I know it is blasphemous among Red Sox supporters to blast Tim Wakefield.

The guy takes the ball every fifth day and never complains.

The guy does whatever the team needs him to do, whether it be start or come out of the bullpen.

The guy is even a philanthropist, spending much of his time and energy supporting great causes and visiting sick children.

But nonetheless, Tim Wakefield is the most frustrating athlete of my lifetime.

Believe me, I have been a supporter of many a frustrating athlete. Antoine Walker hoists up threes like they are going out of style. The next time Manny Ramirez hustles down the line at first base will also be the first time. And Drew Bledsoe was a statue in the pocket, getting sacked more than participants in a potato sack race.

Tim Wakefield is the most frustrating of the bunch and here is why....

Imagine, for a second that your favorite basketball team just picked up a new shooting guard, let's call him Smith. Smith is a three point specialist. However, Smith does not shoot threes facing the basket. Instead he hoists his three pointers backwards and over his head.

Amazingly enough, however, Smith is fairly accurate shooting threes backwards and over his head. He goes 7-8 from three point land in his first game and you don't know how he does it. But in his second game he is 0-10 from three.

At that point, every fan is asking, why on Earth are we employing a freakin' shooting guard who tosses up three pointers backwards and over his head.

This fictitious shooting guard, ladies and gentlemen, is Tim Wakefield. He tosses up a trick pitch to the plate and when he is on, you wonder how in the world Major League hitters are missing the ball.

But when he is tossing up lobs and players are hitting balls all over the park, any Sox fan asks why in the world we are employing a pitcher who can't throw a ball faster than some of the kids at the Little League World Series.

When Josh Beckett has an off-game, an observant fan may notice that he is not snapping his breaking pitches as per usual. Or he is throwing too many fastballs. We can rationalize why he isn't himself.

With Wakefield, all we hear about is dancing. Is his knuckler dancing? I, for one, am sick of dancing.

The Sox have talented arms in the minor leagues in the persons of Jon Lester and Clay Bucholz. I am not suggesting that we get rid of Wake this season, but I think this should be the beginning of the end for the longest tenured member of the Red Sox.

He has frustrated us long enough.

RED SOX RAMBLINGS:

The Yanks are Coming

Don't look now Sox fans but the Yanks are only 8 games out, 7 back in the loss column. And Sox fans seem to forget that the Yankees still have a suspended game to complete where they were ahead by two runs in the 8th inning. There is certainly at least a 90% chance that they emerge victorious that game.

With the return of Philip Hughes (and Jeff Karstens to a lesser extent), and the soft second half schedule for the Evil Empire, the Yankees may not be out of this yet.

I predict that this race comes down to the wire, but the Sox hold on to their division lead by a hair.

Unimpressed with Lopez

While the Red Sox bullpen has certainly emerged this year, one guy who has disappointed me is lefty Javier Lopez.

Lopez has a penchant for letting inherited runners score (see Timlin, Mike) and does not command his pitches very well. His lack of control makes him less than reliable against opposing teams' best left handed hitters.

I would have rather seen JC Romero stick around the Sox pen a bit longer.

Back up Manny:

While Mr. Ramirez has been picking it up with his bat since the All-Star break, his play in left field has been confounding to the average fan.

If Manny got any closer to Julio Lugo in the field, they could star in a male adult video.

Yesterday, Billy Butler hit a key double that hit the warning track in left field just in front of the Green Monster. If Manny plays at the depth of a normal left fielder, that is an easy catch. The same thing happened in the Toronto series on a ball hit by Alex Rios.

Manny's shallow play in left field has served him well in the past, but I think he is taking it to a ridiculous level this year. Back up 10-15 feet and it will make a world of difference.

I have always been baffled at the manner in which Major League Baseball elects its Hall-of-Fame.

Firstly, some of the baseball writers of America take this as a joke... I know it was only one vote, but the one guy who voted for Walt Weiss two years ago has got to be shunned, and forbidden from ever placing a vote again. Clearly, this guy is picking his candidates out of a hat...

And it is for that reason that worthy candidates like Jim Rice are not elected. But surprisingly, my rant today will not focus on Mr. Rice... Nay, it is centered around a few other candidates not elected who get less press.  

Bert "Be-Home" Blyleven -- This guy has 287 career wins and played on many, many bad teams. He had the best overhand curveball I've seen in my lifetime (with Barry Zito, Dwight Gooden and David Wells also making the short list). He ranks 5th ALL-TIME in strikeouts... And yet he can garner only 50% of the vote... I don't get it... If this guy was on some good teams of the '70s and '80s he would have had 330 wins and his candidacy would be a shoe-in.  

 Rich "Goose" Gossage -- Maybe Bruce Sutter was slightly before my time (I do remember him, but not all that vividly). But to the best of my childhoold memories (and beyond) Gossage was the more dominant pitcher. And Gossage had much more longevity than Sutter. He pitched into the '90s I believe... I think that there were much more deserving picks than Bruce Sutter and it is a grave injustice that he got into the Hall before his more dominant counterpart, the Goose.  

And Finally, the most deserving candidate to be snubbed (in my humble opinion):  

 Andre Dawson-- Maybe it is because I grew up in Montreal in the early 1980s as a huge baseball fan, but to me it is a grave injustice that Andre Dawson  is not in the Hall of Fame. This guy put up huge numbers, and could have been even better if he wasn't playing on concrete in the Olympic Stadium. He was a great outfielder in both centerfield and rightfield.   Look at the following stats:

8-time All-star

Rookie of the Year 1977

MVP 1986

8 Gold gloves

4 Silver sluggers

top 10 MVP 4 times

 top 10 batting average 5 times

 top 10 Slugging % 8 times

top 10 OPS 6 times

Top 10 runs 4 times

top 10 hits 6 times

top 10 total bases 10 times (league lead twice)

 top 10 doubles 3 times

 Top 10 triples 4 times

Top 10 Home Runs 9 times (league lead once)

Top 10 RBIs 8 times (league lead once)

Top 10 Stolen bases 3 times  

 And finally, one of three players to hit 400 career home runs and steal 300 career bases...

 The others? Willie Mays and Barry Bonds...  

The following is a list of players who have 1,000 career extra base hits:  

Aaron

Bonds

Musial

Ruth

Mays

Palmeiro

 Gehrig

F. Robinson

Yastremski

 Cobb

Speaker

 Brett

Foxx

T. Williams

 E. Murray

Winfield

Ripken

R. Jackson

Ott

Griffey

 Rose

Dawson

Schmidt

Sosa

 Hornsby

Banks

  Of those 26 players, 6 are not in the Hall of Fame:  

1) Barry Bonds - still active. Even despite steroids will probably still make it;

2) Raffy Palmeiro - Would be Hall-of-Famer, may not make it but only because of steroids;

3) Pete Rose - Banned

4) Ken Griffey Jr. - Active.  Future Hall of Famer

5) Sammy Sosa - See Palmeiro.

6)  Andre Dawson- Voters will not elect him for some unexplainable reason.  

Of these six guys, the only one currently eligible for the Hall of Fame is Andre Dawson and he is barely receiving 50% of the vote. The other players of his generation on that exclusive list (Brett, Murray, Winfield, Ripken and Schmidt) were all first ballot selections. People obviously forget how good Andre Dawson was..

He is the very definition of a  Hall-of-Famer...  

The baseball writers need to give him his due...

Yes, he has started his career with two 10 K games out of three.

Yes, he has a flair for the dramatic and is a great showman.

Yes, he was the MVP of the World Baseball Classic.

But, Daisuke Matsuzaka is no Pedro Martinez. Not even close.

I think that people in Boston are conveniently choosing to forget how good Pedro Martinez was in his prime between 1997 and 2002. In 1999, Pedro's ERA was  2.07... The League average ERA was 5.07. That is almost unfathomable.

Pedro's fastball routinely hit 96-97 Miles Per Hour. He had the best change-up in the league. And his curveball was devastating. Matsuzaka has several "plus" pitches but none of his pitches are as dominant as any of Pedro's top three pitches were.

Dice-K reminds me more of a young Mike Mussina than he does of Pedro Martinez. Believe me, that is no insult. Mussina throws three different fastballs (two seamer, four seamer and cutter), he throws a splitter, he throws a change-up and he has a phenomenal knuckle-curve that falls off the table. Similarly, Dice-K throws three different fastballs (two seamer, four seamer and shuuto), a great change-up, a slider and a pretty good curve-ball.

In short, Dice-K beats you because he can throw a bunch of pitches and he can throw them for strikes. Hitters are off balance because they never know what is coming.

Pedro was perhaps the most dominant pitcher during his prime that baseball has seen since the days of Koufax. He was better than Clemens. Better than the Big Unit. Better than Maddux. Better than Smoltz.

So, do me a favor. Stop comparing Dice-K to Pedro. It just ain't far. But I'll take a Mussina in his prime any day of the week.

OTHER RANDOM RED SOX RAMBLINGS:

Manny Ramirez will hit. Let's not get too concerned about his batting average around the Mendoza line and one homerun. He did the same thing last year and put up his usual 300 BA 35 HR 100 RBI.

Let's not get too excited over Josh Beckett just yet. He may be 3-0 with a sub 2.00 ERA, but he did exactly the same thing last year, before posting an ERA over 5.00 at the end of the year. If you Sox fans remember, Beckett was 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA on April 21 going into a start against the Blue Jays. He was cruising along in that game before intentionally hitting a batter (Aaron Hill) and then giving up a gopher to Vernon Wells to blow the game. He then got lit up in a start against Cleveland which started a percipitous downward spiral.

Free Wily Mo. Wily Mo Pena's homerun against Toronto was perhaps the most majestic shot hit in this young season. The kid's got power and plays a decent centerfield. Let's get Coco Crisp's anemic bat out of the line-up and give Ortiz and Ramirez some much needed protection.

Finally a good bullpen? The Sox have assembled a gaggle of good arms for this year's bullpen. Okajima has a fall off the table splitter; Donnelly has some much needed moxie; Papelbon is looking to become his generation's Rivera and is doing a great job; Pineiro has a decent arm; And Kyle Snyder and JC Romero aren't terrible either. Let's give Theo some credit for finally getting a bullpen in order.

Lugo a Go-Go- I kept hearing that Julio Lugo would be a huge step downward from Alex Gonzalez defensively. He may not be Gonzalez, but he ain't bad. Lugo tracks fly balls better than any shortstop this side of Derek Jeter. And his range to his left exceeds even Gonzalez. If he could get some more consistency with his throws, he'll be pretty good defensively. And did I mention that he swings the bat twice as well as Gonzo? I didn't? Well, he does.

Managerial Genius - Let's give Terry Francona some much deserved credit. With the Sox up 4-1 against the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) last Friday, Tito brought in bullpen ace Jonathan Papelbon in the 8th inning with Vlad Guerrero at the plate and two men on base and one out. Papelbon overmatched Guerrero and induced a Garret Anderson fly-out to end the threat. Francona should be given credit for not waiting until the 9th to bring in the dominant stopper. The Sox ended up scoring six times in the bottom of the 8th, to make the game a 10-1 laugher. If not for Francona's decision, the momentum may have changed drastically.