SRYD's NOTEBOOK

First off, I would again like to thank Paul and Mark for allowing me to do this, as I have enjoyed every minute of this. Also thank you to all who have regularly read my article and I hope to be back next year or even in the off-season or as long as Paul and Mark keep up with this site.

I did some serious number crunching and I came up with all sorts of numbers for everyone to look at. At the least, it will provide for some interesting off-season talk. Considering the high hopes that everyone (including a major sports publication) had this year, it was a disappointing season, but, as Red Sox Fans, we are used to that as we head into our 82nd straight off-season without a championship. Again, we will return to root on the Sox next year and hope that once again, "This is the Year". As the Nantucket Nectar's bottle cap that a friend gave to me says, "Next year, the Red Sox will win the World Series". Anyhow, onto the analysis.

Here is a look at the Sox record month by month and some comments on key occurrences during those months:

April (12-9)

After a rough 1-4 start, the Red Sox rebounded to go 12-9 for the month. Juan Pena had been lost for the season is Spring training, Saberhagen was shooting for an early June return, Beck was on the DL, and Tim Wakefield moved to the pen as Pete Schourek moved into the rotation. Early surprises were Fassero, Schourek, and Wakefield as the Sox opened with a decent first month. The Sox also got some bad news as John Valentin was forced back onto the DL after only 2 games and Wilton Veras got the call to replace him. Despite a very rough starts for Nomar Garciaparra, Jose Offerman, and Troy O'Leary, the Sox managed a respectable record lead by Carl Everett, Trot Nixon, and Brian Daubach.

May (17-10)

Without a doubt, this was the best month of the year for the Sox. The Sox were able to move into first despite the fact that Nomar went on the DL from May 12-27 and Carl Everett would miss a few games, and Pedro would be pushed back a day as he got a game suspension. Valentin returned from the DL on May 19 and the Sox' fortunes were looking good. Things would start heading in the wrong direction toward the end of the month as a slumping Jose Offerman would go on the DL on May 27, and a devastating loss would occur when John Valentin went down with a possible career ending injury on May 30. Hippolito Pichardo quietly returned from rehabbing and made a shaky debut on May 31, but that would be his last struggle for quite some time.

June (9-18)

Without a doubt, this was one of the worst months in recent Red Sox memory, as the Sox dropped from their high point of 29-18 after May 30 to 38-37 by the end of the month. With Offerman out and Valentin injured, the Sox would lose 5 straight after the Valentin injury and suffer through a terrible 9-18 month. The Red Sox, and especially, Dan Duquette would suffer the wrath of fan criticism for a cryptic statement made after Valentin's injury: "Despite the club's efforts to coordinate the medical care, John Valentin went to a physician that was not authorized by the club to perform the procedure," Red Sox spokesman Kevin Shea said in response to questions about the procedure that injured Red Sox third baseman John Valentin underwent, on his own, today in New York performed by Dr. David Altchek." This would be the first of many things to go wrong for the month. Pedro was forced to miss his start on June 3 in Philadelphia (where the Red Sox would be swept in a 3 game series). Wilton Veras fell into a total funk at the plate after Valentin's injury and all production at 3rd base would come to an end until Lou Merloni reappeared from Japan on August 14, a period of nearly 2 months. On June 19, Troy O'Leary would go to the DL to deal with "personal problems" which would end up explaining his horrible .211 BA, 5 HR, 17 RBI stats up to that point. Trot Nixon would also go to the DL on June 27 and would post numbers nowhere near his .293 BA, 8 HR, 39 RBI up to that point, and finally, Pedro would succumb to arm soreness and go on the DL on June 29.

July (16-11)

Newly acquired Ed Sprague joined the team on July 1 as absentee GM Dan Duquette finally made an attempt to shore up 3rd base which had seen virtually no production since Valentin's injury. This would be the first of Duquette's many lame moves to help the team. Unfortunately, Sprague would not be the solution. With O'Leary returning on July 3rd, newly acquired Sprague and Bernard Gilkey aboard, and Pedro Martinez returning on July 13, the Sox would rattle off their best stretch of the season, going 11-3 from July 3rd to July 20th to climb back into the hunt with a 51-42 record. The middle of the month, however would be marked by two events which would turn out to have great impact upon the second half of the season. On July 15, Carl Everett let a seemingly minor disagreement with an umpire turn into an ugly incident which would involve Everett bumping the umpire and throwing a serious tirade after getting ejected. This would result in Carl Everett's 10 game suspension and mark the beginning of the "real" Carl Everett showing up (teammates, reporters, managers, insert what you want here) for the rest of the year as opposed to the model citizen that we had seen since Spring Training. The Second incident would be the highly unpopular move (amongst most of the players) of designating Mike Stanley for assignment and ultimately releasing him. The Sox would go on to post a 35-33 record for the rest of the season after Stanley's release. Trot Nixon finally returned to a much different team on July 27 as Everett was serving his suspension, Stanley was released, and Brian Rose, John Wasdin, and Jeff Frye were traded to Colorado for Rolando Arrojo and Mile Lansing. Jose Offerman returned to the DL for a second time on July 13 as it was apparent that injury was a key reason to explain his continuing awful season at the plate.

August (15-13)

This turned out to be a strange a disappointing month for the Red Sox and a fight to end the month would seriously mar any hopes that the Sox would have in September. The Sox failed to take advantage of a seemingly weak August schedule and 3 positions turned into total non-entities as Sprague continued to struggle at third, eventually getting released on August 16th, Lansing seemingly forgot how to hit, and Trot Nixon went into a total funk at the plate. Lou Merloni would return from Japan and provide an immediate boost at third base, Jose Offerman would return from the DL and Pedro Martinez would throw a near no hitter on August 29th in a game which would prove very costly to the Red Sox as the idiotic Gerald Williams charged the mound and Daubach and Merloni were injured in the insuing melee. Fortunately Pedro was not injured, but the temporary loss of Merloni for 7-10 days with a concussion and an elbow injury to Brian Daubach which would limit him to a .162 BA with 1 HR and 5 RBI for the rest of the year, turned out to be key blows. A pathetic performance by the Sox in the next game would end the month on a very low note as the Sox lost to Tampa 3-1. GM Dan Duquette made two trades on the final day of the month as Dante Bichette and Midre Cummings joined the team, but these moves would wind up coming too late for the Sox.

September/ October (16-16)

With a brutal schedule due to many rainouts needing to be made-up the Sox controlled their own fortunes with 4 games vs. New York, 4 with Seattle, 2 with Oakland, and 5 with Cleveland. Four games in this month will always stick out in my mind.

September 9th: After a very tough loss in the first of 4 straight with NY, marred by a terrible injury to reliever Bryce Florie when he was hit with a line drive in the face, the Sox were clinging to a 1-0 lead with 2 outs in the seventh inning when Pedro Martinez was forced to throw 2 extra pitches to Scott Brosius with 2 men on base (after seemingly striking him out) and Pedro made, perhaps the only mistake that he made all year, Brosius deposited a 3 run homer into the net in Left.

September 10th: With an unproven starter on the mound for the Yankees, making his big league debut, the Sox could muster no offense yet again, and Kiesler and the Yankees cruised to a 6-2 win.

September 20th vs. Cleveland, Game 1: The Sox waste another gem by Pedro Martinez when the offense is shut down by Cleveland starter Woodward, who would finish the year with a 6.28 ERA, and a late rally by Boston falls short as Nomar's bid for a game tying homer misses by inches and he eventually gets nailed at home on a ground out.

September 24th: In the last home game of the season, the Sox lose 1-0 wasting a solid effort by Tomo Ohka. The Sox would load the bases twice in the last 3 innings with 1 out and 0 outs and fail to score either time, with the final insult coming in the bottom of the ninth as "Wave'em in"" Wendell Kim got another man thrown out at the plate by a country mile as the lumbering (and useless) Bernard Gilkey tried to score on a 150 foot pop-up to Left.

The Sox would end up staying alive until game 159 as the Yankees stumbled to the finish line, losing their last 7 games, and the Sox finished the season at 85-77, 2.5 games in back of NY. I'll analyze the performance of players and coaches in my next installment.

TO BE CONTINUED

SRYD OUT