The 2005 Red Sox and Beyond

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Red Sox Pull Into First, Lose Sheets

The Red Sox pulled into first place into the AL East on the strength of a 20-8 mark in April and a 3 game sweep of the Yankees at the end of the month. They continue to have to play with injuries to important players on the team. In the past month new staff ace Ben Sheets was injured with a chipped knee cap, he had been dominant since coming to Boston posting a 2-0 record with a 2.45 ERA a CG and 23 K's in 22 innings, along with starting right fielder Trot Nixon, Sheet's replacement David Wells, and reliever Alan Embree. With third basemen Bill Mueller and Curt Schilling continuing their stays on the DL. Trot Nixon is due back in 8 days, Mueller in 4, Sheets in about two weeks, and Schilling will be out for about another month. Even despite all the injury problems they continue to be a dominant team and sit atop the division by two games, this will be a team to truly fear once everyone gets healthy and steps back into their roles.


The Good:

• Whats better than grabbing first place in the division?
• The 1-5 in the lineup is killer. Johnny Damon, Edgar Renteria, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Kevin Millar are hitting a combined .300, with 41 homers, 12 steals, 163 runs, and 177 RBI's. The rest of the lineup has been solid also.
• The pitching has vastly improved, on a whole, also. The team ERA is just above 4, as opposed to near 5 at the end of last month.

The Bad and The Ugly:

• INJURIES. 5 opening day players are currently on the DL, along with recently acquired ace Ben Sheets.
• Despite great improvement to the pitching, some are still struggle. Matt Clement has an ERA over 5.50 and Mike Myers has an ERA over 7 out of the 'pen.
• The replacements to the injured are not playing well, for the most part. Wakefield has done well filling in for injures starters, but the hitters haven't fared so well, hitting barely .250 with 3 homers 24 RBI's.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

League Summary

AL Division Standings:

AL EAST


Boston Red Sox (35-17)
New York Yankees (32-19) 2.5 GB
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (26-27) 9.5 GB
Toronto Blue Jays (21-31) 14 GB
Baltimore Orioles (17-35) 18 GB


AL CENTRAL

Chicago White Sox (29-24)
Cleveland Indians (26-25) 2 GB
Minnesota Twins (25-26) 3 GB
Detroit Tigers (20-31) 8 GB
Kansas City Royals (18-33) 10 GB


AL WEST

Texas Rangers (29-22)
Oakland A's (28-23) 1 GB
Seattle Mariners (27-24) 2 GB
Los Angeles Angels (9-16) 5.5 GB


AL WILD CARD

New York Yankees (32-19)
Oakland A's (28-23) 4 GB
Seattle Mariners (27-24) 5 GB
Cleveland Indians (26-25) 6 GB



NL Division Standings:

NL EAST

Washington Nationals (28-24)
Atlanta Braves (27-24) .5 GB
New York Mets (26-26) 2 GB
Philadelphia Phillies (26-26) 2 GB
Florida Marlins (23-28) 4.5 GB


NL CENTRAL

St. Louis Cardinals (32-19)
Houston Astros (31-21) 1.5 GB
Cincinnati Reds (27-25) 5.5 GB
Chicago Cubs (25-26) 7 GB
Pittsburgh Pirates (23-25) 9.5 GB
Milwaukee Brewers (21-30) 11 GB


NL WEST

Arizona Diamondbacks (32-20)
San Diego Padres (27-25) 5 GB
Los Angeles Dodgers (24-27) 7.5 GB
San Fransisco Giants (23-27) 8 GB
Colorado Rockies (21-31) 11 GB

[Coach Owens]

Maybe you should sign John Olerud!

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

He was on the roster to begin with. But Millar has been smoking this season, .343 BA (leads team), 7 HR's (2nd behind Ortiz, who has 19, on the team), and 41 RBI's (also second to Ortiz, who has 48), .412 OBP (leads team), so he hasn't hardly seen the field at all.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

A Look at the Draft

The Boston Red Sox had a strong draft. They added a possible front of the rotation starter, a solid looking 1B, and a solid looking RP.

The Crown Jewel of the draft was easily Cornelius Farmer (56/97). He is a 17 year old left handed starter who can touch 100MPH but sits in the 96-98 range. He is still very young so he doesn't have another standout pitch, but his secondary pitches consist of a circle change and a sidearm curveball. He projects as an ace pitcher who will strike a lot of guys out. The thing that may prevent him from reaching his potential is poor control and movement, but he is still young and he will look to correct that, and lack of a good secondary pitch, which will come in time.

Second round pick Simon Nielsen (56/82) looks like he could become a solid 1B. He has offensive upside, but his defense is very poor and may lead to a career as a DH or a switch to the outfield or possibly catcher. He has good power potential, in particular, and could become a consistent 30 homer guy.

Fourth rounder Scott Wedge (60/85) is a lefty reliever that sits in the low 90's with his fastball, but he brings a devastating curve to the table along with a developing circle change. He looks like he could be a decent closer, but an excellent setup or short relief man.


PS - I didn't do any of the draft except the first round. I wanted to but I had it in commish mode, my scouting is horrible and I didn't want to mess up the draft, and I forgot that it made me select for the other teams and I didn't feel like doing that.

[Coach Owens]

Uh, the computer is horrible at drafting for the human. Last time I played, it was the draft and I did the first round and skipped the rest. For my second pick, the AI picked some catcher who was like 61/73.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Team Stats After Two Months

Team Batting Stats:

Player Name	Team	AB	H	HR	RBI	Avg	OBP	SLG	SB	CS
Damon, Johnny	BOS	245	76	5	42	.310	.382	.461	9	4
Ortiz, David	BOS	237	61	20	52	.257	.342	.570	0	0
Renteria, Edgar	BOS	227	64	6	28	.282	.356	.432	4	4
Millar, Kevin	BOS	222	78	7	47	.351	.417	.527	1	0
Ramirez, Hanley	BOS	221	56	5	20	.253	.310	.407	14	1
Varitek, Jason	BOS	200	46	9	34	.230	.322	.425	0	0
Ramirez, Manny	BOS	121	36	5	24	.298	.415	.512	1	0
Youkilis, Kevin	BOS	112	30	1	14	.268	.382	.357	0	0
Payton, Jay	BOS	100	33	3	16	.330	.362	.490	4	0
Kapler, Gabe	BOS	95	25	2	14	.263	.327	.400	1	2
Mueller, Bill	BOS	39	15	1	6	.385	.467	.513	0	0
Olerud, John	BOS	25	4	0	5	.160	.432	.200	0	0
Mirabelli, Doug	BOS	23	5	0	3	.217	.357	.261	0	0
Stern, Adam	BOS	4	1	0	1	.250	.250	.250	0

Team Pitching Stats:

Player Name	Team	Starts	W	L	ERA	IP	K	SV	CG	OBA
Clement, Matt	BOS	13	4	3	5.85	72.1	60	0	0	.276
Arroyo, Bronson	BOS	11	4	2	4.46	70.2	49	0	0	.271
Miller, Wade	BOS	10	4	2	3.62	64.2	52	0	0	.240
Wells, David	BOS	3	5	2	5.07	49.2	24	3	0	.291
Sheets, Ben	BOS	7	3	2	4.87	40.2	45	0	1	.283
Wakefield, Tim	BOS	6	3	2	3.96	38.2	26	0	0	.245
Papelbon, Jon	BOS	0	4	1	3.21	33.2	28	2	0	.200
Bradford, Chad	BOS	3	4	0	3.62	32.1	22	0	0	.225
Foulke, Keith	BOS	2	2	2	3.64	29.2	26	13	0	.233
Myers, Mike	BOS	0	2	3	8.44	26.2	14	0	0	.351
Mantei, Matt	BOS	0	0	2	5.04	25.0	26	0	0	.265
Schilling, Curt	BOS	4	2	0	5.32	23.2	22	0	0	.288
Gonzalez, Geremi	BOS	0	0	1	4.42	18.1	6	1	0	.164
Halama, John	BOS	1	1	0	3.68	7.1	6	0	0	.192
Embree, Alan	BOS	1	0	0	1.69	5.1	5	0	0	.158

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Sox Lose Renteria for 4 1/2 Months

Injuries continue to burn the Red Sox, and first year Red Sox player is just the first in a long line of players to get hit with one. Renteria will miss the next 4 1/2 months, 132 days precisely, due to severe elbow tendonitis in his throwing arm.

In Renteria's first season as a member of the Red Sox, after signing as a Free Agent, he was hitting .277, with 7 homers and 34 RBI's, both more than half what he had last season in only 68 games.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Red Sox All-star Break Report

All-Star Break Summary:

Exactly one week after the All-Star break the Red Sox sit at 55-37 with a one game lead over their rival New York Yankees, after splitting a 4 game series with them directly after the All-star Break.

The Red Sox have managed to stay afloat in one of the toughest divisions in baseball, despite having a new injury literally almost every other week to a key contributor, largely due to the contributions of designated hitter David Ortiz, center fielder Johnny Damon, left fielder Manny Ramirez, first basemen Kevin Millar, and third basemen Bill Mueller. Damon, Ortiz, Ramirez, Millar, and Mueller are hitting a combined .323 with 67 homers, 284 runs, 296 RBI's, and an OBP of .407 on the season, which accounts for more than half of the team's run production, while no one else in the starting lineup is hitting better than .264.

The pitching has been a whole different animal. Besides Papelbon, Foulke, Delcarmen, and Bradford in the 'pen the pitching has been downright miserable, to the tune of a 4.83 team ERA, thus far. Prior to getting injured recently Wade Miller had been the only starting pitcher on the team with an ERA below 4.00, with a 3.93 mark. The starting rotation has a collective ERA of over 5.00 and the bullpen has an ERA of 4.57. However, much of that could be attributed to injuries. Opening day starter Curt Schilling missed about 2 months to start the season with a broken tibia, and was pitching quite well before the injury, has been shaky since returning from the DL, Ben Sheets, acquired in a trade with Milwaukee after the Schilling injury, was pitching wonderfully, with an ERA of just above 2, since joining the Red Sox until he got knocked to the DL with a chipped knee cap has been average at best since returning. Starters Matt Clement, David Wells, Tim Wakefield, and Wade Miller have also missed time this season due to injury and were replaced by journeymen starter Geremi Gonzalez and John Halama, or one another. The bullpen, on the other hand, has been fairly reliable, despite the high bullpen ERA. Closer Keith Foulke has 18 saves with a 3.49 ERA, rookies Jon Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen have respective ERA's of 4.01 and 2.89, and Chad Bradford has an ERA of 3.89. The rest of the bullpen has been quite mediocre, however. Matt Mantei has an ERA over 5.00, and the last spot in the bullpen has been juggled by Alan Embree, Tim Wakefield, Mike Myers, John Halama, and Geremi Gonzalez, none of whom have done well. Look for the Red Sox to try to add yet another starting pitcher, in addition to Sheets, before the deadline.

The Red Sox have also gotten key contributions from rookies Hanley Ramirez, Jon Papelbon, and Manny Delcarmen. American League Rookie of the Year award contender Hanley Ramirez is hitting .245 with 6 homers, 19 stolen bags, and 60 runs from the 9 spot in the batting order, and is almost functioning as a second leadoff man due to the steals and runs hes piling up. While Papelbon and Delcarmen have ERA's of 4.01 and 2.89, respectively, to combine for an ERA of 3.45, along with a combined 70 IP, 54 K's, and an opposing batting average of only .240, out of the 'pen.


Team MVP at the half: David Ortiz (.276BA/27HR/84RBI/.361OBP) and Johnny Damon (.326BA/11HR/14SB/87R/61RBI/.391OBP)

Without the both of these two in the lineup the Red Sox would be no where near where they are now. Damon has been a key part to Ortiz being able to drive in runs, and Ortiz has been key to Damon scoring, thats why they both earn the award.


Team Cy Young at the half: No one.

The pitching has been downright awful, no one is deserving of this award right now.


Team RoY at the half: Hanley Ramirez (.245BA/6HR/19SB/60R/38RBI/.307OBP)

Hanley has been like a second leadoff man at the bottom of the order with all his steals and runs. Manny Delcarmen has the better stats, relative to being a pitcher, but only has 18 IP so far.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Sox Lose Miller; Acquire Perez

A few days after finding out that they would be without Wade Miller for most, if not all, of the regular season with severe elbow tendonitis in his throwing arm, the Red Sox made a deal to acquire southpaw starter Odalis Perez from the Dodgers. The Red Sox will send RF Trot Nixon (83), RP's Matt Mantei (82) and Alan Embree (79), and OF prospect David Murphy (69/80) to the Dodgers for lefty starter Odalis Perez (83) and prized SP prospect Theo Albermarle (51/93).

Perez's contract expires after the season and at the time of the trade he is 6-5 with a 4.55 ERA and 76K's in 97 IP. Perez should provide some solid innings from the #5 spot in the rotation for the remained of the season. Albermarle joins Cornelius Farmer as the top two prospects, both pitchers, in the Red Sox organization.

Nixon had been relegated to the bench, with Kevin Youkilis forcing his way into the lineup as the starting RF'er, and Mantei had been unspectacular after starting strong, while Embree was toiling away in AAA. Murphy is not considered to be a high ceiling prospect and is still at least a year away.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Red Sox Make One Final Deadline Deal

In what should be the Red Sox final trade of the season they acquired sidearming, left handed relief pitcher Brian Fuentes from the Colorado Rockies for pitching prospects Kason Gabbard and Abe Alvarez, and 25 year old outfielder Adam Stern.

Gabbard projects as a solid #2 or #3 starter, while Alvarez projects as more of a #4 or #5. Stern is probably a 4th outfielder or pinch runner at best.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Red Sox Build Comfortable Lead

The Red Sox haven't let go of the division lead since gaining back approximately two months ago, and they now have the biggest lead they've had all season at 4 full games over the second place New York Yankees, despite playing barely .500 (28-24) ball over the past two months. The development of the lead has is due, in large part, to the strength of the offense. The Red Sox rank 3rd in the AL in team batting average (.284), 2nd in homers (129), 1st in runs scored (653), 1st in OBP (.365), 1st in runs scored per game (6.27), 1st in OPS (.879), and 2nd in SLG% (.464). The pitching, in comparison, has been rather abysmal, they rank 7th, out of 14 teams in the AL, in ERA (4.86) and runs allowed (532). Despite the pitching woes the Red Sox are projected to finish 96-66 and tie Philly for the best record in the Majors.

The Good:

• The team is beginning to get healthy and could be poised for a big run to make the lead insurmountable.
• The bullpen has been good, despite the struggles of the starting rotation, and have a cumulative ERA of 3.99, good for 5th in the AL.
• Odalis Perez has been solid since coming to Boston. Since joining the Red Sox he is 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA and 15 K's in 14 IP.

The Bad and The Ugly:

• The rotation has been simply awful. They have a 5.02 rotation ERA, which ranks them 8th in the AL out of 14 teams.
• Since returning from the DL Ben Sheets has an ERA of 4.77, prior to going on the DL he had an ERA of just over 2.00 with the team.
• Jon Papelbon has an ERA of 6.75 in his last 10 appearances, during which time he has allowed 9 runs in 12 IP and has a BAA of .320.

[Coach Owens]

The Good: John Olerud is on the team.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

League Summary

Teams in italics would make playoffs if season ended today.

AL Division Standings:

AL EAST

Boston Red Sox (63-41)
New York Yankees (59-45) 4 GB
Tampa Bay Devil Rays (54-52) 10 GB
Toronto Blue Jays (52-52) 11 GB
Baltimore Orioles (41-64) 22.5 GB


AL CENTRAL

Minnesota Twins (56-48) Would go to 1 game playoff with Cleveland
Cleveland Indians (57-49)Would go to 1 game playoff with Minnesota
Detroit Tigers (50-54) 6 GB
Chicago White Sox (49-55) 7 GB
Kansas City Royals (36-69) 20.5 GB


AL WEST

Texas Rangers (57-48)
Los Angeles Angels (54-51) 3 GB
Seattle Mariners (51-53) 5.5 GB
Oakland A's (51-53) 5.5 GB


NL Division Standings:

NL EAST

Philadelphia Phillies (63-43)
Atlanta Braves (57-48) 5.5 GB
New York Mets (55-55) 7.5 GB
Washington Nationals (51-54) 11.5 GB
Florida Marlins (48-56) 14 GB


NL CENTRAL

St. Louis Cardinals (64-40)
Houston Astros (60-45) 4.5 GB
Chicago Cubs (56-49) 8.5 GB
Cincinnati Reds (51-54) 13.5 GB
Pittsburgh Pirates (46-59) 18.5 GB
Milwaukee Brewers (42-64) 23 GB


NL WEST

San Fransisco Giants (58-46)
Arizona Diamondbacks (57-50) 2.5 GB
Los Angeles Dodgers (48-57) 10.5 GB
San Diego Padres (46-59) 12.5 GB
Colorado Rockies (41-65) 18 GB

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

The Good: John Olerud is on the team.

Lol. Hes doing pretty well too, .273BA/.396OBP/.455SLG%/.851OPS/4HR/19RBI in 46 games off the bench so far this season.