MyRedSoxToday.com

The Red Sox and Ryan Dempster have finally agreed on a 2-year, $26.5 million deal (after rejecting the Red Sox’ $25 million offer last week).  Dempster wanted a 3-year deal, but he eventually agreed to more money but for only 2 years.  Dempster had been with the Chicago Cubs for 9 seasons before being traded to the Texas Rangers at the trading deadline in 2012.  He had a 2.25 ERA in 16 starts with the Cubs last season and he had pitched at least 200 innings for the Cubs in each of the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 MLB seasons.

I like the move a lot. Dempster has a great demeanor and is a quality teammate, something the Cubs really really need.  He pitches every 5th day and gives it his all each outing, so he should provide some veteran stability to go along side Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz.  If Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lackey can stay healthy for prolonged periods in 2013, the Red Sox should be able to stay in a lot more games than they did in 2012.

On the heels of the Mike Napoli signing, the Red Sox also completed the same deal for Shane Victorino last week.  Victorino will platrol right field at Fenway Park for the Red Sox for the next 3 years and he’ll make $39 million for doing so.  Not a bad move for either side.  Right Field at Fenway Park is one of the toughest positions to man in all of baseball, so the GM Ben Cherington and Manager John Farrell like the fact that Shane Victorino has good range seeing that he has played center field most of his career.  Farrell had this to say about having a guy like Victorino in that corner outfield position – “It’s probably the toughest right field in baseball to play, just in terms of space to cover, so that range comes into play. It might not be your prototypical right fielder where it’s a power bat, because we do value the defense in that area. That’s not to exclude anyone, but defense takes a high priority…”

The Victorino signing all-but-ended any lingering hopes that the Red Sox would somehow make a legitimate run at Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton.  Victorino is a career .275 hitter with 90 HR’s and 409 RBI’s.  He also racked up 201 career stolen bases.  While 2012 was a down year for Victorino – he hit just .255 with 11 HR’s and 55 RBI’s – he did have 39 stolen bases which shows that he still has some speed left in the tank.  That could give the Red Sox a little more opportunity to take some chances if both he and Jacoby Ellsbury are on base at the same time…

The Red Sox are quietly re-shaping this team for 2013.  With the return of healthy players like Clay Buchholz, David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury, don’t be surprised if this Red Sox squad is back in contention with new leadership at the top with Manager John Farrel.  I like the Red Sox chances a lot more than most people are giving them credit for. http://www.ticketchest.com/sports/MLB_Tickets/Boston_Red_Sox/. Go Sox!

The Red Sox and Mike Napoli have agreed to a 3-year, $39 million deal.  Napoli will likely play 1st base for the Red Sox for the next few seasons.  Napoli has a career .306 batting average at Fenway Park with a .710 slugging percentage.  Not having to catch everyday could also help Napoli’s productivity and longevity.  And he’ll also serve as a reliable option at back-up catcher in case something goes wrong with Jarrod Saltalamacchia.  I can just see the big slugger slamming a lot of balls into the Green Monster in left.

Go Sox!

The Red Sox and DH David Ortiz have agreed to a 2-year, $26 million deal that will keep Big Papi in a Red Sox uniform for the rest of his major league career.  Ortiz earned a $1 million signing bonus and he will be paid $14 million in 2013 and $11 million in 2014.  Ortiz’s 2014 salary could escalate  depending on how many games he misses due the achilles injury that sidelined Ortiz for much of the 2nd half of the 2012 season.  Ortiz knew he was going to get the deal done with the Red Sox — “I don’t think there ws any doubt.  They approached me well, and our negotiations this year were easier than ever. They know what they were looking for, and it wasn’t even a going back-and-forth situation.  It was pretty much this is it and let’s agree with it.”

Good move for the Sox who have major major image and team issues right now.  Despite his injuries this year, Ortiz still hit .318 with a respectable 23 home runs and 60 RBI’s in 90 games.  And even though he is turning 37 years old later this month, both he and the Red Sox continue to feel that he has some good years left in him.

We’ll keep you posted as winter GM meetings heat up next week…

The Red Sox ended their 7-game losing streak with a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Mariners in Seattle.  Cody Ross stroked a game-tying 3-run homer in the 6th inning that ties the game at 3.  And 2 outs later, Ryan Lavarnway gave the Red Sox their first lead of the series with his 1st home run of 2012.

Jon Lester pitched 6 “OK” innings to get the win — 3 ER on 9 hits and 2 walks with 4 K’s.  He improved to 9-11, but for a starter considered to be an ace of the staff, his 1.38 WHIP and 4.99 ERA leave a lot to be desired. Kudos to the bullpen for holding the 1-run lead — Craig Breslow gave up 2 hits in the 7th, but Junichi Tazawa, Vincente Padilla and Andrew Bailey closed the door to preserve the much-needed win.

The Red Sox look to get their 1st series win in a while as Aaron Cook looks to erase the memories of his latest outing in which he couldn’t even get out of the 3rd inning after giving up 6 ER on 7 hits of a 20-2 loss to the A’s last Friday night.  Cook squares off against another struggling veteran – 4-12 Kevin Millwood.

The Red Sox are now 63-74 and unless they put together an incredibly good final 3+ weeks of the season will likely finish with an under-.500 record for the 1st time since 1997 when they finished 78-84…

Felix Doubront and the Red Sox look to rebound against A.J. Griffin and the A’s tonight in Oakland.  After losing 20-2 on Friday night in one of the most lopsided Red Sox losses all season, Doubront will need his “A” game in order to quiet the red-hot A’s.  Doubront has allowed at least 4 earned runs in 4 of his last 5 starts, and he has not earned a win since July 18th against the White Sox.  It won’t get any easier tonight…

Ouch — what a way to end the tumultuous month of August, with a 20-2 loss to the A’s in Oakland. The A’s scored in all but 2 of the 8 innings that their hitters came to the plate, including a 9-run 7th.

Aaron Cook suffered his 8th loss of the season, as his ERA soared over 5 after he allowed 6 ER on 7 hits in just 2 2/3 innings.  Not good.  Craig Breslow and Mark Melancon each gave up 4 ER in the 7th inning.

The Red Sox fell 9 games under .500 with the loss and they are just 1 game ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays for last place in the AL East.

Fenway Park was still buzzing from the weekend’s blockbuster trade, while Daisuke Matsuzaka looked like a new man as the Red Sox beat the Royals 5-1 at Fenway Park.

Matsuzaka pitched 7 strong innings – 1 unearned run, 5 hits, 2 walks and 6 K’s in only 101 pitches. Not bad.

The Red Sox outfield paved the way to victory on the offensive end.  Each outfielder had 2 hits – Jacoby Ellsbury had a home run and a double with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI.  Cody Ross added a double and scored a run with 3 RBI’s.  Scott Podsednik hit leadoff and scored a run.

And while the Red Sox took 3 of 4 from the Royals, you couldn’t help but not talk about the “salary dump” that GM Ben Cherington pulled off with the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend.  Parting ways with Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto leaves the Red Sox with a LOT of holes.  Sure they will now have some monetary flexibility to re-build the pieces, but this is not going to be a quick fix.

Guess we’ll have to see how it all shakes out and we’ll have more analysis of the big deal over the next few weeks…

Happy All-Star Game from your friends at MyRedSoxToday.com!

Matt Cain gets the start for the National League while Justin Verlander goes for the American League.

Red Sox fans get to root for David Ortiz.

Go American League Go!!!

Jon Lester fell to 5-6 after the Red Sox lost to the Yankees 7-3 on the last day of the 1st half of the 2012 MLB season.  It has been a long and frustrating 1st half for Boston.

Injuries, poor play, more injuries, blah, blah, blah.

The Yankees out-hit the Red Sox 14-7 on Sunday and made it look pretty easy all weekend long.  Ian Nova racked up 10 K’s in just 6 innings of work and the bullpen did the rest.

Lester couldn’t even make it out of the 5th inning – 5 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks.  Ouch.  He now has a 1.35 WHIP and 4.49 ERA.  Not good from one of your “aces”.

The Red Sox are now 43-43 and they trail the Yankees by 9.5 games for the AL East lead.  The only saving grace is that the Red Sox are only 2.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a wild card spot.  And given all of the damn injuries to both pitchers and position players alike, it’s not too far of a stretch to think that the Red Sox can make a run in the 2nd half.  Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Go Sox!