Ok, there's a tough road ahead. Our next few series break down like this...
3 in Philly
3 (at home) against Toronto
3 in Texas
4 in Balt
All-Star break...
4 (Fenway) against the Yankees...Will Schilling open the second half???
3 (Fenway) D-Rays...relief...
4 in Chicago (White Sox)
Except for the D-Rays there is no room to breathe easy. The upside??? We can take over the division. We could put in, at least, some cushion in the Wild Card. The downside??? We could find ourselves looking up at some of these teams.
Speaking of the wild card, we are now in the lead. That's right. If the season ended today, we'd be in the playoffs. We face all the serious contenders by the end of July. Yankees, Texas, Minnesota, Cleveland, Toronto...
Ok...now other stuff...Schilling is coming back soon. That is great news. Who goes to the pen? I know the consensus is Arroyo, but I think Wakefield is the better choice. Wakefield could throw many more innings out there the Bronson. He could pitch 5 innings on a Sunday in long relief, and be available for 2 innings on Monday. Arroyo...not so much. One thing is fairly certain. Halama is the odd-man out. Embree's velocity is back up, and his location is much better. The is way more of an upside to Embree than Halama. We do not need 3 lefties and Myers has been great.
Sox needs? If Schilling comes back healthy, we get another great arm in the pen in Arroyo or Wake. With Foulke throwing well again, Timlin having an All-Star season, and Myers, we probably need only another arm. If Embree can prove what I have stated above, we should be fine.
We need a speed/utility guy...Vazquez is supposed to be our speed guy, but his injuries have hindered him. We should replace him. Any AA or AAA guys that we have??? What about Pedroia?
Apparently Kapler is now fighting to get out of his Japan contract. Would he have to go through waivers or something if he tried to return to MLB? Has there been a precedent for this?
Yeah, Vazquez is done for the season, I think. I too thought he was the Speed Guy, but then we get this:
ReplyDelete"When Kevin Youkilis popped out of the dugout to pinch run Friday, at least a few people wondered aloud: Why not Ramón Vázquez?
'He's faster,' manager Terry Francona said of Youkilis. 'He's way faster.'"
So I have no clue why he's even there. Getting Kapler would be great.
The upcoming schedule is scary... This is the big test. In reality, the tough part of the schedule started on Monday. So far so good.
Well, per EEI and the PawSox site, Pedroia was promoted to AAA today. Could be a move in anticipation of Vazquez hitting the DL, in favor of Alejandro Machado, who's been the PawSox 2B this year.
ReplyDeleteI also saw that the Sox have a CF in Pawtucket who's lighting it up with some speed. Chip Ambres? Never heard of him. Hitting .314 with 10 HRs and 16 Stolen Bases. Maybe a 5th outfielder type.
ReplyDeleteI also know that lurking somewhere in the "Lenny DiNardo world of Rule 5 guys who went on the DL forever" is Adam Stern. He's supposed to have wheels.
Pedroia is supposed to be "Major League Ready". It would be cool to bring him up and see what he can do. Renteria's wrist is bothering him lately and Bellhorn could probably use a day or two of rest.
I say bring him up against the D-Rays so it is sort of like playing in AA anyway.
Its fun to go back and read some old stuff:
ReplyDeletehttp://gysnetwork.blogspot.com/2005/01/okay-so-this-is-our-roster-matt-please.html
Nice X...How about rotations now???
ReplyDeleteJohnson vs Schilling...Well, since Schilling hasn't really pitched, yet, the Yankees get the edge here. This will change very soon. If Schilling goes 4 innings and gives up less than 7 runs in his first outing back, the edge goes to the Sox.
Wells/Mussina- Draw
Clement/Pavano...Do we even have to discuss this? We do? Clement in a landslide. In fact, Schilling (who hasn't pitched), Wells, and Clement are still better than Johnson, Pavano, Mussina...
Arroyo/Brown...Um, Arroyo...
Wakefield/Wright, Wang, afha,a;dha, afhalkdfa...Wakefield...
Thanks for playing...
Oops...I forgot...Miller against...Wait, who else?
Edge Sox...
Now the real matchups...
Clement vs. Johnson- Sox
Wells vs. Mussina- slight edge Yankees?
Arroyo vs. Pavano- Sox
Wakefield vs. Brown- Sox
Miller vs. rest- Sox
Problem is...outside shot of this...
Schilling vs. Clemens....
Schilling is the wild card for the Sox staff. If you have no Schilling it makes it that much tougher.
ReplyDeleteWells/Mussina - I would give the edge to Mussina because he is healthy and we ended up giving three starts to Gonzalez (and lost two).
But we still kick the crap out of them at the Bottom
Hell, match it up like this:
Clement vs. Unit
Wells v Moose
Arroyo v Pavano
Wake v.Brown/Wang
Miller v Henn
We crush them