Red Sox Preview ... Gonzalez Screwed out of WBC ... Schill Dominate

ALEX GONZALEZ LEFT OF VENEZUELAN ROSTER
How in the hell does this happen?

The fact that Alex Gonzalez was left off the Venezuelan roster pisses me off for a few reasons:

A) The guy was so excited to go play for his country, and now he's being sent back to camp with the Red Sox. It's a big slap in the face to Gonzalez.
B) He is the biggest reason why Venezuela was able to beat the Dominican Republic in the Carribean World Series. Game winning hit after game winning hit, and he gets repaid by being told he's not on the roster and to go home. That's a screwjob Gonzalez didn't deserve, in my opinion.

Maybe I'll boycott Venezuala World Baseball Classic games now. I did want to watch them to show support for some guys, but now that Gonzalez is off the team, maybe I won't do that at all. Gonzalez will have a better season this year than Carlos Guillen and Omar Vizquel (Venezuela's shortstops) anyway.

CURT SCHILLING DOMINATES BC
OK, so he was pitching against a college baseball team, but that still counts.

Curt Schilling was dominate in today's early game against Boston College. He threw his slated 26 pitches, which resulted in four innings where he gave up only one hit and struck out three.

Also on the pitching front, Jamie Vermilyea pitched two shutout innings for the Sox. Willie Harris, who lead off and played center field, hit a two-run double and scored a run. Mark Loretta, making his Sox debut, had an RBI double in the contest.

Brandon Moss had a good morning, also. He went 2-for-3 with two runs with two runs, two hits, and two RBIs. Alberto Concepcion, who caught in relief of Josh Bard, went 2-for-2 with a run and two RBIs.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE: RED SOX PREVIEW
Marc Normandin from Beyond the Box Score put up a very good, in-depth preview of the Red Sox lineup for 2006. For the most part, there's a lot of plusses compared to last season. The pitching preview, I assume, should be up within the next couple of days.