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 ...

Sox Therapy: It’s A Sprint, Not A Marathon

After 5 1/2 eventful months with more than enough drama and excitement the Red Sox have reached the stage of the season where the age-old adage about a baseball season being a marathon not a sprint has turned on its head.  The Sox now have 14 games in 17 days to determine if they are a playoff team or not. 

In simple terms the 2021 season is already a huge success but the time for postmortems will come as will the time to look ahead.  For now a few random thoughts to kickoff a new thread and ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1893 Results

Congratulations to Kid Nichols, winner of a very close 1893 election for Most Meritorious Player.

Player Name	pts	ballots	1sts
Kid Nichols	121	9	3
Amos Rusie	120	9	3
Cy Young	118	9	1
Ed Delahanty	106	9	0
Ted Breitenstein	104	9	0
Frank Killen	76	7	2
Elmer Smith	63	8	0
Billy Hamilton	63	8	0
George Davis	54	6	0
Sadie McMahon	25	3	0
Cupid Childs	22	3	0
Brickyard Kennedy	19	2	0
Hugh Duffy	16	2	0
Denny Lyons	12	2	0
Herman Long	7	1	0
Sam Thompson	7	1	0
Frank Grant	6	1	0
Duke Farrell	6	1	0

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1894 Discussion

No World Series yet so no postseason consideration.

Player			BBR WAR
Billy Hamilton		8.2
Hugh Duffy		6.8
Joe Kelley		6.5
Bill Joyce		5.2
Lave Cross		5.0
Bill Dahlen		4.6
Ed Delahanty		6.0
Hughie Jennings		4.8
George Davis		5.4
Sam Thompson		5.3
Mike Griffin		4.5
John McGraw		4.9
Cupid Childs		4.4
Jake Beckley		4.0
Jake Stenzel		4.6
Dan Brouthers		3.9
Willie Keeler		3.5
Jesse Burkett		3.3
Jack Doyle		3.9
Elmer Smith		4.0

Frank Grant		No statistics

Pitcher
Amos Rusie		13.7
Jouett ...

Sox Therapy: Shrug

There hasn’t been much to add in a new thread lately.  The discussion is rolling as the Sox have tried their best to give us plenty to gripe about.  To say the last week of baseball hasn’t been ideal is hard to argue.  The Sox got swept in a frustrating series in the Bronx and have split so far with Texas.  I think SBPT has laid out a lot of good reasons to reel in our emotions about the recent play by the Sox that is not the nature of fandom.  I’ve been as frustrated as anyone even while ...