September 28th, 2006 → 9:04 am @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
Look, Josh, I know it’s embarrassing to be outed as taking your pitching cues from me…but allowing the Devil Rays to blow open the game just to prove me wrong? That’s just childish. And now you’re going to need to live with your 5.01 ERA for the whole offseason.
That’s right: the $30 million dollar man finished his first year in Boston going 16-11 and an ERA that would get him bounced out of the starting rotations in a lot of teams. He topped 200 innings, sure…but man, some of those were brutal innings.
It wasn’t a good day around the rest of the league, either. At least for Sox fans. The Marlins, that other team from Florida, beat the Reds on the strength of 5 innings of two-run ball from former Sox pitching prospect Anibal Sanchez (bringing him to 10-3 on the season) and two home runs by former Sox shortstop prospect Hanley Ramirez (one of which was an inside-the-park shot). In LA, former Red Sox playoff hero Derek Lowe won his seventh straight decision, bringing him into the league lead for wins (16); Lowe hasn’t lost since August 9. Oh, and former Sox All-Star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra also rapped out three hits in the game, brining his average (.306) above every member of the Sox save for the MIA Manny Ramirez (.318). (Nomar also left the game because of lingering soreness from his strained oblique.) Finally, Pedro Martinez, the only former Sox player that virtually everyone in Boston wants to succeed, was rocked for the third straight time. Last night, Pedro didn’t make it out of the third inning, the second time this season he failed to record at least nine outs; previous to 2006, he’d gone 289 straight starts in which he lasted three innings or more, going back to 1996. That was the longest streak of 3-innings plus in eighty-seven years, since the Big Train did it for 313 starts from 1911 through 1919. Sure, this validates Boston’s decision not to give Pedro a four-year deal — right now it seems possible the Mets will end up paying him $52 million for a season and a half of regular season starts and 0 playoff games — but it hurts to see Pedro struggle so.
The good news — and yes, I’m reaching here — is that the Orioles are coming to town, and Baltimore’s one of the few teams that make the Sox look like they deserve that $120 million-plus payroll. And there’re three more games for Papi to add to his Red Sox-record 54 home runs.
Post Categories: David Ortiz & Josh Beckett & Pedro Martinez
HFXBOB
18 years ago
Wow…Sox fans, including me, have a full-fledged obsession these days watching the scoreboard of former players. Another kick in the head last night on the Beckett deal. The way Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Josh Bard and Cla Meredith are playing is the killer. Lowe and Damon I can handle. Pedro, I don’t relish seeing him get humiliated, but I do take some consolation in the fact that this confirms the risk factor in these moves for all concerned. As for Nomar, no matter what, Theo can never be faulted for that move, because without it we’d be talking about an 88-year drought now.
Wouldn’t it be fun to know what John, Larry and Theo are thinking these days. I sure hope they are stoked for the offseason and that it is one hell of a lot better than the two before it.
crimsonohsix
18 years ago
Cmon, prospects are in the NL, and superstars are still in the early years of very long contracts. You’re writing on tilt.
Bill Pratt
18 years ago
It is best to resist the shoulda coulda woulda stat tracking of former players and more so prospects. It’s a no win situation. You get bummed about the Jeff Bagwells and feel sorry for the ones that brought you to the Promised Land.
It all balances out anyway. Imagine getting the first captain since Yaz who is the all time leading franchise catcher in games caught AND the first pitcher to win the clinching games in three successive series EVER for just one guy? Not to mention who the guy is or was.
It is great to wish the best to all the former Red Sox in the brotherly spirit of the BDD “Keeping up with old friends” links by seeing how they are doing in current games.
Baseball is at times simple then complex and other times easily predictable and then a stunning surprise. It is so much like life it is fascinating.
Yet, how much of your life are you missing while you mull through the scenarios of how things would be different if you stayed with this girl or that girl? Or what if you partnered up with your college buddy in that little firm you talked about after graduation? Would you have been happier with the other woman or richer with another business associate?
Who cares? Do your work today and make sweet love to your wife tonight. Unless you want a nooner.
After taking 6 months off from work on two separate occasions to help my folks to the end with hospice, I learned one thing.
Make your decisions and live without regret (unless you hurt someone and need to mend a fence). Everything else is a waste of time.
StuckAtTheCask
18 years ago
Great perspective and words to live by … thanks for the fantastic comment/post there, Bill Pratt.
Nordberg
18 years ago
Hey, Seth.
Where are those Pedro apologists now?