Post-ALDS Thoughts: Sox/Angels.

I'm probably not the only one who hasn't cared for Angels SP John Lackey's comments. The semantics have been debated ad nauseum. Allan Wood makes many excellent points on the subject. 

I'm not as bothered by some of the other comments. Torii Hunter steered more towards the "I feel we were the better team this year." angle, and he came off more disappointed in the outcome than indignant at the idea of being outplayed. Scot Shields talked about not hanging their heads too much after a fairly successful season. 

To be honest with you, I was disappointed. Lackey always came off to me as a poor man's Roy Halladay, in a good way. Until Halladay says something offensive or does something worse than being absolutely an awesome pitcher, you'll never see me write a negative word about him on this site. I would steal Halladay from the Jays as quickly as Ells gets down the 1b line if presented the opportunity. It was a similar situation with Lackey. But this is just ridiculous. Harping on specific plays, whining about DP celebrating his first postseason hit and RBI, while the Angels surely never had any similar outbursts of emotion during the games. Lackey pitched well enough to win a couple games, but came off as a big loser with his comments (via JoS) after the series.

Can't imagine DP isn't going to hit better in the next series. Which is good, because the Rays most likely won't commit the kind of errors we were able to capitalize on vs. the Angels. Definitely need Papi to get it together as well, he was lacking vs. the Angels. Bay, Ells, Drew? Gracias. 

Bullpen usage: MDC over Masterson for those tough innings in which we can't or shouldn't go to Paps. Otherwise, hard to quibble too much. 

I've seen some stuff about Jon Lester pitching in Game 3 so that he could throw a possible Game 7. Great storyline, but let's plan on using our best pitcher as often and as early as possible. I hope this doesn't come off as arrogance, but I don't want to have to plan out a Game 7. It seems smarter to plan on winning more of the games 1-6, rather than "saving" Lester's 2nd start for a game that may not come around either way.

Ideal lineup unless Alex Cora has a great history against Shields, Garza, Kazmir or Sonnanstine:

Ells, DP, Papi, Youks, Drew, Bay, Kotsay, Lowrie, 'Tek. Honestly, no Sean Casey starting. If Kotsay didn't sell you on his ability to play 1b this series, I don't know what else he needs to do. Could flip Kotsay and Lowrie potentially. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this as the ideal lineup, especially after seeing it in Game 4 (even if it didn't score a spectacular amount of runs). I do think we need to have Casey ready to PH for 'Tek with runners on in the late innings, but otherwise. F. Anyone think there's a chance the higher power potential of a Bailey or Carter might push Casey off the roster this time around?

Whew. Enough for now. See you all later.

Oh wait. This.