End of April Showers

John Olerud is joining the Red Sox on a minor league deal, and I am thrilled with this deal. It’s always important to include depth, and Olerud gives us that depth – especially left-handed depth. Quick, who on the bench is lefthanded? Ramon Vazquez! Quick, who would you want in a pinch-hit situation for a lefty, Vazquez or John Olerud? Olerud is the clear answer here, a career .299/.404/.468 hitter. He’s lost all his power though, but last year for SEA hit .245/.354/.360 – mantaining his batting eye. He signed with the Yankees and hit .280/.367/.396. Give us that, and I’m happy. Olerud, when he can get into good shape, should spell the end of the McCarty era, either that or will give the Red Sox another option over fellow left-hander Roberto Petagine.
McCarty has a career fielding percentage of .990 at first, Olerud is at .995. Last year, McCarty logged in at .991, and Olerud at .998.

Olerud, who has played more than 15 major league seasons, had been recovering from surgery in November to repair torn ligaments in his left foot. He was hurt during Game 3 of the AL championship series while playing for the New York Yankees against the Red Sox. (Boston Globe)

I remember when he hit a home-run to seal Game 2 of the ALCS. I was so angry because not only did it put the Yankees on the board, but I couldn’t spew my hate towards Olerud, who I liked and respected. Fortunately, he’s a BoSox now. He went straight to the majors from college, has never played in the minor leagues – not even on a rehab start (according to The Baseball Cube statistics)! Amazing. That streak could be snapped this year, unless he goes straight to the Red Sox once his foot is rehabbed.
Matt Clement moved to 3-0 today, snapping a three game skid (EDIT: Err, I didn’t mean that. I meant that he CONTINUED the snapping of the three game skid to get a two game winning streak going. Yeah.) . Clement overcame a shaky start to end up at 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K. His ERA stands at 4.00. Embree went 1.1 perfect innings, Timlin registered his fourth hold finishing the eighth up, and Foulke coughed up a 2-R HR to Teixeira to make things interesting, but aside from that locked down his fourth save.
The team now heads to Detroit to play the Kitties. Boston Fan in Michigan who is a Red Sox fan first and Tigers fan second should nonetheless wince when we competely smack around whoever they throw out. Whether it’s Jeremy Bonderman or “Extraordinary Mental Makeup” Mike Maroth, I’m calling a sweep here.
In all seriousness, even with the subtraction of Magglio Ordonez, the Tigers are carrying around a lot more swagger, like the Orioles. It’s good for baseball. The Tigers sit at 11-12 which is an improvement over last year. The impressive Orioles are at 17-7, and it’s great to see them playing so well – Baltimore deserves this. Detroit hopefully can play playoff ball in a couple years for many years. But not this time!
The end of April brings us the end of the month standings:

Team            W-L        PCT     GB
Baltimore   17-7        .708    -
Boston     13-11        .542    4
Toronto    14-12        .538    4
New York   10-15        .400    7.5
Tampa Bay   8-17        .320    9.5

Lousy playing from Tampa Bay, and the Yankees haven’t been so hot either but have started to improve. The Blue Jays are playing well, and should taper off, but shouldn’t lose a lot of games. The Orioles, if they can hold it together, can hang on, but they haven’t really been bit by slumps or injuries yet, the way we have, and we’re still 13-11 (make that 14-11). If the Orioles can keep this lucky streak alive, they could win the division. They won’t, though. Injuries will befall this team, but if they can build up a significant enough cushion, they could ride that cushion into the wildcard. Win now, Birds … your’ll need the wins in September.
Finally, the end of April showers … now it’s time for May flowers and a 28-0 month! With Wade Miller coming back shortly, our rotation shouldn’t hurt too much from the loss of Schilling and Wells. Instead of it looking like Matt Clement, Jeremi Gonzalez, John Halama, Tim Wakefield, and Bronson Arroyo, it will read Wade Miller, Matt Clement, John Halama/Jeremi Gonzalez (redsox.com has Gonzalez starting tomorrow against Jeremy Bonderman), Tim Wakefield, and Bronson Arroyo.
Not too shabby. A lot of teams will take that rotation.