That Was Easy

The 2016 World Champion Red Sox started off their run to the title yesterday with a couple exhibition exhibition games. As expected, they proved unstoppable as they cruised to easy victories.

It was nice to be proven correct right off the bat. Hanley Ramirez was flawless in the field. Exactly as I told you he would be. It didn’t matter if it was fielding a groundball and taking it to the bag himself, or taking a throw from a fellow infielder. Hanley handled the position like he had been there his whole life. He’s on pace to tie the team record for fielding percentage in a season for a first baseman. Start engraving that gold glove.

And some of you were worried.

The offense also looked amazing. Mookie Betts showed that he can make adjustments mid-game, and showed no signs of a sophomore slump. He seems ready to make another run at an American League MVP award.

What’s more is that the Red Sox were able to completely dominate while holding back David Ortiz. Imagine, resting your presumed clean-up hitter, but still cruising to an easy victory. I team like that will be hard, if not impossible, to stop all season.

Similarly, the Red Sox have yet to throw their ace. They have been content to show the rest of the league that starters 2-10 are perfectly capable of shutting down the competition on their own. At this point, one has to wonder if David Price should be simply traded for prospects. If you don’t need him this year, then why not use him to build for the future?

Of course, as any great team will tell you, the general public hates perfection. Just ask the Patriots. So, these Red Sox knew that simply steamrolling team after team after team was boring. The fans and the press would grow antsy. If there wasn’t a flaw, they would make one up themselves. Thankfully the Sox know how to play the game. They had Pablo Sandoval muff a ground ball. They knew that morons would quickly grasp onto that as some sort of flaw. It would be too easy not to fall back on fat jokes and comment how he can’t even bend over to field a grounder. (I know. Hard to believe people would be that pathetic.) It was sheer genius. This team really does have everything.

It won’t be long now until the Sox unleash their team on the rest of their league. I half wonder if other teams will bother to show up. Or, maybe the Sox will lose a game early on? Again, just ask the Patriots how annoying endless questions about an undefeated season can be. 

Maybe 161-1 will have to do.

From the Pedro Binder

2001 Leaf Rookies and Stars Dress for Success

In 2001, game used inserts were all the rage. In just a handful of years, they had gone from rare treasures to something you expected. Those first days of Upper Deck declaring “Game Used Jersey!!!” and needing nothing else were gone.

We now had two pieces of game used memorabilia instead of just one. And, the insert needed to have a clever name as opposed to just calling it a game used card.

I bet you know where I’m going with this.

The name of the insert set is “Dress for Success” and includes a piece of a game used…bat.  Now, unless you’re considering a bat some sort of wardrobe accessory, I’m not thinking you need one to dress for success. Especially for Pedro. You know, a pitcher. His bat accounts for, roughly, 0% of his success. 

Oh, yeah. I know that a jersey piece is included on the card. And, a jersey is something you’d need to dress for success. And, if the set was titled “Things you need to be successful” I wouldn’t have nearly the problem. But, if you’re going to go through the trouble of naming the set after clothing, follow through with it. Otherwise, you’re just naming it something for the sake of naming something.

And we wouldn’t want that.

OHB Completes Me

It was a few years ago that I made a coupe collecting decisions. I had too many collecting interests, and was accumulating too many cards I really didn’t want. So, I made two big decisions. I would only collect cards from the Topps family of brands. (So, you can imagine my relief when they were the ones who got the exclusive license a few years back.) I would also only collect Red Sox cards. 

But, that still left so many questions.

Would I collect every Topps brand? Every subset of every Topps brand? How about test issues, or stickers, or food issues with the Topps name in the corner?

AAARRGHH!

How was I ever going to keep track of it all? How was I ever going to even make up wantlists for it all? How did I expect to actively pursue all those cards?

More decisions.

I wouldn’t. 

I wasn’t going to worry about hunting them all down. There was so much out there, that I was just going to do what I can, and have the cards find their way to me. I put together some easy to create wantlist for people who wanted to trade, or donate. Base sets of a few of my favorite brands. But, frankly I’d take whatever Red Sox cards people wanted to send me. Most important, I was going to be OK with the fact that this method might mean I never complete any team sets. There were so many cards from so many brands, that the chances of coming across all the cards of a specific set were slim.

Until Tony of Off Hiatus Baseball came along. He would have none of that.

He Completed Me.

A lot.

In fact, in a recent shipment, he finished off six different team sets. Six! Sets from three different decades. All now complete, thanks to this one shipment.

Amazing!

So, what did he send along? I’m glad you asked.

Cards from the seventies! I’ll always have a soft spot for the 1976 set, so it’s great whenever I can add one of those. Those 1977 Hall of Famers? Yup, the 1977 set is now complete!

Cards from the eighties! More Hall of Famers! The 1980 set? Now complete! 1982. Now complete! 1984? Complete! 1989? Yup. Complete. 

New shiny cards. 2014 Bowman? You guessed it. Complete!

Of course, not every card can complete a set. Some just get me a little bit closer. Here are some cards of grumpy players staring down the camera.

A Red Sox legend.

Quotes Pedroia.

It was a wonderful package, and I had a great time going through it. I had an even better time writing “Complete” on all those wantlists.

Imagine that.

Thanks Tony!

Is This the First Time People Have Seen Pablo Sandoval?

I was worried about this. I was afraid that without any real stories to discuss at camp, people would just start making things up. That’s exactly what happened.

First, people were all over Pablo Sandoval because he wasn’t as early to camp as some other players. He wasn’t late, of course. He just wasn’t as early as some others. But, he wasn’t as late as some players. (Like Dustin Pedroia, for instance.) So, because he wasn’t as late to camp as the person who apparently sets the tone for the club for hard work and work ethic, Panda was trashed for it.

But, once he did show up to camp, people found a new thing to whine about. He looked heavy.

Really? Is this the first picture they’ve seen of Panda? For crying out loud, there’s a reason his nickname isn’t “Kung Fu Meerkat.” He’s not a trim guy. He’s never been a trim guy. He’s always looked like a panda. What’s your point?

But, the Red Sox told him to lose weight during the offseason, and he blew them off! We don’t need that sort of attitude! Well, actually, they didn’t tell him to lose weight. They told him to be better conditioned. There’s a difference, of course. The Sox are satisfied with his conditioning, so why shouldn’t we be?

Because he had an off year last year! He got his contract, so now he’s just a big fat slug! He’s supposed to have dropped 100 pounds this offseason and come to camp with fire in his eyes and something to prove.

Really?

Let’s look at last season. Yes, his numbers were down. But, he was never Mike Trout. He’s not a 30 HR guy. He doesn’t hit .330. He’s a solid player who hits like the dickens in the postseason. That was his claim to fame, and why the Sox needed him.

So, last season he was down. His OBP was down about 30 points from his last season in San Francisco. His batting average was also down about 30 points. His slugging dropped about 50. But, here’s the interesting thing.

He didn’t play in as many games as he did in 2014. But if you account for that, he had about the same number of walks in 2015 as 2014. Same with strikeouts. He also had about the same number of homeruns, and even had a few more doubles in 2015 compared to 2014. 

So, he was putting roughly the same number of balls in play. He just wasn’t getting as many hits. Haven’t we all pretty much decided by now that once you put the ball in play, unless you’re hitting it over the fence, there’s not a lot you can do to get yourself a hit. It’s up to the defense. So, without a drop in homeruns, the only other explanation is either dumb luck, or the change to Fenway Park. (Well, I suppose it could be a drop in infield hits…but I’m guessing Panda didn’t beat out 20 more of those in 2014.)

So, which of those factors was a result of Panda’s attitude or work ethic? Was he unlucky last season because his attitude was poor? 

If you want to be concerned because you think Fenway was the reason, I’ll let you be concerned. But, I don’t know what Pablo is supposed to do about it. He can’t change Fenway’s dimensions. He can’t work harder to move the wall back 20 feet. It’s just the way it is.

So, it’s time we stop jumping at the low hanging fruit. Pudgy guy with history of success has bad year, and is still pudgy. Just because he doesn’t look like Mookie Betts doesn’t mean he can’t play baseball. He’s shown that he can do it over and over.

No reason to think he won’t do it again.

Today’s the Day!

It’s finally here! Today is the day that, well, nothing really happens! But, nothing really happens officially for the first time!

Today is, of course, the day pitchers and catchers need to officially report to Spring Training. Of course, most of them have been there for quite some time. So many of them have been there early, in fact, that people were actually blasting Pablo Sandoval, who is neither a pitcher nor a catcher, for not already being in camp.

So while today doesn’t actually mark the start of anything new, it is yet another check box on the way to actual baseball.

Truck Day. Check.

Pitchers and catchers report. Check.

We’re on our way!

The only problem with today? Spring Training is just awful. Nothing actually happens, especially for a team like the Red Sox. Maybe on a team full of youngsters there are some fun positional battles to look into. But, not here. I think I can already pretty well predict the Red Sox batting order on Opening Day. So, with little to report on, the media will have to just start making stuff up. Stores like Mookie rolling a golf cart into a pond take up three days of a news cycle. Clips of Hanley Ramirez fielding a ground ball are treated like they’re museum artifacts. With any luck, the media will only invent fluff pieces, as opposed to inventing controversies. But, I’m not holding out hope.

So, is there anything worth paying attention to during the Spring? Maybe a few things.

I want to see how Hanley handles first base. Yes, as I said before, he’s going to be just fine. But, how fine? Will he be able to start off running? 

How will the rotation fall together? I think we can guess who will be at the top. But, after that? Porcello and Buchholz would seem to have a slot somewhere. From there, things could get interesting. Who steps up and grabs a spot?

I’d like to see how Jackie Bradley hits. As with any Spring Training stat, I’d be more concerned with failures and I’d be pleased with success. With the level of competition he’ll be seeing, I’d hope he wouldn’t struggle. But, beyond that what does he show?

What about catcher? Is Vazquez healthy enough to make it a real competition? What will the result of that be?

With the outfield presumably full, where does Brock Holt find at-bats? Does he finally figure out how to pitch?

While I don’t expect to find answers to any of these questions, it’ll be fun to watch and see how the questions frame themselves. If nothing else, there’s baseball stuff going on!

What are you looking forward to this spring?