Author Archives

Unknown's avatar

Red

David Price and Dennis Eckersley Just Renewed Their Feud. (Buy a YUCK Shirt!)

By on • ( 2 Comments )

Uhh what the fuck guys? I thought we had moved past this amicably? I’m sure Chad Finn asked Dennis Eckersley a very direct question and Eck being Eck he gave a very direct response.

“I didn’t know how to deal with that,” Eckersley said to Finn about the airplane verbal assault. “I don’t plan on saying a word to him, I don’t plan on seeing him, never. I don’t really give a (expletive) one way or another. I don’t think he really cares one way or the other.”

But for David Price to retweet this with the laughing emojis and basically give the story new life is just childish. Listen, I know Price “holds all the cards” now, but jesus christ be the bigger man and just ignore the story. You were a colossal asshole to a Hall of Famer for doing his job giving his opinion on TV and you got called out for it. Just accept the L and move on. Or don’t. As long as you buy a YUCK shirt I don’t care.

Farewell Eduardo Nunez. A Dirtdog On Your Best Day, Entertaining AF On Your Worst

By on • ( Leave a comment )

ESPN – The Boston Red Sox have designated infielder Eduardo Nunez for assignment, likely ending his tenure with the team he helped win the World Series last year.

Nunez was batting .228 in 60 games with Boston this season, his third with the organization. Last year, he hit .265 with 10 homers in 127 games, and also hit a three-run pinch-homer to help the Red Sox win Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After a pretty solid 2018 season, Red Sox utility man Eduardo Nunez was hitting just .228 in 60 games this year so it wasn’t necessarily a shock to see him go. That doesn’t change the fact that he was a key role player for a World Series winning team though and a pretty entertaining guy to watch.

Eduardo Nunez immediately after winning the title last year is one of my favorite GIFs of all time so for that he will always hold a special place in my heart.

His body probably still hasn’t recovered from last season and the World Series in particular, but Eduardo Nunez was a true dirtdog when he was playing well.

Nunez definitely had injury troubles though as documented through my flurry of half in the bag tweets while watching Sox games over the last two years.

Although that leg injury derailed the end of his 2017 season, Nunez did hit .321 in 38 games for the Sox that year. Between Boston and San Francisco he hit .313 in 2017, which was his best season ever. While nobody expected Nunez to compete for a batting title in 2018, he was a very solid bench guy for Alex Cora. Culminating with his pinch hit home run to seal Game 1 of the World Series.

So while not many fans will shed a tear for the Sox cutting a guy hitting .228, lets not forget the good times, the huge smile on the diamond, and him batting .300 in the World Series. Oh and he also did all that after playing for the Yankees for four years so its even sweeter. Best of luck in your future endeavors, Eduardo.

Dave Dombrowski Threw a Tantrum Because Nobody Likes His Bullpen “Additions”

By on • ( Leave a comment )

So Dave Dombrowski threw a temper tantrum over the weekend because nobody lauded his ingenious “additions” to the bullpen. I mean, by all accounts, he’s not wrong. Nathan Eovaldi can be a very effective reliever when healthy. We saw him do just that in the playoffs last year so why aren’t people falling all over themselves to pat Dombrowski on the back?

Oh yea, thats right because this isn’t an addition you disingenuous dummy. This is a guy the Sox paid big bucks to anchor their rotation down who was IMMEDIATELY injured and has missed all but 4 games this season. So forgive me if I’m not super excited for an injured starter coming back being hailed as the savior of the bullpen.

For Dombrowski to get all pissy because “people seem to, not, like grasp” this is hilarious. This is exactly what I said would happen last year after the Sox won the World Series too. I know this will come off as peak whiny Boston fan, but that doesn’t mean its not true. Last year Dombrowksi punted on making real additions to the bullpen and pulled Nathan Eovaldi and Ryan Brasier out of his ass while David Price pitched out of the pen, and Joe Kelly went on an all-time postseason run.

All that did was embolden Dombrowski to again make no real additions to the bullpen, let Joe Kelly go to the Dodgers, AND let their closer walk all in one offseason. “Hey I did it last year, why can’t I patch this thing together on the fly again?” Because thats not how baseball usually works. Thats why they call it lightning in a bottle.

If Nathan Eovaldi goes on to record 20 saves in the second half of the season then please disregard this blog.

Someone Planted Cannabis Flowers On the State House Front Lawn

By on • ( Leave a comment )

WCVB – Vermont’s Capitol Police have quite the mystery on their hands after a visitor pointed out a possible cannabis plant growing in the flower beds on the front lawn.

An officer inspected the lawn on Monday and found what is believed to be either a hemp or marijuana plant. Chief Matthew Romei said they found 34 immature plants that are too young to differentiate.

“It’s legal to cultivate but there are limits on where you can do it, and the statehouse flower beds certainly aren’t one of those permissible sights,” Romei said. “If there is a typical Vermont story this is probably it.”

As a proud contrarian I can respect the hell out of this move. An A+ troll job by whatever cannabis enthusiast planted these seeds on the State House front lawn. Vermont seems pretty chill about everything too as they legalized medicinal marijuana way back in 2004 (it took Massachusetts until 2012) so I’m not sure if they’ll even bother to remove the plants or just let nature do its work.

Further lab testing would be needed to figure out what the plants are, but Romei says the department has no plans to test them because it isn’t pursuing a criminal case.

Good for you Vermont. Take notes, every other governing body in the country. This was a cheeky prank, not some underworld attempt to slide the devil’s lettuce into the hands of an unsuspecting youth. Planting weed mere feet from where stuffy politicians write and pass laws every day is just funny. Nothing more nothing less.

 

 

Common Just Showed Why He’s Still One of the Realest to This Day

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Common has released 11 albums, sold nearly 3 million copies, won 3 Grammys, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award all while acting in some awesome movies during his spare time. Even with that mountain of accolades Common is still one of the realest dudes out there.

Walking down the street in New Orleans the other day he stumbled across a young, hungry rapper spitting freestyles on the sidewalk. It would have been more than reasonable for Common to do what most of us do; just blow right past that guy and continue on with your day. Except he actually stops and listens to encourage the young man before actually jumping in and giving the guy a few tips. Common legitimately looks excited about the whole encounter, which is so cool to see from someone as mega-famous as him. Not to mention he just put this guy on the map with a shoutout and a viral video for the ages.

Now I leave you with one of the best hip hop songs ever made.

I Don’t Think the Red Sox Can Pay Mookie Betts After Seeing This Outfit

By on • ( Leave a comment )

As the great Andy Stitzer once said:

Granted I was on an island all week long so maybe I already missed the news cycle, but why is nobody talking about this?

Mookie, love ya mean, but what the hell are we doing here? This is a straight up fashion crime. He is the MVP of Major League Baseball, he is a professional bowler, he is an absurdly proficient jack of all trades, but a tastemaker in the fashion world he is not.

I gotta be honest, after seeing this outfit I am seriously, seriously hesitant to give a man with this judgement $400 Million dollars. I suppose you can attempt this look when you’re hitting .346 with 32 home runs, but not when you’re hitting .272 with 13 dingers.

All I’m saying is there has got to be someone at the Betts household that sees him on his way out the door wearing a tuxedo without a shirt like he’s Seal and says hold the phone Mook we need to make some tweaks here.

Stop trying to bring back the Lou Bega look, MLB.

The City of Boston Meter Maids Are Worse Than Goodfellas

By on • ( Leave a comment )

This poor schmuck made the mistake of having his car die within the city limits of Boston proper. If you’ve ever lived in Boston you know that these meter maids are worse than Joe Pesci when you owe him a few bucks. Oh your car battery died? Fuck you pay me.

If you haven’t been ticketed and towed to an undisclosed lot, which you have to call every lot in the area to figure out where it is, and then walk there on foot to pay the bill then have you really lived in the city?

PS – I just noticed that his registration sticker expired in January so this may or may not be a criminal on the lamb.

Red Sox Will Use $17M Starter Nathan Eovaldi as the Closer When He Returns from Injury

By on • ( 1 Comment )

NESN – The Boston Red Sox spent an off-day trying to recover from a transatlantic flight and two losses to the New York Yankees. The bullpen again became a concern as the Yankees scored 22 runs in 12 2/3 innings of work by Red Sox relievers over the weekend. And now the team has decided to make a move to shore up that bullpen. Multiple sources have told NESN’s Tom Caron that Nathan Eovaldi will serve as the closer for the Red Sox when he returns from the injured list. They also told Caron that he will serve as a traditional closer, and not as part of a bullpen-by-committee. Last postseason Eovaldi made four appearances out of the bullpen, tossing 9 1/3 innings and giving up just one run — the Max Muncy home run in the 18th inning of Game 3 of the World Series after Eovaldi set a series record throwing 97 pitches in relief. In addition to helping the bullpen, the Red Sox believe bringing Eovaldi back as a reliever will get him back on the roster sooner, meaning they won’t have to wait for him to get stretched out in multiple starts over a long rehab stint.

We all saw what Nathan Eovaldi can do out of the bullpen in the playoffs last year, but that was out of necessity. Coming into this year the Red Sox resigned Eovaldi to a 4-year $67.5M contract to be a STARTER and now the Sox will once again turn to Nasty Nate to save the pen. I think we all had a feeling the Sox would mess around with this because with how good Eovaldi was in the postseason, how could you not think about him back in the pen?

This makes sense when you’re paying Eovaldi like a mid-season acquisition. When you’re paying him like a top starter though, and at the same time completely cheaping out on adding any bullpen help, then it starts to look like a piss poor management of resources.

Sweet Lou may have a stroke covering this year’s Sox team, but he seems to be in the same boat as me here.

Its not like anyone could have predicted this right?? This is why I was ecstatic the Sox won the World Series yet also a bit annoyed at how they got there because it only emboldened Dave Dombrowski. He punted on fixing the bullpen all last season and then fell ass backwards into a journeyman starter with a bum elbow that turned into a super reliever, along with Price, and Porcello acting as roamers. Winning the title last year had Dombrowski feeling himself a bit too much because hey we did it last year so we’ll figure it out again on the fly this year.

Thats how $240 Million teams end up 11 games out of first place in July.

After Signing Kemba Walker and Enes Kanter, Are the Celtics Done Making Moves?

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Boston Herald – A few days before the Celtics hit Las Vegas, it’s fair to say Vegas isn’t big on the Celtics…Having placed the Celtics last fall at a low of 8-1 to win the 2019 championship, the wise people with the sharpened pencils and crystal balls at Westgate SuperBook now put them at 25-1 to be the last team standing next June.

And even that seems optimistic to some. One athletic accountant of our acquaintance believes the C’s are only rated that highly because of what could happen between now and then and because they’ll still draw some interest at that price.

The Celtic roster you see today will not be all that you see in the middle of October. The club is not done making moves, and according to teams around the league that we spoke to Monday, the C’s are very active in trying to see what free agents may still shake loose and what kinds of sign-and-trade deals could free up a better chunk of money to attract a large person.

Granted this article is a bit vague and devoid of many specific details, the fact that its coming from Steve Bulpett is why is sticks out to me. Bulpett is one of the most connected and longest tenured NBA writers in the country so when he says something like this I take note.

I have no idea what this could really even mean because the Celtics are already strapped for cash after the Kemba Walker and Enes Kanter signings. You would need to trade Gordon Hayward and his max salary (which as I said on The 300s Podcast last week I don’t think the C’s will ever do) or some combination of Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and another asset of  your choosing (Yabusele, Timelord etc.) to get a big time deal done. A sign and trade with DeMarcus Cousins was the big one Mattes and I kept going back to as a swing for the fences possibility, but I have zero idea how to finagle the numbers to make that work.

After picking three times in the first round this year, the Celtics are just about out of the beaucoup assets they sat on for the last half a decade. The Memphis Grizzlies pick (top 6 protected in 2020 or unprotected in 2021) and a TBD Charlotte Hornets pick added in the Terry Rozier sign and trade are the only assets the Celtics now own aside from their own picks. No longer can Danny Ainge dangle a treasure chest of future lottery picks in front of rival GMs. Technically the Rozier sign and trade is intentionally unfinished as the C’s debated including a third team (which would have allowed for a Horford return before he signed with Philly) in the transaction.

That opportunity is still there if the C’s want to try and squeeze a little more juice out of Rozier, which Charlotte will be more than willing to do because without the S&T they can’t afford Scary Terry. The C’s own Bird Rights on Rozier so they can pay him the big money he wants and then trade him to Charlotte in the Kemba S&T.

Man, the NBA salary cap rules are a trip huh?

At the very least, maybe Danny is trying to do Terry a solid for not napalming the team in the media like Kyrie did for months.

TLDR; the Celtics will have to either get creative as all hell or yet again tear down their roster and rebuild on the fly by trading multiple starters if there is a big move still to be made .