illinoisredsox

Agreed, I just supplied a link. I don't blame him one bit for not signing one. Should he move on in 2021, there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth at how "cheap" the FO is. Pedroia loves playing in Boston, which was probably a huge factor in him signing his early extension. Ortiz loved it here. I have no idea if Betts likes it here or not. He could be a god here if he so wishes; but he may not wish for that.

https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com/2017/09/07/mookie-betts-turned-multi-year-extension-red-sox/

He is now tied for 7th all time in 3-homer games with some pretty major names (Pujols, Carlos Delgado, Willie Stargell, Aramis Ramirez, Larry Parrish, Ralph Kiner and Barry Bonds). Arod, McGwire, Dave Kingman and Joe Carter each had 5. Johnny Mize and Sosa had 6. Of course, a few if those should have asterisks.

I just googled “last catcher’s balk in Major League Baseball”. They referenced a game from 2000 when a back-up catcher for the Braves was called for one. But the description sounds like he physically set up outside the catcher’s box, not moved there as the pitch was being delivered (seems like most catchers moved as the arm was coming forward, not necessarily just after release). With the new rule, kind of a moot point.

That technically is the rule, although it seems like they were pretty lenient on intentional walks at the major league level; the whole point of the balk rule is avoiding decieving the baserunner(s) and there really wasn’t any deception involved on those unless the catcher was going to jump back behind the plate to catch the hitter.

You still haven’t seen one. I used to ump, a “catcher’s balk” can only happen if the pitcher delivers a pitch when the catcher is out of the catcher’s box. Really the only time it could happen is on an intentional walk (old style) or maybe on a squeeze play. I’m not totally sure what the scoring was on that one but I think it was ruled an error on Vazquez. Box score does not list any balks.

Are the hits off Smith grounders or line drives?

You owe me a new keyboard.

Pro athletes aren't like the rest of us. First, they are young. More importantly, when injured, they have access to the most advanced treatments, therapies, etc available and can spend all the time needed to pursue those therapies. The rest of us have to fit stuff around a job; undergoing treatment becomes their job.

Fixed that for you.

Joe was a crusty, tough nosed New Englander. Here's a pretty good write up on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Morgan_(manager)

Here's how I ranked them last year: "1. Terry Francona (no question) 2. Joe Morgan (2 divisions with not a lot of talent, who can forget "these guys aren't as good as they think they are" after he was let go) 3. Jimy Williams (went back and forth between him and JF, in the end, the 2 last place finishes knocked Farrell down) 4. John Farrell (1 title is a big plus) 5. John McNamara (2 mediocre seasons sandwiched around what should have been the year) 6. Darrell Johnson (1 pennant and lost to the Big Red Machine, but he never should have pinch hit for Willoughby in Game 7) 7. Kevin Kennedy (1 unexpected division title) 8. Don Zimmer (would have been higher had the wild card existed, who knows what could have happened) 9. Grady Little (blew the 2003 pennant) 10. Ralph Houk (defined mediocrity) 11. Butch Hobson (ranks above the other 2 only because of the talent he had, see Joe Morgans comment above) 12. Bobby Valentine (disaster with a very good team on paper) 13. Joe Kerrigan (the fact that he only lasted about 40 games says a lot) I limited my list to guys I actually could judge (I remember Dick Williams and Eddie Kasko, but I really have no basis on which to judge them, Williams caught lightning in a bottle in 67 but did little else, Kasko = Ralph Houk as near as I can tell). Guys like Pesky and Eddie Popowski, who managed but a handful of games, don't count." Link to the thread where it was discussed: http://www.talksox.com/forum/threads/18485-Sox-Managers

Seems to me Ellsbury needs to be in there somewhere. He certainly has had a better career than Nava, for example. And while Kopech has all the talent in the world, he has pitched 5 games above AA ball, none at the major league level.

Before we start annointing anyone the "best" after less than 20 games, we should remember Joe Morgan started out 19-1 in 1988; Sox went 27-30 the rest of the way and got swept by the A's in the ALCS. The teams Joe managed were not nearly as talented as the current iteration, but Joe got a lot out of them (2 division titles) and uttered those immortal words "Your team is not as good as you think it is" to the upper management when they let him go. The disasters that followed under Hobson proved him correct. With 2 titles, Francona is still the standard and there's a gap to second.

Pretty sure Cora said that since Porcello is a ground ball pitcher, Lin would be starting tonight at ss due to his better range. That's the theory anyway.

They apparently tried last year and Mookie turned them down. Offer was supposedly 5 years, $100M. https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com/2017/09/07/mookie-betts-turned-multi-year-extension-red-sox/

Still amazes me that Ortiz hit 541 home runs in his career and NEVER hit 3 in a game.

Easy to see how they could get that mixed up; after all, the foot bone is connected to the ankle bone, etc. Just going off the name, you get what you pay for.

With due credit to Col Sherman Potter, let me guess, Will Rogers never met you.

Neither one of them looks Romanian. Now maybe Natick speaks that language, I have no idea.

Dynamic? We don't know that about either one of them. In fact, I would say neither one of them is. Betts is dynamic. Devers could be. Neither Lin nor Swihart are in that league. Lin came up last year and went 9-25 his first 10 days or so. He then went 6-31 for the rest of the season. His minor league stats don't show anything special. Neither has Swihart shown that much either, Granted, he's been hurt for 2+ years, and he showed some promise in 2015, but he wasn't that great.

I don't think it's that unusual to have 2-3 teams play .800 ball for 10-15 games, nor a couple more to play over .700 for the same span. It's just magnified because it's the start of the season. If this were June or August, it would just be said that x and y are red hot right now.

Smoltz said on the MLB Network broadcast that 45 minutes was about the limit. I'll go with the 21 year vet's opinion on that.

Which one? Judge or Gregorius? Of course, if Devers makes the play on Stanton's ground ball, it's a double play and we probably aren't having this conversation. And the sequence from the errors on Stanton's grounder to the Sanchez double was all of 6 pitches. I'm surprised Kimbrel was able to get loose that quickly. Walden pitched okay in the 8th. A 6-0 game (or 0-6) is the type of game you use the last guy in your pen in, especially when said pen had to cover 8 innings the day before.

Good thing it’s not the playoffs then.