Although it’s currently still 36 degrees outside, Opening Day at Fenway marks the real end of winter in Boston and despite the Red Sox projected wins total, it’s impossible to be in a bad mood today. In order to truly and fully move on to 2023 though, first we must take a look back at last season.
To be fair, the Sox were coming off a 92 win season in 2021 and an electric ALCS appearance so I may have gotten wrapped up in the hype a little bit.
This year expectations are, to put it nicely, circling the drain already as the consensus has the Red Sox finishing in last place for the second year in a row. With that being said, let’s not lose sight of all the positives that came out of the disappointing (and confusing) 2022 season. To fully appreciate the full picture of last year, take a look at the 5 Best and 5 Worst Parts of Another Red Sox Last Place Finish.
But, as they famously like to say, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
So with that in mind, have a good deep belly laugh at some of the wildest moments, reflect on the bittersweet moments, get excited about the potential shown, and fire up some game day dogs for Opening Day baby!
The trade deadline has come and gone and the Red Sox seemingly want to have their foot in all camps and be everyone to everyone, which is a superb way to run a business. Are they buyers? Are they sellers? After trading the team’s starting catcher and then picking up a new starting first baseman, Chaim Bloom says why choose just one?
An objective observer would have trouble faulting management for wanting to sell after seeing how dreadful the Sox have performed in recent weeks. After lighting the world on fire in June, the Sox had a catastrophic July dropping them into last place in the AL East. It wasn’t until the final day of the month that a Red Sox starting pitcher earned a win. That is not a typo. Not to mention, they still have yet to win a series against the AL East. Sitting at 53-53 and in last place, this doesn’t seem like a squad destined for October greatness.
On the other hand, this is the goddamn Boston Red Sox. This is a franchise that realistically shouldn’t ever be in the position of selling. It is laughable that a team with the resources of the Red Sox has so frequently hit rock bottom over the last 10+ years. They are 3 games out of the final wild card spot with 56 games left to play, there is zero excuse for a team with a $200M+ payroll to not at least try to make the playoffs. This isn’t the NBA where you have an outside shot at the top pick in the draft by missing the playoffs. Sure you aren’t going to trade away top prospects to bring in rental players to support a team you don’t believe in, but it is hard to fathom punting on the season.
Chaim Bloom argues the Red Sox are in just as good of a position to make the playoffs as they were last week, which isn’t exactly a confidence inspiring comment for a GM to make after a trade deadline.
Let’s recap what the Sox actually did over the last few days to reconstruct their roster.
Traded Christian Vazquez
There’s really no way to defend a major market team trading its starting catcher without any legitimate backup options or young player waiting in the wings. Now obviously the team wasn’t planning on resigning Vazquez so Bloom figured he would maximize the asset and get some prospects for him while he still could. It makes sense in a longer term view, but it hands down hurts this year’s team to trade away your starting catcher who’s having his best season in years. The Sox received two minor league prospects in return, but the move also had its team leader openly questioning the direction of the franchise.
Traded for Eric Hosmer
In a vacuum this is a good move, it legitimately makes the team better, but thats because the Boston Red Sox went the better part of two years without rostering an actual big league first baseman. I was starting to genuinely feel bad for Franchy Cordero after the three error game the other day so it will be nice to have a guy who actually has “1B” written on his trading card finally manning the position again.
It’s important to point out that the Sox only made this move because it fell into their lap though. They only made this move because they got Hosmer for literal pennies on the dollar. Why not make this move in May when it was clear Bobby Dalbec and co. were not cutting it at first base? Because then the move would have cost something. I heard Lou Merloni summarize it aptly saying Bloom is great at taking advantage of other team’s desperation (the Padres had to dump Hosmer after the Soto trade chaos), but has yet to really show a knack for preemptively identifying and targeting big league talent.
To top it off, rather than take on more of Hosmer’s contract to help the Padres shed salary and in return pick up higher rated prospects (as most big market teams do), instead the Sox opted to take on the bare minimum amount of Hosmer’s salary.
According to the Associated Press, the Red Sox owe Eric Hosmer:
If I were an accountant, that would have me running out of the tunnel like Tom Brady shouting obscenities. But I’m not, so I don’t really care that the Sox got a guy for cheap UNLESS they use that money to pay some of their own upcoming free agents. Now the trade off for taking on such little salary is that the Sox instead picked up a couple of lower level prospects AND had to attach their No. 11 ranked prospect in Jay Groome. That move really is the one that set me off. If you want to sell then fine go ahead and sell, but don’t half ass it.
Chaim Bloom can trade everyone on the team to acquire more and more and more lottery ticket prospects so he can continue to play Franchise Mode on his computer. But to then turn around and start dumping your own top prospects just to save money? That should make fans lose their minds. So now the Boston Red Sox, who seemingly want to rebuild the farm system with as many prospects as possible, are sending former first round picks out the door to save a few million dollars.
As Big Z so perfectly put it, “Classic Moneyball move by one of the richest teams in North America.”
Traded Jake Diekman for Reese McGuire
I cry no tears for Diekman, who was a high wire act in the truest sense of the term. He was Bloom’s highest price bullpen offseason addition though so that’s an L for Chaim. As for McGuire, the internet and talk radio has already shredded this guy to pieces for his, um, fondness for Dollar Store parking lots so I’ll just post my joke and move on.
Chaim, this is Reese McGuire. He is a catcher in the Top 10 in Defensive WAR and runners Caught Stealing. His only flaw is that he cannot legally be within 200 feet of a school. #RedSox | #DirtyWater | #MLBpic.twitter.com/CCLYb2MBue
The Sox added Pham for almost literally nothing as they gave the Reds the illustrious “player to be named later or cash considerations” in exchange. Pham has some pop with 11 home runs this year, but is only hitting .238 so not a massive upgrade. He is however the guy that punched Joc Pederson in the face over a fantasy football dispute so he definitely has a bit of an edge!
Released Jackie Bradley Jr.
I was honestly surprised to hear this news today because it seemed like the Sox were so smitten with his defense that JBJ would be penciled into the lineup until someone ripped the lineup card out of Alex Cora’s hands. Let us never forget the otherworldly performance Bradley had in the 2018 ALCS when he picked up MVP honors, but he was a streaky player who’s hot streaks were becoming shorter and further apart every day. He was batting .210 with a negative WAR so while he was a joy to watch in the outfield, a championship caliber team needs more out of an everyday outfielder.
So did this team get better? Did it get worse? Who knows, it kind of seems like a shell game of asset management at this point, but it’s hard to say winning this year was a priority of ownership. The Sox probably weren’t going to win the World Series this year, but nobody expected them to reach the ALCS last year either. My concern is on the direction of the franchise and the overall plan to make this team better. God help me if this team lets Xander Bogaerts walk and/or trades Rafael Devers because I can only handle the Tampa Bay Red Sox blueprint for so long.
If you gave him some truth serum and asked Chaim Bloom when he thinks the Red Sox will contend for a World Series, I imagine his answer would sound something like Cal from the 40 Year Old Virgin.
To be fair, if Bloom and his legion of prospects win a championship down the road then fine, but don’t just punt on this year because you have your eyes on four years from now. You run the Boston Red Sox, don’t be afraid to act like a big market bully once in a while.
The movie we’ve all mocked for the past 15 years and cringe whenever it comes on TV is actually surprisingly delightful right now. This movie just hits different when sports are banned.
I openly admit that this is a sign of Quarantine SZN starting to take its toll on my sanity more so than this movie actually aging gracefully. But when nobody has been able to drink a beer on Jersey Street in nearly eight months you take what you can get.
Watching this last night I legitimately started to feel like I had moved out of Boston and hadn’t seen Fenway, Cask n Flagon, Landsdowne Street etc. in YEARS.
You do start to notice little things though when you rewatch old movies, especially ones filmed in your backyard. Lets forget for a second that Jimmy Fallon is supposed to be some broke ass school teacher that has a sweet apartment in the North End and season tickets to the Red Sox. The thing that really stuck out to me was the bar that Jason Varitek, Johnny Damon, and Trot Nixon are having dinner at after the game just a few feet away from Fallon and his buddies.
Really? Had anyone involved in the writing, filming, or production of this movie ever actually been on Landsdowne Street?
Their slogan should be… "Bill's Bar: Where You Go When You Can't Get In Anywhere Else" https://t.co/8Sj44SaU27
Hey don’t get me wrong it’s a fine establishment to knock back a few Bud Lattes, but it’s not exactly the lap of luxury that the players would be having dinner at. But, I digress.
Fever Pitch is loosely based on an old Nick Hornby story about his obsession with an English soccer team. Rejiggered to focus on the Red Sox, the original script just kind of assumed the Sox would lose yet again in some brutal fashion, which really sticks out like a sore thumb when the movie peaks just before Dave Roberts’ steal in Game 4 of the 04 ALCS. Then they slap on a 30 second ending explaining the greatest comeback in baseball history and the Sox actually winning the World Series capped off with the most cringeworthy memory of the entire thing; Fallon and Drew Barrymore celebrating on the field with the players.
But hey I’ll take whatever Red Sox content I can get at this point, which is why one of the principals of marketing is that nostalgia is a powerful weapon. I haven’t been to a Sox game in slightly longer than usual and my body is already starting to go through withdrawals. And the team wasn’t even going to be good this year!
John Henry has us by the balls and he knows it. Now I’m not going to be the first guy there when the quarantine is lifted, but when the dust settles on all this I will be more than happy to buy a few a dozen $11 beers at 4 Jersey Street.
Aside from all the outdated 4x Time Super Bowl Champion and 04/07/13 World Series Champion banners, shirts, and posters that I own, one piece of sports memorabilia really takes the cake. My 2013 World Series Game 7 tickets are absolutely the most obscure piece of sports memorabilia that I own because as you may remember, that game never actually happened as the Red Sox won the World Series in six.
Funny story behind those tickets.
We all joke that Sox tickets have become much easier to get the last few years as “championship fatigue” sets in (Big Z told a story on a recent episode of The 300s Podcast how he once literally found tickets on the street), but when it comes to Green Monster seats and playoff tickets, good luck. Sure you can pay through the teeth and get in the building buying on the secondary market, but getting playoff tickets face value is nearly impossible. The only way to really do so is to enter the Ticket Lottery that the Sox put out each year for Opening Day, Patriots Day, Yankees games, Green Monster seats, and playoff tickets.
So back in 2013 it was really an incredible series of moments coming together. I lived in Allston with Papa Giorgio and our third roommate was a bartender right outside Fenway. With that being said, a lot of October 2013 is a blur. I entered into all of the lotteries as I normally do and I actually won the opportunity to buy tickets to the ALCS and wound up getting to see the greatest game of my entire life: October 13th, 2013 ALCS Game 2 AKA Big Papi’s Grand Slam.
Incredible game to be at. I was only about 20 feet from where the legendary dinger landed, as seen in this grizzly Sasquatch-like footage from the broadcast.
Anyways, I also wound up winning the lottery and an opportunity to buy tickets for the World Series. Unfortunately I was stuck in a meeting so I texted Big Z to grab the tickets and after passing on some nosebleeds in Game 1, the best he could find was Game 7 standing room.
Guys, you never go back in when buying tickets online! You take what you can get and say thank you.
So while the Red Sox winning the World Series at home in 6 games was something I’ll never forget, I will also never forget these obscure World Series Game 7 tickets I own for a game that never was.
Now I ask you, whats the most obscure piece of sports memorabilia that you own?
WEEI – Eleven years after leaving town, Gagne finally got his save for the Sox. It was locked up while sitting in the living room of his Arizona home, but it was a save nonetheless. A big one. The story started just about 18 years ago when the kid from Montreal befriended an infielder who came from Puerto Rico. Gagne was a relief pitcher. Alex Cora was a utility player. Both had plenty of time on their hands while living life as Dodgers. They started a hobby: Identifying pitchers who were tipping their pitches…
The pitcher he witnessed Tuesday night, Craig Kimbrel, wasn’t one of the more difficult ones. For Gagne, it was pretty clear what was going on. As far as the former pitcher was concerned, the Red Sox closer’s high-wire act against the Astros in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series was no accident.
It was enough evidence that Gagne felt obligated to reach out to his old friend, and the new manager of the Red Sox…“Nowadays you don’t even need to talk to people, it’s perfect,” he said. “I just sent him a message saying, ‘Hey Craig, I’m not sure if you care about these things but I’m friends with Alex and I’ve been seeing this or that. I think you should sit down to look at it. It’s an easy fix. It’s not that difficult. You might change your set-up, but that’s not that big of a deal.’ It was a pretty easy fix once he knew what he was doing.”
What a wild story from an unlikely source. Remember our old friend Eric Gagne? The guy who at one point in time was the most dominant closer in all of baseball. The guy who once converted 84 save opportunities straight. The guy who Theo Epstein and the Boston Red Sox traded for as a “luxury, not a necessity” on a stacked 2007 team. As we all know, Gagne was absolutely abysmal for the Sox, finishing with a 6.75 ERA in 20 games. He fell so far that the Sox big trade deadline acquisition only pitched 4.1 innings in the 07 playoffs. Well, THAT guy might have just saved the 2018 Red Sox season.
Gagne spoke with Rob Bradford and told him how, from his couch, he was able to pick up that Craig Kimbrel was apparently tipping his pitches. Does that explain Kimbrel’s complete inability to find the plate in the playoffs thus far? No, but it does explain how basically everyone he’s faced has had more plate discipline than a monk and was pretty much ready for whatever he did get over the plate.
This is why you never burn any bridges. Gagne and Cora were two guys that came up together in the Dodgers minor league system and bonded over watching film and figuring out who was tipping pitches. Pretty obscure hobby for a super utility player and a 30th Round Draft pick turned stud closer. Moral of the story, ya just never know who’s going to come out of left field and throw you a bone. If Gagne doesn’t reach out to his old friend with some advice on why his all-star closer is suddenly a disaster on the mound, then maybe they don’t fix anything and we’re looking at another disappointing Red Sox postseason performance.
Kudos to Cora for accepting and welcoming the constructive criticism from an old teammate. How many managers would have just scoffed at a player that is “out of baseball” offering up criticism of his All-Star closer while watching at home on TV?
Was Gagne a bum for the Sox? Absolutely. But any time a guy with 187 career saves wants to throw out some advice for a struggling Boston bullpen then I am all ears. If Kimbrel is back to his 1-2-3 ways in the 9th inning then I think we all owe Gagne a beer, preferably one brewed by his 2007 Red Sox teammate Kevin Youkilis.
When the Red Sox last made the World Series in 2013, Papa Giorgio and I were liquored up every night and hungover every morning. Our third roommate, god bless his heart, was a bartender right outside of Fenway so we would show up, throw down a $20 and just drink until the cows came home.
Now? I’m on the doorstep of 30 and guzzling coffees at night just to stay awake for the game. And I’m pretty jazzed to head up north for a little wine tasting at a vineyard tomorrow afternoon I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but I have become Will Ferrell in Old School.
New York Times – In arguably the best game of his life, Price led the Red Sox to a 4-1 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 5 of the A.L.C.S., to clinch the series, four games to one, and capture the team’s 14th American League pennant.
As a renowned #baseball fan (I usually start watching in August), I can tell you this is one of the most exciting postseasons in recent memory. We played the Yankees, who still suck I should add, for the 1st time in over a decade and sent 30,000 guidos home crying while Ol’ Blue Eyes sang to us while we celebrated. Next, we went up against the vaunted and absolutely CRUISING Houston Astros. Two fantastic staffs of pitchers and two line ups filled with dangerous bats and what did we do? Put them away in a gentlemanly five games. JBJ got hot, the whole outfield was flying around the field like ferrari, and when it mattered most and we had to put them away J.D Martinez got on base three times as part of an excellent offensive effort that also included the kid Raffy Devers going yard on Justin Verlander.
It was David Price’s night, however. According to a Friend of the Blog, the legendary and prolific Patty B, this was David Price’s first post season victory. That doesn’t sound quiiiiite right (Editor’s note: It was his first postseason win as a starter.) but he certainly cannot be described as “clutch”. I can’t lie, I hated signing Price from day one. He never seemed to be as good as billed and I never like to join forces with the enemy, as he was to us while in Tampa, I want to beat them. He has pitched well this year however, and yesterday he went deep into the game, pitching six scoreless and striking out NINE, leaving Houston’s offense absolutely befuddled.
I know our bullpen is a cause for concern; just saying that is a bit of a paradox as currently our bullpen rotation is mostly made up of our starters that didn’t start on a given day (sup Frederick Porcello?). You know what though? They’ve been good enough. They’ve gotten us this far into the post-season. Kimbrel, and Barnes, and Kelly, and the guy whose name whose name Red’s phone auto-corrected to “Brazzers” in a group chat have been nothing short of effective so far and have been a huge part in earning us a chance to win another championship. So hat fucking tip to those guys.
Seriously though, this has been some truly exciting and memorable #baseball. It reminds me of the absolute dogfights the Garnett/Pierce/Allen Celtics got in for what seemed like 10 years. So let’s buckle up and get ready for what should be a gem of a World Series.
-Joey B
P.S – I hate to rag on the guy because I am nothing if not a champion of the working man, but how excruciating was the camera man last night? There were two or three times the Astros got a solid piece and sent one to the warning track but the cameraman panned from the outfield to the upper deck, giving me and the aforementioned Mr. Blackouts a fucking heart attack. Like hey man, can we not overreact this badly. Geesh.
Win or lose tonight, we are unveiling the brand new YUCK stickers! They will either be another sobering reminder of playoff failures or become an ironic rallying cry. Grab one of these today and slap it on your laptop, your cooler or your bumper! Stickers will ship next week so buy one now at The 300s Store!
Everything has gone the Red Sox way this postseason. Everything. From Nathan Eovaldi looking like Curt Schilling, to Brock Holt hitting for the cycle, to hitting the instant replay jackpot last night and Andrew Benintendi making that catch, I mean everything. Alex Cora has been good, but he has to have a horseshoe in his back pocket. It’s better to be lucky than good, the old expression goes, but so far this month Alex Cora has been both.
The Red Sox now have a commanding 3-1 lead over the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. In baseball history, teams with a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series have won the series 71 out of 84 times (84.5%). Here’s a quick look at what’s on tap for Game 5:
Justin Verlander and the Astros have their backs against the wall, but are big favorites in Game 5. It’s not hard to see why, as the Astros ace pitched very well in Houston’s only win so far in this series. In two starts this postseason Verlander is 2-0, allowing four runs on just four hits in 11.1 innings of work. The Red Sox will counter with David Price.
There are two ways to look at this if you are a Red Sox fan. On the one hand, Price’s playoff struggles are well documented and he’ll be going on short rest against one of the best pitchers of this era. On the other hand, the Red Sox are up 3-1 in the series and even if they get dusted in Game 5 they’ll still have two more chances to close out the Astros at home this weekend. Could that allow Price to pitch without the weight of the world on his left shoulder?
Your guess is as good as mine. But if Price does get shelled and the the Red Sox are down five or six runs early, he might just have to wear it. There’s no sense in emptying out the bullpen if the game’s not even close. That’s why last night’s win was so huge. It allows the Red Sox to punt on Game 5 if it goes sideways and focus on getting their house in order for Game 6.
The Astros would appear to be the easy bet tonight but at +170 the Red Sox may offer some good value, especially when you consider that everything has gone their way this postseason. So who knows. Maybe just bet the over and crack a Lone Star Beer? If these games are going too late for you, at least the over should hit before you call it a night.
This is why it’s impossible to beat the drama of playoff baseball. No other sport’s intensity kicks up as much as MLB in the postseason. I mean aside from the 9 pm start time and the 1:30 am finish, that game was incredible. Unforgettable. Classic. It wasn’t without it’s controversy though.
So with the 8:39 pm start time I already knew I was in trouble because I am old and #washed. I started fading in the 7th inning. Luckily I have a Cosmo Kramer-like internal alarm clock that woke me up in time for the 9th inning.
Boy am I glad I saw that shit show. I almost threw up in my bed watching Craig Kimbrel nearly give the game away. Seriously this guy has been the only member of the Boston bullpen fans have felt somewhat confident in all year. Ever since the playoffs hit he’s been a wild, erratic, mess of a closer. Kimbrel threw 35 pitches over 2 IP last night, with only 19 for strikes.
In case you missed this tightrope walk, let me give you a quick summary of how the bottom of the 9th went with the Sox up 2 and their $13 Million closer on the mound.
Yuli Gurriel pops out. 1 out.
5 pitch walk to Josh Reddick.
5 pitch walk to Carlos Correa. Winning run is now at the plate.
Brian McCann flies out. 2 outs.
Alex Cora mound visit. I legit thought he was going to bring David Price into the game here.
6 pitch walk to Tony Kemp, the NUMBER NINE HITTER. Bases loaded.
Alex Bregman (.286/31 HR/103 RBI/51 Doubles) steps to the plate with the bases chucked. He’s also hitting .350 in the postseason this year.
Bregman hits a sinking liner to LF that had me standing up in my bed. Andrew Benintendi is sprinting in with the game on the line and LAYS OUT TO MAKE THE DIVING CATCH.
But Kimbrel, what the hell man? Now I gotta worry about you imploding at every opportunity? You shall henceforth be referred to as Byung-hyun Kim-brel
Now lets get to the catch everyone is talking about. Mookie Betts made an all-time classic play that will be played at his Hall of Fame induction and Astros fans will be analyzing that play for years to come like it’s the Zapruder film.
Mookie Betts was about to rob José Altuve of a home run … until a fan’s hand got in the way.
Hey, Adult Jeffrey Maier, keep your hands to yourself. Mookie makes that catch 100 times out of 100 if unimpeded. Cowboy Joe West got it right.
Mookie’s absolute hose of a throw in the bottom of the 8th will be forgotten because of how much went on last night but that was another series altering play for Betts in a week full of them.
It also makes me laugh hysterically that this is the hill Evan Drellich will die on. He must have tweeted no less than a dozen times about the play and how awful of a call it was. Just a quick reminder that Drellich was the Astros beat writer for nearly three years.
I don’t quite know how to explain to you all how horrendous that call was. I don’t care who wins. Maybe I’ll get a book deal if the Red Sox win a World Series. Go Red Sox! But I can’t fathom that. It’s too big a stage.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the disaster that nearly was. After YEARS of fans ripping David Price for his lack of big game performances, Cora had him ready to go with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th. You think Price actually wanted the ball there?
Game 5 is tonight and David Price gets the ball with a chance to get his first postseason win ever…oh and with a chance to send the Red Sox to the World Series! First pitch is at 8:09 pm so don’t sleep now!
Just wanna point out that it’s 10:11 pm and we’re *just* starting the 4th inning. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to start a game at 8:39 pm?#RedSox#Astros#ALCSpic.twitter.com/US7veJVZOk
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