Sox Therapy: What Projections Say about the Big Trade

The August 2012 trade between the Red Sox and the Dodgers was one of the most fascinating and important moves in the history of the Boston franchise. As such, it’s hard not to revisit it often. And so…

When the Red Sox unloaded the contracts of Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, and Carl Crawford (and Nick Punto!), they cut about $57 million off their annual payroll (after accounting for the cash paid out by Boston to LA). While it was pretty widely agreed upon that the players were, as a group, ...

Sox Therapy: Our Big Papi Problem

I really don’t want to think about a Boston Red Sox season where our lineup isn’t anchored by Big Papi.  I am currently not going to, because I think the best interpretation of what we know if that this isn’t the biggest problem ever.  The current shut down, as reported, is not either a major new injury or a failed recovery of the same major injury – it looks like an injury cascade where the Achilles pain led Ortiz to change his stride, which then in turn led to heel problem.  This ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1979 Results

In an election that saw five different candidates receive first-place ballots, Fred Lynn secured a victory on points, with a twenty-point advantage over the runner-up. Congratulations to Lynn, the 1979 Most Meritorious Player!

               1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    Pts
Lynn           7    2    2              1                                           169
Porter, D      2    4    1         3         1    1                                 149
Brett ...

Sox Therapy: Jose Ruins Careers at the Fort

I hope everyone in Massachusetts enjoyed the foot of snow last week.  If it makes you feel better it was a bit windy today when I stepped out of the pool and I caught a bit of a chill.  Brrrrr.

I have been able to brave the elements and get to a few Spring Training games so far and as always it is a ton of fun.  The week started on a bit of a maudlin note as I walked through the retired numbers section in front of JetBlue Park and passed Johnny Pesky’s number 6.  John hasn’t been an active ...

SABR - BBTF Chapter: Rawlings Gold Glove Award adds new sabermetric component with SABR

Comment in the thread below:

As part of the multi-year collaboration beginning with the 2013 season, SABR will develop an expanded statistical resource guide that will accompany the Rawlings Gold Glove Award ballots sent to major league-level managers and coaches each year. In addition, SABR will immediately establish a new Fielding Research Committee tasked to develop a proprietary new defensive analytic called the SABR Defensive Index™, or SDI™. The SDI will serve as an ...

Sox Therapy: John Farrell and the Shift Defense

The largest change in baseball strategy over the last decade has been the radically increased use of the shift defense in the past two years.  This was pointed out in a Bill James Online article by John Dewan early in 2012.  Farrell’s Blue Jays were among the earliest adopters of the shift, reportedly due to the influence of 3rd base coach Brian Butterfield.  Butterfield has moved to Boston with Farrell, and we can expect the shift to make the trek east as well.  He may be actually taking it ...

SABR - BBTF Chapter: SABR Analytics Conference, March 7-9, 2013 Phoenix, AZ

The 2013 SABR Analytics Conference will be held Thursday, March 7 through Saturday, March 9, 2013, in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.

Thursday’s programming will be held at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Friday and Saturday’s programming will be held at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, 340 North 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Joe Posnanski and Bill James are among the featured speakers, and there ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1980 Discussion

Mike Schmidt’s Phillies beat George Brett’s Royals in the World Series. Royals made it to the World Series by defeating the Yankees. Phillies route to the championship went through Houston.

MMP voting will end on April 03 2013.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Schmidt, Mike		37.7		8.6		
Brett, George		36.2		9.0
Henderson, Rickey	33.0		8.7
Wilson, Willie		31.5		8.3
Yount, Robin		25.4		7.0
Murphy, Dwayne		26.2		6.7
Cooper, Cecil		26.8		6.6
Dawson, Andre		29.3		6.6
Randolph, Willie	29.7		6.5
Hernandez, ...

Sox Therapy: Spring Training Game Thread

The Red Sox are on NESN and MLBtv.  Right now!

Want to talk about the ballgame?

Sox Therapy: Shane Victorino and the Stat Heads

Everyone on the internet hates Shane Victorino.  Shane Victorino has a strong statistical profile based on basic stathead number crunching.  This is a conundrum to me.  Let’s take point one as given. For point two, consider VORP.  There is no more perfect stathead stat than VORP.  It reduces all baseball events to simple run value.  It loves OBP and slugging, it doesn’t care about clutch, it only values high-percentage base stealing.  It doesn’t try to quantify defense, but includes a ...