Ugh

Now, the Red Sox bullpen is somewhat decimated right now, but I have to say that we need to rethink what is happening here. Remember Boof Bonser? Yeah. He had his first game last night and let's just say it was not impressive. The game was against Cleveland, we were down 3-0 in the 8th. Bonser failed to get any outs after four batters, was taken out and replaced by Nelson, we gave up a grand slam, and God only knows what else. When the carnage was over, Sox were down 11-0. That's right. Our bullpen gave up 8 runs.

Ugh.

Our bullpen has not been the strong point this year by a long shot.

Good people:
Manny Delcarmen (but he was recently pulled with a possible injury)
Daniel Bard
Jonathan Papelbon (who is on leave for family reasons)

Bad people:
Everyone else that has been involved in this revolving door bullpen.

Now thinking back to last season, the Yankees had a horrid bullpen (minus, of course, Rivera), and managed to get it together. So here's hoping.

Incidentally, Justin Masterson had a great game yesterday for the Indians. Much credit needs to go to him for the shut out -- he pitched the entire game.

Also, I heard rumors that the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. It's June 10 and finally hockey is over.

I've cracked Theo Epstein's Strategic Plan

So I've found a crucial pattern in this year's Red Sox leaders. See graphic. Note first letter of 87.5% of the guys there. Note that remaining 12.5% has an adjacent letter in the alphabet. Clearly we need more people whose names start with 'J.'

When I started thinking this through, though, I realized that maybe this was no co-incidence, since it seems that we have been accumulating numerous players whose name starts with 'J.' Think about it. Our entire outfield comprises of J-guys: JD Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Jason Bay. We almost have an entire starting rotation made up of J-guys: Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Junichi Tazawa (what do you want to bet that Epstein gets Johan Santana in the off-season? Not very much, right, because now you see his plan!). Who do we keep putting in at shortstop? Jeb Lowry (even though I do not understand this since I think Alex Gonzalez has done very well....but now I've hit upon the answer). Of course, our closer is Jonathan Papelbon. Daniel Bard taking over that spot? Yeah, right!

This makes our trade of Justin Masterson all the more baffling. But I'm sure Theo has a plan to get him back.

Also, I hope that we aren't planning to re-sign Johnny Damon anytime soon.

PR People should maybe liase with Front Office People more often

The Cleveland Indians traded Victor Martinez to the Red Sox yesterday in a last-minute deal. While this fact in and of itself is noteworthy (particularly because now we have another Youk-type player who can play virtually anywhere at any time), there is now a headache in Cleveland since they had planned for not one but two Martinez give-aways this week.

Oops.

As for how this affects the Red Sox: Martinez can play either 1st base or catcher. I see an eventual replacement for Varitek here, although probably not immediately (at least the club says that is not the plan). Supposedly, he will take over sometimes at first when Lowell needs a break so that Youkilis can move over. Also, he can serve as a DH in case our DH is not producing. However, Papi seems to be doing just fine in that department these days.

We traded three pitchers including Justin Masterson, who was one of those up-and-coming talents. I guess that the management figured there were sufficient up-and-comers, although with the pitching I have seen of late from Penny and Smoltz, I am not so sure about that. I do see the logic, though, since Masterson was primarily coming out of the bullpen and for once we seem to actually have a decent bullpen.

Bearing in mind that it is still August, of course. Naturally the bullpen can still fall completely apart. Ah, the mid-summer skepticism of a Red Sox fan, can't be beat.