Christmas in July

Due to the prolonged lockout, the Patriots were unable to make any sort of immediate splash in the aftermath of the stinging loss to the Jets in January. And it's not as though they're a team accustomed to striking big in the off-season; a Reche Caldwell would come in here, a Roosevelt Colvin there, but no real marquee names ever took their talents to Foxboro in the late Winter/early Spring time period. With the notable exception being the 2006-2007 off-season, where the Patriots imported Wes Welker, Randy Moss, Adalius Thomas, and Donte' Stallworth after the collapse against the Colts in the AFC Championship Game.

And what happened after that? They came within 35 seconds of going 19-0.

Fast forward a few years later here. Despite a 14-2 record in 2010, the Patriots were certainly littered with questions heading into the off-season. Who would step up to play wide receiver alongside Welker? Could the Logan Mankins situation at left guard be salvaged? Is there any way they could import a playmaker on the defensive side of the ball, preferably a linebacker?

Okay, so Phat Albert Haynesworth isn't a linebacker. But he most certainly qualifies as a playmaker over there, wouldn't you say? The Patriots have made the loudest splash in the free agency thus far.

When motivated (and I certainly can't stress when motivated enough), Haynesworth is among the best defensive players in the NFL. He was recipient of the Sporting News Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2008, when he registered 8.5 sacks for the Tennessee Titans. Of course, he's combined for 6.5 the past two seasons with Washington (as the highest paid defensive tackle in NFL history, no less). 

But haven't we seen this movie before? Corey Dillon only came into Foxboro and rushed for a career high 1,632 yards en route to a Super Bowl victory despite his "malcontent" label. Pretty sure Randy Moss re-wrote the record books with his 23 TD's in 2007 after coming to New England, despite being "washed-up" in Oakland. And you could go on and on with Moss. 

The same with Haynesworth, who's got as much baggage as Moss, if not more so. But there's something about playing for Bill Belichick, something about being given your last chance in the NFL with such an established coach, that has let these talented-but-troubled players get the most out of their talents rather than let their troubles undermine them. 

Like with Moss, it's a classic low-risk, high reward transaction. They were acquired for a 4th and 5th round pick, respectively. What do the Patriots have to lose here? If Haynesworth shows up to Gillette Stadium still intent on stomping on helmetless players or loafing in the middle of the field, send him right back down I-95. He won't be an easy guy to root for, but that can all be forgiven with 6 or so sacks playing alongside Wilfork, right?

And then we get to the artist soon to be re-known as Chad Johnson. Get this straight. Ochocinco is not Randy Moss or Terrell Owens. And that's multifaceted. From a sheer talent standpoint, you'd prefer either Moss or T.O. But at the same time, Ochocinco is actually a good teammate who's effort has never come into question despite playing in the hell-hole of Cincinnati his whole career. Does he crave attention like the other two? Probably more than them combined. It's a positive energy with Chad though, who's relationship with Bill Belichick is inexplicably charming. On the surface, they couldn't be more different people. But you can't question either one's desire to win. Doesn't hurt to have an elite receiver alongside Welker, either.

What does it all mean? That the Patriots aren't ready to roll over and secede control of the AFC East to Rex Ryan's group. Whether they sign Nnamdi Asomugha or not (unlikely, at this point, per NFL.com), the Jets are by no means ready to leapfrog the Pats in AFC supremacy for good. I like to think January was merely a blip on the radar. If Ochocinco and Phat Albert live up to the billing, we could be partying like it's 2007 again in Foxboro. Hopefully the ending just resembles 2001, -03, or -04.

Red Sox Ramblin' Man

Perhaps very under the radar over the past week, what with the end-of-lockout coverage and what not, the Red Sox improved to 8-2 since the All-Star break and have built up a 3 game lead on the Yankees, the largest lead they've had over the Bombers at any point since July 2009.

Since the 2-10 start, they're 60-27 (.690 winning percentage), and have put themselves on a pace to win 101 games.

John Lackey over his past 3 starts: 3-0, 1.86 ERA; 18-2 K/BB ratio. He's pitched into at least the 6th inning in all three starts, and yet....his overall ERA is still 6.28.

Josh Beckett's 2.07 ERA is a full 1.74 runs lower than his career ERA of 3.81, and his 0.90 WHIP is 0.32 lower than his 1.22 career total.

Jacoby Ellsbury since the all-star break: .357 average, 1.116 OPS, 5 HR, 9 RBI,

Dustin Pedroia over the same span: .429 average, 1.157 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI

JD Drew over the same span: .133 average, .388 OPS, 0 HR, 1 RBI

Carl Crawford since coming of the DL: .375 average, hit safely in 6 of 7 games

Speaking of JD, he went on the DL today. Did I mention already today it feels like Christmas in July?

It's practically a mortal lock that a Red Sox player will win the American League MVP at this point. The only question: is it still Adrian Gonzalez, or is that Jacoby Ellsbury making a furious dash into the discussion?

Bottom line here: The Red Sox are who we thought they were. A juggernaut. They've scored 541 runs, more than any team in all of baseball, and have the second-best run differential (+127 compared to the Yankees +128). They're on pace for 885 runs, which would be the most they've scored in a season since 2005.

With the trade deadline looming, do they need to make a major splash? I don't think there's a need to rock this boat. Could they use another starting pitcher? Sure, who couldn't. But what's out there? Hiroki Kuroda? Ryan Dempster? With Lester and Buchholz coming back off the DL, and Lackey finally looking like the pitcher we thought we were getting when we signed him to an $82.5 million deal, the Sox role 4 deep in the rotation once you get to Beckett. Funny how that works out, as Beckett was originally slated as the no. 4 starter in the rotation. He's a Cy Young contender, no question about it now.

Carlos Beltran? Thanks, but no thanks. If you're going to have to give up Josh Reddick to get him, not only is that a lateral move (at best) for this season, but Beltran is getting up there in age and despite his solid bounce-back season, it's a contract year and there are no guarantees he'd be back. Boston has a great track record recently of developing their own players, rather than making splashes in free agency (Lester, Buchholz, Papelbon, Bard, Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkilis, and Reddick himself are among the homegrown guys making major contributions this season).

So stay the course, Theo, and stay on the track for an epic showdown in the ALCS with the Yankees.

As a reminder, I'm back on the radio tonight for the Monday night Five Minute Major. I'm really not sure what time I'll be going on, as it's been fluctuating of late, but if I were to guess, I'd say about 8:45-8:50 will be the timeslot. Tune in to 95.9 WATD-FM.

It's All Over!

Couldn'ta said it better than John Lennon. This feels like Chirstmas in July (it is the 25th after all), and the war is over. The way the lockout's been covered is right up there with the LeBron Watch and the Favre Watch from the past few summers. But mercifully, attention now turns to the actual games, not the billions of dollars that I couldn't care less about. And more importantly, fantasy football's back baby. Time to go win me my 3rd championship in 6 seasons. That's a dynasty right?

Monday Night Trivia

After scoring just 1 run in 16 innings last night, the Sox erupted for 15 this evening against Baltimore. Every member of the Red Sox starting lineup had at least one hit, every member, of course, except for one. Can you name him?

If you guessed JD Drew.....you're correct!!!! Now go pat yourself on the back and buy a Josh Reddick T-shirt.

Josh Reddick's Catch

If you couldn't stay up for the entirety of last night's 16-inning affair between the Red Sox and the Rays down in St. Pete, understandable. I know I crashed sometime in the 13th. 

But fortunately, I was able to see the following play, which took place in the bottom of the 10th inning:

Now obviously, that's a fantastic catch, probably the best defensive play for the Sox to date this season. But I have ulterior motives for this particular blog. As you may know, Carl Crawford returns to the lineup tonight for Boston in Baltimore. Which means Reddick is going to be bumped out of regular playing time in left field. And that's perfectly fine. 

You know why?

Because there's an opening in right field for Boston right now, really the only gaping hole in an otherwise outstanding lineup. The current Red Sox right fielder would not have hustled to make this play. He would have shied away from contact at the wall and let the ball fall in for a double, or worse. It's happened time and time again with said right fielder, who's also hitting .225 with a .638 OPS. Usually said right fielder is great in contract years, so he can always rope another team into paying him the big bucks, but with his already-stated intentions of retiring at season's end, there will be no "They fooled me, Jerry!" act this time around. He's playing out the string of an un-glamorous career. 

So with the Red Sox owing said right fielder absolutely no loyalty, let's keep this Reddick kid in the lineup on a daily basis, right? If he's gonna be running around patrolling the outfield like this, it's a no-brainer, right? Doesn't hurt he's hitting .352 with a 1.036 OPS, either. It's time to end the JD Drew era in Boston once and for all.

Want to hear me bash JD some more? Tune in to 95.9-WATD FM at 9:00 tonight for the "Five Minute Major" where I'll be back on the airwaves discussing the Drew era in Boston.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Pittsburgh Steelers!

Leave it to the Steelers, supposedly one of the classiest, clean-cut organizations in all of sports, to spice up the only day of the calendar year where no MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL games are scheduled. It never gets boring out there in the Steel City. Whether it's Ben Roethlisberger raping chicks, or Rashard Mendenhall sympathizing with terrorists, or Hines Ward getting DUI's, they're always up to something. Did you know Plaxico Burress played for the Steelers once upon a time too?

This time, however, it was a player on the defensive side of the ball making headlines. I think James Harrison just surpassed Mike Tyson on the "guy I'd least want to run into in a back alley after dark" list. This guy is certifiably bat-shit insane. Aside from the required Patriots-bashing that always seems to make its way into these kinds of things, Harrison managed to alienate himself from his entire locker room and the NFL front offices in one fell swoop. I mean hey, he speaks the truth about Roethlisberger not being Peyton Manning, but that's a football fan's job to realize that, not his. He anointed Mendenhall a "fumbling machine".

But the bigger issue for Harrison here are his choice words about Roger Goodell. Which, personally, I find comical, especially as a Patriots fan, but c'mon man! Who's giving James Harrison advice, LeBron's PR team? There's no question Harrison is among the top defensive players in the game today, but saying you wouldn't take a leak on Goodell if he was on fire? Even if he had ended his rant by referring to him as "a crook" and "the devil", I could look the other way. But that was so outlandish and over the top, I smell a suspension coming for sure, whether you like it or not. Is it right, seeing as how Harrison didn't commit any sort of crime? Simply put, the man's gotta learn to keep his mouth shut. I never viewed Harrison as a dirty player; I'm probably still in the minority of not having a problem with his hit on Mohammad Massaquoi last year. But the sympathy ends here. If you're going to be that ignorant and run your mouth like that, if the NFL doesn't suspend you, you'd hope the Rooney's would step in and do so.

Whatever. Just another day in the life in Blitzberg. Keep on losing Super Bowls to teams missing half their opening day starters to IR. Aren't the Patriots 6-1 or something against those guys in the Brady era?

All-Star Break Ramblin' Man

The slowest three days on the sports calendar are upon us, with just the Home Run Derby and MLB All-Star Game to hold us over until a full slate of MLB action returns on Thursday. This includes the lone day of the year where no official MLB, NFL, NHL, or NBA events are held, on Wednesday.

On the off chance you heard me on the radio tonight (I wound up going on at about 8:45 instead of 9:05, as scheduled), I vented about the problems with said all-star game. Why should the Red Sox/Yankees and Phillies  have to worry a potential at-bat between Aaron Crow and Miguel Montero to determine home field advantage? I'll be perfectly honest, I consider myself a prettay, prettay big baseball fan, and before I scoured the all-star rosters, I had never heard of Aaron Crow. He's a rookie middle-reliever having a decent season for the Royals, but if there were no requirements for every team to be represented, I'd still have no idea an Aaron Crow even existed.

There are several other notably horrendous selections this season. Russell Martin was picked as the third catcher on the A.L. roster, despite a paltry .220 batting average. That's the lowest by an American League all-star since 1968. Matt Wieters of the Orioles, another catcher, is 48th in the junior circuit in batting yet he qualified for the team just because he fills Baltimore's quota.

I could go on and nitpick more, but I'll say this: why can't baseball just have home-field in the World Series be based on the team with the best record, as is the case in basketball and hockey? Time to ramble on other stuff I missed these past few weeks.

-How exactly did Nick Lidstrom win the Norris Trophy over Zdeno Chara? Just because he's Nick Lidstrom? Sure, his offensive numbers were still there this year (16-46-62) compared to Chara's 14-30-44 total, but Lidstrom became the first Norris winner since Randy Carlyle in 1981 to take home the award with a negative +/- rating (-2). Chara, conversely, finished with a league leading +33 rating. The Norris ain't a scoring contest, it's about the being the best defensive player in the league.

-Not only did the Sedin's fall short in winning the Stanley Cup, they each fell short of winning the Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL's most valuable player. Corey Perry of Anaheim skated away with it instead. Personally I thought Timmy Thomas shoulda taken that in addition to the Vezina, but hey.

-Sounds like the NFL lockout is about to end.

-Sounds like the NBA lockout isn't.

-Is Derek Jeter the greatest Yankee of all-time now that he's reached the 3,000 hit plateau there? Combine that with his five rings, the case has never been stronger. Of course, Ruth/Gehrig/DiMaggio/Berra/Mantle/Costanza are all still acceptable arguments.

-Joe Corvo, Benoit Puliout in; Michael Ryder, Tomas Kaberle out (and Recchi's retirement). All fine by me. You can't bring back the exact same team to defend a championship; minor tweaks are always necessary. And while Ryder stepped up big time during the playoffs, another regular season of frustrations wasn't going to cut it on Causeway Street. More importantly, these defections will allow the B's to have more flexibility when it comes to signing Marchand and Krejci to long-term deals. The Puliout signing is definitely curious, and Jack Edwards certainly won't be a fan, but it never hurts to take a low-risk flier on a former no. 4 overall draft pick.

-Since my last blog post on June 20, here's some Red Sox batting lines:

• Dustin Pedroia: .338, 5 HR, 12 RBI, 1.077 OPS
• Jacoby Ellsbury: .329, 3 HR, 13 RBI, .953 OPS
• Adrian Gonzalez: .375, 2 HR, 13 RBI, .986 OPS
• Kevin Youkilis: .377, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 1.056 OPS

Time to End Retirement

Hey, it's summer. I've gotten lazy. Lazier than usual. I'm not here to make excuses though. It's time to get back to blogging on a regular schedule, and back in that rhythm that was making this thing work.

Sure, it's that time of year post-NBA Finals/Stanley Cup where it's nothing but baseball, baseball, and more baseball. But did you know that since my last post on June 20, JD Drew is batting exactly .200 (8 for 40), with one (1) extra-base hit?

So while I should end this blogging retirement, JD should accelerate his and just retire right now rather than at the end of the season. What exactly do the Red Sox owe him (other than another $7 million or so on his 5 year, $70 million contract)? There's no loyalty issues here. He was a hired gun, and while you can make the case that lots of these Red Sox are hired guns, JD Drew is a super-soaker to Adrian Gonzalez's AK-47. Bring on the Josh Reddick/Ryan Kalsih in right field era, and bring it on now.

In other news, I'm back on the airwaves tonight after a one-week hiatus for the 4th of July. Probably touching on the MLB All-Star Game tonight, and how it needs just a bit more tweaking to make it a big event once again. Tune in to 95.9-WATD (FM) at about 9:00 tonight. We'll see ya there.