pats_fever

Well, here we stand, it is august 13th and the team is currently six games out of first place and 2 games out of a tie for the wildcard.  The Sox have been beleaguered with injuries this season as Jacoby Ellsbury spent months on the disabled list he was then followed by Josh Beckett, Dustin Pedroia, Jeremy Hermida,Tim Wakefield, Mike Cameron, Mike Lowell, a few others i have missed and Kevin Youkilis has been lost for the remainder of the season.

Pitchers Josh Beckett, John Lackey, Hideki Okijima, and Ramon Ramirez have all underperformed and even Jonathan Papelbon has been showing some signs of vulnerability by blowing some important saves at key times for the Sox.  But despite all the turmoil and dozens of roster callups in attempts to patch up the damage it hasnt all been bad news.

Young pitcher Clay Buchholz has finally matured into the strong number 2 starter (next to Lester) that everyone had hoped he would be when drafted and call ups like Ryan Khalish and Daniel Nava have filled in admirably for some of our fallen stars.  Another pleasant surprise was the emergence of Adrian Beltre as dominate offense threat he used to be before injuries had severely hampered his 2009 season with Seattle.  His signing seemed abit risky as the Cameron was (considering his age) but so far it has worked and for much of the year he was the team's best hitter.

Daniel Bard looks like he is ready to be the closer if Papelbon should leave next year for Free Agency and really he has been the savior in an otherwise underwhelming bullpen overall.  The most alarming part was the fact that Jonathan Papelbon seemed to lose some velocity on his pitches and more importantly some of the movement and "bite" so to speak at the end just wasn't there much this season.  Lastnite even though he blew another save the velocity seemed to be back for paps but the end movement is still missing in action.

Will it return?  Is his arm cooked already at such a young age?  I believe there are enough signs to prove that his bite and movement are coming back and this sort of thing does happen to pitchers from time to time.  Mentally i believe Jonathan is tough enough to believe in himself until it does and that bodes well for him and the Red Sox.

When you look at all the things the sox have had to overcome in this past year i believe they have done an amazing job to stay in contention and had the bullpen just been a little bit better they would in the wildcard but as it stands now they are 2 games behind to tie and 3 to take the lead. Lastnite's loss was a tough one but the Rays have alot of struggling offensive players and they now have a few injuries to deal with as well.  Can they keep the wildcard?  I believe the red sox have a great opportunity to make the playoffs if they just finish off the wins when they have a healthy lead.

Pedroia is still on the disabled list but when he returns i believe his guts and determination will be the catalyst to strong run for the wildcard.  Will they make it?  If any one of the big three (Beckett,Lackey,Papelbon) get hot i believe they most likely will.

I've been a fan since 1978 and im not ready to give up now, i still believe.  Go Red Sox!

The Red Sox are finally starting to come around it's about freaking time! Jason Bay , Kevin Youkilis , and Mike Lowell have all started out strongly and Dustin Pedroia seems to finally be coming out of the mini slump he was in. The pitching has been erratic to say the least, one day strong, the next pathetic. The bullpen struggled a bit at first to find a groove but now is settling down rather nicely.

Currently the Sox have pulled out of last place and sit with a record of 5-6 and while that is not exactly lighting the world on fire, at least we climbed out of the basement. I should note that many of those games were close and if the Sox could've just got the big hit when they needed it we would be doing alot better.

Jon Lester is struggling with his command and while his pitches have poorly located at times his stuff still looks phenomenal, i believe he is ready to bust out soon. Josh Beckett is on an odd year and he always does well in odd years, oddly enough lol. Matsuzaka looked awful so far this season and one has to wonder how much of a role the World Baseball Classic had to do with it?  Tim Wakefield is his usual reliable self and threw a very strong game the other nite when we needed a win badly.

Brady Penny got hammered by the Orioles but i don't feel too much worry beacuse their lineup really is as potent as ours is. Justin Masterson is slotted to take over Matsuzaka's place in the rotation and i feel that's a pretty sound move all things considered.

Alot of people were starting to panic on this team and i feel  it's way too early as everyone has to sort of just find their groove. Nick Green, Rocco Baldelli and George Kottaras are all hitting above .300 and with the injurys to Lowrie and Lugo it is a true blessing to have Nick.

As i stated earlier the bullpen has struggled some and especially Javy Lopez, Saito and Okajima but i am more than confident they will all turn it around. Ramon Ramirez (aquired in the Coco Crisp trade) has been nothing short of amazing, man this kid has good stuff!

The team is starting to hit and im seeing some the scoreboard operaters being kept busy of late, this is a very good sign. When you have  offensive outbursts like we've seen the last few days you can easily cover up for some lack of pitching or at worst give it time to come around.

The Yankees got pounded by the Indians 22-4 lastnite, man Wang has a 34.00 earned run average, OUCH!

 

Well, the Sox got owned by Scott Kazmir yet again, sigh. When will we ever beat this guy? It always seems like just when we have him he can come up with the big play at the right time and weasel out of it.

Meanwhile Jon Lester kinda choked abit in the 5th after seemingly cruising through the first four innings.  Bay and Youk drove in the only runs as Tampa evened the series one game a piece.

I guess a sweep was a little much to ask of the Red Sox but we have Matsuzaka pitching tomorrow so hopefully he can help win the series for us.

The Rays are still for real and i hope they pummel the Yankees when the two teams meet.

 

 

Well, so far the Patriots have added Fred Taylor, Leigh Bodden, Shawn Springs and a new longsnapper. They hold four of the first 58 draft picks and Tom Brady should be starting the season on opening day. 

There are a couple of players of whom the Patriots are still interested in before the draft and those being Jason Taylor and Julius Peppers. While Peppers would require a trade and some draft picks, getting Taylor would mere just cost the Pats some money. I believe the Patriots are the perfect fit for Jason Taylor as we can offer him the greatest chance in our division to win a championship.

While i would love to have him on our team i get the sinking feeling he is going to just go back to the Dolphins though. I hope that i am wrong because we could use is extra punch in our pass rush but either way i still believe we need to draft a linebacker.

There are several excellent linebackers in this years NFL Draft so it's going to be very deep at that position and it may not be a bad thing to dip twice into the pool if the Patriots don't have enough faith in Shawn Crable.

Conner Barwin, James Laurinaitis, Ray Maualuga all look like they would be great additions but the Pats could aslo use a young offensive lineman in the early rounds. Some of our guys are hitting 30 on the O line and while they are usually productive, age is going to start to be a factor and injuries have already crept in last season.

I really believe the Patriots have to draft a big time linebacker like they did with Mayo last year. Mike Vrabel was definately losing a step and so has Teddy Bruschi so it's time to start drafting again in that same area.

With Shawn Springs the Pats finally will have a dependable corner without Harrison and this Leigh bodden seems to have oodles of potential and although he was mediocre in detroit he did well in Clevelands defense (which was similar to ours).

The interesting thing now will be to see if Patriots trade for Peppers or get Jason Taylor, we have the draft picks and cap room to aquire either one.

Getting Greg Lewis and Joey Galloway will give the Patriots a nice compitition for Jabar Gaffney's spot as 3rd reciever since he signed with Denver the Patriots are probably figuring on one of them not making the final cut.

The NFL Draft is right around the corner and man i can't wait!!