Red Sox Line vs Tigers 4/7/12

The 0-1 Red Sox are back on the field today against the Tigers. The Red Sox made an exciting come back to tie the game on Thursday to end the fall short in the ninth. This will be the first start of the season for Josh Beckett who last week went for test on his thumb. The test were positive and he is going to make the start. I say we should still watch him to see how he pitches to see if he is really hurt or if he is healthy. The line looks the same as it did on opening day.

Red Sox Line Up vs Tigers


Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Oritz DH
Youkilis 3B
Sweeney RF
Ross LF
Saltalamacchia C
Aviles SS

Beckett SP

Iglesias Sent Down, Aviles Opening Day Starter

The debate over who will be the opening day short stop is finally over. The Red Sox optioned Jose Iglesias to AAA Pawtucket earlier this morning. With Iglesias being sent down that leave Mike Aviles as your stater.

Iglesias who is an amazing defensive short stop but struggles to hit the ball. This spring he suffered from a groin injury which held him back several games and he ended the spring hitting right at the Mendoza Line a whopping .200.

"(Inglesias) had a real emotional meeting with Ben and I," manager Bobby Valentine said. "At this time, we decided it was best for him and this organization that he get some real regular at-bats and works a littler more on his consistency of his swing and play."

Red Sox Line Up Against Royals 8/18/2011

Coming off a rough series with the Rays the Red Sox are looking to turn their fortunes around in Kansas City. Tonight on the mound for the Red Sox is Josh Beckett who is coming off a rough start in Seattle when he only went five innings and gave up five runs to go with that. Though this has been an amazing season for Beckett who seats with a 9-5 record hoping for win number 10 tonight. Beckett is 6-1 against the Royals with a 2.44 ERA.

On the Bump for the Royals is right hander Luke Hochevar who holds an 8-9 record this season with a 4.89 ERA. He has a 2-3 record against the Sox with a 6.67 ERA. His last three starts he is 1-1 with a 3.10 ERA and striking out 18 batters.

This should be an interesting match up for the Red Sox.

Lineups

CF Ellsbury
3B Lowrie
1B Gonzalez
2B Pedroia
RF Reddick
LF Crawford
DH Lavarnway
C Varitek
SS Aviles

Happy Birthday to the Muddy Chicken!

With my first blog back since my laptop went down I thought I would go ahead a take time to wish Dustin Pedroia a happy 28th birthday. Pedroia is a former gold glover, 3-time All Star, former rookie of the year and MVP. Pedroia is having a MVP type season this year as well. Happy Birthday to the Muddy Chicken, give us a Laser Show today on your birthday!!!

Big Papi becomes captain for Home Run Derby

When fans turn it to ESPN on July 11 to watch the Home Run Derby it will be a little differnt than years past. This year the format has changed a little and it will be an American League vs National League show off. In years past the fans have selected who they wanted to play in this event but that has even changed. I think for the better.

This years HR derby will be selected by a captain of each league similuar to the All-Star game in the NHL. The two captains for this event are the past two derby winners, David Ortiz and Prince Fielder. This will be the fifth apperance for Ortiz and the thrid for Fielder. Each captain will select three sluggers from the league they represent to participate. These players do not have to be All-Stars just have to hit bombs.

As always there will be the overall home run derby champion as an individual but there will also be a winning team. Each team captain will select a charity the winning team will recieve $150,000 while the losing team captain's charity will recieve $25,000. There will also be $100,00 donated to the Boys and Girls of America in the winning team's honor.

As in years past their will be gold balls that are worth $18,000 and 3,000 for every regular ball to be added to be donated to the Boys and Girls of America.

This is always a fun event and makes the All-Star weekend more enjoyable for everyone. I feel like this element of the event will bring more life to the event. I believe Big Papi and Prince Fielder are great choices to represent their leagues both have a lot of life to them.

Red Sox Line UP Against Blue Jays 4/17/2011

Jon Lester is on the mound looking for his first win of the season and hoping to get the teams first back to back win of the year. Lester will being up against Jesse Litsch who is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA.

Lines ups

Red Sox (3-10)

LF Crawford

2B Pedroia

1B Gonzalez

3B Youkilis

DH Ortiz

SS Lowrie

RF Drew

C Saltalamacchia

CF Ellsbury

Blue Jays (7-7)

SS Escobar

CF Patterson

RF Bautista

1B Lind

2B Hill

C Arencibia

DH Snider

LF Rivera
3B Nix

Lowrie Walks Around Like He's Got an S On His Chest

Box

For anyone who was wondering if Josh Beckett is back, today he proved he is back for sure. He didn’t have a 10 strike out game like last week but if you recall from my line up post all I wanted was a win. He did pitch damn close to his performance against the Yankees. Beckett lead the Red Sox to a 4-1 win.

Beckett went seven innings allowing one run in the second inning and gave up five hits while striking out nine. See I told you it was close to Sunday. He was mixing his pitches similar to last Sunday and is pitching like we got our ace back for 2011.

With Carl Crawford struggling so bad in the leadoff role Tito gave him the day off and had Superman Jed Lowrie the go. Lowrie played the super hero role today went 3-for-5 with two RBI and a homerun. Lowrie was the spark that the team needed to get the win today.

The Red Sox are still struggling hitting with men on base even leaving the bases full at one point in the game.

Dustin Pedroia continued his hitting at Fenway with another hit but he is most credited for his defense today also got some amazing defensive play from Adrain Gonazlez to show why both guys have won a Gold Glove in the past.

Bullpen help today was great as Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless eighth and Jonathan Papelbon got his second save on the season.

Now that the Red Sox finally have their third win the next step is to pick up the first back to back win of the season. Oh yeah, they also need to make Jed Lowrie a permant member of the line up in the leadoff spot seeing he is the only guy on the team hitting .500 on the team with 22 at bats under his belt on the season. I mean if it doesn’t work out its not different than the Crawford experiment that has been a failure. So if Tito is reading make you give it a try.

Week Two American League Standings

It breaks my heart to do this but as a journalist I must present to you with the week 2 American League standings where the Red Sox are in the basement.

Jackie Robinson Day in the MLB

It’s April 15, 2011 Major League Baseball is honoring one of great hero in baseball, Jackie Robinson. Today is Jackie Robinson Day in the MLB. This is the eighth straight year that baseball has honored the man and it is also the only day that the number 42 is wore(With the expection of Mariano Rivera who is grandfathered in). The MLB also has also launched the IAM42.com which is an online campaign for the MLB going on all day.

IAM42 is a way to allow younger fans who may not know the legacy of Jackie Robinson or may want a more personal feel to what he did for baseball. It is the 64^th anniversary of the day that Jackie broke the color barrier in baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. If it was not for Jackie and his efforts today we would not have many of the great players we have today. The campaign is also being used to keep the legacy of Jackie alive as they have joined in with Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI).

The Red Sox as well as all other organizations will be honoring Jackie by wearing his number on their back today including coaches, players and even the umpires for this special day.

The number 42 was retired by all of baseball on April 15, 1997, which was the 50^th anniversary of Jackie’s first game they did it at Shea Stadium which is the closest National League team in New York to Brooklyn since there is no longer a team in Brooklyn.

The Buch Rolls In: Clay Buchholz Gets 4 Year Deal

Well after Clay Buchholz pitching performance against the Yankees on Saturday good news was needed. Well the news is here Buchholz and the Red Sox agreed on a contract extension that will leave Buchholz in a Red Sox uniform for four more years.

This deal is set up similar to the contract extensions pitcher Jon Lester that the team got done last year. Buchholz contract is said to be worth around $30 million dollars, which is what Lester is making on a five year deal with a club option. Buchholz deal is only four years with two club option years.

For those of you who do not know the policy of Red Sox of signing players under contract to long term deals who are already under their control like Buchholz is currently. The player must give up their first year a free agency and must have their arbitration years bought out and have to agree to a club option for at least one year. Buchholz had three arbitration years left under his current deal but no longer has those.

"I owe a lot, just about everything, to the Red Sox," Buchholz said. "They drafted me. They gave me an opportunity to come up in Boston and pitch even though the couple of down years. There are always going to be doubts. This game's not near as easy as some of the guys make it seem sometimes. But I definitely got to the highest point of the highs in this game, and then it took its toll on me and I thought I was better than I was at the time.”

So the Red Sox have their one through four starters locked down until at least 2014. The Red Sox hope that this contract is a deal for his pitching as most believe the Lester deal has been for the team so far. Red Sox fans hope the next deal we hear about is Adrian Gonzalez...

Red Sox Line Up Against Yankees 4/9/2011

The Red Sox are hoping to start a win streak with Clay Buchholtz on the mound. His last start wasn't a pretty one he got took yard 5 times for the first time in his career. Buchholtz will go up against Yankee newcomer Ivan Nova. Nova holds a record of 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA.

Todays Lineups Against the Yankees:

Red Sox

LF Crawford

2B Pedroia

1B Gonzalez

3B Youkilis

DH Ortiz

RF Drew

SS Lowrie

C Saltalamacchia

CF Ellsbury

Yankees

LF Gardner

SS Jeter

1B Teixeira

3B Rodriguez

2B Cano

RF Swisher

CF Granderson

DH Chavez

C Martin

Manny Being Manny For the Last Time: Manny Retires

Looks like its official Manny Ramirez has retired from the MLB. The news about this retirement comes in the middle of today’s Red Sox game via MLB Twitter page. Ramirez is set to retire after news come out that he failed a drug test during spring training this season.

"Rather than continue with the process under the program, Ramirez has informed MLB that he is retiring as an active player," a statement from MLB said. "If Ramirez seeks reinstatement in the future, the process under the Drug Program will be completed. MLB will not have any further comment on this matter."

Manny has put up great numbers especially has a member of the Red Sox that could put him in the Hall of Fame but that day will never come because this is his second failed PED test since the new drug policy has been put in place. Not only that Manny has been trouble in other places in the dugout, on the field you name it Manny has done it. To the point the phrase “Manny being Manny” was created.

While on the Red Sox David Ortiz was his closest teammate, this is what he had to say about Manny. "It's sad, man, to see a player with that much talent and with an unbelievable career get him out of the game," said David Ortiz . "He got his issues like a lot of people know, but, as a player, I think he did what he was supposed to."

This news comes as a surprise to his new team the Tampa Bay Rays as they have said that Manny has been a good teammate and not done anything out of the way.

"We are obviously surprised and disappointed by the news," in the statement put out by the Rays. "We will have no further comment on this matter, and our fans and organization will carry on."

This could be a good thing for the Rays is they will not have to pay the majority of the $2 million contract. It’s a sad day that the game will lose a play as good as Manny. I know that he did use but the ablity that he had he could have been a great player even without the PEDs.