– The 2007 Red Sox schedule was released in the past week, and you can check it out here and here. Some quick points and immediate observations:
1. The Sox open up the season with three relatively easy series, @ Kansas City, @ Texas and vs. Seattle. This could serve as a boost for the new team, especially players like Josh Beckett and Coco Crisp, who need to get off to booming starts before the Boston media and Sox fans start giving up. The Patriots Day game looks to be April 16 vs. the Angels. Let??s hope for another walk-off.
2. Sox-Yanks series: home April 20-22, away April 27-29, away May 21-23, home June 1-3, away August 28-30, home September 14-16. I like that the series start and end at Fenway. I wish they would spread it out more, though. I remember feeling a Sox-Yanks overload by mid-June last season. This could be the case in 2007 once again with two series in April, one in May, one in early June and none until late August.
3. Interleague pits us against the NL West, with Colorado, San Francisco and Atlanta (as always) making stops in Boston, and the Red Sox taking trips to Arizona, San Diego and Atlanta, all in May and June. I??m not a huge fan of interleague, but some matchups can be intriguing (Mets-Yanks, Cubs-Red Sox). Not the case this season.
4. August looks pretty brutal. Nine home games vs. 19 road games could make or break our season. Luckily, the most important month of September gives Boston 17 home games and 10 road games. We finish up with home games against potential playoff teams Oakland and Minnesota. Rich Harden, Danny Haren, Joe Blanton, Matt Garza, Johan Santana, Francisco Liriano. I??m scared already.
5. The most vital month for success is July. Besides three games in Detroit, the Sox are primarily at home with series vs. Cleveland, Texas, Tampa, Toronto, Kansas City and Chicago from June 28- July 22. If the Red Sox stumble through that easy stretch of home games, the season will need to be salvaged on the road. I know it??s early, but sometimes you can just tell.
– As tough as it is to analyze and judge the hiring of hitting coaches we know practically nothing about, I??m a bit skeptical on the Magadan hiring. Supposedly, he fits the Theo philosophy and he is a friend of Lucchino from their San Diego days. Magadan was dumped by the Padres when they were faltering near the league basement in team batting average. I really hope this wasn??t just a ?
