Gonfalon Cubs: This all sucks

As much as the way the last few years ended, and even though today was completely predictable - and sadly, inevitable - today is still a really painful day.  Maybe we were spared a little pain by getting the shock of the Rizzo dump yesterday, so perhaps we should thank Jed for that.  The Cubs may have done the “smart” and sensible thing, but today sucks as a fan*.  Maybe some of the pieces the Cubs got will end up surprising us and being great, but it’s hard to swallow yet another complete ...

Sox Therapy: Dance With Who Brung Ya’

Barring something late and unexpected the Sox seem to have kept things pretty stable during the trade deadline.  They added Kyle Schwarber (and let me be the 500th person to say, man I can’t wait to hear Remy pronounce that) in exchange for Aldo Ramirez but no other moves were made.  Of course the Sox have made some internal moves lately with the promotions of Jarren Duran and Franchy Cordero and of course the one we are all keen on, the impending return of Chris Sale.  I’m not quite sure where ...

Sox Therapy: Gathering Crowds

At the unofficial halfway point of the season the Sox have exceeded everyone’s expectations and sit atop the American League with the Astros. They hold a 1.5 game lead over Tampa and 8 games over Toronto and New York.  To say this has been enjoyable would be a tremendous understatements.  Let’s revisit some stuff;

MVP - Xander Bogaerts - Rafael Devers has a slight edge in WAR and JD Martinez is just behind him but for me this is Bogaerts’ team and by extension, his award.  In a lot of ways ...

Sox Therapy: Time To Start Thinking About This Stuff

With All Star Break nigh and the Sox riding high (oh that’s good) we are long past the point of wondering IF the Sox can be contenders and asking what they need to do to solidify themselves. There are some areas where improvement is achievable but I think it is without much quibble that the most obvious hole in the lineup is at first base.  I still hope to see Bobby Dalbec figure it all out but when you have a chance to contend it is difficult to carry the guy “hitting” .217/.264/.413.  With ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1939 Results

Congratulations to Bucky Walters, our 1939 Most Meritorious Player!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Bucky Walters	95	7	2
Joe DiMaggio	93	7	1
Bob Feller	88	7	2
Josh Gibson	86	7	2
Johnny Mize	81	7	0
Jimmie Foxx	54	6	0
Ted Williams	47	5	0
Buck Leonard	28	3	0
Bobo Newsom	27	3	0
Bill Dickey	21	3	0
Dolph Camilli	19	2	0
Red Rolfe	16	2	0
Joe Gordon	15	2	0
Mel__ Ott	12	2	0
Bill__ Byrd	9	1	0
Lefty Grove	8	1	0
Roy Partlow	8	1	0
Arky Vaughan	7	1	0
Bob Johnson	7	1	0
Ival Goodman	7	1	0
Paul Derringer	7	1	0

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1893 Discussion

No World Series yet so no postseason consideration.

Player			BBR WAR
Ed Delahanty		6.9
Mike Smith		5.3
Billy Hamilton		5.0
Cupid Childs		4.7
George Davis		5.7
Denny Lyons		5.0
Bid McPhee		3.9
Sam Thompson		4.2
Jake Beckley		4.6
Billy Nash		3.6
Roger Connor		4.4
Dan Brouthers		3.8
John McGraw		4.3
Herman Long		2.9
Bob Allen		3.0
Jack Glasscock		4.0
Jesse Burkett		3.9
John Ward		3.7
Buck Ewing		3.5
Joe Kelley		3.3
Jack Crooks		2.7
Hugh Duffy		3.4
Bill Dahlen		2.7
Tommy McCarthy		3.3
George Van ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1939 Ballot

For 1939 each voter should rank the top 10 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 7 July 2021. Please let me know if you want your preliminary ballot counted as your final ballot.

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 6 July 2021.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Sox Therapy: And Breathe

On the morning of May 30th the Red Sox (and the rest of us) woke up in Boston, looked out the window and saw the rain pelting down.  When the game was postponed and rescheduled for the following Monday the Sox were facing a fairly daunting 17 game stretch.  At that point the Sox had faced a fairly pedestrian schedule and took advantage to muster a 32-20 record that left them a game out of first place behind the Rays.  But the next day would begin a test, 4 in Houston, 3 in the Bronx, 1 with the ...

Sox Therapy: Feeling a Draft

Next month the Sox will make their highest draft pick since 1967 when they picked third (Mike Garman so y’know it’s not an automatic).  Many names are flying around, some familiar (Jack Leiter, Kumal Rocker) others not (Henry Davis, Jordan Lawlar, Marcelo Mayer) but at draft time I always like to look to past as prelude to the future.  Rather than try to tell you something about players I have at best seen in passing I’ll tell you to go Sox Prospects or Baseball America for all the gory details ...

Sox Therapy: Getting There

They got there in the end.  The Sox wound up arguably their sternest test of the season to date with a 4-3 record during this challenging road trip through Houston and Miami.  Sorry, New York, I get the teams with one World Series this century mixed up sometimes.

Anyway where was I? Oh yeah, an uneven but ultimately successful road trip.  Losing three in a row then taking the next four is not necessarily the ideal way to finish up 4-3 (it can be a lot of fun though) but as noted, they got ...