Kevin Youkilis

Dear Readers (all five of you):

I've been active on my other blog at www.fannation.com, under the username JFro, but I continually forget to publish those posts here. That said, the next five posts should be considered my belated MLB preseason predictions -- a preview, of sorts. There's the top five infields, outfields, bullpens, and starting rotations, and of course The Big Kahuna:

Continue reading "Note about forthcoming posts"

           Boston’s Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia will certainly give Morneau a run for his money for the MVP.  Youkilis batted .312 with 43 doubles, 29 home runs and 115 RBI, and Pedroia led the AL in hits with 213, runs with 118 and doubles with 54, and batted .326 with 17 homers and 83 ribbies.  Especially considering Manny Ramirez’s departure and injuries to David Ortiz and Mike Lowell, Youkilis and Pedroia carried the Red Sox offensively, all the way to a Wild Card berth.  Youkilis and Pedroia had a better supporting cast than Morneau, even by virtue of having one another—so Morneau is more deserving of the MVP but the two Sox are numbers two and three in my book.

Continue reading "MVP Award Picks"

Continue reading "Boston Red Sox in an (almost embarrassing) ..."

    The rivalry between Chamberlain and Kevin Youkilis continued when Chamberlain threw yet another pitch in the direction of Youk's head on a 2-0 count in the seventh inning.  The pitch actually hit his bat and was fouled off for the first strike.  Chamberlain followed with two straight sliders down and away in the zone, and Youkilis swung and missed at both.

Continue reading "Santana Goes the Distance, Mets Stay Hot"

It’s the All-Star Break once again, that mythical halfway point in the season (I say “mythical” because most teams have played 95-96 games, more than the 81 that’s the true midway mark). Traditionally, it’s time for the teams to take a breath, collect themselves and iron out any kinks in their batting stroke or the pitching rotation—several starters made relief appearances or threw out of turn in the past game or two, knowing that three or four days of rest was coming for all of them.

Continue reading "Gimme A Break!"

Kevin Youkilis, his right hand twitching restlessly the way it does when he holds his bat aloft, slammed a deep shot to left field and Damon chased it back, leaping to make the catch at the wall, in what could have been a spectacular play. Instead, he slammed against the unpadded chain-link fence behind him, which jostled the ball loose, leading to one of the odder sights of the day.

Continue reading "More Bad Yankee Luck"

Kevin Youkilis is up to batting .375, JD Drew is off to a hot start batting .316 and Coco Crisp is putting up an awfully good fight to hold on to the centerfield job and now Boston seems content to hold onto him until it gets blown away by a trade offer. Manny Ramirez, who has started slowly the last couple of seasons, is also on fire and leading the team in RBI’s and coming through with a big hit almost every time the Red Sox need one, none bigger than his ninth inning home run last night in Cleveland to put the Red Sox ahead 6-4. Dustin Pedroia is also beginning to sting the ball around the field with more authority and sooner or later Mike Lowell will come off the disabled list and David Ortiz will snap out of his funk and the offense will be back to hitting on all cylinders.

Continue reading "Red Sox Should Feel Good About The Season So Far"

“The coaches are a huge part of our success,” said Red Sox union rep, Kevin Youkilis. “It’s something as players that we feel strongly about.”

Call me a cynic, and though as a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, I’m quite willing to believe that my team would be as self-sacrificing as the reports would seem to indicate, I have to think that there was more to this than was visible to the ‘naked eye.’

Continue reading "An attack of the 'warm and fuzzies' ..."

His average of .296 is tied with Manny's and a notch above Kevin Youkilis (.288); not bad company at all. On-base percentage (.353) is right between Varitek and Coco; again, not bad company. Can't say much for his slugging percentage, though (.393), which puts him in the company of Alex Cora and Eric Hinske.

Continue reading "Casey at the Bat"