The latest

Okay, so Pedro and the (new) Mets have won their first game. Pedro is on pace to go 16-0 with the Mets going 16-148. He also will strike out over 300 batters. Very impressive.

So while Pedro's first outing would not have helped the Sox a week ago against the Yankees, they could have used his most recent gem. While Wells and Clement each faultered in start number 2, even the Mets bullpen could not keep Pedro from winning today.

For now, the W-L cost of not having signed pedro is one victory. I still think in the long run the Sox made the correct decision. I sure hope Wells and clement can get some W's or else the media could be all of this in a week or two.

Pedro Vs. Red Sox II

At this point I am sure you've all caught wind of this! It's sad that the Sox and Pedro broke up on bad terms. That being said, it happens and at this point I think Pedro is looking more and more like a prima-donna. Am I alone?

eBay...

...pulled the auction, but apparently this was up on eBay for a while. Not bad.

A gem

THE BRONX (April 6) -- Major League Baseball on Wednesday set April 8 as the date for the historic start of the conclave to elect a successor to Mariano Rivera, as the Yankees made final arrangements for the funeral of a great career that is expected to draw millions of Yankee fans and world leaders to the Bronx.



The decision came after the future Hall of Famer blew his second save in as many days against the team's biggest rival, the World Champion Red Sox, giving up five runs in the ninth, getting battered like a rented mule and ignominiously getting removed from the game in the middle of the inning, the fourth consecutive time he has blown a save to the Red Sox dating back to the 2004 ALCS. Fans at Yankee Stadium even booed the great closer on his way back to the dugout, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Yankee fans are headed to hell.



Yankees GM Brian Cashman said the Yankees would be sequestered in the team offices in the early afternoon to start the decision process for the next closer. Candidates include Oakland's Octavio Dotel, Detroit's Ugueth Urbina, current set-up man Flash Gordon, Rick Ankiel and Charlie Sheen. The Yankees will continue to use Rivera from the bullpen, but only in blowouts and games where the lead or deficit is six runs or more.



If none of the candidates gets the required two-thirds majority after about 12 days, the Yankee braintrust may change procedure and elect the closer by simple majority. The date was set on the third hour of preparatory meetings of Yankee front office people who have converged on the Bronx ahead of Friday's funeral and burial of Rivera's career.



Fans continued to flock to Yankee Stadium after Wednesday's game, jamming up streets as they waited to pay their final respects to Rivera, who has been lying in state of shock since the Red Sox hammered him off the field for the second straight day. More than 200,000 Yankee fans will have filed solemnly by the pinstriped body by the end of Wednesday night, at a rate of about 15,000-18,000 people an hour in a nearly around-the-clock procession, according to calculations by the Yankee front office.

Yes!

Wow. So make that FOUR blown saves in a row.

Two things I'd never seen before today:

1) Torre taking the ball from Mariano.
2) Yankees "fans" booing Mariano. Just sick.

Get well soon Terry.

Thoughts on Batting Order

This is always one of my favorite topics so I thought that I would post it so we can get some back-and-forth. Initially, this was going to be a rant about using Nixon in the 2 hole (I said, "2 hole") because he struck out twice yesterday. Ironically, I think I have made arguements in the past that Nixon ought to be batting second and I was about to argue that we should use Mueller. Alas I did the research and I found some interesting things.

1. Nixon is .294/.385/.553 in 425 ABs batting second
2. Mueller is .282/.365/.396 in 2273 ABs batting second
3. (Just in case you were wondering) Bellhorn is .257/.357/.432 in 544 ABs batting second

As far as I am concerned I am happy with Bellhorn (aka K-horn) batting 9th. So, Nixon batting second is pretty sweet. That being said, is his best place in the line up 2nd?

1. Nixon is .342/.425/.629 when batting 6th
2. Mueller is .355/.438/.597 with 375 ABs when batting 8th

So moving Nixon and replacing with Mueller isn't the best idea. Furthermore, 5,6,7 are Millar, Edgar, and Tek per yesterday. (Edgar batted 2nd in the first game, but more on that in a second). The best order I could establish based on the stats are:

1. Edgar is .306/.375/.422 with 206 ABs when batting 5th
2. Varitek is .299/.371/.508 with 311 ABs when batting 5th
3. Millar is .301/.376/.527 withh 731 ABs when batting 5th

5th would go to Millar, if not for the fact that,

1. Millar is .367/.439/.592 with 245 ABs when batting 7th!

So that leaves Varitek or Edgar at 5 and 6, which is easy because,

1. Edgar is .302/.354/.437 with 970 ABs when batting 6th
2. Varitek is .248/.340/.376 with 508 ABs when batting 6th

So clearly, Edgar is fine with 5 or 6, which leaves 5th to varitek. The only thing left to do before drawing up a summary is double-checking Edgar when batting 2nd:

1. Edgar is .286/.340/.382 with 2536 ABs when batting 2nd.

He's clearly got experience batting second and I like him just as much as Mueller batting second when Trot isn't in the line up. That being said, he's got generally better stats in the 5th and 6th positions.

So of course all of this research means nothing because I did not look at lefty vs. righty pitcher, ball parks, moon cycle, and number of beers consumed (oh wait that just affects me). That being said, I'd like to see a solid number of games this season with the following line up:

1. Damon
2. Nixon
3. Manny
4. Ortiz
5. Varitek
6. Edagr
7. Millar
8. Mueller
9. K-horn

Dammit.

Man, for all the Opening Day losses, we usually win Game 2. I think the last time we went 0-2 was in 1996. So that loss sort of hurt. Sort of. Upsides:

- The Sox are clearly in Mariano's head. That's his 3rd blown save in a row against the Sox, his 5th in the last year. Bear in mind that's out of only eight blown saves total (including the postseason). We may be getting to the point where the Sox actually like to see him coming out for the 9th of a close game.

- Nice to know this team still knows how to come back late in the game. And it's not like we can feel too bad about Foulke's blown save. I mean, better he gives up the losing run now than in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS. Or in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS. Or in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS. Or in Games 1-4 of the 2004 World Series.

- Clement actually looked all right. Lots of baserunners, but only 3 of them made it home. And had Renteria not muffed that DP ball, that number might've been zero. Plus, I said "muffed".

- Bullpen was not as shaky this game. Three baserunners in 3 2/3 innings; unfortunately one of those was Jeter at the end.

The big negative so far:

I was wary about the signing of Renteria -- why not sign OCab for 2 more years as Hanley develops? -- and nothing we've seen so far has made me feel any better about it. He's gone 0-8 with 2K's, stranded a bunch of runners, and committed a couple of errors, one of which was extremely costly. I can only assume things'll get better, but right now it hurts to watch him, both at the plate and in the field.

It's over.

That's it. No point playing the rest of the season -- this team sucks. They just don't have the fire.

Seriously though, I'm getting sick of these Opening Day losses. That's five in a row now!

Two gems from the NY press today:

1) Terry Francona, upon noticing there was new carpeting in the visitors' clubhouse at Yankee Stadium: "I guess our Champagne messed up last year's carpet."

2) All the sour grapes from Yankees fans. Can you believe some fan actually said this:
"Hate or love them, the Yankees are all about professionalism. We're champions, win or lose, because we play the game of baseball with class."

Did he even WATCH Game 6 of the ALCS? Not to mention two of the Yanks' Starting Nine are admitted steroid users. Man, it's sad. They can no longer brag about their team camaraderie, or their strong farm system, or their loyalty to veterans, so they're reduced to make up stories about "professionalism". Sad.

The first positive test

ESPN is reporting that Alex Sanchez (the 4 career HRs Alex Sanchez and former draft pick of the bootylemurs).

Rumor has it Yahoo Sports is investigating both Bootylemur general manager Kroll and recently maligned GYS commisioner Longo. There is some question about the contract language given to Sanchez by the Lemurs, as well as speculation that the commissioner arranged to trade Trot Nixon and Kevin Mench to the Lemurs.

Hey Derek

You wanna come over my house after the game. I'll show you a new trick I learned this offseason.