Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Red Sox vs Detroit Summary and Ellsbury for MVP

Daisuke Matsuzaka in a Japan jersey
Read this slowly, and read it well:  Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched 5 innings, struckout 5 and only gave up 2 hits and a walk.

The hopes of the Red Sox rotation were buoyed for another day as the man who has been so important to them in both the best and worst possible ways on the mound was able to put his thoughts of home in a compartment that allowed him to completely shut down the best Tiger lineup.


Last night, the Yankees didn’t bring their every day regulars to Fort Myers, but today Matsuzaka handled Austin Jackson, Maglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez and the rest of Detroit’s opening day lineup with ease!

Offensively, he hit another home run today and I am going to be the first to throw Jacoby Ellsbury’s name out there as a potential MVP candidate this season.  I am not obtuse enough to think that a great spring means much in this game, but looking at his body of work over the past few seasons and his progression as a player, it is entirely possible that in this lineup, Ellsbury scores 120+ runs, steals 70+ bases, bats over .300 and plays a lockdown outfield that is going to put him right in the midst of the MVP hunt.

He is not known as a home run hitter, but he has that potential every time he comes to bat, so if Ellsbury hits at least 20 this year, I think he will battle with Robinson Cano from the Yankees for the AL MVP this season.

Thanks to both players the Sox had a phenomenal day vs Detroit today whose bright spot was Justin Verlander’s 5 strikeout performance in 5.1 innings.  He lowered his spring ERA to 1.20, one of the lowest in all of baseball this March.

The Tigers can conted in the AL Central if they can get him help in the rotation because with their offense, which is constructed very much like the Red Sox with high average base stealers in front of big thumping power hitters, will score a ton of runs.

As of this writing it is 1-1 in the top of the 9th.


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4 comments:

  1. Thanks for pointing that out. The Twitter feed for this site is new and it seems that the articles have not been linked as I thought they were. If you'd like to follow then we are @BaseballGameday. I just double checked that it is active and will relink it with this site. I appreciate the heads up.

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  2. Jacoby Ellsbury will never win an MVP. He wont hit 20 homeruns ever either. If they gave it out to guys like that Crawford would have won last year.

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  3. i found yoour Twitter. and yes, i do find it hard to believe Ellsbury would ever win the MVP nor hit 20 homers

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