And the Rest. Almost.

Sean McAdam has Manny Delcarmen agreeing to a $905,000 deal with a $15,000 incentive for sixty-five appearances and Ramon Ramirez signing for $1.175 million.

Which leaves Jeremy Hermida as the lone hold out.

A Well Kept Secret.

I had heard awhile ago that Manny Delcarmen's wife might be pregnant but since it seemed to be only a one-off rumor I dismissed it. Turns out, my teller-of-tales was right. Last month she gave birth to a little girl whom they are calling Miley. (Forgive me for linking the Inside Track.) I am being non-judgmental about her name. Congratulations to the family. Given how adorable the son is, it probably won't be too long until the girl is breaking hearts.

Good Deeds.

Two little bits of info tonight:

1. David Ortiz will be hosting his second charity golf tournament in the Dominican Republic on December 3-6. The tournament raises money for the David Ortiz Children's Fund which works to support children's healthcare, primarily assisting in paying for cardiac surgeries. (I think.) Says David:

"I am looking forward to gathering with all my friends for the second annual David Ortiz Celebrity Golf Tournament. It is a wonderful opportunity to showcase my home country - the Dominican Republic - while raising money for children who can't afford the healthcare they need. Everyone who participates is making a difference in the lives of these children."

From the photos of last year's event, it was a stunning location.

2. A little bit closer to home (and somewhat less breathtaking), Manny Delcarmen will host his bowling event at King's Back Bay on Dalton St. on Halloween.

Team Mexico.

For my own sake, I find it best to avoid the two (three now, if you count Merloni) dinks at Comcast Sports New England at all costs. The anger that the two of them incite isn't good for anyone. I will admit to liking Merloni when he was first on NESN but then he started telling me how I should feel and that was the end of that. I also recently had inexplicably fallen a little bit out of love with Jonathan Papelbon.

Part four of this video may have just fixed that right up.

Jonathan Papelbon took over for one of the dinks and asked Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen the questions. The interview somehow takes a turn and ends up being about Papelbon but there's some good stuff in there. For example, he needs a checklist to remind himself to put on his belt and to tie his shoes; and they may need to add putting on the correct jersey to the list. And he's very upset that Manny Del won't be representing Team Mexico in the WBC. That's right he thought Manny Delcarmen was Mexican.

Moving On.

Manny Delcarmen seems to have become NECN's go-to guy for an interview. Having arrived in Fort Myers on Monday, he showed up for a workout today and was grabbed for a sit-down. He insults John Smoltz, once again expresses his love for Jason Varitek, and says that he's looking forward to pitching in the new Yankee Stadium. And also shares a nice story about Mike Timlin. For the past couple of years Timlin kept telling him "You're going to take my job" and "I want you to take my job." At the end of last year Timlin let him know "You took my job."

Say it with me: Awwww.

It's Just a Little Crush.

Manny Delcarmen is absolutely thrilled that the Red Sox have re-signed Jason Varitek. According to Manny Del, Varitek is the backbone of the team and it would have been weird to be there without him. He is willing to admit that Varitek's hitting was not so hot last season (he expects that it will be better going forward) but he'd take him anyway.

And yay for me for getting the video to work!

And Now a Word From Manny Del.

Manny Delcarmen: cold, desperately seeking Jason Varitek, Mike Lowell fan, aware of the recent post-season pitching performance of a major acquisition by a division rival, and poor.

Manny Delcarmen hosted his Manny's Candlepin Challenge earlier today. The event raises money for Boston public schools. While there, he spoke with NECN (I don't know why their videos never embed properly. There's probably someway to change the code but I'm not savvy enough to figure it out.) Here's the gist of it:

He leaves for Florida a week from tomorrow. He hopes that they re-sign Varitek (audio is shaky but it sounds like):

"I'm praying that he gets signed. Just because he works really well with the pitching staff and it would be weird not having him around."

He seemed incredulous that someone might contemplate trading Mike Lowell. He seems unconcerned about the prospect of C.C. Sabathia playing in New York. And with a laugh and a batting of those long, enviable eyelashes, he wants more money.

Silver Lining.

I suppose one thing to take away from that game is that the bullpen, with the exception of Mike Timlin (whom I don't see earning himself a post-season roster spot, anyway), was good tonight. And a good bullpen is vital.

Okajima's first inning was cake. He had trouble in his second but in came Justin Masterson. I just wanted to hug the big lug or buy him a drink or something (though in his goody-two-shoes-ness he probably doesn't drink) after he got out of a bases-loaded-one-out jam with a strike out of the only good batter the Rays have and a ground out. He strutted out there for the ninth inning (and with the help of Kevin Cash) mowed them down.

And then it was Manny Delcarmen's turn. *Gulp* Manny Del did Dennis Eckersley proud. Eck has said repeatedly that Manny Del is too good to be scared of batters and tonight he wasn't. He got a strike out, a ground out-with some heads up fielding by Delcarmen, and a fly out in the tenth. And in the eleventh got a ground out-with some slick fielding by Lowrie, a strike out, gave up a double, but got a ground out to end the inning.

Then came old buddy Javier Lopez. On Javier's birthday I promised to try to be nicer to him but if he continues to pitch like he did tonight, and has been doing recently, I probably won't have to try. Javier got through his first inning with two ground outs and a strike out. He gave up a double and a walk to start off his second inning but then got a double play and ground out to finish it off. He even came out for the first batter of the fourteenth inning and got a strike out.

Granted, the Rays aren't the Angels or even what Chicago was a couple of weeks ago in terms of hitting. But it's all good stuff to see.

Big Things.

So, real life interrupts my baseball habit for a couple of days and all sorts of stuff goes down.

1. Schill's done. As disappointing as the news is, I guess I just didn't expect him to make it back in the end. I'm more sorry for Curt than anything. He's seems like the type of person who wouldn't take well to being told that he couldn't do something. For him to have worked so hard since February (blindly trusting that people who knew more than him, knew what they were talking about) only to have nothing come of it, must be disheartening. I suspect that he would blame himself-if only he'd worked a little bit harder or been just a little bit better as a pitcher over the years, the therapy would have worked. Although, the idea that Schill thinks he can just shut up and disappear is pretty amusing.

2. Manni-Jonni. Normally, you miss a Friday night game to go to a wedding rehearsal and nothing too fascinating happens, especially on a rainy Friday night. Of course it happens that when I miss the game, the awesome-ness of Jonathan Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen lip-synching to Milli-Vanilli's Blame it on the Rain is unveiled. How fabulous is it that Papelbon was overshadowed by Manny Del? Clearly, Manny Del was a bigger fan of Milli-Vanilli than Papelbon was. Paps was just kind of dancing around but Manny Del? Manny Del incorporated some genuinely authentic Milli-Vanilli dance moves in there; they just needed a body slam and (I think) the runningman to make it perfect.

3. They wear spiffy green jerseys. Lugo hits a home run. David Aardsma strikes out the side. We'll just ignore all that went wrong in that game.

4. They end up dropping two games to the Cardinals on a poor performance by Daisuke Matsuzaka. Timlin had gone on the DL for knee tendonitis earlier in the day but his replacement, Chris Smith, proved to quite useful. And again, Aardsma struck out the side.

Dining With Daisuke.

If you've got an extra $10,000 lying around (and come one now, who doesn't?), the opportunity has presented itself to take part in, what can only be imagined as, a very awkward dinner. As part of the Good Sports Legends of the Ball fundraiser, Daisuke Matsuzaka has agreed to have dinner with four fans. He is dragging his wife and a translator along but it still seems like a situation which might provoke an international incident (liquored-up American fans and famous, super-polite Japanese people doesn't seem like a winning combination.) As far as I can tell, though, it seems that if you bid on the prize now, you could save yourself the $150 entrance fee to the shin-dig.

Besides the dinner with Daisuke, they do have some fabulous auction lots. The two that really struck my fancy were a pitching lesson with Manny Del and getting to spend the first three innings of the game inside the green monster with the official scorer as he scores the game. These two things, I would very much like to have. I would probably turn into a squicky fangirl mess around Manny Del as he attempted to teach me to throw in a non-Mariah Carey-esque fashion but if I could only have one, it would have to be the scoring the game adventure.

How did you Spend the Off Day?

I watched the season finale of The Office last night but apparently, Red Sox pitchers have better things to do than hanging around watching t.v.


Manny Del and David Aardsma made the looong trek up to Colchester, VT to visit Porters Point School, the winners of the Hood Sox Tops for Kids program. The kids seemed to be more into meeting Wally but I suppose that's to be expected when you throw two relatively new relief pitchers at a bunch of little kids. I've also got to say that I've never been too impressed with what I've seen of Manny Delcarmen as a person but his interaction with the kindern seemed quite cute.


In the meantime, Jon Lester, was headed in the other direction. He went down to Dunkin' Donuts in Warwick to hand out free iced coffee.


Mike Timlin headed up to Maine for the opening of the Cabela's.

Happy Birthday Manny Del!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Mr. Manny Delcarmen a happy 26th birthday. There's been talk down in Florida that this might be his year to emerge as something special-26 is a good year, maybe it's true.

The picture is from the Bostonist from a fashion show he took part in earlier this month (I think.) The ring he's modeling displays how many times your name (though I suppose it could be anything) has been Googled. But for some reason, I'm not entirely sure why, it (the picture, not the ring) makes me want to bust out with: "Go! Go! Power Rangers!"

Note: I feel that it's important to point out, for my own pride and reputation's sake, that I never watched Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It was my brother, I swear.

Manny Delcarmen, no. 17

Birth Date: February 16, 1982 in Boston, MA

Height/Weight: 6'3", 195 lbs.

Contract: League Minimum ($390,000)

Manny Delcarmen threw 44 innings last season. He finished 5 games and was credited with 1 save. During those innings he faced 176 batters. He struck out 41 of those batters (23%). He walked 17 of them (almost 10%). And he gave up 28 hits (almost 16%). Of those hits, 4 were home runs (14%). He intentionally walked 1 batter and hit 2 of them with a pitch. His WHIP was a nice 1.023.

He's got a fastball that used to sit around 95 mph but since he had Tommy John surgery in 2003 has been able to get into the upper nineties. He has an excellent curve and an average changeup. He has just average control of his pitches, though, and struggles with consistency.

Last January, Delcarmen's name came up when the Sox were looking to trade the Rockies for someone to compete with Youkilis for the fullest-beard-in-the-clubhouse award. His name also came up last July in an exchange with the White Sox for Jermaine Dye. The feeling at the time was that the talks broke down because the Sox were unwilling to part with Delcarmen.

If he could improve his control and command, then with that fastball Delcarmen could be a force to be reckoned with. It's hard to tell if the Front Office was unwilling to part with Delcarmen because they thought he could fix those issues or if they were looking for a better deal for him. As a righty out of the pen, Delcarmen has great potential.