Thoughts from a week that taught us that Manny’s even weirder than we thought…

Red Sox Stats Pack of the Week (Now with subheads!)

Surprising Stat of the Week:

Dice-K’s averaging only 98.8 pitches per start this season. How can that be? I would’ve guessed it was at least up around 300.

That 98.8 is a little deceiving though. In his starts right before being place on the DL (66) and right after being activated (48), Dice-K threw… um, eight plus six, carry the one… only 114 total pitches. If you take those two starts away, his average pitch count bumps up to 104.3. That looks a little better, although I still figured it would be higher.

Dice K Bonus Stat: Dice-K has given up only five homeruns in 95 innings this season, while fellow countryman Hideki Okajima his allowed four dongs in a mere 39.

Asked what his secret was to keeping the ball in the park, Dice-K replied (through a translator): "I don’t know how to throw strikes."

Warning Sign Stat of the Week:

JD Drew is 3 for 21 since the All-Star break.

Note: Although, in his defense, he was robbed of a homerun by Ichiro on Wednesday afternoon.

Note 2: I get caught off-guard almost every time the Red Sox play a random midweek afternoon game. I never realize it’s on until at least the second inning.

Troubling Stat of the Week:

Aside from Jason Varitek–who at this point should be thrown out of the equation like a 48-pitch Dice-K start when discussing team stats—the two Red Sox with the lowest on-base percentages are center fielders/lead off men, Jacoby Ellsbury (.327) and Coco Crisp (.312). That doesn’t seem right. Espcially on Ellsbury’s part.

Because he brings a certain level of excitement to the game, one that Red Sox fans haven’t seen in a while (or ever), I think it’s easy to overrate the kind of season Jacoby’s had.

If I showed you these numbers, blindly

.259 AVG
5 HRs
27 RBI
11 doubles
4 triples
53 Ks/27 BBs
35 Sbs
.327 OBP
.356 Slugging
.684 OPS

and asked you to rank the kind of season Player X was having (from 1-10), I bet you’d give it a 4 or 5. Now, if I randomly asked you to rank Jacoby Ellsbury’s season to this point—without presenting the numbers—I doubt anyone would go lower than 6.

That being said, the stats obviously don’t tell the whole story with Ellsbury. He’s a game changer, and a very inexperienced one at that. I’m not worried about his future, but just don’t think we’ll be hearing many complaints when he doesn’t get any consideration for ROY.

Headline for Next Week: Pats Place Entire Team on PUP List. Belichick has no comment.

Yup, they’re all hurt

Winner of the Week: BoSox Bullpen

I don’t care if you’re playing against the Perkins School for the Blind, nevermind the Mariners, 10 straight scoreless innings from a bullpen is the real deal, and it’s looking like the addition of Justin Masterson might give the pen the kick in the ass it’s needed since April.

Sure, that’s easy to say after only one appearance, but Masterson’s been exceeding expectation all season, and we have no reason, at this point, to think that his transition into the bullpen will be anything but seamless.

When he made his impressive major league debut (6 IP, 2 hits, 1 ER) against the Angels in April, it was like, “OK, the kid’s got a future, but this will probably be his most effective start of the season.” Then he did it again a month later against the Royals (6.1 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER). Now we’re like, “Ooh, we might have something here.”

He had his share of struggles in June, but pitched at least five innings in each of his six starts, and the Sox went 4-2. He was always solid. Then, in presumably his last start of the season, he went into Yankee Stadium and held them to two runs over six innings. And we’re worried about his poise in the bullpen? Maybe this kid’s for real. Maybe Okey’s arm has finally loosened up. Maybe Hansen’s head is finally screwed on right. Maybe Delcarmen’s found a consistent rhythm. Maybe Timlin can reach back and bring it one more time for three more months. These are a lot of maybes, but at the very least, we’ve got to be a lot more optimistic about the state of the bullpen on July 25 than we were on July 18. Then again, one series against the Yankees can change that.

Note: If Masterson is going to be a legit contributor down the stretch this season, he needs a bad ass introduction song. Like Timlin’s Black Betty or Paps’ Shippin Up To Boston (but not like whatever the hell that song Okajima comes out.)

After consulting with my podcasting cohort Nick Altschuller, we’ve decided on Master of Puppets by Metallica. Not only does it have the word master in it, but it makes you want to run through a wall. Just the mindset we want from a reliever.

Note 2: O k a j i m a…OKAJIMA! O k a j i m a…OKAJIMA!! Are those the words to Okey’s song? I can’t ever understand it but always assumed they were talking about him.

Loser of the Week: Clay Buchholz

All that talk about Masterson sounds familiar, Oh yeah, we were saying the same things about Clay Buchholz last year. But there hasn’t been much to get excited about during Clay’s sophomore campaign. In his three starts since being called back up to the bigs, Buchholz is 0-2 with a 6.60 ERA and has surrendered 11 ERs and 20 hits in 15 innings. Eeeeeeee…

His work ethic’s been questioned in the past and the results so far this season have to be pretty troubling. Let’s hope that no-hitter isn’t looked back on as the apex of his red Sox career.

Link of the Week:

I wasn’t sure what to think about the A-11 offense the first time I saw it (last night, approx 1:30 am). Was it the coolest thing I’d ever seen? The stupidest thing I’d ever seen? The offense of the future? I’m still not sure, but the notion of a two QB offense is pretty damn intriguing. The video gets relatively boring relatively quickly, but if you ever needed more motivation to find a way to clone Tom Brady, this is it.

Note: Apparently this offense has its own website.

Prediction for Next Week of the Week: Whatever prediction I make will be wrong.

And that prediction is… that Mariano Rivera will blow a save this weekend at Fenway.

See You Next Week

Rich Levine is a contributor to Wicked Good Sports with his “Wicked Weekly” column and podcast, “The Dino Radja Experience”. Rich is also a columnist for The Improper Bostonian.