Links from the past week or so… the economy is ok for the Yankees, the Sox new digs and UMass Hoops? Really? What is this 1995?
Yankees breaking the bank this offseason picking up CC Sabathia for seven years at 160 million, they also signed AJ Burnett with a five year 82 million dollar deal and traded for Mike Cameron. The Yankees will now have three of the five highest paid players in baseball on their roster. Right Brian Cashman take shots at the Red Sox for using John Henry’s plane to go to Japan while trying to get Dice-K. I know that the Red Sox aren’t some scrappy team that doesn’t have high paid players, some Sox fans are a little delusional about that but let’s not kid ourselves the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets clearly have the ability to spend whatever they want on players.
(NY Post)
(ESPN)
The Yankees have also reportedly offered a four year 66 million dollar deal to D-Lowe. They really aren’t messing around this offseason. Granted they’re breaking the bank to bring in the best available free agent pitchers it will be interesting to see if that strategy works out for them. It hasn’t really worked out that well in the past…see Brown, Kevin and Pavano, Carl. I’m sure they’ll be back in the hunt this year but the AL East is going to be a lot more interesting with the Rays, Sox and Yankees, I’ll also be interested in seeing what the Blue Jays do now after losing Burnett. The Jays always seem to make decent moves they just can’t quite put it together.
Meanwhile in Red Sox Nation…
His holiness Peter Gammons reported last week that the Sox were interested in acquiring John Smoltz. According to MLB.com the Red Sox will more likely add a second tier free agent pitcher like Smoltz rather than make a run at Derek Lowe. First off, doesn’t it seem a little weird that D-Lowe is being considered one of the best available pitchers? Sure he was an integral part of the 2004 World Series but that was four years ago.
With that said Lowe is a horse, he went 14-11 in 34 starts with a 3.24 ERA last year but Lowe has also pitched at least 182 innings in each of the last seven seasons only dropping below 200 innings twice while averaging 33.5 starts since being made into a full time starter in 2002. Whoever gets Lowe will be getting a quality guy who can certainly eat up some innings but the Red Sox don’t need a number one or number two starter, let me rephrase the Red Sox don’t need to give a guy that would be the team’s number four starter, ace or number two money, which is why Smoltz would be a perfect fit for the Sox.
Smoltz would fill the role that the Red Sox had set up for Schilling/Bartolo Colon last season. He would be a great guy to have there to bolster the rotation during the second half. Plus Tito likes to give Beckett some time during the season to recuperate before the playoffs, I could see him giving Beckett and Lester a little time off over the summer and Smoltz would fit in perfectly.
(MLB.com)
The other night NESN interviewed Theo at the winter meetings and he talked about teams want to win the offseason. He talked about how the Red Sox are focused on having a good offseason but the team’s main focus in winning during the season. Sure he said this before the Yankees started signing every free agent on the market that just because a team, but it was interesting to hear him talk about how it’s important to get your team ready for the upcoming season but to also have a plan in place for the future. The Red Sox have clearly shown their commitment to winning over the long haul by trying to develop their minor league players and signing guys like Pedroia to long term deals. Over the last 8 years the Yankees model of signing big name free agents has not been as effective as other methods of crafting a team. Hopefully the Red Sox balance of free agent signings and player development will continue to be successful, especially now that you add in the Devil Rays incredible rise. The AL East is going to be a war of attrition in 2009.
Some fans are up in arms about the Red Sox not picking up any of the big name free agent pitchers while others are furious about the new Sox unis. Not going to lie, I don’t mind them. The new road uniforms are pretty cool, they have a late 70’s/80’s feel to them and I like the hanging Sox logo being featured more prominently. People freaked out and thought the team was ditching the B logo for the Sox logo on the new hats but thankfully those are just alternate hats.
(Uniwatch)
Mayne Street is awesome. I just watched these for the first time yesterday and after watching one episode I immediately had to watch the other nine. Kenny Mayne is hilarious, his demeanor and delivery is perfect and I can’t wait for episode ten. Even if you don’t think it’s good watch episode nine solely for the cameo at the end. If you don’t laugh at that you don’t have a pulse or like viral videos
(Mayne Street)
The Angels offered Mark Teixeira an 8-year deal reported to be worth at least 160 million. I still think the Sox would be better off with Teixeira than any of the free agent (err…Yankees’) pitchers.
(LA Times)
Manny Ramirez is considering retirement. Now I know this is very unlikely but remember when I said that Red Sox fans will be glad to not be a part of the circus that is Manny during the offseason? Well yes we’re glad. It is funny that after Manny carried the Dodgers into the playoffs he’s been an afterthought compared to C.C. and Burnett. You’d think if Scott Boras is creating markets for Tek he’d be able to get a decent offer for Man-Ram. This will probably workout well for the Dodgers in the end. Last year the A-Rod opted out of his contract with the Yankees hoping to cash in with another monster deal. When it didn’t happen he went back to the Yankees for a lot less than was expected. We could see the same with Manny if he doesn’t get the huge deal he was looking for he’ll probably end up back in LA, where he will be miserable by July, for a much shorter deal than what he originally wanted.
(Boston Herald)
But obviously the Yankees have expressed interest in Manny…and why they wouldn’t.
Okie to run Honolulu Marathon...apparently he was intrigued by the Boston Marathon during last year’s Patriots Day game.
(Boston.com)(via Deadspin)
Also UMass beat Kansas yesterday 61-60…I’m going to see if I can find my Lou Roe jersey.
(Boston.com)
Can anyone beat the Celtics?
(Boston Globe)
One final note – to everyone that got Red Sox tickets yesterday, specifically Sox Pax, then immediately put them on Craigslist…I hope all the bad things in the world happen to you and no one else…seriously I spent five and a half hours in the virtual waiting room on two computers and didn’t get any tickets. Sweet I can’t wait to shell out 80 bucks for bleacher seats to a Sox-Royals game. Stick to selling your Hinder tickets...assbags.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Surf's Up
Here’s a few more links and some of my semi-coherent ramblings about them. Among the links…Army’s badass new uni’s, big news on the Varitek front, J-Taz, more C’s and I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT!
On Saturday Army debuted the coolest f’ing uniforms I’ve ever seen. For the 109th Army-Navy game Nike decided to unveil their new style uniforms. I don’t really care about the new uniforms other than what they looked like. Army rocked digi camouflage helmets (awesome) with digi camo pants, black jerseys with camo numbers and “Duty. Honor. Country.” In camo on the back of the jersey. I know I sound a little ridiculous getting so excited about camo uniforms but you know how I feel about ‘live free or die’ Mike Timlin’s camo glove. This is about 50 times cooler. I will be looking on the internet for merchandise related to these BAMF’ing jerseys.
(Yahoo.com)
Rangers trade Laird to Tigers - I wonder if the Sox will pursue Taylor Teagarden now or if the Rangers will still be interested in moving him. It will be interesting to see what the Red Sox do with the catching situation after Tek declined arbitration. Can’t say I’m too surprised but the Tigers trading for Laird shrinks the market that Scott Boras was counting on to drive the price of Varitek up, so I think it’s more likely now that he’ll be back in Boston for another year. Which, like I’ve said before, is something that I would like to see. Tek’s impact goes beyond his .220 batting average.
(ESPN.com)
Tony Mazz brought up some interesting points on his Boston.com blog last week about the Sox signing Junici Tazawa and what it might mean for their pursuit of Mark Teixeira. Via boston.com – “Look at it this way: If and when the Red Sox sign a prominent free agent this offseason -- Mark Teixeira, anyone? -- that maneuver would require the Sox to forfeit a first-round selection in next year’s amateur draft.”
According to Mazz the Sox essentially signed the 22-year old Japanese prospect to be the draft pick they would lose in signing someone like Teixeira. If this is the case then I would expect to hear news that the Sox are making a serious run at Teixeira in the coming days at the winter meetings in Vegas. We’ll be closely monitoring this situation.
(Boston.com)
The Celts have won 12 straight and are playing some inspired basketball. The guys over at Red’s Army point out that the C’s and Lakers, who will meet on Christmas day, are a combined 37-4 and like some sort of eclipse or comet every 20 years the Celtics and Lakers rise to the top of the basketball world and battle for supremacy. Can’t wait for that game on Christmas day.
(Red's Army)
With the Dark Knight coming out tomorrow I have to recommend both Batman Year One and Batman the Long Halloween. I read both of these graphic novels over the summer while anxiously awaiting the release of the movie and they are excellent. I’ve always been a comic fan, I’m not a die hard, I’ve never been to Comic Con but I’ve probably practiced Wolverines berserker attack once or twice. Anyway, Year One was used as a guideline for Batman Begins, which is one of my favorite movies, while the Long Halloween was used as a guideline for the Dark Knight. The Long Halloween details the transformation of Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face and continues the development of Batman’s character. It’s very well written and since I’m not an intense comic fan I’d have to recommend it to anyone that enjoys a book with pictures in it.
(Amazon.com)
On Saturday Army debuted the coolest f’ing uniforms I’ve ever seen. For the 109th Army-Navy game Nike decided to unveil their new style uniforms. I don’t really care about the new uniforms other than what they looked like. Army rocked digi camouflage helmets (awesome) with digi camo pants, black jerseys with camo numbers and “Duty. Honor. Country.” In camo on the back of the jersey. I know I sound a little ridiculous getting so excited about camo uniforms but you know how I feel about ‘live free or die’ Mike Timlin’s camo glove. This is about 50 times cooler. I will be looking on the internet for merchandise related to these BAMF’ing jerseys.
(Yahoo.com)
Rangers trade Laird to Tigers - I wonder if the Sox will pursue Taylor Teagarden now or if the Rangers will still be interested in moving him. It will be interesting to see what the Red Sox do with the catching situation after Tek declined arbitration. Can’t say I’m too surprised but the Tigers trading for Laird shrinks the market that Scott Boras was counting on to drive the price of Varitek up, so I think it’s more likely now that he’ll be back in Boston for another year. Which, like I’ve said before, is something that I would like to see. Tek’s impact goes beyond his .220 batting average.
(ESPN.com)
Tony Mazz brought up some interesting points on his Boston.com blog last week about the Sox signing Junici Tazawa and what it might mean for their pursuit of Mark Teixeira. Via boston.com – “Look at it this way: If and when the Red Sox sign a prominent free agent this offseason -- Mark Teixeira, anyone? -- that maneuver would require the Sox to forfeit a first-round selection in next year’s amateur draft.”
According to Mazz the Sox essentially signed the 22-year old Japanese prospect to be the draft pick they would lose in signing someone like Teixeira. If this is the case then I would expect to hear news that the Sox are making a serious run at Teixeira in the coming days at the winter meetings in Vegas. We’ll be closely monitoring this situation.
(Boston.com)
The Celts have won 12 straight and are playing some inspired basketball. The guys over at Red’s Army point out that the C’s and Lakers, who will meet on Christmas day, are a combined 37-4 and like some sort of eclipse or comet every 20 years the Celtics and Lakers rise to the top of the basketball world and battle for supremacy. Can’t wait for that game on Christmas day.
(Red's Army)
With the Dark Knight coming out tomorrow I have to recommend both Batman Year One and Batman the Long Halloween. I read both of these graphic novels over the summer while anxiously awaiting the release of the movie and they are excellent. I’ve always been a comic fan, I’m not a die hard, I’ve never been to Comic Con but I’ve probably practiced Wolverines berserker attack once or twice. Anyway, Year One was used as a guideline for Batman Begins, which is one of my favorite movies, while the Long Halloween was used as a guideline for the Dark Knight. The Long Halloween details the transformation of Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face and continues the development of Batman’s character. It’s very well written and since I’m not an intense comic fan I’d have to recommend it to anyone that enjoys a book with pictures in it.
(Amazon.com)
Friday, December 5, 2008
More Links...
Here’s another batch of links. On tap today, boxing, T&R, I love Rondo and yes even some B’s ked.
Although boxing has been losing chunks of ground to MMA for the last couple of year the sport still manages to come up with one or two marquee fights every year. De La Hoya-Pacquiao should be one of them. According to Kevin Lole of Yahoo Sports Canada last year’s fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather sold a record 2.44 million pay-per-view units and generated in excess of $134 million in PPV receipts alone. Pretty impressive when you figure that casual fans don’t know who the heavyweight champ is. A large portion of boxing’s success, or failure for that matter, comes from its ability to market and sell fights. Thanks to HBO’s 24-7 series the sport has been able to keep its head above water showcasing guys like Mayweather, Pacquiao and love him or hate him, Ricky Hatton. With that said I’ve seen enough Johnny gym rats wearing affliction t-shirts two know MMA is still stronger, but it will be interesting to see if boxing can continue to claw towards a resurgence. (Yahoo!)
Toucher and Rich have moved to the 6-10 morning drive time slot on BCN. I wasn’t a big fan until a couple of years ago when they had their 300+ pound mascot/resident r-tard sit on Santa’s lap at a mall. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. If I can find a video from the NECN newscast that it ran on I’ll put it up but for now you’ll have to settle for their website. They are responsible for the famed Chili Guy who can be seen outside Fenway and or the Garden. Those two things right there make them the best morning show in Boston. No offense to Opie and Anthony but I’m glad BCN made this move. (WBCN)
Remember when I said I’d pay attention to the Bruins this year? No, you probably don’t and that’s fine but I have been paying attention. And so have a lot of other people because they are playing awesome right now. (Boston.com)
The guys over at Red’s Army share my affinity for Rajon Rondo. I love their comments on how the national media and other bloggers haven’t quite caught on to Rondo’s abilities yet. Clearly he’s not the offensive threat that some of the other guards around the league are but he’s in a perfect situation for his skill set. He’s got three premier scorers so all he has to do is get them the ball and play defense, which he does exceptionally well as shown by his alleged fastest triple double in NBA history (link to red’s army post). No doubt he will need to improve his shooting ability down the road. Eventually when (gasp) the Big three are done Rondo will need to become more of a scorer, but for now I’ll take his stat line. He’s averaging 10.2 PPG, 4.7 boards and 7.7 assists, so call it 10, 5 and 8. He’s also averaging 31 minutes per game. (Red's Army via Barstool Sports)
Although boxing has been losing chunks of ground to MMA for the last couple of year the sport still manages to come up with one or two marquee fights every year. De La Hoya-Pacquiao should be one of them. According to Kevin Lole of Yahoo Sports Canada last year’s fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather sold a record 2.44 million pay-per-view units and generated in excess of $134 million in PPV receipts alone. Pretty impressive when you figure that casual fans don’t know who the heavyweight champ is. A large portion of boxing’s success, or failure for that matter, comes from its ability to market and sell fights. Thanks to HBO’s 24-7 series the sport has been able to keep its head above water showcasing guys like Mayweather, Pacquiao and love him or hate him, Ricky Hatton. With that said I’ve seen enough Johnny gym rats wearing affliction t-shirts two know MMA is still stronger, but it will be interesting to see if boxing can continue to claw towards a resurgence. (Yahoo!)
Toucher and Rich have moved to the 6-10 morning drive time slot on BCN. I wasn’t a big fan until a couple of years ago when they had their 300+ pound mascot/resident r-tard sit on Santa’s lap at a mall. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. If I can find a video from the NECN newscast that it ran on I’ll put it up but for now you’ll have to settle for their website. They are responsible for the famed Chili Guy who can be seen outside Fenway and or the Garden. Those two things right there make them the best morning show in Boston. No offense to Opie and Anthony but I’m glad BCN made this move. (WBCN)
Remember when I said I’d pay attention to the Bruins this year? No, you probably don’t and that’s fine but I have been paying attention. And so have a lot of other people because they are playing awesome right now. (Boston.com)
The guys over at Red’s Army share my affinity for Rajon Rondo. I love their comments on how the national media and other bloggers haven’t quite caught on to Rondo’s abilities yet. Clearly he’s not the offensive threat that some of the other guards around the league are but he’s in a perfect situation for his skill set. He’s got three premier scorers so all he has to do is get them the ball and play defense, which he does exceptionally well as shown by his alleged fastest triple double in NBA history (link to red’s army post). No doubt he will need to improve his shooting ability down the road. Eventually when (gasp) the Big three are done Rondo will need to become more of a scorer, but for now I’ll take his stat line. He’s averaging 10.2 PPG, 4.7 boards and 7.7 assists, so call it 10, 5 and 8. He’s also averaging 31 minutes per game. (Red's Army via Barstool Sports)
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The Internet's Not Going to Surf It Self Buddy
As anyone who’s ever read this blog knows I am awful at updating. Sure I’ll go for a couple weeks with a lot of post but then I don’t write anything for a month and a half, that’s weak sauce. I always want to post more and hopefully this idea will lead to more posts.
I’m going to try and get a daily, or at least a couple times a week, links post. I’m not going to just post five links and bounce. I like to ramble so the rambling descriptions of the links should work…right?
Chances are this will last like a week but we’ll see what we can do.
I have no idea why I didn’t mention this last night but Petey inked a new deal! 6 years 40+ million. Locking up the MVP for the foreseeable future, sounds good to me. I’m not sure about the specifics of baseball players contracts but I believe he’d be eligible for arbitration in a season or two and if he continues to play the way he has and improve he could have gotten a huge number from arbitration. Good to see Petey sign for 6 years because he wants to play for a team that is committed to winning. It takes players with that mentality to help build winning teams.
(Boston.com)
Schilling's officially moved to weei. 38 Pitches, aka the greatest blog in the history of the world (of Warcraft) is now at weei.com. - I can't wait till his game studio starts pumping out MMORPGs so I can get XP with my party using team speak.
(WEEI.com)
2009 will bring us a new football league. The UFL will start playing in the fall of 2009 despite not knowing where they’ll have teams yet. The good news they might have a team in Hartford...by the way you can vote for the names of these future franchises can we make sure if they have a team in Hartford it’s the Whalers? Please? ‘Hartford, the Whale, they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime.’
(UFL - from Deadspin)
Rajon Rondo had a huge game Wednesday night. Picked a pretty good time for his first career triple double after Indy smoked the C’s and was coming off of a huge win over the Lakers. I love Rondo.
(Hoops World)
Former Celtic Rodney Rodgers was in an accident which left him paralyzed. I always like Rodney, even though he left for the Nets. Cleary though life is a lot more rooting for a jersey.
(News Observer - from Deadspin)
I just saw a commercial for the NPPL Professional Paintball video game. I don’t know how I feel about it, I kind of want to get it but it also makes me feel like I should be pounding mountain dews and staying up until 3am playing. Remember the good old days when you’d go on a mountain dew binge to play video games? Damn kids and their Red Bull. Anyway I’m in the process of searching for a good Paintball blog to read. PBNation is obviously the message board of choice but this blogs not too bad.
(Pain4Glory)
Just because I feel like being that guy I’m going to throw in a movie quote/monologue of the day(s). Since I already threw in a Kevin Smith movie quote I might as well add another.
“You know him too? [John Hughes] that fucking guy. Made this flick "16 Candles" right? Not bad it's got tits in it, but no bush. Of course Ebert over here don't give a shit about that stuff cause he's all in love with this John Hughes guy and rents every one of his movies. Fucking "Breakfast Club" all these stupid kids actually show up to detention, fucking "Weird Science" where this one chick wants to take off her gear and get down, but aw, no she don't cause it's a PG movie, and then there's "Pretty In Pink" which I can't watch with this tubby bitch anymore, because every time we get to the part where the red head hooks up with her dream guy, he starts sobbin' like a eight-year-old with a skinned knee and shit. And nothing is worse then watching a fat man weep.”
~Dogma (from imdb.com)
I’m going to try and get a daily, or at least a couple times a week, links post. I’m not going to just post five links and bounce. I like to ramble so the rambling descriptions of the links should work…right?
Chances are this will last like a week but we’ll see what we can do.
I have no idea why I didn’t mention this last night but Petey inked a new deal! 6 years 40+ million. Locking up the MVP for the foreseeable future, sounds good to me. I’m not sure about the specifics of baseball players contracts but I believe he’d be eligible for arbitration in a season or two and if he continues to play the way he has and improve he could have gotten a huge number from arbitration. Good to see Petey sign for 6 years because he wants to play for a team that is committed to winning. It takes players with that mentality to help build winning teams.
(Boston.com)
Schilling's officially moved to weei. 38 Pitches, aka the greatest blog in the history of the world (of Warcraft) is now at weei.com. - I can't wait till his game studio starts pumping out MMORPGs so I can get XP with my party using team speak.
(WEEI.com)
2009 will bring us a new football league. The UFL will start playing in the fall of 2009 despite not knowing where they’ll have teams yet. The good news they might have a team in Hartford...by the way you can vote for the names of these future franchises can we make sure if they have a team in Hartford it’s the Whalers? Please? ‘Hartford, the Whale, they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime.’
(UFL - from Deadspin)
Rajon Rondo had a huge game Wednesday night. Picked a pretty good time for his first career triple double after Indy smoked the C’s and was coming off of a huge win over the Lakers. I love Rondo.
(Hoops World)
Former Celtic Rodney Rodgers was in an accident which left him paralyzed. I always like Rodney, even though he left for the Nets. Cleary though life is a lot more rooting for a jersey.
(News Observer - from Deadspin)
I just saw a commercial for the NPPL Professional Paintball video game. I don’t know how I feel about it, I kind of want to get it but it also makes me feel like I should be pounding mountain dews and staying up until 3am playing. Remember the good old days when you’d go on a mountain dew binge to play video games? Damn kids and their Red Bull. Anyway I’m in the process of searching for a good Paintball blog to read. PBNation is obviously the message board of choice but this blogs not too bad.
(Pain4Glory)
Just because I feel like being that guy I’m going to throw in a movie quote/monologue of the day(s). Since I already threw in a Kevin Smith movie quote I might as well add another.
“You know him too? [John Hughes] that fucking guy. Made this flick "16 Candles" right? Not bad it's got tits in it, but no bush. Of course Ebert over here don't give a shit about that stuff cause he's all in love with this John Hughes guy and rents every one of his movies. Fucking "Breakfast Club" all these stupid kids actually show up to detention, fucking "Weird Science" where this one chick wants to take off her gear and get down, but aw, no she don't cause it's a PG movie, and then there's "Pretty In Pink" which I can't watch with this tubby bitch anymore, because every time we get to the part where the red head hooks up with her dream guy, he starts sobbin' like a eight-year-old with a skinned knee and shit. And nothing is worse then watching a fat man weep.”
~Dogma (from imdb.com)
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
A Bunch of Random Incoherent Thoughts
I’m working on a few things but as usual I haven’t posted in a while so I figured I’d drop by and get a couple of ideas out. Not that anyone’s going to read them but hey it’s better than straight up talking to myself…or is it?
Moving on…
The 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is out, which means it’s about time for me to write my obligatory “why Jim Rice should be in the Hall of Fame” post. Oh it’s coming, bigger and better for 09 too. It’s Rice’s last year to get in on the ballot before he goes to the veterans committee.
Here's the list of guys ballot
Harold Baines
Jay Bell
Bert Blyleven
David Cone
Andre Dawson
Ron Gant
Mark Grace
Rickey Henderson
Tommy John
Don Mattingly
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Jesse Orosco
Dave Parker
Dan Plesac
Tim Raines
Jim Rice
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell
Greg Vaughn
Mo Vaughn
Matt Williams
Let’s face it this is a great year for Rice to get in, probably his best shot, hopefully it will finally happen this year.
I’ve been working on something about Jason Varitek and whether he’ll stay or go but I’m not quite there yet. I want him to stay, I know he didn’t have a great year but I’d much rather have him stick around for another year while the team tries to develop a young catcher then let him go.
Offering him arbitration was a solid idea, if he accepts whatever deal he gets through arbitration it will be a definite win for the Sox and it gives Tek a season to get himself back on track. And if the doesn’t go with arbitration the Sox will at least get a couple of compensatory picks, with the way they’ve drafted the last few years I wouldn’t mind a couple of extra draft picks.
Overall I’d like Tek to stay but can you really blame him if he leaves? It’s probably his last chance at a somewhat sizable contract and if he hits .220 again I can see fans starting to turn on their beloved captain.
Hopefully he’ll take arbitration and both sides can have a strong 2009 season but if he goes let’s not turn on him. I think one of the reason Boston fans get so much flak from other fans around the nation is because of how fickle we can be with our support of players. Sure there are guys we stick with through thick and thin but sometimes we’re quick to change our minds.
This happens a lot when guys leave town or hold out for more money. Some players warrant our distain. Namely Johnny Damon, f him, but we have a history of selling players out for leaving. You never want to see guys bail out on your teams but be reasonable. Unless they bail for the Yankees, Jets, Steelers or Canadians then they can rot in hell for all I care.
More to come on Varitek, it’s a weird situation, especially because his agent is a super d-bag.
A couple of other quick thoughts…
Curt Schilling’s moving from 38 Pitches to weei.com – I’m liking weei’s focus on the web. They have a large fan base that listens on the web and they’ve become a powerful source for sports news and opinion in Boston, now they are making a strong bid at becoming the top source for Boston sports news on the web.
They’ve scooped up a couple of great Boston media types, like Rob Bradford, and added the always interesting musing of the blogosphere’s Luke Skywalker, Will Leitch. Smart moves by weei in my opinion.
As for Schilling…he’s always interesting, he might be kind of a windbag and I’m not a huge fan of his uber-right wingness but to each his own. The guy says what he feels, which people either love or hate. I for one think it’s really interesting to get insight from perspective of a professional athlete. Plus I’m all about taking things with a grain of salt so I think that helps me enjoy it.
There’s a ton of other stuff going on but I wanted to at least post something.
more to come…
Moving on…
The 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is out, which means it’s about time for me to write my obligatory “why Jim Rice should be in the Hall of Fame” post. Oh it’s coming, bigger and better for 09 too. It’s Rice’s last year to get in on the ballot before he goes to the veterans committee.
Here's the list of guys ballot
Harold Baines
Jay Bell
Bert Blyleven
David Cone
Andre Dawson
Ron Gant
Mark Grace
Rickey Henderson
Tommy John
Don Mattingly
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Jesse Orosco
Dave Parker
Dan Plesac
Tim Raines
Jim Rice
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell
Greg Vaughn
Mo Vaughn
Matt Williams
Let’s face it this is a great year for Rice to get in, probably his best shot, hopefully it will finally happen this year.
I’ve been working on something about Jason Varitek and whether he’ll stay or go but I’m not quite there yet. I want him to stay, I know he didn’t have a great year but I’d much rather have him stick around for another year while the team tries to develop a young catcher then let him go.
Offering him arbitration was a solid idea, if he accepts whatever deal he gets through arbitration it will be a definite win for the Sox and it gives Tek a season to get himself back on track. And if the doesn’t go with arbitration the Sox will at least get a couple of compensatory picks, with the way they’ve drafted the last few years I wouldn’t mind a couple of extra draft picks.
Overall I’d like Tek to stay but can you really blame him if he leaves? It’s probably his last chance at a somewhat sizable contract and if he hits .220 again I can see fans starting to turn on their beloved captain.
Hopefully he’ll take arbitration and both sides can have a strong 2009 season but if he goes let’s not turn on him. I think one of the reason Boston fans get so much flak from other fans around the nation is because of how fickle we can be with our support of players. Sure there are guys we stick with through thick and thin but sometimes we’re quick to change our minds.
This happens a lot when guys leave town or hold out for more money. Some players warrant our distain. Namely Johnny Damon, f him, but we have a history of selling players out for leaving. You never want to see guys bail out on your teams but be reasonable. Unless they bail for the Yankees, Jets, Steelers or Canadians then they can rot in hell for all I care.
More to come on Varitek, it’s a weird situation, especially because his agent is a super d-bag.
A couple of other quick thoughts…
Curt Schilling’s moving from 38 Pitches to weei.com – I’m liking weei’s focus on the web. They have a large fan base that listens on the web and they’ve become a powerful source for sports news and opinion in Boston, now they are making a strong bid at becoming the top source for Boston sports news on the web.
They’ve scooped up a couple of great Boston media types, like Rob Bradford, and added the always interesting musing of the blogosphere’s Luke Skywalker, Will Leitch. Smart moves by weei in my opinion.
As for Schilling…he’s always interesting, he might be kind of a windbag and I’m not a huge fan of his uber-right wingness but to each his own. The guy says what he feels, which people either love or hate. I for one think it’s really interesting to get insight from perspective of a professional athlete. Plus I’m all about taking things with a grain of salt so I think that helps me enjoy it.
There’s a ton of other stuff going on but I wanted to at least post something.
more to come…
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Red Sox Hall of Fame
Six former Red Sox players were inducted into the team’s hall of fame on Friday night. The former Sox included Mo Vaughn, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Frank Sullivan, Mike Greenwell, Wes Ferrell and Everett Scott.
Good to hear the team is recognizing Mo Vaughn. I was pretty bummed out when he left Boston. I’m not going to lie I spent a large part of my childhood practicing his batting stance for wiffleball. And he and Nomar combined for 75 homers in 1998 and he won the MVP in 1995. Guy was pretty good until left Boston that is.
The other two guys that stood out for me were the Spaceman and Mike Greenwell. I absolutely loved Mike Greenwell when I was a kid. I had a Mike Greenwell glove and the Mike Greenwell Starting Lineup figurine when I was a kid. I loved the fact that he played left field at Fenway with the Green Monster.
The Green Monster and Mike Greenwell are probably two of the biggest reasons I am as big of a baseball fan as I am today. There is no other quirk in sports quite like the Green Monster. As a kid playing little league and RBI Baseball on Nintendo I wanted to play left at Fenway with the Monster, none of this three-foot chain length fence garbage. Thankfully I got to live out my dream playing wiffleball this summer with the Gooch in Billerica.
I doubt any of this has anything to do with the Sox inducting him to the team hall of fame. More likely it’s his .303 lifetime batting average and the fact that he averaged 93 RBI, 35 doubles and 17 homers. He was also a five time All Star and finished second in the MVP voting in 1988.
As for the Spaceman, well what can you say about the Spaceman that hasn’t already been said. I mean the guy was anti-designated hitter, smoked weed to try and combat the fumes of the city, threw the Leephus and ran for President in 1988. Are you at all surprised that he lives in on a farm in Vermont?
Bill Lee rules.
Oh yeah he and I also have the same favorite “Free Ted’s Head” t-shirt. I was about two seconds from calling this blog Free Ted’s Head by the way.
He holds the Red Sox record for most games pitched by a left-hander (321) and this summer at the age of 61 he got the win in the 103rd Midnight Sun game in Alaska pitching six innings, striking out three and giving up four earned runs.
edit - I don't agree with his feelings on Manny though...I love Manny but it was time.
*as always all stats are courtesy of Baseball-reference.com
Good to hear the team is recognizing Mo Vaughn. I was pretty bummed out when he left Boston. I’m not going to lie I spent a large part of my childhood practicing his batting stance for wiffleball. And he and Nomar combined for 75 homers in 1998 and he won the MVP in 1995. Guy was pretty good until left Boston that is.
The other two guys that stood out for me were the Spaceman and Mike Greenwell. I absolutely loved Mike Greenwell when I was a kid. I had a Mike Greenwell glove and the Mike Greenwell Starting Lineup figurine when I was a kid. I loved the fact that he played left field at Fenway with the Green Monster.
The Green Monster and Mike Greenwell are probably two of the biggest reasons I am as big of a baseball fan as I am today. There is no other quirk in sports quite like the Green Monster. As a kid playing little league and RBI Baseball on Nintendo I wanted to play left at Fenway with the Monster, none of this three-foot chain length fence garbage. Thankfully I got to live out my dream playing wiffleball this summer with the Gooch in Billerica.
I doubt any of this has anything to do with the Sox inducting him to the team hall of fame. More likely it’s his .303 lifetime batting average and the fact that he averaged 93 RBI, 35 doubles and 17 homers. He was also a five time All Star and finished second in the MVP voting in 1988.
As for the Spaceman, well what can you say about the Spaceman that hasn’t already been said. I mean the guy was anti-designated hitter, smoked weed to try and combat the fumes of the city, threw the Leephus and ran for President in 1988. Are you at all surprised that he lives in on a farm in Vermont?
Bill Lee rules.
Oh yeah he and I also have the same favorite “Free Ted’s Head” t-shirt. I was about two seconds from calling this blog Free Ted’s Head by the way.
He holds the Red Sox record for most games pitched by a left-hander (321) and this summer at the age of 61 he got the win in the 103rd Midnight Sun game in Alaska pitching six innings, striking out three and giving up four earned runs.
edit - I don't agree with his feelings on Manny though...I love Manny but it was time.
*as always all stats are courtesy of Baseball-reference.com
Friday, October 31, 2008
Pedroia or Youkilis or Maybe Morneau
Ok you know I'm not picking Morneau...now that we got that out of the way.
Last year I wrote an argument for Mike Lowell as MVP knowing full well that he wasn’t going to win the award but I felt like he deserved recognition for having a great season. Well this year my insert-Red-Sox-player-name-here for MVP is back but this time it’s between two players that could (and one of them should) be named the leagues most valuable player.
To be honest I had a hard time deciding between Pedroia or Youk for MVP, so lets let their numbers and intagables slug it out and see if we can’t come up with an MVP.
Their numbers are pretty comparable, Youk had better power numbers this season but Petey led the league in more categories.
El Caballito - Dustin Pedroia
The 2007 Rookie of the Year improved in nearly every category this year and led the Red Sox back to the ALCS as one of the best hitters in all of baseball. His credentials are pretty impressive.
Petey led the AL in hits (213), doubles (54) and runs scored (118). He was also in the top five in the American League in seven other categories. He was second in batting average (.326), third in at bats (653), singles (140), runs created (123), times-on-base (270), sac files (9) and at bats per strikeout (12.6).
What the hell, for spits and whistles he was also in the top ten in four other categories. He was ninth in games played (157), seventh in extra base hits (73), his power/speed numbers were eight in the AL and he made just 474 outs, seventh in the AL.
It’s also pretty impressive that I witnessed 30,000+ people chanting ‘DON’T SUCK PEDROIA’ at a game early in the season last year and at the end of the season fans were chanting ‘MVP’. Oh yeah and he won the Rookie of the Year award last season.
Kevin Youkilis…Yooooooooook
Youk had his best season in the majors in 2008 hitting .312 while driving in 112 runs and hitting 29 homers and 43 doubles…all career highs. Youk played very well when he was moved to the clean up spot after the Manny deal and the combination of Youk and Bay proved to be a very good trade off for Manny.
Also you have to take into account the fact that Big Papi wasn’t Big Papi this year. If Papi is the hitter he usually is then I think Youk comes up with even more opportunities to drive in runs and come up with clutch hits. He’s also one of the best in the majors at making productive outs. Even when he doesn’t get on base he makes something happen. Youk tied with Pedroia for third in the AL with nine sac flies.
One of the key pieces to the Youkilis for MVP argument is the fact that he can seamlessly play two positions. That actually might tip the scales in favor of Yoooooooooook.
In 2007 Youkilis won a Gold Glove at first base making zero errors with 990 put outs and 90 assists in 135 games. He might not have been perfect this year, Youk made four errors at first in 125 games, but he also played 36 games at third base after Mike Lowell started battling injuries. He also played two games in right field. The guy gets it done, whatever the Sox need he gets it done.
Numbers are typically the linchpin of any MVP argument but Youk’s versatility has to account for something though. While the MVP award is voted on prior to the playoffs you have to think that with out his ability to play both first and third played a major role in the Sox getting to the post season.
When Youkilis moves to third you really don’t lose much defensively and it allowed the Red Sox to have Mark Kotsay or Sean Casey in the lineup. It also meant that the team didn’t have to move Jed Lowrie out of position. I’d say that Youk’s ability to play two positions definitely makes him one of the indispensable guys on the roster.
Both guys play the game the same way, which is one of the reasons fans react the way they do to those two. During the summer Tito put Pedroia in the clean up spot for a couple of games and when reporters asked him about it his attitude 'it’s about fucking time'…ahhh how can you not root for this guy.
This isn’t really a factor in the MVP race but I think it warrants mentioning. Both Pedroia and Youkilis are prime examples of the Red Sox move towards building the through the minor leagues, which is not something they were known for until very recently.
Now I’m not trying to say the Red Sox are gritty underdogs or anything like that, they’re not the Rays, I know. They do have the second or third highest payroll in the majors but they have started to build a stronger and stronger farm system under the current ownership.
Guys like Pedroia and Youkilis are prime examples of the Red Sox increased strength within the farm system. Up until recently the Red Sox would sell their prospects for big name players at the trade deadline. Youkilis was one of the first guys that started that trend for the Red Sox and it has continued with Petey, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie.
That was a little bit off topic but like I said I thought it warranted mentioning. The Sox hung onto Youk and now he’s a potential MVP and they promoted Pedroia and he responded by winning the RoY and now is in the hunt for MVP.
There is no doubt that both Youk and Pedroia had their best seasons in the majors in 2008 but it’s hard to determine which guy was more valuable to the team. Lets look at a straight up numbers comparison.
Pedroia – 157 G – 653 AB – 118 R – 213 H – 54 2b – 17 HR – 83 RBI – 20 SB – 50 BB – 52 K - .326 BA - .376 OBP
Youkilis – 145 G – 538 AB – 91 R – 168 H – 43 2b – 29 HR – 115 RBI – 3 SB - 62 BB – 108 K - .312 BA - .390 OBP
Neither guy has run away MVP numbers like A-Rod did last season but compared to the other favorite Justin Morneau they are certainly competitive. A.K.A here come the token Justin Morneau comments so I can pretend that I’m not a total homer…no worries I know I am.
Morneau – 163 G – 623 AB – 97 R – 187 H – 47 2b – 23 HR – 129 RBI – 0 SB – 76 BB – 85K - .300 BA - .376 OBP
Also in fairness to Morneau I’ll add this…He was tops in the league in games played, he played in all 163 of the Twins games, which is pretty f’n valuable, he was fifth in the AL in plate appearances (712), fifth in hits, seventh in total bases (311), fifth in doubles, second in RBI, second in sac flies (10) and first in intentional walks.
The intentional walks stat stands out because that shows how much other teams respect his abilities. He also led the league in RBI on an ok team, which again reaffirms his value.
I don’t think it would be any kind of outrage if Morneau were to win the MVP, clearly he’s got the numbers to back up the argument, but I don’t think his 2008 season was remarkably better than either Pedroia or Youkilis.
Power numbers are often the first thing that gets mentioned when you’re talking about the MVP award. Most people go straight to home runs and RBI as their first indicators of who should be MVP. There’s no doubt Youk had better power numbers than Petey but we’re not talking about a guy that only hit three homers and drove in 45 runs.
As a number two hitter Pedroia drove in 83 runs and had 17 home runs, compared to 29 from Youk and 23 from Morneau. In my humble opinion Pedroia’s all around excellence stands above everything else.
Morneau and Youk were better at driving in runs and had better power numbers but they are expected to when they hit where they do in the lineup. With Pedroia you got even more than you bargained for with the way he handled his bat hitting for both average and power, his defense and his ability to carry the team as a second year player.
I don’t think the Sox would have been nearly as good without Kevin Youkilis and Justin Morneau is definitely one of the best players in the Major Leagues, but in my opinion Dustin Pedroia gets the nod for MVP.
But I won’t be too upset if Youk wins it either. And after all that typing Justin Morneau will probably be the one that actually gets the award. Since there was no run away candidate, as a baseball fan, that wouldn’t be so bad either.
Last year I wrote an argument for Mike Lowell as MVP knowing full well that he wasn’t going to win the award but I felt like he deserved recognition for having a great season. Well this year my insert-Red-Sox-player-name-here for MVP is back but this time it’s between two players that could (and one of them should) be named the leagues most valuable player.
To be honest I had a hard time deciding between Pedroia or Youk for MVP, so lets let their numbers and intagables slug it out and see if we can’t come up with an MVP.
Their numbers are pretty comparable, Youk had better power numbers this season but Petey led the league in more categories.
El Caballito - Dustin Pedroia
The 2007 Rookie of the Year improved in nearly every category this year and led the Red Sox back to the ALCS as one of the best hitters in all of baseball. His credentials are pretty impressive.
Petey led the AL in hits (213), doubles (54) and runs scored (118). He was also in the top five in the American League in seven other categories. He was second in batting average (.326), third in at bats (653), singles (140), runs created (123), times-on-base (270), sac files (9) and at bats per strikeout (12.6).
What the hell, for spits and whistles he was also in the top ten in four other categories. He was ninth in games played (157), seventh in extra base hits (73), his power/speed numbers were eight in the AL and he made just 474 outs, seventh in the AL.
It’s also pretty impressive that I witnessed 30,000+ people chanting ‘DON’T SUCK PEDROIA’ at a game early in the season last year and at the end of the season fans were chanting ‘MVP’. Oh yeah and he won the Rookie of the Year award last season.
Kevin Youkilis…Yooooooooook
Youk had his best season in the majors in 2008 hitting .312 while driving in 112 runs and hitting 29 homers and 43 doubles…all career highs. Youk played very well when he was moved to the clean up spot after the Manny deal and the combination of Youk and Bay proved to be a very good trade off for Manny.
Also you have to take into account the fact that Big Papi wasn’t Big Papi this year. If Papi is the hitter he usually is then I think Youk comes up with even more opportunities to drive in runs and come up with clutch hits. He’s also one of the best in the majors at making productive outs. Even when he doesn’t get on base he makes something happen. Youk tied with Pedroia for third in the AL with nine sac flies.
One of the key pieces to the Youkilis for MVP argument is the fact that he can seamlessly play two positions. That actually might tip the scales in favor of Yoooooooooook.
In 2007 Youkilis won a Gold Glove at first base making zero errors with 990 put outs and 90 assists in 135 games. He might not have been perfect this year, Youk made four errors at first in 125 games, but he also played 36 games at third base after Mike Lowell started battling injuries. He also played two games in right field. The guy gets it done, whatever the Sox need he gets it done.
Numbers are typically the linchpin of any MVP argument but Youk’s versatility has to account for something though. While the MVP award is voted on prior to the playoffs you have to think that with out his ability to play both first and third played a major role in the Sox getting to the post season.
When Youkilis moves to third you really don’t lose much defensively and it allowed the Red Sox to have Mark Kotsay or Sean Casey in the lineup. It also meant that the team didn’t have to move Jed Lowrie out of position. I’d say that Youk’s ability to play two positions definitely makes him one of the indispensable guys on the roster.
Both guys play the game the same way, which is one of the reasons fans react the way they do to those two. During the summer Tito put Pedroia in the clean up spot for a couple of games and when reporters asked him about it his attitude 'it’s about fucking time'…ahhh how can you not root for this guy.
This isn’t really a factor in the MVP race but I think it warrants mentioning. Both Pedroia and Youkilis are prime examples of the Red Sox move towards building the through the minor leagues, which is not something they were known for until very recently.
Now I’m not trying to say the Red Sox are gritty underdogs or anything like that, they’re not the Rays, I know. They do have the second or third highest payroll in the majors but they have started to build a stronger and stronger farm system under the current ownership.
Guys like Pedroia and Youkilis are prime examples of the Red Sox increased strength within the farm system. Up until recently the Red Sox would sell their prospects for big name players at the trade deadline. Youkilis was one of the first guys that started that trend for the Red Sox and it has continued with Petey, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie.
That was a little bit off topic but like I said I thought it warranted mentioning. The Sox hung onto Youk and now he’s a potential MVP and they promoted Pedroia and he responded by winning the RoY and now is in the hunt for MVP.
There is no doubt that both Youk and Pedroia had their best seasons in the majors in 2008 but it’s hard to determine which guy was more valuable to the team. Lets look at a straight up numbers comparison.
Pedroia – 157 G – 653 AB – 118 R – 213 H – 54 2b – 17 HR – 83 RBI – 20 SB – 50 BB – 52 K - .326 BA - .376 OBP
Youkilis – 145 G – 538 AB – 91 R – 168 H – 43 2b – 29 HR – 115 RBI – 3 SB - 62 BB – 108 K - .312 BA - .390 OBP
Neither guy has run away MVP numbers like A-Rod did last season but compared to the other favorite Justin Morneau they are certainly competitive. A.K.A here come the token Justin Morneau comments so I can pretend that I’m not a total homer…no worries I know I am.
Morneau – 163 G – 623 AB – 97 R – 187 H – 47 2b – 23 HR – 129 RBI – 0 SB – 76 BB – 85K - .300 BA - .376 OBP
Also in fairness to Morneau I’ll add this…He was tops in the league in games played, he played in all 163 of the Twins games, which is pretty f’n valuable, he was fifth in the AL in plate appearances (712), fifth in hits, seventh in total bases (311), fifth in doubles, second in RBI, second in sac flies (10) and first in intentional walks.
The intentional walks stat stands out because that shows how much other teams respect his abilities. He also led the league in RBI on an ok team, which again reaffirms his value.
I don’t think it would be any kind of outrage if Morneau were to win the MVP, clearly he’s got the numbers to back up the argument, but I don’t think his 2008 season was remarkably better than either Pedroia or Youkilis.
Power numbers are often the first thing that gets mentioned when you’re talking about the MVP award. Most people go straight to home runs and RBI as their first indicators of who should be MVP. There’s no doubt Youk had better power numbers than Petey but we’re not talking about a guy that only hit three homers and drove in 45 runs.
As a number two hitter Pedroia drove in 83 runs and had 17 home runs, compared to 29 from Youk and 23 from Morneau. In my humble opinion Pedroia’s all around excellence stands above everything else.
Morneau and Youk were better at driving in runs and had better power numbers but they are expected to when they hit where they do in the lineup. With Pedroia you got even more than you bargained for with the way he handled his bat hitting for both average and power, his defense and his ability to carry the team as a second year player.
I don’t think the Sox would have been nearly as good without Kevin Youkilis and Justin Morneau is definitely one of the best players in the Major Leagues, but in my opinion Dustin Pedroia gets the nod for MVP.
But I won’t be too upset if Youk wins it either. And after all that typing Justin Morneau will probably be the one that actually gets the award. Since there was no run away candidate, as a baseball fan, that wouldn’t be so bad either.
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