Sorry about the lack of post the last few weeks, but it has been quiet in the world of baseball. I don’t want to be one of those bloggers that writes something everyday, just for the sake of writing. I want to keep this a baseball blog, so please be patient and keep tuning in. Things will hopefully heat up soon. With that being said, here are some thefoulline.com news and notes:

• How about Hank Steinbrenner doing his best George Steinbrenner impersonation. First, giving the Twins a deadline on the Johan Santana deal. How’d that one work out for you Hank? Secondly, New York has just signed Latroy Hawkins to a one year deal. So let me do the math for the 2008 Yankees: One weak bullpen – Joba + Hawkins + re-signing the aging Mariano Rivera = another lousy season for New York.

• Only in MLB would a team give Eric Gagne a one year, ten million dollar contract. Maybe the G.M. of the Brewers should have watched some American League baseball last year. Gagne was horrible. He blew every opportunity he had last year in Boston. I wouldn’t have given him a nickel. Although with my luck, Gagne will probably win another Cy Young now that he’s back playing in the Junior Varsity. (N.L.)

• I’m glad to see the Red Sox haven’t re-signed Doug Mirabelli. I know that he catches the knuckleball well. But there are other guys that can catch it also, and hit higher than .202.
• How about this week for Red Sox Nation’s favorite player Jacoby Ellsbury. First signing with the anti-christ Scott Boras. Then charging $125 for his autograph. What is he thinking? I would never pay more then five bucks for an autograph from someone with 30 games of major league experience. Now that I think about it, there are maybe five athletes/celebrities that I would pay for an autograph. Here they are in no particular order:
  1. Bill Russell
  2. Ted Williams
  3. Larry Bird
  4. Eddie Vedder
  5. Dylan Hamilton

  Maybe it’s time for Jacoby to stop reading about how great he is, and remember that he is still a rookie.

• The Red Sox Spring training games are going on sale next week. Have you seen the prices for decent seats? Standing room $10, box seats $26-$46. Why would someone pay $46 bucks for a spring training game? The chances are pretty good that you’ll be watching the 2008 Portland Sea Dogs take the field. I would rather take the $46 dollars and buy season tickets to the Tampa Bay Rays. At least this way I’m guaranteed to see major league players… and the Rays.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned….

Well… that’s five hours of my life that I will never get back. Thank you, Eric Gagne and Javy Lopez. The Sox losing by a touchdown in 11 innings was not what I envisioned for Game 2. This was supposed to be a duel between two big-game starting pitchers. Runs were supposed to be at a premium. Instead we saw two very patient teams at the plate and 19 runs on the scoreboard.

Both teams did a great job of not chasing pitches outside the strike zone, and they were forcing Schilling and Carmona to beat them. We all know how that ended up. Both pitchers lasted less than 5 innings, and this game became a battle of the bullpens. For 4 innings, both teams’ bullpens were on cruise control. It was like every pitcher that came into the game transformed into Mariano Rivera (the good one of 4 years ago, not the sucky one of recent memory) to shut down both teams’ hitters.

This was lining up perfectly for a dramatic 2004ish sequence to end the game. Bottom of the ninth inning, 2 outs. Pedroia draws a walk. Ellsbury comes in to pinch run and steals second base. Youkilis comes to bat with a runner in scoring position. This was supposed to be followed by a line drive into right field. Sox win. Instead, Youk battles for about 47 pitches and ends up smacking a line drive right at Grady Sizemore to end the inning.

Two things bothered me about this AB. First, Youk needed to play for the base hit. He needed to shorten his swing and just make decent contact. Instead he does a full out gorilla swing and drives it right at Sizemore. The second thing was that Sizemore did a cheesy fake dive to catch this ball. He was going all out to make it onto SportsCenter’s Top Ten Plays of the Day. Just catch the ball and get off the damn field.

This was of course followed by Gagne and Lopez making their grand entrances in the most important inning of the series. For me, this was like watching two cars speeding right at each other. I knew it wasn’t going to end well for either one, but strangely I couldn’t look away at the impending collision. We all know what happened next. Gagne gets our hopes up with a quick strikeout. This is the point when I actually thought for a second that Gagne might pitch a decent inning for once. Poof! End of the illusion. A single to Sizemore and a walk to Asdrubal “I have too many consonants in my first name” Cabrera, and Gagne is out of the game. He now has the rest of the night free to scare the children of Boston with his nasty facial hair. Lopez enters and gives up a quick RBI single to Nixon. The flood gates open, and a close, hard-fought game turns into a blowout.

A wise man once wrote, “Said woman take it slow, It’ll work itself out fine. All we need is just a little patience.” O.K. that was Axl Rose, but the point is, I’m out of patience with Gagne. He has been given every opportunity to succeed and has failed miserably every time. Gagne, you were welcomed to the jungle… you can leave now.

Sorry that this post is getting up so late, but I’m spending a few days at Disney World with my family and haven’t had the chance to hit the computer. I have noticed a lot of really good comments from readers. I’m going to give my evaluation on a few things that have come up in discussions over the last couple of days.

First of all, Eric Gagne sucks. I can’t believe that he has yet to pitch a decent inning. What makes it even worse is that Boston gave up two major-league-ready players in Kason Gabbard and David Murphy. Gabbard was awesome in his starts for the Red Sox this season. In a league where pitching is at a premium it seems they gave up on him too soon. I keep checking to see if Gabbard has some arm disease and his arm is going to fall off at any time, and the Sox just didn’t disclose it. But he keeps plugging away in Texas. Also David Murphy is a guy that I liked a lot in his limited time in the majors. He was fast and played really good defense. Murphy also worked his butt off in the offseason, putting on 15 pounds of muscle. This is a guy that wanted to play in the big leagues but was a victim of Boston already having too many outfielders in their system. The Texas Rangers killed Boston on this deal. I hope that Gabbard and Murphy play a big part of the Rangers turnaround in the future. They are both class acts that deserve nothing but the best.

Another hot topic is A-Rod. I believe that Boston will make a huge push for him. I see the Red Sox letting Lowell ($9 million) and Schilling ($13 million) hit the road, which frees up 22 million. That means Theo Epstein is going to need to increase payroll by about 10 million next year. I don’t see J.D. Drew going anywhere. Theo has wanted this guy for years, and he is going to be given every opportunity to succeed. This is not going to be one and done like the Renteria deal. Drew has too much talent to duplicate this season. (I hope) . I also think Julio Lugo is staying to play shortstop. If A-Rod comes to Boston it will be as a third baseman. Lugo has been pretty bad at the plate, but he had stolen a lot of bases and does have the tendency to pick up the big RBI. I still wish that Boston had re-signed Orlando Cabrera. They screwed up on that one. A-Rod is a different player now that he’s a 3rd baseman. He has a bigger build and is not as mobile as he was when he played shortstop. I honestly believe that Derek Jeter could be hit by a bus tomorrow and A-Rod would stay at third. How great would it be to sign the Yankees’ best player? It would be a sure way to kill George Steinbrenner.

Which brings me to Manny Ramirez. Please someone take this guy in the offseason. Mets? Angels? White Sox? Please help us out. This guy’s attitude is killing me. How can he sit on the bench at this point of the season? I know Manny is a flake but he has to know that Boston is in a playoff race. Also, his numbers this year are good, not great, by any stretch of the imagination. His potential numbers aren’t worth the aggravation that he’s putting Red Sox fans through. Either way, worst case scenario is Manny has one year left in Boston.

What has made Boston so enjoyable to watch this year is some of the young players that have been busting their asses all year. Guys like Youk, Pedroia, Coco, Lester, Papelbon, Ellsbury and Buchholz are the present and the future of Red Sox baseball. It has been a nice change of pace this season. Guys stealing bases, sacrificing guys into scoring position, playing great defense, showing their emotions. What makes it even better is that these guys are getting paid nothing in comparison to the bigger names. This group has great attitudes and plays great together. I hope guys like Ramirez don’t spoil it for them. These guys need to keep up their fantastic work ethic. It’s going to be fun to watch them for years to come.

Finally, I started this blog a few weeks ago. I have never done anything remotely close to this. I’m a Firefighter/Paramedic, not a writer, but this has been a lot of fun. I’ve had visits from all over the world: Italy; India; New Brunswick, Canada; Manchester, England; and Alabama. In keeping with the Disney theme, it really is a small world.

I have had some really great comments from readers and appreciate everyone taking the time to read the posts and to leave their thoughts. If anyone has any ideas or comments to make this blog better, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Also, thanks to Dylan for writing his post on Tuesday. He did a great job and started some interesting discussions. Let’s hope he writes for us again.

Thanks for reading. I hope to hear from you all soon.

Go Sox!