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

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

@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