Shortstop Riddle Still Not Solved: Sox Trade Scutaro

Posted on January 23, 2012 by TOB$

In a great weekend that highlighted two Bruins overtime thrillers and a Patriots win in the AFC championship, the Red Sox boring offseason continued. They traded away their starting shortstop in Marco Scutaro for righthanded pitcher Clayton Mortensen. Mortensen doesn’t seem like a big impact guy, just seems like a sinkerball pitcher the Sox will use out of the pen, perhaps in long relief situations.

Two big things come out of this trade: First, the Sox freed up money that can go to other free agent acquistions. I’m really hoping this money can go to getting a pitcher like Roy Oswalt, or help solve the mess in outfield now that Crawford is injured. Second, it brings up the fact that the Sox haven’t figured out the shortstop position in years. Ever since the Human Vacuum Cleaner, Nomah, was traded from the Sox in 2004, the position has been in shambles. Renteria, Lugo, Pokey Reese, Scutaro. All busts. We traded away Hanley Ramirez (which can’t be criticized- it was a win win trade for both sides).

Looks like 22 year old shortstop Jose Iglesias will finally get his shot at the big leagues. He’s about as surehanded as it gets at short, but the guy is a shit batter. Can’t hit at all. I mean the guy hit .235 in the minor leagues last year, so I can only imagine him in the Majors. I don’t care how good of a fielder he is, but every Red Sox fan wants to see offensive production and there is no way he can last in Boston hitting barely above the Mendoza line.

Complicating Finish

Posted on January 23, 2012 by christoph131

This is clearly old news by now but an article of this magnitude deserves a lot of careful thinking rather than just my normal routine of writing down the first thing on my mind. Former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno has passed away due to complications from lung cancer (AKA Jerry Sandusky inadvertantly murdering him after touching children (allegedly, but totally happened)) Joe Pa lived just over 85 years and coached a 46 seasons for a total of 409 victories. He now holds the record for most wins by a BCS coach when he won his 409th game on October 29, 2011. So at least he finished on top. Sort of. Unfortunately, he will forever be linked with the scandal that we are all sick of hearing about.

I believe that he should be remembered as one of the greatest coaches of all time and the face of NCAA football for years to come. Keep in mind, he didn’t molest anyone, he was just protecting a friend that he believed was innocent. If someone told me that my best friend touched a little boy without any evidence, I don’t know that I would report him either. I do not agree that he should have kept it a secret, but to blame him completely for this is just absurd.

Years from now, no one is going to remember that Sandusky douche. They are going to remember Joe Paterno, the winningest coach of all time, as a man who is linked with the molestation of a child. This is certainly not fair. Obviously I have my opinion and you will have yours, but I am just curious where everyone stands on the subject. If you just select the latter answer because of the media and negative connotations towards him, just forget it. I would like to see how many people believe that he was really a bad person or not.

Weekend Recap

Posted on January 23, 2012 by jtulz07

I think it’s safe to say this was one of the better weekends Boston has seen in a long while. We’ll start out with the obvious. Patriots are in the Super Bowl once again!! Now, there’s a sentence that never gets old. Although I figured it’d be in a more decisive manner, the Pats came out victorious yesterday, edging the Ravens 23-20 in the AFC Championship. With 27 seconds left I think everyone in the world thought this game was heading for overtime and who knows what could have happened. But the stars were aligned in Foxboro last night as Raven’s kicker Billy Cundiff botched a 32 yard routine field goal to tie the game at 23. Shanks for coming! Has a suicide watch been put on Cundiff yet? I sure hope so. In case anyone was wondering, the Bruins and Celtics both played yesterday too. With the Pats game overshadowing pretty much every other sports game in Boston, the two other teams were victorious on Sunday as well. The Bruins pulled past the Flyers 6-5 with Seguin netting the decisive goal in the shootout. Pierce stepped up his game and showed Boston why he is a Celtic as the team got a much needed win against Wizards 100-94. Both the Bruins and the Celts lost a game as well over the weekend, with the Celts falling to the Suns 79-71 in an ugly showing Friday night while the B’s suffered a very disappointing loss to the Rangers Saturday with just seconds left in overtime. Overall I’d say it was a great weekend in the City of Champions, with the Patriots continuing to prove their domination as they head to their 5^th Super Bowl in 12 years. This is going to be a long two weeks…Happy Monday!

Weekend College Round Up

Posted on January 23, 2012 by christoph131

Tough weekend for top teams as #1 Syracuse was handed their first loss by unranked Notre Dame. This loss means that only #10 Murray State is undefeated in the top 25. #3 Baylor was handed their second loss in as many games in a one point battle against #5 Missouri (their other loss was last Monday against #7 Kansas), so chances are they will still be top ten or at the very least top thirteen.

Florida State is quickly becoming my favorite team with victories over my two least favorite teams (Buzzer beater 3 pointer over #4 Duke this weekend, and over #3 North Carolina last weekend)

#7 Kansas barely snuck by unranked texas with a 3 point win over the Long Horns. Unfortunately for any Husky fans (like myself) #11 UConn was handed their fifth loss by a sub-par and sub-.500 Tennessee team

Getting a little off topic, I hope everyone enjoyed their break and is ready to see Boston Sports Blog do big things and I hope you all keep up with us, as we will try to bring you the best of the sports world every day.

Limp Wrist: Crawford gets Surgery

Posted on January 18, 2012 by TOB$

Yesterday, Ben Cherington announced that Carl Crawford had surgery on his injured left wrist. This comes as a huge blow to the Red Sox. All hopes were that Crawford would turn around his horrible performance last year and come into this year as a new man. Clearly not the case, and he is most likely not going to be ready at the start of the season. The Sox need to address the issue in outfield immediately. Luckily, they were able to avoid arbitration with Jacoby and sign him to a one year contract, which was a step in the right direction. Not much else to say about Crawford though, besides the fact he has been a total dissapointment since his signing, lets hope he doesn’t turn out to be J.D. Drew in disguise during these next six years we have with him.

“Carl! So nice to see you!”- Wish i could say the same Billy, I really do.

Man Vs. Boy: Sox Counter Yankees Monster Moves by signing Padilla

Posted on January 18, 2012 by TOB$

Last Friday, the New York Yankees awoke from their slumber during this offseason and had a MONSTER day. Not only did the Yankees sign Hiroki Kuroda, one of the most coveted free agent pitchers this year, they completed a huge trade by dealing their top prospect Jesus Montero for pitching phenom Michael Pineda. The Yankees completely turned around the horrible situation they had in their starting rotation with these two moves.

The Kuroda signing is big for a couple of reasons. Kuroda was heavily pursued by the Sox and he would have solidified their rotation, but the Yankees were able to complete a deal with him first. Also, Kuroda was as consistent as you could get as a starting pitcher in the last few years. Although his record didn’t reflect his good pitching due to shit run support, he had 3.45 ERA the past four years, including a career best 3.07 ERA last year.

The big move was for Pineda. Pineda is one of the best young pitchers in the MLB. He is a 22 year old, 6′ 7″ giant who just throws straight fire. He had the fourth highest average MPH on his fastball in the entire league AT AGE 22. His fastball combinded with his filthy slider led to a 9.1 K/9.

As for the Red Sox, they are at it again. They fired me up even more than Aaron Cook, by signing perhaps the ugliest pitcher in the MLB. Although they signed another crap pitcher, in Vincente Padilla, he could very well end up as another innings eater either out of the pen or occasionally in the rotation. My problem with Padilla is that the guy is known to be a virus in all clubhouses and no teammates ever end up liking him. The last thing that the fragile Red Sox clubhouse needs is another guy with shit attitude.

It’s not exactly time for the Sox to give up on the season though, as Kuroda and Pineda haven’t proved anything in Yankee Stadium yet. Kuroda is 36 years old and has pitched on crappy teams, so his ERA could potentially balloon when the pressures on in New York. Although Pineda has displayed brilliance, there are questions to his consistency (he was 8-6 with 3.03 ERA in 1st half of 2011, 1-4 with 5.12 ERA in 2nd half). Also, he has an “inverted W” pitching style, (similar style to Adam Wainwright, Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Stephen Strasburg, Joba the Hut), which puts an unhealthy amount of stress on your elbow. Basically, what that means is that he’s eventually going to need Tommy John Surgery. Also, it helps that they had to give up their top prospect catcher Jesus Montero (compared to Miguel Cabrera and Manny Ramirez offensively, but unproven defensively).

College Recap

Posted on January 16, 2012 by christoph131

For those of you too focused on the NFL playoffs this weekend, you missed a pretty good weekend in college basketball. #5 Ohio State defeated #8 Indiana in a battle of the Big Ten powerhouses. #6 Duke came back against unranked Clemson to upset them late in the second half. More importantly, #3 UNC got smoked by 33 points against unranked Florida State (FSU). I only put that because we all know what FSU stands for and thats exactly what they did. #16 UConn handed Notre Dame their first home loss in 29 games, and #1 Syracuse and #2 Kentucky both held on to keep their top rankings in tact.

#1 Syracuse looks to stay perfect against unranked Pittsburgh tonight in a battle of the Big East. Another good game to watch for those of you who don’t wanna watch the Bruins win and the Celtics lose, is #4 Baylor vs. #10 Kansas, where Baylor looks to stay undefeated in a conference battle.

Weekend Recap

Posted on January 16, 2012 by jtulz07

With the Pat’s bringing an abrupt end to Tebowmania, it’s hard to say we had a tough weekend in Boston sports, despite watching the Celts and Bruins fall to their respective opponents. Nobody’s worrying about the Bruins. They’ve established their dominance and continue to hold sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division, one point ahead of a red hot Ottawa team. The Celtics, on the other hand, are a bit more concerning. It’s hard to watch, because at times they show signs of brilliance. It’s there, somewhere, but not nearly as much as it needs to be. Many say that’s the aging factor coming through. Regardless, their defense hasn’t even been that bad. There’s just no way a team can win games in the NBA when you’re averaging under 90 points a game. On the bright side, the final stop on the road to the Super Bowl will go through Foxboro this Sunday as the Pats are set to face the Baltimore Ravens. The Pats will roll into Sunday’s game with plenty of momentum from this weekend’s victory against the Broncos. It’s been better but then again it’s also been worse for us in Boston. Hard to complain when your football team continues to build onto its second decade of dominance.

Raiders Fire Hue Jackson After Just One Season

Posted on January 10, 2012 by davecouture

With new management coming in, the Raiders have decided to part ways with Head Coach Hue Jackson after just one season.

To me this makes absolutely zero sense. Jackson had looked to have the franchise headed in the right direction until a couple of key injuries really hurt their playoff chances. After showing he was one of the top running backs in the NFL through the first half of the season Darren McFadden went down with an injury that plagued him for the remainder of the season, as well as starting quarterback Jason Campbell going down with a broken collarbone. Jackson was forced to take what he was given.

How many first round busts can a team draft before they realize it isn’t the coaches’ fault? For a team that seems to always pick in the top 10 they don’t exactly have the best recent draft history. Since 2005 here are their top draft picks in order: Fabian Washington (2005) Michael Huff (2006) Jamarcus Russell (2007) Darren McFadden (2008) Darrius Heyward-Bey (2009) Rolando McClain (2010). So throughout their past six draft picks they end up with one franchise player, a few average players, the biggest bust in NFL history (Russell) and a guy that believes its okay to run others over with his cars (McClain).

To add to their terrible draft picks, they seem to always make absolutely terrible trades. Randy Moss for a 4^th rounds picks? Giving a team two first round picks for a 32-year-old Carson Palmer? I guess the only defense they have for making the Palmer trade could be… Well we don’t really draft that great anyways right?

Every time the Raiders make a coaching change, (which I swear happens like every year or so) I think to myself; how can they not see that the coach isn’t the issue? The real issue is the front office and their absolutely unintelligent moves. Hopefully for the sake of those insane Raiders fans new management will also mean new results.

BSB Pick of the Day

Posted on January 10, 2012 by davecouture

Mavericks –6.5 @ Pistons

So far this year if you have bet against the Pistons chances are you are up money. They are absolutely terrible. The Mavs haven’t been a dominant force like they looked last year in the playoffs but I certainly see them being able to cover this spread against Detroit. Go with the Mavs.

Total Record (1-2)