Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1924 Ballot

For 1924 each voter should rank the top 10 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 4 March 2020.

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 3 March 2020.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Sox Therapy: Real Pretend Baseball!!!!

After a quiet and uneventful off-season….no wait, after a complete shitshow of an off-season the Boston Red Sox will officially begin their slate of spring training games on Saturday afternoon after the unofficial opener against Northeastern on Friday.  I think it suffices to say that most Sox fans are less than pleased with the off-season on any number of levels.  Having said that, the Sox should still be a good team though candidly I fear a 2012 style disaster but that’s emotion not logic ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1924 Discussion

The Washington Senators defeated the Giants 4 games to 3 in a World Series. Game 7 went 12 innings.

The Kansas City Monarchs beat Hilldale 5 games to 4 (with another game ending tied) in the Colored World Series. Games were played in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Kansas City and Chicago.

Vote for 10.

Player			SH WS		BBR WAR
Rogers Hornsby		39.4		12.1
Babe Ruth		44.8		11.7
Frankie Frisch		29.5		7.5
Zack Wheat		35.3		6.7
Ross Youngs		28.7		5.9
Jack Fournier		34.4		6.3
Harry Heilmann		29.6		6.4
Goose ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1923 Results

Congratulations to Babe Ruth, our unanimous pick for 1923 Most Meritorious Player!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Babe Ruth	120	8	8
Dolf Luque	109	8	0
Harry Heilmann	98	8	0
Tris Speaker	94	8	0
Bullet Rogan	83	8	0
Joe Sewell	59	7	0
Rogers Hornsby	50	6	0
Ken Williams	50	6	0
Frankie Frisch	30	4	0
George Uhle	29	3	0
Dave Brown	28	3	0
Urban Shocker	24	3	0
Dobie Moore	22	3	0
Oscar Charleston	17	2	0
Jimmy Ring	17	2	0
Cristobal Torriente	10	1	0

Sox Therapy: 2020 Vision - Version 2.0

Well, now that the Sox have made their big move it’s worth taking a look at what the 2020 Boston Red Sox now look like with some notes about the changes from version 1 (https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/sox_therapy/discussion/2020_vision)

Infield: Mitch Moreland, Michael Chavis, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Jose Peraza, Tzu-Wei Lin

Changes from Version 1:
Drop Sam Travis, Marco Hernandez
Add Moreland, Peraza,

Adding Moreland is a nice little move that I think fits well.  He’s ...

Sox Therapy: Counterpoint: Also Not OK

Jose already covered the main topic well. I just want to step back and reconsider the following statement:

It’s not official but There is no baseball case for moving Mookie.  If the Sox wanted to cut payroll they should never have offered a contract to Jackie Bradley and traded JD Martinez.  Or they could have traded David Price with quite literally no return and gotten contract relief that way.

I believe there is a solid baseball case for making this trade. That doesn’t make it OK. ...Read More...

Sox Therapy: Not OK

Un-bleeping-acceptable.

It’s that simple.  The Boston Red Sox have traded a player who should be spending his whole career in Boston as a true homegrown superstar for a few baubles in hopes of competing in 2024 or something.

Oh who are we kidding?  They made this trade so John Henry could get himself a new ivory back scratcher.  This is not freakin’ OK and to pretend that it is is nonsense.  I have been a diehard Red Sox fan my whole life.  My favorite players have included Fred Lynn, ...

Sox Therapy: Truck Day Is Upon Us

It’s TRUC…oh who cares?

Sorry, I want to be excited but I can’t be.  With the potential/likely trade of Mookie Betts looming like Damocles’ sword it is difficult to really get excited here.  The truck leaves Monday at noon but, well hell it’s possible I’ll have to put up another post talking about the biggest trade the Sox have made in eight years and arguably longer than that Monday morning.

But for now, let’s try to be optimistic.  Whether or not Mookie is on the roster the Sox ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1923 Ballot

For 1923 each voter should rank the top 10 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 5 February 2020.

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 4 February 2020.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Hall of Merit: Tim Hudson

Eligible 2021