Tyler

Ugh. I hate feeling full. I just had Chinese food on a whim and though i dont feel sick, i dont feel like my lunch was very productive. Also, there's so much food left over. I hate throwing all of this away but there's no question, I'm not taking it home and i'm not finishing it.

Yesterday I got up early to beat the traffic heading east to Rancho Cucamonga. The Quakes played the Storm in the last of their 4-game series. Pretty good game; I continue to be greatly entertained when I make the drive to the Epicenter. The reason I wanted to be there was so that I could see Tyler Chatwood in action, finally. I read about him the night before and found out that he was invited to the major league camp in the spring. So. He's one of THOSE minor leaguers. A "prospect". He's got two plus pitches, his fastball and curveball. Short guy, but the downward angle of his fastball is more pronounced than you'd expect; his curve is "kneebuckling". Both of these analyses, I witnessed first hand. His fastball stayed between 92-94, hitting 95 once that I saw. His curveball often baffled hitters. He's young and I think over the next few years he's going to be altering a few things... for instance, he doesnt use his lower body much. He relies heavily on his upper body strength. His delivery is pretty smooth, and the ball looks like a rocket out of his hand. Reports say that he can reach 97mph. Obviously he needs to expand his repertoir... I'm pretty sure he's working on that currently. Change up, i think. Some other trivia.. he had Tommy John Surgery at the age of 15. 15. He's 20, born in 1989. So young. One of his biggest hangups is his command. I'd read about it, but I saw it when he walked the first two batters he faced. He went 5.2 innings and pitched a laborious 105 pitches... the last inning.2 that he pitched were better, i think 11 and 9 pitches respectively or something reasonable like that. Otherwise, he was at or up over 20 pitches almost every inning. Pretty wild. Struck out a bunch of guys out, but ran up the count very often.
But, all in all, he came away only giving up 3 hits, and didnt allow any runs. The Quakes won it 4-0, and the Storm hopped on a bus and went home.




How about those Red Sox? Mike Cameron is on the mend. Jacoby Ellsbury is in my dreams as a healthy man, so he must be getting there too. We're winning games even if it's not effortless. Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester continue to surpass expectations. Beckett is hurt... maybe? Jury is still out on that one. I'm still trying to figure out how a team gets swept by the Orioles. Perhaps I should just let that slip into the "ancient history" realm. It was a weird game last night vs Toronto, both pitchers (Lackey, Morrow) struggling very early on. I barely take heart that our guy went an acceptable 6 innings while Morrow lasted 1.2.... Lackey was nothing special. "Subpar" as written on www.redsox.com , in fact.
On an unimportant note, I'm happy that J Van Every made the best of his time on base (a walk and a hit last night); he came away from the game responsible for scoring 2 of the Red Sox' 7 runs. I feel a little more positively about him than the term "lukewarm" implies. Not a favorite, but it's always nice to see a quiet, hardworking, good natured, sort of on the older end former Paw Sox player get something done. Chris Carter is being called up to the Mets for some service time. Maybe he'll finally be able to translate his minor league success into major league magic.



Agh, I miss New England baseball. I'm loving the Quakes, but it's not... relevant. To me. It matters because I make it matter, but really, I'm not studying the Angels' farm system so it doesnt make a ton of difference whether or not I know what's going on with their High-A club. I miss being immersed in Paw Sox, Spinners, Sea Dogs, and Salem Red Sox action. I miss wishing that Greenville was a little closer. Now Greenville is the least of my worries. Hard enough to be around in the late afternoon to catch a radio broadcast of any of those teams. Catching games at 7pm is so much more convenient than at 4pm. No wonder people over here dont care as much. Noone's day is done by 4. Then by the time you fight traffic and get home and havent had dinner... forget about watching out of market games.



Well, I must get to another Quakes game one of these days. I want to meet Tyler. I dont know why I havent yet. Dice-K tonight. Try not to think of the possibilities. The safest thing is to just... watch and see. Go Red Sox.

Aaaand we're back..

(Note: I wrote all of this, then started searching through my archives for a picture of Petey to post, and decided to look through pics for half an hour.. then tried to fit a bunch of random favorites in here. Enjoy my mad photography skillz.)

http://youcanfeelthesun.blogspot.com/

Since i moved, I've been posting on the blog linked above. It's just life stuff, but it has been baseball-heavy of course. I really dont think most people who check that blog care about my baseball fixation, so maybe i'll try to split my content matter between sites.

2010! Moving right along, isnt it? Unfortunately for Red Sox Nation, all is not well. The Red Sox have tried to keep steady focus on their season, to leave dwelling on their collective personal issue outside of work hours so to speak, but clearly their distraught hearts are affecting their play.
..distraught because they're missing a rambunctious and previously-very-present fan at Fenway of course.

Had I known that my leaving would have THIS kind of effect on the start of the season, believe me, I never would have moved away. To the Red Sox, I would like to say this: I'm hurting as much as (and probably more than) you guys.

Hurting, in part, because you guys have had some pretty pathetic moments already. Thankfully, as usual, Dustin Pedroia is keeping me- and all of you- afloat when it's gametime.

No matter how bad things are looking... flat offense, errors, disappointing pitching... Petey steps up to the plate and within a minute I'm on my feet and my hands are in the air- homerun! stand-up double! rbi! He's always doing something right.

I have no specific agenda in writing tonight. Not sure if i'm missing the PawSox or RedSox more... at least I can watch the Red Sox. At least the Red Sox will come out this way in a few months. I listen to Paw Sox broadcasts when I can... just wish i could be there now and then. If Fenway was home, McCoy was my best friend's house, you know? The place I wanted to be if I couldnt be at Fenway. I almost always went alone, but i had many friends and acquaintances there- players, people who worked there, other fans. It's strange for me to think that Sean Danielson and Jeff Natale are gone.

Jeff and Sean

Sean

Neither of these guys got their due allotment of playing time last year, so in a way I'm glad that they're free to move on to new opportunities (Sean's in the Reds organization now but Jeff is unsigned last i heard).. still, even beyond their contribution to the actual games played, they were fixtures at McCoy for various reasons.. they made auxiliary marks on Pawtucket. I miss Charlie Zink too- it just wasnt his year last year.

He got picked up by the Cardinals in the offseason but was eventually let go during Spring Training. Sad sad sad. Such are the Minors though.

Last year around the trade deadline, I remember having a panic attack at work. My coworker Bill, who shared a room in the office with me, can attest. I was a mess, repeating over and over in my head that the rumors about an impending trade involving Michael Bowden were just rumors until proven otherwise, checking twitter and google news every 30 seconds up until the deadline- and then a few minutes beyond, just to make sure that I knew what was happening if and when anything did. He was just too big a part of my Paw Sox (and subsequently, Red Sox) experience last year.

I've come a long way. I like the guy a lot and root for him loudly, and beyond that I do believe in his ability and his work ethic, but without any anxiety I can say that this may be the year that Boston gives him up. I'm not basing this off of his performace thus far- over two starts, he's gone 6.1 innings, with 3 very solid and 3.1 not so spotless- is reminiscent of last year, which was spectacular at times and pretty subpar at others. Again, it's pointless to make any conclusions after two starts, and so few innings thrown.. I'm just bringing you  up to speed a bit on his 2010 so far. In any case, there are prospects who should be stuck with through serious developmental challenges; anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a Buchholz fan, but his ceiling is high if/when he gets himself together. You hang on to a struggling ace, I'm all for that, I see the sense in that sort of investment. Bowden has never projected to be an ace (that's ok, we cant all be) and for a while now it looks like the Sox have lost hope/interest in grooming Bowdie to crack their rotation- he knows his role has changed and has publicly embraced it, which is a very smart move on his part- even if it could be looked upon as something of a demotion (but whether it is or isnt, a team player just wants to help his team win in the end).

Still, they've got him starting for the Paw Sox because 1) it's easier to stick a trained starter into a relief situation than a bullpen guy into a starting role and 2) may as well exercise his stamina/endurance if he's going to be a middle reliever, an innings eater. And who knows? Any given pitching staff is stupidly volatile (stupidly, because they're here one minute and gone the next, freak injuries, psychological blocks... it's crazy how quickly we went from having what felt like 10 big league/ready, momentum-carrying starters last year to having 3 to count on, who were performing unpredictably at best). Bowdie might have a shot at the rotation again, I dont think anyone has said Absolutely Not to that idea. It will be an interesting first few months, because he's a different pitcher now in a lot of ways- changed form/mechanics, leaner, new fashion statement (no socks showing... what a shame; the PawSox look like sandlot kids next to Scranton-Wilkes Barre (Yankees AAA) where everyone wears their socks showing, so sharp (they play sharply too, another way in which SWB makes the PawSox look like neighborhood kids, hehe)).

In summation, I'm definitely pulling for this guy as much as I ever was- I hope this season finds him making great progress and exceeding expectations. If it comes to it, though, and we get something/someone we need (take your pick at this point..) in exchange for Bowden, I wont despair.
But as things stand right now, what say the Sox call him up to the big club in time for their series in Los Angeles vs the Angels?

I had such a good Dustin Pedroia dream last week.

It's detailed on my other blog.. maybe I'll paste it here soon. Forgive the dull descriptive word here, but I just felt so happy both during and after the dream, like I had had an unexpected visit from a good friend who I'd been missing.

What else... Chris Carter (traded from the PawSox to the Mets organization last year) ate the Paw Sox alive in one of their recent games. He was 4 for 4 with something like 30 homeruns and 77 stolen bases. Or something like that.

Well, he really did go 4 for 4. It was really impressive, but clearly i'm fading fast.. i should definitely be sleeping after the weekend I've had. I saw Scott Kazmir pitch for the Angels' A team, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. He did well and pitched more than half the game (too lazy to go look at my scorebook). Oh, and just now as I was looking for a good pic of Petey to post, I came across a bunch of other pics that I decided I'd like to post too. They're all from one of the most memorable games I've ever been to- June 20 2008, the night of the Celtics parade. We played the Cardinals.. it rained something terrible before the game/during the Celtics parade inside Fenway, so much so that many typically-hearty New England folk left the park. I was a direct beneficiary of this, and had a couple VERY good seats behind the on deck circle (i think my ticket was actually for the bleachers, so it was quite a steal). Anyhow, in perusing that night's pictures, I decided that I should mention the following:

(With the Royals now.) He had a lot of fun with the Sox just recently.. and i JUST missed picking him up in fantasy. Argh. Someone got him off waivers right before I could.

Maybe going into a slide wasnt necessary, Jacoby. But everyone in RSN should be upset w Beltre (ok, that's a bit harsh); he had little to no business trying to catch that ball when you were running in on it. PLEASE heal quickly.

I like him, always have. But Wake and question marks go hand in hand these days.

One more time for tonight.. man this guy is awesome.

On my long drives to and from Laytonville this weekend, I listened to this Kings of Leon song quite a bit, as most of the lyrics remind me of Boston, the Sox, and everything that fits under that sentimental and beloved umbrella:

What a night for a dance, dont you know I'm a dancing machine
With the fire in my bones and the sweet taste of kerosene
I get lost in the night so high I don't wanna come down
To face the loss of the good thing that I had found

Woo hoo hoooo
Woo hoo hoooo

In the dark of the night I can hear you calling my name
With the hardest of hearts, I still feel full of pain
So I drink and I smoke and I ask you if youre ever around
Even though it was me who drove us right in the ground

See the time we shared it was precious to me
But all the while I was dreaming of revelry

Gonna run baby run like a stream down a mountainside
With the wind in my back I wont ever even bat an eye
Just know it was you all along that had a hold of my heart
But the demon in me was a best friend from the start

So the time we shared it was precious to me
All the while I was dreaming of revelry
Dreaming of revelry

And I told myself Boy, away you go 
It rained so hard it felt like snow
Everything came tumbling down on me
In the back of the woods, in the dark of the night
Paleness of the old moonlight
Everything just felt so incomplete

Dreaming of revelry

Paw Sox doubleheader

About the Buchholz post from a few days ago... sorry. Clearly I've never been a huge fan, and his tone in that interview made me a little crazy. I'm glad that his confidence certainly seems to be there (for better or worse). I'm glad that he cant wait to get to the big leagues, that he's not settling for the success he's experiencing in the present. And I will say no more. (until he gives me another reason to give him attention, positive or negative.)

Last night was a beauty of a night. I caught the second 7-inning game of Pawtucket's double header, and yes, more eye-footsie. In hindsight, I wish I had taken the $20 bleacher seat I had found for the Red Sox game, because I'm afraid that tomorrow could get rained out (I'm in Pavilion SRO... LOVE it). And how often do the Marlins come to town? Anyhow, I'm going to see 2 or 3 BoSox games (barring rainouts) before Sunday comes, and the Paw Sox are gone for a week after tomorrow night's game. Wanted catch them while they were at home. Chris Carter contributed mightily with his midgame 2-run homerun. Lately the Paw Sox have been looking alive at the plate but when the game is happening I'm still unable to believe that they have the ability to come back from being behind. Haha, Travis Denker summed it up in his post-game on-field interview last night... Hoard was talking to him about how "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" in relation to getting breaks, having hits dropping in, and how for a while through the season guys were making contact but just not getting hits. Travis gave a little chuckle before replying something about how "the Lord has been taketh away for most of the season...". Funny stuff. McCoy was pretty much empty at that point, but I think everyone who heard got a kick out of that.

Tonight I'm cohosting a party at McGreevy's (baseball/boston sports bar half a block down the road, coowned by Dropkick Murphy Ken Casey) but might head over to Fenway to catch at least a few hours of baseball. Again, who knows what's going to happen tomorrow with the weather. It's supposed to be absolutely terrible this entire week, with the exception of tonight and last night.

*I'm thankful Ortiz ended his (embarrassing) curtain-call streak. Varitek has more hrs than you do, Papi. Good job, you're looking sharp lately, but you've still got work to do. Jonathan Van Every got his first (Major League) hr this season which should have been applauded so much more loudly than your first of the year, which came months into the season. We need you, and we're glad you're showing signs of life, so go out there and be our DH.

*Johan Santana. I believe in you. Locate those pitches, guy.. a pitcher of your caliber doesnt just lose it like that, and I know that once you figure stuff out you'll be back at the top of the pack. A couple tough outings dont define you.

*Jonathan Broxton, you are the best thing to ever happen in my fantasy baseball career.

*Hanley Ramirez, you're good, you're great, but I wouldnt trade Michael Bowden away for you.

*Wieters: too much pressure too soon? Or too soon to even talk about this perhaps. I feel for guys like you. The world doesnt give you a chance to do your thing the way any other rookie would get to..

Smoltz and Buchholz go tonight in Pawtucket. By the way, Zink was slated to start the second game last night but Rocky Cherry (? he's not a starter, fyi) took his place. Still havent figured out what happened there, but maybe google news can help with that.

More thoughts, but lunch time is over.

Go Sawks.