will need to bring his A+ game.

What matters right now is that the Bruins were able to bring this series to a decisive game. Tomorrow, the story of the Bruins will either be of a captivating rally to send them rolling into the conference finals, or a catastrophic disappointment of a season. As the conference’s top seed, the Bruins’ expectations were limited to a Stanley Cup championship.

Can they continue their march toward recapturing the spirit of a city that hasn’t seen them win for almost four decades? Or will they succumb to another compelling playoff run by an unexpected contender?

Sidney Crosby: The Unquestioned King of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs…So Far

Matt Dolloff — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:11:56 -0400

The Pittsburgh Penguins are officially in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second-straight season, awaiting the winner of the Boston-Carolina series.

After an intense, back-and-forth series that saw four road wins, the Penguins made Game Seven an entirely different game from the rest of the series, scoring quickly and early and never letting up. The win, and most of Pittsburgh’s success, came on the shoulders of captain Sidney Crosby.

The rivalry between the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin and Crosby had almost already reached the boiling point even before they met each other in the postseason for the first time. Unlike the quiet, reserved Crosby, Ovechkin had his face plastered all over the national media, interviewed for ESPN and talked brashly of how he enjoys getting under Crosby’s skin.

It almost became a pure media creation that Ovechkin held the advantage in the series over Crosby, although there was no clear favorite.

Ovechkin’s prodigious goal-scoring and all-around skills were certainly on display in the series, as well as his extravagant theatrics. But Crosby let his play on the ice do all the talking, as the Penguins won 6-2, at one point scoring two goals in an eight-second span.

The decisive game of this series, built up like a monumental clash of the irresistible force and the immovable object, was never close.

Washington had the higher seed, but that appeared to be the only real advantage they had. Even after winning the first two games of the series, Crosby had established his dominance while Evgeni Malkin lay dormant.

Once Malkin woke up from the doldrums with his outstanding Game Three performance, the Penguins took off, winning four of the final five games in the series. But, make no mistake, their surge is due overwhelmingly to the performance of Crosby.

The 21-year-old Penguins captain has scored 21 points in 13 postseason games with a +6 rating, and is leaving his peers in awe of his acumen as a player and presence at such a young age.

“He’s unbelievable,” Craig Adams told Adam Kimelman of NHL.com, “I’ve had the opportunity to play with some pretty good players, and the one thing they all share in common is they’re ultra, ultra competitive.

"Sid’s a pretty soft-spoken guy and he’s not going to come out and make this series about him and Ovechkin, but he’s a competitive guy. You know he wants to win. I thought he was just unbelievable every game.”

Primarily known for his elite playmaking ability, Crosby took scoring matters into his own hands, scoring eight goals in the seven-game series. He had a hat trick in the Game Two defeat and four goals on the powerplay. He shot an incredible 25 percent, and seemed to always be in the right place at the right time when the puck was around the net.

In four games at Washington, Crosby scored the game’s first goal. He opened the scoring in Game Seven with a rebound of a Sergei Gonchar shot, which he kicked to his stick and fired point-blank past Simeon Varlamov, who was pulled in the second period after allowing his fourth goal.

“He goes into the dirty areas to score goals; he scores big goals,” Penguins play-by-play commentator Bob Errey told NHL.com, "We didn’t know what he’d do in a Game Seven, but we’re not surprised by what he’s doing here. I’m not surprised.”

The Bruins and Hurricanes both now know who they will have to worry about the most when the winner of their series moves on. Guys like Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury are no one to ignore, but for either team, there will be a definite Plan A: contain Crosby.

I say “contain,” because it looks like Sid the Kid can’t be stopped. Though he has yet to win a Cup and has two more rounds to get through this season, he is quickly establishing himself as the league’s most dominant player.

“He’s the leader of the hockey club,” Errey said. “If there’s one player I want, if you give me that vote today, I’ll take Sidney Crosby.”

Red Sox Get Pedroia Back for Thursday Afternoon Game Against Los Angeles Angels

Matt Dolloff — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:38:01 -0400

It’s only been since Sunday that Dustin Pedroia last saw playing time for the Red Sox, but to fans it felt like an eternity. Pedroia slightly strained his groin on an awkward swing, and momentarily frightened Red Sox Nation into believing the Red Sox may be without their All-Star right side of the infield for an extended time.

But now, after getting an additional night of rest following reports that he was able to play Wednesday, Pedroia is back to 100 percent and ready to go for Thursday afternoon as the Red Sox take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the rubber match of their three-game series.

After Kevin Youkilis suffered a set-back in his recovery from a sore side, the Red Sox placed him on the disabled list retroactive to May 5. The last thing the Red Sox wanted was for the same to happen to the reigning American League MVP.

Manager Terry Francona sat Pedroia for Tuesday’s game as a precautionary measure to keep him fresh and healthy for today’s afternoon game, even though he was ready to play Wednesday.

“I don’t want to do anything stupid where I’m out a long time,” Pedroia told Ian Browne of RedSox.com. “The smartest thing to do would be to take a couple of days and let this thing heal.”

The Red Sox took the first game of the series on the strength of a late-inning rally, led by J.D. Drew’s game-tying home run in the eighth inning and followed by Jason Varitek’s RBI double in the ninth. The win spoiled a strong start for the Angels’ Jered Weaver, who allowed just one earned run in seven innings.

The Angels won the second game, 8-4, after handing Tim Wakefield his worst start of the season thus far. After being staked to a 4-0 lead, Wakefield allowed seven runs in four-and-two-thirds innings, just his second non-quality start of the season. Despite Wakefield's overall success, the Red Sox would like to get more of a spark from the rotation, writes Browne.

Thursday will mark the season debut for the Angels’ Ervin Santana, who is recovering from a sprained MCL in his throwing elbow. After struggling with control issues and inconsistency on the road in his first three major league seasons, Santana broke out in 2008, recording an ERA under 4.00 (3.49) and over 200 strikeouts for the first time in his career.

The key to Santana’s success in 2008 was his career-high 4.55:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. But against the Red Sox, he faces about as tough a test as one can get in the first start back from an elbow injury, even without having to deal with Youkilis.

The Red Sox will counter with Brad Penny, who so far has posted a 6.90 ERA, mixing two horrendous outings in between four quality starts. Penny won his last start at Fenway against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing three earned runs in six-and-one-third innings and throwing just 91 pitches.

Penny allowed three runs in six innings against the Angels on April 11 in his first start of 2009 and first career start against them. On paper, this game bodes well for the Red Sox, with Penny pitching well and Santana tough to predict in his first outing since last October in the postseason, in which he also faced Boston.

While the Red Sox patiently await the return of their first baseman and cleanup hitter, they can at least take solace in the fact that other bats are stepping up, and they get their second baseman back today. And knowing Pedroia is not injured is better than almost any individual win.

Up and Coming? The Chicago Blackhawks Are Already Here

Matt Dolloff — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:09:06 -0400

It took a hat trick from Patrick Kane, three more points from Jonathan Toews, four third-period goals, and seven total allowed by the great Roberto Luongo for us to realize it—but it is the truth.

The Chicago Blackhawks are not a great young team—just a great team. Period.

“As hockey fans, we are witnessing a special era right now,” Hawks GM Dale Tallon told Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.

“You look at Crosby and Ovechkin and [Nicklas] Backstrom and all these guys over in that series, and obviously we get to watch the great young players on our team. We are fortunate to be witnessing this right now. There’s some great young players in our game.”

The stars are already shining very, very brightly in Chicago, and now their young superstars have taken them to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1995, winning a series without home ice advantage for the first time since 1992, when they made the Stanley Cup Finals. They beat Detroit that year to advance, and it’s looking more and more like they will have to do the same this year.

Yes, things have certainly come full circle for this franchise, and it has happened very quickly. Just a few short years ago, before Kane and Toews arrived in town, the situation for the Blackhawks was looking as bleak and morbid as any franchise in the league.

But once former owner Bill Wirtz—who by then had earned a much-deserved reputation for perpetuating Chicago’s decade-plus of mediocrity—passed away, the new ownership overhauled the roster and improved upon the strong foundation they had already acquired through the draft.

They signed star defenseman Brian Campbell, adding him to an already solid young corps consisting of Duncan Keith, Cam Barker, and Brent Seabrook. That defensive core has certainly worked out thus far—those four have totaled 30 points in 48 games, and Keith and Seabrook are averaging 25:16 and 26:21 of ice time, respectively, in the postseason.

The signing of goaltender Cristobal Huet has also worked out great for the team, but not quite in the way they expected. Instead of Huet taking the reins as the No. 1 goalie, he instead motivated Nikolai Khabibulin to play the best hockey of his career.

Khabibulin came very close to doing just that.

While mostly splitting time with Huet, “The Bulin Wall” won 25 games and posted his lowest goals-against average (2.33) since 2004. That success translated into him taking the role of No. 1 starter in the postseason.

Khabibulin’s numbers leave much to be desired thus far, but all that really matters is the eight wins.

And of course, how could we forget the two young studs the Blackhawks employ up front? Former No. 1 overall pick Patrick Kane joined fellow top picks Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin as the third player to score a hat trick this postseason with Monday night’s three goals—two of them in the third period.

The first third-period goal tied the game at five, and Toews’ second goal of the game gave the Blackhawks the lead with 6:11 remaining.

The young superstars in Chicago were believed to be able to deliver this kind of success for the city some day in the future, but in actuality, nobody had to wait. The future is now.

Check out the highlights of the game, including the wild third period, here:

Boston and Los Angeles Media Giving Manny Ramirez The Lashing He Deserves

Matt Dolloff — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:09:08 -0400

We’ve reached the second step of the Manny Ramirez steroid saga. The first was for the story of Ramirez’s positive test to break, along with his subsequent “explanation” and more details today.

And we’ve already reached the step where the regions closest to Ramirez tear him open and throw him around like a rag doll, murdering the hopes of anyone who believed Ramirez had any sort of reputation to retain in those cities.

The cities in question, of course, are Boston and Los Angeles. The Red Sox had Ramirez for eight years, and put up with all the cons while assuming he would deliver the pros. And for about seven-and-a-half years, they maintained a strong relationship that, like most, had its ups and downs, but would always end up happy.

That all changed when Manny’s behavior got out of control and pushed him into an ugly divorce. Then, into the welcoming arms of Los Angeles he went on July 31, 2008, and those next three months resembled those of a high school relationship, where Manny and L.A. acted like they’d be together and in love forever.

But now, it’s starting to look like Manny needed an extra edge to hit the 17 home runs and 53 RBI in his 53 games in Dodger blue last season. The substance for which he tested positive, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), is very similar to clomid, a substance that has been used to restore players’ bodies after steroid cycles and linked to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Jason Giambi.

So quick logic would suggest that Manny beefed himself up for those contract months, “earned” his money, then settled down with this HCG stuff.

Obviously, that’s not the explanation we got from him. And now he’s being skewered by the very media that once loved covering him and his hitting, as well as his antics.

That behavior slowly transformed into a childish sideshow act over his Boston tenure, and Manny lost all trust from those around him as soon as his act lost its humor and innocence. And now he’s being ripped to shreds.

The Boston Globe started the fire, with Bob Ryan going the easiest on him, dismissing it as just another act in the sideshow and waiting on more details like doctor’s records before totally tearing Manny down. Tony Massarotti, however, immediately questioned Manny’s innocence on the day the story broke. Eric Wilbur lamented that we now have no choice but to call Manny’s entire career into question.

The Boston Herald was also quick to join the party. This past Friday, Sean McAdam confirmed the fears of Red Sox Nation that their two recent championships would now be tainted because of Manny’s link to possible steroid use, whether or not details are ever revealed.

Manny is getting no more love or support 3,000 miles away in SoCal. Bill Plaschke, one of the more prominent Los Angeles Times columnists and frequent contributor on ESPN’s Around The Horn, has pretty much taken the Manny Ramirez beat since the story broke.

He got the ball rolling by calling for Manny’s “eviction” from the fictional “Mannywood,” which Dodger fans had affectionately named for the slugger in hopes of making him one of their own, and bemoaned the “ghost town” Mannywood has become.

Plaschke then turned his anger and disappointment toward the Dodger fans, who have supported Manny through this and ripped Plaschke for his anti-Manny column, by comparing them to their long-time rivals:

“Goodness, we have become San Francisco. After all these years of ripping Giants fans for supporting the juiced Barry Bonds, we are now them. Two days later, after allowing the rhetoric to settle and my heartbeat to slow, I am even more convinced of this. Fully two-thirds of the approximately 750 e-mails I have received about Manny Ramirez have ripped me for criticizing him. I have been physically threatened, personally insulted and generally despised for having the gall to hold an accomplished, longtime professional athlete accountable for the lives he has touched and the mess he has made.”

If that’s not enough of a wake-up call to the Dodger faithful that they are misguiding themselves, they might be completely helpless. Say what you want about the media in general, but Plaschke speaks the truth here. Kurt Streeter joined Plaschke in his disbelief that Dodger fans are not taking this situation as seriously as they should.

Maybe it will take a couple of months of .500 baseball without Ramirez in the lineup—something similar to their 2008 season before they acquired him—to realize that their “hero” has helped contribute to the seemingly endless tarnishing of America’s pastime with his use of banned drugs. The worst part is, it will probably be longer before Manny is completely honest with us.

It will probably take a Selena Roberts-like investigation for us to get the real details on Manny’s possible steroid use. Whoever tackles this story for a full-length book—and believe me, someone will—should not only interview people from the Dodgers organization after the initial shock wears off, but should go back to Boston and even all the way back to Cleveland to see if any kind of unsightly weeds spurt out of the barren dirt patch that is Manny’s steroid history.

Given the amount of sluggers the Indians employed back in the mid-to-late ’90s—and that Manny’s production peaked in his final years there, with a career-high 165 RBI in 1999 and 38 home runs in only 118 games in 2000—would it come as much of a surprise to anyone if Manny went around for a cycle or two?

In retrospect, it’s almost impossible to believe that Albert Belle wasn’t juicing in his prime, so who knows what kind of impression he could have had on Manny as a 21-year-old rookie?

Whatever happens from here on out, I can at least personally sit here and exhale, relieved that my fellow media members are only making it more difficult for Manny. Baseball is losing its grip on the star players from the steroid era, little by little.

And with each passing day, the legacy of this time for the sport is being packed with more and more dirt, and more nails are being added to the coffin.

I really, really, really hate to bring him into this, but if Albert Pujols ever tested positive for a banned substance or had any possible link to steroid use…well, that would be the final nail. I don’t want to say I’d give up on baseball altogether, because I truly love the game; if I had size and physical tools, I might be preparing for a game as we speak.

But the more I think about how much I would have loved being a professional ballplayer, the more I realize that my time in the sport would be tarnished forever by these men who have straight-up cheated the game. Manny is the latest pillar to fall, and he is a very big one.

Pujols is the last great pillar holding this era up, the last glimmer of hope we have that players can be superstars without gaining an unfair edge.

If Pujols is outed as a user, and that finall pillar falls out from under the structure of America’s pastime, the game would crumble and be reduced to dust and rubble. But before then, the power of the pen would eviscerate Pujols just like they’ve done to Manny. And I would be grateful for it.

I’m thankful that the users (and those convincingly suspected) are not getting any breaks, and we the media are using our outlet to the world to let it be known that cheating the game we love to cover is not condoned.

The next step for Manny is admitting everything he did to everyone. He has apologized to Dodgers owner Ned Colletti, but has yet to do so to the team and the fans.

However, the media does not deserve an apology in return for its attacks, only an explanation. And one that is not in any way vague or ambiguous.

After all, we’re only giving Manny exactly what he deserves.

Red Sox Injured and Inconsistent, But Just Keep On Winning Games

Matt Dolloff — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:58:23 -0400

An entire lineup could be assembled out of members of the Boston Red Sox who have struggled with either injuries or inconsistency in 2009. Such problems could derail a season for many major league teams, yet the Red Sox just continue to win games.

They currently sit at 20-12, second in the American League east behind the surprising Toronto Blue Jays. And that record is a testament to the Red Sox’s excellent combination of depth and resilience.

All-star infielders Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia have dealt with injuries since the middle of the World Baseball Classic, most recently Pedroia’s strained groin Sunday night. Shortstop Jed Lowrie will be out until at least June with a wrist injury.

Daisuke Matsuzaka will rejoin the team very soon, but landed on the disabled list with arm fatigue after pitching Japan to a championship in the WBC.

Outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Rocco Baldelli have also spent time out of the lineup for various injuries. And it should only be a matter of time before J.D. Drew suffers some sort of injury himself.

In addition to injuries, the Red Sox have also dealt with inconsistency in their rotation. Going into the season, the rotation was considered one of their strengths, and one of the best in baseball. But through Sunday, Tim Wakefield remains the only Red Sox starter with an ERA under 5.00 (2.93).

Combined, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Matsuzaka, Brad Penny and fill-in Justin Masterson have a 10-9 record with a 6.54 ERA.

So how do the Red Sox keep winning games despite being ravaged by injuries and getting a Jekyll & Hyde act out of almost the entire rotation? The saving grace thus far has been the outstanding relief work from the pitching staff.

Jonathan Papelbon, Ramon Ramirez, Manny Delcarmen, and Hideki Okajima have combined to allow just ten earned runs in 63 innings, a 1.43 ERA. The only Red Sox reliever to take the loss in a game this season is Javier Lopez, who is 0-2.

The great work of the bullpen cannot be ignored, but neither can the offensive production the Red Sox have gotten from guys who have had to pick up the slack. Jason Bay has been one of the league’s most productive hitters, with a .324 average and 34 RBI in 32 games.

He has also made a natural transition to the cleanup spot while Youkilis has been out, and most recently hit a double Sunday night to drive home the eventual game-winning run.

If David Ortiz can’t solve his current power outage (zero, I repeat zero, home runs through 116 at-bats), he may need to move down from the third spot in the order. If I were in charge, I’d put Youkilis in the 3-hole and keep Bay batting cleanup.

But Big Papi’s reputation will keep him in that spot for as long as he needs to hit his first home run of the season…Whenever that is.

Despite Bay’s scorching start, also not to be ignored is Mike Lowell, who has played tremendously coming off hip surgery. Thought to be a question mark in the Red Sox lineup entering the season, Lowell is batting .312 with six home runs and 28 RBI in 31 games.

What remains to be seen is whether Lowell can maintain this kind of production. The power is unlikely, but he proved a lot of people wrong in 2007 by maintaining a strong batting average and RBI total throughout the season. They are especially going to need his production if and when Ortiz and Drew go down with injuries, or simply can’t hit (like right now).

For the Red Sox, first order of business is to get Pedroia healthy again. The last thing they need is to miss the defending AL MVP for an extended period of time. The injury is only a strain, so a DL stint is unlikely at this point.

But being without both him and Youkilis in the lineup puts the Red Sox at an immediate disadvantage, as they stand to face some strong pitching on this week’s west coast road trip. Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders await in Anaheim, and the rejuvenated Erik Bedard will go Saturday in Seattle.

Perhaps the most important part about this Red Sox team is that manager Terry Francona is not letting them make any excuses. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint, injuries are part of the game, only wins and losses matter, etc. One can roll out several cliches in this situation. Francona is making sure all of them remain in the Red Sox vernacular.

“We’re a little beat up, that’s for sure,” Francona told Ian Browne of RedSox.com. “I think we’d rather win and be beat up then lose and be beat up.”

Francona is absolutely right. Forgive me for recycling a cliche, but in the end, all that matters is wins and losses. And if the Red Sox can win with make-shift lineups, an entire rotation with ERAs above 5.00 and a growing list of injuries, then something is being done right in Boston.

Bruins-Hurricanes: What Do We Make of This Boston Team Now?

Matt Dolloff — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:17:57 -0400

After being shut down by Cam Ward, beaten to almost every loose puck, and simply out-worked and out-played by the Carolina Hurricanes, the Boston Bruins entered Sunday on the brink of elimination. But they did exactly what they needed to in Game Five: deliver an all-around performance and give Carolina no chance to win.

But what to make of this Boston team now? They looked lost and confused in Games Two through Four, which included a shutout in the second contest. Ward has looked like the Conn Smythe winner he was in 2006, and the Hurricanes have played much better than a No. 6 seed. In a sense, it’s no surprise that they put the Bruins in this position.

But the top-seeded Bruins let it be known Sunday that they would not go down without putting up a fight, and they made the Hurricanes look like the inferior squad they were perceived to be entering the series.

The 4-0 victory was about as good an overall performance we’ve seen from the Bruins this year, but it pains all of New England that the Eastern Conference’s best regular-season squad had to do just that to stave off elimination.

Boston fans would obviously be more satisfied to have seen that game give the Bruins the series lead, rather than take them one step toward a comeback from a 3-1 deficit.

Still, there were plenty of things to like about the game for Boston faithful. Tim Thomas earned his first career postseason shutout, although he only faced 19 shots, and at the same time, the Bruins peppered Ward with 40 shots, 10 of which came from Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman.

Phil Kessel scored twice after not scoring a single goal all series. The Bruins out-hit the Hurricanes 25-15 and edged them out in the faceoff battle 29-27 to boot.

That the Bruins have made it this far in the series with minimal production from Kessel is a testament to their depth and ability to get scoring from all four lines. Michael Ryder has stepped up huge for them, with 11 points in nine Playoff games. Plus, Marc Savard is picking up right where he left off at the end of the regular season.

Milan Lucic has played as expected with his hard-nosed style but has surprised many by being an unexpected offensive force (he has four points in the series).

As a team, Boston held Eric Staal to three shots on goal and a -3 rating. The huge shots-on-goal differential is indicative of how efficient the Bruins were at both ends of the ice.

Yes, there is plenty to like about how the Bruins played game 5. But they are still down 3-2 in the series, and despite their game 5 effort being about as good as one can hope for, they still need to take the next game in Carolina to stay alive.

The Hurricanes ought to be expected to come out for the next battle with the same type of urgency and intensity with which the Bruins came out at the start of Game Five. Surely Carolina does not want this series to come down to a Game Seven in Boston.

But all the pressure will still be on the Bruins. They are the ones in a must-win situation. They showed what they can do at home in a win-or-go-home scenario, and they will need to repeat that performance in Game Six, if not play better. I said before this past contest that the Bruins will need to dominate to have a chance in the series, and they did just that.

Now they have a chance, but it’s still only a fighting chance.

The Hurricanes took a beating in Game Five, but we can all rest assured that won’t happen again, and certainly not on their home ice. This time, they will be the ones who come out swinging. It will be up to the Bruins to swing back.

No Sympathy for Manny Ramirez; Plenty for Dodger Fans

Matt Dolloff — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:58:18 -0400

Right now, I could not feel worse for Dodger fans. In the past, I’d almost go out of my way not to feel sorry for them. With the way that at least half would leave games by the seventh inning (I have witnessed this myself; I attended two Dodger games on a trip to California last August) and not really follow their team as seriously as they may convince themselves they do, sympathy was the last thing on my mind.

I felt slightly sorry for them when they acquired Manny Ramirez last July 31, but that quickly fizzled out after my vacation and the Dodgers’ great run in the playoffs. But I started to feel truly sorry when I saw the faces of Dodger fans light up whenever Ramirez stepped to the plate.

They had a look of “This guy is such a great hitter! Sure, he dogged it a bit sometimes but what’s the big deal? Why were Red Sox fans so hard on him?” about them. I thought to myself, wait until they start seeing the dark side of Manny.

The Manny who doesn’t run out ground balls, makes lazy decisions in the outfield, lets losses roll off his back to an extreme and sometimes exasperating degree, makes up injuries and lies about relatives’ deaths to get some time off.

Those who really care about the Dodgers will be severely disappointed. I am anticipating those days in August and September when Manny will likely pull these same stunts, because he no longer has a contract to play for.

There’s absolutely no way Manny will opt out of his one-year option for 2010 with the Dodgers after his latest debacle. He’ll take his $23 million and be happy.

After he couldn’t find a job with any team besides the Dodgers when he was perceived to be “clean,” how could he find a job elsewhere now? For anyone who feels in any way sympathetic toward Ramirez, just realize that he brought all this on himself.

As a Red Sox fan who watched Manny smack over 300 home runs in his seven-and-a-half-year tenure, I could easily give him the benefit of the doubt. But in this era of baseball, “benefit of the doubt” is a non-existent phrase.

You are guilty until proven innocent. Too many big-name stars have been caught and/or questioned, and too many anonymous positive tests have been taken place to suspect anything less than every single player.

What needs to be made clear here, though, is that Ramirez is legitimately one of the game’s all-time great hitters. His balance is unparalleled. His fluid swing has allowed him to spray the ball to all fields throughout his career.

His patience has allowed him to attack pitchers’ mistakes, or take the occasional walk, leading to his prodigious on-base percentages.

He has been a model of consistency and predictability as far as offensive production goes. There was never a sudden spike or drop in his production.

But all this still doesn’t mean he never cheated. He has stated that he never failed a steroid test, which may be true. But his name could also be among the 103 names who tested positive in 2003, and he could just be confident his name will never come out into the public like Alex Rodriguez’s did.

He could also have access to undetectable substances. Whatever Manny did, he’s not taking responsibility for it, so I don’t feel sorry for him now that he has to serve a 50-game suspension.

So what does this do for the Red Sox and their two World Series titles they won with Ramirez, one of which he won MVP for (2004)? Go ahead and accuse me of bias if you want, but I don’t see any taint here.

I never even believed Ramirez deserved the MVP in that series; Keith Foulke was dominant in closing out all four games, all of which were pretty close.

The playoff run by the Red Sox that season was still a 25-man effort. Whether or not the Red Sox could have won that series and the 2007 World Series is impossible to answer, so it doesn’t even need to be asked. Would the

Yankees have won the World Series in 1999 and 2000 without Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte? Maybe, maybe not, but I still wouldn’t place an asterisk next to it. Despite the existence of MVP awards, one player does not make a team.

But sympathy is still not the card to play with Ramirez. He took a banned substance, and he did it in such a shady way, he deserves all the blame and all the skepticism about his entire career.

I am of the belief that Ramirez could have been a great hitter without using any illegal means, so if he really did use PEDs then words can’t describe my level of disappointment with him.

Ramirez’s case is just as bizarre as about anything else he’s done in his eccentric career. Why should we have expected anything less?

According to reports, he visited not the team doctor for the Dodgers, but another doctor in Florida, who prescribed him human chorionic gonadotropin (guess we can call it HCG now), a female fertility drug similar to another called Clomid. Apparently, it is occasionally used to treat male infertility as well.

Jayson Stark was able to dig up as much information as he could on the drugs, and found the report that “The FDA has not approved the use of Clomid in men, nor has it been found to be especially effective.”

So what we know for now is that Ramirez flew 2,000 miles across the country to visit a non-team doctor who prescribed him a drug for a “personal health issue” that isn’t approved by the FDA to handle impotence. Like Stark said, what credible doctor would do that to a professional athlete?

It makes me wonder why, if Ramirez was really having sexual issues, he didn’t just take Cialis and hope his erection doesn’t get beaned with the ball. Or take Enzyte and end up grinning ear-to-ear 24/7 like the guy in the commercial.

The best speculation we can make is that he was suffering a loss of testosterone from using something else. Something that could possibly be undetectable?

Whatever the case, Ramirez did all this and then threw the doctor right under the bus. He’s not exactly known as a great friend or teammate, so it should come as no surprise that he did that. But all he did was add fuel to his own fire, and what he’s burning is his reputation and maybe even his Hall of Fame chances.

Ramirez is just another notch in the belt for this dark era for baseball. And because of his actions, and the way he’s conducted himself over his career, he doesn’t deserve any sympathy. Nor should he expect any.

Boston Red Sox in Danger of Losing Their Voice to Cigarettes

Matt Dolloff — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:20:01 -0400

As the Boston Red Sox color commentator for 21 years, Jerry Remy is a staple of the city. With his ubiquity in Red Sox Nation, he seems almost immortal.

But now that Remy, a long-time smoker, has disclosed his battle with lung cancer, we have received a wake-up call to the dangers of nicotine.

NESN Play-by-play commentator Don Orsillo stunned Red Sox Nation as he delivered the news of Remy’s cancer struggles before Wednesday night’s game between the Red Sox and Cleveland Indians.

Remy, 56, had missed several spring training broadcasts after an infection that led to pneumonia, and attempted a return to the booth at the start of the 2009 season before suffering another setback.

Remy himself said of his struggles, “I want to focus on completing my recovery so that I can return to work without distractions or disruptions…I hope that disclosing my bout with cancer will reinforce the dangers of smoking to every member of Red Sox Nation, especially children.”

The most important thing right now is that he fully recovers, but leave it to “Rem-Dawg” to think of everyone but himself in this tough time.

Smoking is responsible for about 87 percent of all deaths from lung cancer, so it’s not exactly shocking these days how detrimental cigarette smoking is to our health as a nation.

But unfortunately, it’s usually when famous, beloved figures like Remy face cancer that a larger number of people take notice and/or do something about it.

Over 8,000 people in Massachusetts die every year from complications of smoking, so is it really going to take the loss of the voice of the Red Sox for us to improve?

Remy is a four-time Emmy winner and was named Massachusetts Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 2004. He played for the Red Sox from 1978 to 1985 and is the president of Red Sox Nation.

He grew up in Somerset, Mass. and currently resides in Weston, a Boston suburb. Simply put, the man is a Boston legend.

The loss of Remy in the sports world would reverberate past the Charles River, through Cambridge, Allston and Brighton, and throughout Massachusetts before spreading through all of New England and eventually America.

At 56 years old, Remy is far too young to die, but could sadly face an early demise due to a problem America has had for decades and needs to end by any means necessary.

Ultimately, the problem isn’t that convenience stores continue to sell cigarettes, or that the government continues to tax them. The problem is us. It’s up to us as a country to stand up to nicotine and kick the habit.

I have smoked cigarettes before but have never experienced an addiction, so to avoid sounding like a hypocrite, I must say that I am aware of how harrowing the battle to curb smoking addiction can be.

But if we want to live well into our 60s and enjoy our “golden years,” we need to be stronger than cigarettes. We need to be as strong as Remy was when he tried to come back to the booth at the beginning of the season.

To Red Sox Nation: Because of the extreme dangers that cigarette smoking poses, the voice of our generation is in a battle for his life. For now, we can hope and pray that he’ll fully recover and be back in the booth sometime soon.

But if we lose Remy to lung cancer, can we finally take notice of this problem as a region? As a nation?

Capitals-Penguins: Ovechkin and Crosby Hat Tricks Put Series in the Spotlight

Matt Dolloff — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:28:24 -0400

In one of the most anticipated playoff showdowns in years, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are living up to the billing of their rivalry as arguably the two greatest players in the world, and they are doing it the right way. Both players are not trying too hard to get under each others skin or throwing each other off their games.

They are using their talents to do their best to help their team win, and it shined through in Monday night’s thrilling Game Two, which the Capitals won 4-3 on the strength of Ovechkin’s first career postseason hat trick.

Both players registered hat tricks in the game, none of the goals coming easily.

Crosby had to fight the puck home on a rebound to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead, and Ovechkin didn’t answer until 2:17 of the second period when he blasted a perfect Viktor Kozlov pass into the net for the one-timer goal.

Crosby took the lead back with his second goal in the same period, another front-of-net rebound.

David Steckel, whose goal ended up being the difference in Ovechkin and Crosby’s battle, tied the game. Between that and Ovechkin’s third goal (another one-timer), it was mostly the Simeon Varlamov show.

The goalie made several stunning saves on the Penguins, including a one-timer from Evgeni Malkin.

Ovechkin iced the game with just over four minutes remaining when he led his own rush and fired a twisted wrister past Marc-Andre Fleury for the hat trick.

Crosby was able to match Ovechkin with his own hat trick, on yet another rebound in front of the net, with 30.4 seconds left in the game. It was too little too late, as the Caps held on.

At ESPN, Scott Burnside believes this game confirmed that the Capitals, not the Penguins, are the best young team in the league.

I’m not sure I’m ready to agree with Burnside here. The Capitals have certainly proved to be better in this series thus far, but the Penguins have basically played without scoring champ Evgeni Malkin. Granted that Malkin has two assists in the two games, those numbers look pedestrian next to Crosby’s four goals.

If Malkin was playing at the same level as Crosby or Ovechkin, we could be talking about a 2-0 Penguins lead in the series. But to date, he has failed to take his game to the next level.

So for that reason, I’m skeptical to accept the Capitals as the best young team in the league just yet. But they have certainly been the ones to rise to the occasion.

Even though the Capitals have a 2-0 lead, NHL fans will be glued to their screens as this series progresses. It's hard to believe that Crosby and Ovechkin could possibly play any better, but the scary thing is that they really could. And if Evgeni Malkin wakes up, there could be a major battle brewing between these two teams.

Pittsburgh will have to win the next two games to have a chance in the series, but considering they are the defending Eastern Conference champions, it should not be ruled out.

Whatever happens, Crosby and Ovechkin have taken their rivalry to the level of "epic duel" over which we have been salivating for years.

Royals-White Sox: Zack Greinke First to Six Wins After Complete Game Shutout

Matt Dolloff — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:54:23 -0400

Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke is mowing major leaguers down like no other right now, and the sports world is slowly catching on to the young superstar.

Greinke struck out 10 Chicago White Sox in a complete game shutout—his second of the season—in the Royals’ 3-0 victory Monday night.

Still only 25-years-old, Greinke is finally looking like the Cy Young contender he was thought to become way back when his career started.

While other top-tier starters, such as Brandon Webb, Cole Hamels and C.C. Sabathia, have either struggled or suffered injuries, Greinke has flourished, taking the title of “Best Pitcher in Baseball” away from them—at least for now.

Greinke allowed six hits and walked none in the shutout, all while throwing only 104 pitches, a remarkable feat for a complete game with double-digit strikeouts.

“It doesn’t surprise me what he’s doing right now at all,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said, “because he’s that good. He’s been good for a long time. Now he believes in himself.

“To me, he’s the best in the league right now.”

Not many would argue that.

Greinke is now 6-0 on the season, and his 54 strikeouts and 0.40 ERA are the best in the major leagues. Perhaps we should have taken more notice last season, when he put together a 13-10 record for a last-place team with a 3.47 ERA and 183 strikeouts in 202 innings.

This season is already putting that one to shame.

It feels like Greinke has been around forever, and he’s had to go through a lot of issues to get where he is now. Through the problems with social anxiety that he has overcome, Greinke is experiencing a triumph of major proportions.

But ask him, and he will tell you he’s not the best pitcher in baseball—yet.

“No, you’ve got to do it for at least three years,” Greinke told Dick Kaegel of MLB.com. “That’s my thing—three years and you can put your name on stuff like that.”

Whether or not he’d agree with it, the way Greinke is pitching right now, he may have already reached his goal in Year One.

LeBron James Wins NBA MVP Award...As If There Was Any Doubt

Matt Dolloff — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:17:31 -0400

There should have been no debate, anticipation, or questions about this year’s NBA MVP award. The honor belongs to one man, and one man only.

Though still a young man, he has come into his own at the tender age of 24, and after already leading his team to an NBA Finals appearance, he has led them to the top of the NBA standings and status as the team to beat in the postseason.

Of course I’m talking about LeBron James, and of course nobody else had a shot to beat him out for this award, right?

The report today by the Cleveland Plain Dealer confirmed what most of us should have been expecting for a long time. Official voting details have yet to be announced, but James should be expected to garner most, if not all the first-place votes.

The “battle” he had throughout the season with Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade was merely an illusion of the media, something we ourselves created to lead the general public to believe there could be a surprise winner in this race.

No, it was LeBron all the way. He took the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 66-16 record while averaging about 29 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists per game. He helped turn Mo Williams into an All-Star and Anderson Varejao into an above-average power forward.

The fact that the Cavaliers rolled right over the Detroit Pistons, 4-0, in their playoff series—the only team in the first round to do so in under six games—only reinforces the fact that voters made the right decision.

Not nearly enough people jumped onto the Kobe or D-Wade bandwagons to derail LeBron’s campaign. It’s simply his time. He is slowly beginning to take this league over, and very well could already be on top when he enters his prime.

And no, he has NOT reached his prime yet. The idea that he averaged a 30-8-7 scoring line at age 24 ought to strike fear into fans of all opposing teams. This kid could very well average a triple-double over a full season in his prime, and I honestly hope he does.

I can always appreciate greatness, no matter what uniform he wears. LeBron James has taken the next step to becoming just that.

Check out this video made by a YouTube member of the top 20 plays from LeBron James’ 2008-09 regular season. And be sure to go to the website for thousands more videos of this human highlight reel.

Can David Ortiz Really Promise Us He'll Break out of His Slump?

Matt Dolloff — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:03:14 -0400

Of all the things Red Sox Nation was concerned about, very low on the list was whether or not David Ortiz was aware he’s in a major slump to start the 2009 season. We all know of his struggles, and we expect Ortiz to be well aware of it himself.

So it came as no surprise when Ortiz made light of his situation, admitting that he is mired in a dreadful power outage: He’s hit exactly zero home runs in 96 at-bats this season, and only eight of his 20 hits have gone for extra bases.

I am part of Red Sox Nation, and I can feel the pain of every Red Sox fan who has watched Big Papi look utterly helpless at the plate. I can feel the pain of every Red Sox fan who has had to hear the hemming and hawing of the baseball pundits who have spoken of his deteriorating bat speed and lack of hittable pitches being thrown his way.

What is really hitting us now is that Ortiz has vowed to break out of this early-season slump. He told RedSox.com’s Ian Browne today, “You better write that [stuff] down right now, I will. I’ll be back.”

My reaction to that? Exasperation.

Ortiz has done little more than frustrate us as a fanbase this April and May. Dustin Pedroia has assured us of a similar turn-around for Ortiz, that the season isn’t 50 at-bats.

It’s not 100 at-bats, either. But for a guy like Ortiz, that is a disturbing number to reach without hitting a single home run. One hundred at-bats without a home run? And we’re talking about a guy who once hit 54 dingers in one season?

“I’m not happy. Why should I be?” Ortiz said. “But I’ll tell you what, dog, I’m the kind of guy that, [the first] 100 at-bats—in two weeks, you can [forget about it]. I’m just going to keep the flow, keep playing the game, not worry about too many things. I don’t want to be listening to all the negativity, all the [stuff] that comes with it. It seems like it’s never enough.”

I can understand Ortiz’s displeasure with the negativity surrounding him right now, but can he really blame us?

Sometimes it may feel like it’s never enough, but I could assure him that if he had at least three or four home runs right now, we wouldn’t be all over him like we are right now. Zero home runs from a designated hitter in the three-hole is unacceptable.

In all fairness to Papi, he had a similar slump in April of 2008. He hit only .198 that month, but the big difference between then and now is that he still hit the ball out of the park five times.

And his 21 RBI were very good for someone with such a poor batting average. He turned it around in May, hitting .318 with eight more home runs, before injuring his wrist and missing almost all of June and July.

So is this what we should come to expect now? Even if Ortiz does break out of his slump, is he only going to re-injure himself and cause yet another drop-off in production? It’s irrational to expect an injury from someone, but in Ortiz’s case it would only be natural.

He is 33 years old and at the typical age of decline for big, thickly-built designated hitters just like himself.

It’s going to be very disturbing if Ortiz can’t hit the ball out of (or close to it) the new Yankee Stadium, which is not only tailor-made for lefties, but is also quickly earning a reputation as Coors Field East.

All I ask of Terry Francona and the Red Sox is to make sure Ortiz isn’t a liability all season. Right now, the team would be better suited hitting him lower in the lineup than having his .600 OPS batting right in the three-hole. If his prolonged slump continues, they need to move him down.

We need to stop with the nostalgia and realize this man is not what he used to be, and will not hit 30 home runs ever again. But for now, just one would be nice.

Padraig Harrington Does His Happy Gilmore Impression

Matt Dolloff — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:27:23 -0400

I had to post this video, because Happy Gilmore (1996) happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies. Before I watched this segment from “Sport Science” on Fox Sports Net, I firmly believed that Adam Sandler’s golf shot in that movie was totally implausible.

I was totally content suspending disbelief in order to enjoy the hilarity that ensues, but whenever anyone else said, “I wonder if hitting the ball like that really works,” I would always be quick to debunk that theory.

But 2008 PGA Player of the Year Padraig Harrington has officially proved me wrong. “Sport Science” confirmed that while his arm angle and swing between a normal one and Happy Gilmore one are almost identical, the few steps he takes before hitting the ball do add a bit more force to his club, and ultimately added about 30 yards to his drive.

I’m hoping this leads to at least one golfer trying this approach in the future. I am so seldom entertained by golf tournaments, I would be glued to the TV if anyone ever came along that actually emulated a 1990s Adam Sandler character. But Harrington has done enough to prove that Happy Gilmore’s technique could possibly work.

Red Sox-Rays: Boston Looks To Bounce Back After 13-0 Loss Against Tampa Bay

Matt Dolloff — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:37:58 -0400

In as lopsided a game as we’ll see all year, the Boston Red Sox went down big early and never had a chance to get back into it.

While the Red Sox could muster only one hit—a Jacoby Ellsbury infield hit that broke up Matt Garza’s perfect game bid in the seventh inning—the Rays pounded them into submission with 13 runs on 18 hits, the biggest contribution coming from Evan Longoria’s home run and four RBI.

Longoria smacked a bases-clearing double off Beckett in the third inning, then launched his sixth home run of the season off the catwalk in the sixth. He finished 3-for-5. Beckett threw 113 pitches, allowing seven runs and pitching only four-and-two-thirds innings.

It got so bad, that at one point manager Terry Francona sent outfielder Jonathan Van Every to the mound in the eighth to pitch in relief of Javier Lopez, who was rocked for four runs in just a third of an inning. Lopez briefly took over in right field for Van Every. In summoning Van Every to pitch, Francona was left in a spot where he had no other choice.

“First of all, I don’t like doing it,” Francona told Ian Browne of RedSox.com. “But I’m not going to let a pitcher get hurt. Javy had thrown three days in a row. I didn’t want to embarrass anybody. Certainly, we didn’t want to embarrass Javy. We’re just not going to hurt somebody like that. We’re already getting killed. It was a bad night.”

So how do the Red Sox bounce back from such a one-sided defeat? It will have to start with pitching. After three consecutive poor outings by Red Sox starters—Brad Penny, Jon Lester and Beckett combined to allow 16 runs in 13-1/3 innings—Justin Masterson will take the mound for the Red Sox Friday, looking to play the role of stopper.

Masterson (2-0) pitched brilliantly against the Yankees last Sunday under the national spotlight, allowing just one earned run on a sacrifice fly in five-and-one-third innings. Masterson threw 99 pitches, and will very likely be expected to throw over 100 tonight. He is 0-2 with a 7.11 ERA in his career at Tropicana Field.

Masterson will oppose Andy Sonnanstine, who is coming off a similar shellacking to the one Beckett received Thursday. Sonnanstine is 0-3 with a 7.78 ERA, and was tagged for seven runs in four innings last time out against Oakland. But after the way his team set the tone for the series Thursday, he has a good chance to bounce back.

It would come as little surprise to see the Red Sox re-call Michael Bowden from Pawtucket for some insurance in the bullpen. Francona was fortunate not to have to use Jonathan Papelbon, Ramon Ramirez, Manny Delcarmen or Hideki Okajima Thursday.

But the Red Sox could still use another long-inning guy now that Hunter Jones has had to work hard to get through his last two outings, throwing 65 pitches in three-and-two-thirds innings.

Whether or not the Red Sox recover from last night’s debacle depends mainly on the pitching, but more than one hit would certainly be welcomed. The Rays have control of the series and momentum on their side, but will still need a bounce-back start from Sonnanstine. First pitch is at 7:38 PM.

Red Sox Turn to Beckett Thursday Against Rays At Tropicana Field

Matt Dolloff — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:34:08 -0400

The Boston Red Sox bullpen has been heavily taxed in recent games, pitching 23 2/3 innings in their last six games. But with Josh Beckett on the mound Thursday, they can be confident most of them will get some rest.

Beckett (2-1) will oppose Matt Garza (1-2) and the Tampa Bay Rays in the first of a four-game series at Tropicana Field. The Rays took the first three games of the season series, one in which both Beckett and Garza pitched well.

Garza stymied the Red Sox at Fenway on Apr. 9, allowing just one earned run while striking out five in seven innings for his first and only win of the 2009 season.

Beckett was even more dominant in his opening day start, allowing one run on just two hits while striking out ten in seven innings of his own.

Despite the strong start to his season, Beckett was not nearly as effective last time out against the Yankees. He got pounded for eight runs in five-plus innings while throwing 116 pitches.

Garza also struggled in his last start, allowing four runs in 5 2/3 innings while walking four.

With the Red Sox—who have won 12 of their last 13 including an 11-game winning streak—coming to town, Tampa Bay may have a sense of urgency in tonight’s game.

The Rays have stumbled to an 8-14 start and have been below-average all-around. They currently sit 10th in the American League in runs scored with 97, eighth in ERA with 4.70, and eighth in team fielding pct. with .983.

The Rays are coming off an 8-3 defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Twins in which Scott Kazmir was roughed up for eight runs—six earned—in just four innings of work.

Center fielder B.J. Upton is only 9-for-57 (.158) with one RBI in 15 games since his return from the disabled list. He and other Rays hitters will need to step it up to keep up with a Red Sox lineup that has scored 60 runs in their last eight games.

The Rays will have to get a strong performance out of Garza, who was 1-0 against the Red Sox in three starts at Tampa, allowing six runs in 16 2/3 innings, in 2008. Beckett will also need to be much sharper and more efficient than he was against the Yankees.

Red Sox Nation would certainly like to see something similar to Beckett’s two starts at Tropicana Field in 2008 (15 IP, 2 ER, 22 K).

The way the pitchers’ seasons are going so far, this game is tough to predict. But what can be guaranteed is that both teams will be ready for battle when the clock strikes 7:08 p.m.