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Connelly’s Top Ten: Long Games, Bad Games and Who Cares

1. Red Sox:

* Cody Ross makes $3mm a year, which is $2,057 an inning over 162 games – his DISGRACEFUL lack of care, allowing Tampa Bay’s Elliot Johnson to turn a single into a double should cost him money to a charity. Billy Martin would have ripped his head off (see Reggie Jackson). Instead, Bobby Valentine was inventing the wrap and spitting sunflower seeds. You want to see what’s wrong with the Sox, look at that play!
* By the way on that play, why was Remy ripping (and I mean ripping) Pedro Ciriaco (easy target?)
* Congrats to Josh Beckett moving his record to 5-7
* I love Mike Aviles flipping his bat and going into a trot while his ball cleared the outfield fence by Nick Punto’s average.
* Jacoby Ellsbury two hits – trade him
* Mets want Kelly Shoppach – beam him up Scotty!
* For the first time in six years David Ortiz has more walks than strike outs (54-48)
* Red Sox are 1-5 in extra innings
* Red Sox are 22-24 at home
* Red Sox are 4-11 against Divisional leaders
* Red Sox are 53-65 over their last 117 games
* If you pro-rated Will Middlebrooks 41 RBI over 162 games it would equal 130

2. Cliff Lee vs. Clay Buccholz

• Buccholz: 8 wins / 5.54 ERA
• Lee: 1 win / 3.92 ERA

3. Payroll of teams at least 9.5 games out of first place:

* San Diego Padres: $55mm
* Houston Astros: $60mm
* Toronto Blue Jays: $75mm
* Colorado Rockies: $78mm
* Chicago Cubs: $88mm
* Seattle Mariners: $82mm
* Minnesota Twins: $94mm
* Boston Red Sox: $173mm
* Philadelphia Phillies: $174mm

4. Ray Allen:

Stats in elimination game losses for the Celtics…

Year	OPP	FG-ATT	3PT	Points	Minutes
2012	Heat	5-11	3-8	15	39
2011	Heat	6-12	5-10	18	44
2010	Lakers	3-14	2-7	13	45
2009	Magic	9-18	3-6	23	41

5. Tom Verducci’s Predictions:

Tom Verducci predicted in January that the below pitchers were in jeopardy of injury because of increased innings the year before – how are they doing:

Pitcher	Status
Derek Holland, TEX	6-4, 4.57 ERA
Matt Harrison, TEX	11-4, 3.10 ERA
Michael Pineda, NYY	Out for season
Mike Leake, CIN	3-6, 3.96 ERA
Daniel Hudson, ARI	Out for season
Nathan Eovaldi, LAD	1-5, 4.21 ERA
Dylan Axelrod, CHW	1-2, 6.16 ERA
Jaime Garcia, STL	3-4, 4.48 ERA
Yovani Gallardo, MIL	7-6, 3.74 ERA
Jeremy Hellickson, TB	4-6, 3.48 ERA
Zach Stewart, BOS	1-2, 6.00 ERA

6. Around Baseball:

* Don Mattingly has his Dodgers in first place without Matt Kemp
* Cool that Zack Greinke made three straight starts for Milwaukee Brewers
* Chipper Jones at 40 is hitting over .300 again (.313)
* Mike Trout is the best athlete to play baseball since Ricky Henderson (others include Mickey Mantle)
* From reader Steve A., look at the insane outcome of Dodgers – Padres game Saturday night:

7. Amazing Stat:

Red Sox have had two games this year less than 2 hours and 30 minutes.

How about past years?

• 2000 – 10
• 1990 – 16
• 1980 – 44

8. Old School:

On September 26, 1980 – Dennis Eckersley beat Dave Stieb 3-1 at Exhibition Stadium:

* Game took 1:51
* Eck faced 29 batters / gave up one hit / HR to John Mayberry
* Red Sox lineup included: Doug Rader at DH / Chico Walker at 2b / Gary Hancock in CF
* 46 degrees / 21 mile-per-hour winds

9. Just a Little Bit Outside:

Derek Jeter fun facts:

* Needs three HR for 250
* Needs four SB for 350
* Needs $30,000,000 more in salary for $250,000,000
* Has played almost a whole season in the postseason with 152 games (.307 average)
* Has never played another position (other than DH)
* Never been MVP (top five three times)
* Never won a batting title (top five six times)

10. Randomocity:

* I realize that the details are different, but an eerie dejvu after Reggie Lewis’s death to hear doctors say that Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green have been cleared to play after heart issues
* Penn State University should think long and hard about changing its name now that the school’s name is synonymous with shame
* Another point on Penn State – isn’t it strange that Paterno’s son calls him Joe?
* Did you notice who Vikings running back Adrian Peterson hired to defend him against police assault charges? Rusty Hardin (The lawyer for Roger Clemens)
* Sullivan Tire has a promotion going to guess the number of hits Dustin Pedroia gets into August – if you guess zero, do you win?

Tags: Connelly's Top Ten, Top Ten

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