Kevin Youkilis

As I watched Jacoby Ellsbury steal home against the Yankees Sunday night, I thought to myself: "This pretty much sums it up." An aging Andy Pettitte forgets to deliver from the stretch, letting a youthful Ellsbury elude another future Bingo regular, Jorge Posada's, tag at the plate. Would Justin Masterson have made the same error? The two ballclubs could not be headed in more opposite directions. Every year, the Red Sox seem to call up another hyped prospect, while the Yanks continue to overpay for limited talent, and shun their farm system.

Continue reading "Red Sox continue to steal away Yanks' future"

It’s the All-Star Break once again, that mythical halfway point in the season (I say “mythical” because most teams have played 95-96 games, more than the 81 that’s the true midway mark). Traditionally, it’s time for the teams to take a breath, collect themselves and iron out any kinks in their batting stroke or the pitching rotation—several starters made relief appearances or threw out of turn in the past game or two, knowing that three or four days of rest was coming for all of them.

Continue reading "Gimme A Break!"

Kevin Youkilis, his right hand twitching restlessly the way it does when he holds his bat aloft, slammed a deep shot to left field and Damon chased it back, leaping to make the catch at the wall, in what could have been a spectacular play. Instead, he slammed against the unpadded chain-link fence behind him, which jostled the ball loose, leading to one of the odder sights of the day.

Continue reading "More Bad Yankee Luck"

Kevin Youkilis is up to batting .375, JD Drew is off to a hot start batting .316 and Coco Crisp is putting up an awfully good fight to hold on to the centerfield job and now Boston seems content to hold onto him until it gets blown away by a trade offer. Manny Ramirez, who has started slowly the last couple of seasons, is also on fire and leading the team in RBI’s and coming through with a big hit almost every time the Red Sox need one, none bigger than his ninth inning home run last night in Cleveland to put the Red Sox ahead 6-4. Dustin Pedroia is also beginning to sting the ball around the field with more authority and sooner or later Mike Lowell will come off the disabled list and David Ortiz will snap out of his funk and the offense will be back to hitting on all cylinders.

Continue reading "Red Sox Should Feel Good About The Season So Far"