Category: MLB

The Astros Got SMOKED by MLB, Alex Cora Got Fired, Yet Owners Still Aren’t Happy

By on • ( Leave a comment )

ESPN – The kneecapping of the Houston Astros went off Monday in exquisite fashion. Big names were fired. Draft picks were revoked. A record fine was levied. Pounds of flesh were exacted from egregious cheaters. The optics worked. The Astros’ comeuppance was here, and it was severe. Major League Baseball was righting an obvious wrong.

As the day rolled on and people around baseball pondered exactly what had happened, a less obvious version of the story emerged. It was all so tidy, all so clean, so carefully orchestrated and meticulously calibrated — like something the Astros, ever lauded for their efficiency and ruthlessness, might concoct…As much as MLB played the big, bad monolith in delivering the ruinous news from on high, this was not some unilateral punishment for the Astros. It was a sneak peek inside the sausage factory of power and the anger that Crane’s relative acquittal caused across the league…Multiple ownership-level sources told ESPN that dissatisfaction with the penalties had emerged following a conference call with Manfred, in which he explained how the Astros would be disciplined, then told teams to keep their thoughts to themselves..”Crane won,” he said. “The entire thing was programmed to protect the future of the franchise. He got his championship. He keeps his team. His fine is nothing. The sport lost, but Crane won.”

It’s a long read, but I definitely recommend you check out Jeff Passan’s whole story because it is a pretty fascinating peak behind the curtain. My first reaction to the Astros news yesterday was that they got absolutely HAMMERED by the league. The other owners don’t seem to agree. While I completely understand owners around the league still being bullshit at the Astros, this Passan story just shows how out of touch these team owners have become. What the hell do you want Manfred to do? He fined the Astros the largest team penalty in league history at $5M (and the maximum allowed under MLB rules), banned the GM and the manager for a year and took 1st and 2nd round picks from the team for the next two years. I know, I know the Astros will recoup most of that $5M, if not more in money saved from not having to pay those four draft picks.

With all things considered, thats still pretty, pretty savage. Especially for an organization like MLB that is basically setup like a franchise model thats comprised of franchisees operating their own businesses. For all his faults, Manfred is working with what he’s got here and a lot of that is playing politics amongst 30 billionaires. These owners have no idea what it takes to appease a boss, let alone 30 bosses that make 100x what you make annually, so to bitch and moan about the punishment rings hollow.

“Manfred’s report named Beltran as one of the players involved in the scheme, though the league did not discipline him because it gave players immunity in exchange for their testimony.

That choice registered publicly as another curious part of Manfred’s ultimate decision. What sort of disciplinary action clears players for a “player-driven” scheme? The answer is a practical one. Between the well-defined lines that held GMs and managers responsible and the fear of the Major League Baseball Players Association defending any discipline against active players and sending the cases into grievance hell, Manfred’s pragmatism here, though not satisfying, is understandable.”

Have these guys never watched a cop movie in their lives? Or an episode of The Sopranos? You gotta let some of the small time guys off the hook if you want to get anyone to talk about the Capos. This ain’t the NBA in the 70s where David Stern could just tell some bum owners what was going to happen and they had to accept it.

Now its just a matter of time until Alex Cora gets absolutely roasted himself. Passan cited two sources saying “the end of Cora’s time in Boston could be coming” Alex Cora got the axe from John Henry on Tuesday night. During the middle of the Jeopardy GOAT Tournament no less, which is about as big of a news dump as I can remember.

This came as no surprise because of the optics of the situation. There was no way the Sox were going to take that heat for a guy who in all likelihood won’t be able to work for *at least* the next year. AJ Hinch already completely threw Cora under the bus in the statement he released

Although Shaugnessy did a nice job playing both sides of the fence on this one and reported on Tuesday that the Sox may not actually fire Cora.

I think any reasonable person understands sign stealing happens in baseball and the more technology you add the more sophisticated the sign stealing is going to become. Granted it’s my favorite baseball team that is embroiled in this, but as former Marlins slugger Logan Morrison has said, he knows first hand of several teams that do the same type of stuff.

Manfred’s report directly references how teams like the Yankees were fined for doing the same exact thing in 2017. I mean Cora even joked about Carlos Beltran and how much he’s “helped” the Yankees after the Sox got bludgeoned by them in the London Series last season.

So lets not all start acting like this is someone stealing a $20 out of the Sunday School collection basket. This is a bunch of guys getting bagged doing something they should not have been doing and they knew it. This is not the 1918 Black Sox throwing a game and ruining the integrity of baseball.

Just take a look at the response Passan got when he asked an unnamed team president if he would take that hit for a World Series title:

“I don’t know that I would,” one team president said, “but I don’t know that I wouldn’t.” It was an honest answer.”

So everybody just pump the breaks on the hysteria train before you hurt yourselves.

Pawtucket Red Sox Officially Renamed…the Worcester Red Sox!

By on • ( Leave a comment )

98.5 – It’s official: call them the “WooSox.” The Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox will keep the Red Sox nickname as they move from Pawtucket to Worcester in 2021. The team made the announcement Monday night and will brand themselves as the WooSox for short.

A bit anticlimactic, no?

After all the buzz and hundreds of suggestions from fans they ended up teasing this whole big announcement…only to keep the same exact name. Okay.

It was never a realistic option for the team to go away from the iconic brand that is the Red Sox. Would something cheeky like the Hartford Yard Goats or the Binghamton Rumble Ponies been cool? Yes, but this is a minor league franchise betting $100 Million on the fact that people will come to their games in Worcester. So sticking with the clear association to the Red Sox is no surprise.

What is surprising though is that odd smiley face logo wearing actual Red Sox.

Apparently Worcester invented the smiley face?

I didn’t realize one person could take credit for something so omnipresent in American culture. Its like Mugatu taking credit for inventing the piano key neck tie.

Ya learn something new every day on this blog. Not sure if I’m dying to buy a smiley face Sox hat (I probably will), but I am psyched to see this new ballpark. As we’ve detailed here in the past, Larry Lucchino is building his magnum opus in this Triple-A ballpark in Worcester. This place is going to be sick.

Just a damn shame that friend of the blog Rusney Castillo, probably the most infamous PawSox player of all time, won’t be around to bear the fruit of his labor since his contract ends in 2020.

On the Road Again? No Better Place to Be for Game 7

By on • ( Leave a comment )

As I’m sure you heard last night, this 2019 World Series was the first best-of-seven postseason series in the history of major North American sports where the road team won all seven games. Pretty remarkable. What’s also remarkable is how well road teams have fared in winner-take-all Game 7’s over the past decade. Not all that long ago you could bet your house on the home team in Game 7. Not any more.

When the Pittsburgh Penguins won Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final they were the first team in any of the North American major men’s sports leagues to win a Game 7 of a championship round on the road since, fittingly, the Pittsburgh Pirates won Game 7 of the World Series on the road in 1979. For nearly 30 years, no road team won a championship round Game 7 on the road.

For the Penguins, they were the first NHL team to win a Stanley Cup Final Game 7 on the road since 1971. During the 38 years in between, road teams were 0-6 in Stanley Cup Final Game 7’s. Since 2009, road teams are 3-0 in Stanley Cup Final Game 7’s.

The San Francisco Giants got Major League Baseball road teams off the Game 7 schneid in 2014, when they defeated the Kansas City Royals in Game 7 of the World Series in Kansas City. In between the 1979 Pirates and 2014 Giants, road teams were 0-9 in World Series Game 7’s. Since 2014, road teams are 4-0 in Game 7 of the World Series.

More recently, the Cleveland Cavaliers got NBA teams of the Game 7 scheid when they defeated the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The last NBA team to win Game 7 of the Finals on the road had been the Washington Bullets in 1978. In the 38 years between, road teams went 0-6 in Game 7’s. The 2016 NBA Finals was the last NBA Finals to go seven games.

Across all three leagues (because the NFL, obviously, does not play series), no road team won a Game 7 in the 1980s (0-for-7) or the 1990s (0-for-4). Road teams were nearly blanked in the 2000s (1-for-8), too, until the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins won the Cup in Detroit. That means road teams lost a mind boggling 18-straight winner-take-all Game 7’s. They’re 7-3 this decade, and have won the most recent Game 7’s in all three leagues. That includes the last NBA Finals Game 7, the last three Stanley Cup Final Game 7’s and the last four World Series Game 7’s.

After losing 18-straight Game 7’s from 1982-2006, road teams in all three leagues are 8-3 in championship round Game 7’s since.  So what changed? Some ideas:

  • Air travel is much easier today than it was in 1984 when the Lakers had to fly to Boston for a Game 7 in the (presumably 94°) Boston Garden (the NBA still followed a 2-2-1-1-1 format at that time). The Cleveland Cavaliers probably had a bit of an easier time flying to the Bay Area in 2016 when they defeated the Warriors on the road in Game 7.
  • With more players changing teams more frequently, there may be less of a home-field advantage.Justin Verlander didn’t pitch in Game 7 on the road in in 2017, but hear me out. He got traded from Detroit to Houston on August 31st that year. If he had pitched in Game 7 of the World Series in LA, would it have been much different for him than if he had pitched in a Game 7 in Houston? He was traded there less than two months earlier. I know that athletes don’t live like us, but his pad in Houston in October 2017 was probably more like Ryan Bingham’s condo than he would care to admit. He probably wasn’t rolling out of bed in a mansion in Houston at that time before he rolled up to the ballpark.

    Derek Jeter, on the other hand, had quite the home field advantage. In 80 career playoff games at home he hit .332 in with 12 home runs and 29 RBI in 322 at bats. In 78 road playoff games, he hit .284 with just 8 home runs and 27 RBI in 328 at bats. Playing for one team for 20 years gets you a really nice routine, I suppose.

  • It seems as if home teams have been awfully tight at home in Game 7’s recently. The Bruins at home against the Blues just four months ago seems like a pretty good example of that. I don’t know how/why the psychology of playing at home would change over the last decade, but maybe fans tweeting on their phones all game and taking selfies has changed the energy levels in these venues? That would certainly seem to hurt the home teams more than the road teams.
  • A combination of point #1 and #3. With air travel being easier (and cheaper) than ever, maybe more fans are following their teams on the road for Game 7? I bet the Boston Garden was 98% Celtics fans in 1984’s Game 7. What percentage of Minute Maid Park last night was Nationals fans? I’m not sure, but I bet it was substantially more than 2%. That could certainly change the vibe of a building, too.

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain. Boy am I glad I don’t bet on baseball.

 

Nationals Fan Sacrificed the Body to Save His Beers

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Shoutout to this guy for sacrificing the body to make sure his beers stayed upright, cool, and crispy. He took it off the chest like it was a lob pass in soccer. Except it wasn’t, it was a goddamn rock hit 330+ feet. Do you know how fast that baseball was moving? I took a sabermetrics class in college under the guise of a Math and Economics class so please excuse the baseball nerd jargon. According to Fangraphs, the mean exit velocity of a home run in the MLB this season was 103 mph. 103! So this guy took a triple digit baseball off the chest all so he could maintain the dignity of his Bud Lights. God bless him because that shit is gonna leave a mark, but hey at $13 bucks a beer he really had no other choice.

This dude even got free tix to Game 6 out of it courtesy of Bud Light. What a time to be alive.

Whats the Most Random Sports Shirt/Jersey You Own?

By on • ( 2 Comments )

I think to classify as a “random” shirt or jersey it has to be a guy that was elite for a short period of time, a cult hero in no way due to their actual athletic prowess ( I was *this* close to buying a Gabe Kapler Yomiuri Giants jersey in 2005), a player that was only on a team for a hot minute (I’ve seen two John Lynch Patriots jerseys in Allston over the years), or a jersey that is so obscure that it should not realistically belong to you.

I am an unabashed jersey guy so I have a closet full of obscure pieces beyond just the Boston teams. The Priest Holmes jersey I bought in a Connecticut Marshalls in 2007, Byron Dafoe, Antoine Walker (shirt and jersey), Tim Tebow Patriots shirt, Sergei Samsonov shirt, banana yellow Marcus Mariota Oregon jersey, JR Redmond Patriots jersey, Pedro Mets shirt, a literal blank Athletics jersey, the list goes on and on.

Ya know, now that I think about it, this $12 purchase at the downtown Minneapolis Marshalls may have to take the cake.

So I pose the question, whats the most random sports shirt or jersey you own?

Curt Schilling Wants to Be the Red Sox Pitching Coach and I Say Lets Do It

By on • ( Leave a comment )

One of the biggest reported issues with the Red Sox this season was the disconnect between the analytics nerds and the baseball guys. Ya know like every scene in the first hour of Moneyball.

Rather than completely axe longtime Sox employee Dana LeVangie, the team opted to reassign him to the scouting department instead. That leaves a gaping hole for a pitching staff that was an absolute disaster outside of Eduardo Rodriguez. The Red Sox seemingly want to make analytics a more integral part of their decision making, which sounds weird to say. I don’t know when it happened but the Sox seemingly fell behind the pack. This team lead the charge, along with Billy Beane, on OBP and sabermetrics. Hell, the team even still employs Bill James. So how did we get to this point? My guess is old school baseball guys like Dave Dombrowski didn’t exactly see eye to eye with the nerds.

So the Sox want to get back in the analytics game.

You think THIS guy has a problem with that?

Curt Schilling used to walk around the ballpark with a gigantic trapper keeper full of numbers every time he took the mound. That was before the analytics revolution that has led to every catcher now wearing a wristband or having an index card in their back pocket.

Schilling was also an A+ analyst on ESPN before he just could not stop himself from tweeting things his bosses explicitly told him to not tweet about. So theres that.

I think Schill would make a pretty good pitching coach even though he might get into a fist fight with David Price.

However, thats before we even get to the politics. John Henry has donated more than half a million dollars to various democratic campaigns over the years and Curt Schilling has been a very outspoken ride or die supporter of Donald Trump.

So while this has a zero percent chance of ever actually happening I think it’d be interesting to see. Now maybe you don’t want a guy that loves to talk in a typically behind the scenes role of pitching coach, but hey whats the worst that could happen they miss the playoffs?

Good Luck to Twins Fans Looking for Game 1 on Friday Night

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Related image

Bring Me The News – Game 1 of the best-of-five playoff series between the Twins and Yankees starts just after 6 p.m. [CDT] Friday, but some fans in Minnesota could have a hard time watching it at home.

MLB Network has the exclusive rights to the first game of the series, with Games 2, 3, 4 and 5 scheduled to be televised on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). If you don’t subscribe to a package on Comcast that includes MLB Network, you’re out of luck in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul market is not among the Comcast network that is included in MLB’s partnership with numerous cable/streaming providers to offer MLB Network for free as a bonus Oct. 1-11.

Another great move by Major League Baseball. As if it weren’t bad enough that the game was being televised exclusively on a premium channel, MLB is going to give that premium channel away for free that day to most of the country, but not to the home market of one of the teams in the game. Because that’s how you grow the game!

Image result for great idea gif

This is worse than the NHL airing playoff games on Golf Channel. At least most people who have cable get the Golf Channel. Airing a playoff hockey game on Golf Channel, while ironic, is not much different then airing it on USA. MLB Network, though, is available in roughly 20 million fewer homes than USA Network.

When the NFL airs a game on cable, the home markets of the teams in the game get the game on free TV, too. But what the hell does the NFL know?

If there’s any justice in this world Twins fans will flock to alternatives like YouTube TV in droves for the free trial and then cut the cord for good, kicking Comcast in the teeth.

True to Form the Red Sox Bullpen Blew Eduardo Rodriguez’ 20th Win

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Thats 31 blown saves on the year for anyone counting, solidifying my position that the Closer by Committee analytics bozos can go shit in a hat. The 6th inning is not the same as the 9th inning, even if your calculator says so. The Red Sox struggled all year long and not having a lockdown closer waiting in the bullpen was a huge reason why. Sure there were massive injuries to the starting rotation and major letdown seasons from a host of players, but those are things you can’t necessarily plan for. Having a bullpen is something you can plan. Now I’m not saying I would have given Craig Kimbrel the gigantic contract he wanted because he hasn’t been very good this year either, but I would have brought in someone who actually has “Closer” on their resume. Thats just smart business. But the Red Sox punted on smart business the day after winning the World Series last year and once again falling into the trap of thinking they’re smarter than everyone else. Its a goddamn cycle in this town.

TLDR; My guy Eduardo Rodriguez got screwed out of the only accomplishment that would have given me a little optimism heading into what will likely be a nuclear winter for the Sox.

The Red Sox Front Office is a “Miserable Place to Work” Just Like Your Job

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Yahoo – The last two men in charge of baseball operations – Ben Cherington and Dombrowski – were shown the door quickly after winning championships, and those moves are painting the Red Sox in a very bad light, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.

“These decisions loosely frame the industry perception of the Red Sox as a chaotic company, a miserable place to work. Boston owner John Henry needs to understand this, because it is why some of the people he’d probably love to consider as possible replacements for Dombrowski privately dismiss the idea out of hand.”

Olney writes that some potential candidates have no interest in working for Henry, because they “doubt he’d have the patience to back his next general manager through the difficult crossroads ahead.”… A wide-held view in other front offices is that the highly respected and well-liked Red Sox president Sam Kennedy stands as a thin buffer between the team devolving to the level of the Mets, the team generally regarded by rival executives as baseball’s model for dysfunction. “If Sam ever walked away,” said one official, “the whole thing would be a complete mess.”

Well thats sobering to read for a team with 4 titles in the last 15 years. Are the Red Sox a complete mess of a franchise that wins in spite of its values, philosophy, and culture, not because of it? 100% Thats what happens when you have finishes of 1st, 1st, 1st, last, last, 1st, last over the previous seven years. So that is two World Series titles and three last place finishes across two GMs and three managers in seven years. Not exactly a model of consistency. In fact, the Sox have finished 15 or more games out of first place four times since 2012 (including 2019), which is the first time they had achieved that level of mediocrity since 1998.

But even with all that said for Buster Olney, one of the most well respected baseball writers in the country, to report that Fenway has become “a miserable place to work” is still startling.

I feel like I’m living in Groundhogs Day. Didn’t this same exact thing already happen a few years back? Am I the only one that read Feeding the Monster? Or the Francona book?

Those two books could not depict the highs and the lows of this organization any better than they already did.

Now for as much as we dump on the Mets for being an absolute circus:

It would seem the perception of the Red Sox, despite all their success, is not far off. That is ENRAGING as a fan of this team because it has been and should be one of the top 2 or 3 jobs in all of baseball. You have more money than almost any team to spend, a fan base that shows up and pays through the nose to support the team, and a roster built around home grown talent. Yet somehow we’ve arrived at a point where nobody of note even wants the job.

That all leads us to the most pressing question of all; who the hell is going to take the reigns for the Red Sox moving forward? I think we’re all in agreement that Theo Epstein returning would be a wet dream for everyone in town….but that ain’t happening. Olney makes it sound like nobody wants the job because John Henry has created an absolute shitshow of dysfunction at all levels, which is ironic because it all started when Henry chose a nearly 70 year old Larry Lucchino over Epstein all those years ago. During the Epstein era the Red Sox were a team of efficiency and consistency. The team boasted one of the best farm systems in baseball for years and supplemented homegrown guys like Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buccholz with high priced free agents. There was always a balance and the team rarely pushed all of its chips into the middle of the table to sacrifice the future for the present. Sure, what Dave Dombrowski did was exactly what John Henry brought him here to do. I don’t fault Dombrowski because we knew who he was when he got here. The Sox won a title, but absolutely ravaged the farm system to do it. Boston now has the worst farm system in Major League Baseball. He’s basically the baseball equivalent of Thanos.

Now Peter Abraham is making it sound like the Red Sox are very aware of this negative perception around the league and are resigned to promoting from within. According to Abraham it looks like the Sox are positioning the pieces that would point to an internal candidate being the next GM.

Maybe thats a good thing who knows. Maybe having a guy thats been with the organization for years and already understands the internal workings on Yawkey Way will benefit the team in the long run. Instead of slapping a band aid on things with a big name. However, the Sox better have a plan in place. Don’t just promote someone from within just because you couldn’t do any better. Pick a guy, develop a philosophy, and stick to it. Most importantly, give the guy the power to make the tough moves. The last thing this team needs is another puppet that just does the bidding of his bosses.

Just don’t tell me you’re letting a homegrown ace walk because you don’t sign pitchers over 30 and then sign a pitcher over 30 to the biggest contract ever given to a pitcher a year later. Your move, John Henry.

Lippa’s Leftovers

By on • ( Leave a comment )


After an absolutely enormous news weekend in the world of Boston sports, what better time to take a few steps back and try to collect some thoughts now that the dust has settled a little bit.

  • I could not love the Antonio Brown signing more. Is he an unhinged lunatic? Absolutely. Is there a chance that he could go off the reservation and be kicked off the team by tomorrow? Yep. But, we are at the point now, where if Bill Belichick thinks it’s a good idea. I think it’s a good idea. Bring him on.
  • But my absolute favorite part of the signing was the collective groan by fans of 31 other franchises. The Big Bad Wolf strikes again. When the news broke, I was at a party with Vikings fans, Redskins fans, Giants fans, Jets fans, Cowboys fans, etc, and it was like they had seen a ghost. I love being the villain of the league. I love being the team that everyone hates. Hate us cuz they ain’t us.
  • I’ll say it. It’s starting to feel a little like 2007 again. But maybe even better? And that’s because of the defense. This is the best defense the Patriots have had in years. They have the best secondary in the league, led by the best cornerback in the league (Stephon Gilmore). There’s a ton of no-names in the front seven aside from Hightower, but they looked fast and powerful while completely dummying a pretty good Steelers offensive line.
  • The potential undoing of this team? The offensive line. Marcus Cannon’s already banged up. Shaq Mason got bullied around a little bit on Sunday, and some of those floaty snaps from Ted Karras were frightening. Man, this really does feel like 2007. 
  • It was interesting to see Belichick get a little defensive in his conference call on Wednesday morning in this exchange with NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran.

 

I can’t remember a time when Belichick brought up a media criticism from years ago out of the blue. So much for “Ignore the Noise.”

  • Is 16-0 a possibility, well yes. Of course it is. They are loaded. Obviously it is VERY EARLY to be talking about this (but I mean come on look at the first half of their schedule). However, were some interesting comments from Belichick in the preview of that HBO documentary with Nick Saban.



    “In retrospect, maybe it would have been better if we had lost one along the way.”I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard him say that publicly. It will be fascinating to see how Belichick handles this team down the stretch if this starts to become a real conversation.
  • In more depressing news, we have the local baseball team with an absolute NEWS DUMP in firing President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski at midnight immediately after the Patriots season opener.  I get the move, Dombrowski was not the guy to lead the Red Sox in the future. He was great at signing and trading for big stars, but not so much at restocking the farm system. I have no problem with them moving on. 
  • And to the surprise of absolutely no one, there was zero accountability taken by John Henry and Tom Werner. No press conference, no explanation. Nothing. Just unacceptable from an ownership that my distaste for grows more and more by the day. 
  • This was hidden in a Peter Abraham column, but I perked up when I saw this potential nugget.

Come home Theo, come home.