Wednesday, March 30, 2005

No More Kim!

Well, hopefully. Colorado is supposedly considering picking Byung-Hyun Kim up in exchange for starter Jason Young, currently in Triple A. Colorado has been interested in Kim since this past winter and has been moved to pick up a closer as their current closer, Chin-hui Tsao, looks like he's about to go onto the DL with rotator cuff problems. The Rockies' manager is a bit touchy about doing the deal, since he feels like it's giving the guys who worked to be on the team in Spring Training short-shrift (or maybe because he knows about Kim and his abilities), but of course he isn't calling the hiring shots. Kim became expendable in Boston after the Sox re-acquired Mike "I'm Gonna Kill You All" Myers for outfielder Carlos de la Cruz and left-handed pitcher Kevin Ool* on the 29th. Since Myers is a left-handed specialist and Kim is a wet blanket, the move makes a lot of sense for the Sox.

Ok, I won't be subtle about it. I don't like Kim. He didn't make any friends in '03 and as I put it in September of last year, made several million in '04 to blow two games. He was having a weak spring and although he felt he would improve, I wasn't ever really sure why the Sox were giving him the sort of chances they were giving him. Now hopefully he's gone for good. Robin happened to come on IM right when I found out, so we had a wee bit of a celebration online.

On to less vindictive news: Schilling is setting his return to be either the April 11th home opener against the Yankees or the game after that on the 13th. He pitched a minor league game against Indianapolis, was roughed up in the first inning and then figured out The adjustment he needed to make to his fastball and ended up throwing 54 strikes out of 69 pitches and striking out 7. It was The adjustment, you see, because it was the one thing he needed to get his four-seam fastball to move correctly. And now he's got it. And now he's pretty much ready to pitch. Kick ass, I say. GOOOOO SOOOOOOX!!!!

* - Man, that's a great name right there. Makes me think of Star Wars, for some reason.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Less than a week left....

...And I go back into almost-daily mode. I've been following Spring Training a bit - I ended up going with Gameday Audio after Robin mentioned something about connection problems with MLB.tv and I realized I could listen to games at work, but couldn't really watch them. I have no idea what record the Sox had during Spring Training, nor does it really matter. As nice as it was to be listening to baseball again, it'll be even nicer getting 9 innings with the same starters.

Opening Day will be David Wells versus Randy Johnson at Yankees Stadium on Sunday, April 3. I'm moving for the two days prior to another part of Brooklyn, but I most definately have appointment with the cable guy in the new apartment for Friday. Won't be missing Sunday's televised broadcast, I can tell you that. I'm excited for it; not only will it be the time to get this blog back into full swing again, but there are still a number of interesting unknowns for this team. Will Schilling come back properly? How will the team do until he comes back in April? What kind of starter will Wells be? Will Wade Miller be a flop or the steal of the year? Does BK Kim have what it takes to save his career with the Sox? How will the team's chemistry be this year now that a few roles have changed and a few new players arrived on the scene? Will this team be as much fun to watch as it was last year, especially after early August? Will Sox fans be a bit less crazy this year now that we've finally won it all? And of course, the most important question of all: can we do it again? GO SOX!!!

Friday, March 04, 2005

Grapefruit League

I watched the Red Sox last night! Thanks to the magic of technology (free mlb.tv) and the blessings of warm air (spring training in Florida), Robin (of course) and I sat in my living room and watched the game broadcast on my laptop. I confess a shiver when I first turned on the game; Robin was something more like giddy for a good 45 minutes. The Sox won their first outing of the year, against the Twins, 4 - 3 in the pouring rain, prompting Robin to comment that the Sox now had a nine game winning streak.

Highlights of the night: seeing Matt Clement, Edgar Renteria, Adam Stern and Jay Payton for the first time in a Sox uniform. Clement had pretty good outing; one unearned run over two innings, thanks to a goof by the centerfielder. Adam Stern looked impressive in the field and on the base paths, as did Payton. When Renteria came up, I made a joke about him hopefully not hitting any choppers back to the mound, leading to more THE RED SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES! celebrations. Youlk and Varitek also were also had big appearances on the field, much to our delight and we got a glimpse of Big Papi in the dugout.

My next question is whether or not to subscribe to mlb.tv. It's about $80 for the season, which is a hefty chunk of change, but it works pretty well and you get NESN and the pleasure of Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo. My other thought had been the MLB Extra Innings package, but I'm not sure where you subscribe for that or how much it costs. GO SOX!!!