Tag: J.D. Martinez

JD Martinez in Hot Water for an Old Instagram Post Quoting Hitler

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Boston Herald – Welcome, Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez, to the ever-expanding list of professional athletes whose social-media posts have been dug up, dusted off and placed on a pedestal for a fresh round of public examination. The problem this time is that we aren’t wringing our hands over decaying tweets from silly, uninformed teenagers who just happen to have ripened into big-league baseball players.

This time it’s an old Instagram post from a grown-up J.D. Martinez that uses Adolf Hitler to make a point about the evils of gun control. He posted it on Jan. 10, 2013. He was 25 years old, and soon to begin his third major-league season. It began making the rounds on Twitter on Sunday night, an old post with a fresh coat of paint and millions of new eyes.

The Instagram post includes a photo of Hitler with this quote, purportedly from Hitler in 1933: “To conquer a nation, First disarm it’s (sic) citizens.”  Martinez added his own commentary to the post: “This is why I always stay strapped! #thetruth”

Notttt a great look for Just Dingers Martinez here. I’m honestly surprised this hasn’t gotten more attention as it seems people have been tweeting about it for the past couple of days. Steve Buckley wrote about it in the Herald yesterday though, ripping JD, quite eloquently, for his abysmal knowledge of history.

“By almost all accounts, Hitler never uttered the words that were attributed to him in the Instagram post. He did, in the 1940s, make a comment that “the most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered eastern peoples to have arms.”

Hitler was referring to parts of Eastern Europe and Russia that he had already conquered, not to 1933 Germany. Applying the quote to 1933 suggests that Hitler and his thugs never would have come to power if only German citizens, Jews especially, had been able to use their guns to wipe out all the Nazis.

Crippled by economic chaos and a stunning loss of identity following World War I, Germans were left wanting for someone they believed could guide them out of the abyss. Along came Hitler, and millions of Germans were attracted to his message. They were not under gunpoint when they cheered Hitler at all those rallies.”

Now I despise the people that call for a guy’s job because of something he tweeted when he was 15 like we’ve seen time and time again and most recently with former top Red Sox prospect and current White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech. Are you really going to hold a guy to a joke he made before he could drive?

This JD IG is from when he was 25 though, which is a full blown adult. I’m not saying he needs to be placed on waivers, but its just a shocking lack of judgement from an adult let alone a professional athlete.

I’m sure the post is meant to be tongue in cheek, but Hitler is really one of the few things you should probably steer clear of. It’s why every athlete needs an “E” from Entourage to double check everything in their lives. A quick “hey you think I should gram this Hitler quote?” would have been shot down by anyone with a working brain.

So no, nobody needs to lose their job, but…

Alex Cora should just leave a history book in JD’s locker this week. No need to publicly flog the guy for an IG post, but probably a good opportunity to learn from a mistake and educate himself.

It Would Be a Shame if JD Martinez Missed the Triple Crown Because of Mookie Betts

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How wild would it be if arguably the greatest free agent signing in Red Sox history, J.D. Martinez, doesn’t win the Triple Crown only because his teammate is also having a historic season?

That could very easily happen.

Currently Martinez leads the league in HR with 38 and RBI with 108 (the tweet above is from Tuesday) and is second in Batting Avg. at .333. The only guy he trails in Avg is his teammate and fellow outfielder Mookie Betts, who is batting an insane .340. Mookie has dropped 4 points since Tuesday, but it would take a legit slump from a guy who was hitting .350 most of the year for Martinez to catch him at this point.

Obviously the Triple Crown is just a weird stat that we all give credence to that doesn’t actually mean anything like hitting for the cycle, but it does provide a historic moment for any and all bar trivia for the rest of time. To put into perspective Mookie’s batting average lets take a look at the AL leaders over the past 10 years.

  • 2017 Jose Altuve .346
  • 2016 Jose Altuve .338
  • 2015 Miguel Cabrera .338
  • 2014 Jose Altuve .341
  • 2013 Miguel Cabrera .348
  • 2012 Miguel Cabrera .330
  • 2011 Miguel Cabrera .344
  • 2010 Josh Hamilton .359
  • 2009 Joe Mauer .365
  • 2008 Joe Mauer .328

First off, golf clap for Joe Mauer. Holy shit, I forgot how good he used to be. The dude hit .365 (!) in 2009 and nobody even talks about it because he’s in the frozen wasteland that is Minnesota. Still doesn’t touch Nomar’s .372 in 2000, but to be fair that is the greatest display of hitting I ever saw and is also why every guy in my softball league still taps their toes 35 times before stepping into the box.

Also, for all the Mike Trout apologists out there its time to pipe down. I don’t care that he has a 7.1 WAR or that he has a 1.083 OPS, the dude currently sits at 60 RBI. Does not matter how bad the team in front of him is. You cannot win the MVP with under 100 RBI. That may be me turning my back on sabermetrics, but so be it. Can’t have it.

It’s either Mookie Betts or potential Triple Crown winner J.D. Martinez for 2018 AL MVP. Goddamn it’s a good time to be a Red Sox fan.

 

PS – You can in fact win the RBI with under 100 RBI, but that didn’t fit my argument so I threw it here in the PS section that nobody reads. It happened last year in fact when Altuve won the MVP with 81 RBI, Mauer in ’09 with 96, Pedroia in ’08 with 83, and Ichiro won the MVP in 2001 with 69 RBIs!

The 300s Podcast: The Dog Days of Summer Mean It’s Officially Red Sox Season

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Start your weekend early with The 300s Podcast + it only takes 2 minutes before the first “Homer at the Bat” reference. Listen, subscribe, rate and review on iTunes, Google Play, and The 300s Podcast is also NOW ON SPOTIFYYYYY

Seeing as its the dog days of summer and there’s no other Boston teams playing, unless you count the Revs and the Cannons, pretty much everyone’s attention has shifted towards the Red Sox finally. So that’s what we’re gonna focus on today.

BONUS: If you catch the obscure reference 37 minutes in and tweet us a GIF from that movie, you win a prize.

-The Death of Baseball has been Greatly Exaggerated
-Outlaw the Shift?!
-Why Does the Media Insist Nobody Cares About the Red Sox When Ratings Are in Fact UP?
-JD Martinez may legitimately challenge for the Triple Crown this year.
-The 300’s Top 3

JD Martinez Introduced by Red Sox; Crisis Averted. So, Does Another 9 Figure Contract in the Clubhouse Help or Hurt?

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JD Martinez has officially been introduced by the Red Sox so everyone can safely remove their finger from the panic button.

I fully admit I was starting to get a little nervous about the Red Sox shiny new toy, despite all the Boston sports writers rushing to their keyboards to defend the honor of the Sox and say this was totally normal.

Its definitely not out of the ordinary for any team to work in a clause in a contract to protect both sides. Think of when the Sox signed John Lackey and specifically put a clause in the deal saying if he missed any significant amount of time due to Tommy John Surgery, the Red Sox would automatically get an additional year added onto Lackey’s contract at the league minimum salary.

Now that ended poorly of course as Lackey blew his elbow out, activated the clause, and then bitched and moaned about said clause, and forced his way out of town via trade. So I honestly don’t know if those types of deals are still kosher in the MLB, but working language in that can activate opt outs is nothing new. However, announcing a deal is done and then not introducing the player for 7 full days is far from normal.

Whatever, either way the deal is done. It might not ever come out what the actual language was that caused the delay, but I think its safe to say, barring a very specific injury, JD Martinez is here for the long run.

Martinez does have an opt out clause of his own after the 2nd and 3rd year of the contract, but this is a guy thats already 30 years old and couldn’t find the deal he wanted after a 45 Home Run season. So you’re telling me that guy is going to opt out when he’s 32 or 33 in hopes of that mythical $200 Million deal? Sorry my friend, the days of guys on the wrong side of 30 getting that type of money are over. You can thank A-Rod, Pujols, and Miguel Cabrera for sucking that well dry.

Martinez is a good fit here though and more importantly he’s a veteran guy who’s completely reworked his game to get to where he is now. Seriously. He got cut by the Astros in 2013 and I mean the shit-bum Astros that lost 111 games that year, not the sexy 2017 World Series winning Astros. Then he signs with Detroit, reworks his entire swing and breaks out in 2015 with 38 Home Runs making his first All-Star team. Then in the midst of his career year, the Tigers ship him off to Arizona where he puts on a hitting clinic and finishes the year with 45 dingers.

So while he may not have that playoff/big market experience, he definitely has the adversity thing down pat. (Does that concern me in terms of consistency? 100%) My point is, a rough stretch should be no big deal to this guy. That could be very valuable in a club house that was filled with more dickhead diva types than blue collar types that willed their way to success. There were too many instances of guys like Mookie or Xander hitting a cold streak and instead of working it out, they went into the tank and had massive slumps en route to hugely disappointing years.

Hopefully another 9 figure contract walking into the clubhouse has the balls and really just the gravitas to tell some of these guys whats up rather than letting David Price run the joint all by himself. Think about it, theres not a lot of guys on that team that are 1.) good enough and 2.) paid enough to demand that immediate respect. Thats why this role has seemingly defaulted to David Price once David Ortiz was no longer around. Sure you could say Chris Sale, but I honestly think he’d rather be a lead by example type of guy. Pedroia threw his teammates under the bus last year with the whole Adam Jones scenario. Hanley Ramirez isn’t engaged enough to be a leader. Bogaerts seems to want no part of it and the rest of the team is full of young guys or part-timers. Your best bet is either Mookie taking on the role like he’s said he wants to or JD Martinez coming in and being THE guy. Only time will tell, but I am fired up to see this team on the field together.