Red Sox Nation rejoice: Paps heads back to pen

Maybe it was the lucky green jersey that changed Boston's fortunes in the pen (Globe/AP)

Being a Red Sox fan, it's inherently in our nature to start worrying when the planets align and too many things seem to be going our way.

RSN, start worrying.

As if the apparent coup of signing Dice-K for only $100 mil (maybe Borass wasn't so crazy after all, eh?), adding the pop of Lugo's & Drew's bats to the lineup and having Schill around to anchor the rotation for at least this season wasn't enough to send the Nation back to 2004 perma-grin levels, now we get word that our beloved Jonathan Papelbon has decided he wants to close again.

That's right, despite an entire offseason of hearing everyone from Theo to Tito to Paps himself swear up & down that he not only would join the starting rotation to relive stress on his balky right shoulder, but that he wanted to do so was utter BS.

How do we know this? Because today Paps, last year's AL Rookie of the Year runner-up, admitted "I want to close the rest of my career."

I repeat, start worrying.

This can't be happening. Every single member of RSN, including the few who tried to drink the Kool aid about Paps becoming a starter, has dreamed that we would hear him utter words like that. This guy was an absolute animal as a rookie closer, one of the best ever and a ROY front-runner until his September shutdown, and when we heard him talk about how it would be better for his career to return to the rotation, we believed him, but nobody wanted it to be true.

Of course many of us lamented that despite Boston's killer starting rotation (Schill, Dice, Wake, Paps and Gopher), the bullpen was the Achilles heel for this potential World Series contender. Let's put it this way: it would have been virtually impossible to win a title with Mike Methuselah Timlin, Gas Can Tavarez, Joel Shy Guy Piniero or Can't Hit the Black Donnelly closing games.

Now our prayers have been answered. In this article by Edes in today's Globe, you can read glorious quotes like this from the man himself and then you can start worrying why things are going so cosmically, karmically good for our Sawx right now.

"This is something that I would like to do for the rest of my career and kind of just forget about starting and go out there and chase records and . . . hopefully what [Mariano] Rivera has done for the Yankees, I can do with the Sox."

Let the hand-wringing commence!

Oh, BTW, the fact that the Pats are all of a sudden stockpiling quality free agents like Bush stockpiles haters?

Start worrying, Patriot Nation.

Read More......

Dice-K dazzles in ESPN game against Pittsburgh

I'm back.

Sorry I've been gone so long, but a lot has happened in the last week & 1/2. I got an HD TV. Went to a spring training game. Took my son to the doctor. Watched a ton of college basketball.
Went to see "300". Stuff like that.

But what have I really missed- it's spring training? The roster is basically set, except for a few bullpen scrubs, bench players, oh and that pesky situation with having to find a closer. Other than that it's been a pretty tame spring, not counting Matsuzaka mania and a couple of episodes of Manny Being Manny. The biggest stories have come from ex-Sox: Pedro could miss 3/4 of the season, Judas Demon declared that the Stanks are the best team (ooh, really sticking your neck out, Judas) and David Wells has to give up booze and fried foods.

Speaking of Matzsuzaka mania, today I had the chance to finally watch Dice K pitch with my own eyes as the Sox/Pirates game was broadcast on ESPN HD, and boy was I impressed. The brilliant colors all around the field, the crispness of the picture and the sound all combined to make for a very pleasurable viewing experience.

Oh, I'm sorry, I was supposed to be talking about Dice-K and I got carried away. I was impressed with Matsuzaka as well, although his shaky first inning had me questioning my whole "this guy's gonna help send the Sox back to the series" hysteria.

He allowed a run in the first after plunking leadoff hitter Chris Duffy, and after two groundouts moved Duffy to third, a bloop hit to right by Adam LaRoche landed in front of J.D. Drew ( I can hear the Nation now, and its not screaming "Droooooooooo!") and scored Duffy easily. Like I said, shaky, but not awful.

Sox fans are quickly learning never to fear when the calm & cool Diceman is on the hill, though, because he has the composure and discipline to shake off bad innings as easily as he laughs off the crushing media attention. After coming out for the second inning Dice K quickly got into a groove, retiring 11 in a row and striking out Pirates batters by using his full repertoire of pitches.

By the end of the outing Matsuzaka had thrown 92 pitches in 5 2/3 innings of work, allowing just the one run and one hit with a walk and seven Ks. Of his 92 pitches, 62 were for strikes, and after that first inning he was ahead of nearly every other batter he faced.

In short he looked very strong, displaying a number of quality pitches that continually baffled the Pittsburgh hitters, and showed a tenaciosness that will be needed to make it through the season. The best part of his outing might have been his final batter. After retiring Duffy to start the 6th, Dice-K engaged in a 12-pitch battle with Pirate SS prospect Don Kelly. After fouling off pitch after pitch with the count at 2-2, Matsuzaka threw his final pitch, which Kelly tipped into Varitek's glove for another strikeout.

Legend has it that he got him with the gyroball.

Read More......