Hall of Merit: Reranking Pitchers 1893-1923: Ballot

Rank the following 19 pitchers

Pete Alexander
Mordecai Brown
Stan Coveleski
Red Faber
Rube Foster
Clark Griffith
Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Joe McGinnity
Jose Mendez
Kid Nichols
Eddie Plank
Cannonball Dick Redding
Eppa Rixey
Amos Rusie
Rube Waddell
Ed Walsh
Smokey Joe Williams
Cy Young

Sox Therapy: Over and Out

Well there’s one question answered for the off season as the Sox have let yet another General Manager go as they have fired Chaim Bloom.  This is not a particularly stunning turn of events, three last place finishes in four years is not going to have your bosses exactly enamored of your performance (well, if you are the A’s GM maybe).  Anyway, while this is big news I think it’s more interesting to look back briefly but then look forward.

And when I say look back I find myself looking (cue ...

Hall of Merit: Reranking First Basemen: Results

Lou Gehrig tops our first basemen again.

Player Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	Points
Lou Gehrig	11	1																								299
Jimmie Foxx		9	2			1																				282
Cap Anson	1	2	5	3			1																			273
Roger Connor			2	5	1	2		1	1																	252
Johnny Mize			3	2	2	3		1	1																	250
Dan Brouthers					5	1	4		1				1													231
Jeff Bagwell				1	3		2	4	2																	229
Hank ...

Sox Therapy: We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

The Red Sox schedule… It doesn’t look good.

Sox Therapy: Three Trades

Well the Red Sox are throwing down the gauntlet to even the most skeptical among us. This may not be a great team but they ARE in playoff contention and you don’t sit back and wait in years where that happens.  At the same time I think most Sox fans want the right mix of going for it and not giving up the future.  That should probably create a bit of a challenge for GM Chaim Bloom and his merry band of number crunchers as July 31 approaches.  There is still a pretty sizable part of me that ...

Hall of Merit: Reranking Pitchers 1893-1923: Discussion

Rank the following 19 pitchers

Pete Alexander
Mordecai Brown
Stan Coveleski
Red Faber
Rube Foster
Clark Griffith
Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Joe McGinnity
Jose Mendez
Kid Nichols
Eddie Plank
Cannonball Dick Redding
Eppa Rixey
Amos Rusie
Rube Waddell
Ed Walsh
Smokey Joe Williams
Cy Young

Sox Therapy: Halfwayish to Something

With the baseball world taking its traditional midseason break it’s time to revisit the local nine and how things rolled in the first half;

MVP - Alex Verdugo - I think you could go a number of different directions here.  Depending on how you want to look at it I think you could make a case for Verdugo, James Paxton, Brayan Bello and even Jarren Duran.  But in the end I’m going with Dugie.  A bit of a…something in Cleveland when he was benched for failing to hustle on a ground ball but he ...

Hall of Merit: Reranking First Basemen: Ballot

Rank the following 25 first basemen

Dick Allen
Cap Anson
Jeff Bagwell
Jake Beckley
Dan Brouthers
Will Clark
Roger Connor
Jimmie Foxx
Lou Gehrig
Hank Greenberg
Todd Helton
Keith Hernandez
Harmon Killebrew
Buck Leonard
Willie McCovey
Mark McGwire
Johnny Mize
Eddie Murray
Rafael Palmeiro
George Sisler
Joe Start
Mule Suttles
Bill Terry
Frank Thomas
Jim Thome

Sox Therapy: The Case for Doing Nothing

With the trade deadline just a few weeks away there is much chatter building about what the Red Sox should be looking to do.  Some want the *NSYNC deadline approach (“buy buy buy”) and some want a Barenaked Ladies approach (“sell sell sell”).  But I am here to talk about the less exciting but potentially more lucrative “don’t do a damned thing” approach.

Let’s start with this.  The Red Sox are a flawed team.  The holes are obvious and have been since the winter.  The pitching is thin (and ...

Sox Therapy: Where We Headed?

So I’ve been pondering this a bit lately and jacksone made the following comment that I think helped me narrow my thoughts down;

What do all of you expect or hope for next year? Because for me, this team and organization is still a year away from legit contention. There may be a solid wild card run next in ‘24, but I am not expecting any sort of postseason success. 2025, for sure, I expect them to contend and be a legit force.