Red Sox to Close First Half with 10 Games in 10 Days

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What a difference [not even] a week makes. After last weekend’s let down in the Bronx, the Red Sox appear to be back on track. Here are some thoughts as the Red Sox close out the first half of the season with 10 games in 10 days.

  • The Red Sox are in Kansas City this weekend for a three-game series with the last-place Royals. It’s the first of six-straight series for the Red Sox against sub-.500 teams. Their next 20 games will all be against sub-.500 teams, and nine of those 20 games will be against the three last-place teams in the American League. As Saul Goodman would say, it’s time to make hay while the sun is still shining.
  • David Price’s performance last Sunday night against the Yankees was the biggest disappointment of the weekend. The Red Sox did well to put it behind them as they went to Washington and swept the Nationals. Now Price will have a chance to put it behind him as he takes the mound Saturday night against the Royals. The Royals would seem to be a good team for Price to rebound against, as they’ve scored the fewest runs in the American League this season.
  • After the All-Star break the Red Sox will open the second half of the season on a six-game road trip. After that road trip, though, 34 of their final 58 games will be at home. The Red Sox have a .700 winning percentage at home so far this season.
  • If Price can get back on track against the Royals and then Blue Jays before the All-Star break, Cora could start him the second game after the All-Star break. That would set him up perfectly to miss the four-game series against the Yankees August 2-5. It’s crazy to think about managing opponents for a pitcher making $30 million this season, but that might be where we are with Price at this point. [Incidentally, that would also set him up to miss the series in New York in mid-September if the rotation stays on track.]
  • If the Red Sox finish the regular season with the best record in the American League, they could be on a collision course with the Yankees… in the division series. The team with the best regular-season record faces the winner of the Wild Card game in the division series. If the Red Sox have a chance to get “creative” down the stretch, they may want to remember that the division winner with the second-best record will likely get to face the winner of the American League Central in the division series.

I Don’t Blame LeBron for Joining the Lakers, But How Will NBA History Remember Him?

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LeBron James is the latest superstar athlete to pack up and head for Hollywood to play for the Lakers. After years of hating on LeBron I have to admit, I don’t really blame him for this one. Three out of the last four years the Cavs just did not have enough firepower to beat the all-world Golden State Warriors. Part of that is his own fault for forcing the team to be built in his image, long term planning be damned, but all that aside the writing was on the wall. The Cavs were not getting any better so he could play out his days in Cleveland due to a sense of guilt for how he left his hometown high and dry for Miami all those years ago. Or he could go put a bow on his career and build a media empire while playing for the Showtime Lakers and learn from the Magic 8-ball himself.

After winning a title for those lovable losers in Cleveland, LeBron was playing with house money and he knew it. The fans couldn’t possibly turn on him again, especially after getting the Cavs to the finals the last 4 years in a row. So unless the Cavs somehow landed Kawhi or Paul George, which was never going to happen, LeBron had one foot out the door as soon as that championship parade was over.

Hey, I totally get the desire to just live somewhere that you like. I’m from Boston, born and bred, but I want to blow my brains out from the months of November to March. If it wasn’t for the Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics to get me through the miserable nuclear winters in this city I would have packed my bags and moved years ago.

So for a guy in his 30s with 3 kids who’s already accomplished just about everything in the league, I totally get wanting to go take a new job in a city thats 70 degrees every day of the year. Plus you know LeBron wants to make more movies, whether its the oft rumored Space Jam 2 or if its for more roles like his cameo in Trainwreck where I found myself liking LeBron more than I care to admit.

For LeBron he gets the benefits of both worlds, he’s now able to really start building the media empire he clearly wants to build and he gets to play for the Los Angeles Lakers who *could* be challenging for a championship as early as next year because they fall ass backwards into top free agents all the time. This probably isn’t exactly what Kobe had in mind when he told LeBron to just “figure it out” in order to win titles.

This move doesn’t seem like ring chasing though. The Lakers are fine, but barring some monster moves they aren’t true title contenders. Did the Warriors beat the will to win out of LeBron? Has he come to realize he probably isn’t going to be able to top Michael Jordan’s six rings without a hurricane wiping out the Bay Area? Maybe thats why, as Chris Mannix put it, winning seems to now be taking a back seat.

“Is James, 33, really willing to punt on the upcoming season in the hopes of success in the next one? Seems like it. L.A. is a fantastic business decision and clearly one with which his family was comfortable. But basketball? Finding his way to Houston, a 65-win team that had the Warriors on the ropes last season, would have been a basketball decision. The Sixers, a team with a pair of elite young franchise players already on board, would have been a basketball decision.

Boston, Denver, Golden State … those would have been basketball decisions.

The Lakers are about something else.”

If nothing else though, this team is going to be entertaining as fuck. For his first move as the new GM of the Lakers, LeBron signed Lance Stephenson.

Yup that guy.

For his second move he signed the wildly entertaining Javale McGee.

And then of course to top it all off, don’t forget the first family of LA, the patriarch of which is still very much embedded in this team.

I am legitimately excited for LaVar to complain on an episode of Ball in the Family (which shockingly ain’t half bad) that LeBron isn’t getting his son the ball enough. Skip Bayless literally may croak at his desk.

The only real knock on this whole situation though is where does it ultimately leave LeBron’s legacy? Does he get remembered as the guy who brought a championship to long suffering Cleveland? The guy who smoked his hometown with The Decision and built the NBA’s first real Super Team? Or is he remembered as a nomad just jumping around from team to team picking out the situation that suited him best at the time?

To be honest, I think when we look back in 20 years its probably going to be mostly the last one, but not in a negative way. He’ll be looked at as a guy ahead of his time because sure LeBron was the first one to orchestrate the construction of his own Super Team, but we’ve seen it time and time again in the years since. James Harden and CP3 working their way to the Rockets to play together. Kevin Durant heading for greener pastures to chase rings with the Warriors. LeBron was the first one to do it.

He may ultimately be revered as the guy that taught his peers the players have the power, not the owners. If you’re good enough you can leverage your talent to shape a team the way you see fit. LeBron did this with his 1+1 contracts, basically keeping his team on its toes for years (for better or worse) so they couldn’t just take a year off, not spend enough, or punt on a free agent because LeBron could just threaten to opt out and leave. He brought the power back to the players.

For all his dominance, his “must watchability,” his highs, his lows, LeBron will be an NBA legend when its all said and done, but when he does get that Hall of Fame nod……what jersey will he wear? Will it even matter by then?

Crushed Price

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It strains the imagination to conceive of Price pitching any worse than he did. He allowed eight runs courtesy of five – yes, five – home runs in 3 1/3 innings of an 11-1 laugher that left the Red Sox and Yankees tied once again atop the AL East.

After nine career starts against the Yankees with the Red Sox, Price’s ERA is 8.43. At Yankee Stadium, he is 0-5 with a 10.44 ERA.

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I don’t how much else there is to say about David Price and last night’s game. Another disastrous outing against the Yankees for him. If I were Alex Cora, though, I’d start thinking about finding ways to limit Price’s appearances against the Yankees. Seriously.

The Red Sox have ten games left against the Yankees in the regular season. Those ten games include a four-game series in Boston the first weekend of August, a three-game set in the Bronx in mid-September, and another three-game set in Boston to close out the regular season. At the very least, Cora should find a way to make Price miss the series in New York.

That’s more difficult with both Drew Pomeranz and Steven Wright on the disabled list, but it’s still a proposition worth exploring. If the Sox have an extra off day the week of a Yankees series, maybe move up Price to miss the Yankees series. If the Sox are playing 12 straight days going into a Yankees series, maybe bring up a minor leaguer to “give everyone an extra day of rest,” and push Price back.

Cora shouldn’t embarrass Price, but he should get creative. It shouldn’t matter to Cora how much Price is getting paid. Do what’s best for the team by putting Price in the best positions to succeed.

Price is 9-6 through 17 starts this season, and the Red Sox are 11-6 in the games he’s started. If he could repeat that in the second half of the season, the Red Sox would take it. Wins against the Yankees in the regular season don’t count extra. If Price can give more for the team against the Rays, Blue Jays and Orioles, take it.

The 300s Reviews: Kauffman Stadium

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The 300s Ballpark Tour moves on to Kansas City today where we check out the home of the Kansas City Royals, Kauffman Stadium.

Kauffman Stadium opened in 1973 and has been the home of the Royals for 46 of their 50 seasons. The Royals 50th Season logo was plastered all over the park, as well as that day’s giveaway item.

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Kauffman Stadium was one of only a few baseball-specific stadiums built between 1960 and 1990. [Candlestick Park and Anaheim Stadium were originally baseball-specific stadiums, but both were later modified to accommodate NFL teams.] The only other baseball-specific stadiums from that era that come to mind are Dodger Stadium and Arlington Stadium.

Maybe that’s why Kauffman Stadium has outlasted so many other stadiums from that era, including Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Busch Stadium, Riverfront Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium and Veterans Stadium. Those multi-purpose venues all closed down between 1996-2005.

By that time, though, “The K” had begun to show its age. Between 2007 and 2009, the stadium underwent a $250 million renovation that included a new video board, an outfield concourse and a kids’ area.

Those renovations helped the Royals get the All-Star Game in 2012, and were a big part of what made my trip to The K so much fun. The outfield concourse made it easy to walk around and access all parts of the park, and it allows fans to get up close to the famous Kauffman Stadium fountains. I can’t imagine how congested the concourses must have been before the renovations, when you couldn’t walk out in that area. And on a hot summer afternoon at the ballpark it’s nice to be able to duck into an air-conditioned bar for a half inning.

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The Royals Hall of Fame in left field was also fun to walk through (and air conditioned).

 

I ate my weight in ribs while in Kansas City, but I didn’t go for BBQ fare at the ballpark. I went with the footlong Kansas City Dog, which didn’t disappoint. Much better than the infamous Kauffman Stadium dollar dogs.

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Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and spicy mustard.

The Royals’ lease at Kauffman Stadium runs through 2030 and there have been rumors that the Royals would be interested in moving into a new downtown ballpark at that time. Kauffman Stadium would be nearly 60 years old in 2030, but it has been well kept up to this point and there’s no reason why the Royals couldn’t play there for another 20-30 years. Still, the prospect of playing at a shiny new stadium can be hard to pass up.

Whatever its future, Kauffman Stadium should be known as one of the best parks of its era. It’s not Dodger Stadium, and it’s not the destination ballpark that AT&T Park is today, but it is a fun place to catch a game at. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and wouldn’t mind making it an annual occurrence.

Big Z Ballpark Rating – 8.1

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A Government, Foreign Or Domestic, Is Coming After Red Using His Own Google Home

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So I know I’m coming at you with zero context, so our backstory goes like this:

Red, our fearless leader and 2nd best podcaster, received an email regarding his malfunctioning Google Home. The problem? Red was not aware his Google Home was malfunctioning, or to be more specific, it hadn’t been.

Naturally, I concluded that an interaction had occurred between Red’s Google Home and someone/thing other than Red. There was an error in that interaction which caused an automatic email being sent to the rightful user of the Google Home, Red, which resulted in our mystery.

As we’ve discovered over the last couple years/since the Cold War the only kinds of people that dabble in such acts of high tech nefarious activities and espionage are governments, foreign or domestic. Or both.

So who was behind this incident?

The good ol’ US of A? Not likely. Red loves the four major sports, barbecuing, his dog (as a pet not food), getting pissed off at traffic and having a couple cocktails too many. However, he also stans pretty hard for soccer, probably falsely like the other 99% of hipster asshats who pretend to like soccer. Soccer is about as UnAmerican as it gets. But I just don’t think thats enough for Uncle Sam to consider Red an enemy of the state given his endless other patriotic qualities.

The Russians? Is Putin after Red? Again not likely as Red likes hockey (see: the four major sports) and combat sports as well, two of Putin’s favorite things. On the flip side, he really enjoys sharing a meal with a bunch of other people which is prettttttty socialist of him winkwink nudgenudge. It’s possible, then, that Putin is spying on Red to gather intel on a possible double agent for the Bloc. The fact that his name is “Red” doesn’t hurt. In the end I think there is just too much American pride in our Hillside Hero to really consider this possiblity.

Mexico is a solid dark horse. You see, Red and Madam 300s vacationed there a couple of years back and he was pretty scant with details about it upon his return. Pretty much Seinfeld “yadda yadda’d” the whole thing. “Mhm it was fun….yup weather was nice.” So what really went down in Mexico? In the end we’ll never know. However, what we are now forgetting is this: Mexico is completely and utterly fucking lawless. So even if some shit did go down there, it really wouldn’t matter. When Mexican resorts say “all-inclusive” they mean everything from 8 balls to homicide.

This mystery really has endless possibilities. It could be any of the nations above. It could be Google itself. Could be Zuckerberg. You just can’t know anymore. All I do know is if I were him I’d throw a blanket and a pair of industrial grade ear protectors over that thing when I went to work. Wouldn’t want to get home to find the dog listening to Tchaikovsky and building an ICB launcher in the backyard.

Danny Ainge Should Give the Spurs a Godfather Offer for Kawhi Leonard. Godfather: Part II, I Mean

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No, no, no, not a “Godfather offer” as is commonly used to describe an offer you cannot refuse. I’m talking about a Godfather: Part II offer.

Rumors are starting to heat up surrounding the Spurs’ trade partners for Kawhi Leonard, which the Celtics are prominently mentioned in. The Spurs have to trade Kawhi and Danny Ainge knows it. The whole league knows it. So why he would go out on a limb and trade one of his best young players for a guy that is almost assured to walk in 12 months is asinine. Sure Kyrie could walk at the end of next year too, but you traded an injured Isaiah Thomas and the No. 8 pick for 2 seasons of him.

Offer the Spurs a couple of low draft picks and maybe a bench guy like Terry Rozier and see if the Spurs bite. If not, then good day sir because I like this team heading into next season as is. The Celtics don’t have to add Kawhi. The Spurs do have to trade Kawhi though. And it would seem from all the rumors out there that the Spurs would rather send him East just to spite him rather than simply handing him to the Lakers.

Advantage: Ainge.

So let them take your blatant low ball offer, or they can go digging for gold with the Lakers, who, ironically considering the title of this blog, are now rumored to be planning a “Godfather offer” for the Spurs.

Your move, Danny. Don’t mortgage the future for 12 months of a guy who played only 9 more games in the NBA than me last year. I would love Kawhi Leonard on this team, but only on our terms. There’s no sense in pushing all your chips to the middle of the table for ONE run at this, not with Golden State still lurking in the West.

Why Can’t We Get Players Like Adrian Beltre?

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It would take some creative thinking to bring Adrian Beltre back to the Red Sox, nearly eight years after a different front office regime let him get away.

Dombrowski’s mostly winning habit of wheeling and dealing has left the Boston farm system thin in the caliber of prospects required to entice Beltre’s employer, the Texas Rangers, to send him this way…

The margin might be even thinner between the Red Sox’ current payroll (in the range of $233 million) and the massive financial punishment that comes from surpassing the highest luxury-tax tier ($237 million).

It’s a bummer, but it’s the truth.

I’m always in favor of trading prospects for established veterans. Buy low, sell high. Who is the last prospect the Red Sox dealt that turned into a Hall of Famer, MVP, or All-Star? Jeff Bagwell? The Red Sox didn’t get much out of the Jon Lester or John Lackey trades in 2014, but they were sellers that year which kind of proves my point. Even with the Lester trade, though, they later flipped their return in that deal (Yoenis Cespedes) for a future Cy Young Award winner (Rick Porcello).

And remind me, what’s Anderson Espinoza (from the Drew Pomeranz trade) up to these days Tony?

I also do not care about the Red Sox luxury tax situation. Obviously it’s not my money, but the Red Sox have the money. Can you really put a price on another ring?

So when I say the Red Sox shouldn’t pick up Adrian Beltre, it’s strictly for baseball reasons.

Beltre is by all accounts a great teammate and still hitting .309 at age 39 this season. He could give the Red Sox some better at bats lower in their lineup, but it would take plate appearances away from Rafael Devers and Jackie Bradley Jr. Devers is hitting just .234 through 77 games, but he does have 12 home runs and 40 RBI. Bradley is hitting .199 this season, but he’s at .303 over his last 10 games and still provides excellent defense in center field.

Even if you think taking plate appearances away from Devers and Bradley is a good thing, and that Beltre would improve their offense, the offense is not the Red Sox problem. The Red Sox have the highest team batting average in baseball and more hits than any other team. They’re second in runs scored and home runs.

If Dave Dombrowski is going to break the bank next month, he should do it for a bullpen arm.

And one last thing about the Red Sox letting Beltre “get away” after 2010. Before coming to Boston, Beltre was a .270 career hitter who averaged 24 home runs and 87 RBI per 162 games. He had a great season in Boston in 2010, hitting .321 with 49 doubles, 28 home runs, 102 RBI and an OPS of .919 at age 31. How were the Red Sox supposed to predict that Beltre would hit .308 from age 32 on? Nearly 40 points higher than his batting average from age 19 to 31. How would they have predicted he’d average 30 home runs and 104 RBI per 162 games from age 32 on? They also had a chance to acquire the younger Adrian Gonzalez.

I’ll rip the Sox when I think they’re wrong, but I would’ve made the same move and would still make it again tomorrow. Not all moves pan out, but to say the Red Sox let Beltre “get away” is a little bit of revisionist history.

The 300s Reviews: Double Dare

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Double Dare made its triumphant return to Nickelodeon last night and did not disappoint.

The set looked fantastic, less a modern interpretation and more a modern recreation of the classic set. The classic theme music was there and the classic format of the show wasn’t touched, only the dollar amounts for questions and physical challenges to account for inflation.

The questions were written very much like they were thirty years ago. Questions like “What chemical compound is H2O?” are still followed by questions like “In geometry, a dodecahedron is any polyhedron with how many flat faces?” It can be fun to see some kids rattle off answer after answer, but the physical challenges are what the show is known for.

[The answer is 12 faces on a dodecahedron, by the way.]

The physical challenges and obstacle course featured some classic stunts and some new stunts that fit right in. Pick It and the hamster wheel made returns, and I hope the gumball machine isn’t too far behind.

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The obstacle course bonus round is still the highlight of the show, and the grand prize last night was a trip to space camp. Who didn’t want to go to space camp when they watched this show as a ten-year-old?

Liza Koshy, a YouTube personality with more than 15 million subscribers, did a fine job hosting what I imagine is her first game show. Hosting a game show isn’t easy, but she looked at ease with the young contestants. She also looked at ease with the show’s announcer, original host Marc Summers. I was pretty disappointed when I first heard that Summers wouldn’t be hosting, but his duties included more than just normal game show announcer duties and he supported Koshy very well.

I know Nickelodeon is a kid’s channel, but there’s no way they made this show without thinking about how to get millennials to flip over to Nick an hour before the nightly Friends marathon.

Dismiss Double Dare as a kid’s show if you wish, but it will be your loss.