The Hot Seat isn’t just about who was the best player(s) as much as it is about who is performing above and beyond. Watching the young kids, Jose Iglesias, Oscar Tejeda and Yamaico Navarro these past weeks has been awesome. With three weeks left before opening day, it’s time to turn our attention to the everyday players.
The easy choice would have been Jon Lester or Clay Bucholz. Both continue to dominate their opponents and pitch scoreless inning after scoreless inning. But, I have narrowed this week’s “Hottest” down to two players. One who underperformed last year and one who missed all but 18 games. Both had impressive weeks. John Lackey is out to prove last year was a fluke. In his last outing, Lackey pitched 4 1/3 innings of one run ball. The only downside was the total pitch count, topping out at 75. Still, it’s good to see Lackey come around. My choice for “Hottest” this week is Jacoby Ellsbury. All Jacoby has done this past week is get 8 hits in his last 13 at bats. The deciding factor for me to choose him as the “Hottest” was his 3 hit performance on Saturday. What made it special was who he got the three hits against, Florida Marlins ace, Josh Johnson. Josh is considered one of the top pitchers in the National League.
Both of these players are playing to win and to earn back their respect. Hats off to both of these warriors.
On the flipside is the downside. The player who takes his place in this week’s “Hot Seat” is Jonathan Papelbon. On my drive to work Friday morning I was thinking about this column and who would I choose. I was prepared to honor Papelbon as winner of this week’s “Hot”. Up until Friday afternoon, Paps had pitched three perfect innings in three consecutive outings. I was thinking of the all words to describe how he was back, back to the closer he once was. Then in a blink of the eye, one horrific inning earned Papelbon the dubious honor of sitting in this week’s “Hot Seat”. On Friday afternoon, Papelbon pitched 1/3 of an inning surrendering three runs. Only thirteen of his thirty one pitches went for strikes. Were the first three innings of this spring, or that 1/3 of an inning, the Papelbon we will see in 2011? Terry Francona put his hand on his relievers shoulder and said, “You realize your my closer, don’t you?” If that’s true, we will need to see more of the Papelbon of the first three innings and a lot less of that last 1/3 of an inning.
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