Halfway Home and Competitive Balance is Winning With Pitching

The first half of the 2013 season is in the record books and surprises abound. Chris Davis is quietly on a pace to hit 62 home runs when most were predicting an end to the offensive surge of prior years. The Boston Red Sox team that unraveled under Bobby Valentine has vaulted to the lead in […]

Clearing The Bases

Baltimore Orioles: The Orioles sent down SP Jake Arrieta to AAA after another subpar performance on Monday. Arrieta has good stuff but doesn’t seem to have figured out how to control it within the strike zone…..Speaking of SPs, Dylan Bundy is going to get a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews about his ailing elbow. […]

Clearing The Bases

Baltimore Orioles: Tough news for 2B Brian Roberts. He ruptured a tendon in the back of his knee and will miss most of, if not all of April. The problem for Roberts is this, even if he does return during the 2-4 week timetable, it would seem to be highly unlikely that he wouldn’t suffer […]

Josh Beckett Working Hard to Assume Role of Scapegoat

Even the most optimistic Boston Red Sox fans would be hard-pressed to classify the team’ last 60 or so games as a slump because a slump implies an anticipated return to an expected level. Since blowing a seemingly insurmountable lead for the wildcard in the final month of the 2011 season, the team has looked […]

Clearing The Bases

The 2011 World Series has certainly been memorable.  Whether it’s Albert Pujols hitting three HRs in a single game or phone gate when Tony LaRussa couldn’t get Jason Motte warmed up in the bullpen during Game 5, not like we’re going to forget this series anytime soon.  Let’s see what else is going on throughout […]

Dealing with the Red Sox Starting Pitchers

More details keep emerging about the hijinks of the top three pitchers in the 2011 Boston Red Sox starting rotation. Just when fans think it can’t get any worse, it does. Although the 2012 season is a ways off, it feels impossible to think right now about how the Red Sox can handle this situation […]

Bookends of Hell

As much as I had grown to like Terry Francona, the 2011 Red Sox were severely unprepared to start the season, and ill-equipped to finish it, and it’s a manager’s job to prevent things like that from happening. Yes, there were some devastating injuries to Clay Buchholz, Dice-K, and in the stretch run, Kevin Youkilis, […]

The Bitter Farewell to Terry Francona

The Red Sox just announced that they mutually agreed with Terry Francona that he will not return as the team’s manager in 2012. This news is something I am having a difficult time trying to wrap my mind around, but I do believe that the team will come to regret this decision. Like most Boston […]

The Top 10 Reasons For The Red Sox EPIC September Collapse

In spite of blowing last night’s contest, closer Jonathan Papelbon is not on my list of the Top 10 Reasons the club fell apart in September… this debacle was about more than one game. Pundits across the baseball universe are characterizing the twin September collapses by the Red Sox and Atlanta Braves as the worst […]

Surviving Your Team’s Collapse

Until just a few weeks ago, I was traipsing down the path of the content and just, confident in my knowledge that my Boston Red Sox were well on their way to a deep run in the playoffs. They had the most dominant offense in baseball, a pitching staff that was at least adequate, and […]

Clearing The Bases

Unless you’re not all that big a baseball fan, you know the non-waiver trade deadline is this Sunday at 4PM.  It’s a major league team’s last chance to fix a problem on their roster before players must pass through waivers in order to be traded.  Trades seem to be harder to work out in this […]

Red Sox Front Office Must Confront The Lackey Dilemma

Red Sox pitcher John Lackey, with his wife Krista, during less troubling times… More than a dozen years ago, I struggled as my first marriage was disintegrating. While I had always prided myself on being able to separate my personal life and my professional life, I suddenly found myself unable to do so. I brought […]

Starting With Three Losses: A Historical Perspective of The Olde Towne Team

A long, cold, wet winter that still hasn’t completely transformed into spring here in the Pacific Northwest was made much more palatable by the thought of All-Stars Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Bobby Jenks wearing Boston’s carmine hose for the first time, not to mention veteran reliever Dan Wheeler, who wrapped a 2.36 ERA for […]

Clearing The Bases: AL Predictions

Clearing The Bases                                                                                                                                          April 3, 2011 By George Kurtz Yeah I know the season is four days old as of this writing, but today I’ll make my predictions for each division.  It seems the wildcard is no longer a lock to come out of the American League East, not so much because the Yankees and […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL East – Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox prospects for the 2011 season are so bright, Adrian Gonzalez has got to wear shades Boston Red Sox (2010 record: 89-73) The 2010 edition of the Boston Red Sox was a very good ballclub. Entering the season, it appeared they would have an extraordinary pitching staff but a questionable offense. As it […]

AL East Positional Analysis And Ranking: Starting Rotation (No. 4 Starter)

I am in the midst of a series examining the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position are being ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in comparison […]

Lazzari’s Baseball Roundup 5

TRIVIA QUESTION: The 1990 Chicago White Sox–who finished 2nd in the AL West under manager Jeff Torborg–had three players who stole more than 30 bases apiece. Can you name this trio? Answer to follow……….There have been many questionable decisions over the years regarding baseball’s postseason awards, but how ’bout this one for pure insanity: In […]

Dickey, Wakefield, and the Not-So-Lost-But-Sorta-Lost Art of the Knuckleball

With roughly six weeks remaining in the 2010 season there are a number of bloggers, writers, and analysts that have started looking ahead to the offseason. While the writing itself hasn’t actually begun yet, I’ll admit I’ve started thinking ahead to the format I hope to encapsulate my year-end thoughts within. Of course, the season’s […]