Category: Sports

“P” is for Papelbon and panic

No, I didn’t see Jonathan Papelbon blow his sixth save of the season this afternoon. I was working. But I’d say he’s now officially become a problem. Wouldn’t you? If he’d blown, say, two saves up to this point, the Sox would be leading in the wild-card race.

You can’t hold that blown save against the Angels in the 2009 playoffs over his head. Those things happen. But even though his statistics have, for the most part, been very good, I think most of us would agree that he hasn’t looked right since the beginning of the ’09 season — even though he can still be dominating, as he was against the Yankees the other night.

It would be a panic move, and I doubt Terry Francona would ever do it. But I wonder if it might be time to make Daniel Bard the closer, give some key innings to Felix Doubront and Michael Bowden (what is he still doing in Pawtucket?) and use Papelbon in some non-key situations for a while.

George Steinbrenner, 1930-2010

The New York Times just confirmed that New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has died. Perhaps now we’ll learn why such a bombastic man was virtually silent during the last years of his life.

Probably no one did more to define the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry from the 1970s on than Steinbrenner. Loudmouthed bully, profligate spender, felonious friend of Richard Nixon — he always gave Red Sox fans someone to root against.

Derek Jeter liked him, so Steinbrenner must have had a good side as well.

Ellsbury speaks

Now that Jacoby Ellsbury has finally spoken out in his own defense, I just want to make a quick comment.

None of us has any idea — no, not even Kevin Youkilis — whether Ellsbury could have run hard, dived for balls and, especially, swung the bat properly if he had tried to play through the pain.

The guy is a 26-year-old star, well-liked by the fans. He’s never caused any trouble that we’re aware of. Does he want to play?

Good grief. Of course he wants to play.

And my guess is that a healthy Darnell McDonald is a better player than a hobbled Jacoby Ellsbury. So what’s the problem?

A great run by a great team

Congratulations to the 2009-’10 Boston Celtics, who came out of nowhere once the playoffs started and nearly made it to their 18th NBA championship. It looked to me that age simply caught up with them last night. I’m hardly the first to notice that Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and even Paul Pierce are not the players they were in 2008.

And yes, the Lakers played a great game.

For those of us who grew up with Dave Cowens, John Havlicek and JoJo White (no, I’m not quite old enough to have seen Bill Russell play), and who later had the privilege of watching the original Big Three of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, the past three years have been a nice reminder of how things used to be.

My favorite Celtic is Doc Rivers. I hope he stays.

What’s wrong with the Red Sox? The answer.

I think I’ve figured out what’s wrong with the Red Sox. Brace yourselves: They’re not very good.

Sure, they could theoretically overcome their slow start. But I only see three players who’ve performed below expectations: Josh Beckett; Adrian Beltre defensively; and Jacoby Ellsbury, simply because he’s been hurt as a result of Beltre’s worst play of the season, if not his career.

Yes, Mike Cameron’s been out, too. But Darnell McDonald has probably been a more productive hitter.

Ortiz? Dice-K? Clay Buchholz? Ramon Ramirez? Were you really expecting more than they’ve given? If so, then you were expecting way too much.

The Sox have already shown they can be entertaining against mediocre teams. I think that’s the best we can hope for this season.

Slip-sliding with the Red Sox

David Ortiz

It’s way too early to write off the Red Sox. The starting pitching, relievers Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard, and the defense are all going to be fine. Early-season aberrations are nothing to worry about.

What does make me worry are bad things that were eminently predictable. A soft bullpen. Poor defense by catcher Victor Martinez. And, more than anything, weak offense led by the all-but-finished designated hitter, David Ortiz.

The Sox are going to have to get by with Martinez as catcher, and in any case he’s no worse than Jorge Posada. But the hitting? They’re two hitters away.

Getting that first hitter may be as easy as benching Ortiz and replacing him with some combination of Mike Lowell and Jeremy Hermida.

The second hitter? I imagine Theo is hoping Clay Buchholz can string together enough decent starts so that he can unload him for a good bat.

As it stands, I could easily see this team not making the playoffs. I know: Sounds like I am writing them off, doesn’t it? But I’m counting on Theo making some adjustments.

Photo (cc) by Googie Man and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Original at Wikimedia Commons.

Dr. Shaughnessy diagnoses Nomar

The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy writes an absolutely toxic column on Nomar Garciaparra, and I can’t say I disagree with all of it. But then there’s this, about the 2004 injury that contributed to his being shipped out of town several months later:

He developed Achilles’ tendinitis, allegedly after a ball hit him in the batting cage (nobody witnessed this).

There’s only one way to read that: Shaughnessy thinks Nomar might have been faking it. Why? Garciaparra was always hurt. There’s no reason to think that particular injury was any different. But Dr. Dan knows better, I guess.

Why Climategate doesn’t matter (VIII)

Henry David Thoreau

The series explained.

Since the 1850s, when Henry David Thoreau was living at Walden Pond, the mean annual temperature in the Concord area has risen by 4.3 degrees. And that warming has had an effect.

According to a study by scientists from Harvard University and other research institutions, 27 percent of the native plant species that Thoreau documented have gone missing, and another 36 percent are under threat, Carolyn Johnson reports in the Boston Globe.

Explains researcher Charles Davis, quoted by Harvard Magazine: “Climate change will lead to an as-yet unknown shuffling of species, and it appears that invasive species will become more dominant.”

What makes the situation at Walden unusual is that Thoreau kept meticulous records, making it possible for scientists to document changes in ways that just can’t be done in most parts of the country. As University of Wisconsin researcher Mark Schwartz told Wired.com back in 2008, when the study was being conducted:

Whenever you have an opportunity to get a dataset where someone who has made very careful efforts to observe things in a systematic way, it gives you a snapshot of a particular time period and lets you make comparisons.

And before you say “global warming is good for you,” take a look at this assessment from Harvard scientist Davis:

Invasive species can be intensely destructive to biodiversity, ecosystem function, agriculture, and human health. In the United States alone the estimated annual cost of invasive species exceeds $120 billion. Our results could help in developing predictive models to assess the threat of future invasive species, which may become greatly exacerbated in the face of continued climate change.

All posts in this series.

Unattractive trade bait

Maybe Theo Epstein* is just blowing smoke. But how could he possibly be thinking about trading Jed Lowrie during the off-season? Lowrie’s trade value has got to be close to zero right now.

If Lowrie and new shortstop Marco Scutaro both have a good first half, maybe one of them could be traded to fill a hole somewhere else. But if Theo trades Lowrie now, then it will be obvious he’s given up on him. Is there evidence to suggest he should?

*@scruff notes, as I should have, that this could just be Nick Cafardo having fun — there’s nothing in his column to suggest the Red Sox are seriously thinking of trading Lowrie.