Soxtober

You know a pitcher is having a good night when you can sense his dominance through ESPN’s gamecast. A complete game shutout with just four hit and from the highlights I saw, total dominance of the Angles, not bad Josh not bad at all. I doubt anyone is going to be missing Hanley Ramirez anymore. Oh and David Ortiz said when he was watching the game in the clubhouse batting cage it was like watching a video game...aka Beckett is codes, like I said codes theory.

Yes it’s true I had to watch the game on gamecast but I am feeling pretty confident with the Red Sox right now. A lot of people have been talking about how you can’t just flip a switch and turn it on for the playoffs. I think Josh Beckett might be an exception to that rule. Here are his playoff numbers in four series (including game one of the ’07 ALDS).

3-2 record (team won all three of the previous series), seven games, six starts, a 1.74 ERA, three complete games, 51.2 innings, 25 hits, 10 earned runs, 12 walks and 55 strikeouts.

Beckett had a great regular season in 2007 and he should be the Cy Young winner he was better than Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, I’m sorry but he was. The Red Sox should have the Rookie of the Year (Pedrioa), Gold Glove centerfielder (Coco), Gold Glove first basemen (Yook) and a couple of silver sluggers. After Beckett gave up all those home runs last year people were asking were is the Josh Beckett from 2003? Well he’s here and that is a very, very good sign for the Boston Red Sox playoff hopes in 2007.

After talking with some of my buddies and reading some stuff for the Boston Sports Guy Bill Simmons (He’ll always be digital city BSG for me) I am feeling a lot better about the Sox.
They have nine of the top 42 hitters in pitches per at bat and that ability to work the count and make pitchers throw strikes is going to be huge in the playoffs. I still truly believe that J.D. Drew is going to turn things around in the post-season too. I know that might be a little too optimistic to some but there is no reason why he shouldn’t he’s a good player and he’s got a solid line-up surrounding him.

I think the Sox lineup and pitching will be too much for the Angels. I don’t think they’ll sweep but it’s not out of the realm of possibility, especially if Dice-K has a good outing tomorrow and the Sox bats keep him out in front. Dice-K is the uncertainty.

He could be fantastic or he could implode, from what I have seen so far this year I think needs to throw all his pitches instead of relying on his fastball and he has to avoid those innings were he melts down. That’s were the bats come in, if the Sox can get on the board early and give Dice-K a lead it’s going to be a 2-0 lead heading west for the Sox.

One more note about the Red Sox series – the extra long series could turn out to be huge especially after Beckett’s complete game. That gives the bullpen an extra day of rest and it makes the Angels spend an awful long time sitting on last nights game, that has to linger a little bit.

The Playoffs overall are going to be very exciting this year in my humble opinion. Obviously I’m excited for the Sox and I think the Indians are going to give the Yankees a run for their money but the most exciting series might be any game involving the Colorado Rockies (Oh, so that’s were Kaz Matsui went. I guess ESPN the Magazine missed the mark when they put him on the cover of their NEXT issue a couple years ago). Monday’s game was awesome and now they are up 2-0 on the Phillies.

I feel for Philly fans, I really do but how can you not root for the Rockies right now. Plus the guy from The Starting Line said he was from Philly and was going to break Tom Brady’s legs. Sorry broseph but Brady will win more Super Bowls. Anyway Go Rockies. How cool would a Rockies-Cubs NLCS be, it would definitely be one I’d watch.

The Yankees are so frustrating to watch as a non Yankee fan, they almost never swing and I hate them so it’s clearly completely different than the Red Sox (homer alert). F’n Wade Boggs.
One of the most love/hate things about the playoffs for me is all the promos for the fall shows that networks are trying to push. You know what I’m talking about…”HIS FATHER IS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY!”…At least Fox has a couple of shows worth watching, namely Prison-break, but TBS, yikes.

Calm down with the Frank TV just keep showing promos for all the syndicated shows you run like old episodes of Family Guy and the Office. It is a nice break from FOX, plus we get an extra week of Don Orsillo, even if he is doing the Rockies games.

One more thing - MLB move the outfield umpires back, every announcer has made a comment about it at least once and it’s an issue that already come up three or four times with questionable home run calls.Enjoy the Playoffs.