philly.com – Clay Buchholz flung a 70-mph pitch. It bounced before it reached home plate. The veteran starter shook his right arm. And that was it…
Buchholz suffered a right forearm strain, the team said. A gruesome night turned morbid when Buchholz, who allowed six runs to the Mets in 2 1/3 innings, walked to the dugout with a team athletic trainer during the third inning Tuesday.
The 32-year-old righthander, acquired last December in a $13.5 million dump by Boston, owns a 12.27 ERA after two starts with the Phillies.
It could be some time before his next appearance.
It’s impossible to say that Buchholz would have gotten injured in Boston if the Red Sox hadn’t traded him. I wouldn’t have bet against it, though.
In ten years with the Red Sox, Buchholz only made more than 30 appearances once. That was in 2016 when he made 16 appearances out of the bullpen. He only made more than 20 starts in four of his ten seasons with the Red Sox.
Dave Dombrowski wouldn’t bet against Buchholz getting hurt, either. At the time of the Buchholz trade Dombrowski was lambasted for a “salary dump.” Scott Lauber wrote “Miss Buchholz yet? At some point, the Red Sox will.” Tony Massarotti called guys like me celebrating his exit “short-sighted fools.”
ESPN – Stephen Gostkowski’s powerful right leg could become more valuable to the Patriots if an unconventional rule is passed at this week’s NFL annual meeting. The rule would reward kickers who boot kickoffs through the uprights by spotting the football at the 20-yard line for a touchback instead of the 25.
Fifteen potential rule changes are on the docket at the NFL owners meetings this week, along with several bylaw and resolution proposals. You can view them all here.
The proposed rule change that excited me the most was the proposal by Washington, that “moves the line of scrimmage to the 20-yard line for any touchback where the free kick travels through the uprights.”
This is such an easy tweak, I don’t know why no one thought to propose it sooner. I have no problem with the NFL moving kickoffs back up to the 35-yard line, and moving touchbacks out to the 25-yard line, to reduce the number of kicks returned and to incentivize touchbacks. That is an easy and relatively quiet way to improve player safety. It removes a few pedestrian, yet possibly dangerous, plays a games.
This proposal seems like an easy way to reward good special teams play without putting players in harm’s way (like eliminating the fair catch rule would). Sure, teams in domes and teams with good kickers would probably benefit more but that can already be said about those teams’ kicking games in general. Playing outside in the cold year-round has its own set of benefits. It is with great pleasure that The 300s heartily endorses this proposal.
Other proposed rule changes concern instant replay. The proposals include “granting a third challenge if a club is successful on at least one of its initial two challenges,” (as opposed to both), and another proposal eliminates limits on a team’s number of challenges and what it can challenge.
I’m generally opposed to expanding instant replay. [Except last Friday. Can’t argue when the system works for you.] If I could tweak the replay rules in the NFL, I wouldn’t vote for either of these proposals.
I would propose a system that allows unlimited challenges, as long as your challenges are successful. You would lose the right to challenge after a your first unsuccessful challenge. That way you don’t get burned if you get hosed more than three times a game, but you can’t challenge everything just to get free timeouts. Alternatively, I would treat the whole game like they currently treat the last two minutes of the half. Let a neutral arbitrator take control of the situation. Coaches shouldn’t have to strategize the replay game.
The Competition Committee also proposed shortening overtime to 10 minutes during the preseason and regular season. I don’t see the point of that as it would only result in more ties. If you really want to shorten overtime in the name of player safety, why not just get rid of it all together? There was no regular season overtime until 1974, and college football didn’t add overtime until 1996. If 60 minutes isn’t enough to decide a game, maybe that’s okay. It would also eliminate the advantage gained from winning the overtime coin flip that everyone hates.
The last resolution proposal I’ll touch on, proposed by Philadelphia, “amends the NFL’s On-Field Policy to allow clubs to have an alternate helmet in a color to match their third uniform.” Hallelujah. The uni-verse would rejoice. Nike would sell more merchandise. Pat Patriot would return. Literally no one loses here.
As much as I would hate to see the Patriots trade a young stud cornerback in his prime, this would be the ultimate wink-wink trade between Bill Belichick and good friend Sean Payton.
I mean, the Patriots trade their only 1st round pick to the Saints for Brandin Cooks, who was originally rumored to be demanding a much higher price tag. Then not long after that trade becomes official, the rumors start to fly about the Patriots trading Malcolm Butler to the Saints for a 1st round pick. The 32nd overall pick. The same exact pick the Patriots just traded to the Saints.
Basically, if this trade were to go through, the Pats essentially traded Malcolm Butler and a 3rd round pick to the Saints for Brandin Cooks and a 4th rounder, with the 32nd overall pick coming back to New England. With all the subtle shit the Pats try and pull to get around the rules, I cannot believe that I don’t hear people screaming from the rooftops about collusion.
Remember when the NBA just straight up nixed the Hornets’ Chris Paul trade to the Lakers just because? Legit just said, nope fuck that you’re not getting Chris Paul. Or even the more directly relevant situation, when the Celtics basically tried to trade Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett to the Clippers for DeAndre Jordan and the NBA shut that down too. The NBA didn’t like the fact that the C’s were combining a player and a coach in a deal so they nixed the deal. The C’s later dealt Doc to the Clippers for a 1st round pick (with both KG and DeAndre being removed), but if Doc to the Clippers and KG to the clippers were two separate deals from the start no one would have said shit, but because they were combined into one deal initially the NBA didn’t like it and basically screwed the Celtics out of any shot of landing DeAndre for KG later because the league viewed it as collusion; a quid pro quo deal based around the Doc deal. Total horse shit.
Maybe thats what Belichick learned. The guy is an elephant. Separate the deals. Leave no room for opposition and then execute ruthlessly. Dude is like a Lannister really. I guess no one is bitching because Butler getting traded actually makes the Patriots worse, not better. But keep your ears open. The Patriots are “always cheating” so its only a matter of time until that narrative comes up again.
Are the Bruins really gonna do this again? Are they really gonna collapse down the stretch and miss the playoffs for the THIRD straight year?
Last night was an embarrassment as they legitimately could not hold a lead for more than 2 minutes. Every time they scored, the Lightning scored. Until the Bruins finally stopped scoring and Tampa Bay just kept right on, tuning them up for their 4th straight loss. That is some shitty hockey, amiright Barry?
Now with 8 games left the Bruins have slipped to the second Wild Card spot. They’re 2 points up on the Islanders as they cling to that final spot. And guess who the Bruins are playing tomorrow night? Yup, the Islanders. So if they lose yet again and blow their fifth straight then the free fall will be complete. The Islanders also have 2 games in hand over the Bruins so that’ll be fun to watch over the next two weeks. Look I did not sign up to do math equations and statistical probability. If I wanted to pretend to do math, I’d go back to playing Pokemon Red on my laptop during Math 110 in college.
Or we could ya know just start winning again and take back the 8 seed from Toronto, but with a loss to them the other night the B’s are now 3 points back and things are looking grim. I had 1/4 season ticket package last year and I swear the Bruins lost probably 8/10 of those games so naturally I didn’t renew. And now for the 3rd straight year we’re on the verge of this shit happening again.
The ONLY thing I ask is that Tuukka stays away from Buff’s Pub for the next 2 weeks because we cannot afford to have him bailing on games over a tummy ache.
ESPN – Theo Epstein is the world’s greatest leader. So said Fortune magazine, which published its annual list on Thursday morning. The Chicago Cubs’ president of baseball operations finished in the top spot, ahead of Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Pope Francis at No. 3, Melinda Gates at No. 4 and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos rounded out the top five.
Thank GOD the Red Sox won the World Series in 2013 because otherwise this shit would be straight up demoralizing. Not only has Theo Epstein taken a perennial dumpster fire of a team that used to routinely top 100 losses a season and turned them into the BEST team in baseball, but now he’s been crowned the World’s Greatest Leader by Fortune.
Dude beat out Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Pope. Theo Epstein beat out the motherfucking Pope. The Red Sox forced that guy out. All because Larry Lucchino, who has since been put out to pasture, wanted to have a dick measuring contest with the young blood. Because the guy who doesn’t even work here anymore wanted to feel important, we let legitimately the best baseball executive of our generation slip through our fingers.
Larry Lucchino calling all the shots because he helped build a cool ballpark down in Baltimore. Lucchino was a straight up real life version of Mugatu. “I INVENTED CAMDEN YARDS.”
Theo, a guy who grew up in BROOKLINE, who dreamed of working for the Red Sox did just that, then helped construct 2(!) championship teams and then was shown the door. How does that happen?
And now he’s the World’s. Greatest. Leader. Good. I hope that makes John Henry puke on his 50 fucking foot yacht.
The Red Sox did not immediately respond when asked to comment.
Holy shit imagine if the Sox did not have that miracle run to win the World Series in 2013? There was the absolutely epic collapse of 2011, the chicken and beer fiasco, the downright shameful smear campaign of Terry Francona, the Bobby Valentine abortion of an experiment, followed by 3 last place finishes in 4 years. That is a dark, dark period if not for that title they somehow shoehorned in there. And Theo is probably laughing like a bastard right now out in Wrigleyville counting his $10 million a year salary.
If one of the highest spending teams in baseball could only somehow get their hands on a young stud executive the Sox would be set for a generation.
CSNNE – The newest lefty ace can succeed where David Price did not. Chris Sale might be the most electrifying pitcher the Red Sox have had since Pedro Martinez. Josh Beckett had his moments. Jon Lester was steadily excellent. But the stuff Sale brings is a step above.
I am HYPED for this season. Cannot wait to get it going. Despite my very real fear of 2/5 of the starters in our rotation going down with arm injuries, Chris Sale is gonna bring the juice. This guy is an incredibly talented pitcher and is hyper competitive, but he’s also a complete psycho. That is the full package for what it takes to be a legend in a town like Boston. You need a guy thats a little crazy to thrive in a pressure packed, often cynical market like this. That was Pedro.
With Sale striking out 10 Yankees in a Spring Training game last night, it provided a glimpse into hopefully years of dominant performances against the Bombers. There was nothing better than the days where Pedro was so good he could legit toy with dudes or reach back and blow em away with his fastball.
David Price can be great, but he can also implode like he did in the playoffs last year. But either way, he’s a pretty laid back quiet guy. It’s hard to get fired up about a David Price start. Chris Sale seems to have that fire. He seems to be the guy who will bean a dude without hesitation. Sox haven’t had a guy like that really since Beckett and even Lackey, as short lived as that one was. But to describe a guy as the most anything since Pedro has me sweating for the season to start.
The Undefeated – “Just like Rajon Rondo used to set up the fast break for the Boston Celtics, he is setting up a vacation with his former Celtics teammates from the 2008 NBA championship team to celebrate the nearing of the 10-year anniversary of their title. This party, however, doesn’t include an invite to ex-Celtics star guard Ray Allen. “I asked a couple of the guys. I got a no, a no head shake,” said Rondo to The Undefeated when asked why Allen wasn’t invited.”
If there’s anyone that can hold a grudge it’s Rajon fucking Rondo. It’s been five years since Ray Allen ditched the Celtics to chase a ring with blood rival Miami. And Rajon still wants Ray dead.
“It will be a long story about that, but it is what it is,” Rondo, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, told The Undefeated. “I don’t know a good analogy to put this in. It just wasn’t the greatest separation. It wasn’t the greatest thing that could’ve happened to us as a team, a bond. We were at war with those guys [Miami]. To go with the enemy, that’s unheard-of in sports. Well, it’s not so unheard of. It’s damn near common now.”
I actually find it refreshing. Everyone is friends in the NBA now. It’s the AAU generation, all these guys grew up playing on teams together and then once they’re playing against each other in the NBA they just publicly opine about how they wanna play together or in Miami’s case massively collude to get it done. We need more venom in this league.
Now I’m sure all those stories over the years of how Rajon and Ray just didn’t ever get along contribute to this. For whatever reason they just always kind hated each other. Kinda like Jesus Shuttlesworth and his dad really, but I digress…
It’s not only Rondo though. Garnett and Pierce are like old college roommates, they’re still boys. But Ray never seems to be included in that circle of trust. It sounds like he always kind of kept his teammates at arms length, even in the good old days. I remember a story of how Ray was the only guy not to show up for teammates’ charity events like a total asshole. This isn’t football where theres like 50+ guys on the roster. This is basketball where you only have to deal with 10-12 guys.
Even Pierce let some venom slip in an old interview. This seems more like someone who got dumped w/o explanation and harbors resentment for the way it ended.
“That was a tough situation because we thought it was betrayal,” Pierce said. “That’s why the whole thing evolved like it did with us not talking to him. Ray didn’t really have the best relationship with Rondo anyway. That was nothing. [Rondo], me and Kevin, he didn’t have any talk with us [before his Miami decision].”
And don’t forget when KG basically told Ray to go piss up a rope when he came back as a member of the Heat and tried to dap him up. Denied.
It’s a shame the Celtics didn’t win another title when Garnett, Pierce and Allen were all here. Seems like they definitely should’ve won 2 if not 3 rings together. Ray did exactly what he set out to do though. He jumped ship and singlehandedly saved LeBron’s ass and pretty much delivered him a ring with that corner 3 in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals, which is probably what hurts his former teammates the most.
With injury scares already to David Price and now Drew Pomeranz I ask: Can the Red Sox trade a pitcher from their rotation without it blowing up in their face just once?
The last time the Sox traded a prominent starter due to overflowing depth was when they dealt Bronson Arroyo for Willy Mo Pena right before the 2006 season. And almost immediately there were injuries to the pitching staff that ended up screwing them. The Red Sox had FOURTEEN guys make starts that year including the immortal David Pauley. Remember him? How about Team Italy’s very own Lenny DiNardo? Yea he made 6 fucking starts that year. If you recall David Wells battled injuries that season, starting the year on the DL, before ultimately getting dealt to the Padres in August after the Sox were all but out of the playoff hunt. Only 2 guys topped 140 innings that season (Schilling and Beckett) as the Sox failed to make the playoffs.
But hey at least we had a 4th outfielder who couldn’t hit a curveball! So back to present day; after the Sox dealt Clay Buchholz we get a currently (read: publicly) minor, but possibly major injury to the $30 million dollar man David Price and now the same with Pomeranz. Price allegedly has no structural damage to his elbow because apparently he is the Donald of MLB:
Pomeranz has me even more concerned. This is the same guy that got a stem-cell injection just last winter for elbow/forearm stiffness. And now he’s got tricep stiffness a couple of months later? That doesn’t just happen to totally healthy guys.
And just so no one forgets, the Padres essentially tried to hose the Sox by not properly disclosing medical records. So much so that MLB stepped in and offered to RESCIND THE TRADE. That is bananas. Not to mention the guy has SUCKED. And what does Dave Dombrowski do? Politely declines. Top prospect shown the door for a guy who has essentially been reduced to a 5th starter/bullpen guy with injury issues. Fucking great. I swear to god Dave, if you turned down that Get Out of Jail Free card out of pride…
This season is starting to very much feel like one hanging by a thread and its not even goddamn April yet. One starter going down for an extended period of time would be bad. Two would be disastrous.
Where art thou Bronson Arroyo?
PS – Every single time Bronson Arroyo is brought up, it is required by law for any Red Sox fan to mention the time he beaned A-Rod and set off one of the greatest baseball fights of all time. Legend says as A-Rod is bitching to Arroyo for hitting him Varitek simply goes, “We don’t throw at .260 players.”
12Up– Manny Delcarmen, 35, is looking to earn a chance with the Boston Red Sox, mentioning that he is willing to pitch in the minor leagues in order to work his way back to the majors. And he better be. Delcarmen worked out with the Red Sox earlier Tuesday, hoping to earn that second chance.
Nostalgia Alert! Former Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen is making a comeback attempt with none other than the Red Sox themselves. The pride of Jamaica Plain. What a throwback. I think the reason I love Delcarmen so much is because he was one of the first top Sox prospects to come along and flourish (and flame out) right when the team was at its best in the mid 2000’s alongside Pedroia, Papelbon, Lester etc. In 2007 when the Sox won it all Delcarmen had a 2.05 ERA in 44 IP with 8.4 K/9. And in 08 when they got to Game 7 of the ALCS (god damnit) he had a 3.27 ERA in 74.1 IP with an 8.7 K/9. Not too shabby.
Manny Delcarmen worked out for Red Sox today. Played in Mexico last year. Still lives 30 min from Pawtucket pic.twitter.com/9y7iJHojyG
Obviously Delcarmen didn’t have quite the same staying power as those other guys. But he was at one time the setup-man of the future to the Red Sox closer of the future in Craig Hansen. REMEMBER HIM?!
But hey scouts say he’s hitting 92 mph on the gun and he still lives a half hour away from Pawtucket so why not. This is also great for me because my go-to awkward silence icebreaker at parties is “Hey, whatever happened to Manny Delcarmen?” Now we shall see.
PS – I’ll never forget being at the McDonalds in Kenmore Square before a game and seeing a guy rocking a *stitched* Craig Hansen jersey A WEEK after the kid got called up. He was supposed to be can’t miss. Well guess what, he did miss. A friend of mine from high school swears to this day it’s because the seams are lower on MLB baseballs than in college…
The Sports New Year starts today. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. I know the Patriots won the Super Bowl last month, but I believe they were crowned 2016 World Champions after the win. Case closed.
March Madness is the return of good weather and day drinking. It combines two things Americans always need – endless gambling and a cure for our minuscule attention spans. Everyone and their mom does a bracket, and games on four different channels for 12 hours a day for four straight days makes this the ultimate TV tournament.
When this tournament ends, we’ll arrive at baseball opening day. That leads to NBA/NHL playoffs, the dog days of summer, pennant races, the return of football, the World Series and then playoff football to get us through the dead of winter once again.
Last year kicked off with Villanova’s thrilling win in the National Championship game, saw Cleveland win something for the first time in forever, saw the Cubs win a World Series for the first time since World War I and saw the Patriots pull off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. It was a hell of a story.
I can wait for next year, and next year tips off today. Enjoy it.
The 300s 