Life without Jacoby: Jacoby Ellsbury being examined for broken foot

When you look at the list, there may be no better center fielder than Jacoby Ellsbury. His spectacular speed earns him stolen bases, 52 of them in fact, and in collaboration with Shane Victorino makes it so that any ball hit right of the Green Monster scoreboard has the possibility of finding the glove of one of the Sox spectacular outfield defenders. 

Through 131 games this season, Ellsbury has been batting close to .300 and has complied 52 RBI's from the lead-off spot. In almost all of Boston's victories this season, Jacoby Ellsbury has been a key role player but now, the Sox may have to make do without him...for a long time. 

We have known for some time that the style of hitting that Jacoby Ellsbury applies with such great sucsess does come with a price. Ellsbury likes pitches high in the zone and for this reason often rips the large majority of his hits through the grounder. For this reason, Jacoby often feels countless foul balls ricochet off his legs and feet. Now more often than not, he simply limps around the batter’s box for a couple seconds but on a rare occasions, these fouls cause great damage. That damage was felt Thursday night when the Sox center fielder took a pitch off the foot amidst Boston's 10 inning victory. 

Ellsbury returned to Boston before this Saturday game seeking medical help as it was suggested that he had suffered a broken foot. 

"I don't think we're looking at something that is just day to day here," John Farrell said Saturday. "But before we get into any kind of time frame, I think what's probably best for all involved here is to wait until we get more conclusive evidence and information."

According to reports, the suspected injury is located in Ellsbury's Navicular Bone located at the top of the foot, and involves a complete fracture of the slightly cube like bone. A similar injury was also suffered by Dustin Pedroia in 2010. Dustin missed upwards of 3 months due to the injury and was forced to have a screw inserted in the off-season to help with heeling. 

Now as we all know, no injury is the same as the last, but Ellsbury already has been giving a first opinion and is now seeking the diagnosis of a Denver doctor. Ellsbury is wearing a walking boot and that can only mean bad things. 

So, assuming that Ellsbury is out indefinitely, who comes in to replace him?

"Let's not kid ourselves," Farrell said. "Jacoby Ellsbury in the leadoff spot, with the stolen-base ability, the talent that he has -- this is a guy we're going to miss for the time being that he will be out." 

One guy who might possibly come in: Jackie Bradly Jr. He was the guy in the starting role on Saturday and went 1 for 3 with a walk in Boston's 13-9 victory over the Yankees. Now discounting that game Jackie had played 61 previous games with the Sox an had been less than stellar. He batted .155 with just 10 hits and 7 RBI's he complied 8 walks and got on base with just 25% of the time. 

"We'll probably go day to day for the time being," Farrell said talking about Boston's outfield alignment.

Another option lies with a player acquired via a recent trade. Originally a center fielder for the Tigers, Quintin Berry came to the Sox back on August 27th. In 4 games since the trade, Berry has pinch run for batters 3 different times and has gone 2 for 3 at the plate. He also scored on the hit that served as David Ortiz's 2,000 career hit. 

“It was good to finally get an opportunity to show I could help,” Berry said. “Hopefully I can continue to do it. With this club, I’m not going to get a ton of opportunities, because these guys are going to hit the ball, but when my name is called, I want to be ready to answer."

But regardless, no one can replace Ellsbury. 

"[Ellsbury] is frustrated," Farrell said. "He wants to be on the field. He feels like he can play right now. But at the direction of the medical people, we have to be careful with this. I can tell you this: Jacoby wants to be on the field. He's kind of [ticked] he's not here right now, to be honest with you."

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All Mike'ed up: Mike Napoli homers twice as Red Sox drop Yankees for 5th straight win - 13-9 final

The Red Sox have won 5 straight games. In that span they have scored 56 runs, hit 2 grand slams as well as a total of 16 homers. Mike Napoli has been responsible for 4 of those homers. 

The Sox won again on this Saturday afternoon and after the night ended, the stunning themes already established this September was still fully intact. Boston scored 13 runs in a 4 run victory in New York, they launched 3 home runs and above all will now put themselves in a position to extend their AL East lead to 8.5 games. 

Saturday afternoon was a shootout of a baseball game and it began in the 2nd inning. With David Ortiz standing on second base, Napoli took an easy 3-0 pitch high and deep to center feild. Unlike Friday's grand slam, there was no question about this home run. When it landed, Boston had a 2-0 lead. 

One inning later, they did it again as Johnny Gomes took a high changeup deep into the upper deck of Yankee Stadium. Whats better was that unlike Napoli's blast, when Gomes hit his there were already TWO men on base. By inning number 4, the Sox were up 9-3 but even that was not the end of New York’s troubles as one inning later, Xander Bogaerts airmailed a homer of his own to extend Boston's lead to 11-3. The homer was Bogaerts' first as a Big Leaguer. 

At that point in the game, the night seemed over for New York. Dustin Pedroia was given the last 4 innings of the game off, countless pinch hitters were sent in for New York and a slew of pitching changes burned the Yankees early. 

But nevertheless, as Napoli's slam showed us, Yankee Stadium leads can easily vanish faster than a strip of bacon on a breakfast plate. 

The Bronx Bombers struck 4 times in the 6th then twice in the 8th all to cut Boston's lead to a margin of just 3 runs. But with his team not willing to relinquish such a strong effort, Napoli struck again drilling a solo shot to center field to seal the victory for Boston. 

But Mike Napoli was not the only big story line of this game. After finally gaining the run support he so desperately needed, John Lackey was credited with his 9th win of the year. But it was clearly not his best effort. Lackey did strikeout 8 but allowed 8 hits and 7 earned runs. He also walked 3. Saturday was not Lackey's day but in the end he was finally credited with a win. 

This win extends Boston's Al East lead to 8 games and has dropped their magic number for clenching the AL East title to just 13 wins. Boston has a 99.9%chance of making the playoffs and to this point the possibility of Boston snapping their 5 year pennant drought is beginning to look more and more like a fact.

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Patriots vs Bills preview: After Week one, Patriots off-season questions may still be unanswered

After Thursday's Broncos record 7 Touchdown passes for Peyton Manning it seems that we have already seen our weekly issue of blowout football. 

As was said before, Peyton Manning hurled 7 touchdowns with his now favorite new receiver Wes Welker hauling 2 touchdown grabs to compliment a 9 catch night. The Broncos dominated the defending champ Ravens by a score of 49-27 and no matter how mad you were at Wes Welker, this was a heck of a way to kick off the 2013 season. 

But nevertheless, 3 days after Broncos / Ravens ended, we might soon have at least a glimmer of answer to a burning question that has dominated the minds of NFL followers all off-season long. HOW good will New England be. 

Its crazy to think about but over the course of the past few years, there has rarely been such a varied preseason outlook on this Patriots team. As you look back we have always known "Brady will be good, Welker will be good and the Patriots will contend for the Super Bowl." Those facts were true in 2003 and 2004 when the Patriots repeated as Super Bowl champions and they were true in 2012 when New England fell just one win short of getting back to the title game for the 6th time in the new millennium. But now, mere days before the 2013 year begins these facts have been replaced by questions. 

Will Tom Brady adapt to his new receivers? Regardless of how Brady plays will his receivers be able to match his skills? And above all will New England be better or worse than they were in 2013. 

To this point, the large majority of those questions have been answered. Yes Tom Brady and is receivers have meshed. Danny Amendola and Kenbrell Thompkins have been spectacular and look to fill the void left by Wes Welker pretty well. But for the final question posed earlier, there is no truly statistical answer. 

According to Peter King of Sports Illustrated, Tom Brady will have a career year and win the Super Bowl. Yet fellow SI writer Robert Kelmpko predicts a 1 and done exit for New England as he thinks that Andrew Luck might out duel the Pats in a possible wild card game. Now when you look at these predictions, while the focus is largely pinned on Brady the biggest variable throughout this outlook is in fact the defense. 

As it stands the defense sits as an almost identical twin to last years with one difference: cohesion. After nearly 4 years of rebuilding the Pats have finally held a defense together for 2 straight years...and that can only mean good things. 

   Patriots Vs  Bills

Many questions will be answered on Sunday but those surrounding the Patriots defense likely won’t. For almost 10 years now, the Bills have been terrible through the air as current starting QB: EJ Manuel is not necessarily the guy who can compete with Tom Brady. Through 4 years at Florida state, Manuel never compiled more than 3,400 yards and was inaccurate with the football hurling 28 Interceptions to 47 Touchdowns. 

So even with as bad a pass defense as New England has, the Bills likely won’t be able to capitalize though the air and in all likelihood will turn to a man with a few choice words for Pats fans. According to a local Buffalo news outlet, Bills receiver: Stevie Johnson said "I don't think they got nobody that can stop me...for real." 

"They're athletic," Johnson then said. "I give a lot of credit to the New England Patriots. I haven't played against Aqib Talib yet. I've checked him out on tape, long, athletic, try to play with vision. They play as one unit."

PREDICTION:

With a Bills defense as complete as a piece of Swiss cheese, and a Patriots offence serving as a polar opposite I predict a 38-10 win for New England. 

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Blood sweat and tears for a shiny ring: The story of the championship ring

I remember seeing one for the first time.

I was seated on a roller coaster with my friend to my left and a stranger to my right. The man was wearing an authentic looking Celtics jersey and he seemed completely amused at the towering hill of wood and nails before us. I hate the Celtics and basketball in general with a burning passion so I did not take much interest in the jersey he wore. I grasped onto my restraint looking down at the floor of the ride. Yet suddenly, as the train slowly began to ratchet itself up the main hill a splash of glimmer caught my eye. I forgot my fear, ignored the hill and discretely looked towards what was basically a massive hunk of silver sitting upon his ring finger.

It was huge, probably the width of my thumb and forefinger combined and it seemed to sport a near constant presence of diamonds and green emerald. Yet almost in sync with the point in which I realized what this ring was, the coaster crested atop the hill and long story short, my attention shifted.

I never found out who the guy was but as we sat in the station waiting for the restraints to release I brought the attention of my friend (who shared my interest in sports) to the ring which we soon were convinced was in fact, a Celtics Championship ring.

****

In the wee hours of June 18th 2008, the Boston Celtics pulled out an epic 131-92 win over the LA Lakers. The victory gave Boston a decisive 4th victory of that years NBA finals and made it so that for the first time in over 2 decades, the Boston Celtics were World Champions. Following that victory the Celtics were crowned: King of the Hill and the very rings that I saw that day on the coaster were distributed like candy-bars to any and all who were associated with the team.

It could be easily assumed that over 100 rings were handed out that year.

The 2008 Celtics World Championship was their 18th all time but whats better is the fact that by 2008, Boston sports teams had already won 6 titles in the new millennium. Just think about that. Amidst all these mega organisations close to 600 championship rings were delivered to Bostonian athletes in the span of just 8 years.

These rings are a part of sports tradition but as a sports fan when you really think about it, handing out mountains of rings each one weighing over 1 pound and sporting nearly 30,000 dollars in metallic worth really is a slightly....moronic, idea.  So who's to blame?

With the first documentation of a "big four" (NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL) championship dating back to 1884, 47 MLB champions were crowned before the first championship rings were handed out. But regardless of that, the idea of teams distributing keepsakes to its champion roster-members had already been firmly implicated. From 1884 to 1922, the front office of a World Series winning team would be often known to reward it's players with engraved pocket watches, or small gold pins. These keepsakes were often discarded, lost and or cast no major recognition.

As they wished to further respect these players individual achievements, the New York Yankees became the first team to commission rings when they purchased 50 rings solely given to the players following their 1927 World Championship season. By 1932, rings had quikely become an everyday thing in Baseball. The first NFL rings were given to the Packers in 1967 while the NBA and NHL firsts were handed out in 1947 and 1963 respectively.

"In this game, you have players say they're playing for the ring, and here you are, a part of fulfilling the goal of every player." NBA commissioner: David Stern said when he presented the Celtics with their 2008 rings "Once they have it, they have a sense of fulfillment they've never had before."

Stanley Cups, World Series trophies surrounded by flags, and Lombardi Trophies all represent the phenomenal achievement of a team as a whole. They represent the stunning contribution of hundreds of athletes, coaches and coordinators across an origination.

But a ring. A ring stays with you forever, it sines from your finger and serves as the ultimate keepsake. These glowing gold or silver hunks of priceless metal remain a recognition of every individual that utilizes their personal greatness to bring their team to the top of the heap. 

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Et Tu Jon Lester...then fall Max Sherzer: Red Sox hand baseball's best pitcher his second loss of the year - Boston wins 2-1 over Tigers

Max Scherzer is 29 years old, he throws right handed but above all else, he came into last night's game with the Red Sox chasing history. If Max Scherzer earned a victory he would move himself into a tie with Rodger Celmens as the only pitcher in history to start his season 20-1. Now records are nice but the only problem with this was for Scherzer to earn the win, Boston would have to loose...and well, let’s just say they DID NOT WANT TO!

For the first time since July 3rd, Scherzer was credited with a loss snatching history right out of his hands and handing the Red Sox their 83rd win of the year. But in his defense, Scherzer was not bad. He struck out 8 while allowing just 5 hits.

It is a rare night that Max Scherzer does not turn in a formidable performance and while last night was no different, Jon Lester’s proformance was even better.

"I think everybody in our dugout feels that when he goes to the mound -- and that can be said for [John] Lackey, that's not to slight anybody -- but Jon has stepped up in those games when we needed to get back on the winning track," said manager John Farrell. 

Lester shredded opposing hitters fanning a season high 9 batters in the 7 innings he pitched. The only problem for Jon was the fact that no matter how good HE was, the Detroit Tigers offensive lineup was equal. 

Right off the bat they were making him pay delivering a strong message of "we are the better team" that simply made Red Sox fans want to cringe. Jon faced 4 batters in the 1st inning, all of which drove themselves deep into counts. Leadoff man Austin Jackson saw 8 pitches before he creamed a 3-2 fastball in for a double then, number 2 hitter: Tory Hunter added an addition 9 pitches of his own before he popped out to Mike Carp in foul ground. Largely due to the work of Jackson and Hunter, Lester would finish the first inning having already thrown 25 pitches. 

As was said earlier, it seemed that for the time being the game was over before it had even begun as Scherzer followed up Lester's struggles by mowing down each of Boston's first 3 hitters via the strikeout. It seemed bad but before long instead of looking lost on the mound; Lester caught up to his pitching foe and roared through a Detroit offence ranked right up with the Sox as the best in baseball. Through the 3rd and 4th innings, not a single hit was recorded by either team as Lester compiled 3 of his 9 K's in that span. 

Nevertheless, time was running out and even with Boston trailing by the pathetic margin of 1-0 you knew very well that with Scherzer dealing like he was, that could easily be enough. 

Desperate for even the thought of an offensive spark, the Sox lineup finally delivered in the bottom of the 5th as Johnny Gomes soon blooped a 1 out single to right field to get the tying run aboard.  One batter later, Stephan Drew moved Gomes to 3rd via his 23rd double of the year. Still one out. 

David Ross would strike out, but that was not of issue as with Will Middlebrooks coming to the plate, the fact that there were 2 outs in the inning was not of issue. The Sox were in the best position to score a run of any and you had this feeling that Will was not going to mess up. 

"[Scherzer] likes to start me out off-speed," Middlebrooks said. "Normally I go up there, look for a heater. But in that situation, guys in scoring position, I figured he'd throw the off-speed. I looked for it, and I got it." 

In the blink of an eye, Will Middlebrooks had changed the entire complexion of the game flipping the score from 1-0 to 2-1. Just the same as when Scherzer was dealing, with Lester pitching with a lead you felt...no knew that the Sox had a chance to pull a win out of this whole thing. 

"I'm in a better spot right now as far as going down the mound," Lester said, "which puts me in a better position for that pitch. I think maybe taking a break from it for a little bit helped me, trying not to pound my head against the wall with it. It's been good the last three, four, five starts, so, keep grinding it out." 

Lester sure grinded out last night's night of work as amidst all the pitches that he threw, he was bombarded (literally) in the top of the 6th inning when he took a sharp line drive to the ribs. The ball could easily have been travailing upwards of 100 miles per hour but Lester waved off Farrell and the Sox trainers insisting that he was fine.

He WAS fine and before he was pulled prior to the 8th inning, Lester fanned 2 additional batters and actually held Detroit star: Miguel Cabrara hit-less.

Following Lester's removal, Koji Uehara would eventually come into the game all to blast home a perfect 9th inning and earn his 17th save of the year while also extending his shutout streak to 25 innings. 

"Max certainly pitched good enough to win tonight," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We just didn't win."

Detroit didn't win...neither did Max Scherzer but by default, that meant that the Red Sox did. They ended the dominant run of a pitcher and ended his bid for history, all to bring home win number 83 on the year.

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Koji Uehara making Ben Cherrington look like Albert Einstein: Why Koji Uehara's off-season signing may have been smarter than anyother

One man completely revolutionized the field of theoretical physics, the other discovered Koji Uehara.

After he was instated as Red Sox manager back in October of 2011, Ben Cherinton has been right on the mark in the 2 years since and has dominantly made a case to become GM of the year in 2013. He signed Shane Victorino, signed Johnny Gomes, and signed David Ross. Those are all good moves. He traded for Jake Peavy and took his time before calling up Xander Bogaerts from AAA Pawtuket. So still nothing bad.

"It starts with Ben," John Farrell admitted. "There was a clear vision on his part to go out and bring in talented players that had strong teammate reputations. They love to work. They love to compete. Day by day, it's been a turnaround, but there's a long way to go."

But then you look to the bull pen. Standing as one of the few blemishes in a season of great moves, Joel Hanrahan came to Boston holding great promise among Red Sox nation. Here was a 6 year vet and a man who just 2 years ago had recorded 40 saves. Was he the answer to a Red Sox bull pen that had struggled to consistently preform in 2012? No, and when Hanrahan went down following a May 6th injury neither was the man who came to replace him.  Following Hanrahan, Andrew Bailey became Boston's closer where he would go on to blow an astronomical 4 saves while only completing 8. He was eventually removed from the position following 3 straight blown saves from June 18th to June 20th.  

So with the top 2 guys on the Boston closer depth chart now down the drain, Farrell in collaboration with Ben Cherrington turned to a man not previously known as a superstar. That man's name was Koji Uehara. 

Once a 10 year veteran of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, Uehara came to the MLB following the 2008 NPB season and made his debut on April 8th 2009 for the Baltimore Orioles. He actually started games that year but after only 2 wins and a bucket of no decisions he was moved to the position of closer before the 2010 season. He would play better in 2010 but by 2011 he was out of Baltimore heading to Texas in exchange for Chris Davis who went to the Orioles. 

No when you look at the 2013 numbers that seemed to be a fair trade. Davis has been piling up the hits and homers in Baltimore and Koji Uehara has been doing the opposite as a pitcher. The only problem was that all mighty Ben Cherrington somehow managed to snatch Koji out of the grips of Texas and bring him to Boston. 

So there you have it, whether he knew it or not, Ben Cherrington pulled off one of his greatest moves when nobody was looking and since Koji was named closer he has been on fire proving that his manager was right after all and that the Rangers were well foolish for letting Koji go. 

"Above and beyond what we've talked about with the consistency of strikes, I've come away from a lot of games in which he's closed out thinking almost that he has a sixth sense on the mound," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "Which pitch to throw and which location, almost a feel for what the hitter at the time is looking for. He's very calm. Regardless of the role we've had him in this year, we've seen the consistency start to finish and he has saved our tail end all year long." 

Koji Uehara has not blown a save since July 6th which also happens to be the last time he allowed a run. Since that situation Koji has allowed just 6 hits retiring each of the last 17 batters he has faced. 

"He's a great pitcher," Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. "He throws a lot of strikes and keeps guys off balance. That split does three different things at times, so you can't really be ready for it. I've seen guys that look like they're pretty much sitting on it and it just does something different. He knows how to manipulate it and it's fun to catch."

As a fan of the Red Sox while it would be near criminal to discredit what Koji Uehara has accomplished in this season one cannot help but wonder. Is Ben Cherington the man who deserves the most praise? 

You can answer that question as you wish but in a slice of indisputable fact, the spectacular run of this 2013 Red Sox teams has largely been made possibly by the sheer genius of Ben Cherrington. 

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Red Sox vs Tigers series preview: Possible ALCS match-up?

It seems criminal to work or do well anything on Labor Day but if nobody did anything, today’s ceremonial end to summer would be teeth gritting boring. But good news Americans, there is still baseball.

But for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers, tomorrow's Labor Day meeting will mean a little more than just some manatee entertainment. For these two teams, tomorrow's game will be one of bitter reunions, stunning implications and above all, one looming possibility.

Come the end of the season, this Labor Day 3 game set might not go down as the last meeting between these two teams.

As it stands with just 1.5 games separating them in the AL overall race, the Red Sox and Tigers are the clear cut favorites to come out 1,2 in the American League. By default that also means that come the end of October, chances are they will be the ones battling for the right to go to the World Series.

Now i know what you are saying. "Oh just make the tournament and anything can happen." Yeah that is true but in this season more than ever, with these two teams the stats will undoubtedly go a long way towards predicting that without a doubt, the Red Sox and Tigers WILL play in the American League Championship Series.  And here’s why.

When you look at the differences between the regular and postseasons one of the most obvious dependency is run scoring. Fact is, with better pitching, runs are often at a premium. But nevertheless, the Red Sox have scored the second most runs in baseball the team with the most is the Tigers. Even if you take out half their runs per game average the Sox and Tigers could easily drop any of the other playoff teams in the AL playoff situation.

But there is more to this probable ALCS match-up than simply run scoreing. There is defense as Jose Iglacias for Detroit and Dustin Pedroia for Boston both sure up the middle of the infield and each have a stunning ability to save runs. And then there is pitching. Without a doubt, you cannot argue with the pitching prowess of Max Scherzer and of late, Jon Lester, and Jake Peavy in particular have been just as good. The Red Sox and Tigers have the hottest pitching staffs in the AL.

Like was said earlier, there is more to this impending  series than just an ALCS preview. For Jose Iglacis it will be the first time since July's blockbuster trade that he will play the team that brought him into the MLB. 

Since the trade, Jose has been batting .292 with 26 hits in 28 games. As for the man he cleared a spot for: Stephan Drew, has been batting close to .300 and has rapidly increased his value in Boston. Yet what’s even better is the fact that David Ortiz is now just 2 hits shy of 2,000 in his career. He will likely hit that mark in this series. 

Prediction: Let’s face it there are some deficiencies between this impending series and a theoretical one in October. Clay Buchholz is still away from the Red Sox while Jacoby Ellsbury and Shane Victorino both have the possibility of playing this game at less than 100% due to respective injuries. As for pitching probables, John Lackey who starts game one will likely have the edge over opposing starter: Jay Fister. But that will all change in game two as the likely-hood of a Detroit win will be very high. This is because 19-1 Detroit starter: Max Scherzer is well 19-1. 

In addition to pitchers, the injury bug has also bitten Detroit as dominant hitter: Miguel Cabrara has been down for several days with a back injury. He will not play in the first 2 games of this series. 

Because of injuries and pitching overall, my prediction for this 3 game set is 2 victories for Boston and 1 for Detroit. 

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