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

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

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