Red Sox Regular Season Wrap-up

When you end up tied for the best record in baseball it's fair to say you had a pretty good year. Well that's just what the 2007 AL East Champion Boston Red Sox did this season. While things got a little dicey there at the end (sorry Sox fans who got that one, I'm addicted to puns) with the yankmees playing insanely great ball after the all-star break and whittling down the Sox game lead in the east from 14 and a half to just a couple, the old towne team pulled through. We also clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Not too shabby. In fact, one may say it's pissah (if one was a Masshole).

As someone who followed them quite closely, watched about half of their games, and attended half a dozen of them in person, I feel somewhat qualified to state a few observations and thoughts on some of the players this season. Here are the starting nine...

1) Daisuke Matsuzaka - I called it when I told many fellow friends that he would end up with about 15 wins and an ERA around four and a half (15-12 with a 4.40 ERA). I have to pat myself on the back on this prediction as I'm usually mediocre at best in that department. I was at his first game he pitched at Fenway where he had decent stuff but the performance was overshadowed by Felix Hernandez of Seattle throwing a one-hitter in the match-up (the best live pitching performance I've ever seen at the major league level). Dice-K obviously had some serious consistency problems this season as his walks (80) and giving up the long ball (25) seemed to be confined to a particular inning during each start. The rest of the start he would pitch anywhere between pretty well to lights out. I think that the numerous adjustments to pitching in the U.S. (along with the many cultural and language challenges) perhaps had more to do with his numbers than anything else. I believe he also hit a wall at the end of the season where his endurance ran out. He was acclimated to a shorter schedule and six days between games in Japan. That must have played a significant part. The Sox were apparently quite hands off with his physical training and workout regime; the Sox brass allowed him near full autonomy in that department. I imagine that will change next year to prevent the abysmal last month and a half he had (with the exception of the night they clinched the East on Friday the 28th when he went 8 full innings, giving up only two runs). I think he will improve next year, but I don't think he will be an ace or anything more than a solid number three or possibly two starter. Over 200 innings and 15 wins this year is nothing to sneeze at however.

2) Josh Beckett - Should win the Cy Young Award if that tells you anything.

3) Mike Lowell - You'd have to be a serious douche-bag (yes I have a Bachelor's in English) not to love this guy. Not only has he torn the cover off the ball all season long, but especially in the second half quieting the naysayers that expected another late season drop off in production. He's been clutch, a leader, a producer, defensively solid (although with an anomalous year for this former gold glover with 15 errors) and a liaison between the English and Spanish speaking players with his bilingual fluency. Mike Lowell is also a very articulate and class-act. My favorite Mike Lowell moment from this year were his thoughts about the inside-the-park home run Ichiro hit in the All-Star game. A reporter asked him to comment on it and Lowell said something to the effect of "He got out of the box pretty quickly but when he rounded second he really poured it on and was blazing down the paths the rest of the way to home plate...it reminded me of a young Mike Lowell." Hilarious. I'm secure enough in my heterosexual masculinity to admit that I have a huge man-crush on the guy.

4) Julian Tavarez - I was not a Tavarez fan before this year. I couldn't stand the guy with his Freddy Kruger rugged looks, psycho temper, and proclivity toward self-destructing (although I didn't mind his punching the dugout phone in 2004). Last year he seemed to blow every game he was put in. However, the first three months of the season this year he really came through with some great wins and strong outings that picked up the club when Beckett had his blister and was out for a couple of weeks. He was 5-5 during those three months with a 4.60 ERA. The Sox were also 3-1 in his no-decisions he pitched in that span giving generally solid outings. His contributions seem to be overlooked because of his 7-11 record with a 5.15 ERA for the season. He took the ball and the mound when asked and was glad to do so. He also made me laugh with his candlepin bowling looking technique of getting the ball to first base for the out on one occasion.

5) Hideki Okajima - Anybody think we should pick up his third year option for less than two million?

6) Jacoby Ellsbury - Hands down the fastest Red Sox player I've ever seen. I believe it was one of his first games he was called up for in the beginning of July against Texas where he singled, stole second, and then scored from second on a wild pitch. Did I mention it was from second base? I was a mouth breather for a minute straight after that play. My boss Sully says that Ellis Burks was the fastest Sox player back when he first debuted in 1987 and before he bulked up. While he has a legit argument there, Ellsbury seems quicker out of the box and around the base paths. Interestingly enough both men were/are Sox centerfielders and have the same birthday of September 11th (I sometimes can retain the most irrelevant of knowledge.)

7) J.D. Drew - Like one more person needs to bitch about this guy. He's been super hot the past several weeks so if he continues to hit like he has in that span, during the playoffs...it still won't make up for this first season in Boston. A walkoff and two dozen RBIs in the playoffs may lessen the sting of his atrocious 1st year with the Sox. The bar has been set J.D.!!!

8) Dustin Pedroia - isn't big, fast, powerful or intimidating. But he can play ball really, really well. He's gutsy and attacks the game with fire and determination. How can you not root for the guy? When I saw the Sox play a few games at Fenway against Kansas City in July, I was sitting pretty close on the first base side and saw Pedroia and David Ortiz stretching and talking next to each other before the game. I haven't seen that kind of size discrepancy side by side since Billy Crystal and Gheorghe Muresan teamed up to not make me laugh. Pedroia has proved everyone wrong his entire life before this season that said a 5'6" guy couldn't play ball . This year was no exception either. He will most likely win the Rookie of the Year with his .317 batting average and great defense. My favorie Pedroia moment of the season was the amazing diving stop and throw to first in the 7th inning during Clay Bucholtz's no-hitter. The play itself was phenomenal; robbing Tejada and saving the no hitter. But I loved the slow-mo replay where they zoomed in on Pedroia when Miggy was called out at first. You didn't have to be a lipreader to see when he got the call, he slapped his glove against his hand and yelled "FUCK YEA!" Fuck yea indeed Dustin.

9) Manny Ramirez - Is he back yet? I'm even more convinced now that Manny is not chewing tobacco but a giant cud of hashish instead. What else would explain him hocking his neighbor's grill on ebay?

More Soxtober comments to come as the playoffs get underway but until then just a few stats to think about...

...Jared Weaver's ERA facing the Sox is 6.97 this year and over 12 at Fenway, and he starts game 3 of the ALDS. The only thing worse if you're an Angels fan is John Lackey is 0-2 against the Sox this season with a 8.38 ERA, and from 2004-2006 he was 1-2 with a 5.60 ERA versus them. Oh, and he's your game 1 starter Wednesday...at Fenway. Have fun playing golf next week Angels.