Red Sox Lock Up Youk

After a busy week signing roll players, the Red Sox also reached a deal with first baseman Kevin Youkilis on a 4 year, $41 million contract. Wait, is that right? It's only $41 million? Really? That seems like a bargain for a guy who batted .312, had 29 home runs, 115 RBIs, a slugging percentage of .569 and an OPS of .958.

Let's compare that to the 8 year, $180 deal that Mark Teixeira signed with the Yankees a few weeks agao. Last year, Teixeira batted .308, had 33 home runs, 121 RBIs, a slugging percentage of .552 and an OPS of .962. So essentially, Teixeira and Youkilis are the same player if you base it on numbers. Yet Youkilis just signed a deal for half the years and half the money. And the deal got done in one day, as opposed to the soap opera that Teixeira created.

Let's not forget that Youkilis also set the record for most consecutive errorless games (238) and chances (2,002) for a first basemen last year and had a .996 fielding percentage.

But you know what I like the most about this contract- Youk wants to play here. There was never any other thought. This was one of those bizarre circumstances where it's really not about the money. Youk even says it in the clip below- what good is an extra million a year going to do for him? It's about playing in front of die hard Red Sox fans screaming your name and going nuts when you come up to bat or make a nice play in the field. It's not about what uniform your wife thinks you'd look good in. It's about winning championships and Youk's already got two.

Time (For The Rays) To Panic

As I crept into bed last night with the Sox down 7-0 to the unstoppable Tampa Bay Rays, I had a bit of a sad feeling. Not that the Sox were on the brink of losing but that they looked like a bunch of losers going down in only five games to the surging Rays. David Ortiz looked pathetic, going so far as to walk to first base with the bat on his shoulder as he was easily thrown out. Jason Varitek looked like Jason Varitek (that's not a good thing). The starting pitching was horrendous for the fourth game in a row. The leadoff spot was an automatic out. No one was hitting with runners on base.

In short, the Red Sox looked dead playing a team that looked more like the 1927 Yankees than 2008 Rays. Balls were flying off the bats of the Rays and out of the park left and right, even though there was a stiff breeze blowing in from centerfield. Scott Kazmir was getting in and out of jams in the first few innings and being let off the hook by a team that looked like they had no killer instinct or even a desire to be playing baseball in October.

And then something kind of weird happened. Dustin Pedroia drove in a run to make it 7-1 and then Big Papi came to the plate. This was the same Big Papi who was booed by the Fenway (un)Faithful the entire game. I'll let the following photos tell the rest of the story:

With one swing of the bat, Big Papi, the greatest clutch hitter in Red Sox history, makes it a 7-4 game:











After watching Manny Delcarmen implode (again) on the mound, Jonathan Papelbon comes in and pitches two scoreless innings:













JD Drew brings the Red Sox within one run of the Rays with his two run blast. Yes, that was JD Drew. I know, I can't believe it, either:











Coco Crisp ties the game at seven with this single, which also represented the first hit from the leadoff spot by the Red Sox the entire series:











Kevin Youkilis comes around to score on JD Drew's ground rule single in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Red Sox the biggest postseason comeback in the last 79 years:










This kid pretty much sums things up:












This had the feeling of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals game where the Celtics made the greatest playoff comeback in NBA history. This is just the Red Sox' way of trying to trump the Celtics. Gotta love a little competition between two hometown teams.

So now it's back to Tampa Bay with our rotation set up perfectly for the last two games of this series. And I'd be a total liar if I didn't admit that I'm petrified of Josh Beckett in game six. I have no doubt that he could go out and throw a no hitter. . . or give up nine runs in the bottom of the first inning, which would only allow the Red Sox to make an even greater comeback. I said it earlier (even though it was my third prediction), Sox in seven.



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Youk Deserved to Get Slapped!?

So last week Manny Ramirez slapped Kevin Youkilis in the dugout and it has gone largely unnoticed in Boston. In fact, for all of the Manny Being Manny moments we've had over the years, this one is getting the least amount of air time, both in the papers and on the radio. It's almost like it never happened. Maybe it's the fact that the Celtics are on the verge of crushing Kobe and the Kobette's for banner number 17 or the fact that we've all been so wrapped up in the Stanley Cup Finals (yawn).

It appears that the real story is now coming out on the fight and it's apparently Youk's fault. Check out this Boston Herald article that explains Youk's intensity and his frustration at making an out. Still don't see how it's Youk's fault?

I guess I get it now. Youk plays hard, has always been a team guy (remember how they kept optioning him to AAA a few years ago because he was the only one with options left even though he was better than most of the players on the team?), rarely makes any mental mistakes, plays flawless defense at first base, always talks to the media following a good or bad night but apparently has a penchant for taking things out on the water cooler in the dugout. I'm cool with that.

On the other hand, we have Manny Being Manny who likes to take days off when the team is shorthanded, lollygags to first on almost every play, stands in the batters box admiring long balls that sometimes don't even go out of the park, makes a ton of baserunning errors and never talks to the media. This is a guy that even President Bush made fun of for not showing up at the White House earlier this year for a team gathering and Bush bashed him for always using the excuse that his grandmother died.

And somehow people think Youk deserved to get slapped? I don't get it. This isn't another Manny Being Manny moment. This is Manny Being an Idiot and apparently he's going to get a free pass on this one.

The incident takes place around the :30 second mark of the video below. I wish John Madden could do the play by play on this video because it would go something like this . . . "Okay, watch right here. We see Manny coming back to the dugout. Keep watching. Wait for it. Right here. BOOM! There's the hard slap to the face by Manny. I don't know what Manny was thinking but he gets the Thanksgiving Turkey leg for that hit."


From now on, when someone gets sucker punched, I think it should be called "getting Youk'd."