Series After and Before

When I draft a fantasy team, I try to have either Red Sox players or NL players to avoid rooting conflicts. (Although, my only hard and fast rule is that no Yankees are allowed) But, even with that goal, I had a dilemma of Friday night. Jon Lester is on my team, as well as Ramon Ramirez and Jonathan Papelbon. Unfortunately, so is Ryan Howard. So, when Ramirez came in instead of Pap, it was ok. A save from either is just as good. But, then Ramirez gave up the homer to Howard to blow the save. So, I lost a win and a save, but gained a home run. Luckily, I also have Saito, so I ended up with the win in either case. In the end, I traded a save for a home run, which isn’t great. What a mess.

I couldn’t help but be frustrated with the rain delay after 1 inning Saturday. You’d think that they would have known enough to hold off if it was going to rain that soon. It was especially annoying since the Sox scored five runs before the delay. I could just see them calling the game and erasing those runs. Luckily, the delay didn’t appear to affect Dice-K’s performance. Although, how would you know?

I’d love to be a fly on the wall of Theo’s office these days. Penny has been pitching great, and Smoltz appears ready to move into a spot somewhere…along with Buchholz and Bowden. He must be calling everyone he can think of to try to free a spot or two. I think he needs to find a three-team trade for best results. Trading Penny for a contender probably wouldn’t get the prospects/talent he needs. But if Penny went to, say, Philly and Philly sent a ML ready guy to KC and KC sent a prospect to Boston, that would be closer to the results I’d like. Although, I still want to bundle for a blockbuster.

Does it mean anything that after Beckett’s home run Sunday, I actually wondered for a second if that tied him with Ortiz?

I know that these days players switch teams all the time, so they’re always playing a former team. But, does Mike Lowell think of these games any differently? The Marlins basically threw him away using him as a penalty to getting Josh Beckett. There has to be a little incentive behind that.

With the Marlins in town, will that give Theo the chance to work on the trade for Hanley Ramirez? They have to be able to find a match somewhere, right? I’ll give them anything.
I really wish that MLB wouldn’t set aside these “interleague” games as a whole other season. Just mix them into the schedule like every other league does. The NFL doesn’t have “interleague” week where every AFC team plays an NFC team. The concept is old enough now that the match-ups aren’t anything special anymore. You don’t get “first time these teams have met since…” promotions anymore. It’s pretty much the first time since a few years ago. Just put them in the schedule. It makes them seem like exhibition games when you group them all together like this.

Pitchers batting still seem goofy to me.