Tag: phillies

Arizona/Philly. Game 7. Who ya got?

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Game 7 of the National League Championship Series is in Philadelphia tonight, and I am torn. Pulling for Texas in the American League Championship Series was a given. Picking a team to root for in the NLCS is a lot harder.

A lot of times in games like this, games that do not involve Boston and have no implications for a Boston team, I want both teams to lose. A recent example of that was last years Chiefs/Eagles Super Bowl. That’s not the case for tonight, though. There are good reasons to pull for each side tonight. Even Philly!

First, let’s take a look at Arizona. They are easy to root for because they are (checks notes) not from Philadelphia. It’s also fun to root for an underdog. Arizona was the last team in the playoffs this year and are one game away from the World Series. And while their current uniform offerings are a bit of a mess, millennials everywhere look back fondly on these beauties:

The Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen is also a local guy and former Red Sox front office executive. If that’s not enough, he recently re-upped with the D-Backs instead of potentially returning to the Nightmare on Jersey Street. Good for him, and enjoy the warm winters in the desert. And that brings us to the case for the Phillies…

Hazen’s last year in Boston was 2016, when he worked under Dave Dombrowski. Dombrowski of course is now the head baseball man in Philly. There are lots of reasons to root against Philadelphia in anything, including but not limited to the abhorrent behavior of so many of their fans. I’d sooner wear a Red Sox hat in the Bronx than a Patriots jersey to Lincoln Financial Field. But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about reasons to root for each side, and a win for Dombrowksi and the Phillies would be a great way to stick it to John Henry and the Red Sox.

Dombrowski was Boston’s top baseball man for nearly four full seasons (2016-2019). In those four seasons, the Red Sox won 58.3% of their games, including a team record 108 in 2018, three consecutive division titles for the first time in team history, and the 2018 World Series. He also hired Alex Cora in 2018, one of the top managers in the game today. In the midst of all that winning, though, I guess he didn’t pay enough attention to the farm system. And winning isn’t cheap. So for those crimes he was fired in September of 2019.

Dombrowski is a hall of fame executive. He is one of the last old school baseball guys and not an analytics-obsessed GM. It’s hard to forget how dirty the Sox did him when they showed him the door. His successor in Boston, Chaim Bloom, also met a similar fate as the Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer. While Bloom didn’t have nearly the success Dombrowski did in Boston, it’s tough to see a guy get fired for doing what he was asked to do (cut payroll, rebuild a farm system, and still field a somewhat competitive major league team). I say that as a guy who is only somewhat more hesitant than peak George Steinbrenner when it comes to making firings.

Which is why the Red Sox find themselves where they are today. There appears to be little interest from qualified candidates for what should be one of the best jobs in North American sports. So a win for Philadelphia tonight could be seen as a rebuke of the way business is being done in the Fens these days.

That being said, it’s also never a bad day when Philly loses. I just hope the light poles are greased.

Today is the Trade Deadline, Lets Look at Where the Red Sox Currently Stand

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The MLB trade deadline is today at 4 pm and the last place Red Sox are in full blown sell mode. I wrote last week about how this team doesn’t need to completely blow it up and trade cornerstones like Xander Boagerts, but it’s hard to predict what the team will do since it’s Chaim Bloom’s first deadline as the guy in charge. Lets take a look at what they’ve already done, what could be in the works, and what Sox fans might actually have to look forward to.

Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree Traded to the Phillies

Crowned the Red Sox closer heading into the season, the team just never really needed Workman because they were so bad there were rarely many save opportunities. Usually the team was getting blown out long before the final frame so Workman only had seven appearances before getting dealt. Both players were in contract years so the deal makes sense for a basement team. In return the Red Sox received 27-year-old RHP Nick Pivetta and 23-year-old RHP Connor Seabold.

Pivetta is a 6’5″ 220 pound former 4th round draft pick of the Nationals, who actually traded Pivetta to the Phillies in 2015 for Jonathan Papelbon. Pivetta was a starter for the Phillies and flashed at times with his “front of the rotation potential,” but was pretty up and down before getting relegated to the bullpen so he’s a buy low candidate that the Sox are smart to take the chance on.

Seabold has never pitched higher than AA, but had a 2.25 ERA last season in the Eastern League and was a 3rd round pick for the Phillies in 2017 so this is a solid prospect to get back.

Mitch Moreland Traded to the Padres

Moreland was an excellent role player for the Red Sox over the last 2+ seasons, making his lone All-Star team in 2018 as the Sox battered everyone en route to a World Series title (including a clutch pinch hit 3 run HR in Game 4). He was having an even better season this year hitting .328 with 8 home runs and 21 RBIs in just 22 games. Although he was limited by injuries last year, Moreland was a legit power bat for the Sox hitting 15 home runs in 2018 and then 19 in 2019 even though he had 124 less plate appearances. So its a bummer to see him go, but he was essentially a victim of his own success while the Sox transitioned to a rebuild.

In return for Moreland the Sox received outfielder Jeisson Rosario and infielder Hudson Potts. Potts is a 21-year-old 3B and was actually the 24th overall pick just four years ago so there is a pedigree there. Rosario is a 20-year-old outfielder that hasn’t played above A ball yet so this guy is a ways off from the big leagues. You can read the scouting reports of the two players via MassLive, but keep in mind Potts and Rosario were just the Padre’s No. 17 and No. 28 ranked prospects according to Baseball America.

The Moreland trade did however clear the way for Bobby Dalbec, the Red Sox’ No. 3 ranked prospect according to MLB.com, who hit a dinger in his major league debut.

Trade Rumors Surrounding Christian Vazquez

I think this would be a mistake because he is a player on a cheap contract at a premium position with elite defense and pretty good power. Although he is a bit older than I realized at 30-years-old, but he’s an energy guy that I think the Sox would be wise to keep around.

Trade Rumors Around Xander, JD Martinez, Jackie Bradley Jr, Andrew Benintendi, Nathan Eovaldi

I wrote about this the other day and I think Bogaerts should be untouchable, but you never know. The other guys I would listen to offers on, but the hottest Benintendi rumors were focused on a deal with Cleveland for Mike Clevinger, who they just traded to San Diego. So maybe none of these guys get dealt, but we’ll see today.

Joey B also pointed out the Sox are also exploring a potential trade/salary dump of Eovaldi.

Red Sox Draft Position

This is about the only thing for Red Sox fans to be excited about these days. With the 3rd worst record in ALL of baseball and just 2 games better than the Pirates for the worst record, the Sox are in play for potentially the No. 1 overall pick next year. Due to a myriad of reasons the Sox could potentially finish with the worst record and still not get the top pick, which would be the most 2020 thing ever, but it’s fun to daydream about the most likely No. 1 overall pick pitching at Fenway, Vanderbilt flamethrower Kumar Rocker.

Luxury Tax Reset Day

Finally and probably the most exciting thing to come out of this shit season is that by getting through today the Red Sox officially (kinda/sort) have their luxury tax penalties reset. This means the Sox have had to dump Mookie Betts, David Price and endure this disastrous season, but by doing so have climbed out of the hell zone that because of gigantic tax penalties would have kept John Henry from making any big moves for YEARS.

The Patriots Are Dropping Like Flies as FIVE Players Have Now Opted Out of the Season Due to COVID

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Today has been a rough day for the New England Patriots and I haven’t even finished my morning Iced Tea from Dunkies. This was bound to happen as the guinea pig that is the MLB showed everyone just how quickly an entire sports league can turn into a disaster with this bastard that is coronavirus. The Marlins have had 17 guys test positive and because of the six degrees of separation other teams like the Phillies and the Yankees had to cancel games as they awaited their own COVID test results.

So if you’re an NFL player watching this quickly unfold, it has to make you think. Is this worth it? If you’re Dont’a Hightower and you’ve already made millions and millions of dollars and won three Super Bowls and you just had a baby, do you want to risk bringing that infection home with you? Even if you’re Clay Travis and you think the risk of getting into a car crash is worse (seriously), do you want to have the anxiety of worrying about that every day for the next several months? It seems like a lot of Patriots players are saying hell no.

Bert Breer was on Toucher and Rich this morning and half jokingly wondered aloud is this the price the Patriots pay for having a team comprised of a bunch of smart, thoughtful veterans. It’s a good question because if you’re a young player or a fringe roster guy you might not have secured the bag yet and you may never get another job that pays nearly as much as the NFL. So thats a risk you are a lot more willing to take than an established/paid veteran in this league. Especially when the average NFL career is like 3.3 years.

The question now is how much are the Patriots in trouble and what if even more players opt out? If you’ve listened to the McCourty brothers at all you have got to be worried about whether they’re going to play or not. Those two are intelligent and vocal guys and they have expressed valid, legitimate concerns with resuming play. Right now the Pats have lost their starting Right Tackle, their best Linebacker, a key special teams and depth RB, plus their fullback and another OL. All of this after the team was already tasked with replacing Tom Brady as well as key veterans like Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, and James Develin.

To be brutally honest I don’t expect most of these leagues to finish the season. There’s just too many people interacting with one another and especially in the MLB with teams flying all around like its no big deal. Now imagine that with rosters triple the size in the NFL. The leagues that went with the bubble are the only real shot we have of seeing a completed season this year, but even the NBA has dudes hitting up the strip club for some drums and flats. I don’t know about you, but a strip club is one of the last places I’d want to be during a freaking pandemic. The NHL may be the only league to get through the year as they have a bunch of historically laid back homebodies in hockey players quarantined up in Canada.

Now I’m not going to panic about the Patriots just yet because I tend to agree with my friend here below, even if it is because I’m wearing rose tinted glasses that Belichick and Brady fused onto my face over the last 20 years.

But that’s assuming we even get to the start of the season. Players weren’t even due to report yet and the Patriots had five guys opt out. Lets watch this Marlins story play out a bit more and see if MLB can get back on track because we’re less than a week into the season and it already has the makings of a doomsday scenario.

However, if MLB can’t stem the outbreak and more importantly assuage any player concerns, it could be the harbinger of bad news for the NFL in 2020.

Jake Arrieta Rips His Teammates After Getting Swept aaaand I’m OK With It

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ESPN –  The Philadelphia Phillies have lost six of their past eight games. And after a sweep at the hands of the San Francisco Giants, pitcher Jake Arrieta has reached a boiling point. “Overall, it’s just a really horses— series,” Arrieta said after the Phillies’ 6-1 loss on Sunday. “Really bad. Really bad. We’ve had bad defensive shifts. We had a checked swing. [Shortstop Scott] Kingery should’ve gone to second on that play. And they got three hits in a row. The home run — credit [Andrew] McCutchen for putting a good swing on it, but did not expect a ball like that to get out,” Arrieta said in recounting how a five-run sixth inning for the Giants came together against him.

My fellow lumberjack beard sporting dude Jake Arrieta is having a damn good year for the Phillies (5-3 2.66 ERA) but he was NOT having a good time after getting shellacked and swept by the Giants this weekend. He basically had a meltdown after the game. My first reaction to reading those quotes was bro you cannot do that, especially after just losing 6-1 with the Phillies scoring all of 1 run in the entire series too…

“Sunday’s loss featured the team’s only run scored of the entire series, one driven in by Arrieta with a solo homer in the third inning.”

..which was scored by Arrieta himself…

Rip away, Jake.

If you weren’t dominating on the mound and then personally providing your own run support at the plate I’d tell you to STFU because you know players absolutely haaate when a pitcher calls out his team’s defense. But if you are doing those things then, well, then nobody can really say shit. This is a young team and Arrieta is a Cy Young winner and World Series champion so maybe a swift kick in the ass is just what his team needs.

The Continuing Quest to See All 30 Ballparks

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By now it’s no secret that i’ve been chipping away at my goal of seeing a game at every major league ballpark. Now that the 2018 season is upon us, I thought it would be the perfect time to update you on my quest and ask you the readers what I should tackle next?

Coming into this MLB season I’ve been to 12 ballparks all while experiencing some amazing highs (Pirates, Padres) and some spectacular lows (Yankee Stadium 2.0). My list is as follows, ranked according to my level of enjoyment:

  1. Pirates
  2. Padres
  3. Cubs
  4. Rockies
  5. Brewers
  6. Red Sox
  7. Mets
  8. Dodgers
  9. Orioles
  10. Twins
  11. Phillies
  12. Yankees

It’s kind of hard to do a ranking, especially when the middle of the list doesn’t really have any faults, it’s just that it didn’t have any memorable moments. I rank the Pirates so high because of the views from PNC. Situated perfectly on the river, it’s an incredible sight with the skyline and bridges in the distance. I also managed to snag a beautiful Pirates cowboy hat from the gift shop and free beer from a broken keg, dumping gallons of free suds into the concourse (and into my cup).

Wrigley was a bachelor party so good times were had, Petco Park was a beautiful summer night the weekend of 4th of July, and Citi Field is the home of my team the Mets, so I have a bit of a bias there.

Yankee Stadium did absolutely nothing for me. It felt like a place you’d go watch gladiators fight lions, let alone a game of baseball. It was too sterile, too corporate, all things that have been said time and time again.

2018 will bring my total to 15, as I will be adding the White Sox, Nationals, and Angels to the list.

Is there anything else I should hit? Would you guys like to see some video reviews of some of these places? Let us know in the comments and we will bring you the A+ content.

My Man Gabe Kapler Named the New Manager of the Phillies. Good for Him.

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First things first, I don’t know how Gabe beat out THIS guy for the Phillies job.

Incredibly savvy move to leapfrog Manager John like that. Anyways, good for Gabe Kapler getting his shot as an MLB manager. He’s one of those glue guys that always played his balls off and all his teammates loved. You knew he would be a manager someday.

He started out managing in the minor leagues for the Red Sox farm system before moving on to player development where he’s killed it for the LA Dodgers. I’m happy with the Alex Cora hiring for the Sox, but I would have loved to had Kapler in that dugout as well. Smart guy who’s young, has a wide variety of experience and seemingly will have no problem communicating with his players. Plus he’s yoked and is a fan of the banana hammock so I mean that right there basically sells itself.

He may even get a few of his guys to start eating organic peanut butter the way he converted me with his blog.

PS – As a hustle> talent guy I was a big fan of Kapler’s growing up and I was *this* close to buying a Gabe Kapler Yomiuri Giants jersey when he left the Red Sox for Japan.

Introducing the MLB Players Weekend Hats AKA Straight Acid Trip Apparel

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To go along with Players Weekend and the nicknames jerseys, MLB is also rolling out some new wacky hats to match. This is some straight up acid trip apparel that I am unfamiliar with. Are the managers going to be required to wear Kramer’s technicolor dreamcoat?

But seriously, these are some wacky color combos. I’m 100% a jaded man and see this is a blatant marketing cash grab, disguised as a fun, quirky gimmick to show how fun baseball is. Now unsurprisingly you’ve got your usual suspects of teams that did the bare minimum like the Yankees, the Giants, and the Angels.

The Giants and the Angels basically just rolled out their normal hats. Good job, good effort guys.

Then you’ve got teams who said, “Acid? Why not make it 2 tabs, lets fucking go!”

Now theres actually a few pretty sharp hats in here too that take advantage of the wild color schemes and use it to create something fun and eye catching:

This is a choice hat by the Rockies going with their secondary logo, that is a great goddamn hat.

Doesn’t matter if you’re the worst team in baseball if you look slick in a new cap and the Liberty Bell logo here does that as both bold yet minimalist.

Really solid hat here for Minnesota, combining the state outline with the Twin Cities logo.

Unfortunately the Red Sox were not one of those teams, which hurts to say coming from a HUGE hat guy like myself. The Sox Players Weekend hat is a decidedly mediocre “meh.”

The other contenders for “hats I would potentially buy.”

You can never go wrong with a sexy throwback A’s hat. Pair this with a bushy mustache and a YUCK t-shirt to go full Dennis Eckersley and David Price legitimately may fight you on Yawkey Way.

Pirates usually have some pretty solid caps as I am the proud owner of the throwback striped pillbox hat.

This is a solid effort from the Pirates for Players Weekend, probably could’ve used a black brim though to even things out a bit.

Despite the fact I just deducted points from Pittsburgh for going too yellow, the Rays embrace it with the still ridiculous sunburst logo to make an exceptionally loud hat.

Now THAT is how you break down the apparel of professional sports teams. Your move, Uni Watch.

 

 

That Was Quick – Clay Buchholz Already Injured in Philly

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philly.com – Clay Buchholz flung a 70-mph pitch. It bounced before it reached home plate. The veteran starter shook his right arm. And that was it…

Buchholz suffered a right forearm strain, the team said. A gruesome night turned morbid when Buchholz, who allowed six runs to the Mets in 2 1/3 innings, walked to the dugout with a team athletic trainer during the third inning Tuesday.

The 32-year-old righthander, acquired last December in a $13.5 million dump by Boston, owns a 12.27 ERA after two starts with the Phillies.

It could be some time before his next appearance.

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It’s impossible to say that Buchholz would have gotten injured in Boston if the Red Sox hadn’t traded him. I wouldn’t have bet against it, though.

In ten years with the Red Sox, Buchholz only made more than 30 appearances once. That was in 2016 when he made 16 appearances out of the bullpen. He only made more than 20 starts in four of his ten seasons with the Red Sox.

Dave Dombrowski wouldn’t bet against Buchholz getting hurt, either. At the time of the Buchholz trade Dombrowski was lambasted for a “salary dump.” Scott Lauber wrote “Miss Buchholz yet? At some point, the Red Sox will.” Tony Massarotti called guys like me celebrating his exit “short-sighted fools.”

Sure thing, guys.

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