Real Pretend Baseball!!!!

After a quiet and uneventful off-season….no wait, after a complete shitshow of an off-season the Boston Red Sox will officially begin their slate of spring training games on Saturday afternoon after the unofficial opener against Northeastern on Friday.  I think it suffices to say that most Sox fans are less than pleased with the off-season on any number of levels.  Having said that, the Sox should still be a good team though candidly I fear a 2012 style disaster but that’s emotion not logic ...

2020 Vision - Version 2.0

Well, now that the Sox have made their big move it’s worth taking a look at what the 2020 Boston Red Sox now look like with some notes about the changes from version 1 (https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/sox_therapy/discussion/2020_vision)

Infield: Mitch Moreland, Michael Chavis, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Jose Peraza, Tzu-Wei Lin

Changes from Version 1:
Drop Sam Travis, Marco Hernandez
Add Moreland, Peraza,

Adding Moreland is a nice little move that I think fits well.  He’s ...

Counterpoint: Also Not OK

Jose already covered the main topic well. I just want to step back and reconsider the following statement:

It’s not official but There is no baseball case for moving Mookie.  If the Sox wanted to cut payroll they should never have offered a contract to Jackie Bradley and traded JD Martinez.  Or they could have traded David Price with quite literally no return and gotten contract relief that way.

I believe there is a solid baseball case for making this trade. That doesn’t make it OK. ...Read More...

Not OK

Un-bleeping-acceptable.

It’s that simple.  The Boston Red Sox have traded a player who should be spending his whole career in Boston as a true homegrown superstar for a few baubles in hopes of competing in 2024 or something.

Oh who are we kidding?  They made this trade so John Henry could get himself a new ivory back scratcher.  This is not freakin’ OK and to pretend that it is is nonsense.  I have been a diehard Red Sox fan my whole life.  My favorite players have included Fred Lynn, ...

Truck Day Is Upon Us

It’s TRUC…oh who cares?

Sorry, I want to be excited but I can’t be.  With the potential/likely trade of Mookie Betts looming like Damocles’ sword it is difficult to really get excited here.  The truck leaves Monday at noon but, well hell it’s possible I’ll have to put up another post talking about the biggest trade the Sox have made in eight years and arguably longer than that Monday morning.

But for now, let’s try to be optimistic.  Whether or not Mookie is on the roster the Sox ...

Who’s In Charge?

I’m putting the cart before the horse a bit here but based on the suspensions and subsequent firings of Jonathan Lunhow and AJ Hinch in Houston it is looking likely that the Boston Red Sox are going to need someone to manage the team for a large chunk of 2020 and potentially beyond.  I’m just going to throw out a few points and I figure this is as good a place to speculate while we wait for the inevitable hammer to fall on Cora (as it should based on available evidence);

- I think firing ...

How Serious Are They?

‘John Henry said that in 2020, the Red Sox “need to be under the [luxury-tax threshold of $208 million] and that was something we’ve known for more than a year now.” Werner later clarified that it was a strong preference rather than an absolute.” (Boston Globe - Alex Speier)

Some follow up headlines;

Sox Ownership says payroll slashing is coming (NBC Sports)
Red Sox want to start cutting payroll (Yahoo)
Red Sox will cut payroll (NY Post)
Red Sox want to slash payroll for 2020 season ...

2020 Vision

With the Bruins loss on Saturday night the Sox are no longer the last Boston team to lose a home game in regulation. With that shame no longer attached and the Winter Meetings underway it is time to look ahead to 2020 with a first look at the Opening Day roster as it currently exists;

1B - Michael Chavis
2B - Marco Hernandez
3B - Rafael Devers
SS - Xander Bogaerts
LF - Andrew Benintendi
CF - Jackie Bradley Jr.
RF - Mookie Betts
C - Christian Vazquez
DH - JD Martinez
IF - Tzu-Wei Lin
IF - Sam ...

Thankful for an Amazing Decade

It seems to be a thing to pick an All-Decade team these days and with Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, upon us it’s a good way to express our thanks for this amazing decade where the Boston Red Sox won as many World Series titles as the rest of the American League combined.

So, just a bit of fun for your reading pleasure or to be ignored.  No refunds will be issued.

1B - Mike Napoli
Other Nominees: Mitch Moreland, Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis

First base has been a bit of a rotating ...

Gumbo Limbo, Mookie Betts and “Not My Money”

Let’s get the part where you all hate me out of the way.  While the Boston area freezes its collective caboose off I’m down in Naples, FL sitting on the lanai with a cigar, a Guinness and some nachos looking at nearly clear blue skies.  I tell you this not to make you feel jealous (well, not “only” that) but for reasons I hope to make apparent.

Of course this is the Off-Season of Mookie and everything has to do with Mookie.  As a practical matter the Sox can do three things this ...

Musings on Rule Changes and Bullpen Construction

Starting next season there are two new rules that affect most of the season:

1. Active roster size expands from 25 to 26.

2. Any pitcher who enters the game cannot be removed until the first of these three events:
- injury
- end of the half-inning (or game)
- they have faced at least 3 batters.

As the offseason begins, what do the new rules - the second one, specifically - mean for the Red Sox bullpen?

J.D. Martinez’s Qualified Decision

We’re about a week away from JDM’s big decision. Big decisions aren’t easy.

2020 is in Bloom

While anything official will wait for the end of the World Series multiple reports (Joel Sherman, Rob Bradford among others) are reporting that the Red Sox are hiring Chaim Bloom* as their next General Manager**.

* see what I did with the title?
** I don’t care about titles, he’s doing the job traditionally associated with GM so that’s what I’m calling him

On all of these hires we really know so very little about the people involved that it is hard to make any particularly substantive ...

Let’s Get On With It

In 147 days the 2020 Boston Red Sox will open their spring slate against long time rivals Northeastern University.  By the time that happens it is likely that much will be changed from the 2019 Red Sox.  I don’t think I am being an unreasonable homer when I say I feel optimistic about the team.  Yes some things are in flux but there is a remarkable amount of talent on hand and I expect the Sox to be around the midpoint of last year’s 108 wins and this years 83/84/85 (depending on today and ...

Lining up the Minors - End of Season Edition

With the minor league season over and the Sox having punted GM Dave Dombrowski to the curb (I wonder if GMs do that awkward thing where they get together over lunch to get some of their things they left at the owners house like exes).  Anyway, that wasn’t a complete sentence where was I?

Oh yeah, minor league season over, Dombrowski unemployed…and a lot of focus on the future of the Sox.  Some of that future is going to be driven by folks in the minor leagues.  The title of the post has a ...

Dave Dombrowski Fired

I don’t have a lot to say on this at the late hour but the title kind of covers it and it deserves a thread. After four plus seasons, three division titles and 108 win season capped with a World Series title the Sox have let GM (I don’t care what his title was, that’s what he was) go. Eddie Romero (not that one) will take over for now.

What the next step will be is obviously the big question. The first job of the next person will be to make Mookie Betts unspeakably rich. Beyond that the ...

One Month to the Playoffs

Why yes, with 28 games to go the defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox are still playing baseball games and in fact they are playing baseball games that matter!  The magic number to win a fourth consecutive AL East title is just 43!

OK OK, I’m willing to concede that their division chances have probably dipped a shade below 50% (though a sweep against the Yankees next weekend and just make up another 11 1/2 games…) but the Wild Card is still doable.  The 5 1/2 game deficit, while ...

A Little More Acceptable

Let’s start with the obvious, the Boston Red Sox are almost certainly not making not making the playoffs in 2019.  The hole is too deep and despite playing well since getting squashed in the Bronx they’ve gone 8-4 (with a suspended game looming) including a nice series win in Cleveland.  With that said a team that looked in disarray two weeks ago suddenly is at least providing some encouragement.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe dropped a comparison to 2002 earlier this week.  That is the ...

Unacceptable

Well the good news is they aren’t dead yet but at this point pretending the 2019 Boston Red Sox are going to mount any kind of defense of their 2018 World Series title is a fool’s errand to say the least.  The simple reality is the pitching has been a complete disaster and frankly it’s a bit of a shocker.  From top to bottom they have underperformed and I can’t help but feel like this falls heavily on the shoulders of Alex Cora and management in general (both above and below him) for ...

That’s What We Have Been Waiting For

It took nearly two thirds of the season but the defending World Champions finally showed up and played the way we have been expecting since day one.  Faced with a rich challenge against Tampa Bay and then New York the Sox took care of business about as well as could have been hoped going 5-2 and showing their talent in a way they have not for most of the season.  Despite the good performance some concerns still exist that cannot be dismissed out of hand.  To wit;

Monday - 2IP, 4 runs
Tuesday - ...

A Disappointing First Half

With the Sox at the unofficial halfway point of the 2019 championship season I think it is safe to say they have not defended their World Series title particularly well so far.  In fairness some of that is down to the amazing first half the Miami Marlins…oh wait, New York Yankees have had (I get those teams with only one World Series title this century confused).  They have been remarkable and opened up a nine game lead on our heroes in the division.  Past defenses of World Series titles have ...

Has A Corner Been Turned?

Is it finally happening for the 2019 Red Sox? Are they finally starting to pull it together and be the team they should be?  For the third time this season they have won a series against a club over .500 taking two out of three from the best in the AL Twins (and wow is that odd to read).  This coming on the heels of five straight against Texas and Baltimore (the latter of which is very nearly as good as a Major League team) and the Sox are a season best six games over .500.

We have seen this ...

The First Third

The Sox reached the one third point of the 2019 season with a comfortable victory over the Indians to bring their record to 29-25. It’s not the 37-17 of a year ago but it’s a perfectly reasonable place to be considering the 2-8 start. If they simply maintain the pace they have played at since that bad start they would finish at 95 wins.

This is why I’m not a big scoreboard watcher until August. I’m pretty comfortable thinking it will take 95-100 wins to take the division crown.  The ...

Mediocrity Achieved!

So 36 games after their last dance with the magic .500 mark the defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox are there again after a win over the Baltimore Orioles who are according to league rules a Major League Baseball team.

Snark aside the Sox are resembling the team they were twelve months ago.  Think I’m crazy?  Try this on for size;

2018: games 11 to 38: 17 wins, 11 losses
2019: games 11 to 38: 17 wins, 11 losses

We can play games with numbers all we want and those first ten games ...

A Weekend of Necessity

After kind of seeing their world turned upside down for a few weeks the Red Sox pretty much ticked all the boxes this weekend and more importantly picked up three much needed wins.  It is only April etc…but the reality is that 8 1/2 back at the start of the weekend meant being swept would have put them 11 1/2 out and even simply losing 2 out of 3 would have had them 9 1/2 out.  It is early enough that those are deficits that can be overcome but that would have been a heck of a hole to climb out ...

We Can Be Concerned Now

There are still 145 games to go in the 2019 season so nothing is certain but unlike 2018 when every test was passed with flying colors the Sox have failed their first test of 2019.  After a gloomy season-opening road trip the Sox returned home and laid a fairly decisive egg.  They went 3-3 against two pretty bad baseball teams and were frankly fortunate to get out of there with the split.  The problems that existed on the road trip remain in place with the rotation showing small signs of ...