Dice-K's Leash

The Ranger's loss last night gave Terry Francona and John Farrell a little more wiggle room in dealing with Dice-K tonight.  With a 4.5 game lead in the wild-card, tonight's match up with the Angels in not a must win game so you won't see a pitching change if Matsuzaka looks bad early.  The Red Sox are going to give him a pretty long leash to see what they have; especially since Wake's future is up in the air.  John Farrell is optimistic that Dice-K is ready to go:

“He has done an outstanding job of committing to a program and getting himself in what we consider, just to the naked eye, better shape,” Farrell said. “He’s reshaped his body. He’s added core strength. He’s gotten the strength levels in his shoulder back to a level where he was a year ago. I think he feels good about himself as well, so we’re all looking forward to his next time out here.”

If Matsuzaka can pitch well tonight then look out; with a rotation of Beckett, Lester, Buchholz, and Dice-K going into the post-season the Red Sox could go deep into the month of October.

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How does Tito pick his lineup?

Ortiz, Varitek, Martinez, Youkilis, Lowell, Kochman, Kotteras, Gonzalez, Lowrie, Green, and Pedroia are all involved in Tito’s daily ordeal of trying to come up with a line-up for the day. You could almost pull the whole outfield onto that list, as Youkilis has done some time in left field, but for this discussion we’ll stay with the DH and infield positions:

Ortiz~ DH, 1B
Varitek~ C
Martinez~ C, 1B
Youkilis~ 1B, 3B
Lowell~ 3B
Kochman~ 1B
Kotteras~ C
Gonzalez~ SS
Lowrie~ SS, 3B, 2B
Green~ SS, 2B, 3B, P
Pedroia~ 2B

You can see how many players and positions are involved, it’s downright incestuous. Actually, any one of them could fill the DH slot.

An unconfirmed source reports that Tito has used several methods of picking his line-up for the day: dart board, wheel of fortune, roll of the dice, pulling straws, NASA computers, tarot cards, tea leaves, astrology, palm readings, consult with a team of Jamesian statisticians, and rock/paper/scissors. The only exception to these rituals comes when Dustin Pedroia beats Tito at cribbage. Then Pedey gets to pick the line-up.

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Tito Comments on Ortiz Situation

The Globe has Terry Francona's comments on David Ortiz:

"This blindsided everybody including David," Francona said. "I believe David is putting out a statement which... I wanted to read it before I came up here. He's going to deal with this head on. I do think that today is probably going to be a difficult day to get answers you're looking for because there aren't any yet. He needs to find out, he's already made calls to... trying to find out some things today, and until he does, he won't have the answers to questions but he will certainly deal with it as David always does, head on, and be open and be honest.

"David knows that... I think David felt all day, a lot of caring from his teammates, and hopefully he knows we care about him. He has earned, as a person, that from us. And we will be very supportive as I hope we are with all our players and we'll get to the bottom of whatever needs to be get to the bottom of, and like I said, David will deal with this openly, but again, there's going to... it's not going to happen in the next 10 minutes.

"There's a lot of things that he's not aware of and like I said he will deal with it as
he knows. But he needs to get some information, too."There needs to obviously be some pursuit of the truth... My concern today is David. Again, I understand the question, you're entitled to questions, I gave you the answers that I have today."

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Tito Shows Smoltz Support

Terry Francona's post game comments on supporting John Smoltz. Watch below:

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Congrats to Tito

With tonight's win Terry Francona earned his 800th career victory as manager.

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Big Milestone for Tito

Terry Francona is going for his 800th career win as a manager tonight. He has 514 wins with the Red Sox and 285 with the Phillies. He is 799-730 in his career as a major league manager.

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Dice-K Removed From the Rotation

Terry Francona said that Dice-K would not make his next start and the team would take it slow and try to find out what was wrong. John Farrell and Tito need to talk some more before deciding if they should send Matsuzaka to the DL. Francona was not happy with the situation and said, "having other rotation options doesn't make Daisuke's struggles any easier for me."

UPDATE: Dice-K had an MRI tonight that showed no structural damage but it did show weakness in his shoulder. In other words the Red Sox found something that "could" be an injury so they can send him to the DL without breaking any rules. With the abundance of starters the Sox will take it very slow and make sure he is ready to go before he comes back up the next time. In reality it could work out very well having a rested Dice-K ready to go down the stretch.

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How Much Longer Can Tito Manage?

Terry Francona had another health issue after yesterday's game in Minnesota. Throughout his years with the Red Sox he has had back and circulation problems and also has high blood pressure. There are few jobs in sports that come with as much stress as managing the Red Sox and Tito's health has suffered because of it. Yesterday's event is a red flag, even if it is being spun as nothing major. Francona may not be able to stay on as the Red Sox skipper for much longer due to the continual strain he is putting on his body. His family and friends have most likely begun to put pressure on him to step aside and I would not be surprised if this is his last season as manager of the Sox.

UPDATE: Rob Bradford of WEEI.com posted this about Francona:

Francona said "when I was on the field I thought i was going down....I thought I was going to pass out...I felt fine today." Francona was thrown out in the 7th inning after arguing with the homeplate umpire. Fracona said he has never experienced anything so sever in regards to his blood pressure like he did Thursday.

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Ortiz is Going To Stay at the 3 Spot in the Order

Terry Francona explained why he is keeping Big Papi as the number three guy in the Red Sox batting order:

He's going to get hot. How hot? Well, let's find out. And when it does happen, I don't want him hitting eighth. Again, we set this up [the lineup] for a reason, and we want to see this through. If it gets to the point where we have to make a change, I will certainly do that. And I've told David, David and I have had this talk, and that's not a problem. I'm probably the one hanging on to this, I want this to work where it is."

Ortiz has struggled but I think there is way to much focus on where he bats in the order right now. Moving Big Papi down to #7 is not going to magically make him start hitting home runs. There is pressure on Ortiz now at #3 and there will be pressure on him if he bats #7. Nothing is going to make the pressure go away until he hits a few homers. It will happen soon and he will get more relaxed at the plate and start putting up good numbers. Keep the faith.

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Happy Birthday Tito

Red Sox manager Terry Francona turns 50 today.

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Tito is Confident in This Team

Red Sox skipper Terry Francona talks to the media at the start of spring training. For those of you that want to follow Tito's every move, he is now on Twitter.

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TEENAGERS!

Thanks to Sports Illustrated (12/29/08) for this nugget from Tito:

TERRY FRANCONA, RED SOX MANAGER, when asked who was tougher to handle, his 14-year-old daughter, or petulent slugger Manny Ramirez: "I plead the eighth." (Aug. 4)

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Tito Is Out of the Loop on Red Sox Negotiations

The Red Sox may be skilled at spin and "misdirections" as the Herald reports but they need to fill in Tito when he is away from the blackjack table to stick to the talking points. Look at this from USA Today:

"Did you meet with C.C. (Sabathia)?" the reporter asked.

Francona: "Did I? No, not to my knowledge. Did Theo (Epstein, Red Sox general manager) say we did?"

Reporter "I haven't seen Theo."

Francona: "I haven't done much, to be honest with you. I would bet that Theo is checking in with everybody. I'm answering that a little bit vaguely because I don't know exactly what he did."

Reporter: "But were you part of the group that met with C.C.?"

Francona: "I was upstairs. I didn't do much today."

Reporter: "So, no, you were not part of it?"

Francona: "I'm pleading the fifth on that one only because I don't know. I apologize. That's a weak answer. What did Theo say?"

Reporter: "He said he met with a free agent but he didn't say who."

Francona: "That's what I say. That's my answer. I said, 'Theo, I need to talk to you before I go out and talk to the media,' and I whiffed on him."

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Tito Hits the Tables Early

According to T.J. Simers of the L.A. Times, Terry Francona was at the blackjack table at the Bellagio before 10 am this morning. I guess everything doesn't stay in Vegas.

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Tito May Lose His Right Hand Man

Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills is interviewing for the Mariner's manager job in Seattle today. Mills was Terry Francona's college roommate and has coached with him in Philly and Boston. I'm sure Tito is wishing Mills well but he will also miss him greatly if he lands the job.

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Tito Discusses The New Lineup - Video

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Tito Faces the Music - Video

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Francona Tries To Explain What Happened - Video

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Francona Explains The ALCS Rotation - Video

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Tito Talks With the Media Before Game 1

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