- David Wells was taken off the disabled list today so he could start today's game versus the Oakland Athletics. The man demoted was Mr. Cla Meredith who, I think we can all agree, was promoted prematurely. We just have to see how Meredith does down in Pawtucket now. Hopefully we didn't ruin Cla's career by letting him take a grand slam in his first appearance. Only time will tell now.
- Here's an observation: why are we still starting Jay Payton against left-handed hitters? Payton is hitting .200 against lefties, while Nixon is hitting .231. So why not start Trot and when those right-handed relievers come in we have an advantage. Tito Francona has said he "takes the good with the bad" about Mark Bellhorn, so why not Trot Nixon?
- Matt Mantei is the man. 1-0 with a 2.51 ERA. We've called him this before, but Theo Epstein is even more a genius with how Mantei is performing right now.
- Don't look now, but Alan Embree is getting good. Embree lowered his ERA to 3.72 last night, and opponents are only hitting .208 off of him. Lefties, by themselves, are only hitting .182 against him. And his ERA at home is a slender 1.69.
- I don't know how he does it, but LOOGY Mike Myers is still doing pretty well. He earned the loss two nights ago by allowing two runs, but that his been his only allowed runs of the season so far. But the really alarming stat is this one: batters are hitting .368 off of Myers. That may be due to him usually only facing one batter, and if that batter gets a hit, then boom! There goes that average.
- Edgar Renteria is making a comeback, folks. Since the start of May, Renteria is hitting .296 and has almost topped his hit production for what he had in April. He may be coming along slowly, but atleast he is coming along.
- Who says David Ortiz can't hit left-handed pitching? Because you really shouldn't. Check his stats and you'll see that he's hitting .295 against left-handers this season. Here's his stats versus lefties since 2002:
- 118 AB, .203 AVG, .256 OBP, .381 SLG, .637 OPS
- 116 AB, .216 AVG, .260 OBP, .414 SLG, .674 OPS
- 196 AB, .250 AVG, .315 OBP, .469 SLG, .784 OPS
- 44 AB, .295 AVG, .354 OBP, .500 SLG, .854 OPS
According to the table, he's been improving in every category, every year. That's a good sign for us Sox fans. (And if Ortiz can do this, then Nixon can do it. Another reason to start him versus lefties.)
- 118 AB, .203 AVG, .256 OBP, .381 SLG, .637 OPS
Filed under: