Friday Musings, July 13

Happy Friday the 13th!

Here goes:

• * What the hell is wrong with Gary Sheffield? The guy is having a great season. His team is having a great season. His former team is having a shitty season and yet he feels the need to tee off on the coach and some of his former team members. If you haven't read about it, you should because it's nothing short of comical.
• * Looks like Manny and Ortiz' power outages are over. Both have hit the ground running post-All Star break. Now that everyone on the team is starting to hit, we could be in for a scary July and August.
• *Nice move by the Pats to re-sign Troy Brown. Ideally, this is his last season and then he moves into a cushy coaching position next season. If you look up the word "class act" in the dictionary, there is a picture of this guy next to the entry. Speaking of nice moves, the re-upping of Testaverde is not the worst idea in the world either. I love Cassell and do think he has the potential to be the next "Brady" but if he Brady goes down, I'd like someone in the game that's "been there, done that."
• *Another loss for the Rocket against the mighty D-Rays. Breaks my heart...
• *I know there has been a lot of discussion about JD Drew on this post -- most of it negative -- but it looks like he's taken to batting leadoff with a .317 avg. and .400 OBP. Let's hope that his removal from last night's game was just for precautionary measures.
• *Just four more weeks until the Pats first preason game. My prediction is that the first offensive play of the game is a 75 yard bomb to Randy for a TD. That play will set the tone for this very promising season.
• *So what does everyone think about A-Rod coming to the Sox next season. I hate the guy with every moral fiber of my being and he's been tagged with the nick-named the "Cooler" for a reason. However, the guy is arguably one of the 5 best players in the game right now. Thoughts?
  

Friday Musings

A few thoughts to kick off your July 4th weekend (although I gotta say, the holiday falling on a Wednesday this year really screws things up)

• * People are going to be split 50/50 on last night's trade by the Celtics. In case you fell into a temporary sports coma, the Celtics gave up Jeff Green (no. 5 pick) plus Mssrs. Szczerbiak and West for Ray Allen and Glen "Big Baby" Davis (no. 35 pick). I know the C's still need defense in a big way but I think this move gives the Celts a great shot at the no. 4 seed in the East behind Cleveland, Detroit and Miami. The Celtics also got Gabe Pruitt -- a guard out of USC -- who was considered by many to be a first round pick.
• * Following up my first thought, I sent an e-mail last night to my friend, Rich Gotham, the new President of the Celtics:

Rich,

Assuming the trade goes through, this is a great move for the C's for three reasons:

1. You get a guy that was one of the top five scorers in the league
2. Al Jefferson is still a Celtic (and 2007 All Star to be)
3. You didn't pick Yi Jianlian (I know Danny liked him but he was too long term a project)

I smell a great 2007-08 season brewing!!!

Aaron

• * The Yankees totally got "Lugo-ed" last night. They are up 8-6 in the 8th inning after scoring 4 runs and then what happens? It starts to pour. The game gets postponed with play to resume at a later date. Just when they thought they were going to break their four game losing streak. Like many other members of Red Sox Nation, I was crushed...
  
• * Fellow classmate of Melrose High School '86, Jeff Gorton, got let go as the assistant GM of the Bruins yesterday. It's hard to believe but this guy had been with the Bruins for 15 years. Yes, the same Bruins team that have seemingly had a new coach and GM every one of those fifteen years. Good luck Jeff -- I'm sure you'll land a nice job with a better franchise elsewhere.
• * The Sox need to make three moves before the trade deadline:
  1) get rid of Mirabelli for a real backup catcher
  2) find a replacement for Timlin in the bullpen (they may have one already in Delcarmen)
  3) pick up another "Cora" i.e. a serviceable veteran utility infielder that can backup Cora at short and Pedroia at second. Since there is no moving Lugo, he becomes a VERY expensive pinch runner/late inning defensive substitution for the Sox
• * Hope that one win was worth the $5M the Yanks have paid Rocket so far. Maybe the Bronx Bombers will be willing to trade Rocket for Matt Clement mid-season straight up.
  

Let's pray for another hot streak starting tonight so that we can officially put the AL East to bed by the All Star break!

Money it's a gas...Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash

Money get back

I'm all right Jack keep your hands off my stack.

Money it's a hit

Don't give me that do goody good bullshit

I'm in the hi-fidelity first class traveling set

And I think I need a Lear jet

Today's announcement that Roger Clemens is coming out of retirement (the 4th time for those that are counting) and joining the New York Yankees came as no surprise to this observer. In fact I predicted as much in my earlier blog about Mo Rivera and his struggles. At almost every step of his career Roger has always been about the money and the Yankees were always going to be the highest bidder. I'm just thankful this happened as quick as it did so we wouldn't have to read crap article after crap article about this being such a tough decision for Roger and how torn he is over 3 teams. Roger is all about the money and if you can kiss his ass while handing over a king's ransom than all the better. Kudos the Yankee's organization for doing a great job on both counts.

This is a solid move for New York but one that they absolutely had to make given the state of their pitching. While it makes the Yankees better I remain quite happy he didn't come back to Boston. It would kill me to have to root for a Sox starting rotation that included two guys that make me cringe almost every time they address the media. Roger is a complete phony and despite his better living through chemistry I have doubts on just how effective he is going to be in the American League at age 45.

I prefer my lasting memories of Roger in a Red Sox uniform to be:

• Asking out of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series (go ask McNamara about this one)
• Wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shoe laces and eye paint before purposely getting himself tossed out of the final game of Oakland's sweep of Boston in 1990
• Being fat and out of shape his final four years here where he compiled a 40-39 record and cavorted around town with someone definitely not named Debbie