Some Red Sox links for Thursday, as Clay Buchholz looks to continue his dominant spring against the Marlins…
- Matt Albers told Alex Speier of WEEI.com that he hasn't talked to any Japanese teams and doesn't know why a report yesterday had him going to Japan. “Don’t know where that came from,” Albers said.
- Dennys Reyes agreed to extend the opt-out date in his contract by one day from Saturday to Sunday, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. The left-hander is battling for a spot in Boston's bullpen.
- As Speier explains in a piece for Baseball America, Ryan Westmoreland, who underwent brain surgery last March, is continuing his attempt to return to the majors. The former top prospect has made impressive strides in his recovery, though his vision hasn't returned completely and he's still working on some fine motor skills. Best of luck to Westmoreland as he recovers.
This is awesome to see Clay keep turning into this awesome pitcher.
It has looked like he hasnt gotten out of this sweet groove since the start of last season!
I say Reyes is gonna make the team with Okajima heading to the minors.
I’d say Hill and Reyes have the best shot to win the lefty pen role.
Hill: 8.2 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 6 K’s
Reyes: 8.0 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 8 K’s
they’re not going to make their decision off of spring training stats
Their decision won’t all be based on Spring Training, sure. But it’s encouraging and will have some say, I think.
Id pick Reyes over Hill just because Reyes could opt out versus putting Hill and Okajima in the minors to start the season
^ this.
Did Westmoreland ever play in the majors? Otherwise he can’t return.
Vanilla Ice begs to differ.
Yo MLB let’s kick it
Wes Wes baby (x2)
All right stop collaborate and listen
Wes is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a bat daily and nightly
… What the?
Ice Ice Baby was Vanilla Ice’s only real hit, so the idea fo “Ice is back” falls under the same lines.
Ten points for ridiculously obscure joke.
No yeah, I got it. It was just awful
you’re awful!
Just playing haha
You mean….you guys didn’t like….”Play That Funky Music”? I mean neither did I or anything…I just ummmm…….I had a gf who liked him…and umm…never mind.
This is so stupid… yet I can’t stop laughing! You win?
story of my life
WINNING
I have tiger blood.
The kid is still only 20, why can’t he make a comeback? Before last year he was ranked #20 by BA as a 19 year old. He had very good potential and if he can reclaim any of it he has a chance at a comeback. All to him.
he’s saying you can’t come back to a place you never were, the majors
He’s stating that the article uses the word “majors,” while Westmoreland never left the minors. Thus, he can’t make a comeback to a place he never really was.
Best of luck to Westmoreland. Hes so young that even if it takes him three years to return to baseball form, hes still a 23 year old prospect.
I have an obvious dislike for the Red SOx organization but that doesn’t always extend to their players and certainly not towards any of their personal health issues or anything away from the field. I wish Westmoreland the best on his recovery and hope that he makes it to the majors. Maybe I’ll just root against him with RISP situations vs the Yanks? But otherwise, I hope he has a good mlb career.
surprised you didn’t include showalter’s smack talk in this post. don’t you want the people to laugh and be merry?
That smack talk was a load of crap…
He mocks the red sox and yankees for being big money teams, and asks what would happen if Theo had Tampa’s budget..then he says thats why he loves beating those teams.. umm ok
You left out the part how he managed the yanks… Gee, I wonder how much better he’d do with a large payroll. I guess he’d still lose.
that’s ridiculous. the teams he managed had tremendous success. right after they fired him
Kinda makes me wonder how the Orioles will do… after they fire Showalter.
Yeah what are you supposed to do when you have 180 million dollars? Just let it sit?
Yeah I read that this morning too. Obviously, it was a ploy to try and motivate his team but what a weak attempt it was.
Showalter’s an illicit video involving an appendage away from a deep playoff run.
at the same time, does it not burn a fire under the sox and yanks?
if by fire you mean a lit fart
well if someone is holding a lighter to it, fire and fart become one.
synergy, showalter style
It is not unreasonable to expect that the lefty/righty combination of Lester and Buchholz win 40-44 games with a combined ERA under 3.00 in 2011. They have the talent and sufficient know how to do it. Okijima may be done as a Red Sox pitcher, forever, in the next week to 10 days… As for Westmoreland, he is a strong kid with lots of potential. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was invited to the Red Sox spring training camp in 2012, along with Anthony Ranaudo…
I wouldn’t exactly call those pitching expectations reasonable though either. Lester has never posted an ERA or FIP below 3.0, and last season was his first in which he won more than 16 games. Buchholz on the other hand had an FIP of 3.61 last year, and if he wants to win 20 games, he’s going to have to show that he can stay healthy all year long (no 15 day DL trips). He only made 28 starts last year, which is a good number, but it makes it awful hard to win 20 games, never mind the 21-22 that he would need for he and Lester to combine for 40-44 W’s.
As for the 3.00 combined ERA, I just don’t see it. I love those guys, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see it as a reasonable expectation. That which is not reasonable, by definition, is unreasonable.
I would give you maybe 35+ W’s and a combined 3.30 ERA though.
“It is not unreasonable to expect that the lefty/righty combination of Lester and Buchholz win 40-44 games with a combined ERA under 3.00 in 2011.”
God, I hope this is the mindset of RSN. Nothing sweeter than Sox fans’ confused tears.
2 words about your pitching staff: Bartolo Colon.
Now I’m going to silently sit here listening to the laughter by the rest of the league… including Pirates fans.
Daisuke Matsuzaka.
This is fun.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see who is first to hit the DL before May 15th, Daisuke or Bartolo
It will be Dice-K not Bartolo because as Bruce Coslet ex-New York Jets coach once said, “You can’t pull fat.”
unless if it’s during interleague play at the plate, I only know this
because that is what doomed Bartolo’s stint in Boston
An update, Dice-K is on the DL but got on May 16th. So there goes that theory of yours! :p
Still prefer him as a #5 pitcher over Slowy McSlowpoke.
You’re right, this is fun.
Good response. A guy makes a comment about how good or great Lester/Buchholz might be in 2011 and you point to the elephant in the room (yes “oohhh we” a Bartolo fat joke). Did he ever say Bartolo was better than anyone in the Sox starting 5 or say that the Yanks had a better rotation? C’mon….et tu’ Purp? You’re better than that’ bro.
No, he made a comment about Red Sox fans in general and I responded in kind. I feel the open door was a good reason for me to walk through.
“God, I hope this is the mindset of RSN”. OR “Nothing sweeter than Sox fans’ confused tears”.
Ok…which one of those is a disrespectful comment regarding Red Sox fans?
Not that big a deal.
I feel like Bartolo is that fat kid that other kids made fun of at lunch time. (Here Bartolo…you can have my twinkies. Remember my chubby friend….sticks and stones. What? NO YOU CAN’T EAT THE STICKS AND THE STONES!!. Geesh).
i’m a red sox fan and i would bomb red sox nation if i knew how
brb fbi
Wait, what? Do you actually not see how that was a disrespectful comment regarding Red Sox fans?
He’s hoping that the mindset of all Red Sox fans is that of unrealistic expectation so he can enjoy their misery when Lester and Buchholz don’t meet it.
I don’t really have a stake in the actual argument because I’d take the under on pretty much any pair of pitchers getting 40 wins, but I’m confused as to how you’re confused.
beer me
Hmmmm. The Lester/Buchholz duo went 36-16 in 2010, when Bucky was just coming into his own. It is not unreasonable to expect a 10-15% improvement in their combined records for 2011, unless you are a troll from the Bronx, who finds reality difficult to handle..
Hard not to root for Westmoreland. Wish him the best in his recovery.
I remember seeing Okajima having a few suitors this offseason. I foresee a trade of Oki for a mid to low level prospect, or maybe as a part of a package to get an mlb ready backup catcher to store at AAA.
At this point, we’d be lucky to get a 36 year old Single A backup catcher who’s only there because he got the owner’s daughter pregnant for Okajima. And that’s not even a backup catcher with good tools, I’m talking maybe a guy who looks like Rich Garces or something.
Heck, there’s an idea. Somebody get the Nashua Pride on the line, see if we can pry Rich Garces away from them for Okajima.
No dissing El Guapo! Handsomest man ever to wear a Boston uniform!
Yeah, I think Oki’s time in Boston is finished. At this point, not putting Reyes on the 25 man roster would be a mistake. Maybe they can stash him in AAA, but I think Okajima’s no look throw is heading for a new city.
Okajima actually has a minor league option still. It’d take an injury to keep Reyes off the 25 man roster at this point. He’s the only guy competing for a spot who can’t be sent to AAA.
Albers too..
“he got the owner’s daughter pregnant for Okajima”.
Haha….I’ve heard of a Designated Hitter but that’s taking it too another level. Is that like a sperm donor thing? Wow…..Okee J’s boys no longer swimming? Not buoyant enough?
Jeremy Accardo was demoted for similar acts.
If you honestly think that fans will spend their money on the “best” player, and not their favorite player, or even the one that is most marketed, or easily marketed… then you, my friend, are out of touch with reality.
I guess that makes Pedroia the 8th best player in baseball. Cool.
Not sure if I’m biting on the sarcasm bait but Jeter is NOT the best player over the last 20 years. He is definely one of the most likeable and one OF the best players of his generation but I can easily think of 3 to 5 players that, steroids or not, were better all around players than Jeter and that’s not taking anything away from a first ballot HOF player like Jeter.
Well using that logic then I guess Jorge Posada would have to be considered the best ball player in baseball over the same time period too then? I’m just saying. Winning is a great charachteristic of a player but that along with being a good ballplayer isn’t enough to make you the best of your time. Wouild anyone say that Yogi Berra is a much beter ballplayer than Ted Williams simply because he won 10 WS and Ted zero? Would anyone say that David Ortiz is greater than Pujols simply because he won twice as many WS than he did?
DJ’s a sure fire 1st ballot HOF and one of the greatest all around SS of all time but not the greatest player of his generation.
So if Jeter had been drafted by and played his whole career for the Pirates, would that mean that the Pirates would have won the most championships, or that Jeter was less of a player? Because by your definition, there is no third option…
To put it more direct, the Yanks won because of Yogi Berra and 23 other players. You put those same 23 players around Ted Williams and chances are he would win too. 1 player doesn’t make a championship team. DJ’s 5WS rings ADDS to his resume of being one of the best of all-time. Not winning a WS shouldn’t take away from a players worth either. Is Jeter 5x the player that Albert Pujols is because he has 5x as many WS rings? No.
Anyway, it was cool being on the other side of a Yanks arguement.
“I would always take the players who help their team win the most”
they should come up with a way to measure this………………………
Teams win, players don’t. Jeter was surrounded by HOF players that helped The Yankees win all of those games. If it was an individual game then you could use wins. But it’s a TEAM sport and it’s TEAM wins so you should not use them. Use Jeter’s stats, they are impressive enough without using TEAM wins.
Plus have you seen who his is banging? That alone makes him great.
no one can save you
He’s a WARrior!
We do have a stat. You may have heard of it – WAFL (pronounced “wafl”).
It stands for Wins Above Felipe Lopez. And it tells you how many more games your team would win with your player instead of Felipe Lopez.
Last year, Jeter was valued at 2.3 WAFL, down from 3.2 WAFL the year before.
Wow, that is quite possibly the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. What makes you think it was Jeter that “helps his team win the most”. Maybe it was Posada or Mo or Pettitte or A-Rod or Clemens or Paul O’Neill or Scott Brosius. It is not one person on a 25-person team that wins the game.
You are hopeless.
So it takes, let me C&P your words here “all players on a team to contribute to a championship.” Therefore a championship is a TEAM EFFORT, and merely decifing one player is best for being present there more often is foolish. . So, apparently your method of player evaluation is overly simplistic, presumptuous, and most important – wrong. Thank you for confirming this.
I mean, let’s not limit ourselves to baseball here, as it is not the only sport where the object is to win. Robert Horry and Steve Kerr have combined to win more NBA championships than Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant have. Does that make them better players? By your logic, it does…