Roster Numero Uno

EDIT: Shut up, I forgot to list Xander Bogaerts because I’m stupid.  Just shut up.

With just a month until pitchers and catchers (hooray!) I figured this might be a good time to take a gander at the Sox roster as it is currently constituted.  I suspect the Sox will make a move or two to add bullpen help but what are we looking at on Opening Day in Seattle?

Infield: Mitch Moreland, Steve MVPearce, Eduardo Nunez, Brock Holt, Rafael Devers, XANDER BOGAERTS THE GREATEST SHORTSTOP EVAH
Likely DL: ...

2019: The Year in Review

Happy New Year Theradpudians!  As 2018 morphs into 2019 I thought I would step into the Sox Therapy Time Machine and look back at what happened in 2019 as the Sox defended World Series title #9.

January 6 - Three really smart guys show up at Mookie Betts’ house with gifts for Mookie’s new baby.  They give the baby a copy of Gold Bond powder, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and much mirth.  They may not be the three smart guys we thought.

January 17 - The Red Sox sign southpaw reliever ...

The Big Decision

In the post about the off-season Jay Seaver made a comment that I think was correct;

I’m only half-joking when I say that the biggest hole the Red Sox have to fill for 2019 is in the booth - now that they know Remy won’t be going on the road and Dennis Eckersley is not inclined to, they really need to find someone better than Lyons and (shudder) Gomes to fill that void. Lenny DiNardo seemed fairly solid when filling in back in 2017, but maybe there are better options.

Jay is right, it’s kind ...

The Band Is Back Together…Now What?

The Sox are slowly but surely putting the band back together.  Sir Nathan The Unnecessary* is returning on the heels of the Steve Pearce re-signing making the Sox a pretty complete outfit.  Obviously there is work to be done in the bullpen and that is almost surely going to be Dave Dombrowski’s focus at the Winter Meetings but the Sox still could make a splash if they choose to.  I do not expect a free agent signing other than a reliever or three but beyond that they could still make some ...

Sox Therapy Looks at the Hall of Fame Ballot

With the recent announcement of the official 2019 Hall of Fame ballot I am reminded of just how devalued I personally find the Hall of Fame and related discussions.  All too often it comes down to people shouting past each other about WAR calculations or what “Fame” means in the context of the Hall and that is not even getting into the varying viewpoints on PEDs and other questionable behaviors.  At this point it is more fun for me to see the names popping up on the list and remembering some of ...

Let’s Get Off-Seasoning!

So it’s been a couple of weeks since the Boston Red Sox WON THE 2018 WORLD SERIES…let’s take a moment…OK and now it is time to look ahead to 2019.  Apologies for the delay but I am on a bit of a vacation in Florida but sadly the weather here is awful, only 72 degrees and clear skies.  I can’t imagine anywhere else in the US is having worse weather.

Anyhoot…I think there is not a lot to talk about for the Red Sox for the coming winter months.  Unlike last year when there was a lot to do ...

The Greatest Red Sox Team…EVER!!!!

With all due respect to the speech by Curtis Montague Schilling (R-RI) after the 2004 World Series title this truly is the greatest Red Sox team ever.  They laid waste to the American League during the regular season winning a team record 108 games, then blitzed the 100 win second place Yankees in four games, ran through the defending World Series champion 103 win Astros in five games then put the smack down on the two time National League champion Dodgers in five to close it out.

And the ...

Let’s Get World Serious!

So here we go.  The rematch 102 years in the making as the Dodgers look to get revenge for the pain inflicted by Babe Ruth (imagine waiting a century to overcome some kind of pain inflicted by Babe Ruth, losers).  This should be a humdinger of a series with the two best teams in their respective leagues in my opinion doing battle.  There are plenty of questions worth considering;

1. Will Mookie Betts play second base?

This is going to get a fair amount of attention but I suspect it is not ...

American League Champions!!!!

The title says it all.  They dominated the American League for 162 games and now they’ve laid waste to two 100 win teams going 7-2 including an unbelievable 5-0 on the road.  And now 5 days off before hosting game one.

Not a lot to say right now.  Jackie Bradley Jr. is a deserving MVP, not only did he have big numbers he had them at big moments.  Beyond that, it was great to see redemption for guys like David Price who was BRILLIANT and Craig Kimbrel who pitched as well as he has in a ...

ALCS Thoughts

Not sure you’ve heard but the Boston Red Sox are in the American League Championship Series!  Yeah, that’s got a nice ring to it for the three time defending AL East Champions.  The path to a World Series doesn’t get much easier as the Houston Astros come to town to start things off tonight.  Captain Obvious stopped by to note that the Astros are really really really good.  But of course so are the 108+3 win Red Sox so I expect a tight, well played series.  The nice and fun thing about this ...

Damage Done

Bring on the Astros!!!

Good lord I’m not going to sleep tonight.  That game certainly was the opposite of what I expected, the bullpen was brilliant except for Craig Kimbrel but he was good enough…just.  Some quick notes as the strains of New York, New York keeps pounding in the Sox clubhouse.

- Alex Cora 1, Us Idiots on the Internet 0 - Ian Kinsler and Eduardo Nunez both had solid games and Nunez made a heck of a play to end it.  Full credit to Steve Pearce for a terrific stretch on that ...

Sox Therapy ALDS Preview

So here we go.  Before I dig into this a bit let me say this; I have not been looking forward to this somewhat predictable series all year.  I’m sure it will be a great series as both teams are excellent but the ancillary BS that comes with Sox-Yankees saps some of the fun out of it for me.  The lunkheads on both sides come out of the woodwork, the media can’t come up with a story line less than half a century old, the individual games are often routs and even the close games are often ...

WOW

Over the next 11 to 31 days there will be plenty of time for rending of garments, soiling of drawers and general malaise and agita.  But for now, and the next four days it’s a time to sit back and revel in what we just watched the Boston Red Sox do.  The difference between 107 and 108 is small (1) but for me personally that number of 108 is the one that separates the historic from the great.  The number that something truly remarkable has been achieved.  If you win a series, typically taking ...

Decisions Decisions

OK, the Sox have clinched the American League East for the third consecutive year and at some point soon will secure home field throughout their playoff run.  I think I can now safely consider the roster without any jinxes (except injury. This whole piece assumes health which…oh man I’m going to worry about this for two weeks).

Anyway, I am operating under a 14 position player/11 pitcher set up.

(and yes I just literally knocked on my wooden desk);

INFIELD: Mitch Moreland, Ian Kinsler, ...

IT’S OVER

THREEPEAT!!!

The Sox made it three straight AL East division titles today with a wild win and can now focus on going deeper into the playoffs than they have managed the last two seasons.  For what I hope will be some mild amusement attached are one fan’s journey through an amazing and soon to be record setting season.

Sorry I couldn’t put the pictures in here but you should hopefully be able to see them.  The photos in order are;

Bobby Dalbec
Josh Ockimey
First Hot Dog!
J.D. Martinez ...

6,036 Days

As far as I can tell, this blog was started on March 11, 2002. Today is day 6,036 in our long quest to take over the site, the baseball community, the internet, and the universe.

We’ve made some progress, but we still have a ways to go.

11 Days Later

A year ago vi wrote about “The Gauntlet,” a tough stretch of the schedule that really established the Sox on their divisional chase.  This year’s version was these past 11 days where the Sox faced first place Cleveland, a feisty White Sox team, first place Atlanta and first place Houston while the Yankees had a West Coast trip to deal with.  It was a bit grueling but the Sox did enough going 8-5 against this tough competition.  They now lead by 8 1/2 games with 18 to play and are firmly ...

11 Days To…Something

While the Red Sox have 32 days and 28 games left in their regular season there is a very good chance that the next 10 games over 11 days will be decisive.  The Sox have a challenging schedule with a seven game road trip against the White Sox and Braves then three at home against Houston.  While this is going on the Yankees will be playing four in Detroit then a challenge of their own with three in Oakland and three in Seattle.  If one team can assert itself during this stretch (or one team ...

Finishing Up - The Sox Therapy Concernometer

With 37 games to go starting tonight the Sox have done exactly what they wanted to over the first four and a half months winning games at a staggering rater (.704) and building a rather pleasant 9 1/2 game lead in the division.  As any Red Sox fan will tell you, until the magic number equals zero nothing is definite but the way the Sox have played this year I think any concern about protecting the lead is more relative to the Yankees getting white hot than the Sox slumping.  That is not to say ...

Extra Special

Boston won in extra innings in each of their last two games, which continues their dominance past the 9th inning. They have an overall .702 winning percentage, and if you applied that to their 11 extra inning games you’d get an expected 7.7 wins. In reality, they’ve actually won… 8.

Hmm. That’s not as interesting as I’d hoped. Instead, let’s take a stroll through those games. There are some good memories.

What Do We Got?

With the trade deadline come and gone the local nine brought in some reinforcements and prepare for the 55 game sprint to the finish with a 5 game lead in the division.  At an outrageous 75-34 the Sox are on a 111 win pace and even playing .500 ball the rest of the way would put them at 102 wins.  Obviously there is still a lot to play for with the division up for grabs though the Sox have an opportunity this weekend to put a stranglehold on it with the Yankees in town for four games.  Let’s ...

Halfwayish Home

So with the Sox at the “halfway” point of the season (98/162=50%?) let’s catch up a bit.

MVP - Mookie Betts - I mean this isn’t really a tough one. JD Martinez has been great and Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi are having great years also but Mookie has been something special. He may not be the best player in baseball but is he the best five tool player? (What kind of arm does Trout have? I don’t have a sense of that). It’s worth taking a moment to sit back and just ...

Bigfoot, and Unicorns, and the Red Sox Bullpen

Reports are that “Tyler Thornburg” is joining the Red Sox bullpen today. This is the closest we’ve been to actual confirmation that “Tyler Thornburg” actually exists.

Entertaining the hypothetical, let’s consider what the implications would be for the pitching staff, were this to happen.

A Pleasant Trip So Far

The Sox have had a nice little road trip so far notching a 5-2 record and washing the taste of the disappointing homestand out of their collective mouths.  What I think is encouraging is how they have gotten here.  Returning star Mookie Betts has not yet hit his stride hitting just .200/.286/.320 and Ace Chris Sale only started one of the seven games.  I think there are a few things of note both up and down that probably deserve some recognition;

- If this is “all” Eduardo Rodriguez is I think ...

Where Are We?

After a disappointing and somewhat punchless 3-3 homestand the Sox hit the road for a bit of a rugged road trip through Baltimore (3), Seattle (4) and Minnesota (3).  3-3 isn’t an awful homestand or anything but it’s a bit disappointing given the fairly mediocre opposition.  The bad news was the potent offense has really scuffled the last four games scoring just 8 runs while dropping 3 out of 4.  That disappointment is somewhat mitigated by the elephant in the room that is the bizarrely long ...

It’s Getting Drafty

Bit hectic this week at casa de Jose so I really haven’t had a chance to look into the draft.  The Sox top three picks are #26, #64 and #100 and given the state of the system I think it is fair to say the Sox could use a good draft.  I’ll put this up in case anyone wants to comment as the draft gets rolling and despite being completely devoid of knowledge of the draftees this year I fully plan on complaining at some point.  Some notes on these picks;

#26 - Top 5
Alan Trammell - 70.4
Dave ...

That Was Fun

In theory it all sounded good; Sunday of a holiday weekend, good weather, Chris Sale on the bump, stars Mookie Betts and JD Martinez leading the Red Sox while a group of exciting young Braves oppose them.  Instead the weather blew, Sale sucked, Mookie and JDM didn’t play and Ronald Acuna seems to have died at first base (joking aside I hope he’s OK, it looked bad).

But that wasn’t the fun part.  The fun part was the alumni game.  Dragging my fat can out of bed early this morning was a ...

So That Happened

OK, everyone who expected the Hanley Ramirez DFA move raise your hand.  Now everyone raising your hand please put it down because you are a lying dog and I will cut you with the new machete I bought.  Obviously while this is a big shock I think it’s worth considering what it means for the rest of the roster before we go much further.

Jackie Bradley Jr. We’re cool with you - One potential fall back for a club without a lot of outfield options was an alignment with Hanley as the every day DH, ...

At The Quarter Pole

The Sox wrapped up their longest road trip of the season a solid 6-4 including 3-3 through New York and Toronto.  With today’s games being completed the best home team in baseball so far, your Boston Red Sox, have played 10 fewer home games than their co-leaders in the division.  Currently the Sox are seven games ahead of where they were 12 months ago (21-19) and four games ahead of the same spot in 2016 (24-16).  Both of those seasons finished with 93 wins and a division flag.

That’s not ...

El Slumpo

There was a time in my life when I equated “streakiness” with “Brian Daubach.”  I never thought I would ever see a player who was a Major League hitter who could go through such extremes as the Dauber.  I loved him and when he was on the dude would carry the Sox for a week or two but when he was off I genuinely think I could have gotten him out.

Then I met Jackie Bradley Jr.

When this guy is slumping my grandmother could get him out and she’s been dead for two decades (and frankly wasn’t much ...