NESN's Red Sox blog roundtable debut

Myself along with the rest of the Red Sox blogging community were asked to participate in the inaugural Red Sox Blog Roundtable on NESN.com.

Production Assistant Evan Brunell will have a roundtable and alternate between the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox each week.

This week he asked us five questions and two of my answers are posted.

You can check out the full entry here.

Here are my answers:

The rotation saga is the story line to watch during spring training. Assuming everyone is healthy, who should go to the bullpen?

Amanda Bruno, Batter-up With Bruno: This is literally a no-brainer. It absolutely has to be Wakefield. Yes, we all know Wake needs 17 more wins to tie Roger Clemens and Cy Young for the most wins in a Red Sox uniform, but keep in mind that Boston wants to win. Wake is the most versatile of the group and can be a key long relief guy and eat up innings. It would be absurd to send Buchholz to Triple-A or the pen at this point in his career.

Do the Red Sox have what it takes to overtake the Yankees and hold off the Rays?

Bruno: It's really tough to tell. Boston bolstered its starting rotation, but that's really all it did.

The Yankees lost Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui, but they also acquired Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson and Randy Winn to fill in the holes. They also added another arm in Javier Vazquez to the starting rotation for his second stint in pinstripes.

Everyone keeps saying the Rays will be better this season and will make a run for the wild card, but what did they really do this offseason? They didn't sign any big players, and both the Red Sox and Yanks did.

The key factor is that everyone has to stay healthy for the Red Sox or there will be issues. If not, the Yankees will win the East again easily.

Say hello to spring training weather

This isn't what I had in mind...

Today was the first official report day for position players in Fort Myers training camp, but up here in Massachusetts we're preparing for another coating/blast of wintery white.

It was a complete tease today with temps topping the upper 40s, near 50 degree mark.

Let's hope that Opening Night on Easter Sunday at Fenway Park won't have a forecast of a wet mix.

Risque Red Sox spring training photos anyone?

I usually don't tend to post any kind of provocative material, but this kind of struck me.

This photo is published on Boston.com's Extra Bases Blog under "You want photos? We have photos" posted by Peter Abraham.

What's wrong with this picture?

Just look at Jason Varitek (left).

Now really look at Jason Varitek.

Now out of all of the photos that were taken, this is the one you decide to post on the front of the blog?

Way to go. I'm sure the male audience is going to love it.

Adam Kilgore is no more at The Boston Globe

Well my prediction was just a little bit off, but I still called it, sorta.

New England Patriots beat writer Adam Kilgore is leaving The Boston Globe and returning to his former employer, The Washington Post to take the Washington Nationals beat.

Boston Sports Media Watch reported it this morning stating that, "the move is said to be a personal one, rather than a professional one...and in a place where he has some personal ties which make the move a good fit for him."

Looks like there's going to be more shuffling around at the Globe once again.

This may be a world record of shuffling things up at any newspaper in less than a year and half time frame.

Tomorrow's Truck Day; Red Sox players in the best shape of their lives?

Well Massachusetts once again missed out on a Nor'easter and to celebrate, it's Truck Day tomorrow at Fenway Park!

The Red Sox equipment truck is scheduled to leave at noon with Fort Myers on its destination list.

The spring training countdown is approaching down to only six days until pitcher and catchers are suppose to report however Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Manny Delcarmen, and Kevin Youkilis already made an early arrival.

In that same blog post on Extra Bases, the Globe's Peter Abraham (who's been quite popular this week in the blogging world) wrote this:

"My sources tell me that every player is in the best shape of their lives, excited about the season and confident in the team's chances."

Um, please tell me you were just trying to be funny?

NY Times Co. still exploring selling Red Sox stake

The New York Times Company is still exploring selling its 17.5 percent stake in the Boston Red Sox, but as quoted by Times President and CEO Janet Robinson, it's "complicated and taking longer than we anticipated."

The reason why it is rather complicated is that along with the Red Sox there's the New England Sports Network (NESN), Fenway Park, real estate holdings, as well as Major League Baseball.

Here's a simple tree breakdown of the excessive baggage:

The New York Times Co.

The Boston Globe

Boston Red Sox

NESN

Fenway Park

Real Estate Holdings

Major League Baseball

When you glance at this tree it looks more like an hour glass really.

Back in June 2009 the Times Co. was trying to sell the Globe, but then in October 2009, it was called off.

This was announced after threats of the Times to close the newspaper after losing $58 million in 2008.

New sites taking over RedSox100.com

Has anyone else noticed within the last few weeks that an overload of new Red Sox sites have been added to the infamous RedSox100.com?

The Top 10 is almost recognizable on some days.

Here are the latest to join:

Boston Sports U18

4Sport Boston

Educated Cheese

A curveball was thrown by The Mighty Quinn Media Machine who changed its header.

Let's explore these new sites shall we?

Boston Sports U18

I did some digging and found out that this site is owned and operated by Michael Winn of Absolute Broadcasting, who also founded BostonSportsWoman.com, a site my blog is featured on.

Gethin Coolbaugh who is a student at Massachusetts Bay Community College is the Associate Editor of the newly developed site. 

There's a whole cast of writers featuring sports correspondents of the MetroWest Daily News who post on all of the Boston sports teams, pro and college.

4Sport Boston

This site covers the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots, and Fantasy Sports.

It features podcasts and contests and honestly there's a lot going on with the homepage. It's almost too busy with stuff kind of buried everywhere. That's usually the case when a site covers all of the major teams and they aren't ESPN, Boston.com, or NESN (to name a few major sites).

As far as who runs it, no clue, because it only has a contact tab and no about page.

Educated Cheese

Finally, just another Red Sox blog that features NESN's and former Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley.

Educated Cheese was founded in June of 2009 and its mission is to, 

"To create a friendly existence between Eck and the rest of the world that was not fortunate to be blessed with such a cool baseball vocabulary."

I think every Sox fan knows why this blog was created so there's no need to explain.

As to who founded and operates the site, no clue because once again there is no about us page.

So there you have, a quick analysis of the new sites/blog added to RedSox100.com. There are only 39 registered sites with maybe half of them only geared towards the Red Sox. Not sure if it'll ever really get to 100, well just have to wait another 50 years and see.

Top 3 reasons why Boston fans cannot wait until spring training

It's February 4 and spring training cannot come soon enough.

Right now, honestly it's pretty depressing being a Boston fan. There's not a whole lot to cheer about and to back that statement up here are the top 3 reasons spring training needs to get here quicker:

1. The Boston Bruins.

2. The Boston Celtics.

3. The New England Patriots.

Need I explain more?

The Bruins are dying by the day.

Since their exciting Winter Classic win Boston has gone 2-12 with wins against Ottawa and San Jose.

Oh my goodness, 2-12!? I didn't realize it was that bad, but apparently it is. Talk about the biggest jinx ever.

The Celtics? 

Well they beat 24-25 Miami last night and last place Washington on Monday to give life to a new winning streak. Hence the sarcasm.

But, Paul Pierce is still listed as day-to-day with a strained left foot. It is definitely the season of the breakdown of the Big Three. First Kevin Garnett with an earlier knee injury, now with Pierce. 

Is Ray Allen next? 

And last, but not least, the Patriots and their defensive woes, which eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs. New England is definitely not at the same caliber as they once were and since Tom Brady tied the knot, well, you know what that means in sports.

Like it or not, Brady isn't the same hot shot and hero he was even two years ago.

So Boston Red Sox fans, will our baseball team finally cheer us up? Give us that need boost of hope and confidence? 

For our sake I sure hope so. Bad enough the Sox already had a lot of pressure poured on them this offseaosn, but thanks to the other city teams doing lousy the pressure just doubled.

Coaches need to teach character for anti-bullying

Everyone reading this more than likely has been a victim to it.

Back on January 14 in the town of South Hadley, Mass. a 15-year-old girl named Phoebe Prince who came over to the United State from Ireland took her own life after being severely bullied at her high school.

Ron Chimelis wrote an excellent column in The Sunday Republican last week talking about not only what teachers' roles should be, but as well as the coaches who need to teach character on the fields.

In the piece Chimelis quotes Westfield High School football coach Bill Moore: 

"We talk to kids about bullying and hazing. Coaches have to step up. It's our responsibility," he said.

This however may be my favorite part of the entire column right here. Writes Chimelis:

It's my problem too. Whenever I interview a high school athlete, I privately wonder about the consequences. 

Am I rewarding the hard work and achievement of the beaming kid in front of me?

Or am I feeding the monster? Will this kid, who I don't know, go back into the student body, armed with more reason to think he/she is special and others are not?

I urge all of you to check out the column. It definitely makes you think.

Personally it hits me hard only because I was bullied throughout grade school and know what Prince must have gone through, but it was never at the level of what she ended up doing. And now with Facebook, Twitter, texting, and the internet galore, the bulling issue is definitely easier said than done.