-One of my best friend’s, Redmond, once said to me “it doesn’t matter what Barry Bonds does with HR records. He will one day be a Yankee as their DH”.  Truth doesn’t seem that far.  Barry has toyed with the idea of being a DH next season if he doesn’t return to San Francisco.  Talk about a vaunted lineup: Damon, Jeter, A-Rod, Sheffield, Giambi, Matsui, Cano, Posada and Bonds.  Probably won’t happen, but don’t be surprised if Gerogey spends the almighty dollar.

-Speaking of Georgey spending the almighty dollar, does this guy simply think buying the best players in the game will make his team better?  That sounded dumb on my part I know, but it hasn’t shown to make his team playoff calibur.  Sure they may drive in 1000+ runs this season, but their rotation will have an ERA north of 4.00.  Reason being for my rant; Matsui went down tonight with a broken wrist.  Out 3 months.  Poor guy.  Theres already been talk about Hunter, Stewart, Abreu…Guy just broke his wrist.  Give him some respect.  He was trying to field(ahem A-Rod) a ball with guts and shows up every game to play.  You just want to replace him? And if so is it the time being?  Where do you put Matsui once you pick up an Abreu or Hunter?  Seems to me like the lineup would get crowded being that you would have 4 All-Star calibur outfielders (Damon, Matsui, Sheffield, Hunter/Stewart/Abreu) and no where to play them.  Your DH role is full, so there goes DHing Sheffield.  Think Yankees before you leap…or actually don’t…I want the Red Sox to win the division.

-Speaking of Los Rojos Ganares, rumor has it that maybe Schilling has some shit wrong with him.  If he does, he’s not going to tell.  Skeptics have brought up his 130+ pitch outing that one game.  The guy is a horse.  I doubt throwing 30 extra pitches over his limit took down the tank on this guy.  He’s having problem’s with mechanics clearly.  Same as Johnson.  He’s a veteran pitcher; he work’s it out.  Least of my worries is Schilling.

Oh and shout out to my boy Alex Gonzalez for showing that their is home-runs after steroids(circa 2004 FLA Marlins).  Anyone reminded of Pokey Reese when he rapped that dinger into left the other night?  Visa’s new ad should be: Age of Yankees Ace: 42, Yankees beaten by how many runs: 11, Watching Alex Gonzalez hit a home-run: Ahaha.  Stupid Aaron Small.  That 10-0 ‘05 campaign looks real good now.  Silly Yankees.

Jonathan Papelbon has drawn more comparisons to Roger Clemens than any other prospect in the Red Sox farm system in more than 15 years.  I’m excited.  You’re excited.  Hell anybody who’s looked at the kid can see the similarities.  Tall, hulking, intimidating figure that throws fireballs without fear.  He’s a gunslinger in the image of the Rocket, Schilling and Beckett.  I love his emotion and his mentality.  But, let’s be honest about our new closer; he’s got A LOT to prove.

Sure he’s 4-4 in Save Oppurtunities. He’s strucken out 5 batters in 5.0IP.  He’s allowed one hit in those 5 innings.  I love it as much as you.  But lest us not forget the makeup of our young lad.  Yes he’s a fireballer with a dominating fastball and above average splitter.  What some people don’t know is that he has at least three other pitches.  Papelbon can throw a changeup, curveball and slider.  He rarely throws any of these pitches and reportedly turned in his changeup for the nastier splitter.  But we’re talking about a guy who clearly throws 70% if not more fastballs.  Sure it’s 97mph and it may be fine to close with that stuff, but with a guy like that, who’s projected to be in the rotation, he needs to fine tune his other pitches.

Curt Schilling throws 80% fastballs at the relatively same velocity.  But what Schilling can do is throw all of his other pitches: slider, curveball, changeup, cutter and splitter with command. Papelbon has good control.  As it has been explained to me the difference between the two is that command of a strike zone means any pitch, any time, anywhere.  Control is the ability to throw the pitch for a strike.  Vastly different issues in terms of pitching.

I could be wrong.  Papelbon may pan out and be the next great RHP for the Red Sox.  But all I’m saying is, let’s hope he turns out more like Derek Lowe: going from great closer to great starter.  And of course lets hope he can be consistent unlike Derek Lowe.  Let’s not fill up too quick on Papelbon before he get’s pitch #3.  Then I’ll start speaking in terms of “Rocketbon”.

I’m walking today back to my apartment in Boston. Walking reminded me of something that Matt Clement does a great deal of. See where I went? Pretty cool huh? I can just connect rhetoric so poignantly to personal manifests and day-dreams. Yeah, moving on. I dwelled on Matt Clement for a bit and realized that most experts said he was a far different pitcher after the second half. I wondered why. It bothered me to know that he was Jekyll first half, Hyde second half. I wanted to search through his games and figure out a possible reason. Rather than post every single stat here I will put interesting things I’ve found:

-Matt Clement is known to be “effectively wild”. Tek is a great defensive/fielding catcher. In 2005 he had a total of 7 passed balls. He allowed only 65 stolen bases, one of the lower number’s against batters in the American League. His FPCT was .990, one of the higher in his career. Tek by all intensive natures is a very good defensive catcher. Clement cannot blame Varitek for his inability to strike out batters, which conclusively isn’t Clements problem.

-Matt Clement had 146 strikeouts in 32 starts, a respectable strikeout number in a hitters ball-park. He allowed 18 hrs over the season: 6 before the All-Star break and 12 after it. This increase in home-runs could be a definite swing in his second half stats, as he had 7 of the 12 in July alone. In July he posted 10 BB, his second lowest, tied with August and 4 more than June. He was throwing strikes. He was getting guys out.

Another smaller thing that seems to occur with Matt Clement, besides being a strikeout pitcher, is his ground ball inducing skill, found in the GO-AO stat. During the first half of the season, up to the All-Star break his GO-AO was 128-112. In the second half of the season, he went to 95-77. The differences seem small, but the stat can also be broken down to this: he had 1.5 times more ground balls than fly-balls in the first half as opposed to 1.25 times in the second. As we all know fly-balls in Fenway kill either way you hit. Clement throws a cutter, slider, two seamer/sinker and a fastball. His two worst pitches, according to Greg Maddux, was his sinker and cutter. Lefties got more walks off of Clement. Coinky dink? Nope. He throws that cutter to lefties to jam them, and that sinker to induce ground balls. While he did give up less home-runs at home, than on the road, part of his dwindling success in the second half can be attributed to Clements lackluster 3rd and 4th pitch against lefties. He doesn’t have a good arsenal against lefties.

Of course, this is all very intangible. It could be something completely not in the stats. But walks seem to be a pretty big key. He had 2 more total walks the first half of the season than the second half in almost 30.0 less IP. In his last 13 starts, 7 of which at home, he walked 33 batters; 21 of those at home. In the 47ER he gave up, 29 of them were at home. See where this walking at Fenway brings you? He walked left handed batters 27 times in the second half as compared to 6 in right handed batters. His first half was poor with walks in general, with 21 left handers and 14 right handers. But control to left handers, in a hitters ballpark, in the second half kills our boy Matty in 2005. Similarly, in 2004, Clement had 77 total walks in181.0IP; 113.0 IP in Wrigley with 29 of those total walks coming against Left handed batters in Wrigley….well you see it. Walking left handed batters in hitters ballpark. Oh, and it may help you to know this: The kid who hit the ball into his temple, Carl Crawford, is a left handed batter. Coincidence? He loses control, literally, at the end of the season.

This could all be bullshit. I could be full of shit. But for last year, when people say that Matt Clement was afraid to pitch because of the comebacker: you’re half right. He was afraid to pitch to lefties.

It could also be something else….I dunno.