Trot Nixon - 7 - RF
Week 10 - 05-11 June 2006
Trot Nixon is one of Boston’s original “dirt dogs,” the way he goes about his business on the diamond like a man possessed. For him, it’s less about the individual accomplishments and more about the team. Clearly, the pinnacle of his career with the Sox was the 2004 championship in which he drove home the final two runs of the series on a wall-ball double in St. Louis. It was the cumulation of a rough season in which he played only 48 games but did manage to bat .315 with six home runs and 23 RBI. 2005 was also frustrating as he missed less time but only batted .275 with 13 home runs and 67 RBI. With 2006 being the last year of his current contract, some wondered if the acquisition of Wily Mo Peña was a sign that the Sox were ready to show the door to Nixon at the end of the season.
Instead, Nixon has given the media and the front office reason to reconsider that thought. Through Sunday, in which he played both ends of a doubleheader (of course), Nixon was batting .317, raising it from .296 to begin the week, and had stroked six home runs while collecting 34 RBI. On Friday night, in a 4-3 win for Boston, Nixon enjoyed what was probaby his best game of the season, going 4-for-4 with a double, a home run, and three RBI; the home run also was the first Nixon had managed to hit at home this season as he stroked a pitch from Vicente Padilla into the bleachers to plate the first three runs of the night for the Sox. Nixon also enjoys one of the highest on-base percentages for the club, with a .426 average thanks in part to 32 walks; he’s also struck out just 18 times in 186 plate appearances, another sign of some improved discipline at the plate.
Counting his time in the minors, Nixon is by far the longest-tenured member of the franchise, having been chosen seventh in the 1993 draft by Boston and never knowing the inner workings of another club. He would love nothing more than to finish his career with the Red Sox and, with Peña on the disabled list for the next four to six weeks, Nixon has ample opportunity to prove that he deserves a new deal at season’s end.
Manny Ramirez - 24 - LF
Week 9 - 29 May-04 June 2006
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that he’s been a Boston fixture now for five-plus seasons, one of the veterans on this team, but Manny Ramirez is one of those players who seems to casually go about his business, putting up impressive numbers as almost an afterthought while the franchise promotes other faces of the organization like David Ortiz and Curt Schilling (unless, of course, he makes a “bonehead play” that suddenly rockets him back into the media spotlight). With a .314 career average, 449 home runs, and 1452 RBI through Sunday, there is little doubt that we are witness to a future Hall of Fame inductee right here in Boston.
Although this past week had no real highlights, he did hit three home runs and drive in another eight runs for Boston as Boston split the first six games of a ten-game road trip with Toronto and Detroit. However, it should also be noted that, after a sluggish start at the plate, Ramirez ended the month of May last Wednesday with nine home runs and 21 RBI while slugging .714 to bring his totals to where we would expect them at this point of the season. He also continues to play well in left field, especially at Fenway Park, having made just one error in 87 chances while also making two outfield assists. Amongst left fielders in the American League, he is second in batting average and home runs and third in RBI while on top in OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) at .999.
Not surprisingly, Ramirez is the leading vote-getter for an outfield position at this summer’s All-Star Game scheduled for next month in San Francisco and it would be his ninth straight selection; it’s hard to argue that he is not deserving of this honor again. Though he may not be the most talkative player in the clubhouse or at the forefront of the image that the club wants to portray, his contributions continue to be a key ingredient to the team’s success to this point of the season. Perhaps his role can best be summed by Teddy Roosevelt’s famous line: Speak softly and carry a big stick.
Curt Schilling - 38 - P
Week 8 - 22-28 May 2006
Was there any doubt after Saturday night that Curt Schilling would not be the player of the week here? When you reach a milestone like he did that night - notching career win number 200 - you have to tip your hat to the guy. It’s amazing to think that after getting drafted by the Red Sox in 1986, he would not make his debut for them until 2004, if you ignore the fact that he spent 16 seasons in between that time playing for Baltimore, Houston, Philadelphia, and Arizona. When the veteran pitcher accepted a trade before the 2004 season to return to Boston, he knew that his purpose for returning to the organization where he got his start was to help the Sox “break an 86-year-old curse,” as he remarked in an infamous Ford truck commercial shortly after signing a new agreement. Less than a year later, he made good on that promise; with blood seeping through his sock and the look of determination on every pitch he made, he made key contributions to an eventual world championship for the franchise.
After a rough 2005, in which he spent half the season on the DL and managed just eight wins, some wondered just how much longer he would last. Last week, Schilling got not one but two wins to reach the mark. First, against the New York Yankees at Fenway on Monday, Schilling allowed just one run on five hits through eight innings of work while striking out six to post win number 199. Then Saturday, facing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he wasn’t quite as dominant but still managed seven innings, allowing four runs on eight hits while striking out seven to not only match his win total from last season in less than two months time, but to become just the 104th pitcher in major league history to reach the 200-win plateau. Interestingly enough, number 199 came on his daughter’s ninth birthday and number 200 came on his son Gehrig’s eleventh birthday.
Schilling has made it apparent that, once his contract with Boston ends after the 2007 season, he will likely hang up his cleats and call it a career. Right now, he appears to be on the cusp of a potential Hall of Fame enshrinement. With two World Series titles to his credit, nearly 3000 career strikeouts to go with an 8.75 strikeouts per nine inning ratio, putting him in the top ten all-time for that category, and now this, it might be hard to come up with reasons not to vote for him in 2013. For now, Boston fans can enjoy watching the end of a career that will likely not go out with a whimper, but a bang.
Josh Beckett - 19 - P
Week 7 - 15-21 May 2006
So there’s little doubt that the deal that brought Josh Beckett to Boston from Florida late last November has made dividends for Boston; in nine starts this season, the young righthander is 6-1 with a 4.19 ERA. The intensity that helped him take the Marlins to the pinnacle of basball in 2003, a World Series win that earned him MVP honors, is more than evident in his mannerisms on the field, punching the air after recording the final out of an inning on a punchout or as he did Saturday when he ran to cover first and stepped on the bag ahead of the runner.
This past week, Beckett made two quality starts for the Sox, both on the road. In Baltimore on Monday, Beckett pitched seven strong, allowing just a first inning home run to Miguel Tejada and a sixth inning single to Javy Lopez, who was later wiped out on a double play, and faced just 22 batters as Boston rolled to an easy 11-1 win over the hapless Orioles. He also struck out six and, obviously, did not walk a batter. Then, on Saturday in Philadelphia, though not as solid, Beckett still pitched another seven-plus innings, allowing just four runs on six hits and three walks. More impressively, at the plate due to the fact that National League rules applied there, he helped his own cause. In the sixth, he stroked a single with one out to plate the first run of the game for Boston to tie the score. Then, in the top of the seventh, he became the first Red Sox pitcher since Marty Pattin on 27 September 1972 to leave the yard, launching a 2-2 pitch from starting pitcher Brett Myers into the left-center field bleachers to plate the deciding run in an 8-4 win for Boston.
With a three-game win streak to his credit, Beckett is on pace to capture 20-plus wins this season and would be the first Boston pitcher to do so since teammate Curt Schilling won 21 in 2004. His enthusiam on the mound gives Red Sox fans every reason to believe that he can achieve that mark and continue to frustrate the opposition.
Mark Loretta - 8 - 2B
Week 6 - 08-14 May 2006
Mark Loretta marks the fourth player in the last four years to take center stage at second base, following Todd Walker, Mark Bellhorn, and Tony Graffanino. He came at a price that some Fenway fanatics felt was too high a price: Doug Mirabelli, Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher for the past few years. Fortunately, a trade in recent weeks has corrected that move and, in the meantime, Loretta has established himself nicely as the everyday second baseman, looking good in combination with Alex Gonzalez to give Boston a very real double-play threat.
He’s also come around in recent weeks at the plate. After dropping to a season-low of .207 on 03 May, Loretta has been on fire at the plate in the number two spot of the order, going 15-for-35 (.428) in his last eight games with five doubles, eight runs scored, and five RBI. Last week, he was a one-man wrecking crew in New York; against the Yankees during a three-game mid-week series, he was 9-for-16, including 4-for-6 in the third and final game, knocking home three runs including the tying run and the eventual game-winner with two outs in the seventh of a 5-3 win. As mentioned, he’s also looked good in the field, making just two errors in 139 total chances, a .986 fielding percentage, while helping to turn 21 double plays.
With just a one-year deal on the table, there’s no guarantee that the 12-year veteran will be around long than one season with the Sox as farmhand Dustin Pedroia has Boston in his sights, a potential late-season call-up. However, Loretta, who is now on his fourth team in five seasons, seems to be focused only contributing this season to helping his new club make another run at the post-season and a second world championship in three seasons. With little to complain about in regards to his glove, Red Sox fans can only hope that his hot streak at the plate continues through the rest of the season.
Wily Mo Peña - 22 - CF/RF
Week 5 - 01-07 May 2006
When the Sox suddenly traded away Bronson Arroyo in the midst of spring training, in return they got Wily Mo Peña, an outfielder from the Cincinnati Reds who was also a teammate of David Ortiz’s on the Dominican Republic’s World Baseball Classic squad that played for national pride this past March. Ortiz, a slugger in his own right, waxed poetic about the young ballplayer and told reporters: “I’ve never seen a guy hit a ball harder than that guy.” Of course, a quick look at his career statistics revealed one thing: while he did have the power numbers, he was also prone to strike out, so many believed that the Sox were taking a huge chance. Called into action after Coco Crisp went out, the season started slowly for Pena (he was hitting just .261 on 17 April with nine strikeouts in his first nine games) while Arroyo was winning his first few starts for the Reds in commanding fashion. To top that, he looked horrendous in right field, making Kevin Millar seem like a Gold Glover.
However, after making the switch to center field in late April, Peña has come alive. His defensive play has looked much better as he tracks down long fly balls to deep center and catching up to sinking line drives; though he is no Crisp or Johnny Damon, to his credit, he has not commited a single error this season. As for his bat, that too has also shown improvement; after dipping to a season-low .258 on 26 April, he has been red-hot at the plate, batting .368 to raise his average to .319. He even had a modest seven-game hit streak that ended Sunday in which he batted .400 with four multiple-hit games. Though his other numbers are still somewhat modest, he does have three home runs, 13 RBI, and eight runs scored while sporting a respectable .522 slugging percentage.
The early season jeers have now become cheers from the crowds at Fenway Park for the man who admits to having no interest in hitting the weight room. Instead, he gets his strength, he claims, from working on his father’s banana plantation in his native country, according to a recent Sox radio broadcast. A tough decision awaits when Crisp eventually comes off the disabled list later this month as to where to put Wily Mo in the lineup but, for now, his hot bat is driving opposing pitchers and coaches bananas.
Mike Lowell - 25 - 3B
Week 4 - 24-30 April 2006
When Boston made the trade that sent promising prospect Hanley Ramirez to the Florida Marlins for Josh Beckett, part of the deal forced the Red Sox to take on the huge $9 million salary that belonged to one Mike Lowell, who had averaged 28 home runs and 94 RBI between 2002 and 2004 with the Marlins but looked awful in last season with just eight and 58, respectively, while batting a miserable .236, a career low. Although he had never failed a drug tst, whispers of “steriods” by the media had people pointing to that reason as to his sudden power loser. This season, Lowell plans to prove the naysayers wrong and, thus far, has done as promised.
With one month in the books, Lowell had performed well; though he has just two home runs and 12 RBI in his first 28 starts, he also finished the month of April with a a healthy .318 average and a league-leading 11 doubles. Though Boston lost four of six over the past week, the 32-year-old third baseman was doing his part, going 10-for-23 (.435) with a home run and four RBI. He’s also looked very good at the hot corner; though he has three errors thus far, he has shown range much like his predecessor, Bill Mueller, and has saved more than a few runs with some diving stops of sharply-hit grounders and line drives worthy of standing ovations from the crowds.
Though his power numbers are still off, Lowell is showing signs that he has left his horrible final season with Florida in the past and is ready to do what he needs to do to help this team win. Already the Boston fans and media have shown their appreciation for his efforts and it will be interesting to see if he does indeed return to the form that made him such an offensive threat for many years with the Marlins. Until then, so long as he continues to produce at the plate and shine with the glove, he should be in those good graces for this season with the Red Sox.
Jonathan Papelbon - 58 - RHP
Week 3 - 17-23 April 2006
Sporting a mohawk cut in a fashion similar to Charlie Sheen’s character in Major League apparently hasn’t done much to stop Jonathan Papelbon from continuing to be the most dominant closer in the American League — strike that — Major League Baseball. It’s a far cry for the Red Sox from last season when, after a strong debut in 2004, Keith Foulke literally fell apart as the everyday closer and Boston saw several late leads disappear and result in more than a few losses.
Papelbon has made 10 appearances this year and has eight saves in eight opportunities. More than that, he has given up just six hits, no runs, walked two, and struck out nine. His WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) is an impressive 0.71, which just about matches what Foulke threw in 2004, and opponents are batting just .154 against him. Okay, so three weeks is not enough to start polishing up the Rolaids Relief award for this 25-year-old phenom who some have labeled “the next Roger Clemens,” but doesn’t it feel good to know once again that, when the game is on the line and he walks out from that bullpen, it’s almost a guaranteed lock?
What’s even better is that Papelbon’s effectiveness has given Foulke the opportunity to return to the form that we saw in his first season with the Red Sox. With some questions in the rotation, it may become necessary to take Papelbon out of the role that has made him successful in the early going and become a fifth starter, but at least there is a better feeling about seeing the hired gun that the Sox wooed here a few years ago back in his rightful spot again. Until that time, we should continue to see the former Mississippi State Bulldog continue to close out some more wins for the Sox in the coming days.
Josh Beckett - 19 - RHP
Week 2 - 10-16 April 2006
After Roger Clemens left the Red Sox via free agency following the 1996 season, Boston fans had to endure a season where their top pitcher was - gulp - Tom Gordon. However, as one door closed, another opened for the Red Sox in 1998 when Pedro Martinez came and won 19 games on his way to seven brilliant seasons with the Sox. After Martinez left following the 2004 championship season, Boston fans were again left to sit through last season where there was no true ace on the staff. However, as 2006 begins, it appears that the void may soon be filled by Josh Beckett.
Those lucky enough to have a ticket for Opening Day at Fenway Park last Tuesday witnessed a near-perfect performance by Beckett, who after getting through some first-inning struggles finished with just one run on three hits through seven innings of work as the Red Sox opened with an eventual 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. On Sunday, Beckett again took the hill trying to match fellow Sox starter Curt Schilling, who had won his first three starts. Opposing Seattle Mariners ace Jarrod Washburn, Beckett again pitched brilliantly, allowing just two runs on six hits while striking out five as the Red Sox eventually came out on top, 3-2. His signature inning came in the sixth when, with a runner on third and just one out, he struck out sluggers Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre back-to-back to end the threat and preserve the slim lead.
With three starts in the books, Beckett is a perfect 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA. Though it’s still too early to award him a Cy Young award, combined with Schilling and Jonathan Papelbon closing the door effectively (six saves in six chances), the pitching corp looks like it may have a new leader - possibly for years to come?
Curt Schilling - 38 - RHP
Week 1 - 03-09 April 2006
Last season, honestly, was a disaster for Curt Schilling. Never able to find his rythmn, the veteran ballplayer who had pitched so beautifully in 2004 limped to an 8-8 record with nine saves as he spent most of the first half on the disabled list and then spotted Keith Foulke as the team’s closer for the first part of the second half. Most people wondered aloud if the man who had given so much the previous year had exhausted his body to the point that a return to form was impossible. This past week, Schilling proved to many that he still has a lot left in the tank.
Opening the season in Texas, Schilling threw seven strong innings, allowing just two run on five hits while striking out five, and his arm seemed to get stronger as the day progressed as he helped Boston cruise to an easy 7-3 opening win. Five days later in Baltimore, Schilling locked in a duel with Orioles pitcher Bruce Chen and pitched even more magnificently, allowing just one run on a solo shot by Luis Matos in the bottom of the sixth and ended the night by striking out Jeff Conine in the seventh on a 96 MPH fastball that made Schilling pump his fist and pound his glove as he walked off the mound for the final time that evening.
On the young season, Schilling is a modest 2-0 with 1.93 ERA, which would be nothing to cheer about if there was not recent history still fresh in the minds of many. If his work this past week is a sign of things to come, then good fortune should smile on the Sox this season.
