WEEI: Larry Lucchino Discusses Bay, A.L. East Race

Given the Yankees’ offseason spending, is there satisfaction in being ahead of them after a winter in which the Sox spent their resources on short-term contracts and extensions for homegrown players?

They are definitely two different approaches. No question about that. We don’t rule out the significant free-agent signings. Make no mistake about that. We were out there trying to sign Teixeira. We look at the best free agents to come onto the market every year. It’s just not our primary course of action. It’s not the preferred way to operate. But you should never, and we never, foreclose any options to make our team better.

I do like the fact very much that we have a different approach. The Yankees seem to do things one way. We try to do them another. They’ve built the eighth wonder of the world as a ballpark, as a grand stadium, a grand edifice. We just have a nice little ballpark here. They’re also in the largest market in the world. We are in the most avid or passionate market in the world. There are real differences between us, and I like to be reminded of those from time to time.

Would you be surprised if a team with the resources of the Yankees made a run at Jason Bay in free agency this winter?

They have a track record of doing exactly that: signing the best players to come onto the free-agent market…Jason has the kind of track record that will establish him as one of the better free agents on the market as a position player. I think that it’s quite likely that they may do that, as a general rule. But who knows? I don’t know how rich their farm system is in terms of coming outfielders, but that doesn’t seem to deter them in most years.

Thanks to Bill Spanswicked This Way Comes.

Lead gets away from Boston bullpen | redsox.com: News

This is one game I’m glad I stopped watching early.

“Thirteen hits in two innings,” Francona said. “We just had no answer. We went through just about everybody. There were balls everywhere. We gave up 13 hits [in two innings]. That was as bad as we’ve seen. Nothing we did worked.”

By the time it was over, the bullpen had given up a total of 10 runs on 13 hits in four innings.

Why is Bucky Dent in my Mailbox?

So I opened my mail last night … and there he was.

Bucky Dent. 

Well, at least a three and a half inch cardboard facsimile of him in near-Mint condition.

Someone is anonymously sending baseball cards to baseball bloggers and writers ... including David Pinto, Will Carroll and Craig Calcaterra

Rob Neyer: Is Ellsbury the new Pierre?

It’s true that Ellsbury’s been disappointing, and it’s not apparent that he’ll ever be not disappointing. Last season he batted .280/.336/.394; this year it’s .297/.345/.388. Ellsbury’s 25 going on 26; when Fred Lynn was 25, he’d won an MVP Award and been an All-Star three times. When Ichiro was 25 ... well, he was still starring in Japan, so it’s hard to make a comparison. Johnny Damon took some time to develop, but when he was 25 he batted .307/.397/.477.

So, yeah: Ellsbury’s behind those guys.

Juan Pierre, though? Ellsbury’s playing in the tougher league, and those extra 30 points of slugging percentage (career-wise) do count. Plus, Ellsbury’s a better basestealer, and by most accounts a better fielder. Even leaving aside the small matter of the large difference in their salaries—$10 million for Pierre, $0.5 million for Ellsbury—it’s exceptionally easy to understand that Ellsbury is right now better than Pierre, and still has a pretty solid chance of being a much better player than Pierre.

A Look at Centerfield Camera Placement

Slate dives into the unique and possibly illogical placement of centerfield cameras.

Boston Globe: Massarotti: Feeling uneasy the rule vs. NL

Among the most obvious has been utilizing Ortiz as a fielder, something the Sox generally have avoided despite the fact that Ortiz was named the best defensive first baseman in 1996 in the Single A Midwest League. (“Is that true Papi?’’ an eavesdropping Jacoby Ellsbury asked incredulously.) There were two occasions yesterday on which the need to have Ortiz afield could have hurt the Sox, the first when he mishandled an easy Gregor Blanco bunt, the second when he failed to scoop a throw from Nick Green.

Even on the plays Ortiz made, there was cause to hold one’s breath. Ortiz twice had to lead a lumbering Brad Penny covering first, one big man feeding another in what amounted to considerably more than 500 pounds of PFP (pitcher’s fielding practice).

“The tough one is when you have to throw to the pitcher [overhand],’’ Ortiz said with a straight face, “because pitchers, you know, they’re really not good fielders.’’

...“My mentality when I’m out there is like, ‘I’m a Gold Glover,’ ’’ Ortiz cracked. “I was pretty good at defense until I got humongous. I got to the big leagues and I gained like 30 pounds, and we had [Doug] Mientkiewicz over there, and he was a Gold Glover [in 2001]. Then I got here and we had like 20 first basemen. Next thing I know I was DH-ing, and that’s it.

“People always make a big deal about first basemen, but most of ’em stink, anyway,’’ Ortiz mused. “They just hit.’’

Thanks to Drex.

Fangraphs: One Win Curveballs

So far this year Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright and Javier Vazquez have each provided a win’s worth of value with their curveballs alone. They have saved over ten runs with their curveballs. On the other end of the spectrum is Brad Penny, whose curveball has cost the Red Sox about a win (9.4 runs).

An awesome piece of work using PitchF/X data on curveballs.  The comments section includes further elaboration of the methods and assumptions.

TSN: Did Nats Fans Send Sox Fans to Gay Bars

“Hi Everyone, I’m coming in this week for the Sox series. Are there any decent sportsbars near the ballpark?” one apparent Red Sox fan asked on the Nats’ online forum.

“There’s only a beer garden next to the park,” replied one famously instigator from the team’s boards. “you’re better off up the street on Capitol Hill, Remingtons (639 Pennsylvania Ave SE) is a NE Patriots bar so they’ll probably have a large Red Sox crowd this week.”

If you have a well-developed sense of skepticism, here’s where you might start to doubt this story.

Childish? Sure.  Was the guy kind of asking to be trolled, in the “there are mean people on the internet” sense, and would a modicum of street smarts probably help him out? Sure.  Does the headline curiously act like this was more than one incident and also invite question as to why on earth this is a story for TSN? Sure!  It’s still funny.

Bradford: Red Sox outfielder Bay to become a United States citizen

Sure, sure...the bright lights of America yet anti-flag.

Jason Bay is making his last visit to the nation’s capital as an outsider looking in.

On Thursday, July 2, the Red Sox outfielder will officially become a United States citizen.

“I figure I might as well since this is where I’ll be working for probably the rest of my career,” said Bay prior to the Red Sox’ 6-4 win over the Nationals, Wednesday night, at Nationals Park. “It’s just a natural progression.”

...The most recent Red Sox player to gain his United States’ citizenship while playing for the team was David Ortiz, who was sworn in last June. Manny Ramirez also became a United States citizen in 2006, celebrating his accomplishment by carrying a flag of his new country while running out to his position in left field at Fenway Park.

“I don’t think I’ll do that,” the new Sox’ left fielder said.

MacPherson: Talking hitting with Chipper Jones

“There are certain times when teams are absolutely not going to let me beat them,” Jones said from the visitors’ clubhouse at Fenway Park. “I have to be quick to realize when those situations arise and when I just have to take my walk and let the guy behind me do the damage.

“But you’re talking about a guy who, this is my 16th year in the big leagues. It’s hard enough for me to do it, much less a guy who’s been in the league two or three years. It’s almost impossible for them to stay patient.”

Jones and Atlanta hitting coach Terry Pendleton, former batting champions both, were shooting the breeze in the Fenway Park batting cage on Friday. When conversation came around to the Red Sox lineup. Jones brought up a guy who had taken him by surprise during the World Baseball Classic: Youkilis.

“This is a guy who throws quality at-bats up,” Jones said. “He’s the one guy in their lineup you don’t want to see up at the plate in the crucial at-bat of the game. You know he’s very rarely going to make an out on the first pitch. You know he’s going to work counts, foul balls off, and he’s going to work the pitcher until he gets a pitch he can put in play hard.

“That was something I never really realized about him, but he’s fast perfecting the art of hitting in his own way.”

Perfecting the art of hitting? (tosses Lau’s Laws in dumpster)

YFSF: Cheapies, cont.

That last sentence is my emphasis, but that’s a key point, and the diagram makes it very clear: If a cheap home run is snaked around the Fenway Park right-field foul pole, it probably would have done the same thing in the Bronx.

Missed it yesterday, but this is an interesting bit on YanksfanSoxfan about cheap homers in the Fens and the House that Stein Built.

Washington Times: Loverro: For Boston’s Lucchino, This Still Feels Like Home

The subject matter is a bit of a stretch for me, but there just aren’t enough positive articles about Washington lawyers.

This is where Lucchino grew up professionally, first as a lawyer with the prominent firm of Williams & Connolly, then as an executive with the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Orioles under the guidance of his mentor, Edward Bennett Williams.

. . .

“I knew how much Ed revered the Red Sox, going back to his childhood days in Hartford,” said Lucchino, who Tuesday returns to the District for Boston’s first visit to Nationals Park. “I never thought I would wind up there, but I love Boston. It is a great city, a real American city. ... It is one of the best places in the nation for a baseball executive to work. They love their Red Sox, they love Fenway Park and they love their history and heritage.”

FJB: Red Sox = Yankees + Hypocrisy

Red Sox President Larry Lucchino once famously called the Yankees the “evil empire” for outspending the opposition en route to championship after championship. With a fan base that carried itself with the self-important entitlement of a Hilton heir, the Yankees have forever been the team that all right-thinking fans loved to hate.

Today, Red Sox and the Yankees have melded into one axis of evil, each outspending the rest of the league and undermining the sense of fair competition.

(By the way, it’s this sense that the game is rigged that really is the objectionable thing about all this. The appeal of sports is that it’s a fair, honest competition, where the underdog can have his day and the big shots have to prove themselves day in and day out. By letting a few teams buy their way into contention every year, baseball feels corrupt and unfair. In other words, it’s less fun.)

Boston Globe: Ryan: It just doesn’t add up

Is this the biggest Boston ripoff since a bunch of Lou Miami & The Kozmetix EPs were sent out scratched? You decide!

Of course, no one in power will say the team is already better off knowing that Dice-K will not be pitching for the foreseeable future. But we all know that happens to be the case.

The goal now is to restore him to, well, what, exactly?

He’s not what he was supposed to be; this much we know. He was billed as a superpitcher, a guy who threw in the mid-to-high 90s and who augmented this uberheater with as many as five auxiliary pitches, all, as they say, in the “plus’’ category. (We won’t go anywhere near that gyroball nonsense.)

We’ve never seen that guy.

...He was supposed to be one of the elite pitchers in the world. He’s not. When he’s right, he’s an OK pitcher. When he’s not right, and right now he’s far from right, he’s a massive liability.

No longer. He has been made redundant, and the 2009 Boston Red Sox aren’t going to miss him.

Washington Times: Passion for Red Sox igniting nationwide

A lot has changed for the Red Sox since they last visited the District in 1971. After excruciatingly close World Series losses in 1975 and 1986, Boston has finally broken out of its championship drought by capturing two of the last five titles.

The Red Sox also return for a three-game series with the last-place Nationals as arguably the most popular team in baseball, if not all of professional sports.

“Winning the World Series [in 2004] just lit it on fire,” said Jeff Gooding, senior vice president of the Chicago-based sports marketing firm rEvolution. “Continuing to be good has helped to keep that burning.”

Although Boston is known as a passionate baseball town, it hasn’t always been this trendy to like the Red Sox. As recently as 1998, the team ranked in the bottom half of the American League in attendance.

Nationals Park: a “proper place to get drunk and moan “Yoooouuuuuuk” like a water buffalo in heat.”

WEEI: Petraglia: Jones, Cox not-so chipper about umpiring

Petraglia: Caroliering missed strikes on the Braves.

Afterward, Chipper Jones ripped home plate ump Bill Hohn, who ejected all three. “I don’t know why umpires have to be confrontational,” Jones said. ”When he goes back and looks at the replay of the pitch, hopefully he can admit he missed the call.”

Jones stepped in to try and protect Eric O’Flaherty, who was being relieved by Cox when he asked about the pitch to Drew.

“I know this, I hope Major League Baseball take a close look at how this game was officiated today. And it wasn’t just aimed at us. I saw a ton of Red Sox with some puzzled looks on their faces, too. We’ve got to do a little better than that,” Jones said.

Cox had this to say about the non-strike three call on Drew.

“It was a ball that was right down the middle for strike three,” Cox said. “It was obvious. He blew the call and it upsets guys when it costs you games and it costs us the ballgame.”

Boston Globe: Matsuzaka moved to DL

Daisuke Matsuzaka has been placed on the 15-day DL, Red Sox manager Terry Francona said on Sunday, and he hinted it could take months for the struggling righty to recover.

“It’s not going to be a two-week DL thing,” said Francona. “We have a lot of work ahead of us to get him back to being Daisuke.”

Matsuzaka had an MRI done yesterday that showed “a little bit of weakness in his shoulder,” but there is no true structural damage.

“We don’t know all the specifics yet, but it’s not an injury (that has led to his struggles),” said Francona.

Matsuzaka will be sent to the Red Sox spring training complex in Florida when he begins his rehab. There is no timetable for his return.

“We’re going to start figuring this out,” said Francona. “If he has shoulder weakness, it’s not like he’s going to come back and pitch and his shoulder is going to be miraculously strong. I don’t have all the answers yet.”

Matsuzaka agreed with the decision, but noted that it wasn’t entirely his choice to make.

“It was partly the club’s decision. I also felt I couldn’t keep going the way I was going, so they had to make changes,” Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. “I thought that, if I keep going like this, I was going to be a burden to this team.”

Boston Herald.: Penny pitchin’?

So what of the critics like Dodgers coach Larry Bowa, who this spring blasted Penny as out of shape?

“I never cared,” Penny said. “People can say what they want. Larry Bowa’s never been in the weight room with me. He never saw me. I never felt the need to work out in front of people to show them how hard I was working. It’s my career. Of course I’m going to work. This is what I do.”

Penny began the season in the Red Sox rotation, but was still clearly feeling the effects of a 2008 shoulder injury that had him fearing his career was over. After a series of so-so outings, he began turning things around last month. During his last six starts, he’s 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA.

His fastball has topped out at 97 mph, the feel for his breaking pitches has returned and in short order he has regained the form that made him a two-time All-Star who finished third in the National League Cy Young Award voting as recently as 2007 with the Dodgers.

“Everyone looks at him like he’s our No. 5 starter,” Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay said. “But in the National League, he was an ace, the ace of that staff. When I played against him, he was always the guy, like, ‘Man, that’s Brad Penny.’ It’s weird for me to hear people say he’s a fifth starter.”

So like, did Penny’s season only start for him in the last six starts?

Boston Herald/McAdam: Daisuke Matsuzaka unable to stop downward spiral

The Toast of the Town! ... or just toast?

How bad was Daisuke Matsuzaka’s start last night? Consider that he came into the game with an ERA of 7.55, and after his outing was over that figure had increased by almost three-quarters of a run to 8.23.

It took Matsuzaka exactly one pitch - a fastball to Atlanta Braves leadoff hitter Nate McLouth - to put the Sox in a 1-0 hole. And the damage didn’t end there. The Braves added another run in the first on a bases-loaded walk, two more in the fourth and another two in the fifth for what became an 8-2 pounding of the Sox.

“There certainly was no settling into the game,” said Terry Francona of his starter’s night. “You talk about getting into a rhythm, getting in a flow, and he throws a first-pitch strike and it leaves the ballpark. . . . It was a tough night.”

Matsuzaka allowed six runs in four-plus innings, and the Sox fell to 2-6 in starts by Matsuzaka this season.

also from the Herald: Dice-K spot-on: ‘I need to reach out for help’

“If I keep going like this, I have no right to be a part of this rotation,” the right-hander said after one of his worst outings for the Red Sox, a boo-filled, four-plus-inning stint in an 8-2 loss to the Braves at Fenway Park.

Peter Gammons: Red Sox want rotation depth, will keep Penny

When Gene Orza spoke at the Red Sox’s spring training site, he was barraged with questions about how the union could have failed to destroy the names from the 2003 anonymous steroid tests. Now Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa have been outed, even though no one in baseball has been more protective of players’ rights than Orza.

Players from two different teams got into prolonged discussions this week about Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, et al.

“There is a lot of moral outrage being directed at Sammy,” one veteran said. “But, let’s be honest. Sosa, McGwire and Bonds made a lot of people a lot of money. The owners, the commissioner … all us players, whose salaries got dragged up.”

Now we have the Dodgers trying to get their fans to flock to San Diego for the return of Manny Ramirez on July 3. With all the fanfare that will be attached to his return to Dodger Stadium, it’s all about money. Period.

If Sosa could come back and help the Dodgers make money, they’d sign him in a heartbeat. Sammy can’t help them anymore, but Manny will be their cash cow, and their only regret is that he got caught and they are missing 50 games worth of wigs and MannyLand revenues.

Papelbon: Of Course I Want To Stay In Boston

Papelbon was asked if he would ever consider playing for the Yankees if the Red Sox don’t re-sign him prior to free agency following the 2011 season.

“Oh, of course,” Papelbon told Jody MacDonald and Bert Blyleven. “I mean, I think if we can’t come to an agreement on terms here in a Red Sox uniform, I mean I think that’s pretty much the writing on the wall. If they can’t come to terms with you they’re letting you know that, ‘Hey you know what? We can go somewhere else’ and I think it’s the same way on the other side, ‘Hey if ya’ll can’t come to an agreement with me then I can go somewhere else.’

“Not only the Bronx, but anywhere. I think anywhere is a possibility. You always have to keep that in the back of your mind because you can’t just be one-sided and think that, ‘Oh I’m going to be in a Red Sox uniform my entire career,’ because nowadays that is very, very rare and hopefully we can because there’s no question I would love to stay in a Boston Red Sox uniform but I have to do what’s best for me and play in an atmosphere where I’m wanted and play on a team where I’m wanted and that’s all I can really say about that, you know?”

The Red Sox control the right-handed closer through the 2011 season.

What a jerk!!! The right answer is: “If I can’t play for the Red Sox, I will retire at age 31.”

Pedroia loses RBI from Yankees series

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia lost an RBI double he hit against the Yankees on June 10 when Major League Baseball decided Thursday to overturn the original decision, instead giving Yankees right fielder Nick Swisher an error on the play.

Somewhere, kevin foams at the mouth.

Hartford Courant: Red Sox Richer Yet For Having Penny

Maybe the old saying is wrong. Maybe you can have too much pitching. The Red Sox seem intent on testing it.

“We come to the ballpark every day feeling like we have a great chance to win,” shortstop Nick Green said after the Red Sox beat the Marlins 6-1 Wednesday night at Fenway Park, the crowd of 38,196 extending the MLB record for consecutive sellouts to 500 games. “We don’t have just one or two guys where we have to win for them. We feel like we’re going to get great pitching every night. From top to bottom, they did a great job assembling this pitching staff.”

To this point, the back end of the rotation has been even more productive than the front, with Brad Penny (6-2, 4.94 ERA), who gritted through five innings Wednesday to get his 100th career win, and Tim Wakefield combining to go 15-5.

And it gets even deeper with John Smoltz, who made his last rehab start, ready to tack onto the conga line. The Red Sox are toying with the idea of a six-man rotation rather than rushing into trading Penny or giving up on Daisuke Matsuzaka.

plus, the Boston Herald says John Smoltz set to make ’09 debut next week and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution claims Chipper, Francoeur didn’t want to face Smoltz in Atlanta

Bradford: How Beckett Has Changed Since Coming to the Red Sox

Jason Bay had seen the Florida Marlins Josh Beckett from afar, running into the pitcher on occasion while both were living their National League lives. Now he’s getting an up-close view of the ace.

The verdict?

“He’s a guy you hate to play against,” said Bay, “but love to have on your team.”

But then came even higher—and perhaps more enlightening—praise from the Red Sox’ left fielder.

“He’s a d--- when he needs to be,” Bay said.

Thanks to Barnald, who’s also a d--- when he needs to be.

Boston Herald: Ortiz feeling groovy.

In the fourth inning alone in a 8-2 drubbing of the Florida Marlins at Fenway Park [map], Ortiz slammed a solo homer into the visitors bullpen and added a two-run single after the Sox batted around. The three RBI were half as many as Ortiz collected for the entire month of May, a measure of how far the designated hitter has come in recent weeks.

Over the last 13 games, Ortiz is 13-for-41 and has lifted his average from .185 to .210. For the month of June, Ortiz is slugging .606 and has compiled a .395 on-base percentage, numbers commensurate with his best seasons.

Reports of his death appear to have been greatly exaggerated.

Murray Chass On Baseball: RED SOX OWNER GOES TWEET, TWEET, TWEET

That sound you just heard was Bobby Day hoppin’ and a-boppin’ in his Holy Cross Cemetery grave.

I called Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox president, to ask him if he thought Henry’s comment was ill advised. “Ask him,” Lucchino said. “What he meant, why he said it, it’s a question best addressed to him and I’m not going to have any comment about it.”

If you were commenting, I replied, I would bet you didn’t think it was smart. “No comment,” said Lucchino, who I doubt tweets.

But I took Lucchino’s advice and sent Henry an e-mail. That’s the way Henry communicates with reporters. It’s not an ideal system, but Henry is more accessible by e-mail than most owners are by telephone.

“Now that several days have gone by since your Twitter post,” I wrote, “do you have any second thoughts about having posted it, do you regret posting it, do you have no problem with having posted it? Have you ever heard the saying let sleeping dogs lie?”

“Sleeping dogs don’t lead the league in HRs,” Henry replied, referring to the Yankees’ power-hitting status. “I’m amazed at the positive response to tweeting. It’s fun.

“I’ve always had a sense of humor. People can sometimes take themselves (and others) too seriously.”

I’m all for owners having a sense of humor, and Henry is a big boy. If he wants to poke fun at the Yankees on Twitter or anywhere else, tweet on.

...Henry apparently doesn’t see any need to learn anything from his Teixeira tweet. He is an inveterate tweeter. In a 48-hour period surrounding the Teixeira tweet, Henry posted 39 tweets.

(In the interest of full disclosure, contrary to what it might seem, I have not gone over to the dark side. Most of the Twitter information was found by my crack researcher, a.k.a. the executive producer of this Web site.)

YFSF: Theo’s Choice

Clearly the best starting rotation at the moment does not include Matsuzaka, who (unlike Wakefield) has shown us nothing positive in his seven starts this season. A second DL stint—fatigued shoulder, one month for arm strengthening, mechanics work and a bevy of rehab starts—seems like the most logical choice. If and when a good enough offer for Penny arises, Buchholz can take his place in the rotation.

Permutations abound.

WEEI: Smoltz talks about beyond this year

“The unknown is so intriguing. It’s vast”...Whoa, I’m pretty sure this is lifted from Criswell’s shocking wage turner “Your Future From Now To The Year 2000!”

Thursday, he will either be returning to the majors as a member of the Red Sox, or will be pitching one more time for Triple A Pawtucket, residing just days away form his momentous return to the bigs.

“I’m in a total new place in my life and my career,” he said. “And you know what? The unknown is so intriguing. It’s vast.”

..."The reason I had surgery was not to just come back for one year,” he said before Sunday’s game at Citizens Bank Park. “Having surgery certainly quality of life was part of it, but I could have waited to have that. To have surgery at this point, when I did, and not try to milk anymore of the rest of that season, the reason I did that was to pitch well beyond. I figured if I was going to have surgery and I can pitch one year, what prevents me from pitching two years. Something will have to really go wrong to say, ‘OK I did everything I could and it wasn’t working,’ Hey, I can totally sleep with that. If I was going to resign to the feeling everybody had that this was it, as an athlete it’s not even so much to prove people wrong but saying, ‘Hey I’ve done this before.’ You know how many things I wasn’t supposed to come back from? People take it for granted now that it’s old hat. Oh, he did it again. People underestimated my ability to think beyond what conceptionatl opinion was. I’m just not one of those guys. I would never do anything I didn’t think I could do beyond a reasonable doubt.”

NECN: Candid Buchholz itching to pitch in Majors again

Wasted bullets?

NECN’s Mike Giardi caught up with Buchholz at McCoy Stadium for a candid interview in which Buchholz makes his intentions clear—he wants to be pitching in the big leagues as soon as possible.

“Until I got to the big leagues is whenever I faced the problems that arose, and I feel like I’m more equipped with everything that I have right now—as far the pitches, and the mental aspect and I’m physically healthy—to be up there and helping that team. And if not that team, I want to be in the big leagues and I do want to go somewhere where I’ll be able to play and pitch every fifth day.”

..."There’s nowhere to go, and it’s sort of a logjam up there (in Boston),” Buchholz said. “Whenever they come to a problem, they seem like they find a way to fix it without me being in the picture. It is what it is—it’s frustrating at times.”

...Masterson has proven himself capable of handling pressure situations, having pitched meaningful relief innings in the 2008 Playoffs. Buchholz, though, has battled murmurs that he was immature last season—a potential cause of his troubles on the hill.

“Everybody goes out and has a drink at the bar after they pitch, it’s just holding that to a minimum,” Buchholz said.

..."Everybody knows that this game doesn’t last forever, for a pitcher especially,” Buchholz said. “I feel like I don’t want to waste bullets here.”

Thanks to Brunell.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Wilson trade discussed with Boston

The Pirates and Boston have had trade talks regarding shortstop Jack Wilson, but no move in that direction seems imminent or even likely based on how talks have gone to this point.

The Red Sox, without a shortstop while Jed Lowrie recovers from a wrist injury, have taken the step of asking some of their players—including former Pirates outfielder Jason Bay—for their views on Wilson in an attempt to gauge his value. But their talks to date have not come close to the baseball return the Pirates would seek in a trade for their most popular player.

...

Including the Pirates’ 1909 World Series, the Steelers’ victory in Super Bowl XL and now the Penguins’ victory, Pittsburgh teams have won more championships in the city of Detroit than in Pittsburgh.

The only ones won in Pittsburgh were the Pirates’ titles in 1925 and 1960. The other 12 were elsewhere, including the Pirates winning twice in Baltimore.