Category: MLB

The Tampa Bay Rays Are Exploring Becoming a Two…City…Team?

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Upon first reading this story, I immediately looked at the calendar on my computer screen. It is not April Fools Day.

I then asked the Google if it was some sort of April Fools Day in any other part of the world. It would appear it is not.

I then scrolled Jeff Passan’s timeline to see if he showed any signs of mental illness or drug abuse. Now neither are a laughing matter, but either would explain such an outlandish tweet. Nada.

So this is real folks. The Tampa Bay, nee Devil, Rays are indeed investigating if it’s viable to become the baseball equivalent of most north of the Mason Dixon-living recent retirees. Winters through spring in Florida. Summers back to the real world to see the kids and Grand kids. The best of both worlds.

This whole plan, if I understand it right, solves two problems while, in the opinion of this blogger, creating another. The first problem it solves is the fact that the team has really never been fully embraced by Tampa and things are never going to get any better. There just won’t ever be that kind of demand for a pro baseball team in that city. I mean hell, a pro hockey team does better there. But how do you ramp up demand? By cutting supply (BA in Econ here nd nd). So you go from offering the residents of Tampa 40ish games instead of 80ish and suddenly you may just see a rise in interest. You might also see them completely forgetting about the Rays but hey, that’s the risk.

The second problem being solved here is that you give the city of Montreal A FUCKING BASEBALL TEAM AGAIN. While never being a money maker, Montreal’s baseball fans loved their Expos and were crushed to see them go. They are akin to us “Arrested Development” fans back in the day. So while the ‘Expos aren’t coming back (although some sick throwbacks might be) the city of Montreal might get baseball again. Baseball is the most nostalgia-inducing of all pro sports, bar none, so if a city getting a team again after like, 20 years without one doesn’t give you the feels you’re heartless.

Now, the problem this creates is that I don’t really know how two completely different fanbases coexist. I don’t know how the team pulls this off. I just picture that oft-posted cartoon of two Spiderman’s pointing at each other. Will they get along? Will they argue? Can you launch a marketing campaign aimed at two cities at once? Don’t even get me at how much capital expenditure you purpose towards each city and why. The logistics there are just tough.

Luckily, pro sports franchises NEVER FUCK MAJOR LOCATION-centric MOVES UP. Like ever. So Im sure if this gets green lit everything will go smoothly. If not we’re down a franchise for a year or two until Jon Gruden is also coaching the AL West’s newest team the Las Vegas Greased Poles.

-Joey B

It Was an Absolute Shitshow at Fenway Last Night as We Saw Once Again Why We Need Robo Umps

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ESPN – Both managers and Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi were ejected from Texas’ 9-5 win over Boston on Tuesday.

Benintendi and Red Sox manager Alex Cora were tossed in the fifth inning by first-base umpire Vic Carapazza, and Texas manager Chris Woodward was booted by plate umpire Angel Hernandez in the sixth.

I was about to turn off the Sox game last night once the Rangers started putting up crooked numbers, but sometimes those blowouts provide the best entertainment and boy did it ever. First off, Angel Hernandez and his flunkies can kick rocks with that sideshow of a baseball game last night. It was just another example of MLB umps inserting themselves into the game in completely unnecessary situations.

After grounding out and getting thrown out at first, Benintendi was pretty heated about a missed call by homeplate umpire Angel Hernandez earlier in the at-bat. Benintendi glanced in the direction of home plate and swore to himself basically. Well in steps the shining knight that was the first base ump Vic Carapazza who took it upon himself to defend Angel’s honor by ejecting Benintendi. Benintendi by the way was’t even looking at Carapazza when he quietly motioned for the ejection so Red Sox first base coach Tom Goodwin had to break the news.

Benintendi, rightfully so, flipped the fuck out.

I don’t know why, but Benny yelling “You fucking suck too” at the first base ump is the funniest line I’ve heard in a while.

Then just 15 minutes later we got this circus at second base.

The ump definitively makes the safe call before changing his mind and pumping his fist to signal the out call. All of which happened in the span of 2 seconds. The Sox got the call, but that whole series of events is a joke. It also led to the Rangers manager getting chucked too as Angel Hernandez remains the smuggest official in all of sports.

Hernandez said Woodward apparently didn’t hear when he was told time was running out to challenge the call.

“We were not going to review the play once time expired,” Hernandez said. “These are rules. It’s my job to enforce them.”

And here’s Hernandez on the Benintendi ejection:

Hernandez spoke to a pool reporter following the game but said little to explain the ejection.

“He violated the rules of the game,” Hernandez said. “I’m not at liberty to discuss anything until I submit the report tomorrow.”

Lets be done with this. Just fire them all into the sun and bring me the robo umps.

Listening to Pedro Martinez and Jason Varitek Talk About David Ortiz Will Break Your Heart

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From all the latest reports out now it seems like David Ortiz will make a full recovery, but that doesn’t change how scary the entire situation has been. I still can’t believe someone tried to assassinate Big Papi. It all sounds like a fake story, but thankfully he’s back in Boston and seems to be in a good spot. His former teammates have begun reacting to the news and its just heartbreaking. Pedro played with Ortiz on the Sox for 2 seasons, but they’re both DR guys and thats a pretty tight knit community in baseball.

Jason Varitek is one of the most stoic guys you’ll ever see and was always pretty reserved in how he addressed the media. So to see this coming from Tek was really emotional.

To hear him nearly break down in tears while discussing David Ortiz being shot is heartbreaking. These guys were more than just teammates, they were like family. They played together for 9 years and both are still involved with the Red Sox organization to this day. It says a lot about how much people genuinely care for David Ortiz.

 

Prayers up to No. 34.

A Dominican News Network is Reporting David Ortiz Has Been Shot

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I really hope this isn’t true, but CDN 37, a blue check marked news network in the Dominican Republic, is reporting that David Ortiz has been hospitalized with a gunshot wound in Santo Domingo. I’ve seen some other rumors on Twitter saying that it happened during a robbery at gunpoint, but I don’t know if thats true or not. A couple of websites are reporting that he was shot in the leg after an altercation and that the suspect has been arrested.

This is exactly why a lot of players make it big and never go home when they come from less than well off countries. It must be an insanely scary feeling to be the richest guy in one of the poorest parts of the world while everyone knows you’re the richest guy in the country. Even if you’re the humblest, most modest dude, just having Big Papi’s face would be like me walking through the Bronx with hundred dollar bills hanging out of my pockets. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do David Ortiz harm. He’s Big Papi for christs sake. Street justice will probably be swift on the dude thats responsible if its true. We’ll keep you updated with any info we see come through, but for now prayers up to No. 34.

David Price and His Unique Elbow Placed on the IL With Another Elbow Injury

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ESPN – Boston Red Sox left-hander David Price has been placed on the 10-day injured list because of tendinitis in his pitching elbow. Boston announced the move Monday, a day ahead of Price’s scheduled start at Baltimore.

The 33-year-old Price is 1-2 with a 3.75 ERA in six starts and has allowed three runs or fewer in his last four appearances. The 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner with Tampa Bay, Price was slowed by elbow problems throughout 2017. He did not make his first start for Boston until May 29 due to a strained elbow and did not pitch for the Red Sox between July 22 and Sept. 17 because of elbow inflammation. He was 6-3 with a 3.38 ERA in 11 starts and five relief appearances, then rebounded to go 16-7 with a 3.58 ERA in 30 starts last year as Boston won the World Series. Boston made the roster move retroactive to Friday. The Red Sox selected the contract of 28-year-old right-hander Ryan Weber from Triple-A Pawtucket.

David Price has been more or less our best pitcher to start the year, which says more about the shitshow this rotation has been than it does about Price’s start. He was pitching well as of late though so this is the last thing the Sox needed right now.

I can’t say I’m super optimistic about another elbow injury for a 33-year-old starter coming off his shortest offseason ever after a World Series run. This shouldn’t be a problem though if you remember what Price said about his “very unique elbow” in 2017.

“[They told me] that I have a very unique elbow, and I’ve heard that before but not from guys that have done the surgeries they’ve done and looked at as many elbows as they’ve looked at. So just to hear it from those two guys, it felt good,” said Price, via MLB.com.

Heres to a speedy recovery for Price because love him or hate him we need him to pitch well if this team is to go anywhere.

Root Root Root for the Worcesters?

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The correct answer, of course, is “None of the above.”

I know it’s trendy for Minor League Baseball teams to adopt crazy names like Rumble Ponies, Rubber Ducks, and Jumbo Shrimp. Even the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre jumped on this bandwagon a few years ago and dumped the most famous pinstripes in the world to become the RailRiders. I respect the Pawtucket Red Sox for not giving into this trend.

At least Scranton/Wilkes-Barre may have had some Phillies or Pirates fans who didn’t want to go root for the Yankees. Worcester is just as deep in Red Sox Nation as Pawtucket is, though. Why give up that Red Sox brand name? [Unless the big league team has asked you to.] Of course they can’t be called the Paw Sox after they leave Pawtucket, but Woo Sox or Wor Sox would be better than the nicknames some marketing firm came up with. And you could still wear all sorts of crazy uniforms and come up with one-day team names like the Omaha Potholes.

Speaking of which, I feel bad that Larry Lucchino probably actually had to pay money to some marketing firm to come up with names like the Worcester Worcesters. Whatever he paid them was too much. $25 million for three years of Matt Clement’s services was a better deal.

Red Sox Find Redemption With Sweep of Rays

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All last week I was thinking about writing an article about how bad this Red Sox team has been playing so far. I kept putting it off because most of my attention is on the Celtics and Bruins, and honestly, it’s still April. No need to panic just yet, right? A 6-13 start, a run differential of -42 (barf), and the second worst pitching staff in all of baseball. In the words of Dennis Eckersley, YUCK! Going into the weekend, they were taking on a Tampa team that was an AL East leading 14-5 and had allowed the second least amount of runs in baseball. Well, just when you think the season can’t get any worse, they go and do something like this……AND TOTALLY REDEEM THEMSELVES.

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Now I know the Sox still have a long way to go, but a road sweep of the best team in the division goes a long way this early in this season. It’s great for clubhouse morale, especially considering how awful this pitching staff has been so far. Statistically, only the Orioles pitching staff is worse, allowing 149 runs to our 131. Aside from David Price, all of our starters have ERA’s over 6. Sale and Porcello have both allowed more runs than strikeouts and have ERA’s at 8.5! That’s atrocious coming from a former Cy Young winner and a guy who just signed a $145 million extension. Our bullpen hasn’t been much better, but at least a few guys in the pen have been reliable enough.

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Email Red@The300s.com to buy your YUCK sticker!

Then this weekend happened. Not that they were dominant by any means, but they did what they needed to do to eke out three wins against a tough team. All three wins came together late in the game, when good teams find ways to win. First on Friday, Mookie and Big Mitch went back to back in the eighth to put the team ahead for good. Then on Saturday, Benintendi hits a grand slam and a 9th inning sac fly to put the team up one, and Vazquez finishes off the Rays with this walk off pick off, resulting in our first series win of the season. Then the icing on the cake came on Sunday after the Celtics completed their sweep of the Pacers and the Bruins held off the Leafs to force game 7. To make for an amazing Boston Easter, the Sox won with a Vazquez sac fly in the top of the 11th, while Brasier shut the door for the third time in three nights. Man, what a day.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news this weekend. Nathan Eovaldi was placed on the 10-day IL, with all signs pointing to a much longer stint on the injured list. You can read more about it here, but the short of it is Nathan has loose bodies in his throwing elbow that are more than likely going to need to be removed with arthroscopic surgery. The recovery period on this would be about 6 weeks, with range of motion coming back in about 2 weeks. This is the same surgery he had last spring, when he was out the first two months of the season. Bobby Poyner has been called up in his place.

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Dallas Keuchel to the Red Sox rumors are heating up.

What do I think the Sox should do to address their pitching staff? Easy. Sign Dallas Keuchel. He’s said he’ll sign a one-year deal where he can compete for about $18 mil a year, or a longer deal for less money. We already have a ridiculous payroll of $236 mil, including 18 million/year we’re still paying that fat panda Pablo Sandoval, so what’s another $18 for another dominant starter? Now it may take Keuchel a month or so before he’s ready to pitch to live hitters, but reports are that he’s been on a throwing schedule where he’s throwing 95-pitch simulated games every 5 days. This way, when Eovaldi comes back, he can be our closer and we can cut it out with this closer-by-committee trash. Not to knock on Brasier, who’s been great so far, but I just can’t see him being an effective closer for the whole season. The guys been in the majors for less than a year, only strikes out 5.5 batters per 9 innings, and looks more like the dudes I used to sell beer to 4 times a week than a professional athlete. Plus, imagine having to face a 101mph Eovaldi fastball in the 9th inning? Fuck that. This could be exactly the signing the Sox need to put them back in the drivers seat.

Red Sox Won Last Night On the Old Walk Off Pick Off Play

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Jerry Remy nearly had a heart attack on air out of excitement after this. I can’t say I’ve ever seen the walk off pick off. Not super common. The Sox nearly blew this game after surrendering a 5-0 lead. It took a grand salami from Andrew Benintendi (and 5 RBI), an absolutely smoked double from Michael Chavis making his major league debut, and of course Vazquez’ heads up throw in the bottom of the 9th to win the game. What a night.

Red Sox Are Calling Up Top Prospect Michael Chavis

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The Red Sox are reeling, currently sitting in last place in the AL East, and Dustin Pedroia has once again been placed back on the Injured List with knee issues. This team is in a bad spot right now so it was definitely in need of some changes. One of those will be the promotion of their No. 1 prospect in Michael Chavis to the major league roster. The Sox took Chavis with the 26th overall pick in 2014 so it’s time to see what the kid’s got.

Visual evidence that I watched Michael Chavis play in AA Portland.

As the Eagle Tribune points out, with the lack of production from Pedroia, Eduardo Nunez and with Brock Holt on the shelf,”Red Sox second basemen have combined for a .337 OPS, by far the worst in the majors.”

Chavis is only hitting .250 but he’s got an OPS of .954 with 4 home runs in 12 games. He did blast 31 dingers in 2017 between Single-A Salem and Double-A at Portland. This was of course before he was popped for PEDs last April and suspended for 80 games though. I worried that may be the end of Michael Chavis the Power Hitting Prospect, but he seems to still be whacking the ball around the yard. He actually had a higher OPS in 2018 as well as in 2019 (granted its a small sample size) than he did in 2017 so thats encouraging as well.

Now I’ve learned from the failed careers of super hyped prospects like Craig Hansen and Cla Meradith to temper my expectations when top prospects get called up, but its hard to not be excited to watch the kid play. He’s traditionally been a corner infielder,  but has been working at second base too so we could see him split time there with Tzu-Wei Lin, who was also called up today.

They’ll have to pry that second baseman’s mitt (I don’t think this is actually a thing) out of the cold dead hands of Christian Vazquez first though.