So….. It Begins.

Tomorrow marks the first week of March. February (AKA the grayest month) has passed and that means three things. First, in a few weeks daylight savings comes back, I start waking up in the dark, but once work is over, i have enough time in the sun that I can stop killing people and feeding off their blood to stay sane. Second, it means that College kids can start playing basketball and we get to have the largest nationally sanctioned gambling event in the world (no seriously, have you ever realized that everyone from kids in middle school to old people in nursing homes gamble at least a few bucks on a bracket for the tournament? Somebody out there has to have wasted their time on calculating exactly how big of an industry that is, and I’m pretty sure that if taxed properly it would be another way to fix the economy. That and legalizing pot.). Third, and most important to us here at the Ballpark, is that Spring Training Games start.

The games may be filled with minor leaguers and B-squad guys for the most part, and there may not be more than the first three innings worth watching, but it’s baseball, and that’s good enough for me. Without further adieu, here is the Red Sox Spring Training broadcast schedule.

Damn, It Feels Good To Be A Gangster.

Date	Opponent	Time (ET)	Site	TV	Radio
March
Wednesday, March 3	vs Northeastern U.	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
	vs Boston College	6:05 PM	City of Palms Park	NESN	–
Thursday, March 4	vs Twins	7:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	WEEI 850
Friday, March 5	@ Twins	1:05 PM	Hammond Stadium	–	–
Saturday, March 6	vs Twins	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
	@ Rays	1:05 PM	Port Charlotte	–	WEEI 850
Sunday, March 7	@ Orioles	1:05 PM	Sarasota	NESN	WEEI 850
Monday, March 8	vs Cardinals	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
Tuesday, March 9	@ Marlins	1:05 PM	Jupiter	–	–
Wednesday, March 10	vs Rays	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	WEEI 850
Thursday, March 11	@ Mets	1:10 PM	Port St. Lucie	–	–
Friday, March 12	@ Cardinals	1:05 PM	Jupiter	–	–
Saturday, March 13	vs Pirates	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	NESN	WEEI 850
Sunday, March 14	@ Twins	1:05 PM	Hammond Stadium	NESN	WRKO 680
Monday, March 15	vs Orioles	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
Tuesday, March 16	@ Astros	1:05 PM	Kissimmee	–	–
	@ Rays	7:05 PM	Port Charlotte	–	WEEI 850
Wednesday, March 17	vs Mets	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	NESN	WEEI 850
Friday, March 19	@ Pirates	1:05 PM	Bradenton	–	–
Saturday, March 20	vs Orioles	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	NESN	WEEI 850
Sunday, March 21	@ Blue Jays	1:05 PM	Dunedin	–	–
	vs Astros	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	NESN	WEEI 850
Monday, March 22	vs Rays	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
Tuesday, March 23	@ Twins	7:05 PM	Hammond Stadium	–	WEEI 850
Wednesday, March 24	@ Pirates	1:05 PM	Bradenton	–	–
Thursday, March 25	vs Marlins	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
Friday, March 26	vs Blue Jays	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
Saturday, March 27	@ Orioles	1:05 PM	Sarasota	–	WEEI 850
Sunday, March 28	vs Twins	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	NESN	WEEI 850
Monday, March 29	vs Rays	7:05 PM	City of Palms Park	NESN	WEEI 850
Tuesday, March 30	@ Rays	1:05 PM	Port Charlotte	ESPN	–
Wednesday, March 31	@ Orioles	1:05 PM	Sarasota	–	–
April
Thursday, April 1	vs Twins	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	ESPN	–
Friday, April 2	vs Nationals	1:05 PM	City of Palms Park	–	–
Saturday, April 3	@ Nationals	4:05 PM	Nationals Park	–	WEEI 850
(SS) Split Squad        Home Games at City of Palms Park, Fort Myers, Florida

Go Sox

Done.

Mike Cameron: Not A Douche

Through the magic of the internet, we have some video of one of the newest Red Sox, and the guy who will possibly be under the most pressure at the start of the season, Mike Cameron. Gladly, he seems to be cool with chatting with the fans (until he gets to Boston and figures out how crazy we are. I still don’t think he’s the answer in the outfield, center or left, but since the Beltre signing (who I may be unreasonably optimistic about) he seems to be a better pick up. His explanation of his choice of numbers hist all the right buttons and he comes this close to calling B.J. Upton an asshole for not talking to fans, but then changes the subject. We’ll see how the guy does when play starts, and he’d better not drop that first ball, but for now he just stepped a notch up in my book.

And I agree with Tony, Hannah Storm looked really milfy today on SportsCenter, but not as hot as the MILF from the Canadian Curling team.

Yeah, She Can Handle A Broom.

Go Sox.

Done.

The Treebeard Problem and Other Things On Theo Epstein’s To Do List.

Mike Lowell with Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia.

We all know how it works. As soon as you get comfortable, you realize that there is a whole crapload of stuff that you still need to do. It’s the same even for Theo Epstein, whose arrival at spring training isn’t the end of his winter’s work, but just a change in location. Other than deciding on the two or three spots on the bench and in the bullpen that haven’t been settled yet, Theo has plenty to do. Fortunately for him, I’m here with some solutions.

It's About This Big.

1. The Treebeard Problem. Seems like no matter how hard he tries, Theo just cant get rid of that damned Mike Lowell. After 2007, when he was a free agent, Theo tried to lowball him in the hopes that he would go to the Phillies and break down physically there. Didn’t work, and Lowell took a shorter deal to stay in Boston ( I really can’t blame him). After 2008, hey attempted to sign Mrs. Leigh Teixeira (does it surprise anyone that the Yankees keep finding douches to sign?), which would have sent Youk to third and made Lowell the odd man out. We all know what happened there. This winter Theo tried to send Lowell to the Rangers (along with $9 million) for Max Ramirez, but his injured thumb got in the way of that one.

He Can Still Hit, And He's Excited About That

He was severely limited defensively last season, but hit 17 home runs and had .811 OPS in 119 games. He is still a viable offensive force, and if his hip and thumb can get healthy he will still be able to catch the ball with the best of them (not Beltre, but all the others). The real problem is that he simply doesn’t have a spot on this team unless the Sox want to carry two DHs (or something terrible happens). Not a bad idea, considering Ortiz’ struggles in the first two months of 2009, but not something I can see them doing. The most likely move is another trade, possibly the same one as before, but not until Lowell can prove he’s healthy, and according to reports, not likely before the regular season. If the move for Max Ramirez is still on the table at that point, and no better deal is out there, Theo should definitely go back to that well.

Wow, He Got Huge This Winter.

2. The Captain and his replacement. Jason Varitek is no longer the starting catcher for the Boston Red Sox. His body has broken down to the point where he can no longer lead the team the way that he did on the field for so many years. Fortunately, the Sox already have a more than viable replacement on their roster in the form of Victor Martinez. Once the Lowell situation is a bit more under control (and even before that) locking up Martinez needs to be a top priority. He has already stated that he wants to stay here for the rest of his career, and will be the best catcher on the free agent market next season if it gets that far (Mauer is a pipe dream, he’s staying in Minnesota). The Yankees would love to be able to replace a 37 year old Jorge Posada with Victor, and you can bet that they’ll pony up the cash if it gets to that point. The best solution is to not let that happen, lock him up for five or six years while guys like Mark Wagner, Tim Federowicz and Luis Exposito develop into what we need them to be (preferably under the tutelage of Varitek after he retires next winter with his third ring). Just make the effing deal.

No Matter How Hard You Push, The Wall Won't Get Any Farther From The Plate.

3. The Best October Pitcher on the Planet (sometimes).  It’s Josh Beckett’s contract year, which means he’s probably going to destroy everything in his path. It’s also 2010, and even numbered year, which means that he will have a sub par season (for him) and people will be disappointed. One of these two things will happen, but either way, the Sox have to start thinking about either resigning or letting the pitcher go. The starting point for any deal will be the five year, $82.5 million contract that both Lackey (who has almost identical career numbers) and A.J. Burnett got in the past two years. Beckett’s contract situation is going to be a focus for the media the entire year, and if it becomes a distraction for the pitcher, he will end up with a far smaller contract than the Beckett of 2007 would have gotten. This is a wait and see opportunity, but a deal could be made midseason like it was in 2006

The job of a Major League GM is never done, and there are a million smaller issues to handle that you and I have no clue even exist, but these are three biggies. Trust in Theo, and know that he’s on the right track, even if this is a f#$%ing “bridge” year. Today is the first full squad workout and the skies are blue in Ft. Myers. Enjoy.

Go Sox.

Done.

The Most Awesome Picture of the Day

Go America.

StartMattCassel

Dear NBC: WANTED: Olympics: LIVE!

Don't bother... Bode Miller won. I have ESP.............N.

I don’t have real strong grasp on this as a broad consumer issue… but speaking solely for myself: I want to see the Olympics as they happen. From purely an entertainment standpoint, it just sucks knowing what happens before you watch the event. The winter Olympics in particular are all about caring about sports you would have ZERO interest in otherwise, and it’s fun to watch them unfold. I got to see the freaking Men’s Cross Country races live (which I watched) and you can’t give me the biggest names in USA Olympic Sports as they happen???

You can’t just tape delay things anymore and expect the whole world isn’t following it on Twitter.

American Gold Medalist Bode Miller... LOOOOOOOOVES Coke.

The last Winter Olympics was 4 years ago, before Twitter, Skype, the mainstream emergence of YouTube, etc… 4 human years ago is like 25 technology years. We are in the age of immediacy and NBC’s Olympic coverage must reflect that. Waking up at 530 AM to watch the Sox in Japan a few years ago was awesome, friends came over, we made a huge breakfast, and all went to work drunk. The World Cup Games that are scheduled during the day or the middle of the night, we make special plans around to watch the ones important to us. NBC: We’re big boys and don’t need you spoon feeding us the world’s purest sporting event at only the times you can make the most money.

Oh you need the money you say? To maintain your payments to the Olympic broadcasting rights? While maybe you shouldn’t have miss-calculated their monetary value so badly that it stuffed you into a hole… but don’t take it out on us!

Bottom line: My TV is turned on and tuned in to NBC for two weeks every two years, sifting through their hideous programing advertisements and dealing with all this tape delay crap. My Television will be on anyways NBC… SO GIVE US WHAT WE WANT: XXX Live Girls, All Day.

Wait a minute. What was I talking about?

StartMattCassel

I leave you with some Excessive American Sex Marketing:

American Olympian Gretchen Bleiler

American Olympian Katie Uhlaender... this is actually how you celebrate a win in Skeleton.

American Olympian Tanith Belbin

American Olympian Kristi Leskinen

Three Reasons to Fear the Red Sox.

Oh, Yeah.

So pretty, just so pretty.

Go Sox.

Done.

It Must Be Spring Today Because Spring Training Starts Today.

Jake Taylor and Lou Brown arrive for Spring Training today.

Here’s to another season in the sun. All the questions can be left for tomorrow. Just enjoy today. Dave Roberts stole second base.

Go Sox.

0 Days. (The Definition of Awesomeness)

Done.

A Completely Biased, Utterly Subjective Preview of the 2010 Boston Red Sox.

So, We Gonna Do This, Or What?

With pitchers and catchers reporting TOMORROW (as well as many of the guys already in camp), it’s time that we take stock of what has happened to the Red Sox in the past few months and accept some realities.

Jason Bay is gone. He’s a Met now. The Sox let go of a guy who hit 36 home runs and had 119 RBI and replaced him with Mike Cameron. It scares the crap out of the fans, but after long contemplation it was the right thing to do. We’ve been through this before. Theo didn’t want to give Pedro Martinez the third year because his guys told him that Pedro was going to break down half way through the second year. What happened? Pedro broke down in the middle of the second year and the Mets over paid for two more seasons. Somebody saw something in the MRIs of Bay’s joints (shoulders and knees) that made them think that he isn’t going to age gracefully. I trust in Theo, because he knows more than me, and Bay strikes out too much.

With that reality comes that this team has been rebuilt in a different image. The front office took one of the teams weaknesses and turned it into a strength. Run prevention, also known as pitching and defense, has become a focus, as opposed to run scoring, which was definitely a more visible issue at times last year. The reasoning is that they don’t need to score as many runs if they don’t allow as many, and it looks good to me, but then again I thought closer by committee was a good plan too.

That thought in mind, I really do like the acquisitions. Anybody who complains about the Lackey signing (now) is a complete effing idiot. The Sox just added another Josh Beckett to the team, along with the old Beckett, who is in a contract year. That gives them three aces, a complete wildcard in Matsuzaka, a guy who is developing into a solid number 3 (for this season) in Buchholz (the fifth man), and the third winningest pitcher in franchise history as a sixth starter. Not bad.

The key to how Theo moves forward and how the offense works is likely to be Adrian Beltre. He is a guy who has put up a 48 homer, 121 RBI season, and six other seasons of 20 or more homers in his eleven seasons in the bigs. He also spent the last five of those seasons in in Safeco Field, the worst possible place for a right handed power hitter. He still hit 25 or more home runs in three years, and 19 the other. Last year was full of injuries (to the testicals) and futility. Moving into the best possible ballpark for right handed power hitters, Beltre is going to hit 30 home runs, have 100 RBI and win another gold glove, and for this reason the offense will be fine.

Scutaro and Cameron are both solid pickups who improve the defense and will provide stability in the lineup. Cameron makes the defense better not only by being himself, but by moving Jacoby to left, where nothing will get down. Scutaro  is a solid defender who should have won a gold glove last year but everybody just keeps voting for Jeter, and also had a career year in his first shot at an everyday job.

The bullpen is also better than it was at this point last season simply for the fact that Daniel Bard has been through the league once. He is not ready to replace Papelbon, who is not done, but he is ready to step into that eighth inning role that Phil Hughes was so successful in for the Yanks last year. Papelbon has been getting a lot of flack lately because of the way that the season ended, and for his perceived mercenary attitude about his contract situation, but nobody can really see it in his stats. He was 38-41 in save opportunities and had a 1.85 ERA. He is going to be a free agent after 201, but people need to chill out about that now.

And there’s also that core, who we know are going to be good and who we have gotten to know. Pedroia will put up his traditional great season, Youk will get better like he does every year, Jacoby will hit .300 and steal 75 bases, and Lester will continue to crush the souls of those who doubt him. Victor is poised for a big (payday) season and if Ortiz is the guy we had in the second half of last year then it wouldn’t be too ridiculous to see 40 bombs (he was that good for the last three months).

There are still questions to be answered, moves to be made, and lots of beer to be drank, but with the team as it is today, Theo has done a good job of building the 95 win team that is his goal every year. He has improved his team while his chief rivals have gotten worse. The Yankees offseason was not altogether awful, adding Javier Vasquez to the rotation was a good solid move (even if the last time we saw him he was giving up a GS to Damon in Game 7), and Curtis Granderson will make the outfield defense better. However, their lineup lost two gamers who always came through in the clutch in Matsui and Damon, and replaced them with Granderson, whose batting average and OPS have dropped each of the last few seasons as his home runs went up, and Nick Johnson, a good player when healthy and a rarely healthy player. That is a minus situation for them.

My prediction? 112-50. World Series Champs.

What can I say, I’m a Sox Fan.

Go Sox.

1 Day.

Done.

Sure Signs Of Spring.

Yeah, these are all pictures that I pulled right off of Extra Bases, but it just makes me enormously happy to know that there are people playing baseball on diamonds that belong to the Boston Red Sox even as we are getting a forecast for more f#$%ing snow.

The Truck is being unloaded.

"Yes, that movie "She's Out of My League" is based on my wife and I, but hey, I put on some weight this winter!"

I have no idea who these people are, but they make me feel like spring.

Baseballs have not forgotten to fear Youkzilla and his beard.

There is just more to come as almost seventy guys have arrived early for spring training. Youk, Paps, Lester, Dice, Buck, and others are already in town, Victor is telling everyone he can get his hands on that he wants to stay in Boston, and It’s getting warmer around here. Things are still good.

Go Sox.

3 Fucking Days.

Done.

Does Wayne Gretzky Need To Choke A Bitch? And Other Olympic Shenanigans.

With the Red Sox equipment truck on its way to Fort Myers, those of us who aren’t driving the truck need something to occupy us for the next five days. Fortunately, as Truck Day ended last night, the Winter Olympics were starting. I’m not a huge fan of most of these sports, but once the cauldron is lit (more on that soon enough), I have to say that there are some events which I can’t look away from. It’s not even like I’m addicted to luge or skeleton, which people watch to see the crashes, NASCAR style (and sadly, the most dangerous course in the world did kill a competitor the other day). I’ll just watch any event that has an American in it.

Already today I’ve been sucked into ski jumping (for distance, not cool tricks) and 5,000 meter speed skating. I don’t know why it’s this addictive, but as long as it’s on I can’t look away. I want the Americans to win, even in the events where they have no shot in hell, but no matter who’s up I keep watching. I now know that NBC’s double z play by play crew can’t describe what makes a ski jumper go far (they say it’s between the ears, which I can only assume means that these people are idiots), and that speed skating is more popular than sex in the Netherlands, except in Amsterdam, where they are both popular.

Won a gold medal, has a hot girlfriend. Sweet

Meanwhile NBC has been showing repeated highlights of last night’s opening ceremonies, which I only knew were on when I accidentally hit the wrong button on the remote. It was as grand and beautiful, minus the menacing “there are so many of us and we have no problem with working our people to death” tone, as the ceremonies in Beijing two years ago, with one minor difference. The Canadiens F’d up real bad.

The most important part of the ceremony is the lighting of the cauldr0n. The Olympic flame is lit in Athens and winds its way around the whole world before showing up in Vancouver for last night’s celebration, it enters the stadium to be lit dramatically as four Canadian sports icons enter to light the flame together. Steve Nash, Wayne Gretzky, Catriona Ann Le May-Doan (a speed skater), and Rick Hansen (a wheelchair marathoner, not one of the brothers from Slap Shot) waited to light the flame as it was supposed to rise from the stadium floor. And waited. And waited. And waited.

Wayne Gretzky Does Need To Choke A Bitch.

While three of them stood looking happy, smiling and waving to the crowd through the awkward two and a half minute pause, The Great One was different. Sure the guy is the undisputed greatest hockey player ever, but there comes a point where he is too much of a perfectionist to deal with his own country’s f#$%ups. Wayne Gretzky looked like he was ready to go all Warren Sapp on whoever had failed to fix the door that would open to let part of the cauldron out. He looked like his wife had just been implicated in an illegal betting scam along with one of his assistant coaches or something. No, The Great One was not happy.

Finally they moved on and lit the damn thing with only three of the four parts working, and the moment passed. Gretzky took the flame from the stadium over to it’s final resting place on the waterfront, but for me, the lasting image will be the greatest Canadian ever clearly wanting to kill everyone who had anything to do with the awkwardness last night.

At least we have something to watch until NESN goes into overdrive on Thursday.

Go Sox.

5 Days.

Done.