Jump to content
Talk Sox
  • Create Account

5GoldGlovesOF,75

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    14,524

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    25

 Content Type 

Profiles

Boston Red Sox Videos

2026 Boston Red Sox Top Prospects Ranking

Boston Red Sox Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2025 Boston Red Sox Draft Pick Tracker

News

2026 Boston Red Sox Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by 5GoldGlovesOF,75

  1. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    If the two aces are on as expected, it will come down to the bullpens. The Yanks would be heavy favorites if the Sox again throw Richards, Ottavino, Hernandez. But Cora used five starters in Game 162, and the guy with better stuff than any of them is Houck (he got a loss in NY's sweep last week, but gave up zero hits). Houck could be the literal wild card. Re. the absences of DJ and JD; the batting champ didn't have a great year, but is still clutch, and a bigger loss to New York than the RBI champ who tripped over the bag jogging to RF. The underrated key to the game that favors the visitors is that Sanchez and his squatting skills are riding the pine. If Sanchez pinch hits late and has to go behind the plate in a close game, the home team is golden -- especially if it goes extra innings.
  2. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Topps Now just issued 10-card team sets for all the clubs still alive. The add for the Red Sox set says "Postseason 10 Card Team Set" Here is the link with a pic of the sample card of Bobby Dalbec -- it says Postseason right on his card! https://www.topps.com/cards-collectibles/topps-now/mlbtoppsnow/2021-boston-red-sox-topps-now-reg-postseason-10-card-team-set-autograph-edition.html?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_fLsyAGmLxNzGSdRO2BSo_eQCkyZgi8a59KLAiyXQsrI-1633437577-0-gqNtZGzNArujcnBszQjR
  3. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Back to the movies -- and probably another reason why there's not the same consternation for salaries in that industry -- if an actor gets injured (or even old), he or she just takes on more sedentary roles: sitting at desks, judging cooking competitions, endorsing products. Some former heroes even become villains. Pro athletes who get career-ending injuries sometimes become actors. But old actors can't hit a baseball (Kostner in his prime could make contact, but Billy Crystal was a lamb).
  4. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    I've tried to make the same comparison but it simply doesn't resonate with baseball fans. The difference is that nearly everyone has played ball in some form since childhood -- Teeball, at recess, PE class, whiffleball in the backyard, or Little League on up. Fewer people have ever tried acting, and even those who nail their lines in a kids' play usually aren't celebrated with high fives and pile-ups on stage where the cast sprays carbonated beverages on each other. The main reason most don't ever question or debate wages of actors and actresses is that it's accepted that movie stars are rare and beautiful. The rest of us aren't. Mirrors don't lie. The beauty of baseball, though, is that even Humpty Dumpty can get a hit if he times a pitch. Most of us know we can't act, but all of us think we can hit.
  5. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Only if he can average that per season for a decade. Then he'd most likely be one of the most valuable players in baseball. Here are the players with more than Mookie's 50.0 bWAR from 2011 to 2021 (that's technically 11 years, but 2020 was like a third of a year): Mike Trout 76.1, Paul Goldschmidt 50.7. Here's the only other MLB player to average at least 4.4 WAR in the past 11 seasons: Joey Votto, 49.3 bWAR. Mookie, of course, earned his WAR totals in the past eight years.
  6. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Wha -- you couldn't hear me yelling at your house, wherever it is on the planet, when that .229-hitting left-handed batter went deep off our lefty specialist? That was as loud as I could scream... until Soto looked at Pivetta's bender to end the series.
  7. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    I wasn't defending Davis, just pointing out that as Saturday's winner, he was active and in action, and not injured -- unless he tripped over a base while celebrating or punched a wall in the clubhouse euphoria. (I've done some stupid things when I was mad, but few when I was too happy, Devin Williams... excluding things I may have said and still don't recall).
  8. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Ya, if the Yanks lose, their fans will say they were missing their best hitter, batting champion DJ. Meanwhile, the Red Sox will actually be missing their best hitter -- Iglesias, who hit .356 this month.
  9. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    ... a point I always raise -- and got hammered for by more than one poster -- when they defend the current budget to prove the Red Sox are big market spenders this year...
  10. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    What happened to Davis? He got the win Saturday.
  11. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Betts has Hank Aaron wrists. Aaron stopped running at age 34 and just swung away. He had 31.6 more WAR from ages 35-42, averaging 4 WAR those last eight years. Mookie bowls every winter and is a good bet to maintain his wrist power throughout his career.
  12. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    If JD is lame, I can see adding a middle infielder who won't trip over the bag and can catch the ball. I notice Richards is off your pitcher list; I'd also add anyone else who Cora is already planning to keep off the mound -- like Darwinzon, Barnes or Otto. I'm referring entirely to the one-game WC roster.
  13. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Me neither. But the only new guy they really brought in to start was coming off a major injury... and Richards turned out to be a flop. A huge part of the turnaround came from unexpected sources in the bullpen: Whitlock in multi-inning relief and Barnes with a lights-out first half.
  14. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Sarcasm? What I was experiencing in 2020 was the worst pitching staff on any Red Sox team I've ever seen, and that includes over half a century of watching and listening. I didn't expect ERod to lead the team in pitching wins (even though he wasn't as good as '19) or anything at all from Sale.
  15. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Win or lose (and I'm not conceding anything), this match-up of the heavy preseason favorite vs. last year's doormat should benefit Red Sox fans in the short run. Either way it will put national spotlight back on the rivalry, fuel the fanbase and hopefully, ownership's appetite to get things done this winter to ensure Boston is better in 2022.
  16. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    If the Yankees' bullpen is indeed a difference-maker, it just may be because it gives the edge to Boston. Go back and look at the season stats in the first post of this thread. The Sox have gotten to four of NY's five top relievers. Loaisiga has been hot lately, but Chapman has given up either extra base hits or walks to a third of the Sox batters he's faced. The key of the game could very well be the way the Red Sox use their own pen. Cora can and should stay completely away from combustibles like Richards, Ottavino and Barnes -- who will have the Bombers salivating -- and only throw relievers who've been consistently stingy vs. the Yanks: Whitlock, Braiser, Robles, and hopefully Houck. But no one should be one bit surprised if Cora brings back Pivetta, ERod, Perez or even Sale in late and close situations.
  17. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Though we know most big spenders are banking (literally) on what happens in the first six or seven years.
  18. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Geez, this is quite the sober take on the SECOND RANKED STAR in the playoffs, according to MLB.com's objective writers (the ones who predicted New York to win 850 games this season). Of course, Judge was ranked 4th, and even Stanton was rated ahead of Boston's top player, Devers. Eovaldi, the All-Star pitcher who led the AL in Fielding Independent Pitching, was nowhere to be found in the top 50... but Joey Gallo was #37 because "we all want to see those homers."
  19. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    I'd still take an average of 4 WAR per year over the next decade. That would give Mookie a career WAR of 90; the 27 right fielders in the Hall of Fame average 72.1. The only guys over 100 WAR were Ruth, Aaron, Mel Ott and Frank Robinson.
  20. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Cora also gets the edge over other skippers by making it to the postseason despite two second-half factors that eroded his cushion: 1) overcoming the Covid crap, losing important players for 10-day quarantines and however many games it took guys to get back in the groove (and don't blame AC for the MLB and union for not mandating player vaccines); 2) surviving the front office decision to not add another arm at the deadline (Robles has contributed, but we've posted for months how another impact reliever or even legit starter that preserves bullpen usage could've helped).
  21. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    And yet, Cora was forced to use all four of those guys in relief in Game #162, because his bullpen was so unreliable and/or exhausted (ironically, in part, because those same four couldn't be trusted to pitch effectively nor go long in most of their starts). "Playoff" Cora started scrambling over a week ago. And it worked, just barely. Amazingly, the Blue Jays -- who looked stronger than both Boston and New York down the stretch, will be home watching the WC game.
  22. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Something to consider while searching ESPN previews for continuous replays of Brock Freakin Holt hitting for the cycle at the Stadium, in the most recent playoffs this century between Boston and NY: Red Sox who should pitch: Eovaldi starts and goes a strong 5 or 6, and is relieved in some order by the following ('21 BA/OPS and games pitched vs. NY included) -- Braiser .125/.250, 2; Houck .170/.461, 4; Whitlock .154/.404, 6; Robles .083/.298, 4. Who shouldn't pitch: Ottavino .308/.996, 8. Yankee bullpen vs. Boston: Loaisiga .400/.919, 5; Green .300/.877 6; Luetge .280/.785 7; Chapman .200/.853 7... Peralta .143/.330 4.
  23. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    He can't bunt but he can win. ERod officially won two of the last three games of the season to lead the staff with 13 Ws. Only four AL hurlers won more. Sure, victory totals can be overrated for pitchers. But if Cole wins the Cy Young Award, it will be based on his league-leading 16 Ws, because Robbie Ray had better ERA, Ks, WHIP and WAR. Then again, if you value FIP, the top pitcher this year was Nathan Eovaldi...
  24. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    I said "a" closer -- not "the" closer. Is it so inconceivable that in a best-of-five ALDS, with a Sox rotation of say, ERod-Sale-Eovaldi, that Houck could relieve one in the either the 6th or 7th and be as lights-out as he was yesterday so that Cora lets him finish off a victory? And no fair replying that it's inconceivable Boston could even get to the ALDS.
  25. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Would it shock anyone if Houck becomes a closer this week?
×
×
  • Create New...