Going Around the Horn - With Anger Everywhere

Some random ramblings after the Rays punched us in the face all weekend long:

-Are the Rays this good....or are the Sox that bad? Unfortunately for Red Sox Nation, the eye test says both.

-I have zero confidence in Boston's ability to win a series against teams with quality pitching

-Jacoby is missed, the lineup needs the jump start

-The Sox can't handle the Ray's speed, pitching, lineup, or defense....it's early, I know, but that's not a good sign for the Nation's post season aspirations

-The Rays are undefeated on the road. I don't care if it's only two weeks into the season, that's studly.

-The weather and team performance has a lot to do with it, but the Fenway faithful were amazingly quiet this weekend. I'm pretty sure I made more noise than the park did....granted I was slightly over served and bowling strikes at Jillians, but still.

-Is it me, or did this weekend feel like the 2008 ALCS. The Rays are making a statement. The Sox have tomorrow's game to try to save some kind of face.

-It's sad that Tek and Pedey are our power hitters....think about how terrible the offense would be without Pedey's numbers. (I was going to launch into specific player's offensive struggles, but I ultimately decided it was much simpler and concise to point out the producers at this point)

-Pedey said it right last night: "We need to do everything better......or we're not going to be a playoff team, we've got teams that want to kick our ass". Spot on Pedey, you should write for ITM.

-Who is this Jade McCarthy chick? I'm sure she's quite nice, likes the Sox, and is articulate...but where's Heidi? Get Heidi back in the lineup and this is a different team, she's the spark plug we need.

-Just a reminder that Boston's record is 4-8. 1-5 at home. The Pittsburgh Pirates are 7- 5.

-The Rays starting rotation is deep....very much comparable to Boston's....yet it's at less than one quarter of the cost of Boston's staff (9.75 million in 2010, while Boston's is well into the 40's)

-If anyone saw or can find video of Joanna Hill (Seth from Superbad) throwing out the first pitch at Fenway today, I want to hear/see how it went. My boy is clearly not scared of carbs.

-I'm only in slight freak out mode at this point....I'll give the Sox the benefit of 30-40 games before I start lighting things on fire.

Finding Positives From a Rough Series

(this photo of Nasty Nobbs getting throw out of Fenway just never gets old)

The Rays continued their domination of the Red Sox this weekend, taking three of four at the Trop. At some point early last year, the "I got your timing down Vaughn" torch was passed from the Red Sox, to the Rays....I mean, even Tim Wakefield has been lit up by this young, fast, and powerful Rays lineup (anyone else a little mad that Haverhill's, Northeastern's, and the Wareham Gatemen's-own Carlos Pena has 11 taters?). Joe Murph has been a fan of this Rays team for seemingly longer than anyone (including the fake fans down in St. Pete), and the more I see them play the Red Sox, the more I understand why. Regardless of their current record, you've got to believe this team will be there in August in September. With that said, I figured it would be slightly uplifting to try to find some positive takeaways from a tough series in Florida:

-Brad Penny's quality start. In what seems like the first time since Nam', the Red Sox got a quality start out of one of their pitchers. Penny can partly blame Lugo for the loss (which he did), but we can all feel a little better that he was spotting a fastball with some velocity, and mixing in some great breaking stuff.

-Youk continues to pound the ball...Ortiz can say what he wants about not seeing good pitches, or needing another power bat behind him, but in reality he has the best hitter in the AL batting behind him right now.

-JD is healthy, and is starting to show some consistency at the plate.

-Nick Green continues his studly performance filling in at short....if only Tito could find the balls to sit Lugo for good.

-Dusty's average continues to climb, he hit .375 in the four game series with 5 runs scored...no thanks to Ortiz (can you tell he's still in my fantasy team's lineup and I'm bitter?).

Unfortunately, that's all I got right now for positives, feel free to chime in with more, had I gone with the negative list this post would be considerably longer.

The Sox head into the New Stadium tonight for what promises to be an exciting two game set against the Yanks. Early weather reports from ITM's own meteorologist on the ground in NYC (Joe Murph) show a slim chance they'll get the game in tonight, but I'm holding out hope. I'm excited to see a Lester/Hughes match up.

Go Sox, and Go C's.