Baseball Sports

I was strongly in disagreement with a statement that was made by Dennis Eckersly after last Wednesday night’s game (a 12-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays).  Tim Wakefield took the loss.

Eckersly made a comment (something to the affect of) “That was a disasterous loss and this team does not look like they belong in the play-offs.”

In a way, he is right, that team does not belong in the playoffs because that team was compiled mostly of minor leaguers.  Minor Leaguers who were facing Halliday and providing Wakefield with mediocre offense and defense.

I imagine that Francona gave the regular guys the night off presumably because at around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, the real Red Sox players got the word that they clinched the wild card.  They likely partied (and rightfully so) well into late Wednesday morning .

This provided Francona with the opportunity to call up some of the young guys from the minors to see which ones may be ready to use “in a pinch” for the play-offs.

Once a team clinches any play-off berth, it makes a lot of sense to try different players at different positions.  It gives the organization an opportunity to see which of these young guys can steal bases, pitch in a relief spot, pinch hit, etc.  In addition, these last few games of the season are the ones where regular-season players get their last chances to tie or break records with their stats.

It’s simply unfair to predict which team will win a series based on the last few games of the season.

The beginning of the play-offs is like Opening Day all over again.  All teams start out at 0-0.  Some of these strong, regular players possess either more or less talent in the post-season.  There may be a young rookie, unknown to us yet, who will be the one to hit a grand-slam in the ninth – awarding us with a walk-off win.

Anything can happen.

So, here’s to a new season for the Sox and another chance (hopefully) to see a repeat of 2004 or 2007.

GO SOX!