Tag: Boston

I Am Fairly Torn to be Rooting Against Mallory Edens

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CBSSports – When this season started, the Boston Celtics were a popular pick to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. Now, it’s the Milwaukee Bucks who hold that distinction. After both swept their first-round series, Boston and Milwaukee will square off with a trip to the conference finals on the line, and what a series it should be. Game 1 is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. Below are some quick thoughts on things to watch for in this series.

Can we talk as friends? Cool. The lead in above ^^^ really has nothing to do with anything besides the fact that the Celtics are indeed playing the Bucks. But the Bucks have an owner. This should not matter to me in the slightest as I am indeed a lifelong Celtics fan to the extent that I cried when Paul Pierce did. But it does.

The Bucks are owned by Wes Edens, a genius hedge fund guy that very well could have been one of the inspirations for Bobby Axelrod. By all accounts he cares about winning and loves the team. They’re not just a trophy or a toy to him like some teams are to some owners.

My friends Wes Edens has a daughter, Mallory. And here is the things folks. Mallory Edens is the ultimate object of my IG affection. For all the bizarre butt models and tattooed ho-urs I follow on the ‘Gram, Mallory Edens is the one I give a tasteful smirk to whenever she posts. She’s not a slutty distraction from the work day and monotony of life that makes me question my own validity as a human being and completely disqualify myself as someones life partner; she’s a hot as hell, Princeton educated, actually pretty funny woman of class. Just a rarity in today’s world/my follows.

And now her team must be destroyed. Mangled. Disembowled. If Mook has to murder the very likeable Giannis to do so so be it. I need this NBA Championship. And if the Celtics need to annihilate the team my IG crush-Father-In-Law owns, so be it.

So Mal, can I call you Mal? If you’re reading this, maybe we were never meant to be. On second thought, definitely not. You’re a trust fund kind from Princeton who likes horses and the Caribbean. I’m a State School kid in corporate America who likes getting kicked in the head in between sessions of beers and keno. Opposites might attract. Different species generally don’t.

So here is a goodbye before a hello. Cheers to a lifetime of happiness. When the bus pulls back into Milwaukee tell them I said “say hi to your mother for me”.

Fuckin go Celtics.

-Joey B.

Game. Seven. This Bruins Maple Leafs Series Has Taken Years Off My Life and It All Comes Down to Tonight

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Game 7. It all comes down to tonight and my anxiety is peaking because this game is going to be a battle. Before the series started I had Bruins in 7 so I’m sticking to my guns, but it is problematic that the B’s have only played well in even numbered games. Seriously, they looked excellent in Games 2, 4, and 6 and then looked like an old, slow, shell of themselves in Games 1, 3, and 5. So with 7 being an odd number I am a little worried, but all superstitions aside with the Bruins having home ice for the winner take all game I feel like they’ll pull this one out. That or I’ll take a long, angry walk in the rain later tonight.

Lets take a look at some of the keys to the series and in particular tonight’s game.

Auston Matthews Has Risen

Look we all know how good Auston Matthews is with the puck as he’s had 37, 34, and 40 goals in each of the last three seasons. With that being said though, he hasn’t always been a stud in the playoffs, especially last season when he had 1 goal and 1 assist in 7 games against the Bruins before getting bounced. It looked like it was going to be more of the same this series, but the kid has gone from getting dumped on for his ghost presence in Games 1-2 to scoring 5 goals in the last four games. This kid terrifies me.

Is Tuukka Rask Going to Show Up?

Is he stealing games? Should he be DFA’d right now with Halak getting the Game 7 start? Read and listen to sports talk at your own risk because as a rational person you know the answer is somewhere in the middle, but the middle doesn’t drive clicks like a massive overreaction does. He’s been pretty up and down, but I think for the most part he’s giving the Bruins a shot to win each night. He’s 3-3 with a .921 save percentage in the playoffs, which is good for 6th in the NHL Playoffs, one slot behind….you guessed it…Frederick Andersen. He’s also 6th in Goals Against Avg at 2.54 per game. Is that a ringing endorsement of a former Vezina winner? Not exactly, but if he can keep the B’s in the game then thats all they need.

Discussions From the Cheap Seats

If NBC Sports gives us the cheap seats camera angle again I will blow a gasket.

Bergeron-Marchand-Pastrnak

These three need to be THE guys like they were all year long. Frequently referred to as the best line in hockey, Bruce Cassidy has opted to spread the wealth and move Pasta down to the second line. Thats all fine and well, but these guys have not exactly looked like themselves for much of the series.

Marchand has heated up and now has 4 goals and 5 assists in the series, but for too many stretches of time these three have been taken out of the game. I don’t know whats going on with Pasta specifically because in Game 2 he was laying the wood on guys and in Game 4 he scored 2 goals, but other times I forget he’s even on the ice. Those are his only two goals in the entire series actually, and one of them came on a mental breakdown from Toronto.

Torey Krug…

…needs to get his shit together. The guy is a beast on the powerplay and finished the year Top 5 in points for the B’s so they clearly need him, but he’s been a liability on defense at times this series. On two plays late in Game 6 Krug badly misplayed dumped pucks and pucks off the side board before getting easily beat to the play only to barely get bailed out by his teammates. I don’t need Krug to be a 2011-level shutdown defender like Zdeno Chara, but just keep the puck in front of you please.

David Krejci is Looking Like His Old Self

Krejci seems like an old man because he’s been on the Bruins for 13 seasons, but he’s really only 32. The main difference with him is that he’s finally healthy and he’s looking like his old self, especially when paired with young guys like DeBrusk (which we’ll get to in a moment). Krejci is fourth on the Bruins in playoff points, but he is dishing the puck like vintage Krejci lately.

If you remember, any time the Bruins make a run for the Cup it’s been in large part due to David Krejci. In 2010-11 he had 23 points in 25 games and the B’s won the Stanley Cup. In 2012-13 when they lost to Chicago he had 26 points in 22 games. So if Krejci is looking like his old self then the Bruins suddenly have a huge boost to their depth and secondary scoring.

Jake DeBrusk Has Evolved Before Our Eyes

This kid has been lights out for most of the series. He’s been a physical presence and before his suspension was drawing the ire of infamous dirtbag Nazem Kadri.

He’s only got 2 points in the series, but seems to always be buzzing around the puck as his ice time is up a full minute from last year’s playoffs to 15:54 per night.

Betting Line

If you’re feeling frisky and want to bet some hard earned Schrute Bucks on Game 7, as if these games weren’t stress inducing enough, well here are the odds for tonight’s matchup.

Heading into Game 7 with the Leafs, the Bruins’ Stanley Cup odds assessed from sportsbooks here are as long as +1000 (10/1). The Bruins would have to have a roughly 55% chance, on average, to win each of their remaining series, including Game 7 vs Toronto. That’s pretty high for something as unpredictable as the NHL playoffs (just ask Tampa Bay), but Boston would have home-ice against 10 of the 11 teams remaining. With their 29-9-3 home-ice record, theres a pretty strong argument that +1000 is a good price at this point.

Godspeed to everyone heading to the Garden tonight and for everyone watching at home just make sure you have all your adult beverages in plastic cups to avoid any destroyed property.

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.

Bruins Avoid a Late Game Meltdown to Tie Maple Leafs Series at 2-2

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Before this series started I refused to look past the Maple Leafs and play what if matchups with Tampa Bay (who just got swept) because Toronto is no joke. I had Bruins in 7 before the series and I’m sticking to that now. It seems like the Bruins only want to play hard every other game though. In Game 1 they looked lifeless and got run out of the rink by a quicker and younger Maple Leafs team. In Game 2 the Bruins looked like they were shot out of a cannon led by the soon to be 35-year-old enforcer David Backes laying the wood on guys. Hell even David Pastrnak was teeing off on guys.

Then Game 3 came and the Bruins got their dicks stomped once again with fans starting to openly wonder what the hell had happened to the alleged best line in hockey. Bergeron, Marchand, and Pastrnak had barely contributed through 3 games and if that line ain’t carrying the team then the Bruins are dead on arrival. Welp, since the B’s are only playing hard in even number games apparently, they once again looked like the team we saw all year long in Game 4.

Pastrnak even got back to his old ways netting 2 goals while Marchand added 3 points and was all over the puck all night long.

The definition of first world problems last night though was having the Bruins and Celtics playing important playoff games at the same exact time. Since picture in picture is a bullshit idea that is more distracting than helpful and since I’m not about to drag another TV out to my living room, I had to live with switching back and forth all night. It worked out relatively well with the hockey intermissions and the NBA halftime providing solid chunks of time to watch the other with undivided attention. So the Bruins are up 5-2 and I go to watch the last five minutes of the Celtics game, which naturally took about 25 minutes. I flip back to the Bruins and its 5-4.

The Tuukka haters were served some humble pie, at least in the first two periods, when Tuukka saved the B’s bacon with some seriously clutch saves on a barrage of shots from Toronto. He finished the night with 38 saves and was one of the reasons the B’s were so dominant in the first 2 periods. He did give up 3 in the third though so there’s that. So was Tuukka dominant or was Tuukka giving the game away? Depends who you ask.

“So with the Bruins on the verge of returning to Boston down three games to one, the point was hammered home once again: Rask needed to steal the Bruins a game before it was too late.

…Am I crazy for thinking that Rask finally did exactly that in a 38-save, 6-4 victory in Game 4 at Scotiabank Arena?” – Ty Anderson of 98.5 after Game 4.

Either way, the B’s pulled it out despite some serious hand wringing in the final minutes. I know it wasn’t a “must win” game, but you absolutely cannot go back home down 3-1 and expect to rip off 3 in a row. A 2-2 split is much more manageable and it would have been a goddamn shame to waste great games from Pasta and Tuukka.

All this came just minutes after the C’s pulled out a close one in the playoffs too. Victory Dip for all!

See you Friday boys.

Gronk Dented the Lombardi Trophy After BUNTING With It Before the Red Sox Ring Ceremony

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I knew I spotted a dent in this thing during the Red Sox ring ceremony! I was snapping screenshots left and right while secretly watching and live tweeting the World Series celebration from work so I completely forgot to tweet out the above pic. Like how the hell could this have happened already? Well the story has literally just come out courtesy of the Patriots Twitter feed. Apparently Gronk dented the Lombardi Trophy by BUNTING with it.

Legit can’t make this up. If you wrote a screenplay about the 2018 Patriots and ended it with Rob Gronkowski denting the Lombardi Trophy at Fenway by bunting with it they’d say it sounded too fake.

Oh that? That was already there.

Goddamn I’m gonna miss this guy.

And Here We Have Lou Merloni Being The World’s Lamest Human/Wettest Blanket

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Boston.com – “You won the World Series, your banner’s going up, you’re getting rings. That’s it. End of story, end of story” exclaimed Merloni from a Red Sox standpoint. “No Patriots. Sorry, it’s stupid.”

So I’ll be honest I went looking for the link to this NOT DOING RESEARCH and was surprised to see how many people agreed with Lou Merloni, who has somehow parlayed way too long of a playing career into way too long of a broadcasting career. On the flip side agreeing with him were people like Scott Zolak and other raging jackasses from old guy Boston sports media sooooooo.

I personally like that the Sox did this since it is the same fan base. Plus the Pats win only happened a couple of months ago. To be honest I think Merloni’s point of view is just coming from the same barber shop that produces every “old man yells at cloud” opinion when it comes to America’s (former) game. “Baseball purists” I believe they’re called. People who hate fun basically.

But look, Framingham’s Favorite Son is entitled to his opinion, I suppose. My point is: who fucking cares? Is it really ruining opening day/your day that the Sox honored the Pats? Did they even televise it (nerd alert if you can answer this)? After I’d say pitch two everyone and anyone with a brain (and a couple beers) forgot it happened. Although I’d say there were a few kids at Fenway who someday will get to say they got to see BOTH of their teams who won the previous season honored, which is pretty cool.

Either way, for Lou Merloni to decide to die on the hill that the Pats should not be mentioned on an ugly ass April day is kind of preposterous. You got opening day, Marathon Monday in a week, a college admissions scandal. SO MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM LOU. Let a little extra frivolity go.

-Joey B.

 

It’s Opening Day for the Red Sox and Dustin Pedroia is Back

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LETS GOOO! It’s a balmy 39 degrees in Boston, Dustin Pedroia is back and it’s Opening Day at Fenway. For anyone that holds a grudge against Dustin Pedroia for the whole Manny Machado incident you gotta grow up. Was it a bad look? 1000% But the guy has done too much for this team and this city to get tossed out with yesterday’s garbage because of one shitty incident. Pedroia should want Machado dead because the guy ruined his career, but if he doesn’t want to get into it and would rather recuse himself from the whole situation then fine. Let Chris Sale throw missiles behind the guy’s ass for the next 5+ seasons. If it were me I’d take a bat to Machado’s head, but hey I’m a big time grudge guy I guess.

Lets not play revisionist history on Pedroia’s contract either. When he signed this extension it was universally applauded as a great deal for the Sox. In 2013 an MVP signing a $100M extension through the 2021 season was a bargain at the time. Sure his body has fallen apart, but when the guy is healthy he can still rake.

So I hope the Sox have learned his limits because you know Pedroia sure as shit hasn’t. The guy is most likely a platoon/DH player at this point in his career. And thats fine. Do what management is supposed to do; manage him. If you can get 120 games out of Pedroia and he hits close to .300 thats a big time success. What I don’t need to see is Pedroia playing nine innings at second base for the next 25 games in a row only to blow something out in May.

Good to have ya back, Pedey.