Category: Sports

The Red Sox picked up a pitcher at the trade deadline, to nobody’s surprise. But it’s a really interesting trade — I’m coming to the conclusion that Theo Epstein has some kind of a mind control ray. Follow this one with me:

A couple of weeks ago, the Red Sox traded Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez to the Pirates for Scott Sauerbeck and Mike Gonzalez. Sauerbeck and Lyon were the meat of the trade. Sauerbeck is a very good lefthanded reliever, and Lyon is a young guy with promise but a tendency to be wild. Good trade for the Sox.

The Pirates soon reported that Lyon was injured, and complained that the trade should be redone. The Red Sox held firm.

Then, today, the Red Sox traded Freddy Sanchez and Mike Gonzalez to the Pirates for Jeff Suppan, Anastacio Martinez, and Brandon Lyon. Yes, that’s the same Martinez, Gonzalez, and Lyon. So — for those of us keeping score — that comes down to trading Freddy Sanchez for a really good lefthanded reliever and a guy who’s won five in a row including three complete games and two shutouts. Suppan led the Pirates in innings pitched, ERA, wins, and was second in strikeouts.

Now, Freddy Sanchez is a good prospect, but I believe the Red Sox just traded him for two of the three best pitchers on the Pirates. That’s what you call a steal. It’s incredible that Epstein managed to pick up three quality pitchers over the course of the season without really touching the deadly Boston offense.

I don’t think you can count on Suppan to keep on reeling off five game winning streaks, but when you’re pitching for a team that’s averaging over 6 runs per game, you get a little more leeway. I’d be really surprised if the Sox don’t make the playoffs. How’re their chances against Oakland’s starting rotation? Frankly, I’d rather they get the Yankees bullpen.

The other cool thing about the trades this year is that they aren’t just about this year. Everyone’s contract expires in 2005 — so there’s another year of opportunity before (probably) Pedro moves on, and maybe Nomar.

It’s a sign of Red Sox obsession that my first reaction to this trade was “ah, the Yankees just want to rub our noses in 1986.” However, I confidently predict that if the Yankees are foolish enough to put Orosco up against the powerful Red Sox lineup, the mighty Red Sox bats will erase the memory of those awful seven games.

I went to the 2003 Reebok Pro Summer League today. Well, mostly; in the middle of it all I snuck away to Fenway Park to help a friend buy Red Sox gear and eat good Indian food. But mostly I went to the basketball.

And then I wrote about it. But I like you, so I will not put everything I wrote on the front page.

Someone needs to let the Raptors know that it’s quality, not quantity. Doing PR work to discuss signing Jason Kidd is one thing. PR work to hype the signing of a guy — Mengke Bateer — who averaged less than 1 point a game last season is another thing.

And they haven’t even signed the guy yet. They’re hoping to sign him. There can’t possibly be any serious competition for him. How pathetic is it to say “well, we’re hoping to sign the second best Chinese-born player in the NBA”? Pretty damned pathetic.

Previously, their big free agent announcements were Jerome Moiso and Milt Palacio. I like Palacio a lot, and he’s a servicable backup point guard if your primary point guard doesn’t get hurt a lot. However, they’re not exactly worldbeaters.

In conclusion: nyah nyah, nyah nyah, Paul Pierce turned out to be better than Vince Carter after all. Thanks, and I’ll be here all week.

Hint to Roger Clemens: nobody likes you much. Poor guy. He has a milestone season, gets his 300th win, strikes out his 4,000th man, and yet nobody wants him to get that final All-Star appearance in the final season of his career. The public didn’t vote for him, the players didn’t vote for him, the manager didn’t select him, and now Commissioner Selig doesn’t want anyone to make an exception for him. Possibly all that stuff about not showing up for the Hall of Fame induction backfired, huh?

Sports Illustrated recently launched a new fantasy baseball game. It complements their existing fantasy baseball game, I suppose. It’s called Baseball Challenge: Salary Cap Challenge.

Yep. It’s a fantasy baseball game that sells itself with the salary cap. As a Celtics fan laboring under the emotional weight of the Vin Baker trade, I find this painfully depressing. It doesn’t look like it’s really that different than any other fantasy baseball game — salary caps are nothing new in that world — but did they have to sell it as the “Cripple Your Team For Years With One Stupid Guaranteed Contract Challenge”? (Rephrasing mine.)

Pyeongchang, not Pyongyang. Doh!

Vancouver won the 2010 Winter Olympics. While the main competitor was thought to be Salzburg, in Austria, that bid was eliminated on the first ballot. The final vote was between Vancouver and Pyongyang, and the Canadians won by a mere 3 votes. Fortunately for Canada, all but two of the Salzburg voters switched to Vancouver on the second ballot.

Apparently, all the Europeans voted for Vancouver, because if the Olympics is in North America in 2010 it’s unlikely to be in North America again in 2012. That pushes New York further out of the running. London’s going to have to be the coalition of the willing representative, with Paris flying the standard of the opposition. (Madrid and Moscow are less likely candidates.)

Big revelation of the night: Bill Simmons sounds exactly like any random 16 year old fan. I caught him calling into 1510 on the way home, and he really is the voice of the Boston fan. To a tee. I think that’s a compliment.

Notes on the NBA draft follow in real time. I’m shamelessly ripping off Bill’s format, by the way. Just saying.

In an orgy of sporting expenditure, I find myself with four tickets for each weekend 11 AM session in the 2003 Reebok Pro Summer League. There’s a chance LeBron James will be playing, and even if he isn’t — hey! It’s summer basketball! How cool is that? I also got one ticket for the evening session on Sunday.

Hopefully I’ll be able to drag my brother and his wife and my nephew along; if not I’m sure I can find a good home for the excess tickets.