5/8 Online Seats Game Thread: Buchholz Backs Boston

The New York Yankees took their twentieth win of the season last night from the Boston Red Sox. Boston will send Clay Buchholz to the hill tonight to face C.C. Sabathia to put the Red Sox past the .500 mark.

History tells us that the cards are stacked against a Red October

Last week, I wrote a realistic but pessimist outlook for the Red Sox. Essentially, my point was that the Rays and Yankees are too good with too big of a lead for the Red Sox to have a better than 50/50 chance to over take either club and make the playoffs.

5/7 Online Seats Game Thread: Red Sox’ Rivals Return

The biggest rivalry in baseball returns tonight as the Boston Red Sox begin their second series of the year against the New York Yankees. The first meeting between the two titans saw the Red Sox draw first blood on opening night, while they ultimately fell short of the series victory. Tonight, Terry Francona will send his ace Josh Beckett out to the hill to take on Phil Hughes at Fenway Park.

Fireside Chats #77: Where Paul (prematurely?) presses the PANIC button

Let me take you back four short days ago. After having seen his team of record be swept by the lowly Baltimore Orioles, Paul Testa (aka @ptesta9) went hunting for a panic button. Instead he found twitter: I think that can keep us busy for an hour ;) All that and more on this episode of Fireside Chats.

5/6 Online Seats Game Thread: Dice-K To Shake off A Dicey Start

The Boston Red Sox are riding the .500 line after taking three in a row off of the Los Angeles Angels. Now, Daisuke Matsuzaka will have to shake off the rust from his first start, in which he got tagged for six earned runs on seven hits against the Orioles, in order to complete the sweep of the Angels and give the Red Sox a winning record.

Lackey continues to allow contact

We have learned over the years that the only things a pitcher can control are strike outs, walks and keeping the ball on the ground. Things like hits and home runs are just a factor of league averages and things like defense and luck. Lackey finished Wednesday night with an ERA of 3.89 and seems to be joining the rest of the pitchers in winning results. The trouble is his numbers he controls don't back that up and he is benefiting by a run of good luck. He has only been striking out 5.10 batters every nine innings, which is down two from his career average. That is a huge drop in one season and very concerning. This is made even worse by a BB/9 that is up from 2.66 in his career to 3.60. His ground ball rate has held at career levels leaving his change in K/BB at 1.42 this year from a career rate of 2.69. All of this doom and gloom points to a pitcher with a xFIP of 4.94. While his FIP says 4.12, which would be ok that has a lot to do with his HR/FB rate at 5.4 percent.

5/5 Online Seats Game Thread: Angels Face Lackey for the First Time as a Member of the Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are picking up speed against the Los Angeles Angels at home. Tonight, John Lackey will take the hill to protect his new house against his old team.

The Case For Optimism

Monday night, we got a glimpse of what this team could look like with things going right. Clay Buchholz put together another solid outing, further cementing himself as this season’s most reliable starter, and the offense put on a show — especially during a long 6th inning that saw seven Sox runners cross the plate. The question is this: was what we saw last night something we can expect to see again, or was it simply a reminder of how frustrating this season has become?

I was a huge fan of this particular iteration of the club going into 2010 — probably the most excited I’ve been about a Sox team since 2007. Unsurprisingly, the abysmal start has dampened my optimism pretty significantly, but it hasn’t yet killed it. I still think that by the end of the season we’ll see a team that more closely resembles the one that decimated the Angels than the one that lay down in front of the Orioles. Here’s why.

5/4 Online Seats Game Thread: Boston Beats On Los Angeles

The Boston Red Sox finally came alive in a big way last night, routing the Angels, 17-8, on twenty hits. Having turned it around as of late, Jon Lester will take the hill to face Ervin Santana tonight.

Should Jason Varitek continue to catch

Heading into 2010 it was a fairly easy choice that we wanted Victor Martinez to supply the offense we needed from the catcher position and give adequate defense behind the plate. So far though there has been some early results that might be good reasoning to place Martinez in the DH spot more often and give Varitek a final year of significant work in a Red Sox uniform. While Martinez offense has not been there yet this season his number look fine. He is striking out only 7 percent of the time, which is lower than any season in his career. His walk rate is a bit low at 8.5 percent, but nothing significant from his career rate of 10 percent. His power has not been around yet, but neither has his luck with a BABIP of .241. Once that regresses to the mean his average will return and his OBP. There is good reason to use him over Ortiz at the DH, but is there a reason why we should use Varitek over Martinez at catcher? I was wondering the same thing and no it's not a question of offense. He may look impressive right now, but a .500 ISO will make anyone look impressive. The power is exceptional, but once it regresses his other numbers will return to what they have been or a .230/.330/.440 line or a .340 wOBA. That is about league average and although probably better than Ortiz right now not a reason to change.