A Fix for Interleague Play

We are in the middle of inter-league play. Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers are coming to Boston. It is going to be an exciting weekend, but the last series with the Diamondbacks does not get circled on any fan's schedule in January nor does the All-Star Game unless it is in your home city. A few slight schedule changes could assist in making inter-league play tolerable for even the purists. As my colleague mentioned a few days ago, inter-league play generates too much revenue to be eliminated in the near future. But below is a plan to alleviate the two major negatives to those contests: too many games and the unbalanced schedule.

Looking for Signals that the Draftees Will Sign

In a chat on BaseballAmerica.com, Jim Callis thinks “…the Red Sox have drafted the most highly regarded talent. To have the best draft, they'll have to sign a lot of those guys. No reason they won't, though, that's their approach.” Callis is dead on; a successful 2010 amateur draft will be if Yawkey Way signs most of the amateurs mentioned below.

Cautious Optimism But Lacking Something

The Red Sox offense is in good shape. The local nine is second in runs scored and OPS. The lineup has been legit even with Jeremy Hermida (649 OPS) and Darnell McDonald (746 OPS) getting 246 of the 1920 Red Sox at-bats or 12.8%. The other seven regulars are collectively performing as expected. When Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury take plate appearances from Hermida and McDonald, the Olde Towne Team should put up more crooked numbers.

On the pitching front, walks have been the issue. The health and return to form from Josh Beckett will reduce the number of free passes. If he replaces Tim Wakefield, the club will benefit even more since his style dictates not giving into hitters.

a favorable schedule and then inter-league or uneven play

Last week, I wrote…

“It should be about 2011 since the Olde Towne Team got too far behind over the last forty plus games, which has contributed to them having such a small shot at the postseason. Hence, it would be prudent to plan and act, if nothing drastic occurs, for next year at the trading deadline.”

The Red Sox winning five in a row on the road against the N.L. Champs and the A.L. East leading Rays is not “drastic.“ But it close enough for the folks on Yawkey Way to also work on a buying plan for July.

It is time to plan for next year

We are starting to move beyond the "it is early" excuse for the Red Sox record. The club has issues and it may be too late to resolve them. Even the most optimist projection of the Olde Towne Team's chance of making the postseason is only at twenty percent. The Red Sox should be planning to sell off pieces this summer.

Nick Cafardo said in a recent piece for the Boston Globe.

Being the GM in Boston means:...2. Don’t ever think of retooling. You can’t give up the season and make the necessary deals with veteran players to replenish your farm system. Uh-uh, don’t dare do that in Boston;...

Yawkey Way will need to forget the public pressure to play for today. If this is truly not your "Father's Red Sox", then we may see the best example of it this July.

If the Red Sox standings demonstrate an unrealistic mountain to climb after the All-Star Break, a large segment of fans may not revolt to the white flag waving.

I want egg on my face

On May 5th, I thought David Ortiz should be released. Even though he hit two home runs a few days prior in Baltimore, they were on average fastballs that measured 90 and 91 miles per hour. Ortiz or any quadruple-A slugger like Jack Cust should be putting those in the seats when he knows it is coming. I was not impressed and my patience was running thin. The hope of October baseball at Fenway was fading. Drastic times call for drastic measures - the release of a Red Sox icon.

Thankfully that did not happen. David Ortiz is still property of the Boston Red Sox. After last year's summer reemergence of Big Papi and witnessing his progress at the plate, the Red Sox stood by Ortiz.

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.

The A.L. East mountain is too high to climb

Even though the Red Sox have won seven out of their last ten, they have not been playing good baseball. In those same ten games against mostly non-playoff contenders, the Olde Towne Team's run differential is +3 (53 runs scored and 50 runs against). They should have won about half of those games. The Red Sox great record in one-run games is responsible for the six of the seven wins. It is unlikely that this trend will continue. They need to play much better baseball or we could be witnessing the first year in John Henry's tenure where the Red Sox will be sellers on July 31, 2010.

IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE, RIGHT?

The Red Sox have played poorly in all facets of the game. As of games through April 22nd, they are ninth in run scored and thirteenth in runs against. Our eyes and the numbers tell us that the Olde Towne Team’s play has been ugly.

Even though most thought the Red Sox offense would suffer (I took a slightly different view), the other side of the ledger would make up for the drop off so professed the optimists of the media and the Nation. Run prevention -- pitching and defense -- was supposed to the strength of the Local Nine. Through April 22nd, the defense has been strong even with Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron missing multiple game. The Sox are second in Ultimate Zone Rating and eighth in Defense Efficiency. Hence, the biggest disappointment has been the pitchers and specifically, the top three starters.

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.