Tag: Aaron Judge

The 300s Red Sox Yankees ALDS Preview

By on • ( Leave a comment )

It’s been FOURTEEN YEARS since these teams faced off in the postseason when the Red Sox broke a curse and kicked off an entire generation of young massholes coming up in the world (not to mention completing the greatest comeback in the history of sports). It seems like these two teams used to go at it in the playoffs all the time back in the day, but in reality they’ve only ever faced off four times. That just goes to show you how sports will never be more important to your every day life than when you’re 15.

I wrote the other day about how despite winning a franchise record 108 games, most Red Sox fans don’t seem exactly brimming with confidence. The Yankees, also having won 100 games, have come to town though so it’s time to play for keeps. Lets break down some key things to watch for before making our pick.

  • Game 1
    • Friday, Oct. 5th – 7:32 pm (Fenway)
      • Chris Sale vs J.A. Happ
  • Game 2
    • Saturday, Oct. 6th – 8:15 pm (Fenway)
      • David Price vs Masahiro Tanaka
  • Game 3
    • Monday, Oct. 8th – TBD (Yankee Stadium)
      • ??? vs Rick Porcello
  • Game 4
    • Tuesday, Oct. 9th – TBD (Yankee Stadium) *if necessary
  • Game 5
    • Thursday, Oct. 11th – TBD (Fenway) *if necessary

/////

  • He’s not even on the team, but Trot Nixon is throwing out the first pitch for Game 1 so I’m listing that as a strength. Don’t even argue with me on that one.
  • Red Sox Offense – Boston led all of baseball with 876 runs this year (NY was second with 851) and have 2 guys in JD Martinez and Mookie Betts who are a coin flip to win AL MVP. Aside from those two they have a pretty, pretty, pretty good lineup:
    • Andrew Benintendi .290/16/87
    • Xander Bogaerts .288/23/103
    • Rafael Devers .240/21/66
    • Eduardo Nunez .265/10/44
    • Brock Holt .277/7/46
    • Mitch Moreland .245/15/68
  • Not to mention we have newly crowned Yankee killer Steve Pearce waiting to pounce. He hits J.A. Happ extremely well (.344 average, 1.419 OPS, six homers and 16 RBIs in 32 career at-bats) so don’t be surprised to see him in the starting lineup tonight.
  • Chris Sale (if healthy)
    • It’s impossible to know what to expect from Chris Sale tonight. I went into my concerns about Sale the other day and I still don’t feel great about it.
      I’ll be honest though, the No. 1 reason I’m less than confident heading into Friday night is 100% Chris Sale’s health. The guy is just not right. According to Felger and Mazz yesterday, his average fastball velocity went down every single start over his last four starts. That is BAD. He was throwing off of flat ground earlier this week, just days before he’s supposed to take the ball in Game 1. Thats something a rehabbing pitcher does, not a guy who is ready to open the ALDS. Maybe he comes out and he’s totally fine, but I’m not counting on it. Even if he does, I’d be concerned about how he bounces back. Remember when he came off the DL and struck out 12 Orioles and was hitting 99 on the gun? Yea well that was on August 12th and he’s thrown a grand total of 12 innings since then.
  • Craig Kimbrel had a down year when compared to his stellar standard, but this guy coming out of the pen throwing absolute gas is about as good of a weapon you can have. Now if the Sox can somehow bridge the gap to him…
  • Red Sox Bullpen: It’s terrible. Despite the advanced analytics saying the Sox bullpen actually has a great WAR, if you’ve watched even one game this season you know it’s anxiety inducing. Hell, it’s been this way all the way since Game 1.
  • So help me god if Alex Cora throws Steven Wright out there in a late situation only to give up a bomb on a knuckleball while Boone sits in the dugout and smirks.
  • Red Sox Starters 2-5: Consistency is the problem here. Rick Porcello won the Cy Young in 2016 for christ’s sake, but I’m not super confident in him. He did throw a complete game shutout against the Yankees in about 90 minutes earlier this season though.
  • Even Tim Kurkjian doesn’t know what to think. I feeeel like they’ll be good, but they’ve also ALL been bad in the playoffs their entire careers….

“The gut feeling here is, despite lots of evidence to the contrary, he is going to be great this October. He will have to be if the Red Sox are to win this series. [Chris Sale] David Price and Rick Porcello also need to be good. Together, those three are 0-11 with a 6.18 ERA in 14 postseason starts.”

  • David Price’s Psyche: He’s gotta break through in the playoffs at some point right? Right??
  • Yankees Home Run Power: These guys can hit the shit out of the ball and half their lineup can hit it to the moon. The Yankees set the single season home run record this year with 267 home runs, which I feel like is somehow getting overlooked here. Stanton led the Yanks with 38 dingers, but Miguel Andujar, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, and Aaron Judge each hit 27. Oh and Gleyber Torres chipped in with 24 of his own. Yikes.
  • I think more than anything I just want to beat Aaron Boone’s brains in. It’s bad enough what he did to me and my family back in 2003, but for him to saunter out of the ESPN broadcast booth down into the dugout and think he’s just going to manage the Yankees past the Red Sox? Straight up disrespectful.

  • I would rather listen to Michael McDonald for 8 hours a day then hear that obnoxious, awful, victory chant from John Sterling one more time. THAaAaAaAaAaAa YANKEES WIN is the most obnoxious shit in all of sports and is literally the exact opposite of what they teach you in journalism school. So yea, listen to your teachers and stay in school kids.

Official Prediction

Red Sox in 5

I think the best home field advantage in baseball comes into play as the Red Sox are dominant at home (57-24 at Fenway this year) and the Yankees are 1-6 in their last 7 playoff road games. The Sox bullpen will struggle to keep these games in check, but I think some combo of Sale/Kimbrel/Eovaldi/E-Rod get it done with some help from Price. We know this team can hit, it’s just going to be a matter of keeping the Yanks in check and I think the Sox do it by the skin of their teeth as New York pushes them to the brink.

Red Sox Looking to Temper Red Hot Yankees in the Bronx Tonight

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Starting tonight the Red Sox head into the Bronx to take on the Yankees while currently holding a 1 game lead in the AL East. After taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees in the first series of the year the Yanks have gone on an absolute heater winning 15 of 16…. all while leaning on rookies. So the Yankees lineup that was absolutely stacked with power hitters now has a rookie in Gleyber Torres who is hitting a cool .327/.357/.857 ?? Cool. I look forward to hating you soon enough Mr. Torres.

Thankfully the Sox have been taking care of business on their end as well with Mookie Betts merely becoming the best player in baseball. No big deal. And before you try and shut me down hear me out. Mookie is leading the MLB in Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, OPS, Runs Scored, Home Runs, Total Bases, and Extra Base Hits.

These two teams are FINALLY both great at the same time. We’ve said it ad nauseam but over the past decade these two teams kept missing each other, which is why they haven’t faced off in the playoffs in years. Now both are a legitimate threat to win 100 games this year. The last time I could find two teams in the same division that won 100 games was the 2001 AL West when the Mariners won 116 games and the Athletics won 102 so this division race has the potential to be historic.

JD Martinez has actually been playing great as well hitting .349/.396/1.015 with 8 Home Runs and 27 RBIs on the year. The surprise in my voice in response to how well JD is playing is a sad reflection of how badly the Sox have botched big money free agent signings in recent years. David Price (too soon?), Pablo Sandoval, Rusney Castillo, Carl Crawford etc.  So Just Dingers Martinez actually living up to the hype thus far has been a pleasant surprise on Yawkey Way Jersey Street.

There’s 16 more rounds of this left and after a benches clearing brawl in the 2nd game of the year between them this is the earliest I’ve been jacked up for a Sox Yanks game. The rivalry is back, the two teams legitimately don’t like each other, and most importantly we are each other’s biggest threat and direct competition on the path to a World Series. Hey, ESPN might even finally benefit from having them on national TV every other week.

Tonight we have Drew Pomeranz (1-1) 6.14 ERA vs Luis Severino (5-1) 2.11 ERA so that is mismatch city. The Sox beat the hell out of Severino for 5 runs in 5 innings last time around, but since then he’s sporting a 1.24 ERA with 32 Ks and 5 walks in 29 IP. This will be Pomeranz’s 4th start back from the DL so I’m not super confident, but he does have a 3-2 record and a 3.12 ERA in his career at Yankee Stadium. All things considered I’ve gotta go with Severino tonight as the guy is on a roll and is unlikely to lay an egg against the Sox twice in a row. With that being said if you gamble on individual baseball games you are a sick degenerate and I cannot help you.

Red Sox vs Yankees III: Porcello Nearly Throws No-Hitter in Another Boston Victory

By on • ( Leave a comment )

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t watch a ton of this game since the Bruins started their Cup run at the same time last night. But here are the highlights in case you also decided to watch playoff hockey over April baseball for some reason.

Hanley got beaned in the goddamn wrist in the 1st inning.

Intentional? Hard to say. Does that make me less pissed? Of course not. Because there’s nothing I love seeing more than the Red Sox hottest hitter taking a fastball off the wrist. Worked out great for Nomar.

Not that I would necessarily trust medical reports from Hanley Ramirez, but he himself said late last night that he should be fine so thats a relief.

Frederick Alfred Porcello was DEALING as he carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning. I’m sure the 45 minute rain delay didn’t help his case, but we seem to be getting more Cy Young Rick and less MLB Leader in Losses Rick so thats great to see.

As compensation for shielding Joe Kelly from wild haymakers the night before (Sox third base coach Carlos Febles was not so lucky) Aaron Judge was the one to ruin Porcello’s no-no with a double in the 7th inning.

The Sox piled on Sonny Gray early and often, who hasn’t been able to replicate his early career success in the past 3 years. Going into the game Gray was 1-4 with a 4.93 ERA in six career starts vs. Boston, and 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in three starts at Fenway Park. Sonny had a rough go last night too, getting slapped around for 6 earned runs in 3 innings. Very bad!

The bullpen nearly blew a 6-run lead, but Craig Kimbrel came in and slammed that door shut as the Sox took a 6-3 win. Boston improved to 10-2 and a 2-1 record against the Yankees in the first series of the season. With 16 more games to go it’s going to be awesome watching the bad blood boil over between these two sides as they’re grinding it out for the AL East crown all summer long.

Red Sox vs Yankees I: A Beatdown in Boston

By on • ( Leave a comment )

The first of 19 matchups between the Red Sox and the Yankees kicked off last night and it was a coming out party for the Boston offense. The Sox dropped two touchdowns on the Yanks in their first meeting. Thats 14 runs for those that don’t partake in American football. Going into the game it seemed like it would be a pitchers duel between two guys in Chris Sale and Luis Severino who had allowed 3 runs combined and a total of 29 K’s between the two to start the year. Chris Sale continued his excellent start to the year going 6 innings, giving up 1 run and striking out 8 while FINALLY getting his first win of the year. We all know its an arbitrary stat, but I’d love to see Sale get the 20+ wins he deserves, assuming the bullpen and the offense does their job this year.

Meanwhile Severino got curb stomped for 5 runs in 5 innings and that was before the Red Sox *really* broke it open later in the game. How the hell did Severino get hit so hard? Well the ESPN broadcast booth noticed that he might have actually been tipping his pitches, showing replays with his hands being closer to his belt or farther away depending on if he was throwing a fastball or an offspeed pitch. So while I would love to dance on Severino’s grave, I’m sure that’ll be the first thing the Yankees fix and he’ll be spinning zeroes next time he takes the mound.

Giancarlo Stanton continued his historic strikeout pace with another pair of Ks courtesy of Chris Sale. This guy looks lost out there. He looks like he’s trying to crush everything out of the park so he’s swinging out of his shoes. I’m no hitting coach, but even I noticed last night how he looks halfway out of the box before he’s even through his swing like he’s goddamn Ichiro.

I must admit this is immensely gratifying to watch as a Sox fan who was pretty bullshit the Yankees swooped in and stole another megastar home run masher in his prime when the Sox could have [and should have] had him (i.e. A-Rod).

To make it even more satisfying, our statistically similar, for a third of the price, power hitter JD Martinez broke out in a big way with a towering double that if it was hit literally 2 feet to the right would have been a grand slam. Either way it broke the game open as the Sox piled it on, including an actual grand slam later on from Mookie Betts, who was rewarded for his efforts with an awkward interview with his best friend!

Farrell has been decent in the booth, but I have to give him credit for not losing his shit on Steve Levy last night.

After getting crushed all day on the radio, specifically by Tony Mazz who went out of his way to say the guy sucked defensively, the Brock Star was flashing the leather rather impressively last night.

The Sox were firing on all cylinders though with 8 different players crossing the plate, Mookie went 4-for-4, JD had a huge double, Sale was lights out, Hanley was even stealing bases like it was 2006 for christ’s sake.

Red Sox vs Yankees II is tonight and this one might be the pitching duel we had hoped for last night as Masahiro Tanaka comes in with a 1-1 record to go along with a 2.92 ERA and 15 K’s. He’s taking on a seemingly rejuvenated David Price who has yet to allow a run this season to go along with his 10 K’s and he looks to have really built on the momentum from his dominant run as the most expensive relief pitcher in MLB history during the playoffs.

I Think the Red Sox Yankees Rivalry May Finally Be Back

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Its been a tough decade for the so called blood feud between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Neither team has really been very good at the same time recently. After the epic postseason clashes of 2003 and 2004 the two sides haven’t played each other in the playoffs even once. Before last year, both teams hadn’t even made the playoffs in the same season since 2009. In 2007 when the Sox won it all, the Yankees got smoked in the divisional round. In 2009 when the Yankees won it all, the Sox got swept in the divisional round. And in 2013 when the Red Sox went the distance again, the Yanks straight up sucked and missed the playoffs winning only 85 games.

The guys much smarter than me over at fivethirtyeight.com actually put together a graph last year, based on each team’s World Series odds, to measure how meaningful games between the Sox and Yankees actually have been over the years.

“From 2007 to 2016, the typical Yanks-Sox contest was only about as important as any old opening-day game. In other words, it was fun but no big deal.”

So we’re on the up ladies and gentlemen. Last year Boston won its second straight AL East crown and the Yankees came within a game of advancing to the World Series on the back of young, homegrown talent. All of that was BEFORE New York added the best power hitter in the game in Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees, who featured a guy in Aaron Judge who hit 52 home runs AS A ROOKIE, just added a guy who hit 59 home runs. Ridiculous.

Well, thank god the Sox finally responded by signing one Julio Daniel Martinez.

It took a lot longer than most expected, but it sure is nice to take a team that won 93 games and then add this guy: .303 BA/.376 OBP/ .690 SLG with 45 Home Runs and 104 RBIs.

And for all the Yankees fans in my timeline talking shit already (its not even St. Patty’s Day yet) I’m just going to quote my man Jared Carrabis:

“After finishing last in the league in homers last year, the Red Sox added the player who is second in the MLB in slugging percentage (.574) since the start of the 2014 season behind Mike Trout (.579) with a minimum of 300 games played.”

A consolation prize he is not.

My point being though is this could be the first time we see Boston and New York square off in the playoffs in more than a decade. Both teams are stacked, young, and trending upwards. Sure the Patriots have taken the No. 1 spot in town and the Sox have won 3 titles since 2004, but I honestly don’t think thats why the venom between the Red Sox and the Yankees has dissipated. No, its because both teams haven’t been trying to kill each other for that next ring. If the Yankees and their loudmouth fans in the Bronx are standing between Chris Sale and a World Series appearance, you better fucking believe fans are gonna be fired up.

All we need is the opportunity, and thats what we have here tonight.

The Yankees Have Succumb to Names on Jerseys for Players Weekend and it Makes Me Laugh

By on • ( Leave a comment )

For years the Yankees and their fans have had a smug sense of entitlement because they all sport a Boys Regular haircut, shave their beards, and most importantly don’t have names on the backs of their jerseys. Well that and the obscene number of WS trophies. But, hey its the Yankees, you should know who the players are without any names on the jerseys.

Welp, throw that shit right out the window because later this month, just like the rest of us common folk, the Yankees players will be wearing jerseys at home with players names on the back for the FIRST TIME SINCE 1915.

And its not just any jersey its the ridiculous cash-grab of a marketing scheme jerseys with not only players’ names on the back, but WACKY nicknames to boot. Names like “All Rise,” “Red Thunder,” and “All Staarlin” will desecrate the sacred confines of Yankee Stadium. Welcome to the poor house with the rest of us, Yankees fans.

PS – Shoutout to Brett Gardner for saying ya know what fuck this, just put my name on the back. Respect that hate.

Episode 008 of The 300s Podcast (VIDEO)

By on • ( 1 Comment )

Aaaand we’re back. Episode 008 of The 300s Podcast is hot off the presses and we’re diving into the Celtics offseason, grading Danny Ainge’s recent moves and the Paul George situation. We also debut The 300s Ballpark Reviews with the Miami Marlins, how Aaron Judge has put the fear of god into Red Sox fans, the dominance of Chris Sale and we ask what is wrong with David Price? LETS GET IT.

Yankees Aaron Judge Just Previewed a Decade of Pain for Red Sox Fans Last Night

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Yankees rookie Aaron Judge put on a goddamn show last night to win the Home Run Derby and it’s time for Red Sox fans to start being afraid. It’s hard to have missed what Judge has been doing this season unless you’re literally refusing to watch baseball until the leaves turn. The Yankees rookie hit 30 home runs in the first half, which already broke Joe DiMaggio’s rookie team record. And he’s well on his way to besting Mark McGwire’s MLB record of 49 home runs as a rookie.

Mac was obviously on the juice for a long time, but Judge is a genetic freak. The guy is bigger than Gronk for christ’s sake. He’s 6/7″ 282 lbs so its not like he’s just peeling the skin off his chicken. He’s built to smash things.

But its hard to really get the fear of god in you just by reading boxscores. Its only when you see that goddamn horse hitting 519 ft home runs do you realize that as a Red Sox fan we are fucked. This guy is going to be hitting moonshots onto the Pike for the next decade. So settle in guys, this guy is going to be the next great Red Sox killer. And the worst part is, Judge hasn’t really done anything yet to earn my ire. As much as I want to, I don’t hate him. Yet. He’s gonna need to legitimately kill a Red Sox fan sitting on the Monster for me to get some hate flowing.