Take a Penny, Leave a Penny

God help us. Brad Penny has been released. He started awful, was decent for a little while, and recently has played like hot garbage. What I don't get is that he asked to be released. Do you have fend off all of the suitors, or is the American League that scary? I for one will will not miss Bulbous Brad. (By the way he's listed at 6'1'' 200 lbs. C'mon! He's easily pushing 3 bills.)

My only question is, now what? Yes, Penny wasn't worth one cent, but who's going to pitch now? I suppose the upside of Tazawa, however small, was more enticing than another 3 inning performance from Penny. Wakefield is still fragile in spite of his successful return outing on Wednesday. Who else ya got? Maybe SS Nick Green can pitch. He did something in his relief appearance last night in a blow out that Penny hardly ever did, pitch two consecutive scoreless innings. Heck, he even touched 90 on the gun!

The Sox finish up their home stand with a series starting tonight against Toronto. This is a classic trap series. It would be very easy to look ahead to next week's games at the Trop against Boston nemesis Tampa Bay. Basically the Sox need to take care of business against the struggling Blue Jays and at least win 2 of 3. This is especially important considering that the Sox have been abysmal against Tampa these past two seasons.

Observation: Muscle bound meathead spotted in Moe's mexican restaurant Wednesday wearing an "I hate Johnny Damon" T-shirt. That was four years ago, brah. You have to get over it and move on with your life. By the looks of your camo fatigue hat and shorts you really hold a serious grudge. Might I suggest counseling. It wasn't even that big a deal to me back then. Essentially, he worked and performed well with one big company and got a better job offer from another big company. That's life.

Yankees Slaughter Sox

I was starting to feel a little encouraged after the Sox sweep of the Blue Jays in Toronto. Granted, Toronto is a team that is reeling right now, and in game one, ace Josh Beckett couldn't hold any of the three leads he was handed. But in one of those wins, Clay Buchholz out-dueled Roy Halladay of all people, and the Boston Bats did there part smacking around the Cy Young candidate for 5 runs. Jon Lester continued his dominance earning his 10th win in game three.

But last night's game seemed like SSDD for the Yanks/Red Sox rivalry of late. You had to know that it would be a high scoring game with Brad Penny and Andy Pettitte on the hill. Unfortunately it was New York who struck early and often in their 20-11 win. Brad Penny is just the kind of pitcher that the Yankees usually feast on. He's got a really small margin for error and the Yankee hitters are too patient and too good for the likes of him. I'm already looking forward to Sunday quite honestly. The Beckett vs. Sabathia match up should be riveting regardless of the standings.

On happy note, last night marked Jerry Remy's return to the booth after a near season long recovery from cancer surgery and subsequent fatigue and depression. He will likely miss some road trips the rest of the way, but it was nice to hear his familiar Massachusetts accent over the airways. I guess we'll just have to suffer Dave Roberts saying "right there" about 1,000 times or Frank Viola's idiocy on the road a bit longer. Many will disagree, but I will miss Dennis Eckersly's self-deprecating humor during home games. Anyway, welcome back Remy. Red Sox broadcasts now sound as they should.

Sox vs. Rangers

Game one was a great comeback that saw the bury the Rangers under an avalanche of runs in the top of the 9th. Boston's hitting in that inning with two out was phenomenal. Boston batted around and scored 6 in the frame, not only completing the comeback but putting the game out of reach.

Game two on the other hand was a travesty. The Rangers stole 8 bases. This also happened earlier in the season. That was the game in which Carl Crawford stole 6 bases on his own. Coincidentally, Brad Penny was the starting pitcher in both games. Ya think he's a little slow to the plate? Last night's game continues a disturbing trend of teams running all over the Red Sox. I for one have always thought that it's actually extremely hard for a catcher, any catcher, to throw out a good base stealer. However, Sox catchers are only throwing out about 10% of runners attempting to steal. Jason Varitek on his own has only caught 9 runners out of 101 attempts!

As I write, the Sox are up 1-0 on Texas. Junichi Tazawa was in big trouble in the first. He was saved by a double play when Dustin Pedroia caught a line drive and threw immediately to first with the runner already far off the first base bag. Right now the difference in the game is a David Ortiz solo shot. Oops, wait. Ian Kinsler just took Tazawa deep. Cripe. Maybe I should watch Discovery Sunday instead.

Sox Spank Yanks... Again

It's a shame for the Yankees that they lost this one. I know that Sabathia was responsible for all four Sox runs, but it didn't feel that way. He pitched a gem into the seventh. The Yankees just left him in too long. On the other side, Brad Penny was equal to the task. Penny's stuff isn't that great so he has to paint to consistantly get people out, and last night he was Mark Rothko.

Quietly, David Ortiz is coming around. Last night's homer was his third in five games. Had a mini seven game hit streak going along. Too bad he'll have to be on the bench or play first in this stupid interleague series with Philly that starts tonight. Francona will probably do what he usually does and rotate Ortiz, Mike Lowell, and Kevin Youkilis around.

Anyway, I wouldn't get too excited, Sox fans. Sure, it's nice to beat up on the Yankees, but a lot is going to happen between now and the end of the year. By August, this will all be a distant memory.

Annoying note of the day: Did Yankee catcher, Francisco Cervelli, have to appeal every single check swing by the Red Sox? Most of them weren't even close. Besides, no third base umpire is going to call strike three on a check swing from his vantage point.

Brad Penny Listens; Red Sox Lose

It appears that Brad Penny read my blog from last week and took it to heart.  He went 6 innings today striking out eight and allowing only three runs.  That's the kind of production one would hope for from him.  He doesn't have to be great, just decent.  And if not for two fluke hits in the fifth and a botched double play by Julio Lugo (God, I despise that wife beating, butterfingers, no offense bastard), the game would have been tied 1-1 going into the later innings.  So all things considered it wasn't a bad day for Penny.

The main reason for the Red Sox loss was that Carl Crawford stole six bases, six bases!  I've never seen anything like it.  The Rays had a total of eight steals.  One of those steals, by Jason Bartlett in the eighth, lead to Tampa Bay's insurance run after the Red Sox had closed within a run.

Just as I was about to start singing his praises, Manny Delcarmen pitches an awful seventh plunking two batters in the process.  I've never seen a pitcher hit a batter to load the bases, then hit the next batter to force home a run on consecutive pitches.  I think he is finally coming around to be the set up guy I thought he could be, today was not his day.  Without that gaffe, Youkilis' home run the following inning would've tied the game. That would've changed the complexion of things.

In other disturbing and depressing news, David Ortiz continues to swing like a rusty gate.  He's never had the prettiest swing, but now that he's whiffing on a constant basis, it's pretty painful to watch.  He's just a big dead spot in the line up right now, and I wish Francona would move him around or something, just for the sake of a change.

This just in... Brad Penny Sucks

Though he's not allowing the football like totals of Chien-Ming Wang, Brad Penny is trying. The corpulent hurler has only managed 17 2/3 innings in his four starts. His ERA matches his bloated physique at 8.66. And somehow, infuriatingly, he's managed not to record a loss. John Smoltz, where are you?!

Trivia question, as provided by Jason Stark of ESPN. Who are the four (correction six) active players with a .300 lifetime batting average and 2000 career hits? Don't cheat by looking up the stats. I'll post the answer tomorrow.

State of the Rotation: Part V

The fifth and final matchup is between Brad Penny and assorted others vs. Joba Chamberlain and fellow youngsters

It’s far from a guarantee that Penny will be in this spot for very long. The same can be said for Joba as well. Though both have the capability to be top rotation starters this season it really can’t be expected from either of them. For Penny the most important aspect of his game is health. He has a dominant fastball, though he doesn’t have overwhelming secondary stuff. But if that heater is out on the mound and he’s able to hurl strikes on a consistent basis then the Sox will be ecstatic with their minimal investment in Penny. If he doesn’t work out then they have either the stalwart John Smoltz on his way back from rehab or Clay Buchholz who is probably itching to prove himself after last year’s rough rookie season.

Joba on the other hand has slightly different concerns. Health is a big one for him, but in a different way. Aside from last season’s minor meltdown in his shoulder, Joba has proven to be healthy for awhile. But, like several other young Yankee pitchers, he hasn’t come anywhere near the innings levels that the Yankees want to see their big three at. The Yankees are saying Joba is going to get 30 starts which would lead one to conclude they want 180 innings out of him. If they could get that then they deserve a reward. It’s just unrealistic to expect that much out of arm that hasn’t been that taxed yet.

If Joba does slip up, then his first stop will probably be Triple A Scranton and in his stead will be Phil Hughes. Hughes has done several things better since his awful season last year. He has tweaked and improved his curve and he has begun to look to his a cut fastball on a regular basis and a change up on occasion. Beyond him there is Ian Kennedy and Kei Igawa…

Sorry I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Verdict: If this was question of upside and pure talent the Yankees would win. Even when Brad Penny was healthy he wasn’t dominant in the NL West, and the Yanks young guns have more talent than he ever did. Joba and Hughes both have more ability than Penny, but like him and Smoltz they both have durability questions. It’s a close call but I really like the Smoltz pick up for the Sox and I fully expect him to displace Penny when he comes back. Smoltz is a badass, even at age 41, and his experience and tenacity give him and the Red Sox a slight edge in this final slot over the upside an optimism of Joba and Hughes. Sox make it a game, but Yanks win 3-2.

Sox Sign Brad Penny

The Red Sox signed Brad Penny to a one year deal for $5 million. That's a nice little pick up for them to beef up the back end of the rotation. If he can make pitch 170 innings and keep his ERA at 4.00 or below, I would definitely take that to compliment Beckett, Dice-K, and Jon Lester.