A Sad Moment...and Some Other Stuff

Thanks to an email from our boy Leps, I found out that Harold Reynolds is back in baseball. Something this monumental should be the highlight of my year. But he's working for MLB.com which means pretty much no one will ever see this guy working. Absolute travesty.

So basically ESPN has completely dropped the ball here. Truthfully I struggle to watch Baseball Tonight now. Without HR, John Kruk can say absolutely anything he wants without response. There's no Harold to tear him apart on the air after Kruk predicts 30 wins from Randy Johnson, and 174 homeruns from Pujols before the All-Star break. At least with Harold around Kruk was kept somewhat in check. But hey, at least they have Fernando Vina on the show now. Could be the most boring television personality of all-time.

And you're gonna tell me that Harold Reynolds, in my opinion the second best baseball mind in the world (next to Gammons) can't be on ESPN because of an alleged sexual harassment, but Joe Morgan still has a freakin job???

Morgan is allowed to constantly repeat the absolute worst points in the history of sports and stay employed on a SPORTS CHANNEL, yet Harold gets the boot for harrassing an intern??? I swear to God if i heard Morgan try to cement home his point about Dice-K needing to learn to throw inside one more time during that Sunday Night Game against the Yanks I was going to Bristol.

And for the record, this summer I will continue my boycott of the Little League World Series since there's no HR.

Some other stuff:

Fantasy baseball is an absolute rip-off. How can a team that has Beckett, Halladay, Peavy, Hamels, Big Papi, and David Wright be in sixth place and losing ground by the day? Absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully I have about 35 more points before I'm down to Conboy/Lepore levels.

Dice-K has been so-so up to this point. He's been getting himself into trouble a lot lately, but still no worries here at The Hub. Monster second-half for the Dice-man....wait and see.

Dustin Pedroia has been moved into the lead-off spot as of the series opener against Colorado. I like it...a lot. This guy's been awesome over the last month and a half. Now imagine him setting the table for Youk, Ortiz (about to break out any day now), and Manny, assuming Manny even knows who DP is. Can anyone else see Pedroia on 2nd, with Manny at the plate, and Manny calling timeout to ask the 3rd base coach who the hell the short white guy on 2nd base is?

So Clemens is back, Abreu is finally out of his Pedro Cerrano in Major League 2-like slump, and the Yanks are starting to play like an AL East teame instead of an NL Central team. I'll be honest, part of me is happy about this. What would September and October in Boston be like without a little Sox-Yanks drama?

Jon Lester has been sent to Pawtucket instead of joining the Sox rotation. Solid move. Why rush this kid back when Tavarez has been one of the biggest surprises in Red Sox history. Tavarez can handle the five-spot in the rotation for the Sox until Lester is back where they want him. No rush at all.

Read a pretty cool story today in the Globe about the cop that throws out a fist pound for Papelbon everytime Pap takes the field. Pretty sweet job for this guy. It turns out he's actually one of the biggest bad asses in all of Boston. And I have to tell you; after seeing Papelbon close out a game in person for the first time, it's just the perfect storm. The fist pound, "Wild Thing" playing during the jog in from the 'pen, topped off with 36,000+ losing it as that song by Dropkick Murphy's from The Departed blasts throughout the stadium. How do you beat that?

Quick prediction: earlier this year I would have said Tavarez gets traded in a package deal at the deadline. Now, I say there's no way he goes. And not because he's been great, or we need the arm, etc. It's because this will be the thing that finally puts Manny over the edge and he finally says %$@! this place. You'll see Manny walking towards fly balls (as opposed to the light jog he takes now), taking himself out of the lineup with a tummy-ache, and actually refusing to even bring a bat to the plate with him. We need to keep Tavarez just to keep Manny happy.

Another prediction (that hurts a lot): Wily Mo Pena gets traded before the deadline. Some half-decent NL team will roll the dice on WMP in exchange for a decent middle reliever. Then WMP goes on to hit something like 93 homers in the 2nd half of the season.

Kevin Youkilis absolutely needs to end up in the All-Star game this year. As much of a joke as the voting process already is, Youk not playing for the AL is an absolute shame. Explain to me how the guy leading all first baseman in everything doesn't even get on the ballot, yet there will be someone representing the Royals. It's a joke.

I know it's only June, and the Sox are on top of the AL East, but I cannot help but be absolutely PSYCHED for Pats season. How the hell do you stop Belichick's boys this year?? Belichick must have stormed Kraft's office and said "Look, Peyton just won a ring and now everyone's gonna kiss his ass and say he's a million times better than Tom. We need deep threats for Tom to shatter all of Manning's stats, and we need to upgrade the D. Go to it Bobby." Absolutely scary how good this team looks right now. See ya in Foxboro Peyton.

Anyway, time to wrap this one up. Feel free to get in touch at thesportshub@gmail.com, but only if the email is something derogatory about Greech.