The Teammates - By David Halberstam

This is not a book about baseball. It’s a book of life, which just

happens to involve ballplayers. It explores relationships between friends, and how those relationships are formed and evolve. It shows how one life can affect so many others over time, and how so many others can affect it. This could have involved any four guys the author wanted, and still worked as well. The fact that they were baseball players was a happy addition.

This book was even better the second time I read it. As a fan, I knew many of the stories that were discussed, but they were written in a way that brought them to a whole new light. In the end, it made me wish I could have a relationship like these four teammates had. I can only hope that I will have friends like that when my time comes.

I’d give this book 3 bases.

Season Preview: Part 1

With the season nearly upon us, I felt this was a good time to look ahead and see what I think we can expect from the team this year. The easiest way to go about this, is simply a position by position breakdown of how I think the starting line-up will do. Let’s get started with the infield.
Catcher: Jason Varitek Jason’s not getting any younger these days. I think it’s fair to say that offensively, the numbers he put up from 2003-2005 are long gone. But, that’s doesn’t mean he’s a hole in the line-up. Sitting at the seven or eight spot in the order, his .250 batting average with double digit home runs will do just fine. He’s not going to win any more silver sluggers, but he doesn’t need to. Most of his value was always behind the plate anyway. If he can keep bringing along Becket, Dice-K, Lester, and Buchholz as they become reliable pitchers, he will have done everything we need. It wouldn’t hurt the Sox to start thinking about his replacement, and I don’t think it’s Cash. But, that search can take a year or two to make sure they get the right guy.
First Baseman: Kevin Youkilis Kevin has been making steady progress the last few years. He’s still getting on base as much as he ever did, and his power is increasing each year. Now, at 29, he’s firmly entrenched in the prime years of his career. It would be nice to see a jump in power, as a first baseman. However, if he’s going to be in the 2-hole where he belongs all I ask is that he gets on base in front of Ortiz and Manny as often as possible. That may be one of the few instances where a walk really is as good as a hit. Although, a double would be even better.
Second Baseman: Dustin Pedroia Dustin is coming off a Rookie of the Year season, so it’s tempting to overrate his performance. Truth be told, Pat Listach and Marty Cordova both have ROY awards on their shelf. Clearly, it isn’t a guarantee of greatness. Nor does it mean that the season itself was spectacular. They were better than the numbers Loretta was giving us, but he’s not exactly Chase Utley or (gulp) Robinson Cano. So, while he’ll be a solid player, he won’t be making an All-Star team anytime soon. But, plug him into the top of the Red Sox order, and he’ll do a fine job getting on base for the big boys. Hi batting average is almost always above .300, and he’ll walk just enough. I worry about big league pitchers finally finding a hole in that big swing of his. But, I’ll assume he has the ability to adjust when that happens.
Shortstop: Julio Lugo Julio had a disappointing first season in Boston. He was brought in as the end to the revolving door at shortstop, and wasn’t exactly impressive. But he showed a little bit of what he can do. He’s a much better career hitter than he showed, so I assume that will come back up to the norm. He showed that he can still run, which will be even better if he gets more hits. Assuming he’ll have a lock on the 8-spot in the order, he should do just fine there. He’s not expected to drive in the runs, only to help out when he can.
Third Baseman: Mike Lowell Lowell was the biggest off-season signing this year. The Sox not only expect him to repeat the numbers he had last year, but are relying on it. Those numbers are a big reach though. He hid his career high in RBI to lead the team. You have to expect Manny and Papi to trim a few more of those off this year. It’s tough to imagine that at his age, he’s returned to be the player he was 5 years ago in Florida. I would certainly expect Mike to return to his 2006 numbers, if not a little lower.

Sox take a stand

The Red Sox held a little boycott this afternoon at their final spring training game of the year. Apparently, all the players are receiving a cash bonus for agreeing to play two games in Japan. They were told that the coaching staff would receive a similar bonus. Apparently, they found out yesterday that would not be the case. So, in order to get the coaching staff the money they were promised, they threatened to boycott today’s game. If the issue wasn’t resolved, they even threatened to boycott the trip to Japan. The Oakland A’s even agreed to join them in the boycott if it came to that. Finally, after a long delay, the game got underway after an agreement that satisfied the players. It was an impressive show of support by the players to the coaching staff. Naturally, the players weren’t really giving up much personally by skipping the game. It was just an exhibition. But, they knew it meant a lot more to MLB that they go to Japan. So, MLB had no choice but to agree to the demands. I especially liked that the Red Sox players arranged to sign autographs for the fans at the game if they didn’t play. They wanted to make sure that nobody, from the Blue Jays to the fans, was hurt by their stand. And, I think that was huge. They can mess around with major league baseball, they can cut out their batting practice, and they can do anything else. But, they showed that their heads were on straight when they didn’t forget the fans. Imagine if during the lockout all the players had shown up at games as planned, and just signed autographs for three hours? Things may have been different. Kudos to the Sox for remembering the fans

Beckett's Back

Josh Beckett had to be scratched from his last start due to back troubles. Naturally, news such as this leads to two possible reactions. The reasonable reaction is that it’s Spring Training, so the Red Sox don’t want Beckett throwing any more than he has to. They understand that even I get a sore back periodically and a little bit of rest makes it feel better in a couple days. The other reaction is: OH MY GOD! HIS BACK! He could be out for the SEASON with a bad back! This is horrible! The season is ruined! The Red Sox may not win a game this year! Luckily, so far, that reaction has been kept in check. Perhaps the afterglow of the 2004 and 2007 championships has given Red Sox Nation a little bit of perspective. I sure hope this sort of reason turns out to be the norm.

One thing the Sox have done about the injury is drop hints that it might jeopardize the trip to Japan. So, the injury is either a little more on the serious side, or the Sox are looking for a way to keep Beckett in the country. Personally, I think half the team should “tweak” their backs to keep them home from Japan. Let’s send Daisuke and Snyder out to start the two games, and keep the rest of the rotation here to avoid the jet lag. Wake can still have lingering effects of last October’s injury. Lester and Buchholz can come up with some tenderness they need to rest. Let’s keep the team home if we can, and not face the April slump that the Yankees and Tampa faced when they played in Japan. The first 15 games for the Sox this year are against Oakland, New York, Detroit, Toronto and Cleveland. These aren’t exactly teams you want to be sleepwalking against. Not only are they quality teams that could win anyway, but the games could have tiebreaker significance. A couple years ago, the head-to-head record gave the division to the Yankees. And, last year, head-to-head record gave home field advantage to the Sox instead of Cleveland. That certainly came in handy. Do we want to play any of those teams in April with a disadvantage?
So, keep them all home. Manny must have another sick grandmother to tend to. Papi can still be rehabbing that sore knee. I’d rather give up the first two against Oakland than the first month against everyone else.

Papelbon signs

You can cross off one more distraction from the Spring Training list. Jonathan Papelbon signed his contract yesterday. Even this “distraction” was really a non-issue. Papelbon wasn’t going to hold out, or become a free agent, or anything like that. He just wanted to get a little bit more money than the Sox were planning. And, really, who can blame him? He was, apparently, looking for something around $900,000 for next year. The Sox were haggling over that? They can’t pay the best closer in the game as much as they give Schilling for not being fat? I understand there’s a pay scale structure with younger players. I’ll even go along with the moneyball belief that closers are overvalued. But, sometimes it’s not about the money. They need to sew up Pap for a “long” term deal soon. I can only assume that a three year deal is at least being floated out there. If the Sox can’t find Alex Cora money somewhere to give Papelbon, there’s something gravely wrong with their system.