Sox' hopes rest on the rotation

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Piitching still wins championships. So where does that leave the Boston Red Sox?

The Red Sox should be thanking the baseball gods they are in the position they are in as far as the standings are concerned, especially with the dismal efforts put forth by the starting pitching this season.

As a unit, Red Sox starters - Tim Wakefield, Josh Beckett, Brad Penny, Jon Lester, Justin Masterson and Daisuke Matsuzaka have a combined 5.34 ERA in their starts. Tim Wakefield holds the best ERA among the starters despite last night's blow up at 4.55 (Yes, Masterson has a 4.22 ERA, but as a starter, he's at 4.58)

Remarkably, despite those numbers, the Sox starters still hold a 57 percent winning percentage (21-16) and the team's 28 wins are tied for second in the American League and its .571 winning percentage is third in the AL behind the Yankees (.583) and the Rangers (.604).

A large part of the thanks needs to go to the offense, which, despite the atrocious batting of David Ortiz, is in the AL's top 5 in batting average (3rd), on base percentage (2nd), slugging (3rd), runs (5th), home runs (5th) and RBIs (5th). Jason Bay has been enormous this year and is currently on pace to best any season Manny Ramirez put together in Boston in terms of run production. Is he going to maintain that pace? No. He's already showing signs of slowing down, but will still finish with the best numbers of his career. Even with a stint on the DL, Kevin Youkilis has been able to pick up right where he left off last season and Dustin Pedroia is being that sparkplug in the No. 2 slot. Even Mike Lowell, who was a big enough liability over the offseason that the team made a strong push for Mark Teixiera, and Jason Varitek, who got zero bites on the free agent martket, are producing.

And there can be no complaints about the bullpen, which has been one of, if not THE stongest in baseball.

There is no reason why the starting rotation can't turn it around. Josh Beckett has already shown signs of improvement. In his last five starts, the Red Sox ace has a 3-0 record and the team is 4-1, the only loss being a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Mets. In those starts, he's allowed nine earned runs in 34 innings (a 2.38 ERA), going at least seven innings in his last three outings. Brad Penny will be no savior, but ever since blowing up for seven runs in 2.2 innings, he has pitched well enough to win, and has. He's 3-1 in the month of May with a 4.41 ERA. It's not earth-shattering, but what more could any team expect from the fourth starter? Tim Wakefield is being what he has always been and at points this season, he has saved the bullpen from implosion from over work while other starters struggled to get through five innings.

The X factors remain Lester and Matsuzaka. The former has shown good stuff, but seems to have hit that mental block he had when he first came up - when things go bad, he can't prevent them from going REALLY bad. The latter, however, is hard to figure out. He's just a mess. If the Red Sox hope to keep pace with the surging Yankees, these two have to get it together. John Smoltz is not going to come back and light the world on fire and while he's throwing near-no-no's against AAA batters, Clay Bucholtz is not a lock, either. Two seasons ago Beckett, Lester and Dice-K led the Red Sox to the promised land. It's going to take all three of them to get them back there.

Redemption Time for the Penguins

By Matt Ingram
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Once the Bruins were knocked out of the playoffs, which seems like months ago, I knew there would be a Stanley Cup Finals rematch from a year ago. The Eastern Conference Champion Penguins, after a hard fought seven game battle with Washington, swept the Hurricanes with ease, propelling themselves back to the finals. The Wings, in my opinion, have had the tougher road getting to the finals. Detroit squeaked past the Ducks in the second round with a 4-3 win in game seven and had three overtime games against the Blackhawks which ended in five.

The biggest factor in this series has to be age. The Penguins are led by the 2 best offensive players in hockey, Sidney Crosby (age 21) and Evgeni Malkin (22). Pittsburgh also has a great young goalie in Marc-Andre Fluery (24). Detroit has pretty much the same team as last year's Cup winning team. They are a team comprised of old veterans that know how to win playoff hockey games. The major problem the Wings are dealing with is that their age is catching up with them and they are starting to break down physically.

Detroit, who won in six games last year against Pittsburgh, is looking to become the first NHL team with back-to-back championships since the Red Wings did in 1997 and 1998 with several of the same players. The Wings, who have won four titles in the last 11 seasons, are built on a foundation experienced (or old) players such as captain Nicklas Lidstrom (39), Tomas Holmstrom (36), Kris Draper (38), and Kirk Maltby (36). But Detroit does have some "younger" players in Pavel Datsyuk (30) and Henrik Zetterberg (28), the two led the team in scoring in the regular season. Not to mention the raised from the dead goaltender Chris Osgood (36 years young) who has come back from obscurity to have a good playoffs.

The banged-up Red Wings expect to have Lidstrom back on the blue line Saturday night after he was forced to sit out the last two games against Chicago because of an undisclosed lower-body injury, who do they think they are the Patriots. Draper, sidelined for all but four games during the postseason, should also return along with defenseman Jonathan Ericsson just a few days removed from surgery following an appendicitis. Datsyuk is still the biggest question mark, will be a game-time decision. The Red Wings clearly could have used more time off, but now face playing four games in six nights and five in eight, advantage Pittsburgh. My prediction for the series is Penguins will win the Cup at home in Game 6 dashing the hopes of another Detroit repeat.

Hockey Note: Red Wings forward Marian Hossa will be playing in second straight Cup Finals. Last year he was a late season acquisition by the Penguins and helped them to the Finals against Detroit. Hossa decided to turn down an offer from the Penguins in the off-season and sign with more experienced Wings team at a lower salary. Now he faces his old team. Karma?

Looks like the Yankees don't suck after all

By Chad Garner

Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Here they come! Watch out Red Sox fans, the Yankees --yes, that team that apparently "sucks" -- are starting to play real consistent baseball and have overtaken first place in the AL East (by a half game) for the first time since 2006.

Will it last? Hard to tell because it's so early, but one thing is for sure: The Yankees should be considered a dangerous club and shouldn't be overlooked.

The Nation has gotten a little too big for its own britches --the Sox have some major issues with their club just like everyone does, but they're still content with taking the first five games against the Yanks this year (the next Sox-Yanks series is in Boston on June 9-11).

Big deal, move on. It's not like they play the Yanks 162 times during the regular season. After a series is over you move on. The players do it, but the Nation always likes living in the past.

But on the field, New York is pretty scary with a staff of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, but its weakness is the bullpen (except for closer Mariano Rivera).

Boston's got a great bullpen, but everyone should and is questioning its starters. Besides Josh Beckett, is there a guy that you're comfortable with every time he takes the mound? No.

Jon Lester has been real inconsistent (although I think he'll find last year's form soon), Dice-K is a mess, Tim Wakefield has come back down to earth with some real shaky starts and then there's Brad Penny. I know he hasn't completely imploded like I thought he would, but do you trust him? Oh, wait, John Smoltz is working his way back to health in the minors ... he'll be the Nation's savior in a month or so. 

Don't bank on it. He's not the 22-year-old Smoltz anymore with a power fastball, slider and nasty split.

With Alex Rodriguez back in the Yankee lineup, it's become a much more powerful and productive team. Mark Teixeira, who the Nation said couldn't handle the pressure of New York after his slow start (do you finally believe that Tex is a notoriously slow starter?) has been a monster with the stick lately. 

Can the Sox keep pace all season with David Ortiz hitting under .200? It's hard to believe that they can. Mr. Mango Salsa, who was all smiles when he could hit a few years back, is now his worst enemy. He's snapping bats in the dugout after striking out and he's even riding the pine at times? Is he washed up? It looks like it, but he can't be this bad all season, right?

Good thing Jason Bay is playing like an MVP candidate and Jason Varitek has delivered with his bat -- who would have predicted that in the offseason? 

The Sox can still hurt opposing pitchers with Jacoby Ellsbury -- he's not a superstar Nation so stop putting him in the elite category -- Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell (he's just a solid all-around player that you can't hate), but Ortiz is really killing that team.

It's still too early to crown the Yanks or the Sox -- I'm still not counting out the Tampa Bay Rays -- but did you really think the Yankees wouldn't compete in the division?

I know the Nation says the Yankees suck, so what does it say about its own team since the BoSox are trailing their hated rival?