Running Red Sox thread

you got me. I can't find one instance where a sox exec used those words ("tying like hell") to trade Matt Clement.


FYI: the sox are now discussing a trade that would send Austin Kearns from the Reds to the Indians, Coco Crisp from the Indians to the Sox and Clement from the Sox to the Reds.

Clement was one of the pieces in separate discussons in December of three- and four-team trades, each of which would have brought Miguel Tejada to the Sox.

The Boston Globe reported in December that the Sox offered Clement to Seattle for OF Jeremy Reed. Straight up. Now, if that's not trying "real hard" (if not "like hell') to trade a guy, I don't know what is.

I'd love to see how Clement bounces back from last year's disappointment. He did nothing to justify his salary. But if he and Arroyo perform similarly, given their respective contracts, I'll take Arroyo any day of the week.

 

The Sports guy had a long email interview with Schilling. Intersting read.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060126

 

That was reported incorrectly.

He had an all-star first half and then got hit in the face by a line drive which was the beginning of his 2nd half problems. It messed up his mechanics and his location suffered.

That being said, I am not a big Clement fan and think he is over-paid, however I know that is not going out on a limb. His name has surfaced a few times because a lot of GM's like him.

 

He was OK until he got hit like 3 more times and had a shot right up the middle in every single game that was generally a couple of inches away from hitting him. It was surreal - I have never seen anything like it.

I think he can bounce back though. He'll only need to be a nnumber 3 or 4 unless Schill can't make it back.

 

you gotta be shitting me. who told you that, Shaughnessy? Seattle Times reported it incorectly as well.

 

Yes.

 

If you look at video from before and after he was hit by the come backer, you can see the difference. After he was hit, he started falling towards the first baseline in his follow through which was apparently a subconscious defensive move away from the plate when pitchers are most vulnerable. the result was his arm angle lowering at the release point and it created all kinds of location problems.

He acknowledged that his mechanics were the problem in the second half and I know going into the off season, the Sox had no real interest in moving him. They felt he would bounce back strong, however this recent rumor tells me that they may not be happy with his improvement and are trying to salvage some value out of his deal.

 

whatever. the Sox have been exploring trade possibilities involving Clement for a couple months now.

 

funny shit

Curt Schilling: No. 4 on GQ's list of the 10 athletes most hated by their peers.

story


4. Curt Schilling


“Between the white lines, it’s all real,” says one reporter who has covered Schilling. “But outside the white lines, there’s a huge gap between the man and the image he projects.” Take, for instance, Schilling’s self-glorifying display during Congress’s steroid hearings last March or his absurdly patriotic open letter to America on ESPN.com after 9/11, for which his teammates mocked him on a late-night bus ride with a chorus of “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” “They know what he’s about,” says the sportswriter. “I’d say a large percentage of them like him—every fifth day. He wears on people.”


On days he doesn’t pitch, Schilling is notorious for striking TV-ready poses on the dugout stairs. (His manager in Philadelphia, Jim Fregosi, dubbed him Red Light Curt.) “He’s somebody who’s always positioning himself in terms of what’s best for Curt Schilling,” says ESPN’s Pedro Gomez, who described Schilling as “the consummate table for one.” (Speaking of which, Schilling also has a reputation for sneaking into the clubhouse late in games to get a head start on the buffet.)


So avid is Schilling’s longing for the spotlight that some of his peers raise doubts about his now legendary turn in the 2004 postseason, when he pitched on an ankle tendon that had been sutured in place. During Game 6, cameras cut repeatedly to the bright red stain on Schilling’s sock. It was blood, right? “The Diamondbacks people think he definitely doctored that sock,” says the sportswriter. The ex-teammate laughs: “All around baseball, people questioned that. It was funny how the stain didn’t spread.”

 

Fortunately, they only hired him to pitch every fifth day, so none of that other nonsense really matters to me.

He carried the team to a WS championship in 2004 and that gives him a lifetime pass in my book.