Manny will be Manny in Los Angeles

We don't know why we didn't see this coming all along. Manny Ramirez as an LA Dodger almost seems like a perfect fit. He'll play in the same outfield that Darryl Strawberry did. He can cruise around south central and just, be.... like Manny likes to do.

He'll hit and make you laugh. He will put up numbers. He'll do things in the outfield that you couldn't even dream up. He'll probably get a base coach or two fired, even at his base-coach age of 38.

But Ramirez will be a shot in the arm for the Dodgers, and for the Red Sox that say goodbye to him, they did as well as they possibly could, and they surprised us in getting rid of Manny. Jason Bay is having a very good year in what has been a very good career overall. He's a solid player and he'll probably fit in well in the Boston lineup.

The real loser here, who else. The Pittsburgh Pirates. They get the Damian Moss kid who plays outfield and is in all likelihood another Darren Bragg. They give up what should have been another cornerstone in Jason Bay, and in return they get Andy LaRoche, who will probably be as disappointing of a prospect as his brother Adam has been. But the deal couldn't have been completed and wouldn't have went down if not for the Pirates being the Pirates and getting stepped on like the twatbag, doormat franchise they really are. Another rebuilding crusade boys!

Did the Red Sox call their own bluff? Manny Ramirez traded?

I mean really, lets get serious here.

Was Manny Ramirez really traded? If so, we might have been one of the first blogs to find it. If it did go down, it appears to be a bit of a mega-deal:

The three team deal involving 6 time All-Star Manny Ramirez has been reported to the commissioners office although names of the specific prospects involved have yet to be determined. Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll reports the structure of the deal as the following: Marlins get Manny Ramirez, one prospect (BOS), and cash (likely Ramirez’s remaining salary)Pirates get Jeremy Hermida and three prospects (two FLO, one BOS) Red Sox get Jason Bay and John Grabow.

We have to admit, when we started this post we were going to make fun of the Red Sox and their threats to trade Manny Ramirez every year, and talk about how every year Manny ends up still wearing Red Sox no name-plate '24' and cutting off centerfield throws from the monster out in left.

But the Red Sox who appeared to be bluffing, may have just called our bluff.... if that makes any sense. Stay Tuned...

Joba's First True Gem at Fenway Park

[Story]
[Box Score]

We like Joba Chamberlain, and in fact if we had to pick a favorite Yankee we'd definitely select Chamberlain as just that. He reminds us of a young Roger Clemens in stature, stuff, and build. He of course seems at this point in his career to be a genuine human being, so that is a plus over Clemens.

Last night might have been the Saratoga of the Yankees season, as they opened up a 3-game series at Fenway Park against Josh Beckett with a 1-0 victory, allowing them to win their 7th game in a row. Chamberlain threw 7 innings, walking one, allowed only three hits and struck out seven. The game's lone run was an RBI single by Jason Giambi, and of course was saved by Mariano Rivera in classic Yankee fasion. The win leaves the Yankees three games out of first place, behind the Tampa Bay Rays who are now 1 game in front of the Red Sox.

Oh and another thing. The Yankees traded for Xavier Nady (and Damaso Marte). Now, did they really need Xavier Nady? I mean they don't have a place for all these guys. Where are they gonna stick him? Obviously they'll play him because he's hitting .330 but my goodness. It just seems like sometimes they just go out and get players because they don't want other teams to have them.

MLB's Best Story: The Flavor of the Month Rays

Tampa Bay has swept the mighty world champion Red Sox. They're the talk of Major League Baseball, and as we saw Evan Longoria rip that big go ahead double last night into the gap at that carpet house known as Tropicana Field, we knew that they'd be the toast of baseball by this morning. And they were.

We don't necessarily think the Rays are better than the Red Sox, we're not that naive. But we do think that they're peaking. This is as hot as the Rays will be maybe ever. Okay, maybe not ever, but they're 52-32 and 3 1/2 games up on the rest of the division. This is just like when those 1994 Expos (who would have lost to the '94 Indians in the World Series anyway) ran away with things with a bunch of kids that played care-free and exciting baseball. This is that kind of team.

Lets just hope these Rays win before their window closes. It will come without warning. Enjoy your place on the top of baseball's throne, Tampa fans.

[Box Score]

We're expecting the worst for Red Sox/Reds

Tonight the Boston Red Sox come to town for a game for the first time since the 1975 World Series when Carlton Fisk was wishing it fair en route to a Boston victory. Tonight, the Reds enter play with a deficit of 8 games to climb out of in the Wild Card race.

Honestly, they'll get swept. I am no longer filled with optimism and the Reds simply aren't anywhere close to as good as the Red Sox. Sure a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while, but its not today. The Reds are going to get shit on for 3 games and things are going to get interesting once again for my boy Adam Dunn and any other player on the team of more than a year or so with a pulse.

6 foot 6 wonderkid Justin Masterson takes the mound for Boston. Like all young guns, I'll be interested to see how he fares against the hitting machine that is Jay Bruce. That is the only reason for interest in this team right now. They've given us little else.

Manny Ramirez: 24th Member of the 500 Home Run Club

We've watched Manny Ramirez since we were young; and followed his career closely. As a right handed outfielder, we emulated him as a hitter. We studied him. We were a big fan of his before he blew up into this superstar and future Hall of Famer. We remember when he 'struggled' and hit .328 with only 88 RBI and 26 home runs in 1997 while leading the Indians to the World Series.

We were heartbroken when he left Cleveland, but we continued to smile upon Manny because; afterall, he's a great hitter. If you enjoy the game of baseball then there is no way you don't enjoy watching this guy hit.

He's the picture perfect semblance of balance in the batters box. Ramirez makes adjustments to pitchers as well as anyone in the game. Into his thirties he's been able to remain extremely consistent and has became the best right handed hitter of our time.

Ramirez is proof that you can last a long time in this league, as a non-DH as long as you can swing the bat. We still remember when he homered his final at bat as an Indian; we knew it was over but that was Manny giving the Cleveland fans one more glance of greatness.

Ramirez is fun, which is what makes this milestone so great. He might be the most colorful and animated of all the 500-home run club members. We're just shocked that in all those years of driving in runners and hitting long balls, Ramirez has never managed to win an MVP. That is kind of a travesty.

Manny Ramirez's career home run log [Baseball Reference]

Lester joins legends with No-Hitter

[Boston.com Story]

[No Hitter Box Score]

Jon Lester needed 130 pitches and a strikeout to finish what he started last night. When the dust settled he had thrown the 18th no-hitter in Red Sox history. It took 2 hours and 30 minutes on the dot and took place in front of a crowd of 37,746.

It's a great culmination for Lester who just over a year ago faced uncertainty in his professional career, battling cancer. It also just adds to another great chapter in recent Boston baseball; and sports fortune.

Most teams are lucky to get a no-hitter per decade. The Red Sox now have them in back to back years, with Clay Bucholz firing his own last season.

The lone home run of the game was his catcher, Jason Varitek. The biggest scare of the game, a looper hit by Jose Guillen, was saved by growing young superstar outfielder Jacoby Elsbury.

"It's something I'll remember for a long time," said Lester. "He (Terry Francona) has been like a second dad to me. He cares a lot about his players. It's not just about what you can do on the field."

So what's next for the Red Sox and Boston in general? I mean really. How the sports Gods have shined upon this city in the past 5 days and past 5 years. The one thing is it came against the Kansas City Royals, so it's only really half a no-hitter. An asterisked no-hitter. Calm yourselves chowda heads. I kid.

Manny Ramirez really is worth the price of admission

For most guys I'd be saying how do you even dream something like this up? I mean, he makes a running catch in a big spot and somehow in his dead run to the wall he spots a Red Sox fan in the Camden Yards outfield and gives a high five.

With Manny Ramirez, I'm not even surprised. It would seem that Manny, albeit funny and a guy who marches to the beat of his own drummer; is about at the mentality level of a really smart golden retriever. And there's nothing wrong with that. Ramirez is fun to watch, he always has been. I loved him when he was an Indian.

Does anyone else remember my personal all-time favorite Manny moment when he was the fucking cut off man for Johnny Damon's outfield throw? (Watch around the :57 mark in this video to see it!)

Jacoby Elsbuy is no longer a poor man's Grady Sizemore

Jacoby Elsbury has arrived. He stole two more bases tonight to bring his season total to 13, while still hitting a posh .281 on the season. He's become the player that I envisioned he would be; and in fact is playing better than the guy I've always compared him to; Grady Sizemore. Although he's not quite that dreamy yet.

The decision I made to drop Elsbury seemed like a good decision when he was splitting time with that fucker Coco Crisp. But it seems like the day I dropped him, he became the Red Sox everyday outfielder.

I'm just glad that someone lucked out and picked him up right away, so they could benefit and serve me a nice shitburger to eat. Now I'm doing the equivalent of syphing gas; by picking up Willie Taveras for the same amount of stolen bases and a guy who does nothing else.

The burning desire to win that is Troy Percival & the Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays are doing something they haven't done in their existence: finding ways to win meaningful ballgames. They've now won 5 games in a row, including the past two against the Boston Red Sox (and 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto).

Troy Percival has notched saves in 4 of the 5 victories. He also hasn't allowed an earned run on the season.

Isn't it good for baseball that these guys compete? We think so.

[Box Score]

Yankees-Red Sox face off tonight

Tonight the Boston Red Sox welcome the New York Yankees to town. These series need a formal name, because every time that it happens for the first time each year; it seems like you just know that the baseball season has officially begun. It's like a miniature baseball holiday for fans all over the country. Some drama will go down, and it's hard to know exactly what will happen.

It's a storied rivalry that we've touched on before. After the dust settles sunday, one of these storied monster franchises will have the upper hand heading towards the rest of the season. Either way, it's hard to argue that this is not just the best rivalry in all of baseball, but in all of sports.

Tonight those that get to witness these games will get to see playoff-atmosphere baseball in April. The second week of the season. It doesn't get any better than that.


Yankees/Red Sox Rivalry [Wikipedia]
What to look for in Yankees-Red Sox [The Final Score]

Harden stars as another year of baseball in Tokyo comes to an end

We've seen A's pitcher Rich Harden as a star for a long time now, but it hasn't happened. This morning, over in the land of the rising sun; he pitched like one.

Harden went 6 innings, allowing only 3 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 9 Red Sox hitters in a 5-1 Oakland victory.

"Rich showed tonight against the World [Series] champions how good he is and how much we need him," A's manager Bob Geren said. "Tonight, he pitched the way we know he can, and we're hoping to get 30-plus more of those."

"My catcher, Kurt Suzuki, called a great game," Harden said.

"[Harden] had an overpowering fastball," Red Sox manager Terry Francona added. "When he even got in hitters' counts, he threw his offspeed, his split. He kept us off-balance. That was a very explosive game that he pitched."

The big blow for the A's offensively was a 3-run homerun hit by Emil Brown to make the game 4-0. Manny Ramirez scored the only Boston run with a homerun, driving in his 5th run in two days.

This Harden kid really impresses me and I think he could be the next great one in the AL. I feel badly because he's been a forgotten man, but when he came up I thought he'd be better than Hudson, Mulder, or Zito ever were. I think he'll be that good.

"It did feel a little different pitching in Japan," Harden said. "It felt almost like a playoff game. But you just got to treat it like any other start."

[Box Score]

Opening Day: Tokyo Sunrise Version (Liveblog)

Pregame: I'm up after a couple hour nap. There's those little goobers Eric Karabell and that even more gooberiffic Brandon Funston. They're talking to Ravvy on Baseball Tonight, and much to my dismay, NO STEVE PHILLIPS! I'm going to Starbucks do you want anything?

Top 1st: They're taking the field. Back from Starbucks. There's Steve Phillips, I am glad they're using him for the on-air talent. He deserves it. Joe Blanton on the mound 'today'. I'll tell you I was thinking about it on my way back from Starbucks, and I wouldn't trust a guy who looked like Eric Karabell to pick out my pair of socks in the morning, let alone my fantasy team. They're laying out the ground rules. It's just 328 down the lines in the Tokyo Dome (pictured). Hannahan playing 3rd base, not Chavez. They're ready. Blanton pitches a strike on the inside cornder to Pedroia and we're underway in the season. Pedroia singles up the middle off Crosby's glove. Here's Kevin Youkilis; now 29 and from the 'Natti. I know his father indirectly. Youk hit that ball to Hannahan at 3rd, should have been a double play but it was bobbled and only 1 down with Pedroia going to 2nd. Ortiz is up and he seems to be the whole f'ing show. First pitch Papi hits a fly ball off nearly the ceiling and that Hannahan character records the putout. ManRam up now. We're told he's 8 for 12 lifetime off the pudgy Blanton. Dice-K is warming in the dugout with his Donald Trump-like hair. Ramirez flies out to right field and the people of Tokyo get their Dice-K. 1 H 0 R 0 E, we've got 1/2 inning in the books on this one.

Bottom 1st: First pitch to Travis Buck and there's some efficiency. Ground out to second base. One down. Mark Ellis has hit the 1st home run of the season, it was a bomb to left center. He did what people do off Dice-K do, hit cock shots off Matsuzaka out of the park. This one was right down the middle. It's 1-0 A's. Daisuke walks the Oakland batter and Jack Cust is up. Matsuzaka has started with 7 balls, 3 strikes. This is what they been ripping the guy for, fucking around with too many hitters with bullshit in the dirt and what not. Dice K follows up a nice change-up by hitting Cust. 2 on 1 out. That one wasn't even close. Long time Royals henchman Emil Brown takes his first offering in the dirt. "If you're not gonna play them I'm gettin' the fuck outta here" /Bob Knight Halftime speech.

Matsuzaka wild pitch to the backscreen. Runners advance to second and third. Matsuzaka walked him and they're loaded. I literally just typed on accident 'Matsuckzacka' or something to that effect, but spelling smack is way weak dude. Here's Bobby Crosby. Still wears his socks high just like mommy likes it. Wow, Dice K just threw a 2-strike pitch right down the middle and it was called a ball. It was every bit there I thought. Crosby bounces out to the nimble Dice-K and another run scores. How clear is it that Dice-K doesn't have 'ace' stuff? He's really laboring through this inning and these aren't the 1927 Yankees. Finally a strikeout. The inning is over with it A's 2, BoSox zerrrro.

Top 2nd: Here's Mike Lowell and he picks up where he left off in the postseason, single. Our friend Steve Phillips points out that Blanton being around the plate makes it fun to hit. Here's Brandon Moss. Who? Spot starter for JD Drew. Drew's got a tight back, as he's had for 8 years. Tokyo chop up the middle and they get the lead runner 1 down. I kid you not, they showed Tito Francona in the dugout and the sunmabitch is chewing already. He made it an inning and half into the season and he's already lost the bet. Well, it's Dice K's fault with that bad pitching so maybe they cut out his cheek. Double play ball, inning over.

Bottom 2nd: Base hit for the native Kurt Suzuki to lead off the inning. They're showing clips of Matsuzaka when he used to be good. Sweeney just hit one that was just missed. Out in right field for the first out. The surfer Travis Buck is up, he looks like he could be interesting. Buck strikes out but that took some effort on the part of Dice-K. Jeeze. Laboring through everything. Stolen base for the A's. Here's Mark Ellis again. There's a lot of foul territory in this Tokyo Dome folks. I'd be a lot more interested in this game if Beckett (my fantasy teamer) was throwing this game and not Dice-K rocking me to sleep. I'm getting tired and I need a Tokyo breakfast. I had a friend who used to ask people if they needed a Tokyo breakfast, he was a real goof ball. He said it was waking the person up by dropping your balls on their nose in the morning and saying 'tic-tac-toe'. Weird I know. Matsuzaka walks another hitter. Kill this guy. I'm so tired. He walked Barton and the natives are getting restless with their hero. I think this is Dice-K's future. Cust got punched with the bases loaded so he (Dice-K) survives but does it ugly as usual. Rob Dibble is gonna rip this guy.


Alright so I obviously passed out and the Red Sox came back to win in amazing fashion in 10 innings as Manny Ramirez drove in 4 runs and a no-name rookie would get the biggest hit of his life in the form of a 2-run homer to tie the game. Apologies, really.

Time to get some sleep. Tokyo Baseball Awaits!

Time to get some sleep all. The fiance is gonna make sure I'm up to deliver this liveblog at 6am. If I can possibly do it, I'll do some commentary on Baseball Tonight before that. Either way, we've got real-official-it counts-baseball coming at us early this morning from a really neat city with I'm sure, a ton of really good Tokyo food. Makes me want some kind of. Time to get some shut eye.

The Opening Day before Opening Day is tomorrow

Tomorrow morning Baseball Tonight is on at 5 a.m. The first pitch of the regular season is at 6 a.m. We'll be doing a liveblog if we can get up that early. Of course we'll be up. Daisuke Matsuzaka is the starter since Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett are down with injuries. So 'Opening Day' which is actually Opening Morning and out on the west coast Opening Middle of the Night will be live from the Tokyo Dome, and we'll be shooting the shit about it.

The A's/Red Sox boycotting series in Japan

Members of the Boston Red Sox voted unanimously that they will boycott the trip to Japan to open the regular season if coaches of the team are not compensated for the trip.

According to the Providence Journal:

“This is a time where we wish we could help,” said Youkilis. “Tito is going to fight and battle and that’s his personality. And, he’s doing the right thing by fighting for his coaches. It’s ridiculous because these guys are the ones who make it happen and they need to reap the benefits. There is a lot of money to be made on this trip, in a lot of different aspects, so everyone who is involved should be handled in the proper way. Hopefully we can get this resolved.”

Youkilis talked to the players this morning. If MLB doesn’t settle the situation, then the players would take care of it in house.

“This isn’t a good thing,” he said. “We’re going to Japan and we don’t want to deal with all of this. We’ll make it work because we have great players.”

I got an idea. How about Major Leaguers do their jobs and go out and play. If they're unhappy about the amount of compensation that their coaches are making on a cross-world trip, cough up a little bit and 'scrap' together a fund.

It would be similar to me sacrificing $80-100 to a friend if I was disgruntled about how they were being paid. It's money, but its hardly an amount that would break the back of Major Leaguers.

Every time you look at these guys the wrong way they want to strike about something. It's not right.

Boston Red Sox 2008 Season Preview

Leading up to the start of the 2008 Regular Season, Diamond Hoggers will preview each of MLB's 32 teams. Teams will be rated on a 10-point scale in the following 5 areas: Lineup, Pitching, Manager, Intangibles/Chemistry, and Overall. Today's team is the Boston Red Sox.

Diamond Hogger's Boston Red Sox Blog of Choice: Red Sox Monster & Call of the Green Monster

Lineup

This is going to be a very good lineup. The lineup is very experienced, with many of the integral parts still in tact that helped bring home the first Boston World Series Championship during the 2004 season, and almost entirely returning from last year.

It will begin this season with center fielder Jacoby Elsbury. Ya know, I've never heard anyone but me say it; but this kid is a carbon copy of Grady Sizemore. Everything about him. It's very hard for me to believe that no one else has picked up on this. Elsbury is the type of guy I fully expect to put up similar numbers to Sizemore right now, and if he does it in his first full season might cause reason to argue; but Elsbury should score 100 runs, steal 30-40 bases, hit 18 or so HR, and drive in 60-70. He's the igniter of one of the best lineups in baseball. Batting second and at second base should be Dustin Pedroia. Scrappy, doesn't impress me a ton, but he's a World Series Champion.

Batting third you have the centerpiece of the lineup and baseball's best clutch hitter, Big Papi David Ortiz. He played on one leg for much of last season and the bottom line is the guy was born to hit. As was Manny Ramirez. These two aren't going to experience much drop off or problems in what they've always done. They'll show up, wind themselves up, hit over .300, drop the 30-40 bombs, drive in over 100, and they'll finish up in October.

You've got more of the usual suspects. The solid and steady Kevin Youkilis had a career year last season. I think he'll settle into a guy that does that the rest of his career and posts high OBP. Mike Lowell will be at third base after signing a 3-year, $37.5 million dollar deal. While I think Lowell is a solid player, that deal made me scratch my head a bit. I heard and read an awful lot of people saying that Mike Lowell's best days behind him. And maybe the Red Sox don't care if they are. Lowell is a leader and as good of a personality in the clubhouse as you will find in the game, I can tell you that coming from a variety of sources firsthand.

Catching will be Jason Varitek, and I'd expect the Sawks to be in the market for a catcher by August. The wheels might be ready to fall off that machine. Julio Lugo is the shortstop and JD Drew is the right fielder.

There's a lot of directions I could go with this. I won't rattle anyone's cages by saying they aren't good. This bunch stole a World Championship last year, they're very talented as a group. Health is the only question if even that.

Rating: 8.8

Pitching

The Red Sox have the big game hunter everyone wants in their #1 pitcher, Josh Beckett. Back spasms not-withstanding, Beckett will be the horse that anchors this staff all season long and probably does his thing and grabs the headlines in the playoffs again (fucker). Then again, this year I thought I wisened up by taking him in my fantasy baseball draft pretty early; so maybe he is really cursed for the year.

People want to say Daisuke Matsuzaka is a #2 starter and I don't see it. I think he's among the best in the game in terms of #3 and beyond; but he's gonna get beat almost half the time if he's going up against #2's and he's damn lucky he is on the Red Sox. I'm not impressed, and not by his arm. He's got big time stuff he just is afraid to pitch to contact. He'd rather fuck around with you and get you to swing at shit in the dirt and go full to every hitter rather than challenge the guy in the 6-hole with his fastball. That kind of stuff doesn't fly in MLB.

From there, the Red Sox look for Bartolo Colon (signed when the news about Curt Schilling got worse), Jon Lester, and Taylor Bucholz to contribute. I'm not forgetting Julian Tavarez or Tim Wakefield as possibilites, but Tavarez probably is in long relief and the release of Doug Mirabelli might spell the end for his butt-buddy Wakefield too.

The closer is where I'd like to direct this conversation now. Jonathan Papelbon has had one of the most dominating starts to a career in Major League History. I heard Peter Gammons (fucking shocked) say the other day that Papelbon has the lowest lifetime ERA for all pitchers that have thrown 100 innings or more. Peter it could go up from there; but clearly when Papelbon comes into the game, start warming the car or making dinner plans quickly. He's better than the mid-90's Mesa and better than say the Gagne when he first began in Los Angeles. He's at the level of Eck in his prime with the A's. He's that good.

This is still a loaded staff, but not as loaded as it would have been if they'd gotten Johann Santana like they wanted, and if Curt Schilling was healthy. Still, it's good enough to win a World Series, and only 3 or 4 other teams in the league can say that right now.

Rating: 9.0

Manager

We here at Diamond Hoggers love Terry Francona. The number one reason is because he chews. Yes, he still chews. He's now saying that if he doesn't stop--he's going to cut a hole in his cheek. Terry....Terry.....Terry. Haven't we been down this road before? We can tell you from experience, we've made those same stupid promises. We've full thrown tins out the window while driving down the road in our Chevy, only to go out later that night and search on the side of the road for the tin. We've promised, we've sworn and at the end of the day we're back with our dick in our hands and a wad of lipper in de mouth.

Tobacco aside, Francona's starting to stockpile World Series rings. He's the perfect manager for this team, he's one of the very best in the game.

And as we wished you last year Terry--good luck. We have a feeling that this could an annual start of the season ritual with us and Francona.

Rating: 9.1

Chemistry/Intangibles

The Red Sox play in the most magical and mystiquest type ballparks in Major League Baseball. There's as many ghosts lurking around those green, battered, scarred walls as anywhere in the league, if not more. When the Indians had them down 3 games to 1, I knew they'd come back and win it. There's plenty of magic in Boston. It makes sense really: there's a lot of Irish Catholics in Boston. Old English pricks. The Irish are a lucky and opportunistic breed of people.

This is a group that will play well together and it will really flow. Watch them have two win streaks of over 10 games during the season. No one knows how to play balls off the monster like the Sox's left fielder does. They have tremendous advantages over teams coming in to play them.

Rating: 9.0

Overall

They're going to win the AL East outright. It's not even a story. The Yankees you ask? They'll be fighting it out with the others in the AL for the Wild-Card. However, I don't think this is a World Series winning team again as it sits. Something just tells me that the 'they'll be a year older, a year wiser' thing won't be helping them, but hurting them. Manny and Ortiz are not spring chickens.

The Red Sox will get deep into the playoffs, but someone's going to have their number this year before the final series of the year.

Rating: 8.98

Schilling deal may be void

Curt Schilling is ailing due to his arm and this has the Boston Massholes up in arms, literally. Curt Schilling responded promptly on his own blog:

At the time we negotiated the 2008 contract I passed all physical exams and testing, as well as the MRI the club required me to take. I knew in my heart of hearts that the extra time I was giving my arm to rest this winter would in fact be the cure for what I went through the entire 2007 season. I had a strong desire to not have to go through multiple cortisone injections in my shoulder for another year. There was absolutely no reason for anyone involved to believe I would be anything other than completely healthy and ready for the 2008 baseball season.

The Boston Herald is confirming that the injured wing is a serious deal, and that Schilling's 1-year, $8 million dollar deal could be voided by the team. The injury is believed to be as serious as a frayed labrum or slight rotator cuff tear. Believe me, if that is the case we've probably seen the last of '38'.

Baseball sources have indicated that the club has at least inquired about the possibility of voiding the one-year, $8 million contract Schilling signed last November. It is not known to what lengths the Sox have gone on the matter, but their threat has been serious enough to create a conflict between Schilling and the Red Sox

I'm going to be honest on this one. You deserve that. If this was the New York Mets; there'd be reason for concern. This is not. The Boston Red Sox are stacked with or with-out Curt Schilling as part of their rotation. In fact, I'm not sure they're not better in the long-term without him throwing a single strike in 2008. It would be nice when you have an injury to a starter you're paying $8 million a year to (most teams are lucky to have 1, the Red Sox have 3) to be able to fill in with a guy who has already thrown a no-hitter (Taylor Bucholz). The Massholes will also want to mention John 'Lesta'. He's good as well. Curt Schilling hasn't been an impact pitcher since the 2004 World Series. He's very ordinary at his best and the Red Sox probably won't miss him. How little will they miss him? You'll have to wait until Opening Day eve to get my predictions and find out.


My Shoulder [38 Pitches]
Schilling issue serious [The Boston Herald]

ALCS Game 6: Crushed Cleveland Dreams

It was over really before it got started, as it was in game 5. Excitement was quickly replaced with urgency. Finally the reality of the situation had just set in. The Cleveland Indians have one game to save their entire season of work, and it's a game 7 against the Red Sox at Fenway with their 100 million dollar guy on the mound.

When we were watching the ballgame, we had just finished saying that JD Drew was a career disappointment. That with just one big homerun that would result in a grand slam, he could redeem an entire season of killing rallies and not coming through in the clutch.

Then it happened.


Just like that, the Cleveland Indians are one game away from letting this series and season slip away from them. Go help them this evening.

[Box Score]

So I hear there is a game today

As you all know, tonight is game 6 of the American League Championship Series. Editor George and I have met up for a Diamond Hoggers meeting of the Chairmen of the Board. It's going to be an important night of Cigars, Dewars, Dip, and end up at the Winking Lizard bar. The game of the century for the Indians is on tap, and the fate rests in the hands of Fausto Carmona.

If the Indians make the series tonight against Curt Schilling in Boston, I'll go completely nuts and celebrate late into the morning hours....I really will.

Pictures to come from tonight. GO INDIANS!