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This weekend the Boston Red Sox will break franchise protocol and honor Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky.

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Today was the perfect time to open the Patriots offense for Matt Cassel and let him start airing the ball out. Instead the Patriots stuck with their past games plans and continued to work on short passes that made the completion percent look nice but nothing else.

If Matt Cassel can’t be the quarterback who can pass the ball down field and help the offense score points then don’t put him on the field.

We would be better off using the game time in a failed season to develop a younger Kevin O’Connell, because if Cassel can’t be a down field passer now, he never will be, he is completely useless to the New England Patriots.

Losing today was tough to take, it was the Miami Dolphins after all. Several people have used the words “karma is a bitch” or “karma sucks” and while that maybe true, right now I’m not upset about losing to Miami, I am upset with how we managed to lose.

Trailing 21-6 with about a minute left in the first half and knowing Miami gets the ball first in the second half, the Patriots offense went out on the field and continued to good off with the damn short passes.

I don’t care if coverage was tight, at some point you need to say the hell with it, send Randy Moss deep, air it out and let Moss do what he does best, make amazing plays.

Early in the fourth quarter the Patriots had a series that went, incomplete short left, Cassel 2 yard rush, Cassel 2 yard rush, punt. It was clear even before then that this team gave up.

The Patriots have a bye next week and then have back-to-back games out west, first in San Francisco and then in San Diego. It may benefit the team to remain out west between games, if not to save them from the excessive jet lag, than to save the players from seeing the trashing they are sure to take in the media over the next couple weeks.

If the Patriots aren’t competitive in three weeks against the Chargers it will be clear this team is toast for 2008.

At least we have the ability to look forward to the day Tom Brady returns to the huddle for the Patriots.

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The Patriots have won 21 regular season games in a row which is an NFL record, while the Dolphins have lost 17 of their last 18 games.  The Dolphins would love to run the football in this game and control the clock.  But, Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown have only combined for 100 yards rushing […]

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Well numerous Red Sox bloggers wont spend weeks this year patching together the Red Sox schedule as the team today announced it’s 2009 schedule.

Here is a link to the schedule, I will be back in a bit with more on it.

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The Boston Red Sox and Theo Epstein have agreed on a new contract. Terms of the deal were not announced.

‘‘We are all on the same page with regard to our vision for the organization,” Henry wrote in an e-mail this afternoon. “The negotiations were pleasant and were all about rewarding Theo for the great, great job he has done in bringing two world championships to the Red Sox. We look forward to the difficult task of trying to win a third.”

Henry clarified in a later e-mail that while the main negotiations were complete and “lawyers are handling the details,” the sides haven’t settled all matters.

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The Patriots played a solid all around game in defeating the division rival Jets yesterday.  Matt Cassel managed the game well as he completed 16 of 23 passes for 165 yards.  LaMont Jordan led the Patriots in rushing yesterday with 62 yards on 11 carries (5.6 ypc).  Laurence Maroney was banged up in this game […]

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This is a listing of players the Red Sox have under control for 2009. This list will be updated regularly. Some lists maybe incomplete.

Players under Red Sox control who will be with Boston on opening day.

Pos….Player………………..2009 Salary
.C…..
1B…..Kevin Youkilis…………TBD
2B…..Dustin Pedroia…………TBD
3B…..Mike Lowell……………$12,000,000
SS…..Jed Lowrie…………….TBD
LF…..Jason Bay……………..$7,500,000
CF…..Jacoby Ellsbury………..TBD
RF…..JD Drew……………….$14,000,000
DH…..David Ortiz……………$12,500,000
.C…..
IF…..
OF…..
UT…..

SP…..Josh Beckett…………..$10,500,000
SP…..Daisuke Matsuzaka………$10,000,000*
SP…..Jon Lester…………….TBD
SP…..Justin Masterson……….TBD
SP…..

RP…..Jonathan Papelbon………TBD&
RP…..Hideki Okajima…………$1,750,000%
RP…..Manny Delcarmen………..TBD
RP…..
RP…..
RP…..
RP…..

*Matsuzaka is scheduled to make $8,000,000 in 2009 but with a top three Cy Young vote it would escalate to $10,000,000. Matsuzaka should easily finish in the top three so the salary has been escalated here.
&Arbitration eligible for 2009.
%Option that has been activated.

Players under Red Sox control who may or may not return in 2009.

SS…..Julio Lugo…………….$9,000,000#
OF…..Coco Crisp…………….$5,750,000#
SP…..Tim Wakefield………….$4,000,000%
.C…..David Ross…………….$3,500,000%
RP…..Javier Lopez…………..TBD&
RP…..David Aardsma………….TBD&
.C…..Kevin Cash…………….TBD&

#Under contract for 2009, could be traded.
%Team options for 2009.
&Arbitration eligible for 2009.

Players under Red Sox control who may or may not start 2009 in Boston.

SP…..Clay Buchholz………….TBD
UT…..Jeff Bailey……………TBD
SP…..Michael Bowden…………TBD
OF…..Chris Carter…………..TBD
SP…..Devern Hansack…………TBD
.C…..George Kottaras………..TBD
SP…..David Pauley…………..TBD
RP…..Chris Smith……………TBD
SP…..Charlie Zink…………..TBD

The players listed here are players who could play a significant role in the 2009 Boston Red Sox. This list maybe incomplete and will be updated.

Updates:
9/15/08 - Added arbitration tag to Papelbon

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From Kyodo News

Right-handerJunichiTazawa, who helped Nippon Oil to its first title in 13 years at the national corporate baseball tournament that ended Tuesday, will try to sign with a major league club without playing in Japan, baseball sources said Wednesday.

The highly unusual news came as a shock as the 22-year-old Tazawa was expected to draw the spotlight as the key figure in the first round of this year’s autumn amateur draft in Japanese baseball.

Major league clubs, including the Boston Red Sox, appear to be interested in Tazawa.
The right-hander throws a fastball over 150 kilometers per hour and also has a forkball and slider in his arsenal. Tazawa pitched in all five games of the national tournament, posting four wins to help lead Nippon Oil to its ninth overall crown and was named the tournament MVP.

There’s some good links here on Tazawa.

Braves and Tigers among those interested but consensus seems to say Boston will land him.

A writer for Yahoo Sports Japan also predicts the Red Sox will land him.

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The Patriots decided to stay in house as they re-signed QB Matt Gutierrez to the practice squad.  If something happened to Matt Cassel the Patriots would probably start Gutierrez over rookie Kevin O’Connell who’s still a little raw.  Gutierrez played in 3 games (0 starts) in the preseason for the Patriots this year and he […]

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The Patriots have lost possibly the best QB in NFL history for the rest of the season due to a torn left ACL.  He completed 7 of 11 passes (63.6%) for 76 yards with 0 TD passes and 0 interceptions (83.9 QB Rating) last Sunday and that’s what his season numbers will look like at […]

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