Buchholz Growing and Learning

Clay Buchholz is coming off an impressive spring and feels that he’s made major strides since last year in which he spent most of the year in the minors with an above six ERA after having an above 9 ERA in the majors.

In a recent interview he used the analogy of a ball of yarn to describe his season; When one thing would go wrong someone would pull at that ball and he would completely unravel.  Part of the reason for this is that from little league all through the minors, and even his first few starts with the Sox, including a no hitter in his second start, Clay had never expereinced any kind of adversity in his game.  He’s excelled in all levels of play, never really being challenged.  So when one thing would go wrong he wasn’t sure how to handle it and as a result would come apart.

The spring has been differnt for Buchholz.  A great example: with a man on first an errant pick off attempt brought him to third, then eventually home when the same thing happened again.  Last year this would’ve completely taken him off his game, however, he recovered quickly and struck out the next two batters and didn’t allow another run.

Expect Clay to be much better than last year.

Luis Castillo Inspires Cautious Optimism

Last year, the Mets went into camp with the second base position secure. Luis Castillo was going to be the man. He was going to anchor the position that had been giving us fits since Robbie Alomar.

2008 turned out not to be Luis Castillo’s year. He played the whole season with pain in his knees and missed considerable time to the disabled list.

Despite every Mets fan worth their salt hoping that a different name would start at second in 2009, Luis Castillo is back. And I, for one, feel like that’s a good thing. Castillo’s knees are healthy, he’s lost a little weight, and his bat seems a little quicker this spring. I have been warmly optimistic that Luis Castillo will have a near career year in ‘09. And so far the spring numbers are proving that:

In 25 AB, he’s got a line of .320/.500/.520 with 8 Runs scored, 8 hits (including 3 doubles and a triple).

Mind you, 25 ABs is an awfully small sample and a lot of those at bats could have come against inferior pitching - that’s why this post is title “Cautious” optimism. But all the same, anything that helps Castillo’s confidence and the New York fans confidence in him will greatly help him and the Mets down the line.

Will he make a liar of my by the All-Star Break? Maybe, but right now I’m feeling pretty okay - even Good - about Luis Castillo starting at second base for my New York Mets.

Sidenote: My new favorite player Daniel Murphy and his possible left field buddy Nick Evans have been quietly tearing up the Grapefruit league (.366/.426/.488 and .325/.400/.600 respectively in about 40 AB). There’s little question that these two can hit. It’s just an issue of consistency at the Major League level.

Introduction to the 2009 Red Sox

After much waiting the Red Sox blog is finally up and running!

Since the season has yet to begin I thought it’d be best to start with some predictions.  I will take a look at five positive predictions heading into the season as well as five concerns I have for this team.  Future blogs will be shorter generally, but as this is the debut there is a lot to cover.

At the end I will make a bold prediction and an overall prediction for the 2009 Boston Red Sox season.

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Depth Chart Analysis – Cleveland Indians

When analyzing the roster for the current Cleveland Indians team – one may have to consider the high expectations and disappointment of the 2008 team. The American League Central is not a particularly strong division, with no clear cut favorite to take the division. But is it possible for one to look toward the 2007 Central Division Champions to take on this crown?

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Big Leagues or Bust

The Boston Globes, Tim Cafardo recently released a list of MLB players that are out of options. This means, that the player can no longer be sent down to the minors without first passing through wavers. This year’s list contains an interesting set of players, that could be changing uniforms bearing a slow start.

MLB Trade Rumors has put together a list of all these players. When you glance over the list, several names pop out at you as players that have not preformed at the major league level, but could one day still become productive major leagues.

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Ben Sheets: The Bargain of 2009?

Today, the New York Mets re-signed Oliver Perez for 3 years 36 million dollars yet I can’t help but to wonder why Ben Sheets has not been signed. If you rank this years starting pitcher free agent class (CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Derek Lowe, Ben Sheets, and Oliver Perez as the Top 5) Ben Sheets certainly seems to be a high end option, especially when one considers the bargains that have been coming out of the 2009 Free Agent Class.

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