Sox get Byrd, apparently just in time.

I have no idea why Theo thought the Sox needed any help with the pitching staff. They managed to hold the Rangers offense to just under 18 runs last night. That should be just fine going forward.

The trade for Paul Byrd was a good one, but it does pose as many questions as answers. Off the bat, it looks like a slam-dunk. Naturally, since this was a waiver trade, you can’t expect monumental deals being done. You’re not going to land Johan Santana in a waiver deal. But, Byrd is a good catch. He’s a veteran pitcher, not afraid of pressure pitching. So, to grab him for the stretch run is a good move. Plus, considering how the Sox fared against him in the ALCS last year, it’s nice that he didn’t go to Tampa. (And how, exactly, did he not end up in pinstripes?) I like the style of pitcher Byrd is for this team too. He throws strikes. With a great defensive team behind you, that’s what you want. Let the players in the field make the plays. Plus, the Sox have a pretty good line-up, as you may have noticed. Throwing strikes but giving up a run or two shouldn’t be an issue at all.

Beyond that, the plans for him get a little fuzzy. Since Francona wanted to talk to Buchholz directly about the trade, and Byrd will be taking Clay’s spot on Friday, it appears clear that Byrd is Clay’s replacement. The powers that be must have decided that a pennant chase isn’t the best time to break in a young pitcher. I can respect that. If you’re not in a race, you can allow the learning curve. When every game counts, it’s time to let him work it out in the minors. I imagine Clay will be back in September when the rosters expand. Until then, the Sox don’t need to give away any games to let someone work on their fastball.

The odd part is Wakefield’s spot. You could assume, that a new pitcher would take the spot of the pitcher currently on the DL. But, the Sox don’t appear to be doing that. Does this mean they expect Wake to be back after the 15 days are up? They can piece together another start or two, and go on from there. That would be good news if that’s what happens. I like the idea that the Sox are expecting his eventual return, as opposed to fearing a season-ending situation. Are the Sox thinking playoff rotation for Byrd? Is he the safety net in case Wake can’t go again? I like the idea of Beckett-Dice-Lester-Byrd in a series just fine. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Sometimes, it’s the little deals that make or break a season. This looks like a good one. Now, if we can just get an extra bullpen arm it would be great.

The problem with having so much young pitching…

…is having so much young pitching.
First off, Clay Buchholz is our fifth starter (maybe fourth with Wake on the DL). Really, anything you get out of a fifth starter is a bonus. If a fifth starter was regularly dominant, he wouldn’t be a fifth starter, right? But, ignoring that little tidbit we have to look over some facts.

Clay Buchholz is in a rough stretch. That’s fairly obvious. Certainly, that’s to be expected. Remember, he’s 23 years old. (Yeah, he turns 24 on Thursday) I don’t think it’s fair to expect anything substantial from a 23 year-old pitcher. I know it’s mostly his own fault for throwing that no-hitter. We all now expect that all the time. We forget that no-hitters are really flukey, and are really just an example of the inconsistency. It was just one of the “high” times. So, it’s easy to look at that upside and say, “Geez. he threw a no-hitter at 23…he’s got it already!” But, you can’t say that. Yes, he has filthy stuff. Yes, he’s capable of putting it all together for a stretch. It will just take a while for him to figure out how to do it all the time. But, we need to back off.

When Pedro Martinez was 23, he was floating around the Dodger farm system hoping to one day be a major league pitcher. When Roger Clemens was 23, he was working his way though a 7-5 season pitching 98 innings for the Sox. He hadn’t even discovered the wonders of having his wife use HGH yet. When Jonathan Papelbon was 23, we was making it through A-Ball. When Josh Beckett was 23, he went through a 9-8 season pitching 142 innings for Florida. (Yes, he finished strong with a World Series MVP.) But, here’s the deal. All those great pitchers went through some ups and downs when they were that young. Sooner or later, it just clicks…if it’s ever going to click. Take Jon Lester. He was the picture of inconsistency until he looks to have figured it out this year at 24. You just have to wait it out, and hope it happens. (It’s Theo’s job to decide if it is ever going to happen.) Until then, just try to enjoy the highs, and don’t stress the lows.

And, don’t make me write this again when Justin Masterson, Michael Bowden. etc struggle while they’re 23.

Summer of ‘49 - By David Halberstam

This book chronicles the exciting 1949 baseball season. It focuses

on the two great teams of that year, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. It follows a now common outline of being more than just a play-by-play. It gives in-depth accounts of the people involved in the story, making it as much a series of related biographies as a rehashing of a season.

As a journalist, more than a “writer”, Halberstam’s books tend to simply lay out a series of facts. They tend to lack a cohesive story. The information is wonderful, gathered from research as well as first had interviews. It simply lacked the flow to get me involved in the season. I could be reading a pile of newspaper clippings to get the same information. The story left its goal at times as well. It felt as if the same book would be written about the 1948 and 1950 seasons with just a couple of the day-to-day happenings altered. The biographies and stories about players past deeds would still apply. It’s almost like the author had this lifetime of research and information, but was searching for a common thread to tie it all together. I didn’t find myself vested at all in the story…especially when the Sox lost.

I’d rate this as 2 bases.

Lingering Thoughts

I’ve already mentioned Steve Kettmann’s wonderful book One Day at Fenway. It’s an in-depth account of a Red Sox Yankee game. Specifically, it’s the game that Manny missed with a sore throat, or something along those lines, but was spotted afterwards in a hotel bar with Luis Sojo. (At the time, the fact that Manny lived in the hotel, and the bar was the only place to get a bite to eat was left out of the stories. But, that’s not what this is about.) There’s a portion of the book that is worth revisiting these days. Hopefully Mr Kettmann won’t mind if I set the scene. It is talking about the bottom of the eighth inning of this game. Yankees had pulled ahead 8-4 in the top of the eighth. With one man out, and the bases loaded Todd Walker was the pinch hitter representing the tying run. Joe Torre had just made a pitching change to bring in lefty Gabe White, with Rivera ready in the pen. Got it? This is what Torre’s thinking as he gets back to the dugout:

“…Torre was feeling uneasy. He was not going to look over at the Red Sox dugout. That was just not something he would do, as much as he might have wanted to. Ever since Kirk Gibson limped up to home plate in the 1988 World Series, nobody could ever convince Torre that someone was unavailable in a game. You never knew. He sat there expecting any minute to hear one of his players tell him, “Manny [Ramirez] is coming out to hit.”

Jason Bay is a fine hitter. He’s better than fine. He’s a great young hitter. He’s probably a great person. I bet he treats animals and the elderly very well. Mike Lowell is a great run producer. There’s not a key spot that I would mind having him up in. But, look at that reaction. That’s not hoping that Manny was unavailable. That’s not preferring that Manny wouldn’t hit. He wouldn’t even look in the dugout! There’s only one word for it. Fear. Joe Torre feared Manny Ramirez. He had his all-world closer ready to come it, but it didn’t matter. Manny was said to be unavailable for the game, but it didn’t matter. You can talk about clubhouse chemistry, and statistics all you want. When it is all said and done, the former manager of the New York Yankees feared Manny Ramirez. That’s something that you can’t say about Mike Lowell, or Jason Bay, or any other member of the Red Sox. How much is fear worth?

As I mentioned, the Oakland A’s provided the perfect chance for the trade to look good. The Red Sox swept the overmatched A’s. Jason Bay had a fantastic series. He was all over the place, scoring runs and playing defense. Early indications are that he’ll be a wonderful player for the Sox the next couple years. I heard reports that the team just looked happier. I think that winning will make a team look happier. I think the Sox looked pretty happy sweeping Seattle, even with Manny in the clubhouse. I don’t think the Sox looked very happy losing to Kansas City, even with Jason Bay in the clubhouse.

At the end of the season, baseball isn’t a Disney movie. The happiest team doesn’t win. The best team does.

Random thought…can anyone say that Julio Lugo is overpaid if the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie twins got $14 million just to take pictures of them? If you take baseball salaries in context with other entertainers, they don’t look so bad. At least Lugo has to do more than smile pretty.

Trade Theo!

The trading deadline is a fun time of year for baseball fans. If your team is in the playoff hunt, this is when they can fill the holes they have and become a World Series contender. If your team is not in the playoff hunt, it’s a time to stock up on the future so you’re even better next year. This year, several of the elite teams in the AL had obvious holes to fill going into deadline day. For example:

LA needed some power in their line-up. They have the league’s best record, great starting pitching and a fantastic bullpen. But, they needed some pop in the order to cement their place as the class of the league. So, they traded for Mark Teixeira. Bingo. Hole filled and the Angels got better.

The Yankees had some holes. They needed a lefty reliever. They needed an outfielder to account for some injuries. Same thing with a catcher. So, they grabbed Marte, Nady, and Rodriguez. Bingo. Holes filled and the Yankees got better.

The Red Sox had some holes. They needed bullpen help. They could use a shortstop to cover for an injury (and lousiness). They had one too many centerfielders. So, they….um…traded away their best hitter? Well at least the guy they got back is…um…worse than the guy they traded away? At least they got some bullpen help in the…um…they actually traded away one of their bullpen arms? Well, the other guy they got is a nice prosp…um…they didn’t get anybody else? They actually gave up another young outfielder as well? At least they got some cash in the deal so they could…um…they actually gave 7 million dollars away in the deal? To the Dodgers? What the heck is going on here? Holes got bigger and the Red Sox got worse.

So, the bullpen still stinks. And now, the line-up takes a hit so it’s harder to make up for a lousy bullpen? Was Theo at a Pearl Jam concert yesterday, or being the GM of the Boston Red Sox? From here on in, we get to watch Ortiz get intentionally walked 500 times, and the run production go down the tubes. Yippie. Was the bottom of the order not enough of a drag on scoring?

I think it’d be easier to swallow if the Yankee fans would stop e-mailing and calling to say how happy they are and thanking me for handing them the division on a big silver platter.

I will give Theo a little credit. If you look at the schedules, he at least picked a good time to make a boneheaded trade. In August, the Sox will play Oakland, KC, Chicago, and Texas instead of Tampa, LA, Minnesota, and Seattle. So, for a while, the much easier schedule will make the deal look slightly better than it is. But, things will drop back in September.

I’d say it was the worst trade Theo’s ever made. But, there have been so many stinkers, it’d be hard to say with any certainty which was the worst.