Boston.com has their "Midseason Report" where fans grade the individual Sox players...Lenny is languishing with a C-/D+. And for some reason, Boston.com has a picture of DiNardo looking like he's about to spit...what's that about? I didn't even think that was him.
Go vote and give him at least a B...
Boston.com has one of their photo fan poll things up. One of the questions:
Should the Sox give Kyle Snyder, David Pauley, Lenny DiNardo, or newly acquired Jason Johnson a chance to claim the fifth starter spot?
Needless to say, DiNardo is not faring well (6.8% voting for him...the lowest percentage...Kyle Snyder won over some fans the other day). So, go vote for Lenny.
Eric Wilbur, the Boston.com blog guy/sports journalist gave out his early grades on Sox players. From the top...
Jonathan Papelbon: I know, we all want to see him start eventually, but it’s just not possible right now. Papelbon’s dominance has shortened games to eight innings for the Sox, an invaluable asset that can’t be tinkered with. So far, the leading candidate for AL Rookie of the Year.+++++
...to the mixed-bag/bottom:
Wily Mo Pena: Defensively, he is nothing less than atrocious. However, let’s give credit where it is due. We don’t know how many hours of the day Pena is spending with Papa Jack, but they do appear to be paying off somewhat in just the past week. Pena has shortened his swing a little bit, and has been more selective at the plate, going deeper into counts, or at least a little deeper than three pitches. He’s still a project, but he’s also become perhaps the most intriguing player on this team. Offensively: +, Defensively: -----
However, Wilbur failed to rank our man, Lenny DiNardo. Oh, don't worry...I bugged him...and he sent this on:
OK, let's say it's: ++
Has pitched very well in relief, with a fairly good start to boot.
In Wilbur's eyes, this puts him in the same category as Wakefield, Stern, and Timlin -- which I think is a fair assessment. We'll see how his outing this Saturday helps or hurts...
Thanks for the response, Eric.
After yesterday's outing, most of the coverage is focused on Bam-Bam Loretta's walk-off homerun. (There's been a lot of bad headlines up there, but no one thought of this one: "V is for Loretta" - hey, feel free to use it...I've got a whole bag full good stuff like that). However, most of the local papers gave a head nod to Lenny's clutch fill-in performance. It seems like Lenny got a little emotional at the end of the day:
"“It’s a feeling that I really can’t explain,” he said. “I can’t tell you what I thought. I did get some tears in my eyes, though. I can’t say that happens very often but it definitely happened when he hit that ball.”"
In terms of coverage, it appears that the Herald appreciated the outing ("A Special Kind of Win"), while the Globe could find little more than to say that he hasn't gotten a win (and make it sound like DiNardo was somehow disappointed in his outing). This has been a pretty consistent slant (from both papers) since early spring training: Herald-Happy to see Lenny succeed; Globe-Would be able to write chicken little columns if he fails. They also disagree about how many appearances he has in the majors: Globe-33, Herald-31 (according to Baseball-Reference.com, he had 30 appearances before this season, so, plus 3 in 2006 should make 33). The Globe points out that Lenny is coming up on Scott Williamson's record of 52 appearances without a win.
As for the other papers, they followed the Herald's lead and had some favorable coverage: ProJo ("First Start Pleases DiNardo"), Hartford Courant ("Solid Start by DiNardo")
Here's a betting-odds article on DiNardo's start that I wish I had found before the game. The oddsmaker kept the Sox as the favorites, even with Lenny starting:
“I don`t believe you`ll see a significant drop in the Red Sox price,” says Belmont.com oddsmaker Peter Childs. “Wells had been slated to be the Red Sox fifth starter, the last man in their rotation. It’s not like DiNardo is stepping in for Curt Schilling or Josh Beckett.”
Here are some more quotes:
Tito:
The ProJo is also reporting that Lenny's outing was good enough to earn him another start, when Wells's spot in the rotation comes around again (Saturday v. Toronto). You thought Gil Meche was a tough pitcher to go up against? Lenny faces a gimpy Roy Halladay on Saturday. The Herald's Blog thinks that Lenny might get a 3d start due to Wells's trip to the Dl...
PHOTO CREDIT: Boston Herald, Matthew West
MLB.com has a good article on Lenny's upcoming start. Here's a piece of it:
Red Sox manager Terry Francona confirmed Sunday morning that the left-hander is scheduled to make the start Monday morning against Seattle, replacing the injured David Wells (strained right knee) in the rotation.
"He threw a side [Saturday] and unless we run into something crazy, that's what we have planned," Francona announced.
"I bet he could go 80 to 90 pitches, that wouldn't surprise me. He doesn't have to and hopefully [Sunday] goes as planned. We haven't been in the bullpen the last couple of nights and you get an outing like [Tim Wakefield's on Saturday], it really helps," Francona said in describing DiNardo's pitch limit.
DiNardo will be making his second big-league start. He got the call from Francona last Sept. 2 against Baltimore, also at Fenway Park. He took the loss in a 7-3 setback at the hands of the Orioles, allowing four runs (one earned) and seven hits over six innings.
"I think anytime you experience anything, it should help," said the skipper. "You just have to use it to your advantage. I think we all try to do that. Experience is good, that why they call it experience but you have to use it to your advantage."
Marathon Monday, baby. Here it comes.
Ian Brown, the sole journalist covering the Red Sox for the last few years for the official MLB-site, RedSox.com, answered some questions from his "mailbag." Here's one dealing with Lenny:
Why hasn't Lenny DiNardo been around for Spring Training? I haven't seen or heard his name mentioned. I figured he'd be in there a lot making a bid to be the only lefty in the 'pen.
-- Harry Q., Plymouth, Mass.DiNardo was out of camp for a while because of his participation for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. As for DiNardo being a lefty out of the 'pen, he's not a true southpaw reliever in the sense that he actually fares better against right-handed batters. DiNardo's best role for the Red Sox at this point would be as a long man. The question is: With all the depth the Red Sox have from a pitching standpoint, will they have enough roster spots to have a long reliever?
This answer is yes. Of course, I'm guessing this "mailbag" was written before the events below transpired.
This also makes me think about starting my own "mailbag." Of course, neither Edes, Brown, Simmons, or any other journalists actually get enough mail to actually require a mailbag to be used. That said, I'm going to start a Red Sox/DiNardo "eBag" - which, of course, is different from a Red Sox D-Bag...which, of course, I am.
UPDATE: Someone emailed and said I should call it the DiBag. Perhaps, I will. Perhaps I will.
As I mentioned below, Lenny gets the start today against the Blue Jays. RedSox.com has a Lenny blurb on its rotating front page (as of 11:19 AM EST, it's #4 if you wanted to see it):
Lenny DiNardo, who is trying to land a job in Boston's bullpen, makes his second Grapefruit League appearance on Saturday afternoon at 1:05 ET as the Red Sox take on the Blue Jays. You can follow all of the action by listening live on Gameday Audio.
You can listen to Gameday Audio (it is only $15 for the year). For my part, I'm going to be listening on my awesome XM radio (Channel 177).
Well, we've made the big time! Many thanks to Jeff Horrigan from the Boston Herald who featured this blog in his Red Sox Notebook today. We're proud to be fighting for Lenny...
DiNardo has support
Only with the Red Sox can a player fighting for the final spot on the pitching staff be the topic of an Internet blog. That’s the case with Lenny DiNardo (http://gnopple.typepad.com/lennydinardo/). The blog was started by Jim Paugh, a Worcester native who is among a group of local Sox fans attending law school in Washington.
“He’s the type of player you’d like to see succeed: no attitude, hard worker, just wants a shot,” Paugh explained in an e-mail. “We think he has a good shot at making a continuing contribution this year. We hope Tito (Francona) agrees.”
So, leafing through the pages of the internet today, I've realized that many in the Boston/New England/Florida media just don't find Lenny to be a very compelling story. Now, Craig Breslow on the other hand is turning into a minor media darling (yeah, we get it, he went to Yale...).
The bigger concern is whether this media coverage is reflecting Tito's focus, too. For example, Edes (who signs his posts like a 12-year-old girl - "laytah") went out of his way to report that Francona opted to go watch Hansen vs. the infield rather than DiNardo vs. Coco.
Does this mean that Lenny's basically a lock? Or is this an indication that the spring isn't going as well as hoped? If anyone is down there, give me an update on how our guy is doing.
NOTE: To be fair, the Edes "Doctoral Candidate" article is pretty interesting. And Gordon notes: "Breslow is a long shot to make the club -- he walked an alarming 13 batters and gave up 15 hits in just 16 1/3 innings last season . . . ."
