Tag: Josh Beckett

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.

Today is the 10 Year Anniversary of the Clay Buchholz No Hitter

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Oh what could have been.

If you’re anything like me you’ll remember how AMPED you were that the Red Sox had this starting rotation signed and sealed for years:

  • Josh Beckett
  • Jon Lester
  • John Lackey
  • Clay Buchholz

Now obviously, like Clay’s career, things did not go as expected. Buchholz was going to be the next ace of the staff, throwing a no-hitter in his second career start, but his career was defined by maddening inconsistency and of course injuries. Clay currently has a 4.01 career ERA and is currently on the DL for the Phillies, which is a microcosm for him as a whole. The guy would routinely go on a 6-week run of dominance sporting a 2 ERA before going into the tank for the rest of the season. Like clockwork.

We’ll always have that no-hitter though, Clay.

Who Was the Worst Red Sox Contract of All Time? I’ve Made It Easy for You

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Update: It was pointed out to me the compiled Batting Averages were calculated wrong, so those numbers and the graphic have been updated in the post below.

So as everyone knows by now, the Red Sox designated Pablo Sandoval for assignment today. Look the Red Sox have given out a lot of shitty contracts over the years. Thats what big market teams do. You throw money at problems that other teams can’t afford to do. Except the problem with that is by definition free agents are most often older players who rarely live up to the pay day. You’re usually paying for past performance and almost always are eating money towards the end of the contract when the player is a shell of what he once was. Which is fine. I accept that.

BUT, when you have guys that are a disaster from Day 1 and can’t even make it through an entire 162 games then you have a huge problem.

So who was the worst Red Sox contract of all time? Well looking back over the years the two names that standout as the frontrunners are soft-ass Carl Crawford (who STILL complains about his 2 seasons in Boston) and the recently departed Sandoval. While a lot of people want to say Crawford is the worse deal because of how toxic his attitude was and how bad his play was, its got to be the Panda. Look, I made a spreadsheet to make it easy for you.

Although Sandoval was here for parts of 3 seasons and Crawford only two, due to DL stints by both, their total number of games played for the Red Sox is the EXACT SAME at 161. Which makes this the perfect sample size.

Compared to Sandoval, Crawford had more:

  • Runs Scored
  • Hits
  • Doubles
  • Triples (shocking)
  • RBIs
  • Stolen Bases (Panda with the elusive 0 in that category).

Now want to compare their slash lines as members of the Red Sox?

  • Pablo .236/.303/.360
  • Crawford .260/.296/.418

Both completely SUCKED for guys who had signed gargantuan contracts. Granted Crawford’s deal was for $142 million to Pablo’s measly $95 million, but Pablo has been so bad that they’re gonna have to eat the last 2+ years of it. At least the Red Sox were able to dump Crawford onto the Dodgers. So while Crawford signed a much larger deal, he wasn’t so far gone that another team thought “Hey Boston is a bitch to play in, we can turn this around.” Barring an even more stunning deal than the Crawford/Gonzalez/Beckett Dodgers heist, there’s no getting out of this one.

So yea, the Kung Fu fucking Panda is by far the worst contract in Red Sox history.

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.”

Tom Brady Now Hawking TB12 Under Armour Pajamas and I Need Them Like I Need Air

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tb12pjs

SI – “Tom Brady says he can only work has hard—or perform as well—as his ability to recover. And he considers sleep the best way to recover, exactly why he strives for eight to 10 hours of uninterrupted zzz’s every night….With such an importance placed on sleep and recovery, it follows that the NFL star’s next signature product from Under Armour comes in the form of tech-infused sleepwear.”

Do I want the TB12 PJ’s? No that would be silly. I don’t want them. I *need* them. Like I need oxygen. If Tom Brady says I’ll sleep like a lamb wearing these things, then I’ll take two pairs. It the guy started a new religion a la Scientology, I would at least attend a couple masses just to get the feel.

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First he made UGGs cool for guys. Then he blew everyones mind with the most monk-like diet I’ve ever heard of. Now? PJ’s. If thats what it takes to play at an MVP level nearing 40 years old, like no one has ever done before, then I’ll hear him out.

“The TB12 Sleepwear line includes full-length shirts and pants—and a short-sleeve and shorts version—with bioceramics printed on the inside. The print, sourced from natural minerals, activates the body’s natural heat and reflects it back as far infrared energy, a common tool used to reduce inflammation and help the body recover faster.”

It reminds me of the Phiten necklaces legit every baseball player in the MLB and every guy in college wore. They were alleged to “improve your balance.” Thing was literally a little nylon rope with rubber at the end. If it was a really good one thought it had some shiny stickers on it too. Complete scam. But guess what? I bought the shit outta those things.

phiten

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phiten_pedroia

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Dodgers Eat $35 Million to Designate Carl Crawford for Assignment

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carlcrawford

Yahoo Sports – On Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally decided enough was enough when it came to their relationship with Carl Crawford. With a roster spot needed, the Dodgers decided to designate the 34-year-old outfielder for assignment, which means the Dodgers have 10 days to put Crawford on waivers, trade him, release him or send him to the minors. 

To this day, I don’t know what was dumber, the Red Sox signing Carl Crawford to that albatross of a $142 million contract or the Dodgers trading for him. The Dodgers legitimately saved the Red Sox from a 5 year dumpster fire. If the Sox are still paying Crawford $20 mil per year to hit .185 on top of Adrian Gonzalez’s contract there’s no way they open up the wallet to get David Price. Not to mention 2013 never happens because the Sox don’t completely gut the roster and start over with all the character guys like Victorino, Gomes, Napoli, Ross etc.

Instead Magic Johnson and crew, for whatever reason, took a flyer on all of that money in hopes it would push the Dodgers over the top. What really happened; Beckett was OK and ended up retiring early, Gonzo has been pretty decent in laid back LA, but Crawford seems to be shellshocked by his time in Boston. No seriously, he still talks about how awful playing for the Sox was. Like he got Jodie Fostered in the dugout or something.

And talk about going back and seeing the red flags we should have noticed. Notoriously quiet guy that kept to himself all while playing well for a last place team that no one paid any attention to in Tampa Bay. Does that seem like a guy who would transition well to the constant pressure and bright lights of playing in Boston?

Now with $35 million left on his contract the Dodgers essentially said fuck it and just DFA’d him. Take on all that money, make the biggest trade in franchise history and then have it completely blow up in your face. Props to LA for just cutting bait and getting out though. Took them a couple years longer than the Sox, but they’d rather eat the cash than have Crawford take up a roster spot for another day.

Maybe the Sox learned their lesson and won’t be giving out mega contracts like candy to just anyone anymore?

pablosandoval

Nevermind.