» Jon Lester

Brandon Morrow returned after giving up the losing hit yesterday to surrender two home runs in the bottom of the ninth to blow a great start by Felix Hernandez (7 innings pitched, four hits, no runs on 6 strikeouts). Chris Davis of the Rangers delivered the coup de gras, walking off with the win. Morrow’s not showing the range of pitches he did at the end of last year, when he was in the rotation. 

Seattle drops to 16-19, third place in the AL West.

When the M’s fail to provide a lot of offense, they are very vulnerable. It’s time for some creative reconfiguring of the roster. Morrow’s three hits and two home runs in four batters was pretty miserable. His ERA appears to be heading north of 10, not the stats Seattle needs from its closer.

Tomorrow night, Tacoma native Jon Lester starts for the Red Sox vs. Chris Jakubauskas for the Mariners.

I would first like to say thank you to Jeff for giving me the opportunity to post here on MajorLeagueBlogging.com. I’m excited to be a part of the MLB family. With that said it is time to get to business!

I’m going to keep this post brief because want to set up my weekly fantasy add/drop session on Tuesdays and my major league round up on Fridays. But these are just a few of the ideas I have. There will be plenty to follow trust me.

When anyone offers you a trade in Fantasy Baseball what do you think about? Do you think about every stat involved with making that trade? Do you get emotional because your mancrush is involved in the trade talks? Or do you evaluate the trade on who’s getting the best player?

There are a lot of different takes on this. I can tell you though never, I mean never trade on emotion. The best man in my wedding decided it was a good idea on draft day of a keeper league to offer up Hanley Ramirez. I know the first thing I thought too was is this guy nuts? But it gets much worse. He took a trade that only netted him Jason Bay, Jon Lester, and Carlos Marmol. I tried to counter this insane offer with David Wright and any pitcher on my roster (I had hamels, billingsley, Zambrano, and Broxton drafted at this point – oh and I had A-Rod on the bench so no worries there). He turned me down, why? Because he “Really wanted Lester.” His team is also in last place at this point.

I’m not bitter anymore, but this is definitely the way to set your team back in a keeper league. The best advice I can say about trades is something a wise man once told me, “Whoever gets the best player in the trade, usually gets the best deal.”

With their young veteran Scott Kazmir on the mound, the Rays looked like AL Champions against the Red Sox. Jon Lester went only five innings giving up eight hits and five runs. The ‘pen gave up two more as the Sox fell to .500 on the year after a 7-2 loss.

Scott Kazmir pitched well for Tampa going six innings giving up just five hits and one run while walking three and striking out four. The Rays bullpen held the lead despite JP Howell giving the Red Sox a great chance before Grant Balfour got out of the jam in the 8th and hanging on in the 9th for the save.

At the plate Jason Bartlett and Carl Crawford both had three hits and an RBI each while Carlos Pena hit a two-run home run to cap a 4-run 5th for Tampa that put the Rays in front. Former Ray Rocco Baldelli went 1 for 4 in his Red Sox debut. Kevin Youkillis was the only member of the Boston lineup with more than one hit, going 3 for 4 with an RBI.

Home Plate umpire Bob Davidson had a very wide strike zone tonight. It usually is not that big of a deal, but the comments on redsox.com’s recap are putting the blame for the loss on him. Despite not being very pleased with his strike zone, I am not about to say the loss was his fault. The only reason it seemed like he was favoring the Rays was because they caught on to it quickly, something the Sox failed to do. They realized that if they threw to the outside corner they would get an easy strike, while the Red Sox didn’t pitch accordingly. But in better news, the Yankees are now 0-2 and in last place, a position they usually find themselves in early in the year before they begin a tear. Despite this, we can’t take anything for granted.

The rubber match between the clubs is set for 1:35 later today. Matt Garza squares off against Daisuke Matsuzaka. Both teams look to gain ground on the first place Blue Jays and Orioles (not quite as strange as saying the same about Tampa a year ago, yet still very odd)

*Cough cough* no. Joba is good, but he isn’t All-Star good. Yet. And the Yankees rotation isn’t very dominating. CC Sabathia was grossly overpaid and pitched well in the inferior NL. He will be lit up by every AL East team other than Baltimore, not to mention other teams in the AL. And does anybody remember how the Red Sox lit him up in 2007? I sure do.

Heh heh heh...

Wang is also good but he isn’t as good as the media has portrayed him as.Wang is also very hittable. Burnett had one good year—2008, a contract year. He was also well overpaid and he has never pitched under pressure. Chamberlain has great stuff but he has never pitched out of the rotation in the big leagues. 5+ innings is much different from the 1-2 innings he pitched before. And he will get thrown out many times if he continues to act the way he likes to—throwing two straight pitches at a batter’s head, like with Kevin Youkilis. And Pettite is old. He will be average at best this year.

But the Red Sox rotation is a different story. This rotation has the perfect balance of youth and veterans. Josh Beckett is both young and a veteran and he should have won the Cy Young in 2007. Daisuke Matsuzaka has been incredible in his two years in the Majors and he can only get better in his third year. Jon Lester is only the best lefty in baseball, and therefore must be better than Sabathia. Brad Penny should put together a solid year or better and John Smoltz is proven to be a terrific pitcher and a big game pitcher. Tim Wakefield is statistically the best pitcher on the Red Sox and the only problem he could have would be his catcher, who thinks he’s up to the challenge of the knuckleball. And Wake even said he has been comfortable throwing to him during Spring games.

Basically, no matter who’s out there for the Yankees WE are poised for a sweep every series. The Yankees have the offense, but the Red Sox have the pitching, defense, and consistency that never seems to come out of the Bronx anymore. All the Red Sox have to do is win the Spring game tonight and they will prove my point that the Red Sox CAN sweep the Yankees multiple times this year.

Jon Lester and the Red Sox have reached a contract extension that will keep the best lefty in baseball in Boston for another five years. Lester is one of three aces in the deepest rotation in baseball, joining Daisuke Matsuzaka and Josh Beckett.

In the WBC, Dustin Pedroia is off the USA’s roster after straining his oblique. In a way, I’m glad the MVP is not going to be at risk for a more serious injury, especially if the team is going to play like this.

Ortiz and Bay are back with the Sox after their WBC teams were eliminated. Papi hit a home run against the Yankees on Friday, as did Mike Lowell. Julio Lugo may have a meniscus tear, as his MRI results were analyzed by a specialist who believes this to be true. Lugo will have knee surgery and may miss some time.