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It's another week and another column of "In the Name of Glove." I'm
starting to feel like SI's Pat Riley with all these columns I'm writing.
Too bad I don't get paid like him (hint, hint Mr. Webmaster). Or get my
picture on the page. Or get to do commercials with SI swimsuit model
Rebecca Romain-Stamos. Or get to interview any athlete I want. Or have
free media passes to games. Or paid travel expenses. But...then again, I
really suck compared to him so why am I bitching? Good, got that out of my
system. Here we go folks.
We're through the opening week of the season and our beloved Red Sox aren't
doing so hot. They're 2-4 and in 4th place in the division where many a
expert outside of SI picked us to finish. But I'm here to tell you it is
too early to start talking about the curse (that's a new one - we usually
start talking curse 2 days after the end of the previous season). We had a
shaky spring and our starting pitching isn't all that spectacular right now.
This is no reason not to keep up the optimism.
First of all, Pedro is admittedly not in top form and he's still spanking
everyone left and right his first two games on the rubber. This is good
news. Very good news. The rest of the rotation is having troubles. Let's
give them time though. Ramon the elder is a class act and will come through
in a week or two. He pitches on Tuesday so let's see how he does. I'm
predicting a good outing - not dominant - but good enough to chalk up a W.
Fassero doesn't have much of a clue right now and he'll be the first one to
tell you. But he can eat innings when he gets in a groove and earn some W's
of his own. Give him another start or two before you make judgement.
Remember, if he keeps on throwing the grapefruits even though the grapefruit
league has called it quits for the season, we've got a guy in the bullpen
named Wakefield that has averaged 15 wins a season while he's been with us.
I'd expect the Fassero - Wakefield switch soon so Jeff can work out his
problems in the pen and get back into the rotation or become that long
reliever to take us home when a starter has a rough day.
Pete Schourek didn't throw bad, he just wasn't catching the breaks. Expect
a good game coming up soon. The little yipper, Brian Rose, can say the
same. We all know he's good and he should be a 12-14 game winner this
season that makes it all season long without getting a dead arm like he did
last season. Jaun Pena may be lost for the season but Sabes should make a
comeback late May. Our pitching is better and more flexible than folks
think. With Pedro ensuring us a few wins while the rest of the staff gets
it together, we'll be just fine. Remember, we were 13-14 in early May last
year before we put it together so let's see them through. Besides, the
Twin's Radke has Red Sox written all over him come July.
The other issue right now it hitting. We're not putting many runs on the
board despite having a pretty good offense that will probably get a new
slugger by the July trading deadline. The good thing is a lot of questions
are being answered right now. We have a lot of fellas in the line up that
people didn't think could repeat last year. So far, the experts are
munching on foot sandwiches right now. Trot is batting just shy of .290 in
his "Jimmy plays me against righties" platoon role. If he keeps doing well,
expect fellow platoon man, Lewis, to spend more time on the pine and Nixon
to get more cuts against the lefties. We've spent a lot of money and time
on Trot to bring him along nice and slow. Never giving him the chance to be
the complete right fielder we've needed since Dewy patrolled the corner is
not what management has in mind. Dauhbach has already popped a few to live
down his decent spring and silence some fair-weather critics. O'Leary is
showing he's the consistent 25-30 homerun man on the wall we've needed since
the departure of the Mike Greenwell. He's becoming a great fielder and
doesn't even run over his own teamates in left-center or knock himself silly
running into the scoreboard like the Gator did. And what about Everett? So
many folks said he was a one-year-wonder because he kept getting traded the
past four years. I just went shopping and will be making some fresh batches
of crow for our favorite pessimistic prognosticators. Would you like that
with or without cheese? Fries or side salad? Sorry, not fat-free dressing.
It looks like we finally have that great outfield we've lacked since the
70's and mid 80's so why don't all you nay-sayers ditch the negativity and
enjoy watching these boys patrol our favorite patch of grass in the heart of
the fen.
As far as the folks having the slow start...they're all the ones we know
will come around. Varitek, Nomar, and Stanley are established professionals
that will heat up the bats in the next week or so (still can't believe Nomar
got robbed by Erstad on Sunday). We don't have that 45 homer man but the
Yanks never had him during any of their three runs for the ring last decade.
Loosing Valentin is not good and we can't afford to keep shuttling Veras and
Sadler between teams because they're gonna run out of options soon. Veras
will give us better D at the hot corner to make up for his lesser O (check
out Paul's column comparing Val to Veras last month here) so the trade off
isn't too bad. But Val is a great leader on the field so we'll see how that
hurts us and hope he gets that knee in order soon.
Jimmy and the Duke have created a fine little National League team that
scares the hell out of every team in the American League. Give the boys a
few more games so get it going on all cylinders and I'm sure they'll get
make us happy as the summer months get closer. Keep the faith, Red Sox
Nation, we will be rewarded with another great year!
patdaddy@prodigy.net
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