NFL Week 3 - Pats Prediction

Pats Prediction:

Last week: Pats favored by 6.5 points. I said 24 - 20 Pats over the Jets. The actual score was 24 - 17 New England.

Season record: 2-0 Straight Up, 0-2 Against the Spread

Week 2 Favorite: New England (-7)

Prediction: 31 - 27 New England over Denver


Mike Shannahan has had success against the Patriots in the past so I expect this game to be a high scoring affair. Jake Plummer has really struggled this year and has had difficulty against Bill Belichick in the past. I think the net result is another Patriots victory. I'm glad that Pats get to face Denver at home and I'm glad it's early in the season before Denver has put everything together. This was a game I indentified on the schedule that could be a loss.

NFL Week 2 - Pats Prediction

Pats Prediction:

Last Week: Pats favored by 10 points. I said 27 - 13 New England over Buffalo. The actual score was 19 - 17 New England.

Season Record: 1-0 Straight Up, 0-1 Against the Spread

Week 2 Favorite: New England (-6.5)

Prediction: 24 - 20 Pats over Jets

A Close Shave, A Pruned Branch

The Buffalo Bills defense came to play yesterday. So much for my predicted score this week. I'm now officially 1-0 straight up and 0-1 against the spread. The more predicitions I make the happier I am that I'm not a gambler.

Both teams played a sloppy game yesterday. Losman looked rattled and confused. Brady looked just plain bad at times. I don't know how much of Brady's trouble stemmed from poor offensive line play, but his fourth quarter interception was a poorly thrown ball no matter what Phil Simms says. Watson beat the safety and should have made a huge gain on the play. The ball simply didn't travel far enough; it was short and to the inside and the safety made the easy play.

Deion Branch was traded to Seattle today for a 1st round draft pick. It will be interesting to see what the Patriots do with two first round picks next year. I'm actually surprised they managed to get a first round pick. I think the Seahawks made a knee-jerk reaction to their poor play yesterday. Start rooting for the Seahawks opponents this year. There is a streak of Super Bowl losers (the last six or so) failing to make the playoffs the following year. I hope it continues.

I still think Branch's agent, Jason Chayut, is a complete idiot. Branch and all parties involved would have been happier if he could have agreed to an extension with the Patriots. Now Branch stands to be exposed as a top 25 to top 35 receiver. It seems Chayut has convinced Branch that he's a top 10 receiver. In reality Branch is probably somewhere in the 15-25 range. He should have accepted one of the Patriots' offers.

NFL Week 1 - Pats Prediction

The NFL season shifts into high gear tomorrow at 1PM. I can't wait!

I'm also playing flag football tomorrow morning in an organized league. I can't wait to start the first game of the season. I don't know how I'll sleep tonight.

I decided to predict the Patriots results each week straight up and also to include the spread. This will give me two chances to be right (or wrong) each week. I'll use Bodog.com for the spread on Saturdays unless otherwise noted.

Pats Prediction:

Last Week: N/A

Week 1 Favorite: New England (-10)

Prediction: 27 - 13 New England over Buffalo

So, as you can see, I'm predicting New England straight up and I'm predicting they cover the spread. I'll keep track of the two results separately for the season.

I'm Ready For Some Football

Since I'm ultra-confident that I'll successfully defend my Fantasy Football crown this season, I figure I'm well qualified to predict the outcome of the NFL season. Here's my prediction by division. Wild card winners for each conference are in italics and have a * after the name.

AFC EAST
12-4 New England Patriots
10-6 Miami Dolphins *
5-11 Buffalo Bills
2-14 New York Jets

The Pats could go 14-2 this year. I don't buy into the Miami hype, but they do have a relatively favorable schedule. The Bills and Jets are awful.

AFC NORTH
11-5 Cincinnati Bengals
9-7 Baltimore Ravens
8-8 Pittsburgh Steelers
7-9 Cleveland Browns

The AFC North could have a dogfight at the top of the division as the Bengals, Steelers, and Steve McNair-led Ravens team all have a shot at the division. I think injuries to McNair and Roethlisberger will derail the Ravens and Steelers, though.

AFC SOUTH
12-4 Indianapolis Colts
8-8 Jacksonville Jaguars
6-10 Houston Texans
4-12 Tennessee Titans

The Colts run away with the division. The Texans make a baby step forward. The Vince Young era begins in Tennessee.

AFC WEST
10-6 San Diego Chargers
10-6 Kansas City Chiefs *
9-7 Denver Broncos
5-11 Oakland Raiders

The Chargers ride their defense and LT to the division title. Likewise, the Chiefs ride LJ and an improved defense to the playoffs. Broncos fans get to see Jay Cutler a little earlier than they had hoped.

NFC EAST
10-6 Philadelphia Eagles
9-7 Dallas Cowboys *
7-9 New York Giants
6-10 Washington Redskins

The Eagles got rid of clubhouse cancer Terrell Owens and can't possibly get hit with the injury bug as hard as they were last year. Meanwhile the afformentioned T.O. behaves enough during his first year in Dallas to earn a playoff berth. The overrated and overhyped Giants and Redskins fall by the wayside.

NFC NORTH
9-7 Chicago Bears
8-8 Minnesota Vikings
6-10 Detroit Lions
6-10 Green Bay Packers

The worst division in football allows the Bears defense to once again rise to the top of the division. Brett Favre will wish he had retired.

NFC SOUTH
11-5 Carolina Panthers
9-7 Tampa Bay Buccanears
8-8 Atlanta Falcons
6-10 New Orleans Saints

The Panthers are very good team but I don't think they will completely outdistance themselves from the pack. The Buccanears are the tough-luck team in the NFC. Michael Vick and Reggie Bush compete for highlight reel plays, but not for the playoffs.

NFC WEST
11-5 Seattle Seahawks
10-6 St. Louis Rams *
7-9 Arizona Cardinals
5-11 San Francisco 49's

The Seahawks lost guard Steve Hutchinson to the Vikes, but they still have a great offense led by Hasselbeck and Alexander to compliment a top-notch defense that added some key players this off-season. The Rams have the talent to be a very good team this year. The Cardinals don't have the offensive line or defense to get to the next level yet. Good luck, Alex Smith.


I like the Pats over the Colts in the AFC Championship Game.

I think the Panthers beat the Seahawks in an NFC Championship Game rematch.

I think the Pats will beat the Panthers in Miami in February in some really important game.

We're Not Dead Yet

I can't even count the number of times that I planned to write a column titled "R.I.P. 2006 Red Sox Season" in the last two weeks. I'm an optimist, I think it helps me get through life on a relatively even keel. So when I thought the season was over for the Sox, you know the team was in dire straights. After two great pitching performances in a row, first Freddy Kreuger and now Kason Gaba-gaba-hey, the team is not only clinging to their slim playoff chances, but is showing a glimmer of hope. The return of Varitek this week is huge. Getting Papi, Nixon, and Gonzalez back into the lineup doesn't hurt, either. Hopefully Papelbon and Schilling won't be on the mend for too long.

I'm planning to write my NFL season preview tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Pats Prediction

Good thing it's only the pre-season as I failed to post a Pats Prediction last week. I had gone to see the Brockton Rox game last Saturday and forget to throw up a score before I left in the afternoon.

Here is tonight's prediction:

24 - 20 Pats over Redskins

Both teams have potential top 10 defenses but the Skins will really miss having Clinton Portis tonight.


I was in Toronto this week for business so I didn't post anything. I managed to see the Blue Jays play the Athletics on Tuesday. I'll post pictures and details soon.

Rotten Apple, Good Music

I'm definitely not an Apple person; I hate Macs and find them totally unnecessary. I like the internet image that shows a series of baby toys and the Mac one-button mouse with the tagline, "Macs, simple computers for simple people". Several years ago Macs served a purpose in graphical design and computer animation but those days are long gone. The new television commercials showing a middle-aged guy in a tweed jacket as a PC and a young punk as a Mac are clever but they work against Apple. Consumers sympathize with the PC and recognize the "Mac" as representative of its fanbase, smarmy spoiled loyalists.

The one thing that Apple has done right is the iPod. It's a wonderfully designed device. The execution is nearly, if not totally, flawless. The device is compact, simple to operate with one hand, and intuitive. I never read the manual for my iPod; I charged the battery and simply started using it. I am a manual-reading kind of guy, too. I'll spend the time to read the manual for even basic devices just to ensure that I have learned all the little tips and tricks. The iPod didn't require any reading.

Many detractors don't like the iPod because of the forced association with iTunes. Until today I never understood what the fuss was about. I installed iTunes a couple of years ago without any trouble and had not updated the software since. I read about the changes that Apple continually implemented in the digital rights management (DRM) of later versions of iTunes and I avoided all updates like the plague. As a result, I had no complaints. I could purchase music cheaply and easily without going to the store and subsequently burn music CDs for the car or stereo and then rip them back to MP3 format if I need to edit the files for ringtones or other purposes. The DRM had little effect on my music and use of it.

Today I wanted to purchase the new single from the Killers, "When You Were Young". I decided to pre-order the new album since "Hot Fuss" was so good and the new single is great. I heard the new single on the radio yesterday and immediately recognized the artist as the Killers.

When I tried to pre-order the new CD, "Sam's Town" iTunes forced me to upgrade to version 6. I was happily running version 4.7, thank you very much. I begrudgingly went to upgrade my iTunes version and was forced to install Quicktime 7(.1?), too. I'm sick of Apple's pathetic attempts to force the use of Quicktime upon iTunes users and iTunes upon Quicktime users. The only time I ever use Quicktime is if I want to view movie trailers at the Quicktime website. It's totally useless otherwise. Windows Media Player 9 and 10 support High Definition and offer more versatility.

After waiting 15 minutes for the Quicktime portion of the install to complete I shut down the install operation. I had to relaunch Windows and run the entire install again. Way to not piss me off, Apple. If you're going to bundle your crappy software, at least make sure the installation configuration is robust enough to work on PCs. In case you haven't heard, Apple, PCs dominate the market.

Time will tell if the new version of iTunes will really muck up my DRM and use of the software.

I've got my Killers single now and I'll have to wait until October 3rd for the rest of the CD.

I did buy the Angels and Airwaves (AvA) CD, "We Don't Need to Whisper" that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Simply put, this CD is one of the best I've ever heard. I'd be remiss to not mention it and explain it.

I don't for a second believe that "We Don't Need to Whisper" will be, or should be, universally praised and loved as much I love it. I understand the difference between something that will sell 10 million copies and something that might achieve a gold record. The beauty of this CD is that for those people who enjoy the genre of music it should really resonate. It struck a major chord with me.

Tom DeLonge clearly spent months crafting the CD. The major themes are repeated lyrically, as is the case on many a CD, but also musically, sort of like a movie score. There are hints of melodies that are contained in multiple songs. The end result is that the whole CD is simply brilliant. I can't remember another CD that made my spine tingle so much on the first listen.

Again, Tom isn't the world's best singer. The music isn't the most complicated or technically adept. The hooks are incredible though, and the emotion shines through.

I would recommend that anyone who likes alternative rock, rock, power-pop-punk, or similar check out the website at http://www.angelsandairwaves.com/ . You can watch the videos for "The Adventure" and "Do It For Me Now" at the site. If you enter the main site you can listen to "The Adventure" and "It Hurts". For some reason, the "Enter the Site" link will spawn new windows to clothing sites Tom is affiliated with. Click it a few times and you'll get into the site.

If you like the three songs you can hear on the site do yourself a huge favor and pick up the CD (even if you have to use iTunes).

I Like Mike... One Way More Than the Other

I watched a little bit of the Monday Night Football game on ESPN this week. I wanted to see how Tony Kornheiser would do in the booth. While he's not as bad as Dennis Miller, he's not a whole lot better. He seemed tentative to me and he didn't add anything substantive to the broadcast.

I'm actually somewhat annoyed, nay, peeved, that ESPN broke up the Mike Patrick - Paul Maguire - Joe Theismann combination. I really liked those guys as a team. I like Mike Patrick's voice and I have no problems with his calm and excited tones. Paul and Joe provided a "point-counterpoint" type of argument during games while sharing their experience and opinions.

I'm not a fan of Mike Tirico. I don't like his voice; he's too excitable and not even-keeled. He also seems to always have an agenda. I'm not convinced that he's a totally neutral observer.

Another MNF bummer is that Hank Williams Jr. is still going to provide his annoying pregame introduction song. I was hoping that he would be lost in the transition to ESPN. He's going to incorporate all kinds of different guest stars this year. >sarcasm< Woo hoo! >/sarcasm<

The Pats didn't quite live up to my lofty pre-season expectations ("Oh, a sarcasm detector, that's a real useful invention!"), but they did some things well. I was very pleased to see a Corey Dillon reminiscent of the 2004 version. He looks healthy again and appears ready to be a bruiser for the Pats. Laurence Maroney looked awesome last week. He reminded me of St. Louis' Steven Jackson, displaying speed and power (and dreds). I coveted Jackson in the draft a couple years ago, so I hope Maroney is even better.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

It's a Friday night party!

The NFL pre-season continues tonight as the Patriots face the Atlanta Falcons at 8PM on CBS. This is the first pre-season game for the Pats. They should provide a pleasant distraction from the suddenly pathetic Red Sox.

I was happy to find that the St. Louis / Indianapolis game was broadcast in HD on FOX last night. FOX has been showing Saturday baseball games in 16:9 standard-definition. The baseball games look absolutely terrible. I figured FOX might try to pull the same garbage on the fans during the NFL pre-season.

I have no idea if the game is in high-definition on CBS tonight. I hope so.

The NFL pre-season signals the start of many fantasy football leagues. I must admit that the NFL.com fantasy football commercials are pretty funny. I've seen two and they were both memorable. In the first ad one guy is telling the new player that kickers are drafted early and that running backs aren't important because you can always trade for one. He ends by telling the new guy that he's the new guy's friend. In the second ad a guy is trying to draft WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh, but he can't pronounce "Hoosh-man-za-da".

And now for a new feature at Digital Sox, the "Pats Prediction". I will predict the outcome of every Patriots game this year.

Pats Prediction:
20 - 13 Pats over Falcons

Brady leads the team to a TD in his only series and the Falcons don't do much until Matt Schaub enters the game. Beyond that, nobody really cares as long as no one gets hurt.

Come On Baby, Light My Fire

The Sox dropped a game they should have won last night. That makes
four straight losses to the D-Rays and Royals, also commonly known as
"the two worst teams in the American League".

The losses are tough enough on their own merit. What bothers me more
than losing games against very bad teams is that no one on the Sox
seems to really care. Even Schilling commented on the fact that the
team maintains a very even keel. That was a positive in Schilling's
eyes.

Well, the laid back approach isn't working.

It's time for someone to light a fire under the Sox' collective backside.

On any other team that guy would be the manager. GL2:EB is too much of
a player's manager, though. By not chewing out the team he's affirming
his nickname (Grady Little 2: Electric Boogaloo, for the uninitiated).

In the absence of a fiery, gutsy manager, the Captain should seize the
opportunity to contribute from the DL. Varitek could light the much
needed fire behind closed doors and get the team pointed in the right
direction.

Be the guy who popped Slappy McPurplelips in the kisser when it was necessary.

We need that passion.

Moblogging, Mo Problems

Rejoice, rejoice, for this is my first ever moblog (mobile blog). I
just got the very awesome Cingular 8125 smartphone. It really is a
great cellphone and a great PDA. More on the phone at a later date.

I want to rant about Shaw's tonight. I enjoy the finer things in life
(at least when time allows). I don't ask much of this world (most of
the time). I only want three things from my grocery store.

1. The ability to redeem bottles and cans.

2. The ability to cash in my loose change.

3. The ability to buy fresh food.

Shaw's managed to pull an 0-fer tonight.

The bottle redemption machine wouldn't take the beer bottles from the
anniversary party we just had for my in-laws. At first I thought that
maybe it was a Crudweiser machine because it said that Sam Adams'
bottles weren't accepted. When it didn't take Crud Light bottles I
knew that Shaw's was starting to piss me off.

Then I dumped my jar of coins onto the sorting tray of the Coinstar
machine. I look up at the screen and notice it says the machine is not
ready for service and please see a manager. As I'm picking up my
change an employee walks by and says the machine is "closed". What.
The. Hell.

So I'm buying my groceries and I'm nearly finished when I pick up some
cottage cheese. I happen to see that said cottage cheese expired FOUR
DAYS AGO!

I used to like my local Shaw's, but now I'm not so certain.

Holy Jet Lag, Batman!

We made it home safely yesterday after taking a red-eye flight to New York and then to Boston. I've never been so jet lagged in my life. Between the heat and humidity (and a hotel without air conditioning) and not getting any sleep overnight yesterday my body doesn't know which way is up. Hopefully by Friday or Saturday I will have recovered.

Comic-Con was fun; we can say we did it and we survived. Just as I suspected, I definitely rank pretty low on the geek scale at Comic-Con. I saw more costumes that I didn't recognize than ones I actually did.



*** Possible "Lost" Season 3 spoilers below. Read at your own risk. Skip to the next set of asteriks to avoid. ***





The "Lost" Q&A session was my highlight of the event. Some quick tidbits:

• Damon Lindleof said that Desmond returns in Season 3 and implied that Locke is alive and well.
• Lindleof also said that Season 3 has a twist in the middle that will blow your mind. By implication from earlier questions I gathered that the twist involves the perceived passage of time on the island.
• Kate will choose her man in the first pod of new episodes, which the producers call a sort of mini-series to start the season.
• The outside world (Penny et al.) will continue to play in a role going forward.
• The show seems planned for about 4 seasons. I had read that J.J. Abrams planned for 7, so this was news to me. The producers hope that ABC doesn't make them drag the show on indefinitely because they don't want to tap dance; they have a planned overall story arc.

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.

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*** END OF SPOILERS ***

The second best part of the show for me was a tie between the Lionsgate films presentation and a demonstration by Lucasarts.

Lucasarts has been working on a new Indiana Jones game and a new Star Wars game. Both utilize two amazing new technologies. The first involves the artificial intelligence of the enemy. The AI is no longer scripted, but programmed to follow behaviors. As a result, the game is never the same twice. During a demo of the Indy game the bad guys never fell or reacted the same way twice. They tried to approach Indy and were staggered or thrown realistically and uniquely when hit or tossed.

The second technology that Lucasarts demonstrated involved the behavior of materials. If memory serves me correct, the name was "Digital Molecular Modeling". DMM allows materials to bend or break realistically. The demo showed thin wood, thick wood, soft metal, stone, glass, ice, crystal, graphite, and rubber objects all behave appropriately in a Star Wars themed location. The way that wood and glass break is unique depending on where and how the materials are struck. Soft metal gradually deforms while rubber is reflexive and returns to form.

One cool part of the demo had Storm Troopers spawn while being thrown at a wooden ceiling beam. Some, but not many, were able to grab onto the wood with one or both hands to prevent from falling. At one point a Storm Trooper holding the beam with one hand grabbed a fellow Storm Trooper with his free hand. The extra weight caused him to slip from the beam as the beam itself splintered and broke under their combined weight. Even the Lucasarts guys had never seen that happen before.

A brief video of gameplay from the new Star Wars game showed the DMM coupled with the AI. It was amazing. The Storm Troopers would react uniquely to the Jedi shown in the video. When the Jedi used the Force to push the Storm Troopers off the ledge several loose items on the ledge were also pushed over and one Storm Trooper lost his helmet. Then a different Jedi character was shown Force lifting three Storm Troopers and slamming them into the ground. Several small items were also lifted and slammed with the STs. One ST even lost hold of his weapon and tried to reach for it while both he and the gun were suspended in the air. The last part of the video showed a male Jedi lift a single ST and throw him against a large outcropped structure on a wall. The ST grabbed onto the structure to prevent from falling. The Jedi than Force pulled the ST sideways, eventually ripping the entire outcropping and ST from the wall.

Sadly both games are only in development for "Next Generation" consoles at the moment. Looks like you'll need an X-Box 360 or PS3 to play.

Lionsgate previewed several horror movies and a movie called "Crank". "Crank" stars Jason Statham as a hitman who has been injected with a poison. He has only 90 minutes to find out who injected him. Somehow his adrenaline level is involved, but it was not discussed during the panel. I believe he needs to maintain a high level to prevent the poison from taking effect. It was shot in HD and looks very cool.

The other Lionsgate film I'm excited about is "Saw III". A clip was shown at the end of the presentation that was most likely too graphic to receive an "R" rating. In the clip a man who was born into a privileged life yet has spent most of his life in chains in prison is forced to remove about a dozen bull ring style piercings from his body in 90 seconds. The three-to-four inch rings are pierced through his arms, legs, back, Achilles heels, and lower lip/jaw. It was brutal watching and listening to him struggle to save his life. It was more reminiscent of the first "Saw" than the sequel.

Tobin Bell, the actor who plays Jigsaw in the "Saw" movies, sounds just like the character he plays. I had previously assumed he used a deep, throaty, scary voice for the character in the films. It turns out that is his normal voice. If you had his cell phone number, he would scare the crap out of you.

Vacation

Here's my last post before leaving for San Diego tomorrow. We're going to the annual Comic-Con for the first time. It should be a blast. I'm most excited about "Family Guy" on Friday and "Lost" and "Spiderman 3" on Saturday. It should be fun going to a place where my level of geekiness only ranks about a 2 on a 10 scale.

I'm thinking of trying to start some shi* between the Star Wars and Star Trek fans.

The Sox eked out a win against the lowly Royals last night. Mirabelli should have walked on a 3-1 pitch, but a lousy call by plate ump Jim Joyce allowed him the opportunity to hit a game-tying 3-run homer. Thanks Jim!

I saw an interesting short article on Josh Beckett today. The author of "Feeding the Monster" reiterates what we all know about Beckett by now.

I saw Rotoworld questioned Jason Varitek's ability to call a decent game this year. I found the timing sort of interesting seeing that I just praised Varitek's defensive and leadership abilities in my "Mid-Season Musings" post. It made me realize that I'm not really in a position to evaluate Varitek's overall worth and that maybe he can't call a good game. I've always read and heard good things about him and would be a little surprised if he had suddenly become significantly worse than the last few years. I personally still have to think that the health of the starting pitching (and subsequently the quality of pitching) has had a big impact on the result this year as opposed to Varitek's abilities. The article on Beckett above would certainly seem to explain his troubles.



Now for something completely different. I had the chance to play Southers Marsh Golf Club last week. The course was easily one of the best manicured courses I've ever had the chance to play. It has been voted the best golf course in Plymouth four years in-a-row. It also has been voted the best burger in Plymouth. I certainly cannot disagree on either count. I wouldn't mind playing the course again this year, hopefully closer to the cranberry harvest to see the full color of the course.


Lastly, be sure to check out "What If" on NESN at 6PM on Thursday night. NESN has used computer statistical analysis to determine the outcome of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS if Grady Little had removed Pedro. It should be a very interesting program. I've got the DVR set to record it.

Ch-ch-ch-change

I enabled email posting to my blog today.  This is my first attempt to send an email to Blogger as a post.  Keep your cyber-fingers crossed.  There's really no reason for me to do this, but in theory I could post from remote locations with only email access and not internet access.  I could also use other devices, like cellphones or PDAs, to post.

 

I also enabled the ability for readers to email posts to other people.  The link is at the bottom of each post, near the "comments" link.

 

Finally, I decided to write about life in general.  Yes, I want to write about the Sox and the Pats, but as I've said before, I don't want to rehash games.  Anyone can watch Sports Center or Sports Desk or read the Globe or the Herald.  If I can't say anything unique, or at least present it differently, I'd rather not say it.

 

On that note, I ate lunch at Ruby Tuesday's today.  As of today they have pared down their menu.  I was somewhat disappointed to discover that they only offered about a dozen types of burgers now.  Gone were many of the combinations containing bison meat.  They still offer bison, but it's a simple bacon and American cheese offering.

 

I didn't ask, but I'm hoping that Ruby T's would still make some of the old combinations.  I almost asked to have a bison burger with bacon, cheddar, and some blue cheese on top.  I settled for the smokehouse burger (beef, onion strings, BBQ sauce, cheddar, and bacon). 

 

I also think that Ruby T's needs to pay a royalty to the Rolling Stones so that motion sensors can be installed at the doors.  They would be the one-way directional sensors that detected when customers left the building.  As the customer leaves, the outdoor speaks would play the line, "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday...".

Mid-Season Musings

Some thoughts from the last few days in sports and the Sox at the unofficial midpoint of the season...

The Sox need pitching help, both a starter and a reliever in my opinion, but given the lack of quality arms available I hope they don't mortgage the future by trading any solid prospects this year. I think the Sox pitching is good enough to make the playoffs and even win the World Series this year, but I think they would be able to bury the Yanks and Jays with some help.

I think a healthy Matt "Meltdown" Clement with his head screwed on straight could be the necessary addition to the rotation. He doesn't have to be amazing, just eat up some innings at the back of the rotation and keep games close, giving the Sox a chance to win.

Julian Tavarez has been hit or miss all year. He could be an asset down the stretch if he strings together some good outings.

Rudy Seanez is worthless. Throw him out with the garbage.

While we're talking about worthless garbage, dump Willie Harris A.S.A.P. He's the worst pinch runner I've ever seen; he's costing the Sox valuable outs and potential runs.

I think that Timlin, Delcarmen, and Papelbon are very solid. I think that Hansen is getting there, but he's still not quite a completely reliable set-up man. Part of the problem may be that Francona pushes him past 3-outs at a time, to which he's seemingly getting more comfortable with. It's the multiple inning appearances that are hurting his numbers.

Varitek should bat in the 8th spot until (hopefully) he heats up. Since Lowell has shown he can't bat 5th either, Nixon and Pena should platoon in the number five spot.

It will be nice to have Pena back (no more Willie!).

Maybe Gonzalez should bat 8th and Tek 9th for while. There's no shame in that. Tek brings a lot to the table as team captain and catcher of the staff even if he's not bringing a lot to the plate this year.


Other topics:

I hate the ESPN baseball power rankings. Whoever does them is a total suck-up and Yankee kiss-ass. I've felt this way for years and it's going to take a lot to change my mind.

How does Michelle Wie suffer from heatstroke? Didn't she grow up in hot and humid (and reportedly beautiful) Hawaii?

Barry Bonds is going to prison, Barry Bonds is going to prison! Ring the bells! Sing it with me, "Barry's going to prison!". It's only a matter of time now. It will be funny for that @$$hole to worry about his @$$hole, if you catch my drift.

I heard one of the guys on ESPN News pronounce Hanley Ramirez's first name "AHN-lay".

I heard the song "The Adventure" by Angels and Airwaves on the radio. I thought it was Blink-182. Turns out the band is fronted by Tom Delonge of Blink fame. Sounds like it could be a great CD.

We'll be heading to the Comic-Con International in San Diego on Wednesday. It should be fun. I can't wait for the presentation by the producers of the show "Lost".

Red Is Better Than White

The Red Sox handled the White Sox on the road this weekend but they couldn't finish the job yesterday. The good guys won the first two games of the series relatively easily before failing to put away the defending champs on Sunday.

Jermaine "Why Won't You" Dye hit a game-tying homerun in the bottom of the 9th off Jonathan Papelbon with two outs. The Sox then managed to score twice in the 11th inning but missed two key opportunities in the bottom of the inning. First, "Why Won't You" Dye failed to touch third base when returning to second base on a flyout. The Red Sox didn't notice and failed to appeal. The miscue gave the White Sox another opportunity to tie the game. The next batter hit a potential double-play ball but A.J. "the Punk" Pierzynski slid well outside the baseline with both arms raised. His actions helped the runner beat the throw. Had the Red Sox completed the second half of the double-play, the game would have been over. Rudy "How Am I Still Pitching In the Major Leagues This Year" Seanez didn't have enough gas in the tank to get through the 19th inning.

Winning the series against the White Sox was a nice pickup after tanking against the Devils Rays earlier in the week. I still don't understand how the D-Rays can play the Sox so well, but fold against the Yanks. The D-Rays at least came back from a 5-0 deficit to win Sunday.

Red Hot Sox

The title says "Sox", you pervert.

The Sox are absolutely smoking, having won 14 of their last 15 games. They won 12 in row before conceding defeat to the Marlins on Friday night. They threw Jason Johnson on the mound against Dontrelle Willis, the Marlins' ace, in what could only be viewed as a blatant waving of the white surrender flag. I assume that management was hoping Willis would have an off night and the Sox offense would overcome any deficit that Johnson would create. Well, Johnson was as bad as advertised early, allowing five runs in the first two innings. The Sox didn't recover and lost for the first time in two weeks. They did go on to win the last two games of the series. In doing so they managed to tie the all time best mark in interleague play for a season at 16-2.

The NESN broadcast tonight is stuttering as if the frame rate is not what it should be. In the past I had assumed that my Motorola 6412 had simply become too warm. Turns out it's only NESN that's the problem. I just checked my incoming signal strength and found that NESN was only "Fair". ESPN HD, on the other hand, was "Good" and had twice the signal-to-noise ratio. Come on, NESN, don't play me like that. Boost your signal strength. I haven't yet attempted to correlate the problem with the location of the team or the weather conditions. It's perfectly clear and warm here, though.

Yes, I think Schilling was snubbed by Ozzie Guillen in not being elected to the All-Star game. However, I think Francisco Liriano was a bigger Guillen snub. I'm also shocked that Nomar was not chosen for the NL team. Both Liriano and Nomar are eligible to voted in by the fans in the MLB Final Vote.

I would like to propose that in the future the managers of the All-Star game are only allowed to add a single player from their own team. That would ensure that fan and player balloting accounted for the primary selections and the managers would be mostly responsible for electing the representatives from crummy teams. It would also remove much of the nepotism that Guillen and Joe Torre are so found of. I would also hope that baseball either drops the stupid rule calling for each team to be represented, or better yet, finds a way to increase the parity among the big and small market teams.

A Perfect Ten

The Sox won their 10th game in a row last night. Lester pitched out of two difficult bases loaded jams in the fourth and fifth innings. His record now stands at 3-0 with an E.R.A. of 2.95. His batting average against is around .221 and he's averaging more than one strikeout per inning. If he cuts down on his walks, he won't be in as many jams. I definitely think that the kid is here to stay; he would have to have a Clement-like meltdown to be sent back to Pawtucket. I actually have more confidence in Lester right now that I've ever had with Clement. I think Lester will be fine down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Coupled with a Yankee loss the Jedi/Rebel Forces now have a three-and-a-half game lead over the Evil Empire.

We all know that the Yankees are the Evil Empire in the galaxy of baseball. The role of the Sox was never clearly identified. I think that historically the Red Sox would equate to simply an average band of Rebel Forces. Now that the ghosts of the past have been vanquished the case could be made that they play a more prominent role in the galaxy of baseball.

Here in an image I created in 2003 during the ALCS. I think that Clemens and Nomar came out the best.

I don't want to preach in this corner of cyberspace, but I will take a quick moment to stand on my virtual soapbox. I hate and abhor three types of people in this world: child molesters/abusers, wife-beaters, and drunk-drivers. I'm glad that the local and national media did not let the Philadelphia Phillies sweep the Brett Myers incident under the rug. Myers was seen assaulting his wife on Boylston Street in Boston last week. He is a foot taller and weighs twice that of his wife. What he did has no place in our society. The Phillies did not handle the incident correctly this weekend. Thanks to the media it appears that they may be taking steps in the right direction.

*steps down*

I was glad that Sox fans applauded Pedro yesterday. It was a classy move by the Sox to show the highlight clips and a classy move by the fans to show so much love and respect. Yes, Pedro was my favorite Sox player through my college years and beyond. No, I don't condone his actions when he left (it's never okay to agree verbally to a contract with a team only to have your agent leverage your verbal agreement against another team to get more money/years). Pedro didn't pull a Damon here; he didn't say that he could never play for the Yankees and then run to them. Pedro simply used the Sox to get a better contract from the Mets. His Koufaxian career has been like a comet, incredibly bright, but short-lived. He deserves to be remembered as one of the best, if not, the best, pitcher in Red Sox history.

The moron running Boston Dirt Dogs had been planning, nay, hoping and praying for, a boo-fest for Pedro for weeks. I'm glad the fans were smarter than him. Once he sold-out to Boston.com his content went from uber-fan who believed every rumor to be stone-cold truth to a simply rehashing the daily headlines and pushing his opinion on the rest of us. I liked him more when he still cared about the team and not the money. The only content worthwhile on his site these days are the custom illustrations.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Commissioner, Peter Gammons, and his family.

Walk This Way

Big Papi, the greatest clutch hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox, did it again. Ortizzle hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning yesterday to give the Red Sox their 9th consecutive victory. Ortiz beat the Phillies with walk-off hits in back-to-back games to close out the three game series. That gives him three walk-off hits in the last 15 days. Somewhere, ARod is crying.

Kevin Youkilis scored the winning run and had a hit that was just as important yesterday. His game-tying double with two outs kept the Sox hopes alive and gave Big Papi a chance. I hope that Youk gets his due.

Craig Hansen got his first victory of the year after allowing an inherited run to score in the top of the 12th inning. Why does GL2:EB insist on bringing Hansen into games with runners on base? Let the kid cut his teeth with clean innings. Then if he gives up a hit, he's not giving up a run at the same time. He needs to gain the confidence that Papelbon possesses. Giving up runs every time out won't help him.

Bill Simmons wrote a piece about Papelbon for ESPN the Mag. I totally agree with his sentiment; my head says that Papelbon should be a starter next year, but my heart says he should remain the closer.

The Sports Guy somehow decided that Papelbon's nickname is "Paps". I think that sounds like a gynecological procedure. Simmons has had nickname issues ever since he moved to L.A. I don't know if he has faulty sources or if he's just too far out of touch with the east cost, but he misspells "Youk" and used to misspell "Big Papi". Someone needs to tell him to simply stop using nicknames altogether.

My last post was #50. So pop open the champagne (or better yet, a beer), but drink responsibly.