Gordon Edes/ESPN threw up some pics of Yaz with his grandson Mike, who's in the Oriole's system. Cool stuff. Time flying. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseba...014/03/proud_moment_for_carl_yastrzemski.html Hoping Sizemore is healthy this year, would take some pressure off JB Jr.....for awhile.
Doubront news: "Doubront, the makeover: The left-hander went four innings in his second appearance of the spring, giving up a couple of singles, walking none and striking out three while going an inning longer than originally planned. All three of Doubront’s strikeouts came in succession, the Brothers Upton (B.J. and Justin) to end the first and Ryan Doumit to start the second. He threw 48 pitches, 29 for strikes, and, while it’s still early, has catcher David Ross talking like Doubront’s a new man. “Night and day from last year," Ross said. “Repeating pitches, repeating location. Fastball location, he’s doing a better job for me, knowing how to move the ball around in the zone." Doubront, who made no friends last spring when he showed up out of shape, spent seven weeks working with the IMG training group in Sarasota. Last year, Farrell said Lackey was able to repeat his delivery more because he had better body control. He’s returned to that theme when discussing Doubront. “It’s very encouraging to see how he’s repeated his delivery," Farrell said. “That’s something he has worked on since the day he signed a pro contract and that’s become more consistent. I think what he’s realizing is the benefits of the work he put in this winter. He came in good shape and it’s allowed him to repeat his delivery more consistently, which has resulted in more consistent strike-throwing." ESPN
The Vazquez arm. "I got the pitcher 1.1 and the catcher 1.73. Billy Hamilton doesn't make it to second with that combo, he's 3.0 to 3.1 from first move to second." -SOSH
Sizemore: http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/35159/sizemore-still-have-to-prove-im-the-guy "The Sox play their last seven games of the exhibition schedule beginning Sunday; Farrell said Sizemore will play in five of them. Given that coincides with the time Farrell said he expects to play his regulars, that would suggest the job has now become Sizemore’s to lose, but Farrell insists no decisions have been made." G. Edes ESPN/Boston
Edes thinks this is what it will be for the opener: "Assuming Sizemore is on the team (likely relegating Jackie Bradley Jr. to Pawtucket), this is how the 25-man roster figures to take shape: Starting rotation (5):Jon Lester, John Lackey, Felix Doubront, Jake Peavy, Clay Buchholz. That's the order in which John Farrell intends to keep them, at least at the outset. Relievers (7):Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Andrew Miller, Edward Mujica, Burke Badenhop, Chris Capuano, Brandon Workman. Catchers (2):A.J. Pierzynski, David Ross. Infielders (5):Mike Napoli, Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts, Will Middlebrooks, Jonathan Herrera (The Sox optioned Brock Holt to Pawtucket on Thursday, clearing the way for Herrera to win the job as utility infielder). Outfielders (5):Jonny Gomes, Shane Victorino, Daniel Nava, Grady Sizemore, Mike Carp. Designated hitter (1):David Ortiz. " Watched some of the Yankee/Sox game yesterday. The only takeaway for me: is that the same Xander Bogaerts we saw last postseason? The kid looks so-so at the the plate but, still slick in the field.
Now I see: " Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks has had a good spring training, hitting the ball from line to line -- and it'll be interesting to see if he gets even better in the days ahead, given a change he just made. He related to John Kruk that last spring, he got a call from an eye doctor but never followed up. This spring, he did ... and as it turned out, he told Kruk, he needed an eye prescription. He wore contacts for the first time during a game in Boston's exhibition two days ago. " - Buster O./ESPN
I'm with the Sizemore-to-the-DL by All-Star break crowd. Seven surgeries in 5 yrs. The guy plays hard and Fenway has some weird angles to get yourself messed up bad. JBJ's a cab ride away and staying loose. Like GS's comeback so far but, not betting on him for more than 60 games. Probably a CF tandem (or three) this year. The outfield outlook has plenty of legs on the forums still: "If Nava's BABip drops to his career average he'll still have an 850 OPS which is 125 points higher than Jackie Bradley's MLE and 175 points higher than Grady Sizemore put up in his last extended playing time in major league baseball. Grady Sizemore is likely to be out of baseball by the all-star break, and you're worried about what Daniel Nava might do 5 years from now? Nava is a better player, by far, than either Jackie Bradley or Grady Sizemore in 2014 and probably in 2015 and 2016 too. Look at it this way, if the Red Sox had signed Jacoby Ellsbury, no one would be doubting that Jackie Bradley was starting the season in Pawtucket. Yet, because we signed a more injury prone and less talented CF, we should give up assets for less than market value in order to avoid sending Jackie Bradley to AAA? What we have here is a group of people who've fallen in love with a prospect; thankfully that group doesn't include the front office, who will do the sensible thing and start Daniel Nava in LF against righthanders, Johnny Gomes against lefthanders, and JBJ against the Toledo Mud Hens. Then when Grady Sizemore goes on the DL two days into the season, JBJ will come up and hopefully be a loose, vague approximation of what Jacoby Ellsbury is going to provide the Yankees with that 310 foot right field wall" -SOSH
Watching this one closely. Key piece of the bullpen in '13 gets ready to roll again: "Lefty reliever Craig Breslow was milling around the Red Sox clubhouse and is nearing a return as he works his way back from a shoulder strain. He faced four batters in a rehab outing Friday for Triple-A Pawtucket after facing four the previous night. Farrell said the back-to-back appearances was the big test, and now the club will wait two days to see how Breslow bounces back before making a decision on whether to activate him Monday" This: Steve Trinward · Top Commenter Breslow coming back could be the best news of all. As those who saw him for more than the World Series (where a throw he should never have had to make had Salty done his job resulted in goat status?) know too well, he was a major key figure in the run to the title last time. In addition to his solid pitching, his ability to get batters out from either side of the plate makes him a must for this run. As we find out whether or not Mujica has anything left, that answer becomes less important as Breslow comes back into the mix. It's early, but Mujica getting battered on Friday nite didn't exactly make believers in his resurrection. Cards found out he was done by August last season. The Watch continues.
Papi looking good on Tater Trot Leaderboard: Leaderboard Updated On: April 12, 2014 Most Recent Post: April 12 Slowest Trot David Ortiz – April 9, 32.91 secs. David Ortiz – April 2, 29.64 Hanley Ramirez #1 – April 6, 27.95 Alfonso Soriano – April 8, 27.0* Miguel Cabrera – April 4, 26.08 Jose Abreu – April 8, 26.09 Hanley Ramirez #2 – April 6, 25.85 Victor Martinez – March 31, 25.78 Welington Castillo – April 11, 25.65 Jhonny Peralta – April 5, 25.6 A little concern here for J.Abreu. Last time I looked he was young & fit. What up? Papi with points off for a Pesky Pole shot that mooned out there and will generally leave batter at plate, mouth agape, as it settles into a scrum of Sox faithfull in not-so-cheap-anymore RF seats. Note the early look of dismay on our Hero as he drops his shoulder, expecting the worse: 'http://m.mlb.com/shared/video/embed...id=63817564&width=400&height=224&property=mlb' .
Update & apologies from the house to Jose A. Sorry big guy! "Slowest Trot: Alfonso Soriano, New York Yankees – 27.0* seconds [video] A noticeable strut from Soriano after launching this blast was enough to knock Jose Abreu’s first career trot off the top of this list. It’s a good thing for Abreu because his 26.09 second trot was entirely the fault of the runner in front of him, who forced Abreu to run slowly in order to stay behind him. Albert Pujols also had a significant stare-down after he powered a ball into Safeco’s deep second deck" - Wezen-Ball
D.Ross' new helmet: "On NESN's Sox pregame show tonight, they aired a segment filmed during Spring Training that followed David Ross around for a bit as he went through his game-day prep work. He briefly showed off a customized catcher's mask he's been wearing that's designed to reduce the impact of foul balls and lower his risk of reinjury. As many are aware, when he returned from the DL last season he switched from a hockey-style mask (where the mask frame is bolted directly to the helmet) to a traditional padded mask with steel wire frame that's not directly secured to any head structure, but instead straps on over a standard helmet with elastic. The theory was that any blunt force might allow the mask to move around on his face rather than jarring an attached helmet and transferring the energy of that impact to his skull and brain. With his new mask, which is also a traditional padded design, the steel wire frame isn't attached directly to the face padding, but rather to a subframe. In between are arrays of small springs that act as miniature shock absorbers. During the segment he noted that it was still a work in progress where it needs to be adjusted for proper tension. He also remarked that the springs on either side of his eyes are taking some getting used to, since they partially obscure his peripheral vision. Nothing was mentioned in the piece about any further refinements since early March when the footage was shot." - Mabrowndog @sosholosa "I did find something else on Ross, but not about the maskt with Ross holding his hat with the lime green UNCAP in his right hand, and here's a marketing article with further details. The Facebook pic also shows a mask under his left arm, but again there's no indication of who made it, and I can't make out any spring arrays. In fact, other than it being red, it doesn't look like the same mask he showed in the NESN feature. The springs on the new mask were black." -Mabrowndog
Calling Brian B: "It's early and assuming the Sox get healthy soon, things will turn. Getting WMB and Victorino back should help the line-up consistency. The pitching has been good enough to win if the offense was anything like last season's...and it should be eventually. It's just a tough team to watch right now. Though Bogaerts ultimately made his impact as a third baseman in the playoffs, going forward, DiSarcina suggested that he views the Red Sox’ top prospect as a capable defensive shortstop. “I’m a firm believer that you play yourself off the position, that you let the player play himself off the position. For me, Xander has not played himself off the position yet. For me, Xander has not played himself off the position yet. I did not see any indications for the two solid months of playing shortstop,” said DiSarcina. “The one thing I really looked at with Xander was the ability to play the game in the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth innings defensively. What I loved about him is he stayed calm in the field, he made the plays. He’s a little unconventional — he’s a narrow-based infielder, he’s tall, he’s going to be a big kid, he’s still growing. He’s got a great arm, he’s got great hand-eye coordination. He turned two double plays with a one-run lead in the ninth inning where he stayed calm and collected. Those are the little things I looked for with Xander. To me, he’s going to have Brian Butterfield all spring training. I like to consider myself a good infield instructor, but Butter, he takes it to a different level. He’s a great infield instructor. I’m excited for Xander to have that resource around for all of spring training. I think leave him out there until he plays himself off the position, and I see no indication of that.” -SOSH
Route Efficiency: "We’re going to learn a lot about defense in the next five years, as Major League Baseball releases PITCHf/x-type data for fielders and batted balls, and the people capable of doing big data–crunchy stuff start to figure out what things like route efficiency mean. One of the things I suspect we’ll learn about defense is that Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons and Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. are really good at it. Simmons might not actually be worth five wins on defense alone, as Baseball-Reference suggested he was last year, or he might be worth more; either way, he’s the best defensive player in the game. Bradley’s not quite that good, but once Grady Sizemore tears his rotator cuff opening a jar of peanut butter later this season, Bradley will slide over to center field and immediately become one of the game’s best defensive outfielders." - Grantland The Enchilada: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/a...bradley-jr-home-runs-defense-measuring-value/
http://www.businessweek.com/article...-a-boston-red-sox-baseball-dynasty#r=hpt-tout "One of the papers presented at the Sloan conference attempts to quantify how all this is affecting the game. In “Can’t Buy Much Love: Why Money Is Not Baseball’s Most Valuable Currency,” Martin Kleinbard arrives at a conclusion that mirrors Henry’s own thoughts about where the true value lies in baseball today. Kleinbard finds a weak correlation between payroll disparity and winning, arguing instead that “youth dominance”—a team’s reliance on younger, cheaper players not yet eligible for free agency—has become a much stronger predictor of success. “To me, the most important thing this study shows is that virtually all of the underpaid players are under 30 and virtually all the overpaid players are over 30,” says Henry. “Yet teams continue to extravagantly overpay for players above the age of 30.” In other words, it’s not expensive players, but inexpensive ones, who are becoming baseball’s prized commodity. Henry’s Red Sox have been shedding the former while betting heavily on the latter."
Last year vs. 2014? http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story...ook-get-track-homestand?ex_cid=espnapi_public A lot of obvious stats pop out but I think key diffs this year are: we had an easier schedule last year, Bucholz was throwing well, better top of the lineup with Ells and Victorino and the three new guys Sizemore, Bogaerts and Bradley need more reps. Somehow, we'll get it going but, it's never easy in the East when you fall behind early. X-Man could turn out to be THE difference if he goes on a roll:
Stylin' - The Beast that is A.J. - <iframe src='http://mlb.mlb.com/shared/video/emb...id=23847315&width=400&height=224&property=mlb' width='400' height='224' frameborder='0'>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>
Papi's 380 passes Evans on Sox all-time list: http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/8877966/v32766711/?c_id=bos Dewey Evans, #24, the best Sox RF many of us have ever seen. Rifle-arm and steady hitter, year-in-year-out.
Miller stays healthy and the heat up (96-97 MPH) - the bullpen just keeps looking stronger. Somehow limp into the playoffs and....well, whatever. "Everything you could want from a late-inning reliever, the 6-foot-7 left-hander had delivered, with his power fastball/slider mix: • He was getting both left-handed and right-handed hitters out, holding lefties to a .095 average (2-for-21), righties to a .194 average (7-for-36) entering play Tuesday. • He was keeping the ball in the ballpark. (...most of the time ) • He was striking out batters at a ferocious rate, averaging 12.9 K’s per nine innings, including 14 in his past 6 2/3 innings. • He was stranding runners. Of the nine he has inherited, none have scored. "
From SOSH Land - Sit Back and enjoy the 82-80'ness " I think the best thing is probably to just try to wait it out, but if the team wants to make some moves for the sake of making moves by say...June 15th: 1) Cut Sizemore, recall Nava. Sizemore's not showing many signs of improvement, and he pretty superfluous on this team. 2) DL or hide Mujica in a basement somewhere. He's awful. 3) Move Doubront to the bullpen. I'm not convinced he'll ever be more than a borderline 5th starter. 4) Call up whichever AAA starter is looking good. Webster, RDLR, whoevs. Maybe they have a bottle with some lightning in it. 5) Either get Betts some reps at 3B in AA, or promote him to AAA to see how he deals with borderline MLB-quality breaking stuff so maybe he could contribute in September, or hell, July or something. I'm sure someone will get hurt soon. Give Victorino some extended time to get healthy again. All about the Mookie train! There you go. Just reshuffle some deck chairs and sit back and enjoy the 82-80ness"