Young AL East arms be dealing

26-year-old master of the changeup Shaun Marcum struck out eight A's and allowed one run in the Jays' 12-inning loss. Marcum has 16 K's in 14 innings of work.

Tampa Bay's Edwin Jackson, a 24-year-old with 5 years of big league experience, improved his record to 2-0 and his ERA to 0.64 with eight shutout innings against the Mariners.

Meanwhile, Adam Loewen is not dealing. The 24-year-old lefty went five innings, walking four and allowing four runs on six hits. Looking at the ERA's of a few of the the Orioles' starters (Cabrera 9.00, Loewen 7.45, Guthrie 5.11) I was wondering how they're 6-3. Then I looked at the ERA's of several of their relievers: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00. Not bad.

Tomorrow Clay faces the Yankees.

Twins live to fight another day

When his Hall of Fame career comes to a close many years from now, today's outing will be a footnote to a footnote in the legend of Clay Buchholz. But for the second consecutive day a young Sox starter struggled in his first outing of spring. It began promisingly enough for Clay: A heater fouled back, followed by a crisp curve called for a strike to get ahead 0-2 on the first man he faced. But then Twins non-roster invitee, Jon Knott, took a curve for a ball and proceeded to send Buchholz's 1-2 fastball out on a rope over the left field wall. Buchholz would go on to give up four more hits (a couple of bloops) and walk a batter while allowing four runs in his first inning of work. Somewhat surprisingly, Francona sent him back out for a second inning, in which Buchholz seemed to hit his stride, retiring the side in order.

Corey, Okajima, Lopez, and Delcarmen each pitched an inning of shutout relief. And then it was Craig Hansen's turn in the ninth. Three walks, two hits, and four earned runs for the onetime closer-in-waiting. Tough day with the lumber for the Sox, their lone extra base hits coming on Lowell's solo home run and Ortiz's double. 8-2 final score.

In spoiling the Sox' home opener the Twins have crawled back into Mayor's Cup 2008. They now trail the series 2-1, with the teams set to square off in Friday's split squad game four. In case you're curious (and why wouldn't you be?) the Twins have won ten Mayor's Cups to the Sox' five. Orsillo told me so. It would appear that Fort Myers is Twins Nation.

Sox sign Bartolo Colon

Minor league deal. I like it! No risk and potential for minor rewards. In the next several weeks Colon's got to show that he can be far better than he's been the past two seasons if he wants to leave Fort Myers on the 25-man roster. But if he is in any kind of shape to pitch every fifth day (and how couldn't we have serious doubts about that) it would allow the Sox to be more cautious with young Buchholz.

I think the only real concern here is if you're the dude in the clubhouse who stocks in the in-game snacks. Because that job just got a whole lot more difficult. Colon's rapidly expanding waistline aside, when healthy he has a rubber arm and he's only 34 (staggeringly). It's been a rapid decline for Colon over the last two years: A Cy Young in 2005, 10 starts in 2006 with a 5.11 ERA, and then in 2007 19 starts with a 6.34 ERA. Red flags abound, but I like it. Low expectations, zero risk, and unlimited potential for unintentional newspaper headline comedy. For example, 'Yankees hammer Colon,' 'Colon ripped by Rays,' 'Colon battered by Blue Jays,' and, the pièce de résistance, 'Royals get a taste of Angels' Colon.'

Fact or Fiction: Clay Buchholz

1. He was a high school sprint champion.
2. He won the letter 'Y' in a game of poker with Cla Meredith when the two were teammates in A ball.
3. He was arrested for stealing 29 laptops from his high school and selling them.
4. He turned down scholarship offers to play wide receiver at Texas and Notre Dame.
5. He has a tattoo of the Texas state flag on his left biceps.
   
6. He was drafted with a pick the Red Sox received as compensation for losing Pedro Martínez to free agency.

1: Fact, 2: Fiction, 3: Fact, 4: Fact, 5: Fiction, 6: Fact

We Love You Buchholz

We love you Buchholz, oh yes we do
We love you Buchholz, and we are true
When you're not pitching, we're blue
Oh Buchholz, we love you


"Dr. Love thinks that a relationship between Bagandbnj and Clay Buchholz has a reasonable chance of working out, but on the other hand, it might not. Your relationship may suffer good and bad times. If things might not be working out as you would like them to, do not hesitate to talk about it with the person involved. Spend time together, talk with each other."

BNJ: Clay?
Clay: Yes
BNJ: Let's talk.
Clay: Okay.
BNJ: ... [stares dreamily into Clay's eyes]
Clay: ...
BNJ: ...
Clay: So, uh, are we going to talk?
BNJ: [snaps out of it] Uh, yes?
Clay: What about?
BNJ: ... [more staring]
Clay: Hello?
BNJ: What?
Clay: ...
BNJ: ...
Clay: I'm outta here.

Jesus, that hat is big.

Hello, Red Sox Fans

This is more or less our mission statement:

First, we are united under Clay Buchholz.

Second, we realize that we only get so many Red Sox seasons, and we're happy to be starting another one.

We love the Red Sox. And then there are the times when we curse the games and curse ourselves. The losses seem to hurt us more than we enjoy the wins, but they're precisely equal parts of the game.

For years, we were losers. Pathetic, dramatic, terminal losers. Losers you could count on: losers you could trust. By the time 2003 ended, we had lost so many times, in such grand fashion, that you could call it artistic.

The 2004 supernova has been photographed one thousand times from one thousand different angles, and is very much a closed case. We won't talk much about it here. Nor will we draw any authority from the 2007 Red Sox. Our blog is about the fucking brilliance that is the 2008 Boston Red Sox, win, lose or draw. There is no storyline going in. We intend to make one.

Who are we? We were once called "hilarious kids" (by us, we think) and we hope to live up to that. Where we are doesn't really matter, but we bracket the country. As the new version of Red Sox fans has followed us from one side of the States to the other, we've resisted inclusion in any "Nation" that resembles the one bearing our team's name. That's not us. We're going to root for the Sox in our own way, in the only way we know how. We don't love them because they win or because they lose. We love them because we do.

- Bryan