Posts Tagged ‘Jeremy Hermida’
Let's stop infielder on outfielder violence, eh Adrian? Especially since Jeremy's on my fantasy team! (One of my photos from Thursday)
At what point do we begin to feel sorry for the Baltimore Orioles? After watching last night’s game, I was starting to KIND of feel pity every time the Sox scored and then I remembered that this same team swept the Sox in April and decided to save my pity for after the Red Sox leave Baltimore. Watching this team with the worst record in baseball who just got their manager fired get destroyed by Boston truly would have been painful had it not been the Red Sox doing the destroying.
Clay Buchholz, once again, pitched wonderfully. 101 pitch complete game shutout and he only gave up five hits. Definitely took advantage of the shaky state of the Orioles but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was a little concerned that the Orioles might come out on fire last night in an effort to show interim manager Juan Samuel that they were serious about wanting to win. I was naive to believe it could be that easy, I suppose. Sox got 16 hits for 11 runs off of five different pitchers. David Ortiz was the only Sox starter who didn’t get a hit, although he walked and scored, so all the Sox starters got on base last night. Darnell McDonald, coming in for Jeremy Hermida (another victim of Adrian Beltre) went hitless as well but hit a sacrifice and got an RBI…so everyone on the team took advantage of the Orioles last night. Even with the occasional pangs of sympathy for the Orioles, I enjoyed the heck out of that game.
Weekend plans will prevent me from watching both Saturday’s and Sunday’s games (and will possibly cause me to post late on Sunday). Jon Lester takes on Jeremy Guthrie tonight and John Lackey goes up against Brian Matusz at 1:35 on Sunday afternoon. My weekend plans are definitely worth missing a couple of ball games but I’ll still be keeping track…love the At-Bat application on my Droid!
Have a great weekend, folks!
Sure, you THINK he doesn't look intimidating...but he will kick your ass. Courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.
Another successful game! Took a while and gave us some angst while it was happening but it ended well and, right now, that’s all we can ask for, right?
Great time in the live chat (and we’re now 3 for 3 so I might have to think about scheduling maybe 2 a week instead of 1 to help the Sox out of their funk!) – thanks to everyone who participated (whether by actually chatting or just visiting us to follow along).
Once again, Dustin Pedroia goes into the post-game questioning period with a message for folks…:
“David’s fine,” Pedroia said. “He’s one of our teammates. It could’ve been me that hit into a double play. It happens to everybody, man. He’s had 60 at-bats. A couple of years ago, I was hitting .170 and everyone was ready to kill me too. What happened? Laser show so relax. I’m tired of looking at the NESN poll, ‘Why is David struggling?’ David’s fine. He’s one of our teammates. We believe in him. He came out of it last year, he’s going to come out of it this year.
“It’s 25 guys, man. We met the other day. We need everybody to win. This isn’t two or three guys who are going to carry a team. We need everybody to help us win games. We have each other’s backs and we’re ready for the long haul. We started out [crappy] but we’re going to come out of it. We believe that.”
Now, regardless of whether you all think Papi is “fine” or you want him run out on a rail, you have to admit that being so forceful and forthcoming with public support is a sign of one hell of a teammate. Ever since John Tomase’s story about how the chemistry in the clubhouse is terrible (using no named sources – my favorite way to try and disparage people. Oh wait, it isn’t MY favorite way, it’s Tomase’s) there has been an active show of support from all over the team whether it’s the way the act in the dugout or the things they say to the press. Maybe Tomase’s piece had some merit to it? OR maybe they were so disgusted by it they decided (at the team meeting?) to make sure folks new it was full of holes? In any event, I’m enjoying the public shows of solidarity – even if it’s only for our benefit.
And, fools who boo Papi, really, give up your tickets. You absolutely don’t deserve to sit in those seats. I’ve gone over and over about how I feel about booing so there is no need to rehash it all but I’ll say this: If you sit at Fenway Park (or ANY park) and call yourself a Red Sox fan AND boo David Ortiz, you are an asshole. Plain and simple.
Oh, and Jeremy Hermida has something to say to those worried that Papi will be a problem in the clubhouse (talking about when he scored on Mike Lowell’s double in the 8th):
“He was one of the first guys to come up to me and said, ‘Way to pick me up,’” Hermida said. “That shows what kind of teammate he is and what kind of guy he is. He realizes there’s only so much he can do out there. He squared up a ball but unfortunately it was right at somebody. Fortunately, we were able to come through and get the knock when we needed it.”
He isn’t sitting and sulking. He’s still a part of the damn team and people need to remember that. I will absolutely not disagree that it’s painful to watch him struggle with his at-bats but that doesn’t mean he deserves the anger and disrespect that so many are throwing around right now. I don’t envy Tito his job; the decision to sit a legend doesn’t come easy. I believe Tito will do what’s right for this team and his players and I’m not going to second guess him – especially not on May 5th. Seriously, people, criticizing Papi on your blogs or on message boards, fine, I get it, it’s frustrating. Booing him at Fenway? You folks can go sit on a tack.
Tonight at Fenway the Red Sox will honor Nomar Garciaparra with a retirement ceremony of some sort. I won’t be there but I’ll be watching. Congratulations, again, Nomar!
John Lackey will, for the first time in his career, pitch against the Angels tonight with old friend Joel Pineiro on the mound. So the quest for a sweep begins at 7:10pm. Come on, John. You don’t want Clay to be the only one on the team with 3 wins, right?
The only clear shot I got of the "42" when I visited CitiField (If you look closely, you'll see Steve sitting in the "2")
I stayed up this morning until 3am to watch the end of the Diamondbacks/Dodgers game (D’Backs won it in 11 innings). I don’t even like either of the teams particularly so I’m not sure what I was thinking. But I did. And I’m regretting it ever so slightly right now.
Not that I’m happy about Jacoby Ellsbury and his rib issues, but I have to admit to enjoying the Jeremy Hermida show right now. Three-run double yesterday to add to his ongoing tally. That’s three doubles and a home run with six RBI in the five games he’s appeared in (with two base hits, two strike outs and a walk in 14 at-bats) so far. Not too shabby for a bench guy some folks were wondering how the Sox would find a way to use.
Mike Lowell gets the start today at DH while Papi takes the bench. I love (you’ll note the sarcasm) how the media has hounded this man for over a week and today you’ll be reading about how he is finally admitting to being frustrated by all the early criticism as if these folks aren’t playing a part in his frustration. In my opinion, if there is ever a time in baseball where you should be allowed to struggle and get your rhythm back without the weight of the world on your shoulders, it’s April. But none of these reporters will back off any time soon yet they’ll continue to portray Papi as being in a foul mood because of his performance – not because they are making mountains out of molehills currently. (Again, get back to me in a month or so and I might be closer to the “What’s wrong with Papi” crowd. Right now I’m not there. Eight games is way too small a sample size to be flipping out just yet.)
So the final game of this series at Tradition Field is today at 1:10pm – covered by NESN and MLB.tv. Tim Wakefield gets a whack at the Twins, going up against Francisco Liriano. Also, it’s Jackie Robinson Day in MLB. According to the press release:
Clubs playing at home on Thursday, April 15 will recognize Jackie Robinson Day with special pregame ceremonies in their ballparks. To ensure that all Clubs have an opportunity to participate and celebrate Jackie Robinson Day, any Club that is not playing at home on April 15 will hold Jackie Robinson Day celebrations at their ballparks either on Friday, April 16 or during another homestand in April. All Clubs will use ceremonial home plates and lineup cards that will include the Jackie Robinson Day logo.
Well done, MLB. I applaud and support any efforts to make sure people (especially newer fans) don’t ever forget what Jackie went through to get into Major League Baseball. With so much of history seemingly being disposable these days I think it’s extra-important that people don’t forget that there were ugly things folks had to go through to get to the point we are as a country today.
Daisuke Matsuzaka is pitching in Buffalo today for the PawSox. He pitched well his first time around so fingers crossed that he keeps up that trend.
Sox come home tomorrow and we get a 7:10 ET night game (followed by a 7:10pm Saturday game and then two afternoon games leading into a season full of many more night games) so enjoy the weekday afternoon baseball while you can!
Welcome to Boston, Jeremy. (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images and used with NO permissions)
It’s beautiful Sunday day and I’ve not written anything here for two days…time to get off my butt and back to writing. So in order to jump start my brain, I turn to Google where I find more about the Yankees, of course, than any other baseball team right now. So I’m out of luck there; I’m done writing about the Yankees. But there isn’t much to write about in regard to the Red Sox. I was hopeful when I read the title of an article on NESN “Jon Lester Ready to Take Over as Red Sox Ace in 2010″. Hopeful that the writer had spoken with Crabby and we were going to get some insight into what he was doing for the new season. Instead it was a blog entry rehashing how good Lester was in ‘09 and suggesting that he’ll carry that into 2010 as the “Ace” of the team. Disappointing, to say the least. I need fresh news, people, not your rehashes. (The NESN site confuses me. Do they have a load of bloggers over there and no one to write actual news stories? That’s what it seems like to me.)
There is the news of the trade with the Marlins for Jeremy Hermida. The Sox sent Hunter Jones and Jose Alvarez to Florida in the deal and Theo says:
“Jeremy is a player who hasn’t fulfilled his potential yet. We were able to acquire him at a reasonable cost to see if he can fulfill that potential with us.”
Okay. I’m good with that (although I’ll miss Hunter and wish him and Jose luck!) but it isn’t exactly exciting, hot stove action. I will say this, though, we’ve had lots of luck with players formerly on the Marlins, so I’m holing out hope that Hermida will be that addition to the club that folks think won’t make that big an impact but who eventually does. Keeping my eye on you, Jeremy!
With Kyle Snyder playing in the Puerto Rico Baseball League this year, I’ve given myself sort of an assignment in trying to follow him. Not speaking Spanish and having to rely on Google Translate and Babel Fish will make it interesting but I’m looking forward to putting in the work. It’s nice to have something baseball-related to focus on when MLB’s season is over. While there isn’t much news yet (the official pages for the league don’t even have rosters up) I did find an article saying that some players have already reported and the rest will be showing up tomorrow and the games start on Thursday. I feel like I have my work cut out for me to try and keep up with the team but I’m looking forward to it.
Given the major changes in my work schedule, I have much more time to sit here and write about baseball and the Red Sox. It figures the timing would be all off there, huh? Here’s hoping we get some excitement soon!
