Sox Therapy: Shortstop by the Numbers

The Red Sox shortstop position is apparently still open.  Before spring training, I ran some quick numbers and found that Nick Punto projected as the best shortstop on the roster, and Mike Aviles would make a reasonable platoon partner.  In spring, all the talk has been about Jose Iglesias and his wonderglove.  Those Iglesias stories usually have a little caveat that while Iglesias has stolen the hearts of all who have caught a glimpse of him, Mike Aviles is “almost certainly” going to be ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1970 Ballot

Here are the specific rules for this election:
Candidate Eligibility: Any North American professional baseball player is eligible for the Most Meritorious Player (MMP) award including players in the top Negro Leagues or independent teams. Voters should consider the player’s on-field contribution to Major League Baseball (MLB) team(s) in that season only. If part of the season was spent outside MLB, that value may be considered as well. However, the player’s on-field contribution should be ...

Hall of Merit: Kenny Lofton

Eligible in 2013.

Sox Therapy: Bobs’ Decision: Back of the Rotation

The Red Sox took a big risk this offseason with their pitching staff.  Instead of signing or trading for established starting pitchers to cover the innings behind Lester, Beckett, and Buchholz, they decided to fill the positions internally and backstop the young guys with some scrap-heap arms.  The remaining rotation slots project to be taken by two of Bard, Aceves, Doubront, Miller, and Padilla.  The Sox are hosting a real spring competition for at least one rotation slot, which means that ...

Jim's Lab Notes: IMPORTANT!!! Login with E-mail Address Soon to Be Required

UPDATE2: I have moved the requirement for e-mail logins to Monday, March 16, 2012 at 9 AM EDT. 

UPDATE: Logged in members may change their usernames by visiting the Username and Password account page.

Part of the ongoing upgrade includes revamping our archives and member pages. To allow me to provide stable, web-friendly URLs for each member’s combined member/profile/archive (something like http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/somepath/username), I am converting the login process from ...

Sox Therapy: Manager’s Decision: Shortstop

New manager Bobby Valentine made a headline or two this week by banning alcohol from the clubhouse.  I don’t have a particular comment on this – if it helps the team play better, it’s good, if it hurts the team, it’s bad.  Which it is depends on lots of things I don’t know.  Hopefully it’s the former. 

In the spring, I like to look at a different set of decisions facing the manager, ones we can more usefully analyze.  On a club like the Red Sox, many of the manager’s decisions ...

Hall of Merit: Curt Schilling

Eligible in 2013.

Hall of Merit: Sammy Sosa

Eligible in 2013.

Hall of Merit: Mike Piazza

Eligible in 2013.

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1969 Results

The last ballot counted switched the leaders around for the final time.

Congratulations to 1969’s Most Meritorious Player, Reggie Jackson!

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts
Jackson		4	5	3										169
Petrocelli	2	3	4	3				1					168
McCovey		4	2	1	4		1							159
Gibson		2	3	2	3			1			1	1		154
Aaron				1	2	5	2	1		1				128
Wynn						2	4		2			1		 83
Frobinson						1	3	2	2	2		1	 83
Killebrew			1		1			3	1	1	2	2	 79
Marichal						1	3		3	2		2	 78
Bando							1	3	1	2			2	 67
Dierker						2		1	2			3 ...