You Go Bronson

All Bronson Arroyo did in his first start against his ex-mates was strike out nine while giving up 3 hits and no runs in 7 innings!

I'll miss him, but I still stand by my "it's a business" moto. And, maybe someday he'll be back! Stranger things have happened. Remember Buckner coming back?

what Julian Tavarez, Barry Bonds, and Pete Rose have in common

After reading all the different posts on yesterday's incident where Sox set-up man Julian Tavarez cold-cocked the Devil Rays Joey Gathright, I feel like I have to say something here on the AL East blog. But first, let me apologize to all (6?) of my readers who had believed that this would be a blog different from the other JASBs (Just Another Sox Blog, thanks Beth) out there. For the past few months, I have posted nothing but Sox stories and opinions. Here is a chance to stop that habit.

After reading Beth's blog on this incident, and her subsequent link to Randy Booth's blog at overthemonster.com, and specifically the comment from Patrick Kennedy at draysbay.com, I was very surprised when I browsed to draysbay.com to get their entire take on the incident. According to Jake's Take, there is very little class remaining to dole out in Red Sox Nation.

I have not gathered from all this that RSN is feeling all high and mighty at all. Let's begin with the players themselves. According to published reports, Jon Papelbon and Ron Jackson came out of the bullpen and dugout respectively to pull Gathright out of the mess! That sounds to me like the Sox know full well that Tavarez is a ticking time bomb.

So, what about the fans? Where is all the "high and mighty" there? Already according to two blogs linked here, Tavarez is being chastised for his actions. As an aside here, though, and in some defense of the D Rays fans, I would like to say that, were Tavarez "part of the fold" (meaning if he were an established Red Sox player), I highly doubt that the chastising would be as great as it has been. Let's face it, Sox fans, didn't Jason Varitek stuff his mitt down A-Rod's throat and practically get crowned King of New England for it? I don't remember nearly as much huff after Pedro Martinez took down defending HEAVY WEIGHT champion Don Zimmer a few years back.

What I found to be perhaps the most interesting tidbit in the news I've read about yesterday's bash was the line at the end of the game summary.

"In the bottom of the eighth, newly acquired Red Sox first baseman Hee-Seop Choi was plunked by Rays pitcher Wayne Franklin, and the umps warned both sides."

What I find MOST amazing about the whole fucking mess is that the umpires actually ALLOWED the next inning to begin without a warning being issued. Please, D Rays fans, don't take this the wrong way. Surely the Sox player "deserved" the plunking in some twisted baseball sense. Actually, the thing I have a problem with is sort of the same thing I have a problem with around the steroids mess. Major League Baseball always waits until it's TOO LATE to do something about the fucking mess!

One of these days, mark my words, we'll be looking back at incidents like this and saying "if only MLB had done something about it back then, [insert very unfortunate player's name here] would not be paralyzed for life." It is very obvious from JTs comments afterwards that the slap-on-the-hand that MLB gives him shortly is not going to faze him!

To continue the parallel I had begun to draw between conduct on the baseball field and steroid use in the game, if MLB had done something about steroid use 10 years ago, we would not be in the situation where folks are calling for everything from Barry Bonds suspension to his head on a platter (a damn big platter at that!) Pete Rose puts it best when he says:

"I don't know what he did the last two years. All I know is the guy can hit," said Rose, calling Bonds one of the top five players in baseball history.
"Here's my take on steroids: We can say anybody took steroids," Rose said. "We don't know. Unless you took steroids the last two years, I don't care."

I believe Pete is saying that unless they catch Barry Bonds with a positive steroids test in 2005 or beyond, we're gonna have to live with the fact that the man who hit more home runs than Babe Ruth probably did so "on the juice." Let's face it folks, he may even break Hank Aaron's record for home runs in a career. Have we decided to put an asterisk next to Mark McGwire's record (at the time)? Have we banned him from baseball, making him ineligible to be on the Hall of Fame ballot this year?

So, what do these three have in common? Honestly, I didn't even have a title until I had finished the post to this point, so then I figured I needed to wrap it up with something like this. To begin with, all three have dishonored the sport of baseball. In chronological order, Pete Rose bet on the baseball team that he was managing. Barry Bonds knowingly used substances that, although baseball had no policy regarding, were illegal to use unless under the guidance of a physician. And Julian Tavarez has drastically lost his temper on the baseball field a handful of times in his career now, resulting in THREE suspensions (soon to be four). However, at least two of these guys, it could be argued, are products of their environments, mere pawns for the MLB machine to make more money.

I guess you heard it here first (also, Bronson Arroyo, a class act)

When I said on Friday
"Let's see Foulke pitch like that against the Blue Jays tomorrow, and I'll say the Sox are ready to kick ass this season!"
I did not mean that he had to do EXACTLY the same thing against the Jays as he did against the Orioles AAA team. I mean, I would have settled for a 1-2-3 inning, or even a lone baserunner getting stranded. But, striking out the side for the second straight day on exactly 13 pitches again! What the fuck are the chances of that?

I have to share this piece with you. I found it buried at the end of a piece called Early look at the class of '06.

Displaced, misplaced pitcher
While the stat analysts look at Wily Mo Peña at 24 and see a young Sammy Sosa (or Dave Kingman) the number-crunchers look less kindly on what the Reds can expect to get from Bronson Arroyo. Here's Joe Sheehan in Baseball Prospectus: ''As much as I've talked up Arroyo in the past, he's established himself as a mid-rotation innings guy and he's about to move to a context that will absolutely kill him. Great American Ball Park is a terrible spot for pitchers, and when you consider that the Reds, even adjusting for ballpark, put a lousy defensive team on the field, Arroyo is going to see his numbers take a hit. Even if he rebounds from a poor second half of 2005 in which his strikeout rate plummeted, it's hard to see Arroyo as more than an affordable stopgap for the Reds. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine what word in the previous sentence means the most to Arroyo's new team." But can we all agree that Arroyo could not have handled his parting any better, stopping short of lashing out at the Sox, though it would have been understandable to do so?

Foulke and Schilling on target

Schilling pitched 7 innings against a triple A team today, 8 hits, 5 runs, 0 BB, 10 K. get this! 82 of 109 pitches were strikes!

Foulke pitched the 8th inning. All he did was strike out the side on 13 pitches!

Let's see Foulke pitch like that against the Blue Jays tomorrow, and I'll say the Sox are ready to kick ass this season!

Bye, Bye Bronson (He may not have lost the shirt off his back in this whole deal, but it's accurate to say he lost his Sox.)

The Boston Red Sox just traded Bronson Arroyo to the Reds for OF Willy Mo Pena. As Beth points out, That's Cold! But, she also points out in her post that this makes a ton of baseball sense for the Red Sox. I would also like to add to Beth's counter-argument that at 24 years old (JUST TURNED IT!), if this kid can learn even a little patience at the plate (20 BB to 116 K last season), he could be the Sox new rightfielder when Trot leaves town. His career split stats certainly show that he has a sweet OBP against lefties.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm gonna miss Bronson just as much as Beth (although not in the same "Oh my god, he's so cute" kind of way!) I will miss him for a much different reason.

You see, October 27, 2004 was a very important day for my family and I, as it was for all of Red Sox Nation. On that fateful day, we welcomed our very first (of three to this point) litter of toy poodle puppies into this world. The two boys we named Manny and Bronson. Since Manny did not end up being a great specimen of the breed, we had him neutered and adopted him out last summer to a wonderful family here in Maine. Bronson, on the other hand, is a beautiful toy poodle.

'Tek's comin back to camp!

This was supposed to get posted last Friday, but blogger.com was screwed up!

I am sorry to everyone who got so high on the WBC and were pulling for the U.S. to go all the way. But, I am damn glad they lost yesterday. Could this make the difference between Beckett and Clement winning 10 games each by the All-Star break? IF it's gonna happen, I would say it's hard to argue that there's a chance if Varitek only has like 5 days to work with them! Best damn news out of the Sox spring camp yet, if you ask me . . .

Took this pic two years ago.
yeah, my son could look a little more excited about it!

Blonde Lobster

It's a competition. (There MUST be a few damn funny blonde jokes that can come out of this discovery!)

After reading this article on CNN.com today, I decided to start a competition. Over the next few days, I would like folks to comment on this entry with the best blonde joke they can think of after checking out the world's newest crustacean.

Is Barry Bonds finished?

I believe that this will destroy Barry Bonds, and I have NO PROBLEM with that!

Bonds exposed
Shadows details superstar slugger's steroid use

My wife bought me a present last weekend

My very own Manny Watch!



He has arrived!

Manny arrived in Red Sox spring training camp as promised today, with the following quotes courtesy of the Boston Globe staff.

"Oh yeah you know I'm back, I guess people want me to come back and my main focus is baseball right now and trying to help this team win and let me get this straight, I don't want no questions about the trade rumors about the winter this and that. You guys want to talk about baseball or whatever, you know I'm open to talk. We could talk all day."

"I'm here. I don't live in the past, I live in the present and that's it. This (is) a new year, I'm here. People want me to come back. People want me here so we're just gonna move on. I'm just gonna come, do my job, I get paid to play baseball. That's (why) I'm here. That's it. What else can I say?"

Was it a tough decision not to play in the World Baseball Classic?:
"Not really because my main focus is getting prepared for the season, to help Boston win."

Is there anything different that you feel physically?:
"My last three years, I had a lot of problems with my hamstrings, now they feel good and I'm great. I'm ready to go."

Is it weird not having Kevin Millar around here?:
"It is weird but you know that's part of life. This is a job and I guess when you don't perform right and you don't the things they want you to do, you gotta move on. He should be here, he's a great guy to have in the clubhouse but I guess he's in another place and we're gonna wish him luck and we hope he stays healthy out there and have another great year."

On the trade rumors and whether he thinks he'll finish his contract in Boston:
"I guess if you guys want to talk about that my agent is right there and he'll be glad to answer that question but I also want to get another thing straight," he said. "I got a beautiful career going on and I'm not gonna let little things like this mess [up] all the things that I accomplished because I think when I finish my career I'm gonna be a special player and I'm not gonna let nobody stop that and that's me. I got a goal for myself and I'm now gonna accomplish that."