12eight

Baseball America reports that Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew have both signed - Weaver with the Angels, who took him with the 12th pick of last year's draft, and Drew with the Diamondbacks, who took him at #15 last year.  Scott Boras represents them both, and held out on the contract signings for nearly a year over signing bonuses.  On one level I'm glad they signed; the increased importance of amateur contracts in the first round of the draft simply can't be good for the game, inflating the market incredibly on players who have yet to prove themselves on professional levels.  But this year, for the Sox, it's almost certainly a bad thing, as it means that neither Weaver nor Drew will re-enter the draft, as had been previously rumored.

This year's draft class is deep, but the presence of Weaver and Drew made it even deeper, and might have pushed desirable players like Jacob Ellsbury (OF, Oregon State) or Massachusetts native Matt Torra (RHP, U. Mass) down towards the mid-20s, where the Sox have two picks.  There's still a lot of talent that will go in the first 35 or 40 picks, but the signings of Weaver and Drew likely give the Sox a couple fewer options.

In the eighth inning of last night's unfortunate affair vs. the Orioles, The Sox sent Kevin Youkilis out to play second base.  He's been taking grounders at the position this week, and may start to see more action there if Bellhorn struggles.  This is an idea I am hugely in favor of; while Youk's numbers are average-to-decent at third and mediocre at first, at second he's a very good offensive player.  If he can handle the position defensively, and Bellhorn continues to see his OBP (.351, as compared to .373 last year)  and SLG (.365 to .444) flounder, we could see him at second more and more often.

This is something I'll address tomorrow, while assessing the Sox lineup to this point, but it's nice to see that - first - management is toying with a few creative ideas, a second, that Youk is the kind of player who's willing to make those kinds of shifts.  It certainly seems as though we have a lot of those kinds of players in our infield, likely by design.  I like the versatility a ton.

Before I forget, a happy 33rd birthday to Manuel Aristedes Ramirez.

Evan Grossman's article in the New York Post on the Nixon HBP yesterday includes a bizarre little 'jab' at Boston that I have a hard time reconciling:

Sturtze plunked Nixon and home plate umpire Jerry Meals issued warnings to both teams before things could get out of hand. The warning came almost immediately, which surprised Joe Torre and the Yankees a day after Derek Jeter was drilled and did not finish Saturday's 17-1 bloodbath at the Stadium.

"He said he hit him in the back with a fastball," Torre said of his conversation with Meals. "I said, 'So did Jeter yesterday.' What constitutes a warning?"

Meals responded with "It's a different umpire."

The incident went no further and there was no return fire from the Red Sox pitching staff. But things generally tend not to boil over at Yankee Stadium, versus Fenway Park, where the teams brawled the last two seasons.

As previously mentioned, this week I'm going to be breaking down the team, assessing first-third performances and toying with some ideas for roster alteration.  Today's installment:  the rotation.  This is all slightly less dire than it would have been two days ago, after two strong outings by Matt Clement and David Wells.  In the four games between Clement starts, though, the Sox starters were roughed up for 21 runs - 18 earned - in 19.1 innings.  Now, with a 4 game set vs. Baltimore, we'll need the pitching to be firing on all cylinders.

With that in mind, let's run down the list of regular starters that have contributed so far this year.

(Click the little button below for more...)

Today's Game Hat:

(Old-school plastic-strap adjustable)

PREGAME
It was a rough week for the Red Sox.  After Matt Clement's complete game victory over the Atlanta Braves last sunday, the Sox proceeded to lose the Hall of Fame game on a walkoff homerun in the ninth, then came up to Toronto for a series that got uglier and uglier as it went on.  As if that wasn't enough, the next day they ran themelves out of a ballgame, falling to the Yankees 6-3 in a game where two consecutive Sox runners were thrown out - by several feet - at home.  Everything looked flat:  the starting pitching, the bullpen, the offense, the coaching.  The Red Sox needed a big win.

Yesterday, they got it.  The floodgates opened, and the Red Sox poured through with 17 runs, including a 7-run fifth.  Three homers, along with 24 other hits for a near-record total of 27, accompanied Matt Clement, who worked his way through 6 scoreless innings while the Sox tacked on run after run.  Several Sox broke out in a major way, led by Edgar Renteria (3-3, 5 RBI, 1 HR, Sac bunt) and Manny Ramirez (4-4, 1 R, 1 RBI).  The bullpen allowed a single run in the 7th, but the Yankee bats were effectively silenced.

Today, they may need another 17 runs, as David 'Bummer' Wells takes the mound against Mike Mussina.  The Red Sox, tied with the Blue Jays for third, and only a half-game behind the Yankees - will change place with one of those teams tonight, for sole possession of either 2nd or 4th place in the AL East.  Here's hoping for the former.

PREGAME, CONT.
There are no particularly good announing teams for ESPN, but we've drawn the 'best':  Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.  Miller is reasonable (much moreso when he does games for the Giants) but Morgan drives me nuts; he's old-school to a fault (his anti-'Moneyball' diatribes, venting against abook that he has by his own admission never read, is the height of willful ignorance, and his constant reminders that he played for the Big Red Machine are intensely annoying.  I will be keeping track of Big Red Machine mentions tonight - we're already at 1, 2 minutes into the pre-game show.

The Sox lineup includes the first start of Kelly Shoppach's major league career, and Kevin Millar - owner of a 1.107 career OPS against Mike Mussina - at 1st.  The Yankees are giving two regulars a rest: Russ Johnson starts in place of Tino Martinez and Jason Giambi at 1st, and old friend Rey 'Boom Boom' Sanchez at 2nd over rookie Robinson Cano (pronounced, apparently, "ca-KNOW"... who knew?).  Also, Bernie Williams will get a turn in center, with Matsui DHing tonight.

Will Billy Crystal ever stop?  Someone give the guy a clue.  He's not funny anymore, and his constant Yankee love is endlessly obnoxious.

FIRST PITCH
Strike over the outside corner at the knees to Damon.

Despite the outbreak of non-baseball geekery over the last couple days (sorry, X), there is baseball to be played and commented upon. 

• Tonight at 8:00 pm, David Wells and Mike Mussina will face off in the rubber game of this weekend's Sox-Yankees series.  There will be Sunday Game Blogging.
• Empyreal has a thought-provoking post on the Danny Graves release in Cincy that should be read, examining the racial isses involved - and the media's discarding of them.
• Bullshit Memorial Stadium runs down the AL East field, and comes to a number of interesting conclusions (though I would have liked a bit more analysis on the Jays and Rays, who I don' think are as bad as assumed).
• Finally, in honor of our series this weekend, I give you the unintentionally hilarious - and deeply offensive - F The Red Sox, written by jere's evil, crazy, and less intelligent twin.

In case you're interested, the final of the Memorial Cup is in the late 2nd period, and London (Ontario) leads it, to the anti-climatic tune of 3-0 over the Rimouski (Quebec) Oceanic.  I know, I don't really care either, but I'll probably have to listen to discussion about it all week, so I may as well 'watch'.

Though, I gotta say, the Rimouski goalie just made a damnedly impressive save.

Inspired by the Ronan Tynan post at SoSH - and by subsequent discussion below - I give you:

The 2475 Boston Red Sox

from Remagellan on SoSH:

It's nice to see that Quark got a singing gig after Deep Space Nine.

Yes, I'll admit to being a Deep Space Nine geek. But, for comparison's sake:

L to R:  Tynan, 'Quark', Armin Shimerman, who played Quark.  That's actually fairly frightening.

Sadly, the Yankees have scored a run off Mike Timlin, making it 14-1.  But you know what?  I'll still take it.

9-0

Edit:

TROTTER
12-0

I just did a very undignifed dance in my apartment.  Look, ma, I found an offense.