Tag: Mookie Betts

I Think the Red Sox Yankees Rivalry May Finally Be Back

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Its been a tough decade for the so called blood feud between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Neither team has really been very good at the same time recently. After the epic postseason clashes of 2003 and 2004 the two sides haven’t played each other in the playoffs even once. Before last year, both teams hadn’t even made the playoffs in the same season since 2009. In 2007 when the Sox won it all, the Yankees got smoked in the divisional round. In 2009 when the Yankees won it all, the Sox got swept in the divisional round. And in 2013 when the Red Sox went the distance again, the Yanks straight up sucked and missed the playoffs winning only 85 games.

The guys much smarter than me over at fivethirtyeight.com actually put together a graph last year, based on each team’s World Series odds, to measure how meaningful games between the Sox and Yankees actually have been over the years.

“From 2007 to 2016, the typical Yanks-Sox contest was only about as important as any old opening-day game. In other words, it was fun but no big deal.”

So we’re on the up ladies and gentlemen. Last year Boston won its second straight AL East crown and the Yankees came within a game of advancing to the World Series on the back of young, homegrown talent. All of that was BEFORE New York added the best power hitter in the game in Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees, who featured a guy in Aaron Judge who hit 52 home runs AS A ROOKIE, just added a guy who hit 59 home runs. Ridiculous.

Well, thank god the Sox finally responded by signing one Julio Daniel Martinez.

It took a lot longer than most expected, but it sure is nice to take a team that won 93 games and then add this guy: .303 BA/.376 OBP/ .690 SLG with 45 Home Runs and 104 RBIs.

And for all the Yankees fans in my timeline talking shit already (its not even St. Patty’s Day yet) I’m just going to quote my man Jared Carrabis:

“After finishing last in the league in homers last year, the Red Sox added the player who is second in the MLB in slugging percentage (.574) since the start of the 2014 season behind Mike Trout (.579) with a minimum of 300 games played.”

A consolation prize he is not.

My point being though is this could be the first time we see Boston and New York square off in the playoffs in more than a decade. Both teams are stacked, young, and trending upwards. Sure the Patriots have taken the No. 1 spot in town and the Sox have won 3 titles since 2004, but I honestly don’t think thats why the venom between the Red Sox and the Yankees has dissipated. No, its because both teams haven’t been trying to kill each other for that next ring. If the Yankees and their loudmouth fans in the Bronx are standing between Chris Sale and a World Series appearance, you better fucking believe fans are gonna be fired up.

All we need is the opportunity, and thats what we have here tonight.

The Celtics Just Back Doored Their Way into an NBA2K Cover

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One of the funnier things to come out of the Kyrie -Isaiah trade is the fact that NBA2K18 was locked, cocked and ready to go with Kyrie on the cover…in his Cavs jersey.

A little bit of an issue to say the least with Kyrie now on the Boston Celtics and with the game set to drop on Sept. 19th. So not exactly a ton of time to stop the presses.

The latest 2K tweet says the new Celtics Kyrie cover is “to be released at a later date.” So does that mean I’m gonna have to print it out and slip it into the PS4 game sleeve like I used to do printing out Nomar Garciaparra covers for MVP Baseball?

Welp either way the Celtics just back doored their way into a major video game cover. This marks the 3rd video game cover for a Boston athlete in the last 12 months (Gronk Madden 17, Brady Madden 18). The last one I can recall before that was Patrice Bergeron on NHL 15. Sure, Mookie Betts was on the cover of RBI Baseball 16, but thats a garbage game so that doesn’t count.

Time to Make the Donuts: Red Sox Get a Walk Off Win Over the Cardinals

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Mookie Betts doing Mookie Betts things last night in a walkoff win over the Cardinals. Just battling and grinding with 2 outs in the 9th before smoking a 3-2 pitch off the wall to knock in 2 runs and get the walk off win.

What made this all the sweeter was witnessing the Cardinals have an absolute meltdown in the 9th inning over some pretty minor shit. Just wilting under the pressure of the Sox mounting a comeback in the bottom of the 9th.

Molina snapped in the 9th when the home plate umpire called time after reliever John Brebbia held onto the ball for what felt like 10 seconds. Literally yelling in the ump’s face, all while the Cardinals are still up by 1 in the 9th inning. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny comes out to argue and ends up getting ejected. Less than 5 minutes later the Sox complete the comeback and walk off with the win. Thanks St. Louis!

PS – Nothing beats a walk off win, but don’t think I didn’t notice Jackie Bradley Jr. getting gunned down at the plate. Except Yadier Molina couldn’t handle the throw and JBJ was safe. If Molina handles that cleanly then JBJ is out by a MILE and we’re all yet again roasting the Red Sox for their abysmal base running. Just something to keep an eye on and remember when a gigantic base running error totally fucks them in the playoffs.

Red Sox Ownership Blocked Dombrowski from Trading More Top Prospects. Good.

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WEEI – After a number of deals involving top-level prospects thinned the Red Sox farm system, ownership ordered president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski not to deal any top-end talent at the July 31 trade deadline, according to a report. Per Sean McAdam of Boston Sports Journal (subscription required), ownership made it clear to Dombrowski at the deadline that he was not to touch the top of the farm system. He instead dealt middle-tier prospects to acquire infielder Eduardo Nunez and reliever Addison Reed.

I know, I know, the Red Sox brought Dave Dombrowski in to build the team his way. And his way just happens to be to trade every prospect under the fucking sun to win now. Except theres GOT to be a point where you sit back and think hey maybe lets pump the breaks so we have SOME young guys in the pipeline. I am far from a bleeding heart prospect hoarder. I’ve seen too many “untouchable” prospects turn into absolute scrubs like Henry Owens (Baseball America No. 44 prospect in 2015). And for every Anthony Rizzo (Red Sox No. 8 prospect before getting dealt) you regret trading away there are 10 Casey Kellys (as high as Baseball America No. 24 prospect in 2009).

Something we talked about on our all Red Sox podcast this week (SUBSCRIBE!) was how Big Z and I disagreed on what to do with prospects. He says ship em all out because you’re going to miss with prospects more than you hit. I disagree. Not because I think they’re all going to be studs. I’m more concerned with the PERCEPTION of value they bring, which is why I always hated the Pomeranz trade. Admittedly he’s been pitching really well of late and Anderson Espinoza just blew his arm out and will have to get Tommy John. BUT, at the time Espinoza was your top pitching prospect and one of the most highly regarded prospects in all of baseball. Dombrowski traded him for a reliever turned starter who ultimately ended up being a middle innings mop up guy for the Red Sox down the stretch.

Sure he’s pitched well as of late, but you can’t point to the Espinoza injury and say Dombrowski won the trade. Thats using the benefit of hindsight. My point is the PERCEPTION of Espinoza’s value was much higher and the Sox should have gotten a lot more for him or held onto him. Not because I think he’s going to be the next Pedro, but because the consensus around the league was he would be a stud, which means you gotta get more.

Not to mention, take a look at Dombrowski’s last place of employment; the Detroit Tigers. Dombrowski had them humming along pretty good for a couple of years but he GUTTED the farm system and now they are in the middle of a brutal rebuild. I would hate to see the Sox in a similar position in 3-4 years. You can always add expensive free agents, but you need to supplement that with young, cheap prospects or you’ll quickly turn into the pre-Baby Bomber Yankees with Teixeira, CC Sabathia, A-Rod and others collecting paychecks on their way out the door towards retirement.

All of this is a long winded way of saying I’m glad someone put the stop sign up on Dombrowski IF it was over concerns of dealing more top prospects. If it was about concerns of going over the luxury tax then I retract this whole blog post because you’re the fucking Red Sox, you can afford it. But since he took over as President of baseball operations Dombrowski has stripped the farm system. In the two years since taking over he has traded 16+ prospects. You can read Alex Speier’s breakdown of them all, but here are the highlights below.

  • Manuel Margot (Part of the Craig Kimbrel trade: the No. 14 prospect in MLB at the start of 2016 and last week’s NL Player of the Week)
  • Yoan Moncada (Part of the Chris Sale trade: Sale has been a stud so no regrets about this, but Moncada was the No. 2 prospect in MLB this season behind only…Andrew Benintendi)
  • Michael Kopech (Sale trade: 100 mph heater with a 3.25 ERA and 134 K’s in 105 innings in Triple-A this year)
  • Travis Shaw (Tyler Thornburg trade: not technically a prospect, but Thornburg has yet to pitch for the Sox and Shaw is batting a cool .291 with 24 HR and 74 RBI for the Brewers)

I’m just not sold on Dombrowski’s player evaluation, which is probably my biggest concern. At least when it comes to the health or mental fortitude of players. Guys he’s traded for that have gotten injured include Thornbug, Carson Smith, Drew Pomeranz and not to mention signing David Price who has battled injuries as well as the local media. Yuck.

At some point you have to hold onto the young guys. The current team is littered with home grown talent (that are cheap too) including Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi. Thats a pretty stocked roster why not trade away some young guys then? Well because when the Red Sox have needed depth due to injuries they’ve basically been up shits creek because of all those prospects dealt. Thats how you get Henry Owens (now in Double-A) and Doug Fister making starts. Thank God for the way Devers has played or the Sox might be in a real bad place down the stretch.

The Red Sox currently have 3 prospects in Baseball America’s 2017 Top 100 – Benintendi (No. 1), Devers (No. 18) and Jason Groome (No. 43) — down from 5 in 2016 when they had Moncada (No. 3), Benintendi (No. 15), Devers (No. 18), Espinoza (No. 19) and Kopech (No. 89). Kopech jumped from 89 to 32, Moncada jumped from 3 to. 2, Benintendi jumped to 15 to 1, Devers stayed at No. 18, Espinzoa actually went down from 19 to 21 (2017 is Groome’s first year in pro ball).

My point is you don’t need to hold onto ALL of the prospects, but you do need to hold onto SOME of them. Your move, Dave.

Despite a Red Sox Loss, Mookie Betts Putting Himself in MVP Consideration

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Seriously though, can we start talking about Mookie for MVP yet? Or are people still not sold on him yet? After 3 HRs in the first game against the Orioles and then another 2 HRs last night he is absolutely smoking hot. It seems like he hit the national stage for real last night though when ESPN went to a split screen during the Dodgers game to show Mookie’s at-bat live. 5 HR in 2 games will have that affect.

I think the best part of this past couple of days is not the number of dingers, but the swagger Betts clearly is developing. Last night after his first inning HR, and 4th in two games, the Orioles were apparently a little burnt up about it and Mike Wright threw a clearly intentional fastball right over Mookie’s head. Major league pitchers don’t miss high over a guy’s head, that was a purpose pitch. So what does Betts do? Oh just proceeds to hit an absolute piss missile out of Camden Yards. And no one loved it more than Big Papi.

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Betts now has 14 homers, 1 behind Ortiz for the team lead, and is hitting .288 with 42 RBIs and 51 Runs – batting leadoff for christs sake! He’s on pace for 43 HR, 128 RBIs, 34 doubles and a measly 156 Runs. Now obviously he’s not going to stay this red hot and hit 40+ dingers, but if Betts is even close to this pace the rest of the year he has to be in the MVP ballot. And that my friends is how you find what was projected to be a dogshit team sitting in first place in June.

Machine Gun Joe Kelly Goes 0.2 IP, Immediately Goes on DL

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Courtesy of ESPN

Courtesy of ESPN

I tweeted this last night from the game, but having a mound visit with one out in the first inning is a microcosm of the 2016 Red Sox season. Just slow, sloppy, poorly executed baseball. A couple batters later, Kelly pauses, another mound visit, Kelly reaches for his shoulder and even Hanley knows something’s off, immediately waving to the dugout for the trainer. Placed on the DL a couple of hours later. Hey, at least it was Mookie bobblehead night.

I will say the bullpen pitched admirably, Heath Hembree in particular, with 9+ innings of shutout ball, but for Barnes to then give up 3 in the top of the 10th is absolutely brutal. At that point you’re onto your 5th option coming out of the pen because of Kelly’s disastrous outing.

Can’t win without hitting the ball though and the Sox managed all of ONE hit. They went down 1-2-3 in 9 out of 10 innings. Zero baserunners after the 3rd inning. That is absurd and absolutely cannot happen for a team with this kind of payroll. The worst part is that this taxes the bullpen for the rest of the series since Machine Gun’s start required 10 IP from the pen. With Eduardo Rodriguez still a couple of weeks away from returning, the Sox will fire up the I-95 Express to poach someone, anyone from Pawtucket. Only a couple games out of first place still, but another poor week or two and they could easily be 5-10 games out by May. Again. Buckle up boys.