0 – Hits by Manny Ramirez in a Red Sox uniform this post-season.
Side Tangent: I will admit I was a sheep and followed the general sentiment that “it was time for Manny to go”. However, my tune has changed and now I consider Manny nothing more than a child caught in a custody battle. He acted out towards one parent because the other parent was feeding his mind with negative thoughts with parents being played by agent Scott Boras and Red Sox management.
You see both Boras and the Red Sox front office had agendas and Manny was nothing more than a pawn. Boras needed Manny out of the two one-year options the Red Sox held since he stood to make nada, if the Sox picked up those options. Also, at the end of those options, he would be marketing a 38-year-old with declining skills.
What I know is the Red Sox and Boras have a very good working relationship. And why wouldn’t they, the Red Sox want Boras’ clients and Boras needs the Red Sox since they are one of the maybe three teams (Yankees and Mets are the others) willing to fork over huge contracts.
Is it that big of a stretch to think that Boras and Sox sat down and had this discussion?
Boras – “I need to get Manny out of those options”
Red Sox – “Hey, we would love to get rid of Manny, but those two single year options are at a reasonable price to us and give us tons of flexibility.”
Boras – “How about we talk Teixeira? Do you have any interest in him?”
Red Sox – “Sure we do. What are you offering?”
Boras – “You trade Manny to a team that will drop the options and I give you Teixeira and another client at market price. No bidding war.”
Red Sox – “Sounds good, except for one problem – we cannot trade Manny in the middle of a pennant race unless we get back someone of his caliber and pay his salary. Which we know will not happen. We will get crucified if we trade him for nothing.”
Boras – “True. How about this I start feeding him lines of BS about how you don’t respect him, you think his skills are declining and Jacoby Ellsbury is hot after his wife. Then you use your media leverage to leak clubhouse stories painting him as a villain.”
Red Sox – “Teixeira, huh? You got yourself a deal.”
How else do you explain Boras and the Red Sox coming out smelling like a rose in this deal? The bad guy – Manny. Why? He quit on Boston, then showed up in Los Angeles and played with the intensity of rabid cheetah for 2 months.
What I know is if the “LA” Manny was playing for the Red Sox the past month – the Sox would be hoisting the World Series trophy about 120 hours from now.
0.154 – David Ortiz’s batting average in the ALCS. Once upon a time, pitchers would crap their pants at the mere sight of Ortiz in the on deck circle. Now, they say to themselves “The pitcher up next, I need to pitch around Pedroia.”
The good news is that Ortiz will not need surgery on his wrist. The bad news – Ortiz will not need surgery on his wrist. I wonder if we will ever see David Ortiz again!
0.5 – The number of inches Dustin Pedrioa’s bat missed a potential 3-run in the 8th of game 7. He just got under a “cookie” that instead of a pennant winning home run was a lazy fly ball out.
1 – Hits by Captain Varisuck this post-season. You want pathetic – how about these numbers, in 23 plate appearances, 10 of them were with runners on base where he was 0-10 and left 15 combined runners on base. Plus, he has three opportunities to make productive outs (you know, just be a notch better than worthless and you can help your team) and failed in each of those.
Combine that will the inability to throw out even Jose Molina on the base paths and Sox fans are wondering what exactly Varitek was bringing to the table.
I hope Varitek has played his last game for the Sox, at least as the starting catcher. However, it deserves mentioning that he was the foundation from which two championships were won. I thank him for his service. It’s been a great ride, Tek!
3 – Inches off the plate David Price was given on a called third strike in the 9th inning of game 7. The first time in memory a rookie pitcher has been afforded such an expansive strike zone. I am sure the Fox network was a big fan of that strike call.
4 – Really, really dumbass decisions by allegedly “playoff” Terry Francona. In game 2, (1) bringing Beckett out for the 5th inning, so Josh could blow his third lead of the game and (2) then he brought Timlin in for the 11th when he had other options (even my daughter knew the game wouldn’t see the 12th).
In game seven – how about starting (3) Alex Cora at shortstop? Alex Cora starts a game seven in the ALCS – the equivalent of starting Jared Lorezen instead of Eli Manning against the Packers in the NFC title game, because Lorezen is better equipped to handle the cold (think blubbery insulation). And his last bonehead move (4) – the failed “hit and run” with Ortiz at the plate. Exactly what had Ortiz done up to that point to make you feel confident he wouldn’t strike out? And despite the fact that Ortiz swung at ball four, I can’t give Tito a pass simply because no way Pedroia was stealing that base, so it was either feast or famine and at that point of game, I at least wanted to see Youkilis bat with someone base.
5 – Number of players that definitely should not be back with the Sox – Timlin, Wakefield, Javier Lopez, Jason Varitek and Alex Cora. There are few others on the bubble, but I do not want any of those five back next year.
9.64 – Josh Beckett’s ERA in this series. Honestly, one month ago if you told me the Red Sox would lose a playoff game where Josh Beckett was given 8 runs, I would have you committed. But sure enough it happened. What’s worse – he only gave the Sox 9.3 innings in two starts. “The Greatest Post-Season Pitcher Ever” took quite a hit this year, hopefully next year we can modify this slightly to – “The Greatest Post-Season Pitcher Ever – excluding 2008″.
21 – Runners Mark Kotsay left on base during the series. If those runners were large pizzas, you could feed a small village in Morocco for three months.
30 – Seconds Chip Carey would remain alive if we ever meet. No one person drew more ire from Red Sox Nation in this post-season than Chipper. I was so angry I want to fight him, his dad and Harry! Of course, I am kidding. Or I am!
439 – Minutes of my life wasted when the Sox decided they didn’t want their season to end in game 5. Honestly, I am happy they fought back, but then after fighting back how do they lose a game seven to this un-tested Rays team? I think the Rays were that much better than the 2008 playoff Red Sox team but the playoff experience and confidence of past playoff successes made this a close series.
40,473 – Attendance for game seven – comprised of 12,000 Rays die hards (whatever that means), 10,000 Red Sox fans and 18,473 Tampa Bay residents that didn’t know Tampa Bay had a baseball team until two months ago.
