Steroids, blogging, and baseball

For those of you who haven't heard, there's been a buzz around baseball media circles over the past week after Jerod Morris of Midwestsportsfans.com wrote the following article regarding the hot start of Raul Ibanez in Philadelphia.

"In fact, the 37-year old Ibanez has been so good that it has led to the inevitable speculation that his improvement may be attributable to factors other than his new lineup, playing in a better ballpark for hitters, or additional maturation as a hitter. In this day and age of suspicion at any significant jump in numbers, even over small sample sizes, it is what it is - and such speculation is to be expected."

And when such speculation was posed to Morris via his fantasy baseball league's message board, he set out to disprove with whatever statistical evidence he could muster that Raul Ibanez' hot start was artificial by nature.

BOS 6, NYY 5: Boston hangs on to improve to 7-0 against Yanks

Two things remained perfect last night at Fenway Park.

BOS 7, NYY 0: Beckett, Ortiz lead charge past Yankees

Josh Beckett pitched six scoreless innings and David Ortiz extended his hitting streak to seven games to stay undefeated against the New York Yankees this season.

Fireside Chats #49: Where we prepare for the Yankee series with a visit from Cranky Frankie the Yankee

Boston Red Sox podcast on MVN Radio, Episode #49 where we prepare for the Yankee series with a visit from Cranky Frankie the Yankee and introduce the "Tweet of the Week".

Episode #49
Hosts: Paul Testa, Tim Daloisio
Guests: Cranky Frankie the Yankee

The Red Sox find themselves one game out of first place with the only people above them, the New York Yankees, coming to Fenway Park for a three game set. With that we welcome old friend of the show Cranky Frankie the Yankee to update us on all things pinstriped.

We continue our run of taking shots at Julio Lugo and look for any possible way he could get a ticket out of town and introduce the Conan O'Brien inspired Fireside Chats Twitter Tracker.

This weeks' "Tweet of the Week" from our Red Sox Twitter Tracker:

from @hackswithhaggs

All that and more on Episode #49 of Fireside Chats on MVN!

TEX 6, BOS 3: Rebound

Dominate pitching at Fenway Park could only last so long. Daisuke Matsuzaka took the hill one game after Jon Lester's near perfect game.

BOS 8, TEX 1: Nearly perfect

This is the Jon Lester every Red Sox fan expected this season.

TEX 5, BOS 1: Trade bait

If Brady Penny is going to be traded then this outing didn't help the Boston Red Sox front office.

Big Papi getting eyes checked out

David Ortiz will get his eyes checked out Monday, says WEEI. Ortiz mentioned recently that he is experiencing a few problems with his eyesight. Considering that Ortiz has 20-20 vision, it's doubtful it's made a significant impact. However, he says his eyes have been drying out a bit lately which causes him to lose focus on the pitcher. The problem has been bothering him for "a few weeks," so it's certainly not the cause of his slump. Still, the Red Sox and Big Papi have to be crossing their fingers.

BOS 6, DET 3: Bay’s way

It's not how you start. It's how you finish.

6/4: Sneaky midweek game day