Tag: Curt Schilling

If the Red Sox Trade Xander Bogaerts, We Riot

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There have been more and more rumors circulating that the Red Sox are at least entertaining the idea of trading their best all around player. In the midst of their worst season in decades, the Sox are looking for any and all avenues to rebuild and reload. This ain’t it. 

If the Red Sox punt on this season I’m ok with that because I understand the legitimate need for a bridge year every now and then. It’s something Theo Epstein was adamant about in “Feeding the Monster.” You can’t be good every single year. Even the Yankees adopted this soft reset approach over the past few years to extraordinary (regular season) results. You need to take a step back and reload every once in a while otherwise you’re going to trade all your assets and overextend yourself on overpriced free agents and then you’ll have to do a hard reset. Kind of like what they’re staring at right now.

You saw the full value of the bridge year in 2006 when the Sox were less than two years removed from a World Series title but were coming off getting swept in the 2005 ALDS (thanks Tony Graffanino). Despite winning 95 games in ’05, the Sox recognized they were further away from winning a title than their record reflected. So rather than just double down on an aging core they took a step back and acquired some young talent like Coco Crisp and some veteran placeholders like Mark Loretta until the next wave of prospects like Dustin Pedroia (2007 Rookie of the Year), Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Clay Buchholz were ready to truly flourish and/or take over full time. It paid off. In 2007 the Sox recognized they were ready to compete again with a combination of their veteran core (Manny, Ortiz, Varitek, Schilling, Nixon), the aforementioned infusion of young (cheap) talent, and some new acquisitions. So they went all out ahead of the 2007 season and signed JD Drew to a (at the time) massive 5 year $70 million deal as well as Daisuke Matsuzaka to a 6 year $51 million deal (plus the $51 million posting fee). The result? The Sox were the wire to wire best team in baseball winning 96 games and the AL East en route to their second title in 4 years. Yes, the Sox did trade one of their top prospects in Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell before the 2006 season, but Beckett was only 26 at the time and was the anchor of their rotation when the team went for it all in 2007.

The Red Sox have the opportunity to do the same thing here, but if they elect to trade Xander Bogaerts they’re not just punting on a season; they’re removing the core of their rebuild. Why trade a 27-year-old shortstop who just re-signed on a team friendly deal (6 years, $120M) through 2025 and finished 5th in MVP voting last year?

Why trade a guy that you scouted, signed at the age of 16, developed into a player that is just now hitting his prime, is a 2x All-Star, is a 3x Silver Slugger, and became a vital piece of two World Series titles? Yes Bogaerts has a full no-trade clause kick in after the deadline this year, but these are typically the kind of guys you want to build around.  

This is not the same as Mookie Betts. Mookie Betts wanted a contract that quite literally was 3x the size of what Bogaerts re-signed for last spring. Mookie was in a walk year and was noncommital about even wanting to be in Boston, whereas Xander re-signed early. The irony is that despite Mookie’s career WAR doubling that of Bogaerts, you’d probably get a better return for Xander because he has 4+ seasons left on his contract. Doesn’t mean you should do it though. 

I am a full blown prospect fanatic so while it obviously paid off in 2018 I never loved Dave Dombrowski’s M.O. of ripping apart the farm system. So I understand the value of Bogaerts and the return the team could get, but if you trade him you basically are putting all your chips into the middle of the table and banking on TBD prospects, Rafael Devers, and Alex Verdugo. Not something I want to bet the next 5-10 years of the Red Sox on. 

Obviously Boston’s farm system is not ripe with future All-Stars like the ’06 team was, but thats the best part about currently being on pace for the worst winning percentage in team history; you are in play for the No. 1 overall pick. The Red Sox have never had the first overall pick in the history of the MLB draft. That’s value right there. Combine that with some smaller deals like you’re seeing with Workman and Hembree getting dealt and potentially trading guys like JD Martinez who I love, but is 33-years-old and may be the only valuable asset you have. There’s also Andrew Benintendi who I would have thought unthinkable to trade at the start of last season, but he has seemingly taken a plummet in his development the last two seasons. If the rumors are true and the Sox could get a young, promising starter like Mike Clevinger or Zach Plesac, I’d strongly consider it. 

It’s time for Chaim Bloom to make the smart, unheralded moves that the team brought him here to do. Blowing it up and trading a player that is essentially your captain is not the way to go. Don’t forget, the Sox also have Eduardo Rodriguez and Chris Sale returning to the mound next year. So use the Theo blueprint; take the bridge year, but don’t blow up the damn bridge.

Curt Schilling Wants to Be the Red Sox Pitching Coach and I Say Lets Do It

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One of the biggest reported issues with the Red Sox this season was the disconnect between the analytics nerds and the baseball guys. Ya know like every scene in the first hour of Moneyball.

Rather than completely axe longtime Sox employee Dana LeVangie, the team opted to reassign him to the scouting department instead. That leaves a gaping hole for a pitching staff that was an absolute disaster outside of Eduardo Rodriguez. The Red Sox seemingly want to make analytics a more integral part of their decision making, which sounds weird to say. I don’t know when it happened but the Sox seemingly fell behind the pack. This team lead the charge, along with Billy Beane, on OBP and sabermetrics. Hell, the team even still employs Bill James. So how did we get to this point? My guess is old school baseball guys like Dave Dombrowski didn’t exactly see eye to eye with the nerds.

So the Sox want to get back in the analytics game.

You think THIS guy has a problem with that?

Curt Schilling used to walk around the ballpark with a gigantic trapper keeper full of numbers every time he took the mound. That was before the analytics revolution that has led to every catcher now wearing a wristband or having an index card in their back pocket.

Schilling was also an A+ analyst on ESPN before he just could not stop himself from tweeting things his bosses explicitly told him to not tweet about. So theres that.

I think Schill would make a pretty good pitching coach even though he might get into a fist fight with David Price.

However, thats before we even get to the politics. John Henry has donated more than half a million dollars to various democratic campaigns over the years and Curt Schilling has been a very outspoken ride or die supporter of Donald Trump.

So while this has a zero percent chance of ever actually happening I think it’d be interesting to see. Now maybe you don’t want a guy that loves to talk in a typically behind the scenes role of pitching coach, but hey whats the worst that could happen they miss the playoffs?

Seven Athletes I’d Like to Punch in the Face

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ESPN– “A Birmingham City fan has been jailed for 14 weeks after pleading guilty to assaulting Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish during the derby between the sides on Sunday. Paul Mitchell, 27, swung a punch at Grealish when the player’s back was turned after Mitchell ran onto the pitch at Birmingham City’s St. Andrew’s stadium during the Championship match.

Mitchell, from Rubery, Worcestershire, also admitted to invading the pitch and has been banned from attending any football match in the U.K. for 10 years. He was also ordered to pay £350 in fines. The incident happened in the 10th minute of the match between the rivals as Grealish walked away from the stands when the ball went out for a corner. He required no further treatment and went on to score the winning goal for Aston Villa in the second half.”

Now, I’m not generally one for promoting morons running onto the field and streaking and all that jazz. I find it annoying and disruptive to the game, and they rarely do anything exciting aside from getting lit up by security guards (which admittedly can be pretty hilarious). However, if you’re going to do it, you might as well get your moneys worth and punch someone you hate in the face. Did you see the way that guy was celebrating as he was being escorted off the field? He was damn proud of himself, and for that, I’m proud of him too.

The big question becomes, is it worth it? There’s a lot of people I’d like to punch, but not all of those people would I want to spend 3.5 months in jail for on top of a $400 fine and disbarment from attending live games for a decade. In order to risk all that, I’d really have to pick my punches, so to speak. Unfortunately for Paul Mitchell, Grealish got the last laugh as he scored the game winning goal later on in the game, which is admittedly pretty badass on his part. Without any further ado, here’s my list:

7. DAVID PRICE

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For anyone who’s a Sox fan, I would think a lot of people agree with this. Although he may have slightly redeemed himself with the World Series run this year, he still pisses me off a lot. Whether it’s because he’s getting in fights with the legendary Eck, throwing 5 out duds in the playoffs, or gaming hard enough to miss games, he’s as irritating as they come for players are actually important to a team. If he sucked, we could just cut him. But since he’s good enough to want to keep around, I’ll settle with a shot to the jaw.

6. LANE JOHNSON

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I bet he had a lot of fun not winning a Super Bowl this year. This guy’s obsession with the Patriots is hilarious, and while he revels in beating us one time, we can rest easy knowing he’ll never be on a team as good as that Eagles team that won two years ago. He can run his mouth as much as he wants, but if I had a chance, I’d punch that fucking mouth.

5. BRYCE HARPER

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What a frat boy douche. I will admit, there are times in his press conferences that make me laugh, but it’s usually a “what a dumb idiot” kind of laugh. This guy is such a douche he named his dog Swag. If that’s not enough, he’s also the quintessential dipshit bro that describes himself as Hercules and takes 30 minutes to do his hair before games. On top of that, it looks like his jaw was sculpted for punching. I mean, look at that angular monstrosity jammed to the bottom of his mouth just begging for a left hook!

4. NDAMUKONG SUH

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This one is a little tough to put here, mainly because of everyone on this list, he’s the one who would murder me the hardest. However, he does make it because if we were to give me the o’ one punch KO at least I’d be too dead to go to jail and pay a fine. That having been said, dude’s a cheap-shotting asshole who probably shouldn’t be in the league anymore. What else is there to say?

3. LEBRON JAMES

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It may surprise some people that I only have Lebron at number 3. The truth is, since joining the Lakers, he hasn’t bothered me nearly as much. He’s finally gonna miss the playoffs, he’s one year closer to being too old, and his record off the court is impeccable. Not once has he ever been in an off-the-court scandal the likes of which so many other players fall victim to these days. However, the fact that he’s a known flopper and denies it to all hell, takes plays off on defense and blames his teammates, thinks his ring with the Cavs makes him the GOAT even though he’s 3-5 in the finals and has always been a frontrunner (until signing with the Lakers), and has been the bane of the Celtics existence for the last ten years makes me want to punch his god damn face so fucking bad.

2. ANY WHITE DUKE BASKETBALL PLAYER EVER

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Fuck all these guys. A bunch of gritty, obnoxious, punchable punks who rarely if ever become anything more than a role player in the NBA. From Grayson Allen to John Scheyer, JJ Redick to Greg Paulus, all these guys spend 4 years being dicks for Duke before eventually going on to not make the NBA or make sure the bench stays warm. JJ Redick is the main exception to this, and he still pisses me off to this day. And now he’s got that ridiculous sleeve that makes him look less tough than if he didn’t even have tattoos. Seriously, how is that possible? Then you have Grayson Allen, who despite not doing anything since coming to the NBA still drives me crazy for all the shoe untying, pants pulling sac taps he pulled off in his career at Duke. He’s like a dweebier version of Lance Stephenson, and with a much more punchable face. I’ll say it again, Fuck all these guys.

  1. Curt Schilling
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And our champion of the guys I’d like to punch in the face tournament, Curt Schilling. Now I know he hasn’t been an athlete for 10 years, and his bloody sock game is one of the best performances in Red Sox history, but I still can’t stand this guy. I respect the hell out of him as a player, but the rest of him can go screw. When he was playing, he had a tendency to be a dick in his morning interviews and blame it in on how he just woke up (maybe try scheduling them for when you’re awake? Just a thought). He is an arrogant, self-righteous prick that made enemies in the clubhouse, in the media and with management everywhere he went. One time when I worked at Best Buy back in college, he came in to buy a bunch of video games for his charity (I’ll give him that one), and my managers took me off the register because they were afraid I’d call him a douche to his face.

But despite being nearly universally hated, screwing over nearly 400 employees and conning $75 million out of the state of Rhode Island, he had the gall to run for political office and think anyone would vote for him? I would trade in all my punches from everyone else on this list to punch Curt in the face just once. Screw you, Schilling.

The 300s Podcast: Red Sox on Pace for 100+ Wins? Are You Team Brady or Team Belichick?

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The latest episode of The 300s Podcast is LIVE! Click here to listen or download on iTunes or Google Play.

On this episode Red and Big Z discuss:

-For a team on pace to win 100+ games I don’t feel overly confident about this Red Sox team in the playoffs.

-The Sox cut their No. 3 hitter and it took less than a week for it to blow up in their face with both Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts now on the DL.

-Is JD Martinez the Best Red Sox Free Agent Signing Since Manny Ramirez?

-How concerned are Red and Big Z about all this Patriots drama?

-Are you Team Brady or Team Belichick?

Taking a Look at the 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

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While I don’t have a ballot to cast, for the second straight year I have taken a look at all of the players on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame Ballot. I figured if I’m going to gripe about the Hall of Fame selection process I might as well fill out a mock ballot myself to get a better handle on the process.

It’s not rocket science but there are some tough decision to be made. Voters may vote for up to 10 of the 33 players on the ballot. I selected eight on my mock ballot. They are:

Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Curt Schilling
Sammy Sosa
Jim Thome
Billy Wagner

Obviously I’m not opposed to voting for suspected steroids users. I voted for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens because, whether or not they used steroids, Bonds was indisputably the best hitter in the game for much of his career and Clemens was indisputably the best pitcher in the game for much of his career. The same cannot be said for Manny Ramirez.

Bonds won seven MVP awards, including FOUR in a row 2001-2004. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards and won the award back-to-back on two occasions, a decade apart. Ramirez never won an MVP award and quit on his team more times than I care to remember. He was also popped for PEDs twice. While strong cases could be made against Bonds and Clemens, those guys never failed drug tests. Testing didn’t start until 2003, but I have a hard time giving guys grief for doing business as business was being done at the time.

Maybe numbers were inflated, and careers extended, but Bonds and Clemens were far and away better than the rest of their contemporaries. Again, the same cannot be said of Ramirez.

Regarding Sammy Sosa, he won the 1998 NL MVP award and is the only man in history with three 60+ home run seasons. Sosa played in the same era as Bonds so he is not the best player of his era, but few players ever were as dominant as Sosa was for six straight seasons, 1998-2003.

Vladimir Guerrero made nine all-star games in 12 seasons between 1999 and 2010. He was a great offensive player and had one hell of an arm in the outfield. He didn’t compile huge numbers over a lengthy career, but he was one of the best players of the 2000s and he gets my vote for that reason.

Jim Thome was never the best player at his position, never mind the best player in the game. But he did compile huge numbers over a lengthy career. Mammoth numbers. He’s not in the 500 Home Run Club. He’s in the 600 Home Run Club. He’s eighth on the all-time home run list with 612. He also drove in nearly 1700 runs. He never won an MVP award, but it’s hard to not vote for a guy with those numbers on his resume. Guy just went to work and mashed for 22 years.

Chipper Jones was consistently very good for more than 15 years and was a big part of Atlanta’s run of division titles. The 1995 NL MVP made eight all-star teams, and I was pleasantly surprised by his 468 home runs and 1623 RBI.

As I said last year, Curt Schilling gets my vote because he was the best big-game pitcher of his era. He was 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 19 postseason appearances and won a ring in Arizona before winning two with the Sox. Now a noted meme curator, it’s been sad to see him self destruct in recent years but he’s a Hall of Famer nonetheless.

And in a flip from last year, I voted for Billy Wagner this year instead of Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman appeared on 74% of ballots last year and Wagner only appeared on 10% of ballots but Wagner was the better relief pitcher. The only number Hoffman has on Wagner is saves. Hoffman saved 601 games in 18 years and Wagner saved 422 in 16 years. But Wagner had a better win-loss percentage, a substantially lower ERA, he struck out more batters in almost 200 fewer innings, had a lower WHIP and a better strikeout-to-walk ratio. I know that Hoffman is getting in and Wagner probably won’t sniff even 20% but I’m taking a principled stand here. Wagner was better than Hoffman.

Regarding some notable candidates left off my ballot…

Edgar Martinez was a very good player for a long period of time but he wasn’t even the best player on his own team for most of his career (Griffey, A-Rod, Ichiro). There’s just not enough offensive production on his resume to separate him from the rest of the pack for me. It has nothing to do with being a DH, though.

Mike Mussina pitched very well in an era of inflated offense but he was never the most feared pitcher in the game, and he never won a Cy Young award.

Gary Sheffield posted very good offensive numbers for a long period of time, but it’s hard to think he would’ve bounced around as much as he did if he were truly one of the all-time greats. (Editor’s note: Dougie did his capstone project in a college Baseball Stats class arguing Sheffield should make the HOF. The most comparable HOFer? Jim Rice)

Larry Walker posted very good offensive numbers, but a lot of that production came in Colorado in the late 1990s. To give you an idea of what was going on in that era, he hit .379 with 37 HRs and 115 RBI in 127 games in 1999 and finished 10th in the MVP voting that season. He was a very good player in his era, but not head and shoulders above everybody else.

 

That’s all I got. Hit me up with your thoughts on Twitter @The300sBigZ

Chris Sale Named Starter for the AL in MLB All-Star Game. The March to a Cy Young Continues

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Not exactly unexpected, Chris Sale has been lights out this year. It’s rare that someone comes exactly as advertised and performs even better than expected (i.e. not David Price). Some guys can’t hack it in a market like Boston. Other guys *thrive* and Chris Sale definitely falls into the latter.

Among pitchers in the American League, Sale is top-3 in WAR, ERA, Wins, WHIP, IP & leads all AL pitchers in K’s by more than 30. Sale has 178 K’s, which is THIRTY strikeouts more than the guy in second. It would have been a slight against god to not give Sale the start.

Lets take a step back though and really examine Chris Sale’s dominance on the mound this year. He’s the most electric Red Sox starter since Pedro. He’s the first guy I will run home to sit down and watch since Curt Schilling in 04. Beckett was dominant for a stretch, Lester was great, Buchholz was infuriatingly amazing and terrible at the same time. But none touch Sale.

Can we also point out that Chris Sale is on pace for 356 K’s this year, which would be the most K’s in a single season since Randy Johnson had 372 in 2001. The Big Unit also won the Cy Young that year (the 2nd of his 3 in a row).

To put that into perspective, here’s the list of pitchers that have had 300 K’s in a season over the past 20 years:

  • Clayton Kershaw (2015)
  • Randy Johnson (99, 00, 01, 02)
  • Pedro Martinez (99)
  • Curt Schilling (97, 98)

Four guys in 20 years. Thats it. Pretty good company to have. Now it’ll be hard to ever top Pedro striking out 5 guys in 2 innings in the 1999 All-Star game at Fenway, but goddamnit Chris Sale will try.

Fake News is the Dumbest Concept Since Crystal Pepsi

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I’ve had it up to here with Fake News. Talk about the buzzword of the year. People point to “Fake News” as to why so many are misinformed. No, people are misinformed because a large percentage of this country are sheep with a pack mentality. Build the Wall, I’m With Her, Let it Burn. It can be said for legit every candidate’s followers. People aren’t misinformed because Brad from high school shared a made up story, people are misinformed because people are dumb.

You wanna know how to spot Fake News? Step 1: Is the article from some website you have NEVER heard of? Step 2: Double check your sources (Big J Journalism trick) and see if you can find ANYTHING about that story on ANY other news website. Step 3: Nobody else has even mentioned it? Probably a good indicator its “Fake News.” Step 4: Ignore and go back to mindlessly stalking all your high school friends on Facebook.

You know how many times I’ve seen some moron I went to high school with share an article from some website thats only been in existence for a month? And now because of dumb dumbs like that Zuckerberg has literally created a tool to handhold people into not being bamboozled by Fake News. Read a book for me one time people.

Curt Schilling is the absolute worst about this. The guy literally retweets fake memes from Barstool and points to it like “See?!”

So please get out of my face with Fake News. If Fake News is an issue that you concern yourself with you are a simpleton and I don’t want to know you. Now everyone shut up and resume watching puppy videos. Thats what the internet was made for.

PS – Yes, I have notifications on for anything Zuckerberg posts on Facebook. He’s the brainchild and head of the biggest tech company of our lifetime. Sue me.

Red Sox Rotation Hanging by a Thread and Its Not Even April

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With injury scares already to David Price and now Drew Pomeranz I ask: Can the Red Sox trade a pitcher from their rotation without it blowing up in their face just once?

The last time the Sox traded a prominent starter due to overflowing depth was when they dealt Bronson Arroyo for Willy Mo Pena right before the 2006 season. And almost immediately there were injuries to the pitching staff that ended up screwing them. The Red Sox had FOURTEEN guys make starts that year including the immortal David Pauley. Remember him? How about Team Italy’s very own Lenny DiNardo? Yea he made 6 fucking starts that year. If you recall David Wells battled injuries that season, starting the year on the DL, before ultimately getting dealt to the Padres in August after the Sox were all but out of the playoff hunt. Only 2 guys topped 140 innings that season (Schilling and Beckett) as the Sox failed to make the playoffs.

But hey at least we had a 4th outfielder who couldn’t hit a curveball! So back to present day; after the Sox dealt Clay Buchholz we get a currently (read: publicly) minor, but possibly major injury to the $30 million dollar man David Price and now the same with Pomeranz. Price allegedly has no structural damage to his elbow because apparently he is the Donald of MLB:

Pomeranz has me even more concerned. This is the same guy that got a stem-cell injection just last winter for elbow/forearm stiffness. And now he’s got tricep stiffness a couple of months later? That doesn’t just happen to totally healthy guys.

And just so no one forgets, the Padres essentially tried to hose the Sox by not properly disclosing medical records. So much so that MLB stepped in and offered to RESCIND THE TRADE. That is bananas. Not to mention the guy has SUCKED. And what does Dave Dombrowski do? Politely declines. Top prospect shown the door for a guy who has essentially been reduced to a 5th starter/bullpen guy with injury issues. Fucking great. I swear to god Dave, if you turned down that Get Out of Jail Free card out of pride…

This season is starting to very much feel like one hanging by a thread and its not even goddamn April yet. One starter going down for an extended period of time would be bad. Two would be disastrous.

Where art thou Bronson Arroyo?

PS – Every single time Bronson Arroyo is brought up, it is required by law for any Red Sox fan to mention the time he beaned A-Rod and set off one of the greatest baseball fights of all time. Legend says as A-Rod is bitching to Arroyo for hitting him Varitek simply goes, “We don’t throw at .260 players.”