Who will win - The Red Sox or Angels ??

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11 Questions For 2008
Published 1/25/2008 by redsock at The Joy of Sox
... solid back-up on the horizon. Is 2008 the year the catching situation catches up with the Sox or am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? 11. The winter months helped us forget about Barry Bonds and the steroid issue, but the Mithcell Report and Roger Clemens have rekindled the flame just weeks before Spring Training... How do you think it will effect the 2008 season?Red echoes my hunch that Matsuzaka will be the star of '08! Check out Parts 2 and 3 at The Bottom Line in a few days and feel free to blab here.

Francona deserves a Torre-like contract
Published 2/20/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... like Buchholz with equal poise and respect. If you can fault him for anything, it’s his loyalty to his players. Maybe he stuck with Kevin Millar a little too long few years back. And maybe he relies of Javier “the lefty specialist” Lopez too much. But it’s that loyalty that attracts players. Bottomline : Tito should get $13 for 3 years or better. That means $4M per year and more than doubles his current base and gives him the respect he deserves. Click here to read more from Rob at The Bottomline . This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 2:12 pm and is filed ...

Mo Vaughn leads ‘08 Sox HOF class, best 1B ever?
Published 2/27/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... Cleveland Indians. Mo Vaughn, after winning the AL MVP award, went 0-14 with 7 strikeouts. In 1998 however, Vaughn went 7-17 (.412) with 2 doubles, 2 homers and 7 RBI, despite losing to the Indians in the ALDS… again. Mo was noted for crowding the plate and his signature “lean-in swing” got him plunked 71 times — a single season record with the Red Sox. Mo Vaughn hit a walk-off grand slam on Opening Day in 1998. He hit 10 grand slams in his career. Read more from Bottom Line Rob at The Bottom Line , including the latest Red Sox news, a recent look at the outfielders with ...

5 reasons why the Red Sox will repeat in 2008
Published 3/5/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... post-season flop in 2007? Bottomline : The Red Sox are the team to beat in 2008. It will be a battle in the AL East with a young and talented D-Rays squad and a solid Blue Jays team, but the dismantled Orioles will give up more wins than they have in the past. In the end, the Sox are built for the postseason, while the other contenders have more question marks. Prediction: Red Sox over Yankees, Red Sox over Indians, Red Sox over Phillies. Read more from Bottom Line Rob at The Bottom Line blog. This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under ...

Papelbon Gets His $
Published 3/6/2008 by Fenway West at Fenway West
Thanks to The Bottom Line for the heads up on this one. Papelbon gets $775,000 for the year...now he needs to go back to throwing strikes and attempting to dance. ...

AL East stacked with ROTY candidates
Published 3/12/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... Here’s your Wednesday post from The Bottom Line . You can get more Red Sox news and analysis from The Bottom Line here . Last season Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia overcame a .182 April batting average and finished the season at .317, beating out Tampa Bay’s Delmon Young for the 2007 Rookie of the Year (ROTY) Award. This year the Red Sox will feature two rookies that could battle each other for the prize… but the Yankees have two young superstars of their own and the D-Rays and their No. 1 ranked farm system will have another phenom in the mix as well. Jacoby Ellsbury, ...

And the Red Sox No.5 starter is…
Published 3/17/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... Here’s your weekly post from Bottom Line Rob. Read more from BL Rob at The Bottom Line Blog . The Red Sox leave for Japan on Wednesday. They won’t need a “fifth starter” for that trip, in fact, they probably won’t need to name one until the second week of April. But the Sox do have some decisions to make in regards to their rotation. The defending World Series Champions have five exhibition games wrapped around seven official games with Oakland before they’ll settle into a normal baseball routine. That “normal routine” will consist of 20 straight games in March, 13 of which ...

Who has the best 1-2 punch in the AL?
Published 3/30/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... Read more from BL Rob at The Bottom Line Blog - The Bottom Line in Red Sox news. This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under ...

THE AFTER PARTY
Published 4/3/2008 by DCScrap at Epic Carnival - Pop Culture, Sports, Celebrities, Babes, Rumors, Innuendo
Who has the best 1-2 pitchers in baseball? (The Bottom Line) Sports Radio Madness has reached the Finals. (SBJ) Penn State point guard caught masturbating in a library. (TMC) Tennessee inmates wear pink to separate from Vol orange. (NESW Sports) Little known facts about basketball coach Tom Crean. (Rumors and Rants) Leinart escapes long arm of law: Free to bong. (TMZ) Mock NFL draft. (End Zone Buzz) Chris Long - #1 D-Bag. (Yardbarker) Ana Ivanovic's photoshoot for Sports Monthly. (on ...

Red Sox starters could kill a solid bullpen
Published 4/20/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... Bottom Line Rob checking in… get more Red Sox analysis and news from BL Rob at The Bottom Line . After last night’s game, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Lester each have 5 starts on the season… and both have struggled to make through the first 5 innings of games, but the bullpen and offense have picked them up. Dice-K is 4-0 despite averaging just 5.6 IPs per start and the Red Sox have won 3 of Lester’s 5 starts, despite is 1-2 record and 5.2 IP/GS average. Matsuzaka and Lester have struggled with their command, but in different ways. Daisuke’s loaded arsenal may be working against ...

Who’s On Deck? - with The Bottom Line
Published 5/4/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... and owns a 0.82 ERA, set-up man Pat Neshek has a career BAA of 1.84 and veteran Dennys Reyes hasn’t allowed a run in 12 appearances this season. Bottom Line : The Twins don’t score a ton, the Sox will find it difficult to pull off the late game heroics we’ve gotten used to against their relievers. That said, despite losing the 2007 season series 2-4, the Sox only out scored the Twins 22 to 16 and every game was decided by 3 runs or less… Get more Red Sox analysis from BL Rob at The Bottom Line Blog. This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 3:50 pm and is filed under ...

“Who’s on Deck?” with The Bottom Line
Published 5/10/2008 by Guest Columnist at Fire Brand of the American League
... off, but is still batting .290 on the season, but the return of CF Mike Cameron my keep “Kap” on the bench… Bottom Line : The May schedule is a welcome break for the Red Sox. The O’s appear to be slipping back to where we expected them to be and the Brewers are having some big time issues right now. The Sox should be able to take at least 3 of 5 from these two clubs – but I foresee a sweep of the O’s and 2 of 3 from the Brewers. Get more Red Sox news and analysis from BL Rob at The Bottom Line: A Red Sox blog . This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 7:59 pm and ...

King Of The Mound
Published 5/20/2008 by Scott (CEO) at BostonsportZ
... awful announcing Josh Q. Public that guy sports blog Empyreal environs Sawxblog Elguaposghost Celtics Stuff Live Redsarmy Fanaticking Sox and Dawgs The Big Lead Matsuzaka Watch Red Sox Monster SOX1FAN Sports of Boston The West Coast Bias. Draftmcfadden Patriot Act The Bottom Line LeonPowe.org NE Patriots draft Blog Of The Day Awards ...

ROUNDTABLE: Loss to Rays source of concern?
Published 9/14/2008 by Evan Brunell at Fire Brand of the American League
... pressure is on the Sox. Problem is, they’ve struggled against the good teams all year, while beating up on the dregs of the league: “contenders” - 16-22 vs LAA, CWS, MIN, TB / “dregs” - 39-15 vs BAL, KC, OAK, SEA, TEX. When you look at the Rays (21-15 vs contenders / 32-15 vs dregs), and you factor in the dramatic wins from this series (in Fenway mind you)… the Rays look more like a playoff team than the Red Sox do. Many were saying the opposite just 3 days ago.” — Bottom Line Rob, The Bottom Line “I’m not sure it’s a cause for concern so much as a reinforcement of concerns ...

ROUNDTABLE: Sox Weakness?
Published 9/19/2008 by Evan Brunell at Fire Brand of the American League
... through August, looks like the usual 2nd half Youk so far this month. Big Papi has driven in 18 runs, but he’s batting .237 in September. And the bullpen needs to step up for Paps, because he’s already at 64 IPs and, personally, I think all the innings are starting to hurt him… Bottom Line: If the Sox can’t tie things back up in the East after the Toronto series - I think Tito will have to accept the WC spot and start getting some of these guys rested and healthy.” — Bottom Line Rob, The Bottom Line Is winning on the road a legitimate weakness? This club cannot finish with a ...

ROUNDTABLE: Who’s our playoff No. 4?
Published 9/28/2008 by Evan Brunell at Fire Brand of the American League
... 1 ER in 5+ innings = zero HRs… Byrd vs LAA career: 4-2 in 9 GS, 4.94 ERA, 11 HRs in 9 games… Byrd in postseason: 3-1 with a 4.80 ERA in 5 starts; Byrd won both of his starts in the 2007 playoffs… Bottom Line: I have to go with Byrd here based on the stats above and the fact that he’s 6-2 since Aug 1. He’s not going tp throw a shutout or fan 10 guys, but he always keeps the game managable - where as Wake can be unhittalbe or give up 6 runs in the first… sorry Tim. — Bottom Line Rob, The Bottom Line “Although Wakefield and Byrd are both roughly league-average starters, I lean ...

ROUNDTABLE: Does Beckett at #3 hurt?
Published 10/2/2008 by Evan Brunell at Fire Brand of the American League
... us because Jon Lester will be forced to start Game 1 on the road (5-5, 4.09), rather than start Game 3 at Fenway (11-1, 2.49). When Beckett was cruising, it looked like the stars were aligned for another Halos sweep, but this changed everything… Bottom Line: Hopefully we split in LA and take 2 at Fenway behind a healthy Beckett, but if those goes to 5 games… I don’t care what the numbers say, I don’t feel good about Dice-K in a do or die match-up with the Angels. — Bottom Line Rob, The Bottom Line “The issue is not moving Beckett back, it is how healthy will Beckett be when he ...

ROUNDTABLE: Best infield alignment?
Published 10/9/2008 by Evan Brunell at Fire Brand of the American League
... in the comments your opinion!) Youkilis 3B, Lowrie SS, Kotsay 1B… Game 4 proved to me that Kotsay can handle 1B and that Youk is the best 3B we have with Lowell out. I’m not sure Youk makes either of those plays that Kotsay made in Game 4 and I’m not sure Lowrie makes that play that Youk did on Hunter in the 6th… I love Casey and he can definitely hit, but since he and Kotsay are both lefties and Kotsay is probably better at 1B… Kotsay will continue to get the nod. — Bottom Line Rob, The Bottom Line “With Yook flashing serious leather on both sides of the diamond and Lowrie ...

FENWAY WEST - ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Published 14 days ago by Fenway West (odmatt@gmail.com) at Fenway West
One year ago today I started fenwaywest.com. In the last year there have been 1839 posts and over 53,000 unique visitors at the Western Home to Red Sox Nation. I owe a great deal of gratitude to those who helped me move the site forward including; Dave (Red Sox Sonoma) for his contributions, and to fellow Sox bloggers: Rooster at The Rational Sox Fan, Rob at The Bottom Line, Ian at Sox and Dawgs, Peter at Red Sox Forever, Red Sox Monster, Jere at Red Sox Fan in Pinstripe Territory, and Evan at Fire Brand of the American ...