WikiPedro

A few days ago, I was trying to remember when Pedro Martinez was traded to the Red Sox. From the google search, I landed on his Wikipedia page. What a fantastic read that was!

I don’t want to say I forgot how good Pedro was. It’s impossible to have seen him pitch, and not remember how good he was. But, it was eye opening to see it all in print again. I know you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but the relaying of his statistics was enough for me.

One of my favorite stats related to his ERA in 2000. His ERA that year was 1.74, to lead the league. In second place that year was Roger Clemens, and his 3.70 ERA. So, Pedro’s ERA was less than half of his nearest competitor. That’s not even my favorite part. The difference between the ERAs of Pedro and Roger that year was 1.96. If you add 1.96 to Roger’s 3.70, you get 5.66. An ERA of 5.66 would rank you somewhere in the mid-thirties on the AL ERA league leaders. So, the difference between #1 and #2 was the same as the difference between #2 and #32. And, that’s not even my favorite part. You see, in 2000 Pedro gave up 128 hits in his 217 innings. That works out to giving up 5.31 hits per nine innings. 5.31 HITS per nine innings. The #36 person in ERA gave up more than 5.31 RUNS per nine innings. The difference between the number of runs Pedro gave up per nine innings, and the number of runs Clemens gave up per nine innings is more than the difference between the number of runs Clemens gave up per nine innings and the number of hits Pedro gave up per nine innings. A 5.31 ERA would be lower than the team ERA of any AL team in 2000.

That’s my favorite part.

It was just so unfair.

Two Months Left!

The prize

That’s right, there are only two months remaining in the 2012 Section 36 Scavenger Hunt!

The bad news? More than a month of the contest has already passed by. The good news? It’s not nearly too late. You still have two full months to get out and find the items. You still have two months to take pictures and send them in to me. You still have time!

You don’t have to wait to send in all your pictures at once. Send them in as soon as you get them to make sure you don’t forget! Hate to have you miss out on a great book, and some great cards, just because you didn’t want to send me more than one e-mail.

Don’t feel overwhelmed. A good chunk of the items should be easy for anyone reading this blog to locate. A strong entry won’t take you months to put together. Frankly, I bet most of you have a good portion of these items sitting in your house as you read this. Take a winter afternoon and pull them out for a picture. If you’ve ever been to Fenway Park, you probably already have pictures of some of the items. You’re already well on your way.

Find those items!

Is This a Plan?

The Sox have finally signed enough players to form a starting line-up. With the addition of Shane Victorino, I can finally start thinking about possible line-ups for 2013. Unlike past years, this one is fairly easy to put together.

Ellsbury

Victorino

Pedroia

Ortiz

Napoli

Middlebrooks

Gomes

Saltalamacchia

Iglesias

Or, something along those lines. In honesty, that’s not a terrible line-up. It’s probably not good enough to cover up for poor pitching like the last couple editions have been able to. It’s a place to start.

But, is it a plan? For the second day in a row, the Sox have overpaid for a decent player on a three-year deal. Unlike the Napoli deal, though, signing Victorino doesn’t present a serious downgrade from where the Sox were last year. Replacing Ross with Victorino (if that’s what happens) changes the skill set, but probably not the level of talent. With that in mind, I don’t have as much of a problem with this signing as I did Napoli. But, what about the plan?

Are these fillers? The short contracts would certainly suggest that. Are they just here to kill time until the youngsters are ready? If that’s the case, why overpay for them? Just take whichever player takes the bait, lose your 100 games, and get ready for 2014. Do the Sox think this is a team that can compete? If that’s the plan, why didn’t they sign better players? Hamilton, for instance. Or, keep the better players they already had?

I’m still afraid that they’re trying to fool us into thinking the team can compete. “Look everyone. We’re spending all that money we have. We have a top payroll. That must mean we’re good. Come watch us!”

I don’t know what to make of all of this.

How Many Catchers Does One Team Need?

I’ve been waiting. I’ve been wondering. I’ve been patient.

Now, I’m confused.

What’s the plan? What are the Red Sox trying to do? What do they hope to become? Are they rebuilding? Are they going for it? Are they waiting?

The Red Sox traded away a ton of money last season. It was to gain this mystical financial flexibility people talked about. I’ve wondered all along what they planned to do with all this flexibility. Especially given that this year’s free agent class was terribly weak. There was no Carl Crawford out there that teams needed to clear budget room for. There was no Cliff Lee that clearly would demand nine figures. Where was the money going to go?

Were they even interested in spending it? Was 2013 supposed to be a wash year. Lose another 100 games, and be ready when all the kids evolve together in 2014. They’d have to, of course, ignore the fact that this plan never works. But, at least it would be a plan. The overpaying of Papi seemed to support this plan. Sure, it was a lot of money. Sure they paid for past performance. But, it was something for the fans to hold onto during the down times. At least Papi would still be there to enjoy.

Then came the Napoli deal. Talk about overpaying. And, what’s the point? Is Napoli going to bring fans to Fenway during a bad season? Not likely. Is he a stud first baseman that the Sox couldn’t wait on? Not even close. He’s probably the best first baseman out there, at the moment. But, that’s not important unless you’re trying to win now. However, if you’re trying to win now, why not just keep the first baseman you already had who is much better than Napoli?

I’ve been waiting on a plan. I didn’t get a plan.

I got scared.

Maybe this front office really is clueless? Maybe they don’t know what they’re doing from one day to another. Are they just trying to pay the team enough money that fans can’t yell at them when they lose? If they have one of the highest payrolls, we’ll assume they were actually trying?

There better be a big shoe that drops because of this. Hopefully we’ll find out that Josh Hamilton adores Mike Napoli, and will follow him wherever he goes, no questions asked. Or, we’ll find out that Jarrod Saltalamacchia was the apple of Washington’s eye and the key piece to trading for Gio Gonzalez. Because without that, I don’t know what to think.

Other than the fact that I’m terrified.

I Scored!

August 19, 2000

There is just so much good stuff going on with this scorecard. But, I’ll start with the pitcher’s box.

Anytime the name Pedro Martinez appears in that box, you know it’s a good game. How’d Pedro do on this day? I’d say he lived up to expectations. Seven innings pitched. Three hits. No Walks. Ten strikeouts. Not a bad day at the park. Three baserunnes in seven innings? Yeah, that’s a 0.43 WHIP. Some persepective? The next guy gave up two hits in only two innings. But, that’s just the beauty of watching Pedro pitch.

What about the offense? So often Pedro would pitch great, only to be stymied by the offense and their lack of scoring. That wasn’t the case on this day. The Sox got the only run they would need in the very first inning. I’m sure we all sat back at that point, assuming Pedro wouldn’t need any more than that. Just to be sure, the Sox added on eight more. The big bat was swung by Lou Merloni. Yup, that’s right. Lou Merloni. From the six spot, he went 3-5, drove in three runs, and scored two of his own. Quite a day for the Sox third baseman.

The goat of the day? I really want to hand it to Brian Daubach. Going 0-3 from the two spot when the teams is scoring in bunches is just frustrating. But, at least Dauber drew a walk. Mike Lansing didn’t even do that. Four infield groundballs were all he could muster on the day.

But, of course, it didn’t matter. The offense did more than enough when the best pitcher in history was on the mound.

And the scorecard shows how it happened.