Category: Boston

Last Night the Umpires Had a Moment of Silence for Angel Hernandez (Who is Very Much Alive)

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So this was the scene right before the Red Sox Blue Jays game last night. All the umpires getting together for a brief moment of silence for their boy Angel Hernandez….who is very much alive.

I was wondering what that whole gathering was about and even Red Sox broadcaster Dave O’Brien said on NESN that this showing was for Hernandez. So this all stemmed from the Ian Kinsler Angel Hernandez showdown last week.

“Last Saturday, MLB umpires banded together to wear white wristbands in protest of players’ treatment of them, and a perceived lack of enforcement on the part of the league. The protest was in response to the MLB fining Ian Kinsler $10,000 for declaring that controversial umpire Angel Hernandez should pursue a different occupation, as well as a more general concern with “escalating verbal attacks” levied on them by players and managers.“

Cry me a river dude. I will gladly take Ian Kinsler being mean to me if it means I get to make SIX FIGURES to work 6 months a year and watch baseball every day. Hernandez also filed a lawsuit this summer against MLB for racial discrimination and alleges that a grudge from Joe Torre is holding him back from any promotions.

As I’ve always said about umpires and refs, if the fans know you’re name, you’re not doing your job. 99/100 times the only reason a fan knows an ump’s name is because he is doing a shit job or inserting himself into the game like our old friend Cowboy Joe West.

So maybe stop getting into public pissing contests with players on a routine basis and you’ll get a promotion. Just a thought.

Again, he is still alive. So pump the breaks on your umpire Livestrong bracelets out there.

 

PS – The one official who’s name I know for any other reason is Ed Hochuli and thats because of those goddamn bazookas he carries onto the field each week.

Danny Ainge Should Tell the Cavs to Piss Up a Rope if They Asked for Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum

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Look, I never wanted to trade Isaiah; thats my guy. But, the Celtics have burned that bridge to the ground so going back isn’t really an option now. And the Cavs know it. According to several reports yesterday, the Cavs are now looking for a pot sweetener to complete the IT deal as concerns about his hip linger.

Hell, Kyrie was already disgruntled in Cleveland and asking to be traded. So if the trade doesn’t go through it doesn’t really affect the Cavs any more than it would have two weeks ago. But the Cavs made this deal KNOWING Isaiah had a hip injury. He suffered that exact injury playing against you for christs sake. So I find it pretty hard to believe that Danny Ainge was playing the role of snake oil salesman about how much healthier IT is or is not.

Especially for such a widely publicized injury. It happened in the Eastern Conference Finals. So I think the Cavs are purely posturing and just trying to hold Danny’s nuts to the fire and squeeze out some additional assets.

Except reports came out that they were asking for Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum ON TOP of everything else the C’s gave them, including the Brooklyn lottery pick. There’s only one reply for such an outrageous request.

I mean you’ve got the Celtics already selling Kyrie Irving jerseys, you’ve got Jae Crowder working out in Cavs shirts, there’s no going back on this deal now.

But, to reiterate my point and to borrow a GIF from one of Big Z’s recent blog posts, this needs to be Danny on the phone with Cleveland.

However, now there are conflicting reports the Cavs never made such a request. Who the hell knows. Get in there and clean this shit up Woj. Either way, if I’m Danny I tell the Cavs you’ll get nothing and you’ll like it. That or a second round pick.

Edelman Out, but the Work Goes on for the Patriots

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As was suspected Friday night when Julian Edelman left the Patriots’ third preseason game with an injury, Edelman tore his ACL and will miss the entire 2017 season.

A lot of fans on social media were quick to decry the NFL preseason but the truth is that this injury could have happened at any time. Tom Brady didn’t play at all in the 2008 preseason and suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1 of the regular season. Wes Welker tore his left ACL and MCL in Week 17 in 2009. Rob Gronkowski has suffered a wide range of injuries during his seven year career, including a broken arm while playing on field goal protection (!) against the Colts in Week 11 in 2012.

Time and again, the Patriots have shown the ability to adapt and not only survive, but excel. The Patriots won the Super Bowl last season despite not having Gronkowski for the last five games of the regular season or the playoffs. They won the Super Bowl in 2003 after cutting Lawyer Milloy four days before the start of the regular season. And they won 11 games in 2008 without Brady, becoming the first 11-win team to miss the playoffs in more than two decades.

This season will be no different. It’s always disappointing to see a star player go down, but Bill Belichick never lets emotions affect his team’s play. The Patriots still have a very talented wide receiver corps that includes Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan and Danny Amendola. Future hall of famer Rob Gronkowski is apparently healthy and ready to go, and the Patriots should still be able to cobble together a pretty good running game (to the chagrin of fantasy football players). With the AFC East still consisting of the Jets, Bills and Dolphins, it’s hard to bet against this team making it back to at least the AFC Championship game in January.

If you’re still down about Edelman, though, rest assured. He will be back, and it will be a hell of story in the updated afterword to his memoir in a few years.

Three Years Ago Today the Red Sox Signed Colossal Bust Rusney Castillo

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Man time flies. Three years since the Red Sox dumped a 7-year $72.5 million contract in Rusney Castillo’s lap on a whim. And this is why you do not get hyped about a player over a goddamn YouTube video.

Did we learn nothing from Yi Jianlian AKA “The Chairman“? Rusney Castillo looked like he was gonna be a 5-tool stud that the Sox plucked out of Cuba. We’d pair him with Yoenis Cespedes, Hanley Ramirez (and maybe even Giancarlo Stanton?) to form the Cuban Missile Crisis. Right? Well actually not a single one of those guys plays OF for the Red Sox today. Rusney turned out to be a complete bum and has taken up residence as the highest paid player in Minor League Baseball (I chose not to fact check this).

Over parts of 3 seasons in the big leagues Castillo is a career .262 hitter in 317 at bats with 7 HR, 35 RBI and 7 Stolen Bases with a .301 OBP. As a potential 5-tool player, Castillo proved to actually not have a single one of those tools.

Baseball Reference pegs his 162 game average season at .262/.301/.379 with 11 HR 57 RBI 74 Runs and 11 SB. All of that for the cool price of $72.5 Million. And he’s still got THREE YEARS left on his contract at $11M, $11M and $14M. At least Pablo Sandoval made a few DL trips as an excuse. What. A. Disaster.

PS – Rusney Castillo has a .286 career batting average in the minors over 800+ at bats. The $72 Million player can’t even hit .300 playing against kids in Rhode Island.

Why the Celtics Won the Trade of Isaiah Thomas for Kyrie Irving

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Wow. Last night the Celtics traded Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the 2018 Nets pick for Kyrie Irving. As I said at 7:30 last night, I go off the grid to workout for ONE hour and I come back to find Trader Danny has fundamentally changed the structure of the Celtics with another blockbuster trade. Seriously, sleep with one eye open around this guy.

First things first, it sucks to see Isaiah Thomas go as he was absolutely integral in putting the Celtics back on the map the past couple of years and vice versa. Celtics went from a middling team to the No. 1 seed in the East. Isaiah went from a third string point guard in Phoenix to Boston finishing in the Top 5 for MVP. He had 40 and 50 point games while getting his teeth knocked out and even putting on dazzling performances after suffering tragic family losses. IT seemed like a genuinely good dude with a massive chip on his shoulder who just wanted to prove the world wrong. And he’s done that. IT, the last pick in the 2011 NBA Draft just got traded for Kyrie, the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.

While IT has been hands down my favorite Celtics player since KG and it sucks to see him go, Kyrie is so, so, so good that its hard to not like this deal. The Celtics upgraded at PG getting one of the best scorers in the entire NBA. Kyrie isn’t exactly a defensive savant either but he’s 6 inches taller than IT, which alone will allow him to more effectively cover the positon defensively. Kyrie is also going to create even more space for the Celtics on offense, especially in the playoffs, as other teams won’t be able to smother and trap Kyrie as they were prone to do with IT. Teams will have to account for his one-on-on play and continuously have help defenders and double teams waiting for Kyrie, which will open up even more opportunities for guys like Al Horford and Gordon Hayward.

The Detractors:

  • “Kyrie is not that much of an upgrade over Isaiah.”
    • He’s 3 years younger, healthier, bigger and has one more year left on his contract than Isaiah. At just 25 years old Kyrie can grow with the Celtics core of Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum and be right in his prime as the other two are coming into theirs. As much as I love Isaiah, the core probably would not have been good enough quick enough as he and Horford would be in their 30s by the time Brown and Tatum enter their prime.
  • “The Celtics have just wrecked their team chemistry.”
    • This I admit could be an issue as the Celtics now only return 4 players from the 2016 team that reached the Eastern Conference Finals and only 1 out of 5 starters. That is CRAZY. However, one of the reason’s I’m not higher on the NBA in general is because, more than any other sport, talent wins above all else. It doesn’t matter how great your chemistry is if you don’t have 2 or 3 of the best players in the league. The NBA is built around a core of hypertalented superstars and if you don’t have at least a couple of them you’re porked.
  • “I hate to trade Jae Crowder and Ante Zizic.”
    • Always loved Crowder and he was a key guy off the bench. Again this is why I’m not a GM, but if we’re going to look at this emotionlessly, thats what Crowder was; a guy off the bench. You do not turn down trades for 25-year old 4x All-Stars over bench players. And for anyone crying about trading Ante Zizic I ask you this; Have you ever even seen Zizic play? Granted I’m not a scout, but this is a guy who was so good that he couldn’t get on an NBA roster and got stashed overseas his rookie year. I’m not sweating over trading a guy with exactly 0 minutes played in the NBA. Plus, we still have the Dancing Bear.
  • “Who is going to rebound for us?”
    • WHO HAS REBOUNDED FOR US THE LAST FOUR YEARS?! The Celtics as an organization have effectively punted on rebounding. Last year the Celtics were 22nd in Offensive Rebounds per game and 22nd in Defensive Rebounds per game. Not exactly world beaters to begin with.
  • “I hate trading the 2018 Nets pick.”
    • It sucks to trade one of our treasured assets, but thats exactly why Danny got them. He’s been trying to trade these things for years, he just has never found a deal he wanted to pull the trigger on. Plus how many of these things are you going to keep? The Celtics have already drafted No. 3 overall the past 2 years and still have a potential Top 5 pick next year (more on that below.)

How about Danny Ainge though? This guy has effectively turned a 36-year old Paul Pierce and a 37-year old Kevin Garnett directly or indirectly into: Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward and the 2018 Lakers potential No. 2-5 pick.

And if Kyrie re-signs with the Celtics then Danny looks like an even bigger genius for the Jayson Tatum move, trading down from the No. 1 overall pick to No. 3 while also scooping up the 2018 Lakers pick from Philly. This is HUGE looking back because without that Lakers pick in his back pocket I highly doubt Danny makes the Kyrie trade, having to surrender the Nets pick. He basically, as many said at the time, got the guy he wanted in Tatum while also picking up an additional draft pick. And while many people laughed at Danny for trading the No. 1 overall pick for another one of his coveted draft picks, the fact of the matter is he got a great player while also adding a back up lottery pick, which allowed him to more aggressively shop the Nets 2018 pick.

For those of you that are mourning the end of the “Pierce/KG Nets Trade” well fear not, because its not over, not really. The Celtics got that 2018 Lakers pick by trading the No. 1 overall pick, which was the Nets pick. So we still have one more year to live off of the Nets misery if we’re getting technical. One more asset/player to build off of, while the Nets continue to send Billy King hate mail.

PS – This Isaiah trade just reinforces my longstanding personal policy of never buying a player’s jersey unless they’ve recently signed a contract extension. I’ll never forget buying a Sergei Samsonov jersey in 2006, only to see the Bruins trade him A WEEK LATER. Which is why the next Bruins jersey I bought was a Patrice Bergeron jersey, fresh off his 8-year contract extension.

Celtics Trade Isaiah Thomas: This is Why I’m Not a GM

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This is why I’m a fan and not a GM. I couldn’t have traded Isaiah Thomas. Objectively, I know Kyrie Irving is the better player, but IT is my guy. 5’9″ and the King in the Fourth. Isaiah made the Celtics fun to watch again, night in and night out and I’m bummed to see him go. We’ll have a full breakdown of the trade later this AM, but first we gotta show Isaiah the respect he deserves. Cue the highlights.

Meanwhile in Cleveland…

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While Trader Danny and the Celtics grabbed most of the attention in Boston (and across the nation) last night, Doug Fister was doing his best Billy Chapel impression in Cleveland.

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After giving up a home run to Indians leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor on just his third pitch, Fister did not allow another hit the rest of the night. For the game, Fister faced just two batters more than the minimum and retired the last 14 batters in order. It was his eighth career complete game, and his first since 2014.

Fister has now started four games in place of David Price since Price went on the disabled list on July 28. In those four starts, Fister is 3-1 with a 3.62 ERA.

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It’s also worth noting that three of those four starts have come against the Cleveland Indians. Two have been very good, while one was less than stellar. But even in his less than stellar start against Cleveland, Fister got into the fifth inning. David Price couldn’t say that about his loss against Cleveland in the playoffs last year.

I bring this up because it is very likely that the Red Sox and Indians will meet in the first round of the playoffs again this season. I won’t go as far to say that the Red Sox are better without Price, but I don’t hate my chances with Doug Fister against the Tribe in October.

CC Sabathia is Upset the Red Sox Had the Nerve to Bunt On Him

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NY Post – CC Sabathia didn’t like the Red Sox game plan in the first inning of Saturday night’s 4-3 Yankees win at Fenway Park. So, when he fielded Andrew Benintendi’s bunt toward the third base line and fired a hard strike to first base for the final out, the veteran lefty waved his pitching hand at the Red Sox dugout in a dismissive way. “To come out and that’s your strategy, that got me going a little bit,’’ Sabathia told The Post at his locker Sunday morning. “Literally, two of the hottest hitters in baseball bunting. If that was their strategy, I [handled] it.’’

CC, my man, you are infamous for losing weight because you made the slight change to your diet of not eating a BOX of Captain Crunch every day. And now you’re on a bum knee? Forgive the Red Sox if they think making the fat guy move around a bit might throw him off his game. More than 10 years later every single Red Sox fan still asks why DIDN’T the Yankees do the same thing in the 2004 ALCS against Curt Schilling. The guy was pitching on an ankle held together by bubble gum and blood magic in Game 6 and was DOMINATING. Yet, the Yanks never tested his mobility by bunting, which has always seemed odd. Some guys just aren’t capable of thinking outside of the box I guess.

 

Time to Make the Donuts: Red Sox Take 2 Out of 3 from the Yankees

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Taking 2 out of 3 from the Yankees in late August is always going to be huge, especially when it extends the Red Sox lead in the AL East to 5 games. This series may have put the division out of reach for the Baby Bombers. As a friend of mine, a diehard Yankees fan said over the weekend, “We still have the Wild Card.” Indeed. A few highlights from the weekend series below:

  • The Red Sox have broken Aroldis Chapman. In a span of two weeks they’ve taken him from a dominant All-Star closer throwing triple digits to a middle relief guy coming into a game in the 6th inning.
  • Aaron Judge continues to strike out a prolific clip, extending his MLB record for consecutive games with a K to 37. The Red Sox also seem to have the rookie’s number as he’s only 9-58 against Boston this year and was just 1-12 this weekend.
  • The Sox seemingly dodged a bullet with Drew Pomeranz, who left the game due to back spasms on Friday night. Luckily for the Sox reports say Pomeranz is responding well to treatment and is in line to make his next start.
  • Rafael Devers continues to rake and looks like a budding superstar. The 20 year old third baseman homered in three straight games against the NYY and you can tell the Yankees pitchers are approaching him much more carefully lately.

The two teams are back at it Labor Day weekend for a 4 game series where the Sox will look to put the final nail in the Yankees coffin if they’re still within punching distance.

 

I Think the Sox Are Back

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The Red Sox have won 12 out of their last 14 games and are 11-2 in August. They are now a season-high 18 games over .500, and four games ahead of the New York Yankees in the AL East. Almost more important, though, is the fact that this team has had three walk-off wins during this hot stretch (four walk-off wins if you go back 17 games and include the Kansas City Royals series).

A couple of walk-off wins and walk-off home runs really do help turn an unlikable group of overpaid whiners into a plucky band dirt dogs.

Tom Werner must be pumped to see these “more exciting” wins, especially when he’s watching NESN at Morty Seinfeld’s condo in Del Boca Vista.

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Of course it doesn’t hurt to have your #1 prospect come up, fill a giant panda sized hole in your lineup and still exceed everyone’s expectations. And it doesn’t hurt that your “underwhelming” trade-deadline pickup has hit .372 with four home runs since coming to town.

Throw in a viral pregame ceremony, and you’ve really got some buzz going for this team. Finally.

This weekend’s Yankees series has a chance to be the biggest Red Sox – Yankees series in years. The Red Sox and Yankees haven’t finished in some combination of first and second place in the AL East since 2009. With Drew Pomeranz going for the Sox on Friday and Chris Sale going on Saturday, the Red Sox have their best two pitchers going this weekend and have a real good chance to put more distance between themselves and the Yankees.

Putting more distance between themselves and the Yankees this weekend is very important. After this series, the Red Sox travel to Cleveland for four games against the Indians. The Indians are a likely first-round playoff opponent for the Red Sox, again, and Francona’s squad always play the Red Sox tough. That series could actually be a tougher test for the Sox than the Yankees series.