Full Count

Regardless of who emerges with the American League East crown, both the Red Sox and Rays seem destined to reach the playoffs. No one will be able to say that those teams took an easy path to get there. The fact that the Yankees awake today to find themselves in fourth place in the division--despite...

Our man from Fantasyland and I are going to execute this symbiotic back and forth with five questions that need to be answered every morning, followed hours later with five answers to those queries. So, more than half a day after our man Kirk threw these out, I will give them by best retort. Here...

After David Ortiz ended his run of 19 games without a homer on Sunday, he suggested that his left wrist continues to bother him. "My wrist is not OK," he told reporters. Such words seemed to raise a red flag. It became easy to imagine that the same injury that sent him to the disabled list for...

One 415-foot blast later, my previous post  appears slightly ill-timed... Ortiz edges ahead of Pedroia, 18 homers to 17.

It seems an odd time to think about anything that might be amiss with the Red Sox lineup. The team is pounding out runs by the bushel, having averaged just over seven runs a game in its last 22 contests. More than at any other time of the year, the team is getting contributions from every part of...

This is why I would rather have Dustin Pedroia right now than Alex Rodriguez ... "Insanity Grips Bradford Files" is being printed up in 100-point type on some intraweb concoction right now, I'm sure. But, as we sit here, I believe the player you want down the stretch is Pedroia, not the highest-...

Naturally, the Red Sox won't say it. With 23 games to go, the players will insist that their postseason chances remain very much an open question, that the Twins (5.5 games back of the Sox in the wild card) or the Yankees (7.5) or Blue Jays (9.0) could somehow intrude on Boston's path to the...

(Took yesterday off from blogging because I was semi-celebrating the first birthday of the rest of my life's birthdays -- 39. Please forgive. It seemed just like yesterday I was noting that I was the same age as Homer Simpson. Those were the days.) As he was packing his bag for Texas, Jacoby...

There was a time, not so long ago, where the Red Sox minor-league system was comically inept. In 2002, the organization's six minor-league teams finished the year with a combined 314-377 record  (.454 winning percentage). Those looking for reasons to see a Sox farm team would have been hard-...

Count Orioles manager Dave Trembley as the latest to show the love to Dustin Pedroia . Before watching the little second baseman that could go 3-for-5 with his 16th homer of the year against his team, Trembley admitted that he has a serious man(ager) crush on the player who is now being serenaded...