Boston Sports Then and Now

Cross-posted at my personal blog.

When I last checked in for my first reexamination of the list of the keys to the Red Sox’ season that I developed at the tail end of Spring Training, I said that I’d finish up by the end of July. Oops. Here’s hoping at this rate that I can finish up by the end of the season.

Keys 25-21 follow.

25. Bill Hall can field shortstop and second base.

What I said then: Hall is potentially a very interesting inclusion on the roster.

A jack of all trades, Hall has been beyond important to the 2010 Red Sox.

Prior to 2007, the utility man was a full-time shortstop with Milwaukee and fielded the position quite well.  Since, Hall has been moved all around the diamond but has seen virtually no time at a middle infield spot.  If Hall can adequately serve as the backup infielder, he’ll be of immense value to the club because he will kill two birds with one stone (he is also the top right-handed reserve outfielder on the roster).  If not, the club will have to drastically shift its plans and Hall may not last with the team at all.

What I say now: The key here was that Hall needed to provide acceptable defense at shortstop and second base to have a spot on the roster. Indeed, he’s been passable at both spots and has played 37 games at second and five at short (the position occupied by Marco Scutaro, who is tied for the team lead in games played and leads the Red Sox in games started). Hall’s defensive numbers at both spots this season (small sample sizes are worth noting) and over his career (where the samples are large enough to draw some conclusions) back up the idea that he’s at least a decent enough middle infielder. So the Hall-as-utility-man experiment was a success by that standard. What makes it a roaring win, however, is that Hall’s been so capable offensively. Having played almost every position on the diamond this season (including having pitched an inning), his roster spot would have been valuable if only for its versatility. That he’s hit more home runs than Manny Ramirez and Jason Bay combined in 2010 and has provided a solid enough bat to fill in for the injured Dustin Pedroia on a fairly regular basis since the end of June render the Bill Hall acquisition — which saved the Red Sox a pretty penny in trading Casey Kotchman — one of Theo Epstein’s better, more shrewd moves of the 2009-2010 offseason.

24. Contractual situations do not distract impending free agents.

What I said then: Two superstars – Victor Martinez and Josh Beckett — are entering contract years.  Neither player wants to talk extension during the season, and we are but a week away from the season, so it’s starting to look like this may be a big topic for the next 6 or 7 months.  If these two are not extended, the Sox will hope neither situation distracts the individual players or the team at large.  The flip side, of course, is that motivation for a big pay day might just get even more production out of two guys who are already expected to provide quite a bit to the club’s Championship aspirations.

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Pedroia and many others have spent significant chunks of the season the DL.

Six weeks left in the baseball season and it is going to be a dog fight. Entering Thursday, the Red Sox were 5.5 games (and more importantly six games in the loss column) behind the Yanks and Rays who are tied.

These patchwork Red Sox are holding on for dear life and have showed the vulnerability recently with late game implosions on their past road trip. The squad has lost Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, Victor Martinez, Dustin Pedroia, Jason Varitek, Mike Cameron, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, and others to the disabled list this season; many of these players missed a significant chunk of the season.

The Red Sox have used a Major League high 40 players this season.

Can you name them all? I don’t even think I can.

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This wasn’t the win of the year.

Not even close.

That game was two weeks ago tonight, against a gritty Rangers team with a never-say-die attitude.

Then, a week later, Eric Patterson did that thing to Jon Lester’s perfect game and the world fell down around the Red Sox.

The Red Sox’ come-from-way-behind 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon wasn’t about redemption or even keeping hope alive in the probably-but-not-quite-surely lost season. It could be argued that it was for the fans, but really, this one was for the team.

Before the 4:10 PM first pitch, few Red Sox felt truly safe about their place on the team, or if they’d end the day employed by the same franchise they started it with.

You’d have thought getting to game time and still having a nameplate in the home team’s clubhouse at Fenway Park would have been a sigh of relief.

But then, they started playing baseball.

And as the Red Sox so often did in July, they got men on base and left them there. They got behind early and struggled to claw back, or to even claw at all. Ryan Kalish, making his MLB debut after being called up earlier in the day, tried his best to energize the team, leading off the third with a single, but nobody seemed to care enough about the kid to bring him around.

Miguel Cabrera teed off on a Matsuzaka fastball in the first inning, sending it into orbit somewhere over Interstate 90. Daisuke, apparently enjoying the cool late-July weather, made it a point to spend as much time as he could on the mound and not in the dugout.

It looked like we were in for another what-can’t-you-do-for-me effort from the Sox. But then, the unthinkable happened. Leading off the seventh, Beltre legged out an infield single by less than a cleat’s length to get on. Hall singled and moved him around, but got thrown out stretching.

Then the kid came up.

Ryan Kalish went 2-for-4 in his MLB debut, picking up an RBI and scoring a run in the Red Sox' crucial 7th inning Saturday.

Kalish welcomed Brad Thomas to the game with a bloop single to right, scoring Beltre. Ryan Perry came in for Thomas, and Darnell McDonald doubled Kalish home. Suddenly, a 4-run defecit was a manageable 2-run hole.

Then Ortiz, who had been pressing all day at the plate, struck out swinging to end the seventh. Atchison – probably the one middle reliever whose name was not mentioned in trade talks – and Okajima retired the side in order in the 8th and 9th, and the home nine had one more chance.

Not only did they not disappoint, they did it with such passion and energy that NESN producers could only curse their luck for not having a game that must have produced ratings.

McDonald hit a sharp grounder to short that Ramon Santiago bobbled before getting to first. Seizing the opportunity, McDonald slid head-first into first base, narrowly beating the throw. After a Scutaro flyout, Lowrie – inserted into the game for Patterson – worked the count full and fouled off an extra pitch for good measure before doubling to the wall in left-center, moving McDonald to third. With Ortiz on-deck and Phil Coke on the mound, Leyland opted to intentionally walk Kevin Youkilis.

Bad idea.

Ortiz, who had been 0-for-8 against Coke with 3 Ks, belted a 2-1 fastball to the same spot Lowrie put a ball two batters before him. McDonald and Lowrie scored easily, and Youkilis slid in behind them as Ortiz touched second, pumped his fists together and let out a whoop.

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Ethier, 28, is batting .295 with 16 HRs, and 59 RBIs. We can dream, can't we?

Theo needs to make a deal for a middle of the road reliever. However, you’d have to think he wants an impact player who can help for years to come. See Felix Hernandez last year.

This year’s move should be for Andre Ethier of the LA Dodgers. There’s no denying he’s a game-changing player with even better potential.

He’s a perfect fit. A legitimate 35 HR guy to hit third in front of Youk. He can play LF this year and next and then move back to his natural RF when JD leaves. He’s under team control for at least two more years with a chance to extend him in his prime. He’s Dustin Pedroia’s best friend and a great clubhouse guy.

Why not package Jacoby Ellsbury, Felix Doubront, and a low level pitcher with upside like a Roman Mendez for Ethier.

LA would listen because they have serious money issues with Frank McCourt’s

divorce and a big time need for pitching. Ellsbury is cheap, making only league minimum this year and going into his first arb year next year where his value will be lowered by a poor 2010. Doubront projects as a No. 3 starter down the road and would be their No. 5 to start 2011. Mendez has a live arm and is only 19 – a guy they might love to take a chance on.

The Sox get their impact bat to fill in for Ortiz’s impending departure and a good long term OF solution. It even leaves a spot for Ryan Kalish to finish his development next year and then come up to platoon with Cameron in mid 2011 until Cam is gone. LA gets a leadoff hitter who would dominate the NL on the basepaths and allow them to shift Matt Kemp back to his natural spot in the batting order.

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Our vantage point at the Fens.

Folks, I am not going to say I am a Red Sox die hard anymore. Granted, I did shed man tears when they won the World Series in 2004 but what New Englander didn’t? It was 86 friggin’ years!

I don’t watch every Sox game on TV because it’s so damn slow sometimes. Seriously, four hours for a nine inning game? I will take a Patriots or Bruins game hand over fist.

However, going to Fenway Park is a whole different story.

It’s almost like going to church. You are sitting on hallowed ground. It’s a privilege to watch the local nine in the 98 year old relic.

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