My Awards Ballot: What Would a Reasonable Therapudlian Do?

I had the privilege of casting a ballot for BBTF’s postseason awards. On a mailing list I’ve discussed my overall ballot, but here, in Sox Therapy, I thought I would explain the Red Sox who made, and didn’t make, my ballot and why, so you can all lambaste me for failing to do you proud.

For AL MVP we voted for 10 candidates. I had Papi #1 and Lil Papi #10. I left Manny off the ballot. If the MVP were a “best player” award, I would have filled out the ballot differently, but to me the MVP is ...

Red Sox Welcome Two Mystery Coaches into the Fold

As already noted in a news thread, the Red Sox are ‘close’ to hiring John Farrell to be there pitching coach. There is also a report in the Globe that they have inked Dave Magadan as some sort of coach, although no one seems sure what yet.

I have virtually no opinion on these two moves. The only thing that sticks out is that one guy (Farrell) seems to be a Francona guy while the other (Magadan) isn’t. I think that indicates that the FO is using his input, but not giving him free reign. ...Read More...

Philly’s Big Study of Pitcher Durability

Over on SOSH, our pal Philly has posted a very illuminating study of durability among FA pitchers. He starts with Derek Lowe and then moves into a discussion of other guys who have been signed to multi-year deals in recent years. There’s also a section on pitchers that will be available this coming offseason.

I’m not sure what conclusion to draw from the work. One think I think it shows is that Clement was a very reasonable signing at the time. And Philly’s point, that durability may be a bit ...

Kill (Okay, fire) ‘em All, Let God Sort Them Out!

According to several articles, like this MLB one, the Red Sox have gotten rid of both hitting coach Ron Jackson and pitching coach Dave Wallace.

As outsiders, it’s very hard for us to determine if these are good moves. Was Jackson really a big help to Ortiz, or would Ortiz have done well without him? Even if he helped Ortiz, did most players find him helpful as well? Was Wallace a good pitching coach saddled with a bunch of guys who were poised for collapse? Or was his health a major hurdle? ...

The Amazing Year of David Ortiz

Big Papi hit his 54th HR tonight, which is just an amazing feat for a lefthanded dead pull hitter who plays half his games in Fenway. He currently has 32 HR in 77 road games vs. only 22 in 70 home games. His splits were 20/27 in 05 and 17/24 in 04.

Maybe should be looked at more closely when considering his value in the MVP race. And then again, maybe not. Maybe it should just be part of our appreciation of him as an awesome DH. I just thought it would be nice to have a thread looking back on ...

Francona urges changes in playoff format

I’m putting this in Sox Therapy because I don’t have the keys to put it elsewhere, but everyone’s welcome to chime in.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a Red Sox notes that includes an interesting item. It says that Terry Francona favors two changes to the playoff setup:

One would add a second wild-card team in each league. The wild-card teams would have a play-in game, giving the division winners three days to set up their pitching.

The other change would have every team playing two ...

Manny!

Well, according to Edes’s most recent anti-Manny tirade (RR), Manny has again asked to be traded:

...he had the audacity this week, through agent Greg Genske, to reiterate to the Red Sox his desire to be traded this winter.

Although I don’t agree with Edes here, I do think that there’s some merit to trading Manny. Take a look at the defense rankings posted on Dialed In. Manny comes in at -41 R/150 games, which Chris attributes largely to park. But even if you give him 10 runs Manny is still ...

Portland Wins the EL title

MCoA points out that Devern Hansack won the deciding game in the Eastern League Series to propel the Sea Dogs to the championship. The 28-year-old had a nice year for Portland and will likely get a callup (or maybe he did already?).

The Coaching Question

I know this has been touched on in Toby’s thread, but that was so all-encompassing as to make all other threads pointless. Here, I just want to talk about what people think should be done with the coaching staff. Bring ‘em all back? Fire ‘em all? Something in between?

I’ve been a little kinder to Francona this year, mainly because he made two decisions (Pap as closer, Youk as fulltime starter) that I didn’t think he was capable of. But overall, I don’t think he’s a good manager. He doesn’t ...

Is Theo morphing into Duke?

I started pondering this question as I read through the Dear Theo thread.

The general sense from that thread, I think, is that few of us think the front office really knows what it is doing. (Perhaps they did know what they were doing at one point, but that point is in the rear-view mirror.)

I don’t want to turn this into a thread about Theo vs. Duke, but I have to say that the current regime is starting to remind me of the Duke regime. Let me explain. To me, the Duke regime followed a clear ...

Open Letter to Theo

Dear Theo,

over the offseason, please do the following:

[see posts below]

Yours in the struggle,
The Therapudlians

Weekly Minor League Thread: The End of the mL season

I don’t have much here, just wanted to put something up for us to look back on the year in the minors. I think the brightest spot, among a fair number of good stuff, was the success of Bowden and Buccholz. Both did well in low A, the former at the age of 19. Buchholz even pitched well after his promotion to A+ and may be headed for AA next year. Very close behind them is probably Ellsbury. He has moved up very quickly, continued to make good contact, and showed good speed and defense. He may ...

It’s Time to Run the Table

It’s time to run the table.

Lenny Megliola of the MetroWest Daily News has a nice little column on the ‘Last Chance Saloon’ sentiment in the Red Sox clubhouse here.

We have Trot and Tek and Manny back, and should get Papi back today.

Okay, so we have no pitching whatsoever. Our third starter is Julian Tavarez and our closer is getting an MRI today. But we can dream, can’t we?

BPro odds gives us about a 1 percent chance to make the playoffs.

We’re 6 games behind the Twins (with 3 games ...

Weekly Minor League Thread: Welcome Backstop Kotteras

Maybe the only bright spot in this recent slide into oblivion is that the Red Sox dropped far enough quickly enough that it made sense to deal away Wells for whatever you could get. My hope was that they would accept nothing less than a B prospect, and in Kotteras I think they surpassed that level a bit. Both Sickels (B+) and BA had him as the Pads’ #2 prospect, Dayn Perry (I know) had him #77 in baseball, and got an honorable mention on the Baseball Analyst 75. He has good discipline and a ...

How bad can it get? Very, very bad.

Today’s lineup pretty much says it all:

Kevin Youkilis, LF
Alex Cora, SS
Mark Loretta, DH
Mike Lowell, 3B
Gabe Kapler, CF
Doug Mirabelli, C
Eric Hinske, RF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Carlos Pena, 1B

Well, they had their starting 3b! The amount of injuries heaped upon this team has been staggering. It’s so bad that I’m glad that they didn’t make any major moves at the deadline. They would have turned out to be waste. Let’s hope that David Wells will soon be on his way west. ...Read More...

August 31: Are We Buyers or Sellers?

I’m one of the few card-carrying optimists around here, and I am on record as saying that this team has its best baseball ahead of it, that it will have a strong September and will make an entertaining bid for the playoffs.

I still believe that. And yet, a couple days before the Aug. 31 deadline, I say now is the time to fold and sell, sell, sell.

Who can we sell? I frankly don’t know, I don’t follow waiver statuses as closely as many of you. But if we can grant Wells his preseason wish and ...

Bullpen Concerns Revisited Revisited

Since the other thread on the Red Sox Bullpen has been sent off into oblvion, I’m starting a new one. People can continue to ruin that thread for all I care, but please let’s use this one to discuss the topic at hand.

Earlier in the year, I voiced some concerns about the bullpen’s workload:

Can anyone explain to me why, with a 7-1 lead, Francona went to Keith Foulke tonight? Foulke isn’t the only overworked pitcher in the pen, but he’s the leading one. 162 g pace coming into the night: ...Read More...