THE FIX IS IN

Red Sox's Postseason Begins Against Angels At Fenway

 The Boston Red Sox entire season may play out during its three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels, which starts Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

The Sox, which have lost 12 of 14 against the AL-West leading Angels, would likely have to beat either Los Angeles or the New York Yankees to get anywhere in the playoffs. Also, one of the Red Sox major problems this year, its starting pitching, could also reshape itself for the postseason as Daisuke Matsuzaka takes the mound for Boston in game one for the first time in three months.

Matsuzaka, which blazed through last season with an 18-3 record and 2.90 ERA, told the Red Sox's official Web site: "I know that it took me some time to get here, but I also feel that I was able to use that time to get prepared really well, and I just hope that I can apply all those things that I was preparing for in my start."

If the Red Sox can't win this series with the Angels, it's hard to see it going far in the postseason.

McCoy The "Beat Writer Dinosaur" Will Crank 'Em Out On The Web If He Can

Hal McCoy is a legend in the sportswriting community. He's the dean of American baseball writers. McCoy, 68, covered the Cincinnati Reds for the Dayton Daily News for 37 years. Covered is past tense because he took a buyout from the paper this season after it decided not to cover the Reds in 2010.

"If Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully is the sound track of summer, McCoy is its keyboard," writes Richard Deitsch on SI.com this week.

"I'm probably the last of the baseball beat writer dinosaurs," McCoy said in the column. "Would I like to write about baseball for a Web site or do a blog? Absolutely. I may be 68, soon to be 69, but I think I still have my fastball at the keyboard and can handle the breaking stuff and the off-speed stuff."

McCoy estimates he has written 25,000 stories while covering 7,000 Reds games. If most baseball game stories average around 750 words a piece, McCoy has cranked out 18,750,000 words, or about 75 250,000-word books. 

Media Power Rankings For August - SI.com

And On The Seventh Day, Rosters Adjusted And Curses Shouted

This is an occasional series of musings on fantasy baseball, usually written on Sundays as the authors look at how putrid their fantasy teams performed in the previous week, before adjusting their lineups for the next.

There are thousands of fantasy baseball fans that believe their strategy in an auction draft is the best strategy in an auction. I'd say all but maybe three strategies make any sense.

1. You draft about three studs, then sit around until the late rounds and play the sleeper lottery.

2. Avoid drafting any studs, saving your money for the middle round value guys --- basically a bunch of $10 to $15 players if you're in a league with a salary cap of $260.

Victor Martinez, Orlando Cabrera And Jarrod Washburn In Final Day's Trades

Friday tradeapaolooza is all about Roy Halladay staying put because no one has met the Toronto Blue Jays demands (eleventy billion was the low bar, last check) but plenty of other talent is flying in all directions.

The Boston Red Sox will acquire Victor Martinez, who will add depth to its roster at DH, 1B and C, and will send Justin Masterson and prospect Nick Hagadone to the Cleveland Indians. The Sox also got bored real fast with Adam LaRoche as it shipped the newly-aqcuired first baseman to the Atlanta Braves for Casey Kotchman.

Orlando Cabrera heads to the Minnesota Twins and Jarrod Washburn, one of the hottest surprise pitchers this season, is now a Detroit Tiger.

(Flickr photo: Paul Keleher)

Manny and Papi On That List

David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were both on that 2003 list of 100-plus juicers in Major League Baseball. Today Big Papi "no commented" when asked about the new revelation before the Boston Red Sox took the field against the Oakland Athletics.

We love you and we hate you baseball.

Don't forget about the kids.

(Photo: Waldo Jaquith)

EA Sports Will Still Yell At You During The Menus

The new soundtracks for the 2010 iterations of NBA Live, Madden and NHL dropped and while a demo providing soothing background music, the real versions will still rock out during menu time.

Surprise Time For Megan Calipari

John Calipari has a surprised for daughter Megan!

He wrote this on Twitter: "Today have to finish some video work that is a secret but will be off the chain (that's for Megan). Got a meeting w/ Nike, the evaluation time!"

So whatever it is, it's off the chain. Who knows what that might be, but she did write this on her Facebook wall:

 

Maybe she's getting a new dog?