I Knew Someone Would

There hasn't been a lot of Red Sox talk around here lately because, quite honestly, we're all just enjoying the ride! I'm still having a hard time believing how good the Red Sox look, and in awe of how fun - and tense! - the series against Detroit was. This team is something special and i'm really looking to see how they perform against what sounds like a very solid Cardinals team.

And not to take away from anything, but I am curious about some of the decisions that Farrell has made recently. Admitably, most of them have worked, but here's what i've been wondering:

• What horrible thing did Daniel Nava do to Farrell's dog to deserve being benched for a steady diet of Gomes in the playoffs? What happened to their effective regular season platoon? Please tell me it's not because Nava's beard pales in comparison...
• He seems to have learned his lesson, but why did he stick with WMB so long when he had the remarkably patient Xander Bogaerts available? Bogaerts performance this postseason reminds me a bit of Ellsbury in '07 - he seems mature beyond his years. (And did you know he's from Aruba?)
• Why is he pitching anyone other than Breslow, Koji, and occasionally Tazawa in relief? Watching Morales the other night was painful in the extreme. Again, I shouldn't criticize because he had the stones to pitch Tazawa's heat against Cabrera in game three - when the dominant Koji was sitting there! - and it worked beautifully.

Regardless of those quibbles, that Tigers series was unlike anything I've watched. These games were tense from start to finish, and filled with dominant pitching. I believe both teams set team records for playoff strikeouts, and other than the amazing, series-turning Grand Slam, Senior Octobre Ortiz did not actually hit well. But somehow despite it all I truly never got horribly nervous once Ortiz hit his huge HR. The team just seems to pull things out in the end, as their incredible 11 walkoff wins attest. Chad Finn, in his excellent post on Game 6 of the ACLS, encapsulated it well by quoting "...Brandon Workman's perfect postgame summation of how this team sees each other: "I didn't know who was going to step up. But I knew someone would." Looking forward to seeing who's going to step up in the World Series.

My Sox Hurt!

It's only spring training, but a number of folks are already hurting:

• Franklin Morales' back is hurting 
• Craig Breslow has a bum shoulder
• Ortiz achilles is not yet 100%
• Stephen Drew has a concussion

While that looks ugly, at least several people are looking healthy:

• Lackey looks healthy. Not necessarily a great pitcher, but a healthy arm. Baby steps?
• Aceves was involved in a major brawl as part of the WBC, but appears to have escaped major injury.

So to summarize, it appears that to start off the season, we'll have very few left-handers in our bullpen, will be without our biggest bat, and may or may not have our starting shortstop. But all five starters look good to go and Aceves will be there come hell or high water. Despite the latter, it appears that at least the clubhouse is "eleventy-billion times better." (That last one was for you, Joel!)

I'm tired of reading and thinking about this stuff. The regular season can't start soon enough.

Yale

Now that the Red Sox have acquired lefty Craig Breslow and called up catcher Ryan Lavarnway from Pawtucket, the the team two Yale grads on the active roster.

That looks to be a first, at least in the modern era.  According to Baseball Almanac, there have been only a couple dozen Yalies who have ever made it to the big leagues; before Breslow and Lavarnway, the last one was Ron Darling, who played for the Mets, Expos, and A's between 1983 and 1995. 
I'm not quite sure what Cherington is trying to achieve, but as soon a game rolls around when Breslow is pitching and Lavarnway is catching, look for the announcers to have a field day.