The Sox are going to have a difficult time making the playoffs this year. I’m no sucker for the Jays quick start (they’ll start to slip once they deal Roy Hallady and realize Marco Scutaro is starting at shortstop) but I think the rest of the American League is better than most pundits allow.

The Royals are a dangerous team based not only upon the promise of their pitching (will Zack Greinke lose a game this year?) but also upon an underappreciated lineup that is dynamic at the top. Coco Crisp has reverted to his pesky former-self (he leads baseball with 4 triples). Alberto Callaspo, currently hitting a robust .378, follows in the two-hole and, if Jose Guillen, Alex Gordon and Billy Butler can at least hit their weight, Kansas City should challenge Detroit atop the under-appreciated AL Central.

Continue reading "Breaking down your 2009 Red Sox (in context)"

Call me soft but I am really getting tired of the all-forgiving, Mannywood-worshiping, sissymary “baseball realists” infecting the airwaves and newspapers of late. Earlier today, Jon Heyman of si.com published an article measuring the merits, Hall of Fame credentials and perspective eligibility of such noted sleazebags as ARoid, Manny, Barry and (God-help-us-all) Roger Clemens. He created his own convenient and self-righteous gauge, judging players on the extent and longevity of actualized or alleged sleaziness. Luckily, I wasn’t the only reader with a “what the deuce!?” reaction. As mole57 from New Jersey points out, it shouldn't matter when or for how long a player used steroids:

Steroid use should be looked at on the same level as cheating. It doesn't matter if they didn't need to cheat to be great -- they still chose to cheat and ultimately they have disgraced the game and made a mockery of many hallowed records for purely selfish reasons. If Joe Jackson and Pete Rose aren't allowed in, these guys shouldn't be allowed in either.

Continue reading "Rumblings on Steroids, Sissymary's and Moles..."