A Rain-On Possible Today

Showers around Minneapolis mean the possibility exists for a full show this afternoon.  If the Sox and Twins start on time at 12:10, we'd expect to come on around 4:00.  But stay tuned.

A victory without a home run is always a fun novelty for the Sox, and it is made all the more satisfying by the two-out runs, the quality start turned in by Freddy Garcia and the save by Bobby Jenks.  Alex Rios continues to square up the ball in nearly every at-bat and is now tenth in the AL in both batting average (.330) and, more importantly, wOBA (.419).  Alexi Ramirez, by the way, is third in all of MLB among qualified shortstops with an impressive UZR/150 of 22.3.

Speaking of that number, consider Starlin Castro:  his small-sample-size UZR/150, provided for comic purposes only, is -173.7.  That means that compared to a statistically average SS, his defense costs you 173.7 runs for every 150 games he plays.

Lou Piniella is slipping back into his crazy-old man schtick after games:  shrugging his shoulders, muttering about going to a casino to "play snake eyes," asking rhetorical questions about what he's supposed to do.  Funny thing is, the Cubs are ninth in baseball with a .341 wOBA as a team, and he's already made a stunning demotion (Z to occasional set-up guy) and a stunning promotion (Castro) so perhaps he should do nothing.

(Hey -- guess which team is dead last in BABIP, indicating a likely regression to the mean as balls start to fall in.  Indeed, it's the Sox at an insanely-low .237)

Hawks and Sharks will start Friday or Sunday, it appears, after the Canucks were put away last night.  Time for the debate about a team being rested/rusty that depends only on the outcome of the first game, and makes me want to put my head in a vise.

If LeBron James is bad, the Cavaliers are bad.  Both were last night, so we begin to fantasize the falling dominoes of something occurring that ends up with James in a Bulls uniform.  Other cities are doing the same, of course.