Friday, May 11, 2007

How sweep it is!

Can't write for too long, but I wanted to get some thoughts written down before I have to run off to a meeting. Not that there's actually too much to say really... Sox beat the Jays for the third game in a row, 8-0, thus sweeping the series. All the runs came before the 5th inning, which didn't work out too well for me since I didn't get to even check the score until the 6th. Not a very interesting game after the 3rd inning really, after which it was 7-0. It's really interesting looking at some of the graphs they have over at FanGraphs because you can really see how interesting a game was just by looking at how the line swings back and forth between the two teams. I've been learning more about WPA, BRAA, etc and they're really quite interesting statistics. Maybe once I understand more I'll do a mini write up on them, if for no other reason but to drill the definitions into my head.

Props to Youk and Lowell for a kickass game last night. Oh, and as an aside, was anyone else as bothered by Papelbon's comments as I was?!?

Thursday, May 10, 2007

It's been a while...

Well, where to begin... it's been almost two weeks since my last post and for that I'd like to apologize. It's hard to build a community if I don't stay active on this blog, so I'll do my best to do that going forward. The main reason for my absence is simply a lack of time and an increased workload at work, but that's no excuse. That said, let's regroup over where the Sox stand today, because that's truly good news.

After winning two of three against the Yankees, one of two against Oakland, a makeup against Seattle, and two of three in Minneapolis, the Sox are in Toronto and have won two games with one more to play before returning home for a 10 game homestand against Baltimore, Detroit, and Atlanta. Aside from the Baltimore series it should be a great measuring stick for how good we really are, as Detroit and Atlanta are two hot teams this year. We're 22-10, good for a .688 win percentage. The closest team in the AL East is the Yankees who just got back to .500 and are still 6 games back. The Jays are in dead last and are 9.5 games back, with Tampa Bay and Baltimore falling somewhere in the middle.

Dice-K pitched last night against Ohka and tossed a beauty. 1 run, 5 hits, 8ks, and 3 walks over 7 innings. Here's the box score for those of you who can read them. Speaking of which, I know what all the abbreviations mean, but I still have trouble figured out who hit in which inning and completely replaying a game in my head based on a box score. If anyone has any tips please leave me a comment!!

I won't delve too far back into the games I haven't discussed here, but it suffices to say that Pedroia seems to be winning back the faith of the fans and his spot at second base, and I couldn't be any happier for him. Varitek's on a huge upswing with the road trip and just got a home run batting lefty either yesterday or the day before. I feel like we're finally starting to gel and it's a pretty impressive thing to see. The only other team in all of baseball with a better record than us is Milwaukee, and if you take a look at their schedule they haven't faced many of the best NL teams yet, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when they do. Good to see that the Cubs are out of the cellar in the NL Central, 6.5 games back of the Brewers but still in 2nd place. I'm really pulling for them this year, I'd love to see a Sox v. Cubs series someday before I die (or they end up knocking down Fenway or Wrigley, whichever ends up happening first).

I'm taking a pass on all of the stuff going on in the media with Schilling and Ortiz right now... except to say that I heard Schilling's interview live on WEEI as I was driving to work that morning and it was pretty nice hearing someone have the balls to say what he did, even if he didn't have all of his facts straight.