Sox Therapy: Early Spring Overreactions

The AL East champion Red Sox are back at it and of course spring training is a time to hear a story and wildly extrapolate nonsense from it.  And when you need nonsense, you need your man Jose to step in and fill the breach.  Thus the breach shall be filled.

Sam Travis - Great Hitter or Greatest Hitter - The righty has picked up where he left off before getting injured last season and has already slugged a couple of homers.  Admittedly one of them (against Northeastern) doesn’t count in ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2002 Discussion

The Angels defeated the Giants in the World Series. Vote for 15.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Barry Bonds		47.7		11.8
Alex Rodriguez		32.8		8.8
Jim Thome		37.5		7.4
Vladimir Guerrero	30.6		7.0
Chipper Jones		31.0		5.7
Jim Edmonds		31.5		6.7
Jason Giambi		33.5		7.1
Scott Rolen		24.6		6.5
Jeff Kent		29.7		7.0
Nomar Garciaparra	25.7		6.8
Bobby Abreu		27.0		5.8
Brian Giles		34.0		5.3
Shawn Green		32.1		6.9
Albert Pujols		31.1		5.5
Larry Walker		27.2		6.1
Miguel Tejada		28.4		5.6
Todd ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2001 Ballot

For 2001 each voter should rank the top 15 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 13 March 2017.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If you have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 10 March 2017.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Gonfalon Cubs: Spring Training Open Thread

We’ve gotten some sporadic threads going over the first week of ST, but nothing has really taken off.  I’m putting this up now, and will be adding any news/updates to the comments as they pop up.  It’s going to be a relatively quiet spring, I’d expect, and I’m heading to Phoenix for a few games in a couple of week (so if anyone is going to be there, let me know).

Here’s how I see the roster today, feel free to comment, laugh, etc:

LOCKS:
Hitters (10) - Rizzo, Bryant, Zobrist, Russell, ...

Sox Therapy: The Roster - Part Deux

With pitchers and catchers officially in camp, winter transactions pretty solidly wrapped up and health issues starting to clarify I figured today might be a good day to run through the roster again and see where we are.

Starters:
1B – Mitch Moreland
2B – Dustin Pedroia
3B – Pablo Sandoval
SS – Xander Bogaerts
LF – Andrew Benintendi
CF – Jackie Bradley Jr.
RF – Mookie Betts
C – Sandy Leon
DH – Hanley Ramirez

Bench:
IF – Brock Holt
IF - Marco Hernandez
OF – Chris Young
C ...

Sox Therapy: Third Aid

First aid is immediate help given for an injury that will suffice until full medical treatment can be given. I don’t think second aid is actually a term people use, but let’s say it’s the full medical treatment that was sought after first aid was administered. That should be the end of it, right? Well, yeah. Third aid shouldn’t exist because full medical treatment should solve the problem.

Sox Therapy: Truckin’ Along

So with the truck (or The Truck) having left Boston for its glorious reappearing in Fort Myers today I thought it might be time to start thinking about spring training.  Because I know you are all worried I leave in 32 days for the Sunshine State.  With that in mind I was thinking about what I am looking forward to at the four games I am going to be attending;

Pablo Sandoval – Hey why mess around?  My father was at the house Saturday night and he said “I want a picture of Sandoval as soon ...

Gonfalon Cubs: Last Minute Depth Shopping

I added a comment to the last post about the Brett Anderson signing, but there wasn’t a thread for it (nor did it really deserve it’s own thread).  That’s obviously a depth signing, and at only $3.5 mil guaranteed, it’s relatively low risk.  It’s incredibly unlikely he’s healthy enough to be a much of a factor at all, but if he is, the incentives can take his deal up to $10mil.  I’m perfectly fine with this, but if he’s really the 6th starter, there still is more work to do.

So yesterday, the ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2000 Results

Congratulations to Pedro Martinez for being elected the 2000 Most Meritorious Player. This is the first election which has required a tie-breaker.

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Pedro Martinez	150	11	7
Alex Rodriguez	150	11	3
Jason Giambi	139	11	1
Barry Bonds	118	11	0
Jeff Kent	96	11	0
Carlos Delgado	86	11	0
Randy Johnson	82	10	0
Todd Helton	76	8	0
Darin Erstad	66	9	0
N Garciaparra	51	9	0
Frank Thomas	37	8	0
Mike Piazza	35	7	0
Andruw Jones	32	4	0
Edgardo Alfonzo	28	6	0
Troy Glaus	26	5	0
Greg ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2001 Discussion

The Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in seven games. Vote for 15.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Barry Bonds		50.2		11.9
Sammy Sosa		43.8		10.3
Alex Rodriguez		34.1		8.3
Jason Giambi		38.3		9.2
Bret Boone		34.9		8.8
Rich Aurilia		32.3		6.7
Luis Gonzalez		35.6		7.9
Larry Walker		23.0		7.8
Shawn Green		34.4		7.0
Scott Rolen		27.5		5.5
Roberto Alomar		35.3		7.3
Albert Pujols		31.6		6.6
Chipper Jones		30.9		5.9
Eric Chavez		24.9		6.0
Todd Helton		25.1		7.8
Cliff Floyd		26.2		6.6
Phil Nevin		32.6		5.8
Paul ...