Trade Deadline

The Red Sox sit 10.5 games out of first and the way they have been playing, who knows if they are going to catch up. The up and down play has not helped them gain any sort of momentum and the playoff berth window is closing fast.

With the inconsistent play, it may be time to cash in what you have and gain some assets. The farm system is already very strong to begin with, so why not pad it a bit more for the future. Jon Lester, Koji Uehara and maybe even Johnny Gomes could be on the trading block.

With the magic that happened last year en route to a World Series win, many were hoping to see a similar result but it just has not panned out. It would make to sense to rip it down and build it back up.

The biggest question lingering is whether or not Lester will be dealt before the deadline. At the beginning of the season it seemed as though he wanted to take a pay cut to stay in Boston, but they are still in the same place in contract talks since they begun the talks. Lester could be a great piece to a team trying to make a run at being the last one standing in October. There could be a slim chance that the Red Sox resign him but if the right trade comes along, the Red Sox could pull the trigger. One crazy scenario could be that Lester is traded away as a rental for the rest of the season and then signs with the Sox after the season is over. A stretch, but you never know in this business.

Koji could return some good assets after being one of the most dominant pitchers we have saw last October. He is still a great pitcher this season and it would be hard to see him go, but that is a good possibility as well. With his dominance, he could bring back some good assets moving forward for the Red Sox.

The last one that is intriguing is Johnny Gomes. It seems that the Res Sox have a plethora of outfielders at the moment and Gomes has been just as inconsistent as the whole team this season. He is a great hitter against lefties but that is about it. He provided great services last season in October but it may be time to part ways.

It really comes down to what the front office thinks. Being in last place at this point in the season proves to be a long climb to try and get back to the top and the inconsistent play does not seem like it will end soon.

My advice to the Sox would be sell, sell, sell. Time to get some assets for next season and start figuring out what you are going to do in the offseason. Start giving more reps to the young guys and lets develop that farm system. There are some good pieces on the team now, but they just do not click like the 2013 team. It could be a quick fix with moving a few guys around or it could be a few years before the Soc get back to where they want to be.

Inconsistent Baseball

Wednesday, October 31st, 2013: The Boston Red Sox were on top of the baseball world. World Series Champions

Sunday, May 25th, 2014: The Boston Red Sox are riding a 10 game losing streak, with no end in sight.

A lot can change from October to May. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the Red Sox could not find a way to win. With nothing to take away from any games, the Sox were in a free fall. One night the pitching was great, but there was no run support. Another night the pitching was a little shaky, and they could not score enough runs. It is only May and the Red Sox are already 8 games out of first place, failing to gain any sort of ground on anyone in front of them.

Injuries and inconsistent play has been the story of the 2014 season and if something does not change soon, the reigning champs will fail to make the playoffs. Besides the loss of Ellsbury, Boston has returned most of the core team that brought them a World Series title.

Moving forward, I think there should be multiple things that could be done to help change the course of this team. The confidence is low right now. After the comeback win on Monday against the Braves, this could help build some momentum moving forward. They are going to have to develop some sort of win streak. The first move should be with Clay Buchholz. His mechanics are off. His confidence is nowhere to be found. He is vital to the success of this team. I believe he needs to be sent down to the minors to work on his mechanics. It is clear cut that the mechanics are not the same as last year.

With moving down, Clay will get a start to work on his mechanics and the Red Sox can call up a young guy to give him a chance to put a spark into the Sox pitching. Between Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo, or Matt Barnes there is a lot of young talent that could provide a spark for the Sox. Sending Clay down and bringing one of these guys up could help for a one game stint and provide more momentum for the club. Rubby De La Rosa is another guy you could throw in the pen who could provide some depth for the thinning bullpen.

Pitching is the first thing that needs to be addressed. The offense will come. There have been flashes of offensive production in the lineup and when the injuries are all healed I think they will be able to get on track.

It has been a frustrating time for Red Sox fans, but with some minor changes and a potential trade at the deadline, I think the Sox can hit the ground running and start to gain ground on the AL East.

The Basketball Capital of the World

One team was expected to win and if they did not win, many would have been shocked. The other team had the will and skill to pull it off but many doubted them to win anything. Two very different teams that were bound together by one common theme. They were UConn Huskies.

In 2004, the UConn Men’s basketball team and the UConn Women’s basketball team both won the National Championship. No other program in NCAA history was able to pull this accomplishment off as UConn was the first to do so. 10 years later, UConn has been able to do it again. For UConn to do that twice in 10 years, they are truly the Basketball Capitol of the World.

The Men’s team has had numerous times of perseverance and they came out on top of all of it. After the postseason APR ban and the retiring of Jim Calhoun, many speculated how they would bounce back. They became an after thought. No one gave them a chance. Kevin Ollie thought different. He was given the program after the Hall of Fame Coach retired, and Ollie went to work. He knew what it was like to have UCONN across his chest and representing the university which made him the perfect candidate for the job. Once again many doubted the decision of to put him in charge.

One year after the ban, Kevin Ollie saw his Huskies draw the 7 seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Some questioned how UConn received such a seed but Ollie did not care. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. They did just that. On their way to the title game, they were able to beat Florida who was the overall 1 seed and they were also able to beat Michigan State who also was a favorite among different analysts and President Obama.

Every step of the way, they were doubted. No one picked them and yet they continued to win. No one every figured out that UConn was the real deal. Shabazz Napier was the clear leader of the team but this was bigger than him. They played as a team. They stayed calm and poised. They played hard. This lead them to win a National Championship. In Kevin Ollie’s first go at a NCAA Tournament, he was able to cut down the nets.

It seems as each time the Men’s team wins, it becomes more and more special. Their first championship they were the clear underdogs against a Duke team that arguably had one of the best lineups ever. 2004 they were lead by Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor and faced adversity but cut down the nets in the end. 2011 they won five games in five days in the Big East Tournament and did not look back as they were led by Kemba to the championship. Finally in 2014 they proved to be top dogs once again. 4-0 in title games and they have the most since 1999.

The UConn Women are a different story. They are the proven. They are the ruthless. They are the ones you have to go through if you want to win a championship, every single year. The amount of perfect seasons they have had under Geno’s tenure is insane to think about. I still have yet to figure out how he does it, and I probably will never figure it out. Last night, he was able to cut down his 9th net and post his 5th perfect season. Geno is in such elite company and year after year, his team is in contention to win it all and finish perfect.

The Women took a different path through their season as they constantly pounded teams into the ground blowing them out giving them no hope to win the game. They cruised through the regular season and without the minor bump against Stanford and BYU, they pretty much cruised to winning it all by beating the Fighting Irish by 21. Every year, Geno is able to drill the UConn way into their brains and every year he sees results. He is truly one of the best basketball coaches of all time.

After winning both the Men’s and Women’s championship in the same year for the 2nd time, I think UConn will start receiving a little more attention and gaining a bit more respect. It has been a fun ride watching all year and watching the Huskies win a championship never gets old. Congratulations to both the Men and Women and I will be looking forward to the title defense.

Sunday Conversation With Tim Fontenault

It has been awhile but I’m back for a new post. The last time I posted something, Shabazz Napier hit a game winner against Florida that sent Gampel into a frenzy. Fast forward to today, and UConn is one win away from a National Championship. Not many people had their bracket with Connecticut selected as one of the finalists. One of my good friends, Tim Fontenault has been covering this special team since the beginning as the beat writer for UConn’s school newspaper, The Daily Campus. The beauty of this friendship is that I have constant access to someone who knows the team better than I do. He has been able to travel to Memphis for the AAC Tournament and has been to Buffalo, New York City, and now Dallas for this NCAA Tournament.

 

Tim took some time out of his busy schedule to talk about Dallas, UConn, and fried gator.

“How was the trip down to Dallas?”

Tim:    The trip to Dallas was good. Hartford to Charlotte was uneventful, but I’ve never been more excited to purchase something in an airport, but that something was a Charlotte Hornets snapback. There was a celebrity presence on the plane from Charlotte to Dallas in the form of Langston Hall, a member of the Mercer basketball team that knocked off Duke in the Round of 64.

 
“What’s the stadium like?”

Tim:  The stadium is ridiculous in multiple meanings of the world. The place is overwhelming in terms of its size and grandeur and seems like an unforgettable place to watch a football game. As a venue for the Final Four, it is atrocious. Never should a basketball game be played in front of 79,444 people. The court is not 100 yards long like a football field, it’s 90 feet. If you are up high, you’re watching on that massive video board. From my spot, I had to watch a lot on the board. I was blessed to be there and blessed to be in the front row of media on the baseline, but I had a massive TBS stage and a student section in the way of an elevated court.

 
“How’s the UConn fan base in Dallas?”

Tim:  For having about four or five days to prepare and having the most expensive travel (I’m guessing), UConn was very well represented. Big Blue Nation from Kentucky and the Florida and Wisconsin crowds were more distinct, but UConn had a decent crowd, especially among students, some of whom sat on a bus for 30 hours.

 
“What kind of celebrity crowd are at the games?”

Tim:  A lot of former UConn players came down here for the game. Jeremy Lamb, Hasheem Thabeet and Caron Butler made the trip from Oklahoma City. Donyell Marshall, Taliek Brown and Khalid El-Amin are here, as are Doug Wiggins and Kyle Bailey, just to name a few. Other celebrities in the crowd included Jerry Jones (obviously), Troy Aikman, LL Cool J, Chris Daughtery, Drake, Johnny Manziel and athletes rooting for their schools, including Chandler Parsons, who brought Dwight Howard to root for Florida, and Wisconsin’s Russell Wilson and J.J. Watt. Montee Ball was also there for Wisconsin, and while wearing a frog outfit, he was nearly kicked out of the stadium after getting upset that security would not let him into the Badgers’ student section. Wisconsin students tried to urge security to let him in.

 

I heard you tried fried alligator. How was it?

Tim: Fried alligator is absolutely delicious. I had heard it tastes like chicken, and it really does. It’s an interesting version of popcorn chicken.

 

What were your thoughts on last nights game?

Tim: UConn showed that it is never out of any game and that even when a team tries to make Shabazz Napier irrelevant, he is always going to find a way to beat it. The Huskies were resilient and fearless against the best team in the country, ending the Gators’ win streak the same way it started: with a loss to UConn.

 

Did you get to talk with the team after the win? If so, what’s their general attitude about tomorrow?

Tim: I did talk to the team after the game. They were quite excited to let people know that their Dec. 2 win over Florida was no fluke and that they deserve to be in the championship game, no matter how little anyone believes in them.

 

What’s your general attitude on tomorrow night?

Tim: UConn is a great team. Kentucky is a great team. This matchup is so weird in the sense that UConn beat Florida twice and lost to Louisville three times while Kentucky beat Louisville twice and lost to Florida three times. It is hard to get a read on how that affects the matchup. Kentucky is taller and stronger, but so were Michigan State and Florida. It’s going to come down to UConn having to defend an Aaron Harrison three from 500 feet away.

 

What is on your agenda between now and tip-off tomorrow night?

Tim: There are two viewing parties for the women’s game at the Final Four tonight. I’m going to the Hyatt Regency, where the men’s team is staying, to watch the game with UConn fans, and I believe Donyell Marshall is supposed to be there. Then after that, I’ll make sure to watch Game of Thrones, obviously.

Napier Sends Gampel Into a Frenzy

Shabazz Napier hits the game winner as UConn takes down #15 Florida Gators Monday night. Video courtesy of Tim Fontenault

The Business of Basketball

The beginning of this college basketball season has been different than past seasons. Many freshmen have emerged as stars with their respective teams and are already being talked about being drafted in the NBA. Whether its Wiggins, Randle or Parker, many NBA GMs wish the NBA draft was next week. Many other freshmen have shown they deserve to be in the league, but for now the question of who will be drafted first in the NBA draft lies within the previous three I mentioned.

 

I am a huge college basketball fan, I love watching UConn and March Madness is my favorite time of the year, but after seeing these freshmen steal the spotlight of college basketball, the rule of them having to play at least one year in the NCAA has had me thinking; why do they have that rule?

If you want to serve fries at McDonalds for the rest of your life, you do not need to go to college for a year and then apply, you just apply and serve fries. If you to have a career in accounting, you go to school for four years and get a degree in accounting and apply for accounting jobs. The beauty of having a career in playing sports is if you are good enough, you do not need a degree. People like Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker deserve to have the opportunity to go straight to the NBA. They want basketball to be their career for the rest of their life. They want to be paid to play basketball. I understand the importance of a college education and value you mine immensely, but if many of these freshmen appear the be lottery picks for the NBA then why should they have to wait when they could be playing in the NBA right now? Most likely, these student-athletes are taking the athlete side of it more seriously than the student part because they know what they want to do with the rest of their life. They want to play basketball.

Nerlens Noel is one of the reasons I believe the rule should be changed. He was a freshmen at Kentucky last year and his season ended abruptly as he tore his ACL. Noel was the favorite for the number one pick in the 2013 NBA draft before the injury and unfortunately was not picked due to injury. Although, he was still a lottery pick, he will not play any minutes this season as he is still recovering from the surgery on his ACL.

Sure, Noel is still going to be paid and he will be back next season, but what if he can never get back to full strength? He will just be a washout in the NBA and never reach his full potential because of a freak play in college. If that were to happen to Parker, Wiggins, or Randle they could miss out on the big dollars. They want to be paid the big dollars because they have the potential to alter a franchise in a few years.

If you are the best at something, you deserve to be paid extremely well. Some of the freshmen class deserve to be paid right now in the NBA. One injury can change that. These guys want to be paid to play basketball as another person wants to be paid for his or her dream job.

That injury does not only hurt the player, but it can hurt an NBA team and the NBA in general. A player that could go to the NBA from high school is an asset to the NBA.  They bring in revenue in the form or ticket sales, jersey sales, and TV ratings. If a player can never reach their full potential because of an injury in that one year of college basketball, then that hurts the alters the amount of revenue that could have been brought in by the NBA. Obviously that is revenue that goes to the respective colleges and NCAA, but for the players who only plan on staying one year, that is only one year of revenue. If a player can go straight to the NBA then that is years and year of revenue for the NBA. If he gets hurt in college, then there could be limited revenue for the NCAA and then none for the NBA.

Injuries can happen at any time and after seeing people like Greg Oden or Andrew Bynum, injuries in the NBA can also occur and alter careers. It just seems to make more sense to see these young guys achieve their highest potential while they are still young and if an injury occurs, the recovery time is much faster than someone who is older.

All these guys are looking for the paycheck that comes with playing the game they love. With that said, should they start paying NCAA athletes? Now that is just a conversation for another day.

Why Not UConn?

By Tim Fontenault (@Tim_Fontenault)

Think about the recent history of UConn basketball.

Start around the early 1990s, when Jim Calhoun’s hard work as the Huskies’ new, young coach began to show. UConn was on the cusp of a Final Four appearance almost every season, and the Huskies were a legitimate contender in the Big East Conference.

Since 1999, three national championships in four trips to the Final Four have brought pride to a state that does not have a lot of athletic achievement to boast about outside of the basketball excellence in Storrs.

The weird thing about those three championships is that only one of them was expected at the beginning of the season.

In 1999, the Huskies truly shocked the world. A lineup of Khalid El-Amin, Rip Hamilton, Kevin Freeman, Jake Voskhul and Souleymane Wane with guys like Rashmael Jones and Edmund Saunders on the bench was bound to be in the national title talk. But against a team in Duke – the team that had dominated its way to Florida with one of the greatest teams in recent memory – no one expected them to win.

In 2004, the story was different. UConn was supposed to be the dominant force in college basketball. Even an early loss to Georgia Tech didn’t dissuade many people, and the Huskies got revenge in the title game.

In November 2010, I remember sitting by a fire with Pat and a few of our friends. I looked down at my phone. “Hey dude,” I said, “we beat Michigan State!”

At that moment, we knew the team could be special. The next day, led by Kemba Walker, the Huskies beat Kentucky to win the Maui Invitational.

A few months later, they won five games in five days to win the Big East Tournament.

A few weeks after that, I saw a piano burn outside my dorm room after winning the national championship.

Anything can happen in college basketball. The top team to start the year or in the tournament doesn’t always win, see UConn of 2006, 2009 and 2012.

The Huskies are right where they should be, right in their comfort zone – No. 18 in the Associated Press Poll with two conference opponents ahead of them and picked second in the American Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

This is where UConn likes to play. No one is talking about them much outside of Connecticut. Everything is Kentucky this and Andrew Wiggins that. In the AAC, they are playing in the shadow of the defending national champion, a team that returns Chane Behanan, Montrezl Harrell and the man that ESPN: The Magazine referred to this week as “Russdiculous.”

That is fine. Rankings are arbitrary. Preseason predictions are arbitrary. Analysis is sometimes arbitrary. What matters is that come mid-April, one team will stand on the podium in Dallas. One team will receive the national championship trophy from Mark Emmert.

That team could easily be UConn.

There is no denying the talent of Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas, Michigan State, Duke and Oklahoma State, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. College basketball is loaded this season. There is talent from top to nearly the bottom in every conference, including the newly-formed American.

So why not UConn? Why not a team that despite a postseason ban last season went 20-10? Why not a team that returns all of its core players? Why not a team that only got better with the addition of three talented freshmen and a transfer 1,000-point scorer? Why not a team whose coach captivated an entire fanbase by keeping to his word that his team wouldn’t take the escalator because it’s for cowards?

The 2004 Red Sox were a good team, but no one thought they were good enough to win the World Series. Throughout their run at history, pitcher Curt Schilling would ask, “Why not us?”

That is a question that will be asked across UConn Country over the next seven months.

Why not us? Why not UConn?

Well, it just might be us. After all, the men need to start putting some more banners up before the women start hogging all the rafter space.

World Series Champions

The stage was set. It was the first World Series clinching game at Fenway Park since 1918. They had the guy who they signed specifically for his playoff pitching.  They had their beards. They had their fans right behind them.

The Red Sox had no intentions of going to a Game 7 as they were able to close out the series last night, bringing the World Series trophy back to Boston.

A season that seemed to be right out of a storybook, it felt as if nothing could go wrong. Even when the team was down, you just had that feeling that they were going to pick themselves up and deliver. That is what they did. They never let the score get to them, they just kept playing the game.

A team one year removed from a 93 loss season and a team that was projected to finish last in the AL East this season is now on top of the baseball world.

The front office took a look at last season and decided that things needed to change. They got rid of their manager, they sent their big money contracts out West, and they signed guys that they felt would play hard. Ben Cherington struck gold in his signings as he was able to bring a group of guys together that immediately clicked.

They gave the city of Boston a reason to smile after the tragedy that occurred at the Boston Marathon. The guys who were new to Boston this season were able to see first hand what kind of brotherhood they joined as all these things were going on in Boston.

When you try and pin point who was responsible for all of this success you cannot look to any one guy. Sure, Ortiz was close to breaking the batting average record in the World Series and Jon Lester pitched lights out all postseason but this team was solid one through nine. It didn’t matter if they were striking out an abnormal amount of times in the playoffs, they always managed to find a way to win. They bought into the team concept and showed the city of Boston what it means to be Boston Strong.

Last night was just another chapter in the storybook season the Red Sox put together and with the last out by Uehara, they were end the storybook with a happy ending. It has been a crazy ride to the top, but these guys would not have wanted it any other way. To fly under the radar all season, basically until they hoisted the trophy over there head was something those guys loved. They just wanted to play baseball, they didn’t care what others thought, they let their game speak for itself.

Cheers to the 2013 Boston Red Sox as they are World Series Champions and are back on top of the baseball world where they belong.

Celtics 2013-2014 Preview

Last season, the Celtics took an early exit in the playoffs in the first round against the New York Knicks. This led to an off-season filled with moves that have the 2013-2014 Celtics looking completely different.

Major Departures:
Doc Rivers
Paul Pierce
Kevin Garnett
Jason Terry 

Major Additions:
Kelly Olynyk
Gerald Wallace
Kris Humphries
Marshon Brooks
Keith Bogans

Doc wanted out, he is now the coach of the Clippers. Danny Ainge saw that the 3 year plan turned 5 year plan was just about over with KG and Pierce and felt it was time to rebuild. This sent KG, Pierce and Terry to Brooklyn in a trade that brought a busload of guys to the Celtics from the Nets. In the end, the Celtics new look is something that fans may have a hard time getting used to. Time to break it down by position.

Head Coach:
Brad Stevens

The Celtics bring in young gun, Brad Stevens as he makes the leap from college to the NBA. For most, the memories of past coaches moving from college to the NBA are not very pretty. Notable coaches that made the leap to the NBA from college are Rick Pitino, John Calipari and P.J. Carlesimo. All had less than stellar careers in the NBA, so the odds for Stevens are against him.  Going into the season there are some big questions that will tag along with him the whole year:

Can he control Rondo’s attitude for the betterment of the team?
How will he develop young guys like Green, Olynyk and Sullinger?
How many wins will the Celtics team actually win this year?

Point Guard:
Rajon Rondo*
Avery Bradley
Phil Pressey

Asterisk next to Rondo as he continues to rehab and heal from his ACL tear that ended his season last year. It should be an even bigger asterisk as a Rondo-less Celtic team will have lack of command at the point guard position. Last years team faced many offensive woes after the All-Star point guard went down and we can probably expect the same until Rondo is back on the court. This leads Avery Bradley and Phil Pressey to pick up the slack. I don’t consider Bradley a point guard and taking over ball handling duties last season put some stress on his overall game.  Phil Pressey showed signs of brightness in the preseason and after a season under Rondo’s wing, I can see him being on his way to being a solid PG in this league. For now, he faces an uphill battle as he is the only true point guard on the roster while Rondo is sidelined.

Shooting Guard:
Keith Bogans
Marshon Brooks
Jordan Crawford
Courtney Lee

A rather deep squad at shooting guard especially if you throw Avery Bradley into the mix. It’ll be very interesting to see how Stevens uses this group and how the minutes get divided up. Once Rondo comes back, Bradley will be the true starter but I can see Stevens mixing up lineups for the first few months. Bogans is someone who will give you good defensive minutes and will hit the occasional three but besides that there isn’t too much to him. Brooks is someone who is a wild card. Still into his young NBA career he has showed that he can score and be a solid option for an NBA team but he is still developing and getting adjusted to the league. If he can figure out how to get the ball in the hoop, he will be a solid option for the C’s off then bench.  Crawford has come out and said he wants to assume more but can he harness his abilities to truly help the team? He has been known to take a lot of forced shots, but in this offense he will need to take good shots and make good decisions. Courtney Lee is one who could go either way. He struggled last year to fit into the system but after a year to get his feet wet, he could provide a defensive spark for this team. He just needs to hit his open jumpers

 

Small Forward:
Jeff Green
Gerald Wallace

This position could be extremely beneficial for the Celtics, or it could be a dud. Jeff Green will be playing his second season removed from his life altering heart surgery. He was able to do proper offseason training without worrying about rehabbing from the surgery. This guy has a question mark next to his name. Can he take over the scoring role every night and become to go-to guy for the C’s? He showed signs that point toward yes last year, but can he do it consistently. The Celtic inside of me says he can but the basketball analyst sees that there is no safety net in Paul Pierce or KG, Jeff Green is all alone. He will get a lot more shots this year and his success will help steer the Celtics success. Gerald Wallace is another guy that you wonder about productivity. A once quick athletic player in Portland has lost a step or two and it shows in his game. He’s been in the league for 12 years for he needs to show some leadership with some of the younger guys and help them through the season.

Power Forward:
Brandon Bass
Kris Humphries
Jared Sullinger

This position may be the most rounded and clear cut position for the Celtics. Brandon Bass will be entering his third season in green and he has proven he is a solid power forward. His elbow jumper and his intense defense is something that has been a staple in the Celtics for the past couple seasons. He will be another Celtic that needs to emerge as a leader seeing he has been in green for a couple years. Kris Humphries is a guy who can average a double double. He plays hard and can give you quality minutes. The only thing that could hold him back is the “Kardashian Kurse”. Jared Sullinger is a guy who is going to be big for the Celtics. Before season ending back surgery, Sullinger was a great big man to turn to off the bench who would play hard, fight for rebounds, and could finish at the rim. He may be a little rusty out of the gate, but he will get back into the swing of things and do well for the C’s.

Center:
Kelly Olynyk
Vitor Faverani

The Center position is an interesting one for the Celitcs. It has the biggest question mark for all positions. Two players who are new to the NBA have made a solid impact for their team in the preseason. Kelly Olynyk is someone who could really grow within the Celtics organization and will have plenty of opportunities to shine this season. Vitor is someone who could go either way. An international player coming to the NBA has proved to be successful but there is also failure within that. I’m not saying he’s going to be a Manu Ginobili but he could be a solid player. You just don’t want to see him be a Darko Milicic. He showed the Celtics that he can be an asset with his relentless defense and his post play on offense.

 

Overall:

All in all, the Celtics do have some good players, but without Rondo, the Celtics are going to have a hard time competing. Danny Ainge shipped off KG and Pierce to begin a rebuilding stage with the Celtics so it is going to be some time before you see them contend for the playoffs. They are going to be at the bottom of the pack this year and will most likely look to lose some games to get into a better position for a potential lottery pick. It is hard to ignore next years draft class as there could be a potential franchise changer in there.

Game 5 Recap; Sox One Win Away

The team that finished last in the AL East a season ago and the team that was predicted to finish last this season in the AL East is now one win away from winning the World Series. The men with the crazy beards have flown under the radar all season and that’s the way they like. Let them keep doubting the Sox, they’ll just continue to prove you wrong.

David Ortiz has been dialed in since Game 1, and he didn’t miss a beat last night. With Pedroia on second, Ortiz came up to the plate and took the ball into right for a double bringing Dustin home for the first run of the game. He finished the game 3-4 and is hitting .733 in the series. The man has been possessed behind the plate, it has become an odd thing to see him not get on base. He even managed to get an “infield” hit when they put the shift on him. He is the clear leader on this team and if he brings his hitting performance to Game 5, the Red Sox will be put in a good position to win.
Jon Lester is another Red Sox player who brought their A-game to the World Series. In a crucial game that swayed the series one way or another, Lester showed why Farrell decided to give him the ball. Pitching 7.2 innings, it looked like he was going to be pitching a complete game until a minor jam came about in the 8th inning. He allowed only 4 hits, and one mistake of a home-run to Holliday. He controlled the whole game, and would not be denied a loss in Game 5. If it were possible, I would stick him in Game 6.

All tied up in the seventh, the Sox were able to get a hit from Xander and a walk from Drew to bring Ross up to the plate. It seems that every game someone different steps up for this Sox team and delivers. It was Gomes in Game 4 and in Game 5 it was Ross. With two men on he was able to pull the ball down the left field line for a ground rule double, bringing Xander around to score. After Lester failed to reach base, Ellsbury was able to bloop a single into center field bringing Drew home making it a 3-1 game as Ross got thrown out at the plate.

Seeing a different guy each night stepping up is truly a great thing to watch, yet it is also extremely stressful. Being able to count on any single person in the lineup is what makes a team great and is something that has gotten the Red Sox this far.

Game 6 is coming back to Boston, and the Red Sox will have a chance to clinch the World Series in Boston for the first time since 1918. Game 6 is a big one, and I know all of Boston will be rocking if they are able to win tomorrow night. John Lackey as as a rookie in 2002 was able to clinch the World Series for the Angels. Tomorrow night as a veteran, he will have the opportunity to do it again. If I was a betting man, I would say he is pretty ready to take the hill.

Game 6 is Wednesday night at 8:07pm EST. John Lackey vs Michael Wacha