Tagged: Josh Beckett
The All Currently-On-The-DL Boston Red Sox & an Introduction to WAR
As the Red Sox take the field against the Orioles tonight, they do so with their 69th unique lineup in their 80th game of the season. Without further ado, I bring you the July 2nd, 2010 edition of the All Currently-On-The-DL Boston Red Sox. As a side note, I will explain what WAR means after the roster. Also, I will dip into the minor leagues when necessary to fill the gaps (there aren’t many).
L since 7/1/10
Close Calls & DMac
Before tonight’s 2-0 victory over Toronto, check out the last time the Red Sox won by more than 1 run:
That’s right, not since April 14th, 2 weeks ago. The BoSox may have gotten back to .500 with tonight’s win, which is always good to see, but the fact of the matter is they still have a lot of work left to do if they want to contend this season. I am encouraged by the way Clay Buchholz has been pitching and by Jon Lester‘s last two starts. If John Lackey and Josh Beckett can pick it up, then the rotation will be in good shape even if #5 remains a mystery with Tim Wakefield and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Don’t look now, but Lester hasn’t allowed a run in his last 13.1 innings.
One of the more interesting and surprising bright spots for the Sox thus far has been Darnell McDonald. Carrying a .286 average and 2 home runs through just 25 plate appearances into tonight’s contest, many fans are wondering where the heck this guy came from. That’s where I come in.
McDonald is 31 years old and in his fourth major league season. He made his major league debut back in 2004 at the tender age of 25 with the Baltimore Orioles, who selected him with the 26th overall pick in the 1997 amateur draft. Since then he’s been all over the majors and the minors, logging just 147 big league at-bats coming into this season. During that time he posted a below average slash line of .231/.276/.333.
So where is this new found success coming from? Your guess is as good as mine, but I can tell you one thing. He’s not the young prospect that some interpret him as, and for this reason he doesn’t have a legitimate chance of staying with the team long term. He may be a fan favorite already, but something’s gotta give when both Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury (remember them?) return from the DL. The team can’t afford to carry more than four outfielders at a time, and there’s just no way that McDonald can play himself ahead of Ellsbury, Cameron, J.D. Drew, or Jeremy Hermida. Thanks for the memories DMac, but I’m afraid your time is almost up.
Guess Who’s Back
You can all stop holding your breath now- that’s right, I have returned from my nearly two-year blogging hiatus. So much has happened since my last post, in the baseball world and in my own. I’m now close to completing my freshman year at Boston University and the New York Yankees are now reigning world champions. Go figure.
6 Game Win Streak Snapped
Alright, on the heels of the 6-4 loss to the Angels I’m sure you’re all turning to me for an explanation. Never fear, I have one.
I mentioned the ties in my first post, and sadly they are the culprit tonight. Here is the background information on the ties: my school’s dress code requires that I wear a tie each day. If the Sox are on a winning streak, I wear the same tie as I did the day before. Simple, right? Why haven’t we won every weekday game then? Well, believe it or not, there has been a valid explanation for every exception. I won’t detail all of them here but just so you know I’m not pulling your leg… take a look at the week of March 30th. We won Tuesday and Wednesday per the tie rule, off day Thursday, and then oh wait! The rule has been disproven right? Wrong. We were out of dress code on Friday and since I didn’t wear a tie, we lost the game 6-3. Another fact worthy of mentioning: we lost all weekend long and did not win again until the next Tuesday, which was the next gameday when I could wear a tie.
Back to tonight. This tie was on a roll. 6 games in a row. But they don’t count because they were over the weekend right? No, this tie, with the help of another superstition that I can’t mention right now, powered through the weekend until I could continue wearing it on Monday. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. The reason may sound a little farfetched, in fact I would be surprised if many out there believed me. But I’m not going to worry about that, all I can do is promise you that at all times on this blog I am telling the truth. So, during school today, my friends and I discovered a kite stuck in a tree on our campus and we decided to spend the period trying to get it down. Sure, it started off by innocently throwing tennis balls at the kite, but it eventually became an obsession and we had to turn to more drastic measures. So we all tied our ties together to make a string about, well, 3 ties long. We tied a lemonade bottle to the end of the string (which was my tie, THE tie) and tried to loop it around a tree branch so we could pull it down and retrieve the kite. To make a long story short, which I am doing a horrendous job of, by the time I got my tie down from the tree about 40 minutes later it was not in good shape. It had some pretty tight knots tied in it and it got a little beat up from rubbing against tree bark. We didn’t get the kite and I knew I had compromised the luckiness of the tie in the process. So consider this an apology to Red Sox Nation, I promise not to fool around with the lucky ties anymore.
P.S.- Get well soon Curt Schilling, Mike Lowell, Alex Cora, Josh Beckett, Jason Varitek, Manny Delcarmen, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kevin Youkilis, and Coco Crisp. Did I miss anyone?