FanHouse Manny Delcarmen

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Boston Red Sox
What's the strength of this Red Sox club so far in spring? By looking at the numbers, it's their bullpen. The seven projected relievers in the bullpen (Jonathan Papelbon, Takashi Saito, Ramon Ramirez, Justin Masterson, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and Javier Lopez) have combined to give up only one run on six hits in 13 innings of work. Last season the Red Sox bullpen produced 34 wins and these seven pitchers struck out 456 batters. What does all of this mean for your fantasy club? It means that Paps is still a solid, lock down closer. It also means that if you're looking for cheap wins, strikeouts, low ERA's and WHIP's you should start by scouring the Red Sox pen. And if your fantasy league uses holds, the value from this list just went up.

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- Big Papi Busts Out: The news was almost entirely bad for the Red Sox Monday night. Josh Beckett looked pretty shaky. Boston allowed the Yankees to stay alive another day -- mostly because umpire Gerry Davis got in the way of a two-run double.

The big bright spot? David Ortiz is rounding into playoff form. Big Papi had a terrible April, then injured his wrist in May, then lost the hitter who protected him for years, Manny Ramirez, at the end of July. But he's hit two home runs in the last two days, one to the opposite field in Toronto and a second to the deepest part of Fenway Park Monday. He's driving the ball like he rarely has this year, and Boston needs him more than ever heading into October.

The Red Sox are not as vulnerable as they were in 2005, the last time they had a championship to defend, but they also don't appear quite as strong as the teams that won in 2004 and 2007, especially with J.D. Drew likely out for the season and Mike Lowell hurting too.

The loss of players like Lowell, Drew and Ramirez and the general ineffectiveness and inconsistency of guys like Tim Wakefield, Manny Delcarmen and Jacoby Ellsbury means Boston needs its stars more than ever come playoff time.

To fans and the media, what a team does in the MLB Draft pales next to a big free-agent signing or blockbuster trade.

Part of that is the gaudy figures thrown around during the hot stove season. The Red Sox, this year's top spender in the draft, couldn't even buy one year of Gil Meche if they shifted their draft outlay to the open market. Most of it stems from immediacy, though. A big winter signing answers the question who will help me today? A big haul in the draft answers who will help me tomorrow, but in most cases tomorrow is years away, if it ever comes at all.

Still, as the cost of free agents escalates, the draft continues to become the most important way to ensure long-term success. With that in mind, and with the deadline to sign picks in the books, here's a look at three teams who won and three teams who lost in the 2008 draft

Understandably, there are countless "just as good at singing as the original Milli Vanilli" jokes available in this video. But I'm too stunned at watching Jonathan Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen, dressed as Rob and Fab in the Boston Red Sox newest rain delay video, singing "Blame It on the Rain" to really make with the funny.



As Brian Powell put it, maybe Papelbon has a little too much crazy in him. (Re: Living in the 90's: Kevin Millar is Killing Your Brain Like a Poisonous Mushroom ... Deadly! When I play a dope ... okay, I'll stop.)

H/T: Sox and Dawgs

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Bad news for Boston fans Monday night. The Red Sox will place designated hitter David Ortiz on the disabled list after an MRI revealed the slugger had a torn tendon sheath in his extensor carpi ulnaris -- a muscle in the wrist. Ortiz is certain to miss at least a few weeks, though the Boston Herald has reported that he will miss at least a month and could face season-ending surgery.

Manager Terry Francona did not indicate the injury was quite that serious, though he will confer with Ortiz, GM Theo Epstein and the team's medical staff tomorrow in Boston.

Big Papi struggled in April, but he was his usual slugging self in May putting up a line of .318/.409/.617 (AVG/OBP/SLG) over the last month. No team in baseball is prepared to replace that kind of production, but the Red Sox are deeper than any other organization in the game and are prepared to make do while Ortiz gets healthy. Francona said after the game that reserve first baseman Sean Casey would likely see additional time while Ortiz is sidelined, but the most likely lineup Francona will put out there will probably feature Manny Ramirez at DH and Jacoby Ellsbury, Brandon Moss and maybe even Bobby Kielty or Kevin Youkilis splitting time in left field.

When asked about seeing more time as a designated hitter, Ramirez said "I love it. I love to DH," though he then went on to joke that if he played there too much it might hurt his chances at getting the Gold Glove he so covets. "It's nice to give him a blow and still keep his bat in the game," said Francona of playing Ramirez at DH.

If the Red Sox were merely losing Ortiz for a few weeks, there wouldn't be much to worry about, but Big Papi's injury is just at the top of a long list of concerns for the reigning champs.

Boston will miss Ortiz, but they'll do a very good job of filling the void in the short-term

It wasn't that long ago that Red Sox fans were sitting back, enjoying the summer sun and celebratory cigars, and giggling at the absurd lead their team had against their rival Yankees. As the shadows grow longer and the days grow shorter, Red Sox Nation is watching their team's lead slip away faster than the summer itself.

While the fans may be looking over their shoulders, Terry Francona has his eyes set firmly on the real prize: the World Series. He has made up his mind that the team will be in the post-season, either as the AL East champs or as the wild card, and is playing out the string of games left in preparation for the October run. Francona announced he would be giving starters Curt Schilling and Dice-K Matsuzaka extra days off, setting them up in the rotation for the first round of the playoffs. In 2005, Francona didn't have this luxury and ended up getting swept with Schilling never having thrown a pitch.

But does he really have the luxury this year? Last night's loss, a kick to the gut for Red Sox fans, was due to another part of Francona's master plan for the playoffs. Francona wanted to see what Eric Gagne had let, and he got his answer in a 3-run eighth inning with Jon Papelbon looking on from the bullpen and Manny Delcarmen having thrown just three pitches the previous inning. In addition to the questionable pitching strategy, the day-to-day line-up has been an ever-changing assortment of bench players and AAA call-ups since the beginning of September. Manny Ramirez has sat out 20 games with a strained oblique, while other starters have been getting days off to rest and heal various dents and bruises.

The cost for all of this preparation may very well end up being the AL East title and the best record in the AL and all the advantages that come with it. Francona has been exceptional in his Red Sox tenure at keeping guys healthy through the 162-game grind while keeping the bench players sharp and ready for action. If his plan works and the Sox win it all, he will be hailed as a genius for his strategy. If not, it will be a long winter for him and all of New England.

A shocker of a headline, I know, but apparently it's true. A.J. Pierzynski and White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker got into it shouting match in the dugout over the weekend, prompting Pierzynski to offer this extremely heartfelt apology:

"I'll apologize or whatever, but it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't like there were punches thrown or anybody was fighting or anything like that. Like I said, it's not the first time we got into a shouting match and I'm sure it won't be the last."

If saying "I'm sorry or whatever" doesn't show he's the bigger man, I don't know what does. Apparently the tiff started when Pierzynski returned to the dugout after grounding out against Manny Delcarmen. Pierzynski, whose pre-game routinely famously includes always going the extra mile to prepare playing cards instead of working on a game plan, was surprised when Delcarmen threw him a cutter:

"He told Walker, 'I didn't know Delcarmen throws cutters,' " said [Ozzie] Guillen, who said he was sitting a few feet from where the incident happened. "The information, that's the (20th) time we face Delcarmen since I've been managing (Pierzynski is 0-for-3 lifetime vs. Delcarmen).

"If he doesn't know what he has, don't make an excuse. That's a bad excuse. You put the coach on the spot to listen to that. The way we hit, if you come up to the hitting coach and say that, you put someone's job on the edge. ...

So that's that -- Chicago is one big (slightly dysfunctional) family.

(via Can't Stop the Bleeding)

The White Sox and Red Sox were very close to completing a deal yesterday that would have sent Jermaine Dye to Boston for Wily Mo Pena, Manny Delcarmen, and a prospect. Word is that while the Red Sox had no qualms about parting with Pena, they weren't too keen on parting with Delcarmen or minor-leaguer Justin Masterson.

While there's a possibility the deal may still happen, only minus Delcarmen, there's also word that Dye and the White Sox could be on the verge of a contract extension.

The White Sox, according to an industry source, have made overtures about giving Dye an extension that wouldn't mortgage their long-term future. Dye can become a free agent after this season and seek a long-term extension elsewhere, even though he indicated last week that he wouldn't settle for a one-year contract.

A big issue will be the monetary value of the deal, although general manager Kenny Williams may wait until the 4 p.m. New York (3 p.m. Chicago) deadline to see if another team makes an offer that tops Boston's.

I'm hearing that the Sox are willing to go with a two-year extension, but that Dye would like it to be three-years. While I'll always love Jermaine Dye for what he's done for the White Sox, I don't think it would be wise to sign him to a three-year deal. I'm not even sure how happy I'd be with the two-year extension.

As for the Red Sox and their interest in Dye, I'm wondering what this means about David Ortiz's health. Dye has told the White Sox he doesn't want to be traded anywhere he'd be a reserve, and Boston's outfield is kind of set with Manny Ramirez, Coco Crisp, and J.D. Drew. So that means if Dye did get traded to Boston, if he were to get the playing time he wants it would have to be as a designated hitter. So maybe Big Papi is hurting a lot more than the Red Sox are willing to let on.

Previously at FanHouse:
Jermaine Dye Wants the Buehrle Treatment