Sporting Word, at davedonofrio.com

A sudden end

Dave — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:01:00 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Before yesterday's wild-card playoff game, the New England Patriots urged their fans to get seated at Gillette Stadium by 10 minutes before kickoff.

They didn't say why, or share details; they just said something big was going to happen early in the afternoon.

Little did they realize that surprise would come courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens.

Ray Rice shocked the 68,756 people in the seats by going 83 yards on the first snap from scrimmage, Le'Ron McClain joined him in the end zone less than four minutes later, and the Ravens piled on 24 points in the stunning first quarter of a 33-14 win that simultaneously eliminated the Patriots from the NFL postseason and smacked any semblance of mystique clear off New England's collective face.

"It's very disappointing because we played this game like it wasn't a playoff game. It

just felt like we was out there just to be out there," said Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork. "We talked all week about how we needed to step our game up - and we didn't. We didn't, and it showed."

It showed on their first defensive play, when Rice went the distance. It showed on their first offensive series, when Tom Brady was stripped of the ball on his own 17 yard line. It showed at the end of the first quarter, when their deficit was the second largest in playoff history.

Most shocking, though, was that it showed in ways it never did in the dynasty that's ruled the NFL for much of the last decade - and in ways we never thought it would as long as Brady was the quarterback, and Bill Belichick the coach.

The combination was once the epitome of clutch, having started its partnership with 10 straight playoff wins and three Super Bowl titles, and earned a reputation that managed to stick even after the playoff stumbles of subsequent seasons started to peel away the layers of that aura. But yesterday might've been the day the NFL's former emperors were finally left wearing no clothes.

Never again should analysis of a big game involving New England fall back on the hackneyed standby that the Pats will have success simply because they've got Brady and Belichick. Not after blowing a three-score lead to the Colts in the 2006 AFC Championship game. Not after letting the Giants drive the field to beat them in Super Bowl XLIII.

And certainly not after yesterday.

"They played a good game," safety James Sanders said of the Ravens, "but we killed ourselves with a lot of mistakes. Just uncharacteristic ball."

Indeed, mistakes were abundant from a team that appeared to be woefully underprepared for Baltimore's challenge. But no "ball" was more uncharacteristic than Brady's.

From the very start he looked more like a happy-footed rookie than a former MVP, failing to identify the direction of pressure in the Ravens' well-disguised pass rush and never settling into a rhythm with his offense or his receivers.

As a result, he turned the ball over four times, first fumbling when Terrell Suggs ripped the ball from his arm, and then throwing three interceptions. Two were the product of trying to force the ball into tight coverage, while the other seemed to typify the afternoon, as a scrambling Brady made a throw so bad it was tough to tell who might've been his intended target.

"We didn't play well," admitted Brady, who finished with a passer rating of 49.1 after posting a 96.2 for the regular season. "We got off to a horrible start in the first quarter and never really could get back in the game. We just made way too many mistakes."

And with each miscue the booing began to intensify, growing from a low groan about six minutes into the first quarter to a full-blown insurrection when New England sent its punt team on the field just before the half.

With the ball at the Baltimore 36 and 2:07 to go in the second quarter, and New England trailing 24-7, that choice was one of two fourth-down decisions that spoke volumes about the state of things for the Patriots yesterday. They desperately needed points. Every possession had huge value. They were well inside Ravens territory.

And yet Belichick - the coach who's never met a fourth down he didn't like - didn't have faith that his offense could get the yards, so he booted the ball away. After the break another fourth down arose, this one requiring the Pats to gain seven yards, and the best they could come up with was a quick pass to Julian Edelman behind the line of scrimmage. Apparently the coaches didn't trust their linemen to block long enough for the receivers to scoot up field.

"We beat them up," said Ravens receiver Kelley Washington, an ex-Patriot. "We outplayed them. I was telling Ray Lewis, in the two years I played here I had never seen the defense execute and (the Patriots) not have an answer. Our defense, it was almost like they had cards up knowing the plays."

And so the Ravens did what no visitor had done in 31 years. They became the first road team to win a playoff game in Foxborough since New Year's Eve 1978, and at the same time forced New England to consider whether its nine-year stay in pro football's penthouse may at long last be over.

Brady says it's not, because they've still got Bob Kraft's ownership and Bill Belichick's coaching. Baltimore Coach John Harbaugh agrees, because the Pats still have a sound strategy when it comes to building a team.

But, for the first time, the fans may beg to differ. Yesterday's game didn't sell out until the middle of the week, and even after those tickets were gone, more could be had for just about face value from resellers. Then, just before noon yesterday, a Craigslist poster offered up a seat along the 30 yard line in the stadium's lowest section - for absolutely free. An e-ticket, it was available to anyone who had a printer and could get to the stadium within an hour.

Anyone with a longer drive would've missed a most stunning surprise.

"Never had a chance, from the first play to the last play," Wilfork said. "No excuses, not on this end. We just didn't come to play."

The replacement

Dave — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:57:00 GMT

With an act of brazen insubordination, followed by a show of intense solidarity, football season came to an end for California's Woodside High School.

It wasn't supposed to end. Not for another few weeks. But after the team's fifth straight loss, Head Coach Packy Moss reportedly returned to the dressing room and heard his players pounding on their lockers in rhythm with the chant, "(Bleep) Packy." When none of them would give her the names of those leading the mutiny, the school's principal canceled the rest of the 2003 campaign.

Moss resigned before 2004, leaving Woodside with some motivated athletes in his wake. They wanted to prove they were better, both as players and as people, than the perception of them after three straight losing seasons and the ugly chanting incident - so they used it as fuel. They focused on their job. They fought for their reputation. And they followed the lead of their quarterback.

His name was Julian Edelman.

"He was a leader," said Steve Nicolopulos, who took over for Moss as Woodside's coach. "He was one of the main characters. Kids looked up to him; he set the tone by example.

"He knew how to take care of business - and he took care of business."

A year after its season was truncated by turmoil, Edelman's three-touchdown title game helped Woodside cap a 13-0 season with a state sectional championship. And more than five years later, Nicolopulos is confident the New England Patriots can count on his former player to take care of business again.

As soon as Wes Welker went down with a knee injury in the first quarter of the team's regular-season finale, Edelman instantly became a major factor in the fate of the Patriots' postseason.

He became New England's starting slot receiver, which is to say he became Tom Brady's security blanket, and his ability to replicate Welker's performance in that role could decide whether the Pats' season continues on to San Diego or ends with today's wild-card contest against the Ravens.

It's unfair to expect Edelman will be as productive in the position as the NFL's leading receiver, though the Patriots will need him to present at least a reasonable facsimile in order to counter an aggressive, attacking Baltimore defense. And if that's what they need, that's what they'll get - according to his former coach.

"Julian," Nicolopulos said, "has always been one that's been able to rise to the occasion."

Patriots fans have seen that through the course of his rookie season as a pro, when the seventh-round draft pick was converted from quarterback to receiver, then broke his arm in the middle of the year, but still managed to rank third on the team in receptions.

He met the demands in his debut, even, stepping in for the injured Welker and making eight catches for 98 yards against the Jets. He scored his first career touchdown against the unbeaten Colts despite wearing a cast up to his elbow on one arm. Then he snagged 10 balls for 103 yards last week against the Texans.

He enters today with 37 catches, and averaging 9.7 yards with each one of them, remarkable numbers for a 23-year-old rookie who as recently as a year ago had never played receiver in his life. But numbers not totally unforeseen by the Patriots.

After high school at Woodside, then a year of junior college in California, Edelman accepted the lone scholarship offer he received from a Division I program and enrolled at Kent State University. Other schools weren't keen on his size - 5-foot-11 and 198 pounds - but Doug Martin saw him differently.

"I knew he was a difference maker, and I knew we were getting a steal," said the Golden Flashes coach, who brought Edelman aboard and shaped the entire offense around him. As a quarterback he threw the ball when it was necessary, but he was primarily used in that position because it was the best way to make him a factor in every snap.

"Our whole deal when we had him here was keep the ball in his hands," said Martin, whose Kent State program has had three NFL Pro Bowlers each of the last three years. "We wanted him touching the ball every play, whether it's a run or a pass. As long as he had the ball, something good was going to happen."

Good happened often enough that Martin says Edelman was the Mid-American Conference's "best player, bar none" over each of his three seasons - including a senior year in which he ran for 1,551 yards and 13 scores, while attracting the attention of pro scouts. They saw that he was "a good runner, he had good quickness, and he was a strong runner," according to Patriots Player Personnel Director Nick Caserio, and that mix was intriguing to more than a few teams.

None more so than New England.

"The Patriots did the best job of evaluating him," Martin said. "They sent several different coaches, they sent several different scouts, they really grilled him mentally about the game of football. They put him on the chalkboard and had him explain pass protections and blocking schemes to really see how intelligent he was football-wise. They found out a lot more about him than other teams did."

So Caserio was comfortable with the admitted "leap of faith" his team took by tabbing Edelman in the second round. And that level of comfort has only continued to arrive since he arrived in Foxborough.

He has embraced the challenge of learning a complex offense loaded with reads and reactions. He has welcomed the opportunity to master a new position, and eagerly followed the examples set by Welker and Randy Moss. He has prepared himself every day for the very chance he'll be presented this afternoon.

And, according to the coaches he's still in touch with, he has done it all "with a chip on his shoulder" - just like he did when playing in their own programs.

"He wants to prove everyone wrong," Martin said. "He goes into every practice like that; he goes into every game like that. That's just who he is. All you have to do is doubt him, and that's all the motivation he needs."

"When you tell him he can't do something," added Nicolopulos, "that's when he really puts out and makes sure that he gets it done."

Once they said he was just another player among the rowdy misfits of a losing program. Then they said he was too small to be worthy of a college scholarship. And now they're saying the Patriots are going nowhere in the playoffs without Welker in the slot.

In California, and in Ohio, however, there are coaches who've never agreed with the crowd. Nor are they about to start now. They are confident the Pats have a replacement who'll be ready. Excited. Eager. And able. His name is Julian Edelman.

And, by the end of today, NFL fans everywhere may know it.

"The bigger the game, the higher the stakes - the more he loves it," Martin said. "He is the most competitive football player I have ever been around."

Middle of the pack

Dave — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:32:00 GMT

Maybe he got caught up in the moment, or overcome by the atmosphere created by a Superdome crowd drunk on delirium (among other things). But while sending his viewers to a commercial break with only 5:26 left in his broadcast of Monday Night Football, and the Saints in command of the 38-17 lead that ultimately stood as the game’s final margin, ESPN’s Mike Tirico couldn’t get over what he’d just witnessed.

“This score,” he told us, “is shocking.”

Really, though, it shouldn’t have been.

Not in the least.

After all, results like the one-sided slaughter rendered that night in New Orleans are rather commonplace when a member of the NFL’s elite meets an opponent from the league’s middle-class – and that was exactly the sort of matchup that played out Monday for Tirico’s primetime television audience.

Forget the week’s worth of hype. Forget the expectations of an instant classic. Forget the idea of a showdown. By the time Drew Brees had used the second quarter to become the first quarterback ever to throw three touchdowns in the same period against a Bill Belichick-coached team, it was clear his balanced, explosive and super-athletic Saints were every bit the title contender their 11-0 record would suggest.

And just as clear that the Patriots were on a different level altogether.

If they really belong in the class of the Saints, the Colts and the Vikings, Monday was their chance to prove it – but, instead, all they did was add validity to every reason their detractors have to doubt them. They’re still 7-4, and still own a two-game lead in the AFC East. They’re still a good bet to make the playoffs, and still in contention for a first-round bye if they get there.

But they also still haven’t beaten a team that would earn a postseason berth if the tournament was seeded today. They still haven’t proven themselves against anything more than an average quarterback. And they still haven’t won a legitimate road game.

To this point the best teams they’ve beaten have been Atlanta and Baltimore, both of which now stand at 6-5, and the rest have come against NFL’s sub-.500 riffraff. Two of those clubs (Tennessee and Tampa Bay) were winless when they encountered New England, while beating Buffalo required two touchdowns in the final 2:06, and the Bills to fumble a kickoff in between.

The list of quarterbacks the Patriots have conquered is no more impressive. It includes Trent Edwards, Kerry Collins and Josh Johnson, each of whom has since lost his starting job, as well as Chad Henne, who began the year as a backup. Mark Sanchez – he of the 10 touchdowns and 17 interceptions – is on the list as well.

Felling Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco is fairly respectable, but the fact remains that Flacco (at 90.2) is the lone quarterback among the top 19 in passer rating that the Pats have defeated. They’re 1-3 against passers whose rating is higher than 80.0; they’re an opportunistic 6-1 against everybody else.

Oh, and all 12 quarterbacks who’d be under center if the playoffs started today happen to own a rating of at least 85.1.

The trouble signs aren’t exclusive to the defense, though. While the Patriot offense continues to produce at a competitive level – and hasn’t been limited to less than 17 points since the second week of the season – there is cause for concern beyond the simple numbers.

Consistently stretching the play clock to the limits of its final second, and a few times getting penalized for going beyond it, there almost seems to be confusion, or at least hesitation, in the process of calling plays. There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of creativity in their choices, either, and they aren’t adapting very well as things change from series to series. Their gameplans each week are solid, and fruitful, so they’ve scored 206 points prior to halftime – but their inability to morph has meant scoring only 101 after the break.

All of that can be traced to the same problem: New England misses the presence of an offensive coordinator. Currently it’s a duty unofficially shared by Belichick and quarterbacks coach Bill O’Brien, but the team doesn’t have a sole decision-maker handling what must be instantaneous selections – which could be why Tom Brady always seems to be rushing the snap to beat the clock. Or why they seem so unwilling to mix things up. Or why they struggle to make the in-game adjustments they were so famous for during their Super Bowl dynasty.

(Charlie Weis, anyone?)

Now, a return to those glory days can’t be dismissed entirely. Three of the last four NFL champions have seemed no more than a middling team near Thanksgiving before becoming more dangerous as the season progressed – and, at 24-2, New England has been the league’s best December team since 2003.

So it’s not impossible that even these far-from-flawless Patriots could still make a run. The rest of the regular-season slate is fairly light, and no one would pick against them if they were to host, say, Jacksonville in the wild-card round of the playoffs. They may even be favored to win a divisional game at Cincinnati or San Diego.

But an AFC championship? Or a Super Bowl title?

Now that would be shocking.

Headed for trouble

Dave — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:26:00 GMT

We saw the look so often, some of us in New England might’ve thought they started using it as Peyton Manning’s headshot. Cheeks scrunched. Mouth agape. Hands on the helmet. And befuddlement all over the face.

It didn’t matter if it was a midseason game at home in his dome, or a midwinter game on the frigid field in Foxborough. Marked by that quizzical look, and the mediocrity that matched it, every time the Colts’ quarterback went up against the Patriots in the early part of this decade he appeared a different guy than the one who’d routinely carve the rest of the league – and so many reached the same conclusion: Bill Belichick must’ve been in Manning’s head.

Sunday night, however, we learned that those roles have been reversed.

At the end of a decade during which each has established himself as a no-doubt hall of famer, it’s become Belichick whose judgment is clouded by the presence of the other. Who cowers fearfully at the brilliance of his foe. And who lets that lack of mental clarity cripple his decision making at the most critical moments.

That was a fact proven painfully on Sunday, when Belichick made an inexplicable – and inexcusable – choice in trying to convert a fourth down from his own 28 with a six-point lead and two minutes left, and it cost New England a key conference game, 35-34, in Indianapolis. Forfeiting 40 yards of field position, it was reckless. It was foolhardy.

But it wasn’t the first evidence to suggest Manning has made his way into Belichick’s head. That came last November, when the Patriots went to Lucas Oil Field to face a Colts team struggling just to stay in the playoff race, but breathed life into its season, and beat the Pats, thanks to a sequence of critical mistakes from the New England coach.

They began early in the third quarter, when Belichick threw his challenge flag looking for five cheap yards – with his offense facing second down in Indy territory – but wound up losing a timeout because the refs ruled there weren’t actually 12 Colts on the field.

About a quarter later he made another bad misdjudgment, this one borne of indecision. The Pats trailed by three with about 12 minutes to play, and after marching from their own 24 had advanced to the Indianapolis 7. There they faced fourth and a yard, and a choice whether to kick the tying field goal or play for the go-ahead touchdown, though Belichick couldn’t make up his mind.

Initially he called for Matt Cassel to sneak the ball over center, which he wound up doing successfully – but at the last instant the coach reconsidered. Just prior to the snap, Belichick raced up the sideline and signaled timeout, negating a carry that would’ve given his team a fresh set of downs, and opting instead to play it safe with a chip-shot kick.

It tied the game, sure. But between that call, and the ill-fated challenge, it left the Patriots without a timeout. And that proved huge later in the game. Again down by three, and again on the move, with nearly five minutes left New England encountered fourth and 15 at the Colts’ 45. With a conversion unlikely the Pats could’ve punted, hoping to pin Indy deep, play defense and get the ball back with favorable time and territory.

Except, in this case, that option really didn’t exist. Because they’d blown those two previous timeouts, the Patriots couldn’t afford to punt, and so they were forced to attempt a fourth-down play. Cassel was picked off, the Pats lost, and the Colts eventually edged them by a game for a wild-card playoff berth.

Barring an unforeseen threat in the AFC East, Sunday’s loss isn’t likely to cost the Patriots a chance at the postseason. In fact, there was a lot of good to be gleaned from a game that nearly, if not for a pair of turnovers in the end zone, could’ve vaulted New England into consideration among the NFL’s elite.

But what ‘s most disturbing about Sunday, particularly piggybacked on top of last year’s loss, is the way each setback has been so inconsistent with the thinking that has made Belichick so successful.

To steal a phrase from Sarah Palin, he’s always been something of a maverick. He’s always been a hooded rogue who hears his own drummer in his headset, and has never shied from a calculated risk. It’s what encouraged him not to kneel down and go to overtime in Super Bowl XXXVI. It’s what allowed him to trust Troy Brown as a defensive back in the AFC playoffs. It’s what has annually ranked the Patriots among football’s most aggressive fourth-down teams since 2005. It’s a factor in why he wins.

But that’s why his out-of-character, almost-desperate decision making at Indy over these last couple of years is all the more disconcerting. And look no further than his two fourth-down calls for the most telling examples. They came at different ends of the field. One with a lead, the other at a deficit. But both times Belichick’s decision was exactly opposite of what we’ve come to expect.

Sunday night, that meant allowing the worst-case scenario to enter into play. It meant giving Manning a short field and ample time to use it, instead of forcing the Colts to cover at least half the field with just one timeout.

Some saw Belichick's choice as a slight against the Indy defense. Others saw it as a distrust of his own defenders. Still more saw it as supreme confidence in Brady and his offense.

But when the scope goes beyond that singular play, or that series, or that game, and considers what’s now happened on that same turf in the span of 54 Sundays, his reasoning is better explained by the blank stare. The stunned stoicism. The arching brow. And the angry eyes.

Now smiling himself, Peyton Manning has found his way into Bill Belichick’s head.

And, until he’s evicted, that might be a look Patriots fans will have to get used to.

Start spreading the views

Dave — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:29:00 GMT

Tying the bow on baseball season with a World Series observation for every game it took for the Yanks to give the Phillies the downtime necessary to discover the lotta, lotta culture their city has to offer ...

1) Overcome by the inevitable talk of cash flow and competitive inequity, something rather significant has so far been ignored in discussions of New York's postseason dominance. It took its first hit in 2001, and the hits got harder each year thereafter, but this fall marked the return of the Yankees as an intimidating presence.

The proof is in the path to title No. 27. The Yankees went 11-4 in the playoffs, and in each series left themselves three opportunities to close things out. Never did they need more than two – though it's not as if they enjoyed a cakewalk every night. Of the 15 games, the Yankees actually trailed in 11 of them. Six were tied in the seventh inning or later. And eight of New York's 11 wins were decided by the three runs or less.

But the Yankees wound up on the right side of those results because all three of their opponents played scared in the pivotal moments. As a team New York hit just .225 against Minnesota, .279 against Los Angeles, and .247 against Philly, but all three of those clubs seemed to feel a pressure that they needed to make every play perfectly in order to compete with the high-and-mighty Yankees, and they wound up looking tight, and stiff, and trying way to hard because of it.

The Twins and Angels -- the AL's first- and fourth-ranked defensive clubs during the regular season – uncharacteristically combined to make 10 errors in the nine games they played against New York, some of which were as silly as dropped throws to first base, or tosses sailed to Brooklyn. And while the Phillies were a bit better -- with only two official miscues -- they were hardly mistake-free. Just look at gold-glover Shane Victorino allowing Derek Jeter's routine fly to fall in front of him to start the series-winning rally in Game 6.

Based on last year, and their performance earlier in this postseason, we wouldn't have expected such failure from the Phillies. But this Yankee team – this never-ending onslaught of superstars and swagger – had a way of owning the moment while making others feel inferior. And that's where the game's biggest payroll might've paid off the most.

2) We in Boston should never gripe about the Yankees' ability to outspend the competition, given our perennial status among baseball's biggest spenders. But the argument seems particularly out of place this year, given what New York's title signifies in a broader perspective.

People say the disparity between those with and those without continues to widen, but if the end-game for every organization is winning a championship, then that's simply not true. By winning the Series, the Yankees (as would have the Phillies) ensured that there would be eight franchises who won world titles in this decade.

That's the second-most diversity in the history of the World Series. The only period with more was the 1980s, when the Dodgers were the only two-time champion, and only two others (1920s and 1960s) had as many as seven.

As a point of comparison, in seasons that finished between 2000-09, the NFL has had seven teams win titles; the NHL had seven (in nine seasons); and the NBA had six.

Sounds like baseball's got some parity, to me.

3) Alex Rodriguez reminded us how hard it is to really like him in the aftermath of Game 6, when even after winning his first World Series he somehow managed to come off as a phony. But this year he also reminded us how great a player he really is.

Flash back to February. It's just been revealed that A-Rod took steroids. His career is at a crossroads. His personal life is in turmoil. There's a behind-the-scenes book coming out about him. Oh, and he'll soon need hip surgery that's being riskily modified so he must only miss the opening month. It looked like Rodriguez's days as dominant player might be done.

Then he proved all that wrong. Statistically he had a stellar season, managing 30 homers and 100 RBI despite playing just 124 games, as well as an adjusted OPS of 143 that ranked fourth in the American League. What was even more remarkable, though, was that -- for as much credit as Mark Teixeira, and Derek Jeter, and CC Sabathia, and Mariano Rivera all received for maybe being the MVP of the Yankees -- A-Rod is really just as worthy as any of them.

When he came back on May 8, New York owned a record of 13-15, and was 5.5 games back of Toronto in the Eastern division. Only four AL clubs had worse records, and Teixeira was hitting .198. From that point forward, though, the Yankees went 101-48, soared over every team in their way, and Teixeira hit .310 with 34 homers and 107 RBI with A-Rod protecting him the rest of the way.

Add in an excellent postseason -- he had a 1.308 OPS -- and suddenly a contract running through 2017 doesn't seem as ridiculous as it might've nine months ago.

4) Speaking of reconciled images ... can anyone begin to understand what it must've been like to be Roger Clemens on Wednesday night? Picture him sitting at home in Kady, with Mindy McCready's latest melodies lingering in the background, while Debbie is rubbing the hottest possible liniments on – well, let's not picture THAT part – and watching the postgame show with some of the biggest imaginable regrets.

Not only was A-Rod on stage in all his glory less than a year after being linked to performance enhancers -- but so, too, was Andy Pettitte. The same Andy Pettitte who was tied to drugs along with Clemens, but chose to treat those accusations very differently. And who is today being paraded as a champion, not a cheater.

The Rocket couldn't help but think that if he had done what Pettitte did, and merely came clean immediately, his life would be entirely different than it is today. He, too, would be being celebrated -- instead of being ostracized in embarrassment. Let his be a lesson to all.

5) Red Sox fans who saw the Series and would suddenly be willing to take whichever free agent the Yankees don't retain -- either Hideki Matsui or Johnny Damon -- let that six-game set also remind us why that would be a bad idea unless it's at a bargain-basement price.

As I was discussing with a friend about five seconds before he launched his two-run homer off Pedro Martinez, Matsui is still a guy the enemy never wants to see at the plate in a big spot. And Damon is a ballplayer's ballplayer who battles pitchers and makes the plays that help his team win.

But both are old. And subject to breakdowns. Damon had to be lifted from Game 6 after scoring (without a throw) from second base, having tweaked his leg. And Matsui's mobility was such an issue that he had to sit when the series moved to Philadelphia. It'd be crazy to think either is worth signing here as the Sox' replacement for Jason Bay.

6) It's time for the annual mea culpa, when I look back at my predictions at the start of the year ... and we all laugh at how stupid I am. Here goes nothin':

AL EAST
Prediction: Red Sox, Yankees*, Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles
Actual: Yankees, Red Sox*, Rays, Blue Jays, Orioles
Analysis: Not too bad, actually. Forgive me the hometown bias.

AL CENTRAL
Prediction: Indians, Twins, Tigers, White Sox, Royals
Actual: Twins, Tigers, White Sox, Indians, Royals
Analysis: I picked the team that used to have both guys who started Game 1 of the World Series. Too bad the leftovers really sucked.

AL WEST
Prediction: A's, Angels, Rangers, Mariners
Actual: Angels, Rangers, Mariners, A's
Analysis: I fell for it, Michael Lewis. To quote myself, circa March, "I love what Billy Beane did this offseason."

AL PLAYOFFS
Prediction: Red Sox over A's, 3-1; Indians over Yankees, 3-2; Red Sox over Indians, 4-2.
Analysis: Not. Even. Close.

NL EAST
Prediction: Mets, Phillies*, Marlins, Braves, Nationals
Actual: Phillies, Marlins, Braves, Mets, Nationals
Analysis: I'm never picking the Mets to win anything, ever again. Ever.

NL CENTRAL
Prediction: Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers, Astros, Pirates
Actual: Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers, Reds, Astros, Pirates
Analysis: I think I'll pick the Pirates to finish last next year, too. Living on the edge.

NL WEST
Prediction: Diamondbacks, Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Rockies
Actual: Dodgers, Rockies*, Giants, Padres, Diamondbacks
Analysis: I should stay up later watching games; for both western divisions, the team I picked to finish first finished last. Yikes.

NL PLAYOFFS
Prediction: Cubs over Phillies, 3-2; Diamondbacks over Mets, 3-2; Cubs over Diamondbacks, 4-2.
Analysis: We're worse off as baseball fans for not having seen that D'Backs-Mets NLDS. Would've been a doozy, I tell ya.

WORLD SERIES
Prediction: Red Sox over Cubs, 4-3.
Analysis: Maybe next year.

Clarifying for the critics

Dave — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:06:00 GMT

Shame on me for not articulating this more clearly in the original column yesterday, but I wanted to quickly clarify a couple things -- particularly for anybody who may have been redirected here by the hilarious folks at Barstool Sports. I do not mean to suggest, nor do I believe, that the Red Sox are so vastly inferior to the Yankees that the gap between the teams is hopelessly insurmountable. And I do not mean to suggest, nor do I believe, that Josh Beckett is anything but an excellent major league pitcher. (If I didn't, I wouldn't think he'd be so valuable in trade.)

But I don't think it's debatable that the Red Sox have some work to do in order to catch up to the Yankees -- or that the Sox should try to close that gap as quickly as possible. And that's where Beckett comes in. He's got one year left on his contract, so he could be gone after next year anyway, and at 29 he's probably the Sox player other teams would most covet other than Jon Lester and maybe Dustin Pedroia. In other words, I think Theo could potentially turn his No. 2 starter (sorry, the 14th best ERA in the 14-team AL does not automatically make you an ace) into a solution at shortstop, at clean-up hitter, at the back of the rotation -- or maybe all three at once.

Ideally, I'd like them to keep Beckett and address those concerns by spending in free agency. But the fact of the matter is that the Sox don't do very well when simply opening up the wallet. Look at the 2009 roster: Their best players were brought in by trade (Martinez, Bay, Lowell, Beckett) or developed internally (Youkilis, Pedroia, Lester, Ellsbury, Papelbon). JD Drew had a good year, but he's the exception to the rule of free agency failure that has seen them -- in this past season alone -- write empty checks for guys like Lugo, Smoltz and Penny.

In the next 13 months the Sox could potentially lose Bay, Beckett, Martinez and Lowell; and a year after that Papelbon and Drew could be gone, too. That's a lot of talent to replace, particularly for a team that is already chasing the rival that just beat it by 8 games in the division race. If I had faith the Sox could simply use that freed money to fill those holes, and do it effectively, I'd be all for Beckett staying -- but I don't. They don't identify free-agent targets very well. And the Yankees won't let their archenemy outspend them for the elite commodities (see: Teixeira, Mark). That's why I think it's time to cash in on Beckett's reputation, get heaps of talent in return, and kickstart the rebuilding of a club that's going to look quite a bit different in a couple years.

By the way, let me know if you'd like to borrow any slightly used tin foil. I've been saving up.

Trumping the ace

Dave — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:15:00 GMT

As the Yankees close in on their 27th title, it’s become clear they are the best team in baseball. They have a genuine ace at the head of an effective starting staff, a sturdy bullpen anchored by an untouchable closer, and a relentless lineup that never leaves them hopeless.

Along the course to their rival's 3-2 World Series lead it’s also become clear that the Red Sox have some work to do in order to narrow the gap between themselves and New York’s gold standard. They must add a slugger to the middle of the order. They must add reliability to a rotation that this September counted on Paul Byrd in a pennant race. They must add to a relief corps that became unsteady as summer turned to fall.

And they can make all those additions with one simple – if foundation-shaking – subtraction.

By trading Josh Beckett.

It isn’t something the Sox need to do. In fact, it isn’t something they should do if not presented with the proper, hole-plugging package. But in baseball’s realm of player evaluation there are perceptions, and there are realities – and Boston could be in position to capitalize on the fact that when it comes to Beckett those tend to be two different things.

The perception of Beckett is that he’s a bona fide ace. A guy who has earned a mention among the game’s elite, and is in the midst of his prime. A guy who grabs the ball and gets it done, whether it takes guts or guile or his own good stuff. A guy who delivers every five days through the summer, then can single-handedly wins playoff series in the fall. And, at times, he has been all that.

But, by and large, the reality has been something else altogether.

He was downright brilliant a couple years back, and Duck Boats rolled through Boston’s crowded streets because of it. He posted a 3.27 earned run average. He ranked second in the American League’s Cy Young voting. He won 20 games during the regular season. Then he won four more – while allowing only four runs over 30 innings – in the playoffs.

In reality, however, Beckett’s 2007 stands as the exception among his seasons since 2003. And essentially among his career on the whole.

Most probably don’t think it’s possible for a pitcher of his repute, but that season remains the only time in his eight big-league seasons that Beckett has finished among his league’s top 10 in terms of ERA. It’s also the only season in which he’s received even a single vote for the Cy (or the Most Valuable Player award, for that matter). And it’s the only year he’s won more than 17 games.

His total of 20 victories that year was tops in the AL, making it the only time Beckett has ever led the league in any remotely conventional pitching category -- a classification that doesn’t simply cover wins, ERA, strikeouts and innings, but also includes WHIP, adjusted ERA, whiff-to-walk ratio and pretty much anything else conceivable -- and that helps explain why he's only twice even been an All-Star.

With a 4.05 ERA as an American Leaguer, and 3.79 overall, he’s certainly had a decent career. But there’s a reason that, according to the comparison tool at baseball-reference.com, Beckett’s most comparable pitcher at age 27 and 28 was the remarkably mediocre Kevin Millwood. The year before that it was Ben McDonald.

By now we thought those names would be more like Roger Clemens. John Smoltz. Roy Halladay. Maybe even Curt Schilling or Kevin Brown. But because he’s been just merely good far more often than he’s been truly great, Beckett instead finds himself grouped with a troupe of middle-of-the-road types – and appropriately so.

He’s never struck out 200 in a season, he’s only once made it through a year without missing a start, and recently he’s even begun to relinquish his reputation as the best big-game pitcher of his generation. In his last four playoff starts the Sox have exactly one win, thanks to their starter’s 7.71 ERA and the opponents’ 1.014 on-base plus slugging average in 21 innings against him.

Clearly Boston's brass has lost some faith in him, evidenced by their choice of Jon Lester to open this year’s Division Series against the Angels; and the guess here is that you, too, as a Red Sox fan, have lost some faith in Beckett as well.

But there are plenty of people across baseball who haven’t yet. They see a 29-year-old who'll be a free agent next winter and perceive a pitcher in his prime. They see a sturdily built 6-foot, 4-inch right-hander and perceive a workhorse. They see the clutch performances of 2003, and 2007, and perceive him to be an automatic in the postseason. They see Josh Beckett and perceive him to be an ace worth paying a hefty price to acquire.

The reality, however, is something different. Cliff Lee is an ace. CC Sabathia is an ace. Beckett is not an ace.

But by boldly preying on perception, the Sox can this winter use the trade market to turn him into something even better: The trump card that helps them close the gap on those damn Yankees.

No chinks in his armor

Dave — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:53:00 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For much of this decade, most people in these parts believed Tom Brady was untouchable. He was so good, so often, he seemed superhuman compared with most quarterbacks. While they wore pads and jerseys, he appeared to be clad in a metal suit of armor.

Last night we learned, however, even that armor is prone to rust.

But once that’s knocked off, the man underneath – along with his magic – remains the same.

Trailing by 11 with barely five minutes left in New England’s season opener, Brady sandwiched two scoring drives between Buffalo’s fumbled kickoff and the Patriots somehow pulled out a 25-24 win that left the stunned Bills as losers of 12 straight against their division rivals.

“I’m really proud of the players,” said Bill Belichick, who couldn’t help his smile after watching Ben Watson haul in both of Brady’s bullets. “Not that we played our best, but we hung in there and came back and made the plays we had to make to win.”

The coach was speaking of his team as a whole, but in the process he summed Brady’s night in a nutshell.

Effectively playing his first real game in 19 months – save for the half a quarter that expired before he tore two ligaments in his knee last September – the quarterback was early on without the clean crispness New England came to know and love over the first eight years of his career.

In fact, the first half was downright ugly at times.

He seemed completely out of sorts with Wes Welker, the target who hauled in 112 of his passes in 2007. He badly sailed a couple of throws, once missing Randy Moss, and once missing Laurence Maroney, both of whom were wide open. He missed Kevin Faulk in the flat. Twice. He bounced another throw he seemed to hurry with defenders at feet.

And all that doesn’t even include the worst of it. While trying to connect on a screen pass, Brady didn’t see defensive end Aaron Schobel standing between himself and Sammy Morris, so Schobel picked the pass with one hand before rumbling 26 yards to the end zone.

After the opening quarter Brady was just 4-of-8 for 29 yards, and, with that second-quarter interception included, his halftime rating was a sluggish 62.5. Only twice since New Year’s Day in 2006 has he finished a game with a rating lower than that, so, not surprisingly, the Pats found themselves trailing, 14-10.

“I felt good all night, we were just off in the first half,” he said. “The plays that we needed to make, fourth down we missed. Third down we missed. We had two chances in the red area, we were 0-for-2 in the red area. The interception. Those things really get you behind the eight ball – but we recovered.”

Indeed they did. And, as usual, Brady was like the Pats’ personal stimulus package.

As if he’d taken a hammer and chiseled off the rust during a halftime break that saw him honored as the best QB in the franchise’s first 50 years, Brady emerged from the locker room by hitting on his first eight passes.

He hit on 15 of his first 17 throws after intermission, but two promising drives resulted in only three points, and the Bills had scored 10 points in the meantime. So by the time Brady got the ball again, with 5:32 on the clock, it seemed that progress would be for naught. It looked like it’d be too little, too late.

But it’s never too late for a superhuman to become a superhero. And Brady proved that once more.

Starting at his own 19, Brady spread the ball among Welker, and Watson, and Moss, and Faulk, and covered 81 yards in 11 plays and 206 seconds, ultimately finding Watson from the 18 to pull the Pats within 24-19.

And he wasn’t done there. After Brandon Meriweather laid a vicious hit on Leodis McKelvin, and (of all people) kicker Stephen Gostkowski came up with the fumble, the game was as good as Brady’s. As if he’d never missed a minute, he stepped up and calmly, coolly found Moss for 6 yards. Then Welker for 9. Then Watson for 16, the last throw zipped perfectly between two cover men to Watson’s back shoulder.

Touchdown Patriots. Brady’s 29th career comeback complete.

“It’s a great feeling to have that rhythm, and that aspect of the game, back,” tackle Matt Light said. “Not that we didn’t have it last year … but he was out there making all the right plays and just delivering the ball downfield.”

By completing 26-of-31 passes in the second half, Brady finished 39-of-53 for 378 yards, and lifted his rating to 97.8 by the end of a night he was happy was over. After a season on the sidelines he’d long been looking forward to his return, as had the 68,756 who filled Gillette Stadium, but he’ll be glad to get back to the normal football routine.

Armor and all.

“It was,” he said, “a pretty special victory.”

Thanks to a player who’s still – even with a reconstructed knee – pretty special himself.

Full tilt, full-time dad

Dave — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:54:00 GMT

In his 35 years as an NFL Coach, Bill Belichick has had a hand in winning five Super Bowl championships. He's been to the big game seven times in total, while contributing to 13 division titles. And through all that team success he's guided his individual charges to 117 Pro Bowl selections.

He is unmatched in terms of both tenure and trophies in today's game, so when he speaks of a player in the scope of history his words are weighty. And, when doing so yesterday, so was his heart.

"How do I feel about Tedy Bruschi?" Belichick said with emotion that was as audible as it was uncharacteristic. "He's a perfect player."

History, as Belichick well knows, would argue with the coach. Bruschi was a role player at the start of his career, and a step too slow at the end. He doesn't boast statistics befitting a hall of famer. And of the aforementioned Pro Bowl bids, he accounted for just one of the 117 - that coming as Ray Lewis's injury replacement on the AFC's 2004 roster.

Yet it's easy to understand the coach's commendation, which came while the 36-year-old linebacker was announcing his retirement from football after 13 seasons. For almost a decade now, the New England Patriots have been built according to the vision and virtues of what Belichick expects of a football team.

And for just as long it's been Bruschi who has embodied those ideals better than anybody.

Bruschi embodied the overachievers who helped define the early portion of a decade in which the Patriots have become football's model franchise, arriving in Foxborough as a third-round pick without a natural position, then morphing from an undersized end to a playmaking linebacker at the middle of a championship defense. Like Troy Brown, and Tom Brady, and even Belichick to an extent, his personal triumphs paralleled those of a team that went from laughingstock to league standard on their watch.

Bruschi embodied the team-first spirit he helped cultivate as a leader, helping make Gillette Stadium a place where even the most notoriously selfish were humbled by the quest for a common goal. Belichick ultimately held the hammer upstairs, but it was Bruschi and a handful of other veteran voices who drove home the nails that held things together in the locker room.

Bruschi embodied the intensity it takes to sustain success play after play, week after week, and year after year, in the NFL, when fame and fortune are fleeting for those who aren't mentally tough enough to endure its eternal grind. Whether he was lifting weights, listening at a meeting, or leering into the opposing backfield, there was never a letup. As a sign in the corner of Gillette Stadium aptly declared at each home game, Bruschi was "full tilt, full time."

Bruschi embodied the execution and attention to detail that became staples of Patriot performances on the way to their three Super Bowl titles. "Doesn't matter what the challenge was, what he had to do, who he had to cover, who was trying to block him - he stepped up and he met it," Belichick said. "Instinctively on the field and instinctively off the field, there's just no other way for me to describe it other than he always did the right thing."

Bruschi embodied his team's ability to seize the moment, saving some of his biggest plays for the biggest junctures in the biggest games. He ripped the ball right away from the Colts' Dominic Rhodes to lock up the 2004 AFC championship game. He picked off Donovan McNabb in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXXIX. And he even took his flair for the dramatic to the end zone, at one point returning an NFL-record four straight interceptions for touchdowns.

Bruschi embodied the idea that hard work correlates with success, saying he learned how to win from Belichick himself, and then did so at historic levels. Only twice in 13 seasons did his team finish with a losing record, only four times did it fail to win at least 10 games, and - even less than three years from suffering a stroke - he was the leading tackler on the NFL's first team to finish the regular season at 16-0. In all he won three titles, 144 games, eight division titles and played in five Super Bowls, which ranks as the second-most in league history.

Ultimately, the latter may rank as Bruschi's claim to fame in the broader context of football history. He won't sit near the top of any other stat-based leaderboard. He won't be remembered as the best at his position in an age when guys like Lewis, and Brian Urlacher, and Zach Thomas were all annually better. Canton won't be calling.

Belichick knows that. As a lifelong student of the game, and having seen first-hand the hall-of-fame careers of linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson in New York, he knows where Bruschi rates in the NFL's all-time hierarchy. But that didn't stop him from getting sentimental at the podium yesterday. Or keep him from suggesting the player was unique among a sample more than three decades in the making. Or dissuade him from using a word the coach would on most days, for most people, refuse to use.

Because Tedy Bruschi perfectly embodied what it means to be a Patriot.

"I've had the privilege of coaching a lot of great players and leaders in the National Football League, and I'll just put Tedy up there with all of them - and above all of them," Belichick said. "There's no player that I think epitomizes more of what I believe a player should be on the field, off the field, really, in every situation."

Junichi-wa

Dave — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:14:00 GMT

BOSTON - Junichi Tazawa was an all-but-forgotten man on that evening in Manchester, seated between his interpreter and just a single reporter while the rest of the press corps huddled outside the dugout at Merchantsauto.com Stadium, eagerly anticipating the emergence of John Smoltz.

Smoltz, after all, was the hall of famer who was supposed to be the Red Sox's secret weapon for the second half. Officially he was on a rehab assignment, and technically he was something of a reclamation project, but many considered him more of an ace-in-waiting than either of those things. They expected he'd be a big part of Boston's pennant push and playoff run.

Last night, for example, was supposed to be one of those big starts Smoltz was brought here for. It was his turn in the rotation, and the team had lost six of seven. It was facing the Central Division leader. It began

the day up a half game in the wild card race.

But instead it was the afterthought who stood at center stage.

And who seized the spotlight rather nicely.

Four days after Smoltz's abysmal eight-start stint left the Sox no choice but to designate him for assignment, Tazawa took his turn and - after being let down by his defense early - delivered precisely the sort of gutsy performance Boston had been helplessly waiting for Smoltz to provide.

In his first big-league start, and less than a year removed from playing against amateurs in Japan, Tazawa had some first-inning troubles. He allowed consecutive one-out singles, hit Miguel Cabrera to load the bases, then got let down by his defense. Twice Nick Green had opportunities to start what would've been routine double plays, but the shortstop was sloppy on one and slow on the other, and both led to runs.

The Tigers would tally once more in the frame to take a 3-0 lead, though before things could any worse, Tazawa - who was charged with only one earned run - began to show the toughness that ultimately came to define his night.

The initial display came when the 23-year-old righty induced a groundball to second that left the bases loaded in the first, but Tazawa's gusto really came into focus a couple innings later, when a liner misplayed by J.D. Drew became a triple after rattling around the far reaches of the right-field corner.

That put Magglio Ordonez at third with one out in a tie game, and put Detroit in a position to swing the pendulum back to its side after Boston had seized momentum by way of a bench-clearing brawl and Jason Bay's three-run homer. Any sort of solid contact from the next hitter, and the Tigers would have the lead again.

But Tazawa wouldn't allow it. He aggressively got ahead of Alex Avila, and after the count had evened itself at 2-2 with a couple of curveballs, he painted the corner with a 91 mph fastball that left the shortstop frozen.

That brought Brandon Inge to bat - though Tazawa was hardly fazed by the All-Star slugger who's got 22 homers on the season. After pumping the strike zone with a pair of heaters that Inge let pass, he snapped off a change-of-pace bender that broke a foot across the plate to leave the stunned third sacker with the bat on his shoulder. And leave Ordonez standing at third.

“Under the circumstances,” said Manager Terry Francona, “he was exceptional.”

It would've been a big sequence of pitchers under any circumstance for a young starter. But at this time, for this team, the performance was made even more impressive and important because of the way they stood in contrast to Smoltz.

Although he arrived here as a veteran with a big-game pedigree and a propensity for performing his best under the heaviest pressure, he belied that reputation in Boston. As the game grew later, Smoltz got worse, with opponents hitting .250 against him the first time through the order - and .394 thereafter.

As the situation grew stickier, Smoltz got more hittable, with opponents hitting .396 against him when there was a runner in scoring position, and going 3-for-4 with the bases loaded.

When he had a chance to escape trouble, he couldn't do it, allowing 39 percent of hitters to reach after coming to the plate with two outs in an inning.

Ultimately, all that is what led to Smoltz's downfall in a Red Sox uniform. And what made Tazawa's outing last night so encouraging. After the first time through the order, Detroit went 1-for-13 against him, with a walk and six strikeouts. It went 1-for-6 against him with runners in scoring position. And also went 1-for-6 when there were two outs.

It was certainly enough to earn Tazawa another start, which will likely to come this weekend in Texas, against a Ranger team that's currently the Sox's closest competition for the wild card. That could be a huge start for Boston. As could the one after it, which - without any shuffling - would be nationally televised against the Yankees.

By then the rookie's spot in the rotation will likely be subject to reevaluation, with Tim Wakefield on track to return from a back injury and reclaim his starting role. But even so, by pitching big innings against good teams in the latter third of the season, Tazawa will ultimately be a factor in Boston's push for a playoff spot. He'll be forced to perform under intense pressure. He'll be expected to give the Sox a chance in the games they need to win.

In other words, he'll be asked to fill the role once fitted for Smoltz. As an afterthought no longer.

Not time to panic quite yet

Dave — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:26:17 GMT

Before going any further with this column, let's first take a field trip. To the porch. The parking lot. The window. Anywhere the outdoors are in sight. Then look up.

See. The sky isn't falling.

Chicken Little might have been screaming all weekend, and Sunday night it certainly felt as if the world's ceiling had, in fact, crashed on top of a crushed Red Sox Nation.

Yet it's still there this morning, even two days after Boston's baseball fans were forced to stomach their team being swept in four straight by the rival Yankees, and likely watching any aspirations of winning the American League East get brushed away with each game.

As of Aug. 3, the Sox were just a half-game out of the divisional lead, and tied with New York in the loss column. But after its collapse in the Bronx extended the club's overall skid to six games, and left it 0-for its-first-9 against winning teams since the All-Star break, Boston found itself 6½ games back going into last night's return to Fenway against Detroit.

That's hardly an insurmountable lead with eight weeks remaining in the regular season, particularly because the ebbs and flows of baseball's marathon suggest the Yankees can't possibly keep up the rabbit's pace that has allowed them to win 31 of 41 games since late June. They're almost certain to level off at some point.

But Sox fans shouldn't concern themselves with waiting for that day, and watching the scoreboard in the meantime. After this weekend there's no doubt the Yankees are right now the better team - and perhaps the best team in all the big leagues - so it'd be senseless to obsess over catching them. As Joey from the Bronx would tell you himself, just fugettaboutit.

Don't forget about the season as a whole, however. Because that's where - believe it or not - there's actually some reason for optimism.

Consider this: Going into play last night, the Sox ranked 18th of 30 league-wide in runs scored since the All-Star break. They were hitting just .251, with an on-base percentage of only .329, and owned a well-below-average OPS of .727. They were 8-14 in the second half.

Their left fielder had played just twice in eight days. Their shortstop went back on the disabled list. Their right fielder was hitting 31 points below his career average. Their designated hitter was in the midst of a 2-for-28 slump. The catcher/captain has a .145 average over the last month. The final few roster spots have been a revolving door over recent weeks.

And yet they were tied for the lead in the wild card.

That's right. Even after a month as woeful as any in the last three years, they still found themselves in position for at least a playoff game, if not a playoff spot.

In essence, that means they have to this point survived their own futility - and things will get better from here. They have to. Because even after having their flaws so excruciatingly exposed over the last week, this team still remains too talented to fail this badly over the final 55 games.

Jason Bay is better than he's been. So is J.D. Drew. Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury is each capable of doing more - even with averages at or above .300 - while Kevin Youkilis and Victor Martinez are legitimate middle-of-the-order sort of hitters. Even David Ortiz, as he did in June and July, has the potential to go on a power binge at some point.

With an assessment like that, it doesn't make sense that this team would go 31 straight innings without scoring a run, or come away winless from a six-game stretch in which its pitchers delivered four quality starts. But that's the point.

The Sox have been illogically bad lately, and yet they're still in good shape. They'd still be leading three other divisions in baseball, and they've simply got to be better than the Rangers and the Rays over the final 52 games - 29 of which are at Fenway Park, where they were 35-17 going into last night's game.

They should have Josh Beckett and Jon Lester on the mound for at least 21 of those games, too, and after Clay Buchholz's solid start against the Yankees, there's evidence he could soon settle in as a big leaguer. All-Star Tim Wakefield should be back eventually, as well, though even without him Boston's pitching is as good or better than that of either Texas or Tampa Bay. And you could say the same of the teams at large.

At this point, that may be difficult to see for citizens of the Nation. It may be tough to overlook the waste of a weekend it was for the Sox. And it may be hard to hush up Chicken Little.

But if you can, find a window. Or a porch. Or a parking lot. Then look up. You'll see the Yankees there, of course, as you're likely to from now to October. But beyond them, in the bigger picture, you'll see the clouds or the sun or the stars.

And you'll quickly realize the sky isn't falling quite yet.

Players' choice

Dave — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:15:00 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - To really understand what Bill Belichick has accomplished during his tenure with the New England Patriots, we must first remember the state of the franchise before he arrived.

And not just the fact the franchise needed four head coaches to get through the 1990s. Or that it won just 68 of the 160 games it played during that decade. Or that it was regularly an afterthought in its own division, never mind the league at large.

Instead, remember that before Belichick came to town in 2000, Foxborough was a place about as welcoming as old Schaefer Stadium itself. It was football's equivalent of frozen metal bleachers, a place so dreadfully uninviting and unappealing that New England was hardly ever a viable option for the top-flight talent in free agency. Remember, it was a place future Hall of Famers like Bill Parcells and Curtis Martin couldn't wait to escape.

But when Belichick opened his 10th training camp as the Pats head coach last week, he did so in an entirely different place than he did his first. And not only because practice was held behind the state-of-the-art Gillette Stadium.

He did so surrounded by aspirations - expectations, even - of a trip to the Super Bowl, and by players who see Foxborough as the fastest way to get there. He did so having transformed football's Siberia into the sport's preeminent destination.

He did so with a variety of veteran free agents stretching around him, nine of whom figure to play a prominent role for New England this season, and every one of which signed with the Patriots for the same reason Roger Clemens became a Yankee, Ray Bourque became an Avalanche, and Bill Walton became a Celtic. They want to win. And they believe this is the best place to do that.

So while Belichick's first decade in Foxborough will forever be tangibly encased in sparkling sterling silver, and defined by a trio of Lombardi trophies, the intangible legacy of Belichick's first 10 years will be the way he changed the culture of the franchise, and its perception among players and pundits across the game.

It's not solely a change borne of Belichick's football brilliance either. That's part of it, for sure, but almost as important - yet largely overlooked - is the coach's underrated ability to relate to football players.

This can sometimes be difficult for someone who didn't play professionally himself, and can even be a chore for those who did. But because of what he's accomplished on the sideline, and because he's spent 35 years at this level of the sport, Belichick is as good as anybody when it comes to building a rapport with his players.

We think of him as a steely guy with a drone's tone and a hidden smile. But that's because we're outsiders. The insiders see him differently. Think about how many guys he coached in Cleveland, or New York, who followed him to New England in the early years. Think about how many friends he counts among his professional coaching colleagues. Think about comments like those made by Ellis Hobbs, who - even after being traded away - told Sports Illustrated that "I respect Bill as a coach more than anyone I've met."

Maybe the best way to measure the difference between the outsiders' perception and the insiders' reality, however, is to listen to those who've taken that leap. When Wes Welker came from Miami two years ago, he did so believing Belichick was a "hard-(butt) type of guy" who rode players constantly, and, to a certain extent, he says he was right.

But he has come to learn that his coach can "be very easygoing, too, as long as you prove to him you can handle your business." In other words, if you prove he can trust you, you can trust him to get the very best out of your abilities.

"I thought Coach Belichick was a tough guy, real stringent, army-like and all of that, but being here and being around him, really he's just passionate about football and he wants to get the best out of his players," said receiver Greg Lewis, who was acquired from Philadelphia this summer. "He doesn't take any nonsense, but like Fred (Taylor) said, he is willing to work with you and get to know you, and you can get to know him. He's a good coach to play for."

Taylor speaks with the experience of an 11-year veteran who broke into the league with the hard-driving Tom Coughlin at the helm of his Jacksonville Jaguars, and who came to New England expecting more of the same - but has since found things to be a bit easier.

"I kind of pictured them in the same mode a little bit. He's very passionate. He's very detail-oriented, but he's a little more loose than Coach Coughlin was," Taylor said. "I think he's going to be a great coach to play for.

"The perception before I got here was that he was just a hardball, tough, no-nonsense, and he has his - every coach has their moments - but I think it will be a little easier to play for him than it was to play for Coach Coughlin when I first got in. It's not as hardball as I initially thought - it's hard, though."

It's never been Belichick's style to take things easy, of course. But, like his franchise, he, too, has changed over these last 10 years. After three championships, 111 wins and eight straight winning seasons, he seems more certain in his system, more confident in his convictions, and occasionally even more comfortable in making jokes with the media.

Asked last week about how he thought he'd changed in these 10 years, Belichick stood at the podium, popped a smile and quipped, "I'm a lot friendlier."

A decade later, players across the NFL would say the same about his Patriots.

Time to break out

Dave — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:12:00 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - It's been three full seasons since Laurence Maroney arrived in New England to be the dash alongside Corey Dillon's smash, and to eventually carry the mail in the Patriots backfield. Yet, as he opened his fourth pro training camp last week, the 24-year-old runner still remained mostly enigmatic.

Is he the guy who has sporadically fit the bill of a first-round draft pick, and whose flashes of brilliance have included a five-game stretch near the end of 2007 in which he racked up 550 yards on the ground? Or is he the guy who has been largely unreliable, missing 18 games due to injury in his first three seasons, and averaging less than 56 yards per tilt in those he's been able to play?

Hardly anybody seems to know what to make of him, or his future.

Except for Fred Taylor.

"He reminds me," Taylor said, "of myself when I was younger."

Nowadays Taylor is as well-regarded as almost anyone in the game, with 11,271 rushing yards to his credit over an 11-year career some say could take him to Canton, Ohio, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But it was only seven years ago that Taylor stood where Maroney is now. Tabbed by the Jaguars with the ninth overall pick in the 1998 draft, Taylor produced a pair of 1,000-yard seasons among his first four in Jacksonville, though he missed significant time the other two years, and at least a game in all four. Between 1999-2001, he sat for 23 of 48 potential tilts.

So as he entered his fifth season - when he had one year more experience, but was two years older than Maroney is now - the critics were vocal, and vicious, in their doubts about Taylor's durability. Much of the criticism came from fans and media, but Coach Tom Coughlin fueled the fire, too, when he effectively called Taylor's toughness into question by repeatedly categorizing him as "questionable" on the weekly injury report although it was apparent a torn groin would end the back's season after only two games.

The treatment earned Taylor the tag of "Fragile Fred" from the Jaguars fan base, and while eight years later he still hasn't forgotten that label, he claims he never let it bother him. Instead, he used the naysayers as motivation, crediting their condemnation with helping push him through the hard work required to get back on the field, and to build the stamina that allowed him to make 46 straight starts - and gain 4,110 yards - from 2002-04.

"When I would go behind closed doors, I'd work a little harder, thinking that they called me 'Fragile Fred,' " Taylor said last Thursday, after his official first practice as a Patriot. "I knew I was never fragile. I had a little bit of misfortune, that's about it."

A day later, Maroney made the same case for himself, claiming he was injury-free for his entire football life before becoming a pro, and claiming his track record is more about bad luck than a broken body. "This is football," he said. "Anything's going to happen.

"It ain't like I go out here and say 'Oh, I want to get hurt today.' Or, 'I want to miss this season.' Things happen."

And so he's hoping this is the year things happen his way. It certainly wasn't last year, when a shoulder sent him to injured reserved after three games and just 28 carries. And it wasn't the two prior seasons, either, when Maroney was limited to eight touches or less in seven of his 27 contests.

But this year he says he comes into camp feeling "like the best I've been in a while." His legs, his shoulders, his everything is all feeling good, and he said he might even be getting smarter since the offense seems to be coming more naturally.

He's hopeful it all carries into the season, then translates to success, and from all indications he'll be given every opportunity to make that happen. Even in a deep backfield that includes Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk and BenJarvus Green-Ellis, as well as he and Taylor, it appears Maroney will get the first crack at being the main man.

As long as he can stay healthy, of course.

"You want me to be honest?" he responded when asked to describe his mindset at the start of training camp. "To shut up all these critics that's talking crazy right now.

"No, man, it's just I feel like I've got to help the team out more. This whole offseason I've just been working on getting healthy so I can stay on the field because I had a couple games where I did good, a couple games where I did bad, and I know how good I can be. It's just I've got to stay healthy, and stay consistent."

In other words, he's got to take the leap Taylor took. For him, it came in Year 5, though Maroney has already begun looking toward his 33-year-old teammate for help in making it come for him in Year 4.

If it does, the Patriots will be a better team for it - though it's hardly a necessity. Without Maroney in 2008, the team rushed for more yards than it had in any season since 1985, and this year the offense adds both Taylor and Tom Brady to the mix. New England's attack figures to be okay either way.

But for Maroney's sake, this year could be make-or-break. He's got just one year after this on his rookie contract, and another injury-plagued season could put his future as a Patriot in serious question. It could also harm his reputation league-wide should he look elsewhere in his next deal - and it would almost certainly multiply the segment who've already labeled him a bust.

As Taylor will tell you, though, those labels don't always stick. And, with a bit of time, effort and better fortune, he believes the one wrapped around the enigmatic Maroney is one that's waiting to be peeled off.

"He's a young guy who's definitely passionate about playing," Taylor said. "He's fighting. He's trying to go out there and make a name for himself. He's a good running back, a very good running back. Unfortunately, he's had to endure through the bumps and bruises.

"But if he keeps fighting through, he'll be okay."

Perfect fit

Dave — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:10:00 GMT

Let's be clear. Although his middle name might be Jesus, and although most pundits will tell you he might have been the best offensive player moved prior to baseball's non-waiver trade deadline yesterday, Victor Martinez is not a perfect player.

He hit just .175 in July, and since June 18 - when he was batting a robust .345 for the season - he's gone just 18-for-119 (.151). Last year he had surgery on both his elbow and his knee, with those injuries keeping him homerless until Sept. 2. And he hardly qualifies as the long-term solution at catcher, given that he'll be 31 before next season, has since 2002 squatted for nearly 5,800 big-league innings, and has thrown out only seven of 46 base stealers this season.

But he might well be the perfect player for this team, at this time.

With a single, four-player swap that extracted Martinez from the Indians yesterday, Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein masterfully executed another deadline-day deal that instantly upgraded his lineup at three different positions, and came without much expense to his major-league roster - either this year, or maybe even in the future.

The deal cost Boston 24-year-old Justin Masterson (who's gone from prized setup man to mop-up duty in recent months), 23-year-old Nick Hagadone (who's a Single-A starter coming off elbow reconstruction), as well as 22-year-old Bryan Price (who's 5-11 with a 4.42 ERA in 31 career appearances at Single-A).

No team parts easily with young pitching. Particularly young pitching that includes one guy who made nine playoff appearances the previous postseason, and two more who were high draft picks within the last two years.

But based on what they've done to this point, it's hard to envision any of the three ever making an impact like Martinez alone could make over the next couple of months.

Quite frankly, he could be the difference between success and failure for this season. Between catching the Yankees and letting them coast away. Between spending October in the playoffs and spending it on putting greens.

Primarily that's because of the bat brought to town by the three-time All-Star, which could be penciled comfortably into the heart of pretty much any lineup in baseball, and typically counted on to hit for both power and average. The Sox could sure use both on the heels of their worst offensive month since September of 2006.

But almost as meaningful in Martinez's value is versatility that could allow the Red Sox to get the best from a veteran core that has carried them in the past - but now could certainly benefit from lifting a reduced load.

By virtue of his ability to catch, play first base and serve more than respectably as a designated hitter, Martinez presents Terry Francona with a wide variety of possibilities. The manager can play Martinez behind the plate, and give Jason Varitek some sorely needed rest. He can play Martinez at first base, move Kevin Youkilis to third, and spare Mike Lowell from hip pain a couple nights a week. He could use Lowell as the DH against lefties, and bench David Ortiz.

Such a balancing act could prove an impossible disaster for some clubs, but few in the game are better equipped to handle the situation better than Francona. Not only does he have a knack for getting the most out of his players, but his preparation and stat-based logic should help him put each in the best position to succeed, and his impressive ability to openly communicate with each party should make the entire process easier.

It certainly won't be easy telling Varitek, or Ortiz, or Lowell that he's got to sit twice a week, of course. But there's no question those conversations will be for the betterment of the club.

Varitek, after all, hasn't hit better than .250 in any month this season, and has launched just three homers since May 28. Ortiz, even after a relative power surge, hasn't gone to sleep with his average over .230 since April 29. Lowell, as painfully evidenced in the ninth inning of a coughed-away loss to Oakland the other night, can no longer get to grounders that a year ago were rather routine.

Even Youkilis is showing signs of wear. Going into last night he had 50 strikeouts and just 42 hits in his last 46 games, with experience telling us that as Youkilis gets tired he tends to whiff more and produce less. So even he could stand a day off here and there.

That's not to suggest Youkilis should sit regularly. And neither Varitek, nor Ortiz, nor Lowell should become bit-part reserves, either. But with Martinez in the mix, there's essentially five guys to play four positions - so if Francona manages the situation smartly, nobody should need to sit more than twice a week.

"We think Victor Martinez is a great fit for our club and provides a significant offensive boost and does it with some versatility that complements our roster well," Epstein said in a conference call after managing to land Martinez without giving up his top-tier prospects. "He's a good fit for our roster and provides offensive support and depth at the same time."

He provides a way to keep everybody sharp. To ensure everybody's fresh for the stretch drive. To sustain things should Varitek or Lowell land on the disabled list. To bring veteran leadership. And to make opposing managers at least have to think about one of the bats the Sox could bring off the bench.

Of course, that's all contingent on Martinez turning around his horrific July. And staying healthy. And quickly learning to work with a new pitching staff.

So, no, Victor Jesus Martinez doesn't come to Boston as a perfect player. But for this team, at this time, he may well be the perfect solution to what had been most ailing the Sox as they endeavor to win their third title of the decade.

Even if that answer arrives at the expense of a few players who played big roles in the first two.

Different sort of gameplan

Dave — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:07:00 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - It was halfway through the first day of training camp, so a smile was naturally more available than it might be, say, at the midpoint of the season with a divisional rival awaiting on Sunday. But, still, it was hard to miss the sinister satisfaction in Bill Belichick's smirk as he came to the end of an answer about putting his players through six straight days of double sessions to start the preseason.

"We've gone through different schedules," he said, a grin growing bigger as he finished his sentence, "but there's not much light at the end of the tunnel for right now."

That's the way a football-first guy like Belichick probably likes it; summer vacation's over, and it's time for his players to get back to school. Time to hit the books, and hit each other, once again.

But that's not quite the way it's worked throughout his tenure as head coach of the New England Patriots, a stay that started its 10th year yesterday with a rain-shortened session on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium. Last year, for instance, the Pats didn't hold their 13th practice of the season until the ninth day of camp.

In the years before that there was a variety of approaches used, most of which included a mix of two-a-days and single practice sessions. Sustainability seemed to have been the objective.

This year, though, something has happened to change his thinking. Perhaps it's the fact the Pats missed the playoffs last year. Perhaps he wasn't happy with the progress his team had made before opening day last season. Perhaps he just wants to mix it up a bit.

Or, perhaps, he's trying to weed out the weak.

Belichick was in midseason form at the podium yesterday, consistently spouting clichés as if he'd been practicing all summer as part of his personal offseason conditioning program. But if you listen closely, and read between the lines - where Belichick can sometimes be secretly revealing - he may have left behind some clues.

In fact, take the final portion of his opening statement as an example. "We'll be at it here, double sessions for a while," Belichick said. "I think that will build up our stamina, consistency, and test the durability and staying power of our players on our team a little bit. But that's what I think we need this time of year."

The coach didn't come out and say he was disappointed about having to put 14 players on season-ending injured reserve last season. He didn't explicitly explain that he might've built his team differently had he known some of those players wouldn't be able to handle the rigors of an NFL campaign for whatever reason. And he didn't mention how much he'd like to start the season with a group of guys who've proven their bodies are likely to last through the teaching and transformation he so richly enjoys undertaking over the course of the entire season.

But, reading between the lines, it's not a stretch to suggest that's basically what he was saying. He doesn't want to be in a position where he's desperately reaching out to the Rosevelt Colvins, and the Junior Seaus, because his roster is so depleted. Certainly there will be some attrition - injuries happen for every team - but Belichick wants to begin things by figuring out what he's got.

He wants to know who's in shape. Who's strong enough. Who's tough enough. Who wants it bad enough. If a guy breaks down in the midst of the first week of practice, even as stressful and strenuous as double sessions may be, what's he going to be like on a game week? Or after eight game weeks? Or come the playoffs?

There's no way to know for sure, of course. But with the NFL's oldest roster joining him on the practice fields, and a host of unknown veteran newcomers among them, it seems Belichick is bent on giving himself the best opportunity to figure things out as early as possible.

Figure out who's who. Figure out who can do what. And instead of waiting for someone to fail before finding the right fit - as some believe the Patriots did at cornerback last year, when Deltha O'Neal was torched repeatedly before rookie Jonathan Wilhite replaced him - perhaps Belichick sees an opportunity to start strong in September rather than once more relying on the team's tremendous December track record.

"We'll see where everybody gets to," he said. "I know what their expectations are and maybe those will be realized and maybe they won't. There are also some players - maybe expectations aren't that high on those players - that will exceed those in a pleasantly surprising way, which all of a sudden will make that player or position one of strength."

And in the meantime, they'll just keep working. Twice a day. Through the middle of next week. Those who can handle it will be likely to continue, while those who can't hack it better beware. Because that wry smirk shouldn't fool you: Read between his hackneyed lines, and it sure seems as though the coach means business this time around.

"We feel like what's best for the football team is what we need to do," Belichick said. "We are off and running. The season has started."

And the mastermind schemer already has his first gameplan in place.

Getting better with age

Dave — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:04:00 GMT

Never having seen grass so green, or a wall so tall, my first steps into Fenway Park were taken on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. It was May of 1987, and it was Wakefield Little League Day, so from my seat in the bleachers I didn't much care that the Red Sox got routed by the California Angels.

I didn't much care about their left fielder, either. Batting cleanup, he went 0-for-4 that day without hitting the ball out of the infield, and saw his average slide to .205 on

the still-young season.

He hardly looked like a slugger to me, or to any of the T-ballers assembled beyond the bullpens. We knew - and came to know through the formative years as baseball fans - a slugger to be someone like Mark McGwire or Jose Canseco, the Bash Brothers from Oakland.

Like Cecil Fielder, the Detroit heavyweight. Like Ken Griffey Jr., who blasted 56 bombs in back-to-back seasons. Like Juan Gonzalez, like Albert Belle, like Alex Rodriguez, and even like Sammy Sosa, whose head-to-head, homer-for-homer battle with McGwire reached its crescendo in the first month of our senior year.

We heard about Jim Rice, of course. But by the time we actually saw Jim Rice, he didn't seem all that special. We were a generation who grew to love baseball in an age when the numbers were as unnaturally buff as the players themselves, and when Rice's average season - .298, with 30 homers and 113 RBI - was sadly made to look almost routine.

We grew up being told that chicks dig the long ball, and, based on what we saw, the girls must've been quite smitten. Eight of history's 15 best home run hitters played while we were falling for the sport. And of the 44 guys ever to hit more than 400 homers in his career, half of them (22) have reached that milestone since my first afternoon at Fenway. Watching all that happen, it was hard for us to get too excited about Rice's 382.

Until today.

With time comes perspective. With perspective comes appreciation. And with all three comes a simple conclusion: When James Edward Rice is inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this afternoon in Cooperstown, N.Y., he should do so with no doubt - even among the under-30 crowd - that he deserves to be recognized among the very best of his, or any, generation.

It's a conclusion that's taken two decades to reach, since doubt came to define the 20 years since Rice retired from a career spent solely with the Red Sox. There were doubts about whether he belonged after falling short in 14 straight Hall votes by the baseball writers. There were doubts about whether reporters were voting with vengeance because Rice wasn't always the easiest interview subject. There were doubts about how his numbers would compare, as every passing year his achievements seemed to grow gradually less impressive by comparison to the contemporaries.

Today, however - after gaining admission in his last year of eligibility - Rice will stand at the podium as a sign he's finally erased those doubts. And it's hardly a coincidence that his day in Cooperstown comes fairly soon after baseball really began to crack down on its drug culture, started cleaning up its problem with performance enhancers, and at last allowed people to see the truth on how tainted things had become.

As more has been revealed regarding baseball's rampant steroid problem, the more it has become clear that while the record books may have been rewritten by so many players who starred during the stretch between Rice's retirement and his election - 1989-2009 - their achievements are not the standard of greatness in baseball. Instead, they are the exceptions.

Rice's election can be seen as a sign that people in the game are beginning to recognize that. In eight of the first 14 seasons Rice had been Hall-eligible, the American League leader that year had slugged at least 50 homers. Every year the AL's best had 40 or more.

But last year nobody hit more than 37 - and maybe, just maybe, voters began to view Rice's numbers just a little bit differently. Maybe instead of looking at the fact he hit more than 40 homers just once, maybe they saw the three times led the league in that category, and realized he was truly among the most feared hitters of his era.

Maybe instead of simply seeing that he ranks 56th all-time in homers, and the same in RBI, they saw that over the course of his entire 16-year career no AL hitter had more homers or RBI - and realized that was true despite three subpar seasons when he washed up at the end.

Maybe instead of merely acknowledging he won one MVP award - for a 1978 season in which he led the league in hits (213), homers (46), RBI (139), OPS (.970) and even triples (15) - they saw that he was a top-five candidate five other times, while receiving votes in two more seasons, and realized the respect he held in his era.

Maybe instead of nonchalantly noting that he led the league in total bases four times, they saw that he'd collected 406 during that '78 campaign, and realized no other American Leaguer has eclipsed 400 bases in a season since Joe DiMaggio did so in 1937.

And maybe instead of seeing that his .298 batting average came up 16 hits shy of the magical .300 mark - that's exactly one safety per season - they saw that in baseball history only Hank Aaron, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams held batting average and home run totals as high as Rice, and realized each of those others was inducted as a surefire Hall of Famer.

There were other numbers, too, that worked in his favor all throughout the process. Eleven 20-homer seasons. Eight 100-RBI seasons. Seven .300-hitting seasons. Eight All-Star appearances. And four seasons when he launched at least 39 long balls - again, the most of any AL player of his era.

Those 39-homer seasons wouldn't have done much for those T-ballers in the bleachers that sun-soaked May day, since by the time we were old enough to take interest in an agate page, the league leaders were well past 40, pushing 50 - on the way to 60, and 70, by the time we finished high school.

In fact, we never got to see Rice's name listed among the league leaders in the morning paper, because by 1987 he was just a shell of his former self, and things only got uglier until he quit in 1989. But knowing what we know, with hindsight and hormone sales putting everything in perspective, there's at least one of us among the Little Leaguers that day who now appreciates what he was watching in left field for the Sox that day.

I was watching a Hall of Famer, even if that realization came - quite appropriately, given the path Rice took - better late than never.

The winds begin to blow

Dave — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:13:00 GMT

As the trade winds have begun to bluster over recent weeks, it's been the same name blowing to all corners of the baseball continent, with most rumors swirling around Roy Halladay - the righty who for some is a pipedream, for others is a necessity and for everybody ranks among the premier pitchers in the game.

Red Sox fans, however, weren't quite so interested. At least not those citizens of the Nation who reside here

in central New Hampshire. Recognizing the needs of their team, rather than its wants, the response to a poll of the Monitor's online readers suggested this week that the Sox top priority before the July 31 trade deadline shouldn't be trading for Halladay - but, instead, acquiring a power hitter.

And yesterday Theo Epstein obliged that constituency.

Shipping a pair of mid-level prospects to Pittsburgh in exchange for first baseman Adam LaRoche, Boston's general manager effectively plugged that hole and a couple of others in a single deal, delivering depth, power and protection to a lineup that has lately looked beleaguered, and in need of an insurance policy at the corner infield positions.

"We've been in the market for a player who can do some damage against right-handed pitching, and can help our club's depth at the corner infield. We checked in on a number of players that fit that category, and found that by a large, large margin, the Pirates had the most reasonable acquisition cost," Epstein said in a conference call. "This was a chance to get, at a very reasonable acquisition cost, a player that we think will help our club."

The acquisition cost was so low, the deal appears to be a no-lose, no-brainer for Boston. They traded away Double-A shortstop Argenis Diaz, and Single-A pitcher Hunter Strickland, but neither appeared on Baseball America's list of the team's 10 best farmhands, and neither figured into the Sox's long-term outlook. To swap those type of prospects for a guy who has driven home at least 85 runs in each of the last three seasons, and is still only 29 years old, made the Pirates' offer a deal where risk was dwarfed by reward.

Most important among the acquisition's potential benefits is that it gives the Sox a backup plan for third baseman Mike Lowell, whose surgically repaired hip won't likely be 100 percent until next season, and who can now be spelled by LaRoche while getting the periodic rest he'll require down the stretch.

Though LaRoche is being brought in to do more than that. As Epstein noted, he's being brought in to help a team that's hit just .257 against right-handed pitching this season, considering 103 of his 123 career homers have come against hurlers throwing from that side.

He's being brought in to give Terry Francona the bat off the bench the manager has sorely lacked this season, with Boston's pinch-hitters having gone 14-for-80 (.175) before last night's tilt in Texas.

And he's being brought in to jolt an offense that went into yesterday hitting just .223 for the month. LaRoche himself arrives at Fenway Park tomorrow in the midst of a tough stretch - with a .109 average and single RBI since the Fourth of July - but his career .296 average and .901 OPS after the All-Star break optimistically suggest that it won't last long.

Undoubtedly, Boston is a better team with its new slugger. But, at the same time, Sox fans shouldn't expect LaRoche to come in and cure all the club's ills. Nor should they expect Epstein to be done with his dealing.

Some of that has to do with LaRoche's own shortcomings. He has the potential to frustrate fans with a demeanor that makes it look like he's perpetually dispassionate. He has a hole in his swing that's led to an average of 131 strikeouts per 162 games for his career. And he's really not a better hitter than Lowell, or Kevin Youkilis, or even David Ortiz, so as long as each of them is relatively healthy LaRoche will be a reserve most nights.

But the bigger impairment on his impact is the fact that most of the Sox's problems right now are issues LaRoche can't help to solve. The club can't seem to find a leadoff hitter, with players in that pit of a place posting a lower walk total (28), lower on-base percentage (.303), lower slugging percentage (.349) and lower OPS (.652) than those hitting in any other spot in the lineup.

The Sox haven't gotten much from their corner outfielders, either. Before last night's game Jason Bay and J.D. Drew were hitting .154 for July, with a combined nine extra-base hits, six RBI and 40 strikeouts in 131 plate appearances.

Add that to the slumps of Jacoby Ellsbury, Nick Green, Jed Lowrie and Jason Varitek, and you get a 1-4 start to the second half that has started to concern people - albeit with Epstein not among them.

"This move that we've made today is not the least bit reaction to what we've seen over the last five days," said the GM, who has seen his team emerge from the break with a sub-.500 record in each year since Francona became manager, and saw it start the second half 3-5 both times it won the World Series.

"We've been working on this type of acquisition, and this player specifically, for a month now perhaps," he added. "It just happens to come at this time."

The work will only amplify over the next eight days. As well it should. Now chasing the Yankees, and with the Rays coming on, the Sox need something in addition to LaRoche in order to solidify their position as a playoff team - and Epstein said his staff will talk with every other big-league team in its effort to make that happen.

Next on the wish list of Monitor readers is leaving Clay Buchholz in the big leagues. And that may indeed be a start. But don't be surprised if those trade winds blow another name or two toward Boston.

What a knucklehead

Dave — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:54:00 GMT

(Fourteen years after Zane Smith said of his struggling teammate, "He's got a good curveball and a fastball, and I think, like anything else, maybe you have to mix it up a little," Tim Wakefield's knuckleball will float him all the way to St. Louis tomorrow night. Whether he's truly worthy of the All-Star honor based on solely this season is a different matter for a different day; but the distinction nevertheless gives us an excuse to look back and appreciatively remember what have been 14-plus interesting -- and at many times invaluable -- seasons in Boston.)

It was a nugget so barely newsworthy it got buried at the bottom of a column of baseball notes – meaning it was next to go if the editors needed more space.

It came after word of Bob Hamelin’s $435,000 agreement with the Royals. After a report about Pat Hentgen’s $6.75 million, three-year extension with the Blue Jays. And even after news that Brian Harper had inked a minor-league deal that would pay him $225,000 if he made the majors with the A’s. Each of those should tell you how long ago – and of how little consequence it seemed – that the next item was printed below them on page 59 of the morning’s Boston Globe.

“Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, Pittsburgh's postseason hero as a rookie in 1992,” the paper reported on April 21, 1995, “was released by the Pirates.”

Boston took a bit more notice when he signed with the Red Sox a week later, devoting eight sentences and a headline to report on Wakefield’s Triple-A contract. But there was hardly much hubbub, even leading up to his first start, after which Manager Kevin Kennedy was planning to make him a middle reliever.

The primary interest appeared to be in the novelty of the knuckleball, which made Wakefield a rare breed in baseball, and particularly in Boston, where it’d been decades since they’d seen someone of his ilk. Wilbur Wood was more of a conventional tosser by the time he reached the Hub in the early 1960s, so it had been 83 years, since Ed Cicotte in 1912, that the Red Sox employed a pure knuckleballer – a discovery Globe reporter Nick Cafardo put in perspective the morning after Wakefield donned the road grays and took the mound for the first time.

“Wakefield’s debut,” he wrote, “was historic from a Boston perspective.”

He couldn’t have known how true those words would ring some 14 years later.

Then a 28-year-old who’d been plucked from the scrap heap of a past-its-prime Pittsburgh team that lost 86 of 154 games that season, and a specialized righty who didn’t appear long for the major leagues, he’s now a 42-year-old with professional obligations at the All-Star break for the first time in his career.

The American League’s leader in wins for this season ( with 11), and a candidate to be the Red Sox’ career leader in that category by the end of next year, Wakefield will become an All-Star for the first time in his 17 seasons when he’s introduced Tuesday night in Saint Louis.

Satchel Paige is the only player to be older than Wakefield when he got his first invite to the Midsummer Classic, while Charlie Hough was the last knuckleballer to be so honored, in 1986. Some say it’s an overdue honor, claiming Wakefield was worthy after going 7-1 in that strike-shortened first half of 1995; others argue he doesn’t belong their this year, with his 4.31 earned run average ranking 25th among AL qualifiers entering Friday.

But are there are few who’d argue he’s not deserving, after 14 steady, selfless, rock-solid seasons of service to both Boston and the broader game of baseball. For that reason some are calling it more of a lifetime achievement award than a true measure of his season – and if that’s the case, so be it. Because after all he’s achieved in the game, it’s time Wakefield be recognized for more than merely a guy with a gimmick.

“He’s going to show up in St. Louis (on Tuesday),” Sox Manager Terry Francona said after learning the news last weekend, “and when they introduce his name, he’s going to be one of the proudest guys. And he should be.”

START POWER

Wakefield’s beginnings in Boston couldn’t have been more appropriate. As the case remained for much of his career, even in his very first start he was something of an afterthought. But, also as the case remained for much of his career, his contributions were immense.

On the day of Wakefield’s debut, Kennedy and the team received word that starters Vaughn Eshelman and Aaron Sele were both headed back to Boston while their teammates stayed in Anaheim to face the California -- once again, it was that long ago -- Angels.

Ace Roger Clemens was already on the disabled list, leaving a strapped staff down to the likes of Zane Smith and Tim Van Egmond, and forced to call up a guy who in the previous season failed to even crack the majors, then finished his Triple-A campaign at 5-15 with a 5.84 ERA.

However, that guy looked nothing like the knuckleballer who climbed the bump for the Sox on May 27, 1995. After walking the leadoff man on four pitches, and using 26 floaters to get through the first inning, Wakefield settled down, found the strike zone, and simply dominated. Needing only 65 pitches to navigate the next six frames, he allowed just four hits, two walks and a lone run in what became a 12-1 Boston win.

“That was a big-time win for us,” Kennedy told the Globe afterward. “We were very concerned about our starting pitching after losing two guys (that day). He came up really big for us.”

Since then Jimy Williams, Grady Little and Francona have all echoed similar sentiments, but it was Kennedy who saw the first – and maybe most spectacular – example of the we-before-me teammate Wakefield was. And is.

Three days after his first start with the Sox, the team again found itself without a starter. So Wakefield stepped up and took the ball. Working on two days’ rest, he allowed Geronimo Berroa to single in the first inning, but didn’t yield another hit until the eighth, when Terry Steinbach knocked him from the game with the A’s second safety.

Ken Ryan came on to preserve a 1-0 win – and it instantly became clear that Wakefield had found a home in the rotation. He took a full four days off before his next turn, then proceeded to introduce himself to the hometown crowd with a 10-inning complete game in which he didn’t allow an earned run. In nine days he racked up a record of 3-0, and behind him Boston’s AL East lead stretched from three games to eight over that span.

On the way to a division title, Wakefield wound up posting 14 wins before his second loss. It wasn’t enough to earn him an All-Star spot – although his 7-1 record and 1.61 ERA at the break outshined the 7-2 and 3.61 of teammate/honoree Erik Hanson – but it certainly laid the foundation for a legacy he’s continued to layer for more than a decade.

VERSATILE TO A FAULT

The layers aren’t all the same, either. Hardly. Some have been crafted by a starting pitcher. Others by a middle reliever. A few by a closer, even. And still more by a combination of the three.

Wakefield’s second season wasn’t nearly as smooth as the first, as his ERA soared to 5.14, then the next year he led the league with 15 losses -- and while he’d still done enough to convince General Manager Dan Duquette he was worth a three-year, $12 million contract extension, he never seemed to have his manager’s absolute faith as a starter.

Wakefield won a career-best 17 games in 1998 – then didn’t even make 17 starts again until 2003. With the knuckleballer struggling near at the start of the 1999 season Williams inserted Wakefield into the closer’s role, and despite a team-best 15 saves the club’s brass decided he wasn’t needed when the Sox reached the AL Championship Series.

They opted to leave Wakefield off the roster altogether, a decision that angered the pitcher, and his disenchantment continued to grow throughout the next season, when he was again toggled between starting and relieving. By the end he was so fed up with the situation he reportedly refused to start the meaningless season finale, and about a month later the Sox announced they were declining the option on his contract. Wakefield was free to seek employment elsewhere.

And he was wanted elsewhere. Baltimore and Minnesota, specifically. But the popular Wakefield really wanted to return to Boston, so he took the Sox up on their two-year offer, and although the team continued to flip and flop him between starter and reliever, he came to grips with his role – and began to thrive in it.

Near the end of the 2002 season Wakefield was pitching so well that Little decided to give him back his regular turn in the rotation – and his knuckler danced happily with the news. In 11 starts over the final two months, Wakefield went 7-2, a stretch of success that lowered his season ERA to an ultra-impressive 2.81. That convinced management he could enter the next year as a full-time starter. And set the stage for the Wakefield that Red Sox Nation knows, and loves, today.

NATION-AL HERO

Over the last six and a half seasons, all but four of Wakefield’s 201 regular-season appearances have come as a starter. Yet it’s three playoff relief appearances that rank among the most memorable – and quintessential – moments in his career.

The first came in 2003, when Wakefield finally got to pitch in the ALCS, and did so very well. Already with wins in Games 1 and 4, he would’ve almost certainly come away with most valuable player honors had the Red Sox won the series. But, instead, he was left to absorb the ultimate loss when his pitch knuckled right into the barrel of Aaron (Bleepin’) Boone’s bat, and the third baseman sent the Yankees to the World Series with a walkoff homer in the 11th inning of Game 7.

The next year the same two teams met again to decide the pennant – and while Wakefield left the series with a rather robust 8.59 ERA, it’s not at all a reach to say the results wouldn’t have been so famously reversed were it not for his selfless contribution.

In that 2004 ALCS, Wakefield was due to start Game 4. But with the bullpen getting racked, and the Sox about to fall behind by three games, Francona needed someone to take the lumps. If he kept parading relievers to the mound, he might’ve overtaxed the bullpen, and thereby left the epic comeback an impossibility.

So Wakefield forfeited his start, and took the ball. He wasn’t very good – giving up five runs – but he lasted through 3 1/3 frames, and faced 17 batters, with each of his 64 pitches leaving another bullet left in somebody else’s gun.

They’d need them, too. And need Wakefield again, as well. In Game 5, after Boston had already used six pitchers, Francona summoned his knuckleballer out of the pen for the top of the 12th. He skated through that frame safely, then got a huge strikeout to strand men at second and third in the 13th. And retired the side easily in the 13th. By then he’d bought enough time for David Ortiz to slice a single through the middle for the winning score. The rest, as they say, is history.

"It was really remarkable," GM Theo Epstein later said of Wakefield’s willingness to sacrifice in Game 3 for the greater good. "It's not lost on anyone."

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

That much was made clear the following April, when – a day shy of a decade after he’d been released by the Pirates – the Red Sox offered him what amounted to a career-long contract. As long as there is mutual interest, Wakefield can pitch for the Red Sox until he retires at a salary of $4 million.

He left significant dollars on the table with that deal, considering the worth of a guy who has posted double-figure win totals in seven of the last eight seasons, and has thrown at least 180 innings in every year he’s been a starter.

But it wouldn’t be Wakefield’s way to chase the buck, or the glory, or the spotlight. And, for that reason, he’s oftentimes relatively void of all three.

His All-Star berth, however, has at last given us cause to remember. To reflect. To appreciate the class, character and team-first consideration that have come to define his time in Boston.

On clubs with guys named Clemens, Martinez, Schilling, and Beckett, he’s never really been his team’s best starter – but Tim Wakefield is already a name that’s all over the Red Sox record book, and 18 triumphs from now it’ll be etched just above Clemens, and another decent righty named Cy Young, on Boston’s all-time wins list.

Not a bad place for a guy whose name, 14 years ago, could be found only at the bottom of the page.

Thanks but no thanks, J.P.

Dave — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:56:00 GMT

So, says General Manager J.P. Ricciardi, the Blue Jays would be willing to trade Roy Halladay if the right offer came along. Even if that knock-your-socks-off offer would mean dealing Toronto’s ace within its own division.

So, for the right package of prospects, you’re saying the Red Sox could acquire the Roy Halladay who might well be the best pitcher in the game?

The Roy Halladay who has one Cy Young Award to his credit, and has received votes in each of the last four years he’s been healthy?

The Roy Halladay who has gone 10-2 with a 2.79 earned run average this season, when merely an average start has taken him to the eighth inning?

The Roy Halladay who is under contract for next season?

And the Roy Halladay who, for the next year and a half, would give the Sox an unenviable starting rotation headed by himself, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester?

Thanks, but no thanks.

As appealing as the possibility might seem for all the reasons cited above – and then some – the price tag the Sox could expect to pay to pull off such a swap would plainly be too steep.

Given the demand for a top-of-the-staff sort of right-hander, who’d come unencumbered by a huge contract, the guess here is that Boston most likely would be forced to part with a current major leaguer or two, as well as two or three of their top prospects. Think along the lines of Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard, Lars Anderson and a couple others. Minimum.

It would significantly deplete the Sox system of the type on-the-cusp talent that has keyed its successes over recent seasons, and has become a staple of the organizational philosophy – and for what?

Sure, a bulldog like Halladay would fit brilliantly in Boston – but would the team really be that much better? No. Beckett and Lester both boast ERAs below 2 over the last month. Tim Wakefield has had an all-star first half. Brad Penny has been above average since the beginning of May. And John Smoltz and Daisuke Matsuzaka both present intriguing possibilities as a fifth starter down the stretch.

If the Sox really want to get better, they’d be better off spending their resources on a bat, particularly with Mike Lowell’s status uncertain and the depth chart down to Aaron Bates (a month removed from Double-A) as a corner infielder. The case could be made that a Nick Johnson, an Aubrey Huff, or even a Nomar Garciaparra could be just as valuable an upgrade – and any of the three would come at a cost of substantially less hardball capital.

So instead of investing heavily in Halladay, the Sox should treat talks with Toronto like they did their negotiations with Minnesota when Johan Santana was on the market two winters ago. Like Halladay now, Santana was then regarded among the game’s best pitchers, and came with a year left on his preexisting contract.

At that time the Sox were rumored to be offering a package that included Lester, Justin Masterson, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie – all of whom were major factors in the big leagues by the end of last season, and a collection that would’ve left a crater-sized hole in the club’s foundation.

Ultimately Boston thought better of that deal, and never pulled the trigger, but by floating those names they upped the ante for any team looking to do business with the Twins. Eventually that forced the Mets to forfeit $130 million as well as four of their elite prospects in order to land Santana, and successfully pushed the price higher than even the Yankees were willing to go.

As they are with every superstar, those Yanks will almost certainly enter into the Halladay sweepstakes as well, so Theo Epstein should again play his shrewd game of chicken. He should keep his finger on the pulse, and approach Ricciardi with competitive proposals that drive up the offers – then let somebody else seal the deal. Hopefully that keeps Halladay out of pinstripes. And hopefully it drives him out of the American League East altogether.

But hopefully it doesn’t end up bringing Halladay to Boston. Because as good as he might be, his acquisition would be like the Sox emptying the budget to renovate Fenway’s luxury suites while ignoring flooding from ground-level leaks that could’ve been fixed fairly cheaply.

As good as he might be, the Sox simply don’t need Roy Halladay. Even the Roy Halladay who could be the missing piece in somebody else’s championship puzzle. The gaps in Boston’s own puzzle aren’t big enough to justify that sort of expense.

Thanks but no thanks, Mr. Ricciardi.