April 1, 2010

Sox Close On Beckett Deal; TJ Surgery For Tazawa

The Red Sox are reportedly close to agreeing on a four-year contract extension with Opening Day starter Josh Beckett. Sports Illustrated and MLB.com posted reports of 4/70 and 4/68, respectively.

Peter Abraham reports that Scott Atchison will be in the bullpen when the Sox head north, with either Scott Schoeneweis or Joe Nelson in the final spot. Alan Embree (who allowed four hits and four runs in one inning yesterday) will not make the team.

Junichi Tazawa is scheduled for Tommy John surgery next Tuesday.

The Herald's Gerry Callahan is still trying to convince you the 2010 Sox are doomed:
The pitching and defense approach has a certain snob appeal. Anyone can win by just, you know, bashing the ball all over the park. All those home runs and RBI and three-run rallies - as Theo Epstein would say, how primitive. ...

[D]id you know that Mike Cameron and Adrian Beltre combined for fewer RBI than Jason Bay had last season (119-114)? And that was in almost one thousand at-bats (993). What if that happens again this year? Is everyone going to be OK with that? And one more nagging question: Did you realize Bay was a butcher in left field last year? Me neither. ...

Someone has to hit. ... Ortiz is the only hope.
Callahan also tries his hand at stand-up comedy by saying Epstein has had "about as much luck with shortstops as Nancy Pelosi has had with plastic surgeons". Enjoy the veal.

Bernie Carbo talks quite openly to the Globe's Stan Grossfield about his battles with drug addiction:
I played every game high. I was addicted to anything you could possibly be addicted to.
John Lackey makes his final spring start today against the Twins at 1 PM. The regular lineup is expected to play and the game is on MLBTV.

13 comments:

laura k said...

I played every game high. I was addicted to anything you could possibly be addicted to.

Ah, the good old days.

allan said...

Honestly, it's a wonder he's still alive.

***

Denard Span led off the Twins-Yankees game yesterday and fouled a pitch off -- which hit his mother in the upper chest!

***

CBS's Scott Miller says our lineup isn't very "brawny".

Beth said...

Yes, Gerry, it's all a liberal elitist conspiracy to make our baseball team into a bunch of commies. Someday they'll see the error of their ways and go back to the good old populist days of "just bashing the ball over the wall" like true Americans.

Look, dude, either actually become the next Glenn Beck as it's so clear you want to be, or get over the class warfare aspect of the team's approach to offense already.

Benjamin said...

Callahan's just bitter that he spent all that money on getting sexist balding Irishman surgery.

Zenslinger said...

Denard Span led off the Twins-Yankees game yesterday and fouled a pitch off -- which hit his mother in the upper chest!

This reminded me of the rumor that Youk's own brother caught his foul ball in Oakland. Google yields a mention in Wilbur's blog in July 2006, but the old page isn't still there, so I'm still not sure if it's true.

If so, the odds are tending towards astronomical. I guess they're significantly less so in a spring training game.

laura k said...

Denard Span led off the Twins-Yankees game yesterday and fouled a pitch off -- which hit his mother in the upper chest!

This reminded me of the rumor that Youk's own brother caught his foul ball in Oakland.


And it reminded me of Keith Olbermann's mother getting hit by one of Knoblauch's airmails.

Unknown said...

The sad thing is that if this were the old Soviet Union, Gerry C. would have been one of the most successful commissars - full of reflexive lowbrow hatred for anything/anyone unusual or capable of doing stuff he can't do.

He must hate competent team management with the same fervor that he hates Keith O.

Gerry, REAL Cold Warriors were liberals who didn't want a President Bush...er, Brezhnev.....

Zenslinger said...

Great to see Lackey pitch so well.

I am a little concerned about the bullpen being closer to average, however, not really an asset. MDC had a bad day.

Anonymous said...

The way you win baseball games is by scoring more runs than the other team. You can do this one of three ways:

1. Score a lot of runs
2. Prevent other team from scoring a lot of runs.
3. Some combination of above.

Christ, you'd swear this involved the space-time continuum or something. If you can stop the other team from scoring a lot of runs, you have a better chance of winning.

Zenslinger said...

Guess we'll be seeing more of ol' Slügo.

tim said...

IS ANYONE ELSE PUMPED FOR SUNDAY!??!?!?!?!?!


I SURE AM!!!!!!


(caps lock intentional!)

Patrick said...

Thank you, Tim!

My sentiments exactly.

9casey said...

girlanachronism said...
Yes, Gerry, it's all a liberal elitist conspiracy to make our baseball team into a bunch of commies. Someday they'll see the error of their ways and go back to the good old populist days of "just bashing the ball over the wall" like true Americans.

Look, dude, either actually become the next Glenn Beck as it's so clear you want to be, or get over the class warfare aspect of the team's approach to offense already.




Is this an April Fool's joke?....or am I just a fool?