Filling Out a Lineup Card: Boston Red Sox

As we get closer to opening day and managers have to figure out who is going to fill out their starting lineup, we're going to have a guest post series by Jordan who is going to give his thoughts into the batting order each team will go with this season. Currently Jordan is leaving up in Red Sox territory so it's fitting he starts with the Yankees' heated rivals. As always, let us know what you think in the comments below. Here is his first entry in the series:

Jordan says "The Smurf" should bat 6th in this potent lineup (Boston Herald)

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There has been much debate over the projected Red Sox batting order. Manager Terry Francona has difficult task ahead. With the additions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, the batting order will look dramatic different. I would expect Tito to break up the lefties as much as possible. My predicted order:

1. Dustin Pedroia (R)
2. Carl Crawford (L)
3. Adrian Gonzalez (L)
4. Kevin Youklis (R)
5. David Ortiz (L)
6. Marco Scutaro (R)
7. J.D. Drew (L)
8. Jarrod Saltalamacchia (S)
9. Jacoby Ellsbury (L)

This line up gives the Red Sox the most advantages. The only back-to-back lefties are the key acquisitions that can both hit lefties. Ellsbury drops from lead off to the ninth spot in the order to create a second leadoff batter when he starts off an inning.

Some may find it odd that Scutaro is batting sixth, but he is needed there to break up Ortiz and Drew, who both can struggle against south paws. If Drew was bumped ahead of Scutaro, opponents could have a lefty come in to face Crawford through Drew. Scutaro is a better option in the sixth spot as opposed to the fourteen lettered, Saltalamacchia due to striking out less.

The Yankee Clipper: Game 2

I have to admit, most of my time was spent last night watching LOST and some of my sports watching was split between the Yankees/Red Sox and the Rangers. But that doesn't mean I can't give you a Yankee Clipper for Game 2:

1. I'm sure you've heard by now of Big Papi's big, expletive-laced tirade. Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston has some more information. Matt at Fack Youk thinks he may have justifiably been upset since we are two games into the season and he's already getting questions about his production. Craig Calcaterra at HardballTalk agrees with Matt. I'm OK with Papi being upset about being questioned this early in the season, but the dude is playing in one of the biggest baseball media markets and reaped a lot of good will form the writers when his career was going well. He can't now turn to the same people and mouth off just because they have to fill a newspaper column. That's unfair.
2. Also unfair is claiming that Joba Chamberlain has been magically healed by the bullpen gods because he pitched well last night and pumped his fist (*cough* Wallace Matthews). We'll never know now if he could have done this as a starter in the rotation, but those same people weren't texting me on Sunday night and saying that Joba's "bullpen mentality" wasn't working that night. I'm rooting for him to do well in this role--I really am--but I'm not going to engage in selective celebrations of success. We can collectively fist pump if Phil Hughes pitches well in the 5th role and the Yankees get to the playoffs at the end of the year. I can't say I didn't love the fist pump (I did one at home), but let's all settle down a bit (picture to the right from the ESPN New York article)
3. Nick Johnson's walk. Sometimes the biggest hit of the game is not a hit at all. If you want to see a reason we got Nick Johnson, that was it. Like Giambi, because of his eye Johnson is one of those guys who is sometimes does more damage with a walk than with a hit. It's not the most fun baseball, but it's what puts runs on the board and marks in the win column. As Mike from River Ave Blues wrote, Nick Johnson's biggest swing came with the bat on his shoulder.
4. Nick Swisher's patience. Pitchers will hate both of the "Nicks" in the Yankees lineup of 2010. Swishalicous saw 30 pitches last night. The best AB was 8 pitches against Manny Delcarmen. He doubled at the end of the at-bat and even though he didn't score, the amount of pitches he saw effects the game and the rest of the series. Maybe Delcarmen is unavailable tonight because of the toll he took last night. That's a victory in and of itself.
5. Robinson Cano's power. When Cano is on with the bat, he has such a sweet swing. This is a guy who could win a batting title and maybe vie for an MVP award if he kept focused all season. His blast to rightfield last night continued to show that. Focus, Robby, focus.

Final Thoughts: Other aspects I didn't talk about? Jorge and AJ doing fine as battery mates (we can stop that chatter for now), Alfredo Aceves doing really well out of the bullpen (I think that will be a big factor), and Marco Scutaro's error (is their a Red Sox curse for not resigning Orlando Cabrera?). 1-1 record and going for the series win tonight. Good start to the season. I just love having baseball back as the weather continues to get nicer.

Why We Hate the 2010 Red Sox

Jason over at IIATMS was tasked with a challenge: rebut a Red Sox post about why they hate the 2010 Yankees. So Jason--with the help of his readers--has helped to come up with "The Top 10 Reasons to Hate the 2010 Red Sox." But I think we can find some reasons to add to the list. I'll post Jason's list below (one of my suggestions made the list at #6) and then I'm reaching out to all of you to add your suggestions in the comments as we all watch the great ESPN Red Sox/Yankees opening night promo and think about the 3 days until we start this season for real:

What are “The Top 10 Reasons to Hate the 2010 RedSox”?

Read more>>

Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): The David Ortiz Story

LIAR!

Well This Has Been Painful So Far

Big Papi homered tonight. It was a pitch right down the middle. I guess his eye sight is OK. I asked fellow Twitter users to help me fill in the blank: "I would have rather ____ than watch David Ortiz homer tonight"

Here were some answers (top 3):

djfog86 I would have rather cheered for the Mets today than watch David Ortiz homer tonight.

Well, I'm not that much of a Mets-hater, but I get your point

jaremy I would have rather drank rubbing alcohol than watch David Ortiz homer tonight.

Yeah...but...not the pain I was looking for...

StaceGots I would have rather slide down a razor blade into a vat of rubbing alcohol than watch David Ortiz homer

Wow...there we go...that sounds painful...can anyone top it?

YankeeMegInPHL I would rather slide down a razor blade bannister and then take an isopropyl alcohol bath with midgets than watch David Ortiz homer

We have a winner!

Awful so far. A.J. Burnett was as bad against the Red Sox tonight as you can be if your name is not Chase Wright or Tim Redding. Michael Kay said that Burnett laid an egg.

A-Rod popped up and made a big error.

Oh...and that guy Josh Beckett is dominating us--again. HE IS PITCHING A NO HITTER. I AM NOT TRYING TO JINX IT AT ALL. A NO HITTER

Kill me now...

What Is Wrong With Big Papi (According To The Interwebs)

Well Big Papi is laying the Big Stinky so far this season and the whole internet is abuzz trying to figure out why. Some have maintained this could be PED withdrawal, but the only evidence to the fact is that he started surging when he played with Manny Ramirez (caught using a banned substance), has a sudden drop-off in numbers, a rash of injuries, and well...actually, that explanation sounds quite logical. But in the absence of outwardly calling him a steroids user (CHEATER!), let's look at some other reasons the World Wide Web has thought David Ortiz hasn't been Big Papi so far this season:

-Baseball Prospectus with the best of their experts takes a shot on ESPN.com, going through a performance analysis, scouting report and health report. The health report is interesting because it says that the lack of power probably doesn't come from the tendon issue. And in their performance analysis, they delve a little deeper into the problems that Ortiz has been having which look much worse when you break it down: "Ortiz was whiffing at pitches he previously had crushed, or he could not get the right timing on some mistakes out over the plate, hitting lazy fly balls instead of his typical bombs. He also was laying off many pitches, becoming passive in some at-bats as he attempted to get on base however he could. The problem was especially obvious in the two 2008 postseason series the Sox played, as Ortiz struggled to amass any kind of power. In 43 postseason at-bats, he had just four extra-base hits, only one of which was a homer. He also struck out in one-quarter of his plate appearances."

-I had previously linked to this, but it's worth noting that back on May 1st, Baseball-Reference started the "Is David Ortiz Finished?" talk. Here's a passage (BTW, they talk about "good" news being him still playing well and "bad" news being him finished...I'm not so inclined to agree with their wording) "The good news is that Ortiz has a long way to go before his current streak [of no homeruns] reaches to top. The bad news is that the four longer streaks all came when he was still with the Twins, before he became the power hitter he was at his height with the Red Sox. What surprises me is the degree to which Ortiz has dropped off. All players age and all players eventually retire. But few drop off so suddenly." Yeah...um...about that...

-Baseball Musings debates with Beyond The Boxscore on why Ortiz's power has fallen. Beyond the Boxscore says that Big Papi is chasing bad pitches. Baseball Musings agrees, but disagrees, and has a way to tell if he's really done: "I think that’s not the cause of his power drop, but a result of it. He’s less confident at the plate, so he’s chasing pitches trying to make something happen. His spray chart is quite interesting. He’s 2 for 12 pulling the ball, 3 for 13 hitting up the middle, but nine for nineteen going to left. Maybe it’s time to end the shift against David. If that does happen, you’ll know other teams think his ability to pull the ball hard is really gone."

-The Boston Globe says that there is truly a "Papi dilemma": the inclination is to resist giving up on him because he showed the Red Sox fans to believe...but the circumstances have become so dire that it may be useless for fans to believe he'll find a way out of it. The author also says, like all Red Sox fans, that they don't believe "David Ortiz's wonderful legacy in Boston was built fraudulently". But poll those same fans and ask them if they felt the same about Manny Ramirez...

-From a fantasy perspective, ESPN's Grand Theft Roto says "Forgive me, father (and I mean my actual dad), for I'm about to sin. After watching Big Papi go 0-for-7 on Thursday with three strikeouts and more men stranded than the first season of 'Lost,' I simply have to take off my Red Sox-colored glasses. There are only eight players in the majors who have hit more fly balls than Ortiz this year, and all of them have at least three homers. I'll love you forever, Papi, but I'm trading you for almost any player who I believe still has 20 homers in him. Excuse me while I go beat myself about the head and neck with a Red Sox commemorative mini-bat."

-Even Sox fans over at Over the Monster are very ready for Papi to sit for a while (I understand being upset...but isn't this a little harsh after how much Ortiz has done for the organization?)

-MannyBeingManny and other sluggers (Ryan Howard, Carlos Delgado and Alex Cora...though I doubt the latter would be considered a slugger) have reached out in support of Papi (LA Times on Manny and Boston Herald on the other sluggers). In the LA Times piece comes the best quote from Ortiz about his struggles after going 0-7, six of them with runners in scoring position: "I don't feel like talking right now," he said after the game. "Just put down, 'Papi stinks.' "

-River Ave. Blues looks at the decline and fall of David Ortiz and compares it to another former Red Sox slugger, Mo Vaughn. But River Ave Blues also says what a lot of Yankee fans are thinking: "For me, this decline has been bittersweet for a number of reasons. First of all, I basically predicted it back in January 2006 when I analyzed Ortiz’s contract situation for the now-defunct Talking Baseball blog. I’m also glad that the Yankees no longer have to face the David Ortiz of old who would refuse to make outs against New York.As a fan of the game though, I hate to see the competition go out this way. I’d see the Yanks face Ortiz and win that battle while he’s at his finest. We can watch A.J. Burnett or Joba Chamberlain strike out Ortiz now, but that’s hardly an accomplishment today. With 30 strike outs in 157 plate appearances, that’s all Ortiz does anymore."

-Deadspin suggests that maybe Big Papi needs a hug, using this ominous quote about Ortiz's personal life: "'People don't know,' Ortiz said. 'Sometimes they think we just come here to play baseball and that's it. We're human beings like everyone else. We have things to worry about. Sometimes that gets in the way. It's hard to have that free open mind you need to play this game. There's no way you can play this game with a busy mind. No way.'" Well...maybe Manny is on his mind? Or maybe he's just upset he can't rip out the heart of Yankees fans anymore (he has teammates for that now)? Or maybe his deal with the devil (read: PED) is over and Big Papi is finished. I doubt it.

But maybe he wishes his jersey was still buried underneath Yankee Stadium. Because since then, it seems he hasn't been the same. I loved the battles between Big Papi and the Yankees, but I can't say I'm sad to see him go. Edgar Martinez, Luis Gonzalez and Manny Ramirez have all had huge hits against the Yankees in my lifetime, but no hit stings quite like those off the bat of David Ortiz. I think, more than him being done, it's a player who hasn't been able to adjust to his declining skills. Some players are stubborn and continue to struggle doing what they had done before but can't physically do anymore, some adjust and continue to play well for the rest of their career. Time will tell which side Big Papi falls on.

Gritty Gutsy Brett Gardner

Nice game so far by GGBG (HR, triple, BB). The Yankees have three triples in a game for the first time since April 5, 2003. Oh, and no offense to Captain Jetes but Ramiro Pena reminds me what a good shortstop looks like.

HR Count:
Brett Gardner - 1
David Ortiz - 0

Take that Big Papi!

Red Sox Diry Under Duquette?

I don't know why I didn't hear about this until I heard a quick mention of it on SportsCenter tonight, but this is sort of huge: Lou Merloni said that the Red Sox brought in doctors to talk about steroids. From Boston Dirt Dogs:

Sat. May 9, 2009, Lou Merloni, who did not specify the year the meeting with the doctor took place, on Comcast SportsNet's The Baseball Show:

"I'm in spring training, and I got an 8:30-9:00 meeting in the morning. I walk into that office, and this happened while I was with the Boston Red Sox before this last regime, I'm sitting in the meeting. There's a doctor up there and he's talking about steroids, and everyone was like 'here we go, we're gonna sit here and get the whole thing -- they're bad for you.' No. He spins it and says 'you know what, if you take steroids and sit on the couch all winter long, you can actually get stronger than someone who works out clean, if you're going to take steroids, one cycle won't hurt you, abusing steroids it will.' He sat there for one hour and told us how to properly use steroids while I'm with the Boston Red Sox, sitting there with the rest of the organization, and after this I said 'what the heck was that?' And everybody on the team was like 'what was that?' And the response we got was 'well, we know guys are taking it, so we want to make sure they're taking it the right way'... Where did that come from? That didn't come from the Players Association."

Did Duke's Doc Get Manny Started?

Merloni Didn't Mention the Year the Doc Addressed the Sox
But Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Dan Duquette's 2001 Boston Red Sox...
featuring infielder Lou Merloni... and newly-signed superstar Manny Ramirez

And Manny Ramirez best friends on the Red Sox? David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez. Enough said....