The Halladay Buzz

One thing I like about the Hot Stove season, is that it's sort of like buying a lottery ticket. You know when you have a ticket in your hand, and you know you're not going to win, but you start to wonder what you'd do if you did? Dreaming about the houses you'd buy or the trips you'd take is almost worth the dollar you plunked down for the ticket. That's what the hot stove does for me. I know that 99% of the rumors out there are bogus, but it sure is fun to imagine the Red Sox roster with all those additions. Right now, I'm imagining a Red Sox rotation of Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Roy Halladay, Dice-K, and Wakefield. My goodness, that would be fun to watch. So, am I drooling over the prospect of the Sox "pulling out all the stops" for Halladay? Sort of.

Obviously Halladay would be an enormous pick-up. But, I'm not sure he'd be on the top of my list. Of the names people (and morons) have mentioned as possibilities, I'd prefer Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, Hanley Ramirez, or Felix Hernandez. Sure, those are dream wishes, but the names got out there somehow, right? So, tell me that those guys are completely off the table before you talk about Roy Halladay. From there, The Sox need a bat more than an arm. Does getting Doc stop the Sox from getting the bat they need? If they trade for him, I assume they'll have to sign him long term. Does that mean they can't afford to resign Bay? Does that mean they let Beckett walk after next year? If the choice is Beckett or Halladay, should the Sox keep the prospects and just go with Beckett? What about John Lackey? Should the Sox keep the prospects, and just sign the younger playoff tested pitcher as a free agent? How much money is Theo looking to throw around, exactly? Halladay and Beckett and Bay? Sounds doubtful. Two of the three? Let's go with the last two.

A whole lot more questions than answers in that last paragraph. But, that's what happens this time of year. I really need that first shoe to drop to see where Theo's headed.

Hopefully, it's someplace fun!

List of 36: Things I was Thankful for from the 2009 Red Sox

1. Papi finally homering
2. Sunny Saturday afternoons
3. Terry Francona’s WEEI interviews
4. Dumping John Smoltz
5. Opening Day at Fenway
6. Ellsbury stealing home
7. The Patriots Day Game
8. Baseball in the rain
9. Dustin Pedrioa’s laser shows
10. Halladay rumors
11. September call-ups
12. Trading for Victor Martinez
13. Jason Varitek being a true professional
14. Daniel Bard’s fastball
15. JD Drew’s patience
16. The road uniforms
17. Dice-K in September
18. Keeping a scorecard
19. Jon Lester getting even better
20. Finding friends in the stands
21. Bard-Wagner-Papelbon
22. Beckett’s personal catcher.
23. Buchholz’s good stretch
24. Jason Bay turning in another great season
25. Mr. Splitty
26. The hanging Sox
27. Dual aces
28. Ellsbury’s steals record
29. Making the playoffs
30. Endless blog topics
31. Alex Gonzalez’s return
32. Winning streaks
33. Re-signing Tim Wakefield
34. Beckett or Lester debates
35. Beating the Yankees
36. The 2010 Red Sox　

AL MVP

Well, well, well. The voters got it right once again. Pretty impressive really. Joe Mauer won the AL MVP in an absolute landslide. The interesting thing about the MVP votes, is that you vote for ten people. So, you end up with some interesting players in the mix, just because of a fluke of numbers. Take Miguel Cabrera. He got the only first place vote that Mauer didn’t get. But, he ended up fourth in the voting. So, one person thought he was the best in the league…but most everyone else thought he wasn’t even second best. That’s also how players like Derek Jeter rack up points. Once everyone puts Maur in the top spot, the rest of the slots are fairly arbitrary. So, in order to help their reputation, they throw Jeter in at second or third. Nobody thinks he should have won the award…but he adds up enough points to finish pretty high in the rankings. Like the money winner in golf never winning a tournament. But, if you finish top few enough times, you end up with a pretty good year.
Jason Bay and Kevin Youkilis both finished in the top ten in the voting. Congratulations to them. I didn’t see last year’s winner, Dustin Pedrioa, anywhere in the list. That seems about right. Bay and Youk were major parts of the Red Sox this season, and deserved the recognition.
It’s also fun to see the bottom of the MVP lists. Much like HOF voting, it’s where voters have a little fun. Naturally, some writers toss Mariano Rivera a horrifically undeserved vote or two. Sometimes you have to wonder if voters can’t think of more than ten players, and just write names in to get the voting over with.
I’ve always struggled with what exactly the most valuable player is. Can you be the most valuable member of one team, even if you wouldn’t be very valuable to another? Is it the most valuable player to the league? This year is a poor example of that, since I can’t think of a team that couldn’t use a catcher what wins the batting title, OBP title, and slugging % title. But, how about Teixeira, the runner up? He’s pretty valuable to the Yankees. But, would Kevin Youkilis be any less valuable to the Yankees? Would either of them have won the award if they played for Minnesota? I’m not exactly sure where the comparisons are supposed to be made. Guess that’s another reason why I don’t vote.
I just complain about the people who do.

Red Sox A-Z: K is for…

Kapler, as in Gabe
Gabe Kapler joined the Sox in 2003, and made quite a splash with the Red Sox. He immediately became a fan favorite, and was part of the Curse Busting 2004 World Champions.
Kapler was a hot prospect when he came up to the bigs with Detroit. He had all the skills to become a great player. His dedication to working out was well known. He even appeared in several muscle magazines celebrating his body. Unfortunately, that apparent raw strength never really transferred to the diamond.
By the time he made it to Boston he was clearly a third or fourth outfielder. That happened to be exactly what the Red Sox needed when they grabbed him mid-season. His Red Sox debut came on June 28 of 2003 against the Florida Marlins at Fenway. Gabe put on an absolute show. He fell a homer short of hitting for the cycle, and was an integral part in the Sox building up a big lead in the game. The next day, Kapler added the home run he missed the first game. It was quite a first weekend, and placed him squarely in the hearts of many Red Sox fans.
While Kapler didn’t continue the batting dominance, and really who could, he did become a solid member of the team. He appeared in all four World Series games in 2004, and was a valuable guy to have off the bench. Kapler was also late involved in one of the odder plays you’ll see. In Toronto, Bill Mueller (I believe) hit a line drive home run. Kapler was on first, and ran hard around second, not knowing if the ball would clear the wall. In Totonto they have the goofy turf, with patches of dirt at the bases. When Kapler rounded second and reached the turf on the way to third, he blew out his knee. Mueller, in his home run trot, came upon Kapler writhing on the ground, and had to stop. Obviously, if he passed Kapler, he would have been out, and the run wouldn’t score. He had to stand there as the training staff took care of things…mid play. The injury ended Kapler season.
Gabe even had a turn as a manager in the Red Sox organization, taking a turn at the helm of the Greenville Drive. He returned to the majors after the stint, and became a fan favorite in even more baseball towns. As a part of the 2004 Championship team, he will forever live in Red Sox lore.
K is for Kapler, Gabe.
　

Random Stuff

A few things bouncing around my head as I wait for the first big Free Agent signings.

Zack Greinke was awarded the AL Cy Young award yesterday. It was an exciting example where the voters actually got it right. They didn’t go with the big guy with the big name on the big team. They went with the most dominant pitcher, even if he didn’t win as many games as others did. Every once in a while the voters get their stuff in order and make the right call. I remember a stretch when Dave Stewart was robbed of Cy Youngs because of this voter flip-flop. It seemed like whenever he had the most wins, the award would go to the better pitcher. If he was the better pitcher, the award went to the guy with the most wins. This year, the voters thought it over, and gave it to the guy who most deserved it. I wonder if that will carry over to the rest of the awards this year.

The Sox announced that they would be raising their ticket prices on some tickets this season. This was hardly a surprise. They didn’t raise the prices last season in a bow to public relations. You just knew they weren’t going to take a hit two years in a row. But, they made it a soft blow. Some tickets were raised a small amount. It wasn’t so bad. It’s especially not so bad if they use the extra income to sign a power hitting left fielder, or extend the contract of a newly acquired Cy Young runner up. When they raised ticket prices after signing Manny, I certainly didn’t complain.

It’s not exactly Red Sox related, but I had to toss out an opinion on the “Fourth and Two” call. Maybe I can wind it in to the Sox at the end, but we’ll see. I loved the call! I loved it when I saw the offense run back on the field. I loved it then. I still love it now. It showed confidence. It showed power. It showed that the Patriots were the ones calling the shots. It was what the Pats did on every play during the 2007 season. On that play, they had two options. Go for it, or punt it. If they punted it, they would have given Manning the ball needing to go, what, 70 yards in two minutes. After watching the game up to then, there has to have been at least a 50% chance that Manning would march right down the field for the score. So, the Pats went the other way. They figured that there was at least a 50% chance that they’d get the two yards. If they missed it, they game Manning two minutes to drive 30 yards. How come all the people pointing to the number of three and outs the Pats defense put up don’t think they could have done it there? So, there must have been a 25% chance that the Pats could stop Manning from scoring, even on the short field. So, looking at the decision…a punt gives Manning a 50% chance of scoring. Going for it, gives Manning a 37% chance of scoring. I’ll take those odds. Plus, the big thing that doesn’t get mentioned much...they made it! The Patriots got the two yards they needed. Only a criminal spot by the official stopped the Patriots from keeping the ball, and ending the game as planned. So, does it still count as risky, or a bad call when you think you can do it, and then do it? Which brings us to the replay I’m begging for baseball to use. Football does it wrong. They limit the number of challenges since it takes so long. They tie it to the number of time-outs a team has left. So, because the Patriots had no time outs left, they couldn’t call for an official to easily change the spot of the ball. Basically, the Patriots needed to save a time out just in case they got completely hosed on a crucial play in the game. How crazy is that? That’s why baseball needs the “guy in the booth” replay. An extra official needs to be watching on TV, so he can quickly, without being asked, check a replay and get the correct call. In the Pats case, the blunder was followed by a change of possession time-out. An official in the booth had all kinds of time to check out the play. The rules just wouldn’t let the Patriots ask. Sports need to make sure they get things right. Obvious errors can’t be affecting important games.

Just a thought.