Gonfalon Cubs: Now or Never

That makes things sound more dire than they really are, but for my sake at least, if the Cubs have any chance at still making noise this season, we really need to see another one of those dominating stretches over the next few weeks.  The Cubs padded their stats last year against the Reds, and it’d be nice to see some more of that.

It’s a little disheartening to see the Cubs roll out a lineup that still has Zobrist and his .662 OPS hitting clean-up followed by Schwarber and his .731 OPS and ...

Sox Therapy: The Gauntlet

This month is the gauntlet for Boston. They need to do more than just endure it.

Gonfalon Cubs: A Crucial Time

We are two series into a stretch of five that should tell us a lot about this team.

The just completed series against Milwaukee and Arizona were the first against winning teams since the All Star Break, and the Cubs split the six games. It would have been nice to come out ahead, but the overall picture was not bad. Four of the games were pitchers’ duels with six or fewer total runs, and the Cubs were not blown out in any of them—in fact, there has only been one blowout against the Cubs since ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2007 Discussion

The Red Sox defeated the Rockies in the World Series. Vote for 15.

Player Name		SH WS		rWAR
Alex Rodriguez		35.0		9.4
David Wright		34.7		8.3
Albert Pujols		32.4		8.7
Chase Utley		29.0		7.8
Curtis Granderson	29.6		7.6
Magglio Ordonez		31.5		7.3
Chipper Jones		26.7		7.6
Carlos Pena		28.7		7.2
Robinson Cano		22.6		6.7
Troy Tulowitzki		25.0		6.8
Jimmy Rollins		28.2		6.1
Jose Reyes		25.5		5.1
Matt Holliday		27.9		6.0
Ichiro Suzuki		29.7		5.8
Grady Sizemore		28.6		5.5
Carlos ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2006 Results

Congratulations to Albert Pujols. After three consecutive runner-up finishes he has his first MMP victory!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Albert Pujols	143	10	6
Carlos Beltran	135	10	4
Chase Utley	87	9	0
Johan Santana	86	9	0
Joe Mauer	86	9	0
Ryan Howard	78	9	0
Grady Sizemore	75	8	0
Lance Berkman	70	9	0
Miguel Cabrera	65	8	0
Travis Hafner	62	7	0
Derek Jeter	54	9	0
David Ortiz	51	8	0
Brandon Webb	46	8	0
Carlos Guillen	34	6	0
Bronson Arroyo	25	5	0
Alfonso Soriano	23	4	0
Jered Weaver	14	2	0
Vernon ...

Sox Therapy: Turn The Page

The Sox picked up a helpful victory on Monday night behind the outstanding pitching of Doug Fister and a 4 hit day from the new third baseman whose name I am not worthy to repeat.  The four hits by [redacted for unworthiness] makes him the first 20 year old to have a four hit game for the club since Tony Conigliaro (thanks Baseball-Reference Play Index!!!).  The win also allows the Sox to keep pace with the Yankees just half a game out of first and gives them a four game lead in the Wild Card ...

Sox Therapy: What Do We Think?

So what do we think?  The first 3 1/2 months of the baseball season went pretty well for the local nine.  The usual ups and downs but a 3 game lead at the break, a favorable schedule, generally good health and it was looking good for a first ever repeat division title.

Instead things have gotten away from the Sox a bit.  A few losses in winnable games, injuries particularly to Bogaerts and now David Price have made things dicey and the Yankees are hot.  Suddenly the Sox are in a “4 teams for 3 ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2006 Ballot

For 2006 each voter should rank the top 15 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 2 August 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 1 August 2017.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Sox Therapy: What Can We Expect?

The Red Sox have made the highly anticipated and hoped for move of calling up hot prospect Rafael Devers to try and address the issues at third base.  The good news is that Devers is almost certainly going to be an upgrade over the .228/.280/.320 line our third basemen have mustered in 2017.  According to FanGraphs his rest of season forecast is .270/.310/.436.  By way of comparison Brock Holt projects as .269/.332/.367 and the two players both are roughly the same in terms of WAR (0.0 for ...

Gonfalon Cubs: What a difference a week makes

I was fortunate enough to witness in person the last game before the All Star Break, when Jon Lester gave up 10 runs (only 4 earned) and only got two outs in the first inning.

Since then:

7-1
.304/.355/.556, 6.38 R/G, 2.12 HR/G
3.63 (2.16 for SP)

And a big trade that brought a quality-controlled starter, who put up a game score of 83 in his first start. Lester has made two starts since the one I saw on July 9th, going 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA, walking 1 and striking out 16 in 15 innings.