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

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