The Red Sox playoff hopes may be fading with each passing day, but Clay Buchholz continues to impress, and to make a strong case for himself as a Cy Young candidate. After a lengthy rain delay, the right hander threw six shutout innings in a 5-0Red Sox victory to lower his ERA to 2.26 and picked up his fifteenth win of the season to improve to 15-5 for the season. Get all the coverage at RedSoxLinks.com.

Molding Clay: How Buchholz went from bobblehead to ace in two years – Alex Speier looks at how Buchholz has evolved ever since he had to pitch on his own bobblehead night in Portland two years ago.

When he fired, Jays found it hard to deal with – Bob Ryan also chimes in on Buchholz, and just how good he’s been this season. (John Tomase, Christopher Smith and Joe Haggerty also weigh in on Buchholz. Jim Donaldson looks at the Cy Young Candidates.)

It was a turn for the best – Michael Vega has David Ortiz giving the Sox a spark by legging out a triple.

Dustin Pedroia, Michael Jordan connect – John Tomase with a pretty cool side story – Pedroia’s broken foot is the same bone that Jordan broke back in 1985. He called Pedroia recently to offer advice and encouragement.

Postseason equation not in Boston’s favor – Sean McAdam looks at the long odds facing the Red Sox.

Mike Lowell’s plan to retire after 2010 still a go – Scott Lauber’s notebook has Lowell still determined to call it a career after this season.

Roster roll call – Karen Guregian assesses the Patriots roster and makes projections on the final 53-man squad. Glen Farley also takes a shot at it.

Taylor the best option in Patriots crowded backfield – Jonathan Comey looks at the running game, and some over-under forecasts on the season.

Questions still dangle at preseason midpoint – Tom E Curran says that there are still plenty of questions about this Patriots team.

 Second season already off to shaky start, but Ron Brace hopes he can rise up to expectations – Robert Lee has the Boston College product looking to make up for a poor start to his career.

Video breakdown of the Patriots 28-10 win over the Falcons – Nick Underhill uses embedded video to look at seven less obvious plays from the game Thursday night.

Antoine Walker trying to learn from mistakes – Jessica Camerato has the former Celtics star looking to get his life and career back on track.

A few theories to chew on – Bill Simmons has an intriguing take on why Shaquille O’Neal may have wanted so badly to join the Celtics.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

13 thoughts on “Clay Furthers Quest For Cy”

  1. "Bill Simmons has an intriguing take on why Shaquille O’Neal may have wanted so badly to join the Celtics."

    He wanted to be close to Springfield so he can pick out a spot for his Hall of Fame plaque?

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  2. For the past couple of days I have been thinking about commenting on the NESN/WEEI Telethon/Radiothon. I assure you that I am going to tread lightly on the issue because of the good intended, but I do find the topic very interesting. I noticed that the telethon did over $2.9 million which is still a large amount of money and should be applauded, but it was not 60% of what the goal was which was last years total of $5 million. I can't remember a telethon or a radiothon being that short of its goal. There are four reason why I believe the telethon did not do as well. I put percentages on the importance of each topic.

    1) The Economy 50% – As we all know, the amount of people who are either unemployed, underemployed, stopped looking for work or are scared to death that they will lose their job is still very high. People are holding on to every dime they have and for the most part taking care of essentials only. Corporations have also been effected with profits that are not as high as they once were which effects charitable donations from them. There is no question the economy is a major factor as to why the radiothon was not as successful.

    2) WBZ 98.5 25% – With the addition of the Sports Hub there are probably many listeners who have changed their allegiance from WEEI to WBZ. They will not listen to WEEI no matter what. Another issue that has to be looked at, which will not speak well of me, is that I find it so hard to listen to people, especially children, who you have a pretty good idea may not be around next year. Every once in a while one of the WEEI shows will tell you about a child who died sometime after appearing on the radiothon. I recall Dale Arnold crying uncontrollably when telling about a young man who had passed away a couple of months after appearing on the radiothon. It was gut-wrenching and had me in tears. I feel that there are some people who just need an escape from the stress in their lives and something as trivial as sports talk which 98.5 had on at the time allows for that, even if the talent on the Sports Hub is not better.

    3) The Lack of Interest in the Boston Red Sox 20% – As ratings have shown, there has not been the buzz with the Boston Red Sox for whatever reason. My guess is that in past years, when ratings where great, more eyes were on the phone number that is located on the top of the tv screen and more people called to donate. It would be interesting if there was a statistical analysis with regards to ratings and the amount of phone calls produced. Compounding the issue was the Patriots playing on Thursday night, the first night of the radiothon, which I believe took a lot of eyes and ears away from the Red Sox.

    4) Dislike of Some WEEI Radio Posts 5% – This may be the smallest factor but it is probably the most controversial. For all I know John Dennis, Gerry Callahan, Glenn Ordway, and Mike Adams may be some of the best people on the planet. Unfortunately, I only know them their radio shows or in Callahan's case his columns as well. They come across as either mean, miserable, arrogant snide or totally clueless (Adams). I just have to believe that some people hear these host sound as described up to 300 days a year and then find it hard to reach in their pocket when they are asking for money for a charity no matter how good the cause is.

    I'm curious as to what others may think about the issues with the radiothon. Do you agree completely? Do you agree but think the percentages are off? Do you think I am all wet?

    I just want to reiterate that it is tremendously admirable what WEEI and NESN does. The good that the radiothon does is immeasurable.

    P.S. I emailed emailed Bruce before posting this to make it was okay.

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    1. Maybe overthinking it a bit. It's the economy, plain and simple. If people had money to give, they would give it. People simply don't.

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  3. Interesting that you brought this up as I had same thoughts Friday night when I turned on Sox game and saw total was just over $2 million. As you mentioned and as a husband of a current breast cancer fighter, the fact they raised any money, nevermind the awareness that may lead to future volunteering and donations, really is the best thing EEI does all year. But to come so woefully short of their goal has to raise some eyebrows and questions.
    I think your % for the Economy is high as some of the economy has actually recovered from this time last year when they did top $5 million. I think it has more to do with your other areas, especially people now having the option to "escape" from the telethon to 98.5 and go along with their lives.

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  4. I have also found it interesting that unlike in past years, they quickly removed the total from the EEI homepage early on Saturday and havent had bits boasting of the $$ raised – even though as we've said, any money raised is tremendous – but if they brought up the total, they'd remind everyone how short they were from their overhyped goal. I have heard today D&C and M&H mention the number $25 million as that represents the total during the 9 years they have had the telethon. Again, thats outstanding but for a station that constantly breaks its own record for patting itself on the back and boasting about their accomplishments, they sure wont touch not even hitting 60% of a often-stated goal.

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  5. I want to thank everyone for their opinion on the topic of the radiothon. As I have stated I am not knocking the great efforts of WEEI and NESN. I just think this is an interesting topic. It also amazes me how many grammatical errors I make on some of my posts. I wish I could find these errors before my fifth check-through. Topic number four should have been "Dislike of Some WEEI Radio Hosts" not "Posts". Sigh. The nuns would have a field day with my knuckles if they read some of my stuff.

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