Martinez is here but the complicated part is still to come

I pulled a Homer predicting there'd be no blockbuster by the Sox Friday. Will Theo Epstein be the one slapping his head come October, though? Photo from this site.

We’re all about the accountability here at Fighting Words (more on that over the weekend or early next week), so here goes: I took a Tex Cobb-sized beating Friday, when Roy Halladay remained with the Blue Jays and Victor Martinez was traded to the Red Sox.

In my defense, who could have known J.P. Ricciardi would hammer the final nail into his coffin by not selling high on Roy Halladay and that the Indians would just flat-out quit?

Seriously, how would you like to be an Indians fan today? Twenty-two months ago, the Indians had CC Sabathia on the mound at Jacobs Field and were one win away from eliminating the Sox and advancing to the World Series and a very favorable matchup with the Rockies. Now they’ve traded the reigning Cy Young Award winner in consecutives seasons and just gave their best player to the Sox. 2007 has to feel so far away for Indians fans, but not as far away as their favorite team’s next World Series run.

This is not intended to denigrate the players the Sox sent to Cleveland—Justin Masterson and Single-A pitching prospects Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price. Maybe Hagadone—whom the Sox absolutely love—turns into an ace and Masterson and/or Price develops into a mid-rotation guy or reliable closer.

But who will be the Indians’ ace now? How can the Indians trade Cliff Lee earlier this week and not get for Martinez either Clay Buchholz or Michael Bowden, either one of whom would immediately become the Indians’ best starter? The Sox reportedly turned down a Martinez-for-Buchholz deal earlier this week, at which point, if I were Indians GM Mark Shapiro, I would have said thanks for calling, see you at the winter meetings.

That he ended up handing Martinez over for a struggling middle reliever and two prospects means it almost surely wasn’t his call. I wonder if the Indians’ fire sale is either the first step in the Dolan family selling the team and/or the Tribe doing Bud Selig’s dirty work and laying the groundwork for the bloody negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement following the 2011 season.

Get enough teams complaining they can’t compete—isn’t it interesting the Pirates keep dumping players and the Royals have, according to Peter Gammons, been told they will lose the 2012 All-Star Game if they go above slot to sign their June draft picks?—and Selig has all the ammunition he needs to engage in a high-stakes game of chicken with the union (no longer led by the unbeatable Donald Fehr) and go for the salary cap he’s been salivating over for nearly 20 years.

Hey, by 2011, it will have been 17 years since he killed a World Series! And maybe home runs will once again lure fans back after the Great Strike of 2012!

Or maybe it’s just a crappy trade. What do I know?

Anyway, from a pure talent standpoint, I can’t blame Theo Epstein for making the Martinez trade. To get a perennial All-Star catcher—and someone who buys the Sox time to find and develop that young franchise catcher—in exchange for three pitchers, only one of whom has reached the majors, is a no-brainer, and he still has his Buchholzes and Bowdens and Casey Kellys and Daniel Bards and Lars Andersons in reserve.

But the challenges are just beginning now that Martinez is in the fold, and I wonder if Epstein has committed a rare misstep here—both in trying to overhaul a team in midseason, when history suggests blockbuster summer deals rarely lead to fall glory, and in reading the pulse of the Sox.

One of Epstein’s greatest traits is his ability to remove emotion from the decision-making equation while also recognizing the intangible value of certain players. Epstein deviated from the norm in re-signing Jason Varitek after 2004, when he came up with a way for a team that didn’t hand out no-trade clauses to give Varitek a no-trade clause. The Sox typically don’t like to negotiate with players during the season, but David Ortiz signed extensions in May 2004 and April 2006. And the negotiations with Mike Lowell following the 2007 season seemed unusually testy, but the Sox eventually gave him the three-year deal that convinced him to pass on the four-year deals reportedly offered by the Yankees and Phillies.

But acquiring Martinez means a reduction in playing time for three of the Sox’ most pivotal personalities. I’d go so far as to say that while Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia are on the cover of the 2009 yearbook, the foundation of that locker room is still Varitek, Lowell and Ortiz.

All three are well-regarded for their professionalism, so don’t expect Varitek, Lowell or Ortiz to channel Mike Lansing and flip off the lineup card on the days he/they are not starting. But that doesn’t mean fitting four players into three spots won’t be a delicate and perhaps messy endeavor for Terry Francona, who will earn every cent of his salary and will need every last shred of his people skills over the next two or three months. Phasing out one leader in midseason, never mind three, isn’t an easy endeavor, and I wonder how the process will filter into the rest of the clubhouse.

Epstein has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt, and one thing we all should have learned the last few years is there’s always more going on behind the scenes at Fenway Park than he lets on. Maybe the Sox recognize Ortiz will not be the same after the news of his failed drug test, or maybe they know Lowell’s hip ailments will limit him to one or two starts a week for the rest of the season, or maybe they know Varitek is more banged up than usual.

Maybe this all makes sense in October. Or maybe it doesn’t, and Epstein realizes December is a better time to begin a transition than July.

Email Jerry at jbeach73@gmail.com.

In the long run, bagging themselves plenty of homers won’t do the Yankees much good

Mindy McCready--err, Lurlene Lumpkin--is going to pen a sad song about the Yankees and Homers. Photo from this site.

Well, all that optimism over the new-look Yankees lasted all of a night. The Red Sox waxed the red-hot Yankees Tuesday night, 7-0, and then won again Wednesday, 6-5, to improve to 7-0 this season against their arch-rivals, their longest winning streak to open a season against the Yankees since way back in 1914.

Josh Beckett’s streak of consecutive 100-pitch starts ended at 10 Tuesday because he was so good—he allowed just one infield single and struck out eight in six innings—that the Sox could afford to pull him after 93 pitches. It was Beckett’s best outing against the Yankees since he tossed a five-hit shutout in the Marlins’ World Series-clinching victory in 2003, and the latest proof that the Yankees’ title drought seems likely to last at least another season.

The Yankees might have better makeup than usual and maybe even a bunch of newcomers who can handle the unrelenting pressure of New York, but none of that makes up for the fact their homer-happy brand of baseball (the Yankees lead the majors with 95 homers after going deep three times Wednesday) doesn’t usually translate well to the playoffs.

The Yankees, of all teams, should know the risks of relying on the homer, and the benefits derived from not doing so. This is likely to be the seventh time in eight seasons the Yankees rank among the top five in the majors in homers. Of course they haven’t won a World Series in that span, though they made the playoffs every year except last season (ironically, in that it’s not ironic at all, 2008 was the only season in which they fell out of the top five in homers).

Yet from 1996 through 2001, during which they ranked higher than 10th in homers just once, the Yankees won four World Series and lost another in the ninth inning of Game Seven.

The Phillies proved last year it’s possible to hit a bunch of homers in a joke of a home park and win the World Series—they finished second in the majors in homers—but the last team to reach the World Series the same season it led the majors in round-trippers was the 1995 Indians, who went 100-44 but lost to the pitching-rich Braves in the Fall Classic.

Three of the top five teams in homers began Wednesday with at least a share of first place (Yankees, Phillies and Rangers), but to watch the Sox is to think they’re the most likely candidate to knock one—or more—of those teams out of the playoffs. Beckett and Jon Lester, each of whom regularly dial it up to the mid-to-upper 90s, will front a rotation that could also feature John Smoltz, who is perhaps the best postseason pitcher of all-time, and Clay Buchholz, who is a man among boys at Triple-A.

Tim Wakefield is the farthest thing from a fireballer, but he’s also been the Sox’ most consistent starter this season and could provide a pretty drastic change of pace if he’s healthy and in the rotation in October. And that doesn’t even account for Brad Penny, who will probably be traded by the All-Star Break, or Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has been the Sox’ sixth-most effective starter thus far.

In defense of the Yankees, they attempted to add some power to the rotation, as well, by signing CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. But Burnett’s next playoff game will be his first, and his two games at Fenway this season (0-1 with a 12.91 ERA) don’t exactly engender confidence in his ability come October. Sabathia, meanwhile, has a 9.47 ERA with 17 walks in 19 innings in his last three postseason starts, so it’ll be interesting to see how he fares tonight as he tries to help the Yankees avoid the sweep.

Of course, the additions of Sabathia and Burnett were all but negated when the new Yankee Stadium turned out to be a lot like the old Coors Field. It’s tough to remake oneself as a pitching-first team when pop flies land in the seats…which means the Yankees will find it pretty difficult to remake themselves come October as well.

Email Jerry at jbeach73@gmail.com.

It’s the same damn song, the DJ sucks…makes…me…sad

A perfectly sane Roger Clemens calmly offers his broken bat back to Mike Piazza in this 2000 file photo from this site.

May is the month when aging acts that once topped the charts emerge from months of seclusion and go back on tour to play their old hits to appreciative audiences that don’t want to hear any of that new crap. REO Speedwagon…Journey…Motley Crue…Foreigner…Roger Clemens.

That’s right: More than a year after his appearance before Congress and on the same day a book branding him a steroid-using philanderer hit the shelves, Clemens restarted his Grand Delusion tour Tuesday when he appeared on ESPN Radio.

Clemens sang the same damn song, telling Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg that the excerpts he’s read of American Icon are “…completely false” and that former trainer Brian McNamee never injected him with steroids or HGH. Of course, he had multiple chances to, you know, say that to the authors of the book, but declined to do so.

You gotta feel for the guy. To hear him speak, he’s the victim of the most carefully orchestrated screw job in history. McNamee never injected Clemens, yet Clemens’ DNA is in the syringes. I mean, shoot, Jack Bauer’s got better luck than Clemens.

Clemens says he was speaking Tuesday because he felt he was criticized for going into hiding following the debacle with Congress. But as Jon Heyman of SI.com notes, there’s a pretty good chance that Clemens’ chirping gave the feds—who are already investigating him for perjury in front of Congress—even more reason to pursue him.

In the meantime, it was hilarious to listen to the appearance and hear Clemens conduct himself as if he’d just read the Cliffs Notes to “PR For Dummies.” Call the hosts by nickname? Check. (Golic was twice called “Golie” and Greenberg was called “Greenie” three times) Paint yourself as a casual dude by referring to the hosts as “guys?” Check. (Six times) Portray yourself as a pious person who cares only about others? Check. (Clemens mentioned his charity work and twice referred to the speeches he says he gives to students and young players in which he says steroids are bad)

We can assume “PR For Dummies” did not recommend Clemens butcher the English language (he once again said his “friend” Andy Petttite “misremembered” their conversations about steroid use), nor say he was at risk for a heart attack because his stepfather died of one.

Clemens’ grandest delusion may have been his dodging a question about whether or not he’s really retired. “It’s going to be a competition between myself and Brett Favre,” Clemens said. “If he comes back again, then I’m gonna get out on the streets and start hitting pavement.”

Hmm, let’s see, he’s going to be 47 in a little over two months, was breaking down at the end of his last season in 2007, likes to show up only on the days he pitches and has the feds—to borrow a Clemens phrase—running up his back. Favre has a better chance of starting for the Patriots in September than Clemens does of pitching for anyone ever again. But getting out on the streets while he still can might be a good idea

Email Jerry at jbeach73@gmail.com.

Twitter Patter

Homer Simpson is shocked to learn they have Twitter on the computer now.

Why I love Boston, even if I’m typing this from a recliner on Long Island: The Patriots’ decision to announce their draft picks last weekend via Twitter—before the picks were even revealed on ESPN or released to the media gathered in Foxboro—has generated a ton of comments at Bruce Allen’s site, including posts from the Providence Journal’s Shalise Manza Young and the Sun Chronicle’s Mark Farinella.

Meanwhile, the Jets did the same thing…and nobody cares. A Google News search for “New York Jets Twitter” produced 26 links, many of which were duplicates and none of which were specifically about the Jets using Twitter to announce the selection of Mark Sanchez.

Where is the uproar over who decided to Twitter first? Where is the breathless coverage over Twittergate? Why is nobody parsing the Twitter posts of Eric Mangini and Bill Belichick in search of passive-aggressive digs at one another?

Anyway, Allen’s post links to a Cold Hard Football Facts story (presumably by CHFF head honcho Kerry Byrne, who also contributed to the discussion at BSMW by explaining his interpretation of what he saw) that indicates at least a couple reporters at Foxboro were livid over the Patriots circumventing the traditional media. But I’d be a lot madder about the Twittering of the Patriots, Jets and everybody else if I was the NFL or its broadcast partners.

The NFL Draft has somehow become the second-biggest day on the league calendar (why that makes me scratch my head is a post for another day), but the golden goose would seem to be endangered by teams who announce their picks (and the Patriots and Jets were apparently far from alone) before Roger Goodell even makes it to the podium. After all, if you can learn who your favorite team selected via Twitter, why do you need to spend 13 hours in front of a TV?

Then again, how can ESPN squawk about Twitter when its saturation coverage squashed any suspense about whom the Jets and multiple other teams would take?

As it turns out, the NFL isn’t all a-Twitter about its teams Twittering. According to the sidebar to this Associated Press story, the league “…is less than thrilled with such announcements” and is determining whether or not it needs to establish a Twitter policy. Translation: Hope the Patriots, Jets and everybody else had fun while it lasted.

Email Jerry at jbeach73@gmail.com.

When I said the Sox might be hungover Monday, I meant they wouldn't be

Yes, to convey one's foolishness via a posting of Homer Simpson is a bit cliched. But it was either that or posting Britney Spears' "Oops I Did It Again" album cover, and nothing good could have come of that. Thanks to this site for the family-friendly Homer pic.

Well, so much for THAT theory. So having misfired on last night’s projection, I will now, in the time-honored sportswriter tradition, take the opposite tack and declare the Red Sox will NEVER LOSE AGAIN!!!

OK, they’ll probably lose again between now and the end of October—maybe even tonight, when unpredictable fifth starter Brad Penny takes the mound in Cleveland—but these Sox, who won their 11th in a row Monday with a taut 3-1 victory over the Indians, look much more formidable than I envisioned earlier this month.

Indeed, in the spirit of full disclosure, with the Sox under .500 for the first week-and-a-half, I was pondering a blog entry about how this might be a transition season for the Sox much like 2006, except this time the transition would be taking place in the lineup instead of within the pitching staff.

There’s always a chance that ends up being the case—remember, the Sox won 12 in a row in June 2006 before the bottom fell out—but this might be 2007 (when the Sox led the AL East for the final 168 days of the season) all over again instead of 2006. And how’d you like to be the Blue Jays this morning, playing far better baseball than anybody envisioned yet still looking up at the Red Sox (albeit by percentage points)?

Updating the late Friday post: Joe Girardi did not snap during his post-game interview session (I still say he’s going to look a whole lot like Michael Douglas in Falling Down by June 1) and didn’t seem to be trying to pull a fast one with the unexplained absence of Brian Bruney, who was already back in New York getting ready to have his sore right elbow examined.

Girardi said Bruney—who had been held out of the Yankees’ previous game Wednesday due to discomfort in the elbow—still felt something amiss while throwing on the field Friday afternoon. Bruney went on the disabled list Saturday and has told reporters he’ll be back when his 15 days are up, but given how cautious all teams are—especially with elbow injuries—I’ll believe that when I see it.

To borrow from the Inside Track gals: File under: Much ado about nothing.

But this stuff fascinates me, so here’s another example of how a manager handles an injury to a key player. Royals manager Trey Hillman came under some fire in Kansas City for not revealing that his ace closer, Joakim Soria (owner, by the way, of the greatest nickname in baseball), was nursing a sore right shoulder when he sat for eight straight days earlier this month. Hillman and the Royals admitted Soria—who has pitched once since Apr. 13—was hurting Friday, when they announced he would sit through at least the weekend.

Hillman explained the Royals’ gamesmanship by telling reporters he’s “…always been of the belief that the more information you put out there, the more it weakens your position, so to speak—especially when it’s your closer.”

That’s along the lines of what Terry Francona often says when he’s asked about the availability of certain players before a game (and I’m paraphrasing here): It doesn’t behoove the Sox to let the opponent know who is and isn’t available. Of course, Francona admitted before the finale against the Yankees Sunday that there would be no Jonathan Papelbon (nor Manny Delcarmen nor Ramon Ramirez) and it didn’t seem to hurt the Sox.

Email Jerry at jbeach73@gmail.com.