Sox Take R&R in KC, Buchholz Picks Up Where He Left Off

R&R in KC After winning the home opener, the Sox looked quite sluggish in their encore performances against the Yanks. What they needed was a little R&R against a weak out-of-division opponent -- and the KC Royals came to the rescue. Though the pitching staff managed to make the series interesting -- including dropping the first content by virtue of Okajima’s and Bard’s eighth inning bullpen lapses -- there were many positives to take away from the road trip to Missouri...

JOE WEST HAS A POINT AND TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP

One of the beautiful aspects of baseball is the lack of a clock. A game ends after 27 outs (when the game isn’t tied, which is another wonderful element). But baseball is not watched in a vacuum. Few things in life are not influenced by time. Hence, I agree with Joe West that MLB games should be sped up…to make the game more fan friendly.

As far as I know, no fan dislikes a hitter stepping out of the box or a pitcher shaking off a sign or even two. The issue is the number of mound meetings that, in some cases, are just done to buy time for the relief pitcher to get warm. As Red Sox fans, we have seen Jorge Posada too many times go out to the mound to be immediately followed by a Joe that pulls the pitcher. A number of rules could be implemented to eliminate mound visits to warm up a relief pitcher.

4/10 Online Seats Game Thread: Buchholz makes debut

Clay Buchholz makes his season debut for the Boston Red Sox. He's got a good first opponent in the hapless Royals, but can the inconsistent youngster put it all together? With Daisuke Matsuzaka around the corner, can Buchholz afford a misstep?

4/9 Online Seats Game Thread: Boston Bets on Beckett

After a lackluster opening night performance, Josh Beckett looks to make it right by leading the Boston Red Sox against the Kansas City Royals, after dropping the first game of the series last night.

Daisuke Matsuzaka tosses five scoreless Triple-A innings

Boston Red Sox right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka spent more time on the sidelines during spring training than he did on the mound due to a combination of shoulder and neck injuries.

He took his first step toward a possible return to Boston by pitching five pain-free, scoreless innings Saturday against Rochester as he began a 30-day rehab assignment with Triple-A Pawtucket.

Pawtucket won the first game of a makeup doubleheader, 1-0.

Matsuzaka, who’s been on Boston’s disabled list since April 3 with a neck strain, walked one, struck out three and hit two batters.

Sounding the alarms from the pen

I love to preach patience and we have a long season ahead, but I think it's time to question the bullpen. It's only been 4 games, but a team putting big situations in the hands of Scott Schoeneweis and Scott Atchinson might want to start looking for help. Of course we know that isn't the only trouble, but I'm starting to wonder if we have the arms to get to Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima and Jonathon Papelbon.

Our lefty specialist has already been called on to face left handers and while he has a career xFIP of 3.53, but if you try to stretch him his xFIP jumps to 5.19. This should limit his usage exclusively to lefty hitters and should not be used for any more than that.

4/9 Online Seats Game Thread: Sox play catch up in KC

Tim Wakefield is set to enter his 16th season with the Boston Red Sox against the Kansas City Royals, to kick off the first away game of the 2010 season.

Boof Bonser coughs up two home runs in Triple-A debut

Boof Bonser wasn’t upset that he gave up two home runs.

The fact his surgically-repaired right shoulder and right groin strain felt fine was his primary concern.

Bonser allowed three runs in 4 1/3 innings during a rehab start for the Pawtucket Red Sox in an International League game Thursday against the Rochester Red Wings.

Pawtucket beat Rochester, 11-3.

Fireside Chats #74: Where Paul grabs a bat and pinch hits for Big Papi

Well, one series down and no shortage of things to talk about. Nothing like dumping fans into the middle of September feeling games without even a few warm up throws. Our biggest take aways from the first three games, this team is going to be good this season. The endings may not have been written the way we would have wanted, but there can be no doubt that the 2010 Yankees and Red Sox are two evenly matched teams. Come along for a listen as we heap praise on the newcomers, Lackey, Scoot and Beltre while we pan the old standby, David Ortiz. All that and more on this episode of Fireside Chats.

John Lackey’s new approach

Sometimes a pitcher will make adjustments and one game will result in a large jump in one pitch or perhaps they can't control it so they just get rid of the pitch. That doesn't seem to be the case as John Lackey made a huge change to his pitch breakdown last night. Lackey has largely been a four seam fastball pitcher throwing more than 50% for three straight years. In 2008 and 2007 it was 59%. Last night though he broke from the mold and became more unpredictable in his approach. He largely stuck to three pitches through the game using his four-seam fastball, curveball and cutter. When I say he stuck to those pitches he threw 100 pitches of which 30 were four-seamers, 29 were curveballs and 29 were cutters. To put those 29 cutters in perspective we can see in 2009 he threw 81 cutters all year long for a 2.6% of total pitches. Before we go to far though we should see if there is any possibility that these are just misclassified fastballs. First we can see that from his 2009 chart his cutters(FC) are similar to the four seamer with less horizontal movement but similar vertical break.