Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Many people in Boston bring up the Red Sox trading away of Josh Bard when they talk about the lack of depth in the organization behind Jason Varitek at catcher. To me though - the big loss was Kelly Stoppach who was traded to Cleveland in the Coco Crisp deal. Stoppach is the perfect back-up for Cleveland and he would have been perfect in Boston too... You have to be rooting for Doug Davis as he makes his first start of the season against the Reds today. Davis will make his first two starts and then begin treatment for thyroid cancer... I'm also rooting for Jamie Moyer. I just like Jamie Moyer. I hope he gets at least 11 wins this season. He already has 230 and if he gets 11 wins then he'll pass fellow lefties Whitey Ford (236), David Wells (239), Frank Tanana (240) and Herb Pennock (240) and take over 53rd place on the all-time list. And speaking of 53rd place on the all-time list - Moyer needs just 25 K's to pass Dennis Martinez for 53rd place on the all-time list for strikeouts... Baseball fans in Worcester were all happy to see Wes Helms get designated for assignment by the Phillies. It's not that we dislike Helms its just that the other likely candidate to be dropped to make room for Rudy Seanez was Worcester's Tim Lahey who was a rule 5 pickup by Philadelphia.