ground-ball pitchers, pandas, victorino's rickety spine and the hope of mookie betts: your 2015 Boston Red Sox

on the one hand, PECOTA projects 86 wins/a division title, while olney projects the best offensive lineup in baseball.

on the other hand, clay buchholz, whose walk-up music should be "body betrays itself" by pharmakon is the de facto #1 starter! and then rick porcello! joe kelly! wade miley! justin fucking masterson!!!!! (ok, porcello and kelly are fine. and masterson was good in 2013. but still.)

excited yet? everyone on this list of the 5 most important players on the team has been injured or is old (or both) except rick porcello - http://www.overthemonster.com/2015/2/9/8004031/red-sox-2015-clay-buchholz-rick-porcello-koji-uehara

should be at the very least an entertaining season.

does this face not just inspire overwhelming confidence
http://yawkeywayreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/RedSox_Clay_Buchholz_2013.jpg

sweatiest, most rehab lookin motherfucker in baseball

lol can't really argue with that, the peaves got very meth-twitchy in nervous moments as well, but sans DT sweat

i honestly like buchholz a lot - er, certainly more than most people seemed to in 2014 - and consider his top form to be ace-caliber (sub-2 ERA in 2013 pre-injury, w/ 4.3 WAR in 108.1 IP, and 2010 before that)...but his seesawing quality is too dramatic, and it's his final shit-or-get-off-the-pot chance given that his 2016/17 paychecks are team options

that pic reminds me of this for some reason

https://fictioners.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/ask-me-about-loom-e1373440866822.gif

"for some reason".

I guess on this board a callback to an adventure game from 1992 doesnt need any qualifiers

the resemblance is frightening

http://deadspin.com/pablo-sandoval-remains-pablo-sandoval-shaped-1686345624

I guarantee you'll have never heard "you fat fuck" yelled so many times in New England accents.

well, at least he didn't pull a magary and aggressively use an all-caps phonetic spelling, a la "YOOO FAYT FAHK," as if no one knew what the accent sounded like

...not to mention it's otm and i'm dreading hearing this myself the first time this season i watch a game at the bar and he strikes out

I'm high on Porcello and I predict he will have the biggest impact of all new Sox players. Joe Kelly not as much.

now with NEUROSCOUTING

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/02/18/neuroscouting-may-give-red-sox-heads-prospects-potential/EFBHR3zNdThk1NboRpNMHL/story.html?event=event25

interesting. the latest class of sox prospects has been so back and forth, which of course happens all the time but when the high end is mookie, who tore through AA/AAA and had verifiable impact as a starter, and the bust end is jackie bradley jr., who tore through double and triple A only to have beane-esque hitting anxiety and poor swinging in the majors, it's rather jolting

xps to van horn: I'm excited for both porcello and kelly, albeit more porcello - kelly still needs to regain some of his command

Shane Victorino took a round of BP from the left side. Looked rusty. “We’re gonna have to work on that side,” he told Victor Rodriguez.

"Count me out. Please. Call me the underdog. I'm all for it."

...not sure i buy victorino's questionably rational confidence

There is a whole lot of if's in Boston's starting rotation and the bullpen looks a bit shy to me. They should score a bunch of runs, but that pitching has some doubts.

apparently sox can haz moncada, which I have no feelings about yet

folks speculatin' that they're getting him so they can toss a prospect they wouldn't have previously parted with into a hamels deal

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-pDLA3UcAIGnmy.png

http://m.redsox.mlb.com/news/article/109428744/farrell-rotation-success-hinges-on-kelly

Red Sox manager John Farrell says his club has enough talent in its rotation "for us to pitch and play deep into the postseason" but a good deal of it will depend on Joe Kelly living up to his lofty aspirations.

The right-hander, acquired from the Cardinals at last year's Trade Deadline, told Boston radio station WEEI this winter that he's picking himself to win the American League Cy Young, and reiterated to MLB.com's Ian Browne in January that he's "going to win this year."

i don't miss joe kelly's pitching, but i do miss joe kelly

joe kelly's personality is generally wonderful, as is his hair, and i'm glad he's on the sox, altho i was pretty annoyed by a recent tasteless/ bruce jenner-related joke he made on twitter to mike napoli - didn't seem genuinely mean-spirited but was still pretty smh-worthy

as for his pitching, his 2013 was pretty dope, i'd love if that would come back

his results in 2013 were great, but it wasn't much fun watching him. only 5.73 k/9, and over 3 bb/9. there were a lot of games where he crawled to the 5th inning and then barely managed to get out of a jam, but somehow was saved by the bullpen and came away with a W and only 2 earned runs or whatever. there's always talk of pitchers who consistently outperform their FIPs (like Matt Cain, until last year), but where Cain often looked dominant, Kelly always looks like he's just barely holding on

xxxp uggghhhhhh @ that shaughnessy thing, every time i want to say simmons is the worst representation of boston sports media fandom i check myself bc dan shaughnessy makes BS seem like a model of objectivity

where he crawled to the 5th inning and then barely managed to get out of a jam

lol this summarizes like 7 out of his 10 sox starts, including all but maybe 1 of the four wins

Gary Striewski ‏@garystriewski 4m4 minutes ago

Good news: Sox haven't allowed a hit against a college team Bad news: Sox haven't had a hit against a college team

scratch that: mookie betts, naturally, has the first hit.

(please cherington don't trade him)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_CmC_GUwAAYPRT.jpg

inasmuch as spring training means anything, backup infield looks pretty sloppy this afternoon

usually don't like giving pete abe any sort of consideration, but this was hilarious:

Pete Abraham ‏@PeteAbe 1m1 minute ago
There was a snake in the #RedSox clubhouse, which prompted several players to climb on chairs or tables. Wade Miley wrangled it.

Alex Speier ‏@alexspeier 5m5 minutes ago
Betts just took his first walk of the spring. Now hitting .472 with a .486 OBP.

i know it's just spring training and JBJ did this well too and then fell off a cliff in the major leagues but maaaaaaannnnnnn

(also betts has proven himself to a considerable extent in the big club, JBJ didn't do much before his AAA/spring training craziness)

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/david-ortiz-on-the-record/

fuckin a

p well said, goodjob papi

Grantland looks at morass of 80-87-win teams that is the AL East, supposes Boston...

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-2015-al-east-preview-red-sox-blue-jays-orioles-rays-yankees/

they can definitely win the division because of how weak it is and how high their potential ceiling is (honestly more the former than the latter).

not going to get more optimistic than that tho

In 2013, I came off the DL and started hot. My first 20 games I was hitting like .400. And the reporter with the red jheri curl from The Boston Globe comes into the locker room says, “You’re from the Dominican. You’re older. You fit the profile of a steroid user. Don’t you think you’re a prime suspect?”

He’s saying this with a straight face. I had taken like 70 at-bats. Anybody can get hot and hit .400 with 70 at-bats. I was stunned. I’m like, I’m Dominican? I fit the profile? Are you kidding me?

hate hate hate HATE shaughnessy so fucking much. for a ton of reasons, but perhaps most for the way he acts all like he's above homerism when he covers the sox but then writes a dozen columns emphasizing The Patriot Way and extolling the bruins' grit without a lick of irony

needed a 'curly haired boyfriend' reference

Brian MacPherson ‏@brianmacp 7m7 minutes ago
Mookie Betts has 11 extra-base hits this spring. No other Red Sox hitter even has five.

related: he is 2-2 with a 2-run homer against the barves today

do we as a board think ortiz juiced/es or is he just an outlier?

everyone either juiced or should have

except for bonds (maybe) although the results were astonishing enough to be worthwhile

bonds hella juiced before and after the ban and gave zero fucks (not that I care), ortiz def did before the ban and might've after if he wasn't tested all the gdamn time but prob couldn't afford to

oh i don't doubt that bonds juiced -- just that he was already financially set and might have had a hof case without it, which brings into the question of 'should have'

ah, yeah, I mean in both the biggest doping cases (bonds and a-rod), the players were great/arguably once in a lifetime talents before they (as far as we know) began juicing, and with them it's always been like "why'd they bother?"

I mean I suppose we know why & asking that without qualifiers comes off as dangerously naive, but still.

w/ papi I understand objectively why he would've sought competitive advantages in the pre-ban period bc he was viewed as an almost-bust on the twins. unless he's completely lying about how often he's tested, which seems crazy bold even for him, I believe that he stopped & whatever improvements he made via chemicals, training or both simply stuck. or he got insanely good at beating tests, which seems unlikely

I'm willing to believe that a dude who almost never had to play the field could keep the numbers up thru his 30s wo juice

well, i wouldn't pin my belief on that. designated hitters (and first basemen, who aren't particularly taxed in the field) also decline, and it's not like he's some ridiculously athletic guy committed to late-career conditioning

Christain Vazquez unlikely to open at catcher

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/12575944/christian-vazquez-boston-red-sox-get-2nd-opinion-elbow-ready-opening-day

he was only holding the spot for swihart anyway

nah vazquez's framing & arm are legit great, swihart is (in the minors) a markedly better hitter w somewhat average defense, they will likely be platooned when swihart is ready for the big club w/ hanigan as the last ditch backup

hanigan will prob start opening day at this rate tho given that vazquez is seeing...dr. james andrews...fuuuuuuck

opening day and day-after starters officially announced as buchholz and porcello

projecting the remaining order to go miley-kelly-masterson, unless kelly is stuck on the DL then wright probably knuckleballs his way through a start or two early on

60-day DL for Vazquez

@BenLindbergh
Vazquez projected to be +28 runs/season in framing, according to @harrypav (T-2nd in MLB). Also, best C at reducing steal attempts in 2014.

Dioner Navarro: still available!

multiple sox bloggers making aj pierzynski signing jokes for April fools

related: I have suffered multiple seizures this morning

@brooksbaseball
My HOF tracking model has Betts needing to put up at least 3/4 with 1 double and 1 HR vs Hamels today to stay on his HOF pace.

i mean, it's destiny, who can stop destiny

oh god he also tweeted this earlier today, and i remember once again why i never listen to WEEI aside from actual game broadcasts:

Dan Brooks @brooksbaseball ·13h 13 hours ago
Tomorrow on boston sports radio: 29 hours of "are red sox geniuses for not signing lester"

aaaaaand the first run of the season is a LASER SHOW

there's mookie's hr

pedroia's 2 homers make this his first multi-homer game since 2011

I FUCKIN LOVE THIS TEAM

seconded.

clay's opening day line: 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 3H, 1 BB, 9K

i mean!!

https://vine.co/v/eBz7gDWuBrX

i'm trying to not go crazy with getting my hopes up right away because this is against the phillies and it's the first game...but yeah. im pretty excited.

hanle y

:D

*places jersey order*

need another 4th-place finish, right above the Stanks

nice try

ha! hanley's bat broke on that grand slam

REPORTERS: yo ben are you gonna extend porcello man
CHERINGTON: idk we'll see who knows what might happen
RED SOX: *win exactly one game, albeit with authority*
CHERINGTON: jk he's getting 4 years for 82.5 million plus 12.5 mil this year from arbitration plus signing bonus

@TonyPaul1984
Whoa: By the time he is 30, Rick Porcello will have earned about $100M -- more than Max Scherzer and David Price combined. #redsox #tigers

probably when they traded for him they said "this is here if you want it"

he's an east coast guy, pretty good deal for everyone imo.

I'm cool with it for sure. he doesn't have the highest ceiling (that'd be clay), but is probably the best combination of raw talent and proven consistency in that rotation. he's relatively young so if he stays healthy he'll be well worth it.

actual inning: mookie flyout, pedroia flyout, ortiz single, hanley single + run advancement on two philly errors, panda walk, victorino RBI single, buchanan walks in hanigan for a run, bogaerts 3-run triple, justin fucking masterson RBI

guys I think the sox offense works

I don't mean to be negative nancy but isn't the other team the phillies?

it is, but it worked against their purported opening day ace as well as this buchanan scrub.

@mighty_flynn · 7m
I think I just watched the most entertaining 20 minutes ever aired on MLBN.

@mighty_flynn · 3m
Sean Casey was thrown out by 20 ft by Markakis. Went back to dugout, Pedro said, “Hey man, can we talk? Do you think you might have polio?”

lmao

have any position players hit the mound in this classic yet?

omg this game is still going?

Costas just told an anecdote about suicidal guinea pigs, followed immediately by a stephen drew single

ITS THE 17TH INNING WTF

wanna see papi pitch

they could always get brock holt

oh hell with it it's an early season game they can have this one, I'd be happy if they didn't but oh well

love a lead then a tie in the 18th

what a throw

longest game in franchise history

in terms of time that is AND ITS OVER AND WAS NOT A LOSS COOL GREAT.

late-inning crowd was a nice preview of September in the Bronx

fell asleep in london just as miley came out

i could have woken up at 7am and caught the last half hour

joe kelly, who knew

buchholz threw seven scoreless innings in his first start

after his second start, he now has a 7.84 ERA

it's April, I'm not worried about him yet even if I probably should be

last night's game is unquestionably A Thing That Happened And Sucked

but, yea they are currently ringing zimmerman's goddam bell (thanks mookie) so i think the offense might yknow be juuuuuuust fine

any time

are you posting from the dugout????

FACED

http://i.imgur.com/SZ61xzQ.gif

what if I told you
that early on in the season
the sox's #5 starter joseph kelly jr.
would by far look like the ace

...and also like a complete headcase after 5 innings

hanley leads the league in home runs and RBIs :D

let me get the zing attempts out of the way for y'all if you're so inclined: old, left field, health blah blah blah

*waits for morbs's borderline 9/11 truthery joke about idk hanley on roids or some shit*

era+

joe kelly 84
justin masterson 80
rick porcello 77
clay buchholz 72
wade miley 48

team 83

i don't make jokes about SSS league leaders in APRIL

or even JUNE

xxp i am well aware of teh pitching bud it is decidedly less than optimal

bullpen's been good tho!

Joe&
Justin&
Rick&
Clay&
Wade

on the back: FREE KNUCKLEPUCK

xxp wut the bullpen is kind of a mess, ogando is ok, koji is mostly prime koji, taz is ok against anyone but the blue jays but robbie ross sucks, layne is a coin flip, barnes is still developing...team def needs arms, prob one from a trade and some leaps and bounds by the prospects

swihart day today http://i.imgur.com/GTjafzC.gif

maybe shoulda hung on to lackey

Hanle y is hur t.

:[

day-to-day for now, hopefully not a big deal

first shutout game pitched by a red sock not named clay buchholz, or in other words, by a pitcher (porcello) who's guaranteed to be on the team next year - which clay frankly is not

fun fact: apparently porcello is the nephew of one of my high school lit teachers (jersey stand UP)

pitching coach juan nieves fired

lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEf_jojWIAIRFBM.png

What Happened Next When Juan Nieves Visited the Mound: 10-for-14 with 5 walks

ugh

the Nieves BP podcast today was funny ("maybe they gave him 2 weeks' notice when Adam Jones walked with the bases loaded")

hanle y bac k

ugly

they gotta send miley down and try one of the young kids this is getting ridiculous

more like servantson

*laughs maniacally*

hey but is cutch hitting yet

oh I guess he kind of is well w/e

would not be surprise if masterson is straight up DFAed tomorrow he doesn't have options and there isnt room in the bullpen really

lol xp

I mean tbf for him that's fairly chump change but yes I missed the end of the briefly ballyhooed slump such is the pity

red sox 'moving toward' placing masterson on the DL with 'general fatigue'

the fatigue is from cherington threatening him with literal murder, or he had to listen to a long drawn out equivocating farrell speech about his probs

"fatigued of his shit"

wade miley just went 7 scoreless innings

i give up trying to predict a goddamn thing with this rotation

a's 0-for-14 with risp, basically

jesus christ

The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 2m2 minutes ago
The @RedSox made Allen Craig available to the 29 other teams and there were no takers http://trib.al/KLIdU76

not that im surprised by that really, just, oooof.

i'm sure there are teams that would give him a shot, but not when he's owed $20m over the next two seasons

that whole trade is looking truly awful

wang.xls

panda whomped on the knee by a pitch, helped off the field :[

no serious injury, just sore false alarm

napoli is fuckin cooked

^^^naturally I say that and he gets one homer in an otherwise humiliating 12-5 beating by the angels one day and gets two homers the next

and another 2-run homer just now lol

he's streaky as heck.

BROCK HOLT ladies and gentlemen!!

jesus fucking christ kelly couldn't make it through 2 innings today

napoli is fuckin cooked

AL player of the week

well we can't all be right all the time now can we

in the meantime, wade miley is currently the best red sox pitcher, nothing makes any sense

so b-ref has hanle y at +0.6 WAR and fangraphs has him at -0.7

it seems that quantifying his defense is proving problematic

it bad

^^^^ that is me quantifying it

bringing him back early from that injury was a mistake

eduardo rodriguez's pitching line in his MLB debut: 7.2 IP, 3H, 0 runs earned or otherwise, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts

hanle y homered for the first time since late april

@DavidLaurilaQA
Wade Miley and Joe Kelly are playing whiffle ball in concourse outside Red Sox clubhouse at Fenway. Miley's got good stuff.

practicing for their future

that start by rodriguez practically the only bright spot in a fucking abysmal may

it was a really bright spot though. and the fact that he was throwing heat makes me think maybe batters won't "figure him out" right away?

i hope you're right. i'm having rubby de la rosa flashback vibes - rubby had a phenomenal opening start and then became thoroughly ordinary and/or bad depending on the start - but tbf rodriguez shut out a much better offense than the rays offense that got 1 run off of rubby in the start to which i'm referring.

there are more worrisome examples of young sox flameouts (rubby wouldve been a respectable #4/5) but we will not speak of d-n--l b-rd now or ever its too sad

overall i will be more positive than negative about eduardo until further notice

eight hits in his last 2.5 games for xavier bogartes

eduardo sure looked like the real deal today

ladies and gentlemen your scrappin', scrapin', small-ball red sox!

did farrell literally tell everyone to choke up an inch? some satisfyingly slappy singles today, ty cobb would have approved

it was good stuff, hopefully they're not worn out for the night game

double steal with hanle y as the lead runner btw! (in the first game)

What is up with Betts though

mookieproofing

cruel

swihart just got his first dinger, outta the park

nightmarish

the way this team plays is brutal

they didn't pay for every mistake they made, but they paid for enough of them. there were coaching errors too, they should count as Es

if i was farrell i would be going full postal on these guys

fucking nightmare, allowing the game to be tied sucks but is understandable, allowing 4 more runs in the last second is a slaughter

hanley had no idea where that ball in the 9th was going

yeah i want to see the statcast on that

he is currently -37 defensive runs saved :[

@GordonEdes
Farrell responds yes when asked if Hanley lost track of the number of outs in seventh. Admits in so many words he has no real options in LF

maybe this is the end of the road for ortiz and hanley becomes DH

"I thought we might be able to steal one there," Butterfield said. "Didn't work. You don't have an eraser and you don't have a DVR where you can redo it. I made my decision and I stuck with it. They executed."

"they executed"? uh yeah they're pro ballplayers, that's what they tend to do. you fucked up. and i didn't see what happened with the coaching on the embarrassing hanle y rundown, but surely that's also your job to give him the red light there. fuck's sake!

sorry, for context, butterfield's talking about the play when he waved mike "bad wheels" napoli around third, leading to napoli being thrown out by approximately 30 miles

yea idk what he's trying to play that off as, it was fuckin stupid

wade fuckin miley

is brock holt a victim of his own flexibility? i.e. he's so good, in every aspect of his game, he can play every position - so he's too valuable to lock into a consistent starting place? starting to wonder. there is less and less justification not to start him imo.

he's def a flexibility victim, also a victim of streakiness. he's a predictably decent-to-good infielder with a bat as hot and cold as napoli's albeit less dramatically so

I'm totally on board with benching ortiz and letting hanley DH against lefties btw

no updates on the woman w life threatening injuries who was hit with brett lawrie's bat shard - hope all goes well with her. scary shit.

she is in serious but stable condition. i was sitting in the loge seats along the third base line yday and someone almost got hit with another foul ball, zoomed right past the heads of me and my friend and into someone's beer.

what up 7-run comeback in a single inning after trailing 4-0, i see you

tyvm shitty oaktown bullpen

eddie rodriguez got me HYPED with that adam jones strikeout/fistpump

made wiley

my perfect record of wins at games I attend is totally in jeopardy rn

tbf few among us have seen an 8-1 lead blown

fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

~flags fly forever~ ~2013 cliches~

this team has really accelerated into another level of shit

it is truly grotesque

i truly like all these players too which makes it heart breaking - this isn't a collection of your lackeys and your becketts and what have you. they just seem to choke in every aspect of the game apart from, surprisingly, starting pitching

naturally, the starting pitching sorta settled in right when the offense decided to be incontinent in key situations - not even as an across the board thing, really, bc they get those inning bursts of offense that aren't just luck

the good portions of napoli's streakiness are shorter and less frequent, ortiz is cooked against any lefty and more than a few righties, bullpen...kinda sucks aside from taz and koji

Taz didn't exactly have a great night last night either tho

part of the offense problem has got to be that papi can't protect the lineup anymore. get his numbers up to .310 and 20 HRs right now and everybody else's average jumps 20 points

but....... that ain't gonna happen

xxp I dont know why farrell ever plays him against the blue jays he is cursed against them

it's the 4th inning, at 2:46 p.m. or so, and already I need to start drinking for this one.

ed-rod was cool while it lasted

tbf I still think he's really good and was gonna hit a bump eventually but this one was fucking vicious

dude should get a pass here, considering it's the best hitting team in baseball.

yea I ain't mad

apparently two dipshits ran on the field and got tackled by security but the NESN cameras wouldn't show it, I'm expecting the deadspin post with fan shot footage and tired ass jokes about accents any minute now

boston sports fans, always so put-upon ;_;

not saying we don't deserve it half to 75 percent of the time but be less predictable

like get some new material so the zings feel more fresh

ed-rod would have been fine had not the bad news bears combined for what, three identical "lost in the sun" pop-ups to short right?

this team makes me hurt deep inside of my chest

things Billy Corgan said to Kim Thayil in Australia in 1994 poll

duuuude for fucks sake I don't troll your grit squad on the pirates thread

i'm sorry but you did in fact come eerily close to quoting billy corgan

also you are 20 months removed from your third world series title in the last 11 years; suck it up/flags fly forever

sigh, I honestly don't even have the energy to really argue/know you're right of course - irritated in general and half drunk

on the other hand you'd appreciate mook that this is the most I've watched of a hockey game in like 3 years bc i wanted an actually entertaining sport

<3

i think they might have to release mike napoli

the streaks occur less often and are shorter, when he's not streaky he's awful, he looks lost at the plate more often than not & he's an expiring. it wouldnt be a huge cap hit.

it could scare the shit out of the clubhouse & have them get their shit...it could also have the exact opposite effect, idk

*get their shit together

napoli's first extra-base hit and multi-hit game since 6/6

you are magical

lol, every time!!

this can't possibly be a sustainable strategy (begins thinking of more napoli insults)

I guess if I can get to the Saberseminar in August (Jimmy Fund benefit), a 'cheap' ticket to Fenway might be possible.

if they keep being meh or worse you could get pretty cheap bleachers on stubhub or ace ticket

man everybody gettin a piece

i'm in serious man-love with like everybody on this team. it's too bad how they all somehow combine to be exponentially worse than the sum of their parts. doesn't that have to reflect on farrell?

BROCK HOLT

first cycle since john valentin, 6/6/96

I saw Orlando Hudson hit for the cycle at Dodger Stadium on opening day many moons ago and I was almost too drunk to even notice it. Such a silly stat..

man everybody gettin a piece

i'm in serious man-love with like everybody on this team. it's too bad how they all somehow combine to be exponentially worse than the sum of their parts. doesn't that have to reflect on farrell?
--transparent play for gifs (Tracer Hand)

I think it does to some extent but I don't think it's enough to say he should be canned. I don't really know what canning anyone will do, especially midseason. they all held the line today, really just want them to start clambering back toward some semblance of respectability

slotho, i sat in the Fenway bleachers once about 15 years ago; you can't see shit, and soaking in the 'mist' of Sawxfans is not compensatory.

*slothrop, read yr pynchon

they're so clean in queens amirite

i dont do OF seats there either

but for real I'm poor so I consider the bleachers cheap, ppl with normal salaries can prob get loge box seats along the baseline for not too much.

well i'm poorish but have rich relations (NYC)

anything apart from the end of the right field foul line is exorbitant at fenway iirc. most expensive tickets in the majors!

...well, yeah.

did standing room once or twice.

can't wait to see how they blow this bases loaded opportunity

LOL IT WORKED AGAIN, albeit not as well as it should've with bases loaded, but joe kelly just got one of the weirdest infield single RBIs

but yea reverse psychology game strong if I do say so myself

nope nevermind forget it I was wrong

morbs come to a game! that would be about the only thing that gets me near fenway this summer.

@GordonEdes
Sandoval benched, admits that was him liking photos of woman on Instagram during game Said he was using bathroom at the time

lolllllllllllllllllll

I really don't know how they just went 13-2 on the royals after choking a lead and losing last night, but I like it

well ok I mean part of it was chris young but the floor scraping lows and skyscraper highs of this offense are so jarring

Wade Miley has become very impressive indeed

y'know

it's not the worst to be losing the orioles - it's annoying, mostly bc of what fuck bowshalter has done to make a rivalry there, but not like the yanks or rays - but to not be getting hits off ubaldo fucking jimenez, is this team fuckin kidding me

I could apply that to most orioles starters this year actually

that said my lawd mookie betts is still on a 10 game hit streak *fans self*

pedroia to the DL, kelly to pawsox, the JBJ experiment will roll on one final ride
https://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/jbj.jpg

oh and deven marrero, and whoever the hell RHP jonathan aro is

@RedSox_Thoughts
Bold move by the Red Sox to swap rosters with Pawtucket. May be a #turningpoint

lol pretty much

morbs come to a game! that would be about the only thing that gets me near fenway this summer.

we'll see if i have pocket change for this in August (Jimmy Fund benefit):

http://saberseminar.com/the-participants-the-program/

this team appears to have figured out how to play. even when they lose they look dangerous. maybe instagram's been banned from the clubhouse?


--slothroprhymes

lol that didn't work friggin zing

anyway, ~JBJ home runs~

happy canada day

burn it to the ground

been done

clearly wasn't done right

this is the wackiest fuckin game

betts, holt xander and the inexplicably resurgent alejandro de aza all have 3 hits tonight

fangraphs predicts sox to have the best record in the AL the rest of the way

I'm gonna not get hopeful and take that with like 9,000 grains of salt...

*watches hanigan score on xander's fourth hit*

SHITTY PARITY-STRICKEN DIVISION TITLE HERE WE COME *blows paycheck on tickets*

but seriously, that is good to hear and I also cannot yet see it with this rotation even with buchholz being good again and e-rod showing promise

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/david-ortiz-did-something-no-red-sox-first-baseman-has-ever-done-004547771.html

weird

FOUR WINS IN A ROW FIRST TIME ALL SEASON 2015 AL EAST CHAMPS HERE WE COME LETS GET IT

seriously they're slouching shockingly toward quality in a tangible way, but they can't lose momentum

4 1/2 back in the division

13.5% to win the division, 26.6% to make the playoffs

and you haven't even shit on mike napoli lately

I mean the team is kinda doing that for me, david ortiz is repeatedly playing first base. in AL games.

I got to figure Ryan Hanigan is probably living out the dream getting to play for the Red Sox this year being from MA. Hanigan's a cool player, definitely someone that has pretty much maxed out of his talent.

buch's breaking ball that starts outside (to left-handers) and then darts back over the plate is fucking devastating today. he's thrown it like 80% of the time and he should keep doing so

aaaand now he's hurt

buch only on the 15-day, just enough time to coincide with the break and bring up brian johnson

I have also run out of possible explanations for the streak of de aza inexplicably doing something good or valuable in almost every game he plays in, at age 31 after being traded for nothing by the orange birds due to like a 15-game hitless streak

as much as i love brock holt you could make the argument that his fielding miscues led directly to the big innings that lost the game yesterday and probably today

they won yday! Friday was the big fuckup

but yea I mean when holt fucks up it's usually pretty consequential, which you forget bc of his utility value/general competence

yes sorry day before yday

de aza 2-4 today

nbd man just gotta savor every win in these trying times

and yea the de aza train rolls on, he had a bad miscue in left yday when he was a defensive replacement but they won the game anyway so it wasn't even a big deal

holt probably my straight up favorite player

would love to see mookie tear the cover off the ball here

ah shit

I like holt despite distrusting the cult of brock holt. xander is my favorite current red sock followed by koji

did not know there was a cult!! of what does this cult consist? yeah xander right up there, koji.. so many people to like on this team

lol I'm referring to the adoration and partial overrating focused around gritty wite players like holt, which tbf is not exclusive to boston (see how the yankee fans view gardner, countless other examples past and present) but because of certain aspects of our sports culture in the city can be magnified to a degree I find questionable

i getcha

RHP from single-A greenville, mike kopech, banned 50 for some type of speed or another http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/07/16/red-sox-minor-leaguer-suspended-games/fbHt8rbLGqg9RMGzsyxt4J/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter

brilliant move, kid :/

the fuck is it with this new generation of stimulants. oxilofrine?

tbh i wouldn't be too surprised if this were a mistake of supplements or something. he's 19, a first-round pick, got a $1.5m bonus -- no real motive at this point

he did have a jump in velocity this season, which everyone is now questioning, but that's hardly uncommon for high school kids

going to tonight's game. Go Angeles, Boo Panda.

haha, Angels

lol ok dude

like you don't need to be mad just bc the faustian bargain bochy made dictates that odd year wins are not permitted seems like a bad way to live imo

so Uehara threw Trout an 83 mph fastball? is that his 9th-inning weapon?

not much you can do against the best player there is

looked more like a failed splitter than his (such as it is) fastball, but oh well

zloth you don't get me at all, i was being sarcatic. i was hurt at what he said at first but i have moved on...

only care about one team.

Trout is the man, they had two hits tonight and one was the walk-off.

I suppose I'm happier to see a drought stricken state get rained on than see the sox lose earlier in the evening

rip eduardo

@TimBritton
The Angels scored seven runs on Eduardo Rodriguez's last eight pitches.

u coulda been a contender ed-rod

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/07/19/hopes-growing-that-eduardo-rodriguez-ace-material/ncuPXV9uh9HvRccJYUahjM/story.html

*sighs deeply*

his offspeed stuff needs a lot of work imo

I agree there def, also his movements are clearly easy to read although since he's a kid that can be fixed

unrelated, this dude filling in for don orsillo in the booth with remy is v off-putting

sounds kinda like patrick bateman calling a game :/

sometimes pitch tipping doesn't get fixed :/

sometimes pitch tipping doesn't get fixed :/

true, but he's so young and the massive natural talent is so clearly there i'm willing to wait to see if he works it out

never missing an opportunity for nostalgia mining, NESN is airing a marathon of classic pedro games

not that I'm complaining

currently on aug 28 2000 where he hit gerald williams and went complete game, 1H, 13K, 0R, 0BB.

Hot sub-.500 showdown on ESPN tonight.

lol yea, at least with the tigers it's only one game under rather than...12.

miley is pitching tonight and his last start was legit great so there's that but I ain't expecting anything anymore. barring a massive run (which seems impossible), the season's fuckin over

turning point, people

:D

beautiful game. even if it's just that and things haven't changed overall, it was fuckin great

also I posted earlier that miley was starting and it was in fact ed-rod, but rodriguez was great tonight!

in the bleachers for pedro day

there will be tears

um how is that a home run

frankly I was apoplectic (and it wasn't)

ortiz is walking up to a spanish version of "fuck up some commas" tho that was alright

poor cello ;_;

he is not good at the pitching and the throwing and the ground ball outs it is true

lol napoli

fucking napoli. at this rate I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes somewhat consistent at the plate the rest of this season and the team still continues to repeatedly shit itself

trampa bay's SP, matt moore, has a 7.61 ERA and kelly (5.94) is pitching for boston so this'll prob be a high-scoring game of absolute shit-tasticness

good fuckin riddance lucchino, you fuck

lol ungrateful much?

omg

this actually makes up for being 14 back

always credited theo more for 2004/2007 than larry and yea I'm prob being halfway irrational with the fuckwords

but yea I don't think his influence has been positive in the front office for quite some time

if one allows that he's been less involved over the past year it's enough to make me wish he was staying.

porcello to the DL

if he really has been battling an injury that /might/ explain some of his struggles but honestly I think he's just flailing

it's the big day for henry owens, and he looks about ready to shit his pants

ended up having a solid night, which robbie ross immediately ruined

the changeup was as advertised i thought.

I'd agree. his command and alarming tendency to pitch high are sus but those things can prob be worked on, seeing as he's 23

braig creslow

daniel nava has been claimed by the rays

:[ as an inveterate nava defender that has me like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dHaMV_eXko

steven wright > luis severino

who'd have thought?

I know napoli going was best for all involved, but it still kinda hurts

8 remaining players from the '13 title team now - workman (TJ), buchholz (collapsing body), koji (old), tazawa (declining), breslow (hot garbage), pedroia (injured, prob shut down for the season soon) ortiz (old, declining, still kinda mashing tho), bogaerts (being of pure goodness and light and extra-base hits)

i don't want to alarm you, but pedroia turns 32 next week

32 isn't that bad, I'm concerned about what he's like when he's 36 and still has 2 more years on a contract that iirc includes an almost ironclad no-trade

not that they'd ever put him out to pasture, the front office is already thinking about how they're gonna market his twilight years/retirement

i don't think taz is declining (he's never seemed as good to me as his numbers suggest but that's not new), i think he's just overused b/c the bullpen is awful.

If you mean, pitching staff I agree with you. Woof.

aaaaand koji's out for the season.

i understand justin masterson is available

that's legitimately cruel

fwiw i'm actually happy that vance worley accepted an outright assignment to triple-a, so

oh I mean, I got nothing against masterson, he's just past his prime and if another team claims him and he can help as a bullpen guy, that's good, his all star status was legitimate not so long ago

not to mention, sox are obviously cooked for the year and it's their turn to be cooked for a hot minute, cherington's idea that the team could go back to win-now right after a failed season was stupid and obviously stems from the stupid media environment surrounding this team and the meatball portions of the fanbase, which are quite sizable

on phone don't feel like looking for the relevant pic, but STOP, STOP, THEY'RE ALREADY DEAD.

john farrell has lymphoma

stage 1, apparently, announced in the pregame presser

whoa

dombrowski in, cherington out

Here we go!

andy should i be happy about this

that was sudden

some talk that frank wren will be the puppet GM

:/

Yes, you should be happy about Dombrowski (and prepare for Dombpoutski ITT).

i was gonna come up, maybe, for the Saberseminar this weekend, which had both Cherington and Farrell as scheduled speakers

also it's sposed to rain, so i figured i wouldn't even see the Royals win in Fenway

Has any GM ever been fired less than two years after winning the WS? (yeah, Cherington technically resigned after being encouraged to stay on by Dombrowski, but when the team hires a guy like that to oversee you, they're essentially firing you and waiting for you to take the hint)

when they eventually force dombrowski out the next guy will have to be god-emperor of baseball operations

lol

Dan Shaughnessy ‏@Dan_Shaughnessy 10m10 minutes ago
Betting Dombrowski will not be afreaid to part with ever-overrated "untouchable" prospects in Sox always-overrated system.

but will he be afraid? this "afreaid" seems like a radical concept one wouldn't want in the first place

your 2015 red sox motto: "we'll make your no. 4s and 5s look brilliant and beat the shit out of your aces"

two aces down in one week

Hey Andy should we be happy about Dombrowski's likely approach to the Bosox farm system? He appears to have a very different philosophy than the "grow 'em gently (and sometimes forever)" style favored by the Cherington/Lucch mob

travis shaw is still veeery much in #smallsamplesize territory, BUT: .346/.393/.630 w 6 dingers in like 20-25 games

i'm very interested in shaw, he seems to have the classic profile of guy with no hype who gives you 3-4 nice seasons in the majors

yea that sounds about right

weird that his road batting is absolute shit, like .083

yeah that will have to even out somehow

NESN reportedly parting ways with Red Sox announcer Don Orsillo

oh that's not good

waht

anybody who can survive that many days with the rem-dog deserves a fucking medal

Is there any good gossip in this story for the hard-of-googling?

ratings-based, apparently. rumor is remy will be scaled back significantly next year as well.

this sucks

yeah, the people who could step in....do not inspire confidence

we'll always have
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufSQMXLO95w

(to be fair remy has the best lines but don's reactions are what make it magical)

xxp like, lyons? barf. eck? passable...i guess? wake would be ok maybe but i dont think he'd want to call whole games or travel that much. tom caron? meh.

well i'm thinking the pbp chair, not the color chair. so the two people i know of are the pawsox guy who did a week of games back around the allstar break and dave o'brien who is competent but kind of a drag.

for scaling remy back i think we know a lot more about the options. i like eck a lot but he won't do the majority of the schedule due to travel. i can't stand lyons but apparently the nesn people love him or something.

reckon bad ratings have a lot more to do with finishing in last place three out of four years than orsillo or remdawg

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe5BRcuH41Q

what if they got pedro tho

can't imagine he'd want to do a full schedule but

i like eck, he actually brings some knowledge and appears to be paying attention to the game

but yeah no idea about pbp. orsillo is one of the few guys i actually like. baseball really is a cruel sport.

hanle y is practicing at first

makes sense

ultimately it's a good - even exciting - lineup, sox just need about 4 or 5 pitchers

Cherington did show up at the Saberseminar, post-firing!

In a kinder world, the first question would’ve been a softball about David Ortiz, or a request to explain Alejandro De Aza. Instead, it started with, “So … Hanley Ramirez.” It took several seconds for the resulting laughter to subside.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-hanley-ramirez-left-field-defense-boston-red-sox/

chris sale the latest victim (albeit technically by ND this time rather than allowing 5 runs like the first time) in the continuing saga of "the red sox beating aces despite constantly losing to pitchers of literally any other skill level"

also, porcello last night: 7.0 IP, 5H, 0R/ER, 0BB, 5K.

porcello's last start vs the same team: 2.0 IP, 10H, 6R, 5ER, 1BB, 2K

~what a difference sinkerball pitchers actually throwing sinkers makes~

seeing Owens v Harvey tonight

@pgammo
It's a good mprning when you can look at a 6 4 0 0 3 8 Rich Hill line in Pawtucket

morbs you saw a pretty rad win for the sox!

bullshit

i was doing "Good Night Swihart" jokes all night, and look what happened!

Some "cute" Massholes on the 7 train tho.

we're an adorable people

those of you without joe kelly's mustache, maybe

joe kelly is the first red sox pitcher to win six games in a calendar month since pedro in '99

got that cy young on lock obvs

still zero explanation re: orsillo

highly doubt NESN will ever issue an official one

Jessica Moran @JessMoranCSN
Chili Davis on Jackie Bradley Jr.- "Now he's starting to feel sexy at the plate."

rick porcello in his 12th loss: 8.0 IP, 5H, 3R/1ER, 1BB, 13K.

eat shit, stephen drew

how are porcello and kelly suddenly these amazing pitchers???

porcello is basically being exactly who he always was on the tigers in these past two starts - the two-seamer is sinking at just the right time almost every time and he's minimizing use of the four-seamer that he just wasn't suited to. and when he did deploy the four-seamer last night dudes weren't expecting it, offspeed pitches also looked pretty good

if he can do even 75 percent of what that start was on a regular basis (and maybe not be waylaid by jackassery at 1st and actually receive run support), he'll be fuckin gravy

kelly...that's a bit dicier, bc it's at least part luck. but a fair amount of it is real, he's using the curve and changeup more often and with what seems like better judgment of the situation. the contact his pitches is generating is mostly weak as hell of late

apparently I'm wrong as hell about kelly statswise - his ground ball rate has actually gone down, hard contact rate has gone up - but whatever kelly is doing, it's working for now - no clue whether or not it's sustainable

http://giant.gfycat.com/GleefulTalkativeDesertpupfish.gif

damn dog

yikes

henry owned, ryan cooked

https://twitter.com/DanHirsch/status/639506275630379008

welp, that solves the issue of what im going to eat for dinner tonight (it's obv gonna be chicken)

@kirkmin
Per sources, NESN - facing huge backlash - asked Don Orsillo to tweet that he wasn't being fired and it was a mutual parting. He declined.

jeez

and so joseph of house kelly, second of his name, he of fantastic hair and atrocious mustache, did become the first pitcher in the league to win seven straight games in the year 2015

sox have won 13 of their last 19 games, playing with gusto and the best outfield in the majors

gonna be a mean team next year

i just love all these dudes, honestly. i sort of don't want hanley to work out at first cause i've fallen in love with shaw so much :/

I feel you man, I like hanley for intangible reasons but if they absolutely have to sacrifice him on the carl crawford memorial altar, I'd get over it

already preparing to send him up the river one year into his contract?! you guys are cold.

hey now, I said I'd get over it. did not specify how long it would take. I like hanley more than most fans I know, so it'd take quite some time!

I also don't think his bat is a lost cause just yet, but if midway through next season he still isn't consistently hitting, I dunno, because the bat needs to work for him to take over at DH when papi retires after next season

Papi said he's retiring after next year?

or, is he unaware you guys plan on "retiring" him?!

next year is the last year of his latest extension and he's about to be 40! i dont want to see him go full jeter, whimpering his way out and quite possibly costing his team a WC berth (as jetes did last year)

he's been tremendous this second half and could probably be pretty solid for one more year but i dont see him going past 2016. honestly wasnt sure he'd make it through 2015 given the egregious struggles in the first half

rich hill is starting against the rays this coming sunday. rich hill last started a game july 27, 2009, and is currently 35.

exciting times!

any collapse can happen with the sox bullpen involved, but being up 10-1 bodes well for the improbable continuation of joe kelly's win streak

a friend writes:

Saw a nice interview with Peter Gammons today. You guys probably know all this, but he was raving about the Sox hiring Brian Bannister, who has his own analytics company, to help evaluate their major league pitching (son of Alan Bannister, who I think I remember seeing pitching at the Original Comiskey for the Chisox in the 80’s). Pitching coach Carl Wills welcomed the help, and as a result they completely changed the pitch selection of Joe Kelly and Porcello, emphasis on using their change-up and curve along with a four-seamer to change the eye level (Kelly has the 4th highest velocity in the league, he said). Old School and New School holding hands to put the Sox back on the map. Dombrowki, the old schooler, was so impressed he named Bannister the new Director of Pitching Analytics and Development. Of course it was Cherington who brought Bannister in, lotta good it did him. Maybe they don’t need to import and ace, maybe Kelly is it?

damn papi really didn't waste much time getting to 500 the past several weeks

if it couldn't be at fenway, doing it to the rays is the third next-best thing.

rich hill after not starting for 6 friggin years: 7.0 IP, 1H, 0R/ER, 1BB, 10K. unfortunately, drew smyly has 11Ks and it's still 0-0.

time for the bullpen to fuck it up, probably

upthread my friend means Floyd Banister, not Alan..

rich hill!

33 combined Ks in that game

joe kelly injured/shut down

we'll always have the 8-game winning streak buddy

Ortiz since the break: .339/.413/.741, 20 HR, 54 RBI. And since 2010, when I figured he was washed up (per 162 games): .289/.380/.551, 38 HR, 115 RBI.

It's kind of amazing how despite all that how little credit WAR gives all those numbers. Bar for DH valueis super high I guess.

Plus the park, obviously. That aside, he really has had a late-career resurgence, especially for the kind of player who invariably starts declining quickly at around 31 or 32.

Why does Boston lead off with Betts and bat Bogaerts third? Wouldn't it make more sense to reverse that? Bogaerts has the higher BA/OBP, Betts the higher SLG.

wondered that myself of late, early in the season his 2014 struggles were fresh in the mind but since then he's skyrocketed and especially now what do they have to lose by trying it

mike hazen is the new gm, if such a position matters under dombrowski

it does matter--hazen has been responsible for scouting and player development and prob deserves a lot of credit for the current group of young players

now featuring an added layer of frank wren

shit.

front office positions: the new market inefficiency

rich fucking hill!

wow what an insane run. good for him, without the durability issues he'd have had a great career.

rich fucking hill!
--johnny crunch

beat me to it man

CG, 2H, 0R/ER, 1BB, 10K.

#worsttothird lets get it

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRS_K6CU8AAzGBA.jpg

will gladly listen to his broadcasts next season even if the padres suck

dave d confirms hanley at 1b next year

"Confirms"

I'm high on Porcello and I predict he will have the biggest impact of all new Sox players. Joe Kelly not as much.

― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, February 18, 2015 10:23 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the thing is, this was not an unreasonable thought at the time, and might be true in like 5 years, but it do kinda hurt right now

haha yes, i did have long hair in high school

bullpen successfully purged via waivers/releases - l8er alexi ohgodno and ryan cooked

Lol - been calling him "oh god no" since he came to the majors!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVu4HzOWcAA3LI4.jpg

wha? you always get news 15 mins ahead

ok, news to me

http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2015/12/with_boston_red_sox_season_ove.html

nah, he's in some bowling tournament somewhere

lol mook you sneaky fuck

i got paranoid for all of 30 seconds that dombo had an attack of kuru and made the jose fernandez trade or some shit

how we feel about price?

price is house money/no pick so if you can afford it go for it?

I'm v happy with price, I knew the sox would need one of the big FA pitchers and it's better to pay his cost than pay less for cueto or greinke or samardjiza and have made a less reliable bet by doing so

in theory it seems like his handedness would play better in non-fenway parks, but whatever. (also he's done very well in his 11 career starts there.) seems like good move for a bastard team than can afford him

lollllll

@mookiebetts
Commentating debut tonight on ESPN at 6 central time at the World Series of Bowling! Everybody tune in!!!!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYDQKg1UAAAQkpp.jpg