Thursday, October 4, 2007

Thursday Morning Update

The Baseball Update

The Sox dominated the Angels last night behind Josh Beckett's historic gem, winning 4-0.

Three Things I noticed: (1) The TBS broadcast was an absolute train wreck. First, they repeatedly came back from commercial late and missed pitches or plays. Second, Ted Robinson should absolutely stick to tennis. He said some things that didn't even make sense - describing the right field roof seats as "temporary", calling a grounder a double play ball when there were already 2 outs, etc. Third, maybe Steve Stone was a good analyst once, but last night he made the kid from Major League seem incisive. Fourth, who let Guierrmo Mota's brother do sideline reporting? Just awful, I was waiting for him to yell "Boom goes the dynomite". The only redeeming part of the telecast was Tom Collichio doppelganger Cal Ripken showing us how Beckett's two seamer has nasty sideways motion (that sounds particularly dirty).

(2) Not new news to anyone who has followed the Sox recently, but Ortiz is back. He never really left, actually. His runs created the past 3 years are 136, 127, 136 and his win shares are basically identical over the past 3 years (I would do a chart to show this but for some reason I end up with huge gaps on the page when I do - help anyone?)

Update: I was able to figure out how to do the table - it is below

Yr2BHROBPSLG RC
054047.397.604 136
062954.413.636 127
075235.445.621 136


Anyway, Ted Robinson was saying that it was a "down year" for Ortiz, looking solely at the HR/RBI numbers, not noting that he actually was more productive this year than last. Lazy, guys. More Dingers!

Second update - Joy of Sox had a good piece on this Tuesday.

(3) Varitek continues to look terrible at the plate, grounding into a DP and having a bad strikeout. He just looks lost. Hopefully he won't need to come up in a big situation.

Some Links:

Sox Nest wants Josh Beckett to hook up with Alyssa Milano after last night's effort.

Keep your Sox On is Thunderstruck over last night's game.

Art Martone at the projo blog has an unbelievable link dump with all kinds of coverage from last night's game.

Surviving Grady notes the awful umpiring.

A Sox Fan in Hell has an apt haiku summarizing last night's game.

Death and Taxes Update to come.

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