Sox Therapy: The Boston Red Sox Will Play for the Pennant

In April 15 American League teams began their quest for the World Series.  Three of them are left standing and kids, the Boston Red Sox are one of them after a grinding 6-5 victory over a genuinely terrific Tampa Bay Rays team.  The praise for the Rays can’t be overstated, they are a hell of a team and are worthy of all the salutations.

But for now, the celebration is here with the local nine.  They.  Do.  Not.  Get.  Rattled.  This team has had so many chances to roll over and you know ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1894 Results

Amos Rusie is our unanimous choice as the 1894 Most Meritorious Player!

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Amos Rusie	90	6	6
Jouett Meekin	81	6	0
Billy Hamilton	70	6	0
Hugh Duffy	66	6	0
Ted Breitenstein	58	6	0
Cy Young	57	5	0
Joe Kelley	53	6	0
Kid Nichols	46	4	0
Ed Delahanty	30	4	0
Bill Joyce	15	2	0
Bill Dahlen	14	2	0
George Davis	13	2	0
Lave Cross	10	1	0
Jack Stivetts	9	1	0
John McGraw	6	1	0
Pink Hawley	6	1	0
Sam Thompson	6	1	0

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 2021 Discussion

Vote for 15.

Player			bWAR
Carlos Correa		7.2
Marcus Semien		7.1
Juan Soto		7.0
Vladimir Guerrero Jr	6.8
Jose Ramirez		6.7
Fernando Tatis Jr	6.6
Trea Turner		6.5
Tyler O'Neill		6.3
Paul Goldschmidt	6.2
Austin Riley		6.1
Brandon Crawford	6.1
Bo Bichette		6.0
Bryan Reynolds		6.0
Aaron Judge		5.9
Bryce Harper		5.9
Matt Olson		5.8
Kyle Tucker		5.7
Cedric Mullins		5.7
Salvador Perez		5.3
Manny Machado		5.1
Max Muncy		4.9
Shohei Otani		4.9*
Xander Bogaerts		4.9
Enrique Hernandez	4.9
Jake ...

Sox Therapy: Minors Making Major Moves Man

Well the Major League club will continue playing baseball after Tuesday’s thrilling Wild Card victory over the third place Yankees but the minor league season has largely concluded with just some Arizona Fall League baseball to follow.  With that in mind I thought a look at the system as it stands was in order.  The prospect hounds have been pretty positive about the state of the Red Sox system as the Sox saw real movement forward from many in their system.

The Good:

The biggest positive for ...

Sox Therapy: This Is Fun

Unbelievable.  All of us, and yeah I’m part of that, have underestimated this team all year and they showed us all what they can do.  Facing the presumptive AL Cy Young winner they chased him in exactly the same amount of time as Roger Clemens in the “Where is Roger?” Game.*. Xander Bogaerts who has been struggling of late came to life with the big homer and the hot Alex Verdugo did it again with a three RBI night including getting a good bounce in the corner that had Tony Clark saying ...

Sox Therapy: PLAYOFFS!

Unbelievable.  For the first time in their 121 year history the Sox will play a Wild Card game.  This will feature Nathan Eovaldi facing Gerrit Cole of the third place Yankees.  I can only wish Johnny Pesky could have lived to have seen a Wild Card game at Fenway.  Playing a Wild Card game is the dream of every young man.

OK, jokes aside I’m thinking of what MCoA wrote after the 2013 World Series.  This team, this ####### team. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy but man they came through.  ...

Sox Therapy: So Here We Are

The final weekend is here. The Sox dropped the ball pretty aggressively in Baltimore as the bats continued their silence from the previous weekend.  There is really not a lot of analysis to be done at this point, the Sox need to play well in Washington.  Given results this week things are a lot more difficult than they need to be but the fact is with game 160 tonight the Boston Red Sox still have their destiny in their hands.  As a practical matter some scoreboard watching will be in order.

I ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1894 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 on 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 judged in relation to the ...

Sox Therapy: That Didn’t Go Well, But The Situation Is Still Very Good

That didn’t go entirely well but it’s not nearly a disaster either.  As I said prior to the series that was a lot bigger for the Yankees than it was for the Sox and I said that assuming the Blue Jays would sweep the Twins rather than splitting with them.

The Sox magic number is now 6 for a Wild Card berth (8 to take out the Yankees).  All in all the situation is still good. The Sox fundamentally have their fate in their hands.  Winning four out of six in Baltimore and Washington is more ...

Sox Therapy: OK, Let’s Play Scenarios

OK, with tonight’s results in the books the Sox are locked in at worst being a game out on Monday morning with the knowledge that a win Tuesday would bring them even with whoever loses the Yankee/Blue Jay first game.  That’s a huge advantage for the Sox right now.  Looking at some scenarios the Sox should realistically be looking at 93 wins as a bare minimum (5-4 against NYY, Baltimore and Washington) shouldn’t be a big ask.  That requires the Yankees to go 7-2 and Toronto 8-2 to get ...