An ace that I could keep
Playing nine innings while wondering if the Angels are capable of being patient against Dice-K . . .
1. I’ve probably written this a half-dozen other times this season, but I have to say it again: I couldn’t have more respect for Jon Lester. At age 24, he’s become everything you’d want in a starting pitcher: durable, clutch, smart, efficient, overpowering, and as a bonus, lefthanded. I used to think his ceiling was as a Bruce Hurst clone. Then, after his final flourish last season, I raised the bar to Andy Pettitte. Now I see him as a harder-throwing version of Pettitte, a true ace whereas Roger Clemens’s former BFF was more of a very good No. 2. Lester is 27-8 with a 3.81 ERA in the regular season through his first 59 career starts. Through his first 60 starts, Pettitte was 33-17 with a 4.00 ERA. Looks like the ideal comp to me.
2. I’m not saying TBS analyst Buck Martinez talks too much, but I think he said more words in the third inning Wednesday night than Vin Scully has in his entire career. And there’s not exactly a whole lot of insight amid the nasally jabber, either: His favorite topic was the intangible value and game-calling skills of Jason Varitek, which made sense once I realized Buck (real name: John Albert Martinez) spent parts of 17 seasons in the big leagues and had an OPS+ over 95 exactly once. He spent his entire career as the player Varitek is now. (But for the sake of saying something nice about the guy, he does have really great hair for a guy about to turn 60 in a month. I bet even the Eck is envious.)
3. While I believe Tito Francona stands alone at the peak of his profession, I imagine the Angels’ Mike Scioscia would be voted the consensus “Top Manager In Baseball” by those who decide such things. There’s no doubt he’s very good at his job, but I also think a lot of the praise he gets is because his team typically plays a brand of baseball that appeals to the old-school stat-phobes in the media, bunting and stealing bases and playing the game the “way it should be played” . . . right up to the point where their aggressiveness turns on them with an inexcusable gaffe like Vladi Guerrero’s in the eighth inning Wednesday night. The Angels give away way too many outs — and we won’t even get started on their see-it, hack-at-it approach at the plate — and that sort of recklessness has come back to haunt them more than once in recent postseasons. In the end, doesn’t that have to reflect on the man in charge?
4. You probably suspect it anyway, so I might as well admit it: I’m enjoying the Manny Ramirez Show in the postseason. Loving it, actually, though I do want the Cubs to win the series (and believe they still can). I guess I look at it like this: I’ve never enjoyed watching someone hit like I do Manny, I’m a complete sucker for his goofball charisma, and I reconciled myself a long time ago to the fact that he would be maddeningly irresponsible, usually without any logic or explanation. I’ll never be glad he’s gone, but I completely understand why he is. He’s a 36-year-old man who acted like a toddler, he faked an injury — again, he faked an injury — and near the end he made the clubhouse such a miserable place that his teammates cited the execrable Carl Everett in describing Manny’s divisive behavior. I like Manny, and I always will. Can’t help myself. But even I know there’s no point in trying to defend the indefensible.
5. Watching 16-game loser Javier Vazquez, that unsung contributor to the Red Sox’ World Series title in ’04, swallow his tongue in another big moment yesterday, it dawned on me that White Sox must have felt exactly as we did in ’05, when Matt Clement started Game 1 in Chicago. You knew the Sox were already at a great deficit on the mound in terms of intestinal fortitude, and that it would probably translate to the scoreboard pretty quickly. And it did.
6. The Rays’ Evan Longoria yesterday became the second player ever to homer in his first two postseason at-bats. The first, as you probably heard, was former Twin (and forgettable Red Sox) Gary Gaetti. Gaetti hit 360 homers in his 20-year career, and from what I’ve seen out of Longoria, he has the raw talent to blow past that number before his career is over. To put it another way: Anyone who saw him play this season couldn’t have been surprised by what he did yesterday. He’s one of the special ones, and it was a brilliant piece of foresight by the Rays to lock him up for the long run so early in his career.
7. Yup, sure did pick a good day to wonder if Jason Bay had what it takes in the postseason. (If you’ve never seen someone repeatedly punch himself in the face, you should have been at my house after Bay’s homer Wednesday, right around the time this week’s issue of “OT” was put to bed. I think I fractured my own orbital bone.) Bad timing by me, but my point still stands: The Sox don’t need Bay to put up Manny-like numbers this postseason — that’s unreasonable — but they do need him to come through to the best of his borderline All-Star capabilities. Wednesday, he did, thank goodness. Now we’ll see if the Angels have realized he has some Soriano-like tendencies with sliders away, and if so, if he’s capable of adjusting. [Editor’s note, Friday morning: Um, he is.]
8. Though logic suggests it probably won’t happen — he’ll cost too much and Theo Epstein seems to have an aversion to players with personality — count me among those hoping for a Red Sox/Derek Lowe reunion next season. He’s always been a favorite at this address (excepting his last gruesome days as a closer), he has a rubber arm (he has never been on the disabled list), and his effort in Game 7 against the Yankees remains one of the most underrated clutch performances in sports history (pitching six innings of one-run, one-hit ball at Yankee Stadium, with the burden of history on his shoulders, on two days’ rest). If he keeps pitching like this, he’s going to get paid like an ace . . . but wouldn’t he be perfect in that Wakefield/Byrd region of the rotation next season.
9. As for today’s Completely Random Baseball Card:
Even though he’s remembered primarily for his years with the Angels (he was the ’79 AL MVP), Baylor played a key role in the Sox’ comeback versus the Halos in ’86, so consider this our bid for continued good karma. In a related note, Baylor (and Jim Rice) were the two sluggers who looked huge when I was a kid, giants, absolutely larger than life. Nowadays, there are middle infielders with limbs bigger than Rice and Baylor in their heyday
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