Impressions Of Sox Opening Day Loss
Think baseball is boring? Not me. A million things were going on down on the field in Texas today. Here's my thoughts on a few...
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Wakefield: He is now what he should have been a long time ago: A mopup man. The most overrated player in Sox history. Tell me, if this guy is so valuable why has he been playing for a couple million or so a year for quite some time now? The man is a .500 pitcher and, other than a couple of freak years, always has been.
Pedroia: Not much happened at the plate but this dude can surely pick it in the field. Will most likely win another Gold Glove, health allowing. Good things are in store for Dustin is he is healthy.
Crawford: Looked ridiculously bad against the lefties. Did he even get a foul ball? Not what you want out of the three hole. IS a very good player when he hits for average, but I wonder if the Sox would be better off with Gonzalez at 3, Youk at 4, Papi at 5, with whatever R/L/R/L fills in the rest of the order.
Ellsbury: I'll bet you ANYTHING he got a lousy jump on that single in front of him in the 8th. Another guy who has to hit for high average to have any value. Doesn't hit for power and almost never walks, so his average has to touch .300 for him to have a good year. Shit, the dude played in 18 games last year because of cracked ribs: Not exactly a tough guy.
Lester: Velocity was fine but location off. The least of the team's worries. He has historically started fairly slowly. Other than the three bombs didn't do bad in that joke of a park in Texas.
Bard: Another guy not to be worried about. Murphy swung at ball four and punched it to left and hit the foul line: Baseball luck. Bard gets tired pretty quickly, but he threw the slider and (I think) changeup today and needs to rely on them since no one other than Nolan Ryan has thrown as hard as Bard for more than a couple of years.
Gonzalez: My goodness is he good. A GREAT first baseman. Made two good plays just in the first inning. Might get 140 ribbies this year (seriously).
Papi: Looked silly against the lefties until the homer. I'm not worried about him. He looks in good shape and probably has another good year or two. Will undoubtably be one of the best DH's in the league once again.
The Bullpen: Albers and Reyes aren't very good. Hopefully Doubrant can come back and fill in that 6th/7th inning role, because these two guys are just filler until he returns.
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Losing to Texas is no shame. Wilson proved he can pitch last year and did pretty well today. The bullpen for the Rangers closed the deal and the Sox pen didn't, but there's 161 more to go, folks.
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Wakefield: He is now what he should have been a long time ago: A mopup man. The most overrated player in Sox history. Tell me, if this guy is so valuable why has he been playing for a couple million or so a year for quite some time now? The man is a .500 pitcher and, other than a couple of freak years, always has been.
Pedroia: Not much happened at the plate but this dude can surely pick it in the field. Will most likely win another Gold Glove, health allowing. Good things are in store for Dustin is he is healthy.
Crawford: Looked ridiculously bad against the lefties. Did he even get a foul ball? Not what you want out of the three hole. IS a very good player when he hits for average, but I wonder if the Sox would be better off with Gonzalez at 3, Youk at 4, Papi at 5, with whatever R/L/R/L fills in the rest of the order.
Ellsbury: I'll bet you ANYTHING he got a lousy jump on that single in front of him in the 8th. Another guy who has to hit for high average to have any value. Doesn't hit for power and almost never walks, so his average has to touch .300 for him to have a good year. Shit, the dude played in 18 games last year because of cracked ribs: Not exactly a tough guy.
Lester: Velocity was fine but location off. The least of the team's worries. He has historically started fairly slowly. Other than the three bombs didn't do bad in that joke of a park in Texas.
Bard: Another guy not to be worried about. Murphy swung at ball four and punched it to left and hit the foul line: Baseball luck. Bard gets tired pretty quickly, but he threw the slider and (I think) changeup today and needs to rely on them since no one other than Nolan Ryan has thrown as hard as Bard for more than a couple of years.
Gonzalez: My goodness is he good. A GREAT first baseman. Made two good plays just in the first inning. Might get 140 ribbies this year (seriously).
Papi: Looked silly against the lefties until the homer. I'm not worried about him. He looks in good shape and probably has another good year or two. Will undoubtably be one of the best DH's in the league once again.
The Bullpen: Albers and Reyes aren't very good. Hopefully Doubrant can come back and fill in that 6th/7th inning role, because these two guys are just filler until he returns.
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Losing to Texas is no shame. Wilson proved he can pitch last year and did pretty well today. The bullpen for the Rangers closed the deal and the Sox pen didn't, but there's 161 more to go, folks.
posted by joe sweeney at 7:28 PM
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