Week 1 Thoughts

1. I am slacking: Writing a sports blog, a burger blog, working 40 hours a week, having a girlfriend, and partying is a tough mix.  Some things have to suffer.  Unfortunately Sexy Boston Sports has taken the hit thus far.  I shoulda known my 25 player profiles were a little too ambitious.  I'm such a dick.
2. We know nothing: Just as is in any other season, we do not "know" anything purely from Week 1.  Some previously formed thoughts are backed up and others are contradicted, but that doesn't mean anything is set in stone.  Yet.  Mostly.
3. Jon Lester is cooked and Jason Varitek is BACK!!!:  Of course neither of these are true.  This is my point about not "knowing" anything after Week 1.  Lester has been a slow starter the past couple years for whatever reason and faced the best offense in baseball (Yankees) and a much much much improved offense in Minnesota.  And as for the Captain, 2 HR in his only game this year is a nifty trick (especially with one of them coming off Cy Greinke, who gave up 11 HR in 229 innings last year), but let's not go pushing Barry Bonds aside as the Home Run King.  If Tito handles his bench properly we should expect Tek's numbers to look much better this year than in years past.
4. Papi...is done: This may be one of those things we do know.  Despite his "hot" last four months last year (really from a DH these were only good months), his season overall was pretty pedestrian.  The truth is Papi is (listed) 34 years old, benefited to some degree from steroids at some point in his career, and his top comparable is Mo Vaughn, and Sox, Mets, and Angels fans all know how that went.  I really thought he would still be able to crush righties this year, but his bat has been slow and he is losing his formerly stellar batting eye to compensate.  Of course Tito has left him in against Sabathia and Pettite which should never happen at this point especially with Lowell and Varitek on the bench.  This should change.
5. The Yankees are really good: They went 4-2 against the Red Sox and Rays on the road, easily the toughest first week schedule.  Their 2 weaknesses are age and bullpen, but if no injuries happen and if this particular group of relievers has a good season (which is mostly random chance) then this might be a scary good team.  Of course, I already declared them AL East champs months ago, so I guess I already knew this.
6. What's with all the off days?: The Red Sox get 14 non-All-Star-Break days off this year (ya I counted).  Over 1/5 of those came in the first week of the season!  When players are most rested.  WTF schedule makers?  Must be in their name (Feeney).
7. The offense is going to be ok: With the focus on "run prevention" this offseason, a lot of media members (especially a-hole Michael Felger on 98.5 the Sports Hub) assumed this meant the Sox offense would collapse.  "How could you possibly score enough runs without Jason Bay?"  "Mike Cameron is a striking out bum who does nothing!"  "Marco who?"  Well, what a lot of these idiots failed to notice was how deep the Sox bench got as well as the actual changes between this year and last year.  This year we have a full season of V-Mart, a big shortstop upgrade in the OBP department, a former top 3 prospect in Hermida as our 4th outfielder, a versatile backup IF/OF in Billy Hall, and two righties who mash lefties in Tek and Lowell.  Now we gotta do something about Papi...
8. Baseball is still the best: Good God I love baseball.  Opening day almost brought me to tears.  So many intriguing teams this year.  Four great prospects who will make their debut this year (Heyward, Strasburg, Chapman, and Posey), all of whom play in the NL, hopefully closing the gap.  The Holy Trinity Teams of the AL East.  Roy Halladay playing Goliath to the National League's toddlers.  I could go on forever, but I just need to say how glad I am to have baseball back.

Hopefully I can put more words to screen over the rest of the season and I am sure to return to the Celtics now that the playoffs are starting soon and this mythical switch is about to be flipped.    I cannot wait to see how the rest of the 155 games play out this year.