What a little pressure from the boss will do

Here's a little update to the post that I made only a matter of hours ago, now Torre's pulling up his Ace on short rest for game 4 tonight.

With all the media saying, "Steinbrenner should keep his mouth shut" "Do you really think they played harder cause Torre's jobs on the line".....here's the bottom line. The Yankees are scared. This amazing comeback of a season was based on them putting up monster scores, and their pitching stepping up from horrible to above average. Now it's October, and for at least a third consecutive year their hitting has fallen off big time. So the normally arogant Yankees are grasping at straws and switching to a 3 man rotation on short rest. Sounds like a desperate team to me. On the other side of the field, you got the Indians saying, "we're not desperate, we've got some good depth on the mound, so you're gonna see our #4 tonight".

This will make tonights game even more interesting. As Wang got racked in game 1, can the Tribe do it again, this time in NY? How will Wang throw on short rest? How quick will Torre be with the hook, if the game turns ugly?

Then let's look ahead, if the Wang idea works, you got Pettite/CC for the deciding Wed night match. THAT will be exciting! And as the Sox have already clinched, we're allowed to look farther and say, that if the Yanks pull it out with Wang & Pettite gone, that sets them up for Clemens (or Hughes) game 1 on Friday, Wang on 4 days rest Saturday, Pettite on 4 days Monday, and Mussina (who hasn't ptiched in a month) on Tuesday?

On the Tribe side, if they pull it off tonight with Byrd, then CC & Fausto will walk into Fenway this weekend. Not something I'd wanna look forward to. So as a true Sox fan, can you possibly root for NY tonight? I don't think I can do that.

OR

OK Sox fans, what would you take if you had your choice, schedule option A or B?

Right now, as of mid-day Friday Boston & Cleveland sit tied with the AL's best record. And everyone's been talking about how deep the Sox's pitching staff goes, and how Cleveland would really want Option B so they could throw out CC & Faust twice in the opening series. But I'm not satisfied with that answer. I think it's a little short-sighted. So let's look into this a little deeper.

If you're so concerned about the ALDS and making sure that your two biggest guns get out there if the series goes to the limit, what happens if that works? Now you walk into the ALCS going #3, #1, #2 (in that order) all on 4 days rest. Then you need to use a #4, before you're back into #1, #3, #2 (in that order) . And if all that goes well, you get into the World Series with your #1 on 6 days rest. And during the series #1, #2, & #3 will all pitch on 4 days rest.

Now if option A was the choice, starting on Thursday, you roll through the ALDS using 4 pitchers, and everyone's got extra rest. Then you look ahead to the ALCS, and if you wanna use 1,2, & 3 twice each, only #1 will be going on 4 days rest twice. Then in the WS similarly to the other scenerio, 1,2, & 3 will all pitch on 4 days rest at some point.

That said, I personally feel that Option A is still the answer. The depth of the rotation is good enough, everyone's got good rest for the first series (which has been huge this year for Dice & Schill), and it sets up better for the ALCS. Plus, why not force your opponent to go to a #4 starter. And best reason yet....why not give the Indians some help against the Spankmes?

And on another note, anyone that has ever paid attention to Townienews.com make sure you check out Fitzy now on ESPN.com under their video section with his Monday Night Mania's. They're hysterical, and now he's finally getting the national recognition he deserves. Can't wait to see him going nuts in Cinci this week.

So no more losses, go Sox, take the East, and roll into October.

Weekly Sox Update - Setting up the stage

So Tito's starting to play some games here. The Sox were up by 5 games in the division, sitting with the best record in baseball, and are setting up the rotation like it's the end of September.

However it's really only the end of the August, but the boys in red are preparring for next week's series against the pin stripes like the playoffs depend on it (which they might). For those that don't know what I'm talking about, the Sox pulled up Clay Bucholtz on Friday for one of the double header games, in order to not mess with the usual starters schedules. OK, I like it, let's see Clay, he gets to pitch at home, and it keeps everything normal. Then comes Sunday, and who strolls out to the mound...Julian Tavarez. Is someone injured? Nope. Tito's making the call that he wants to go DiceK, Beckett, Schilling against the Yankees....which is over a week away. However I do like JT showing OC what happens when you try to steal our signs.

Talk about making a stand. Another interesting twist, Wily Mo is gone. He complained that he didn't wanna play Centerfield, when they needed someone to, and he really wasn't performing. So in comes Jacoby....but he didn't even last the weekend!?!? Next comes Bobby Kielty. Nothing against him, but I'm just wondering why make the two moves? If only JD could live up to half of his salary, this wouldn't be an issue at all. And is it just me, or on Sunday, the games on the line, runners on base, 2-outs, Kielty's got 2 hits already....let's ph Drew so he can whiff the game away. Come on.

And of course, the bad news, with Dougie Mirabelli getting injured. Now they had to bring in a new catcher, Cash. This could be huge. We'll find out tonight how well he handles the knuckler.

The Sox got two VERY important series here over this week, that can't be taken lightly. The Drays and ChiSox give us a huge chance to open the lead against the Spankme's before next week's series. I mean, New York's coming off battling Detroit to take 3 of 4, are going out to LA for the Angels, and then go into Detroit who'll be looking for revenge. That's a tough stretch, so Boston needs to take care of business, while they're battling on the road.

Go Sox!

Another weekly Sox Update



Here we sit with the Sox still on top of the entire league with 72 wins. They've been on this perch now for what seems like an eternity. So why am I so nervous?



A couple weeks ago, Theo goes out and snags the best reliever on the market, and adds him to the best bullpen in baseball. So how does that bullpen give up gameS to the Orioles? The 15 1/2 games back, more Sox fans in the crowd than O's fans, home away from home Orioles! I'm not about to say picking up Gagme was a mistake, but the job of a bullpen is to be lights out, and he's got a month and a half to prove that he is. Hopefully he'll prove it sooner than later, so that we don't get passed by the Yanks and M's and miss out on the playoffs.

Most important for the Sox right now is to take more than 2 of 3 from the Drays (and other similar teams). We got 28 games left against TB, BAL, TOR, OAK, and the Whitesox, and need to win at least 20+ of them. Add that with 10 games left against the Angels and Yankees that we need to split (ie get 5 of them), and the team will be in good shape for October. (Yeah, I'm ignoring the Twins series to finish out the season, cause that all depends on how the races are at that point, they could mean nothing, or they could lock the Sox in, or they could lock Minnisota in the Central. Who knows.)

Now as we look at the manually updated out of town scores on the green monster, let's pay extra special attention to that team from the Bronx over the next couple of weeks. 14 games with one day off against Detroit, Angels, Detroit, and Boston. That's a tough stretch for the hottest team in baseball (of course, Sept looks a little different with 6 games against Seatle and Boston, and 21 against TB, KC, TOR, & BAL). As well, we should keep the other eye on Detroit & Cleveland. They've got 6 more games against each other, 6 more games each against Minn, and 3 each against Seatle. But here's where it differs, Detroit gets the 8 games vs NY while Cleveland just has 3 vs the Angels. Advantage Cleveland.

Ahhh yes, the season is heating up pretty good right now. And our boys need to stay on top.