MayDay Summer

Somewhere former Sox manager Joe Morgan is smiling - it's 6/2 (June 2nd) and the Sox are ten games better than even. (On the other hand, the Orioles are exactly even - 24 and 24 - and a fat lot of good it's going to do them.) ...

I was watching the end - or the beginning of the long end - of today's game with my cousin, who said this about Keith Foulke: "I actually wish he'd blow a save now, just to get it out of his system." About three pitches later he did just that. ...

Since David Ortiz signed his contract last Friday he's 9 for 17 (.529) with 4 doubles and 7 RBI in four games. During the press conference after the signing Ortiz mentioned that it felt good to have the contract off his mind, and I guess it does. ...

There was so much bad in last night’s loss, and so little good, that I’m going to have to settle for complaining about one thing, and it’s this: I’m as big a fan of patience at the plate as the next guy, but I draw the line at taking strike three on a three-and-two count when the runners are moving. Kevin Youkilis did this last night, precipitating a rally-ending double-play. Let’s just hope it was a rookie mistake and that Francona will take him aside and tell him never to do it again. ...

I think its time to admit that Raul Mondesi is never going to be the player he could be. And he could be quite a player - he's fast, he can field, his arm is second only to Vladmir Guerrero's, and when he bothers to shorten that big swing of his he can hit for average and power. A couple of years ago, when he was traded from Toronto to New York, I was sure he'd be a great Yankee, and he was - for about a week. But since leaving Los Angeles at the threshold of his athletic prime, he hasn't put up the .300-30-100 numbers everyone expected, and he definitely has not ingratiated himself with any of his new managers. ...

Just a few observations from the past weekend's series in San Francisco:

1. Why doesn’t anyone pitch to Barry Bonds? The math is so completely in favor of not walking Bonds that I can't believe it needs to be spelled out. Since 2001, when Bonds’ numbers graduated from great to superhuman, he’s hit .347, reached base at a .545 clip, and homered about once every eight times someone has chosen to pitch to him. These are staggering stats ( forget the homers for a minute - are there more than a handful of players who have hit .347 over any 3+-year period?). But do they justify an automatic intentional walk? Of course not. When a manager chooses to walk Bonds he effectively doubles Barry’s OBP to 1.000, and passes up the essentially two-to-one odds of getting Bonds out to avoid the one-in-eight chance that he’ll hit a homer. ...

Last weekend worked out better than I thought. Lowe got a win, albeit an 84-pitch win (Bill Lee used to get those all the time, but his were complete game wins). The Sox kept pace with New York, and won two games without Mark Bellhorn. The bats woke up to a small degree. Cesar Crespo got that elusive second RBI. ...

Despite a three or four-batter stretch when he couldn’t seem to get the ball over the plate, Derek Lowe pitched a nice game Friday night. While overall I favor the Sox apparent plan to let all their free agents play for their next contracts, I’m starting to think it might be wise to make an exception of Lowe, and to bypass his agent and offer him a mid-range, three-year deal which he'll almost certainly accept. Comparing his performance in the second half of 2003 with his performance this year, I think contract pressure may bother him more than game pressure (and that he might admit as much himself). Sign him now, get the contract off his mind, and let him be all the pitcher he can be, which essentially amounts to a 3.50-ERA, 16-18-win guy with a rubbery-enough arm to do spot relief duty in the post-season. It’s a valuable combination of skills when you think about it, and one not many other pitchers offer. ...

Two reasons I am now on the Red Sox bandwagon: 1) yesterday they looked good even while losing, and 2) it's very difficult to imagine how the Yankees, without Kevin Brown, will keep their lead in the division or amount to anything in a short series. ...