2014 Hall of Fame - Part II - Canadians

In my last post, I previewed all the former Red Sox on this year’s ballot.  Today I take a look at the Canadians and other players of interest to Canada:

• 
  

CANADIAN PLAYERS

Eric Gagne – As already discussed in the Red Sox post, no. Just no.  NO

Larry Walker – Starting his career in Montreal, he is a favorite of many Canadians.  He ended his career with a .313 batting average, an even .400 OBP and 383 home runs, for an OPS+ of 141. A lot of people discredit him for his offensive output in Colorado, but keep in mind that the “+” in OPS+ is adjusted for ballpark effects.  And besides, in his MVP 1997 season where he hit .366 with 49 home runs, he only hit 20 out of Coors Field. Some park effect(!). 

2013 Walter Johnson Award - AL Pitcher of the Year

My series of Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) award winners, continues with the American League Walter Johnson Award for Pitcher of the Year.   The past two seasons I selected Detroit's Justin Verlander, one year quite easily, the other one in a closer race.  This year it looks like the award will go to a Tiger again, but one of his teammates instead.  The big question is which one?

Max Scherzer is everyone's obvious choice.  He started off 13-0, deservedly started the all-star game and ended up 21-3 with a 2.90 ERA.  Last time a pitcher was so dominating and didn't win the Cy Young, was probably 1985 when John Tudor also won 21 games, including 10 shutouts and a sub 2 ERA, and lost to some kid named 'Doc'.  (In fact, Tudor didn't get a single first place vote!)

Blue Jays trade analysis - part deux

Dead Blue Jay

Yesterday I wrote about the Jays recent trade and warned fans not to have high expectations, based on the results of some other blockbuster deals or big signings. I outlined several examples over the past 10 or so years where teams added major parts in the offseason and didn't get the results they expected.

That's all well and good, but just because some big trades don't pan out, doesn't mean that they all won't.  So today, I'm going to look at the specific players involved in this trade, and analyze how much of an impact they can be expected to provide.

The players the Blue Jays received were Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buerhle, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio.

Blue Jays blockbuster = 2013 World Series?

I just wrote a post on my Baseball in Alberta blog about what impact the Blue Jays trade could have locally. As a Red Sox fan, I realize that it impacts our team as well, so I am reposting here, with a few edits.


Our division rival, the Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a blockbuster deal and have added 4 all-star players to their roster.  Money aside (Rogers still has a few excess billions), the only cost was  a controversial shortstop (whom will be replaced by one of the premier shortstops in the league), an under-performing pitcher and some prospects.  And although some of these prospects might pan out in future years, it’s not as though any of them were the kind of prospects that your average baseball fan was following in the minors – a la Bryce Harper or Jesus Montero. In fact it wasn’t even the top organizational prospects – but their consensus #2, 5 and 8 guys.

Should we concede the division right away?  Do we have no hope of competing against the re-tooled Blue Jays next season?  Not so fast.....

This trade will make Toronto a better team for the immediate future.  It may even help their chances of making the playoffs, but we're jumping to conclusions if we assume any more than that.  Remember how we felt when we added A-Gon and Carl Crawford to our already potent lineup?  It was a foregone conclusion that we would win the division, most of the chatter around the baseball message boards was if we would break the 100 win barrier or not.

Anyhow, there are two ways we can look at this:  Look at individual player's impacts, or look at what history tells us about the fate of teams that made huge acquisitions, bolstering their rosters in hope of attaining that elusive championship.  Today I'm going to start by looking at history for some parallels.  In my next post, I'll analyze this specific trade more closely.

Baseball is AWESOME! - Gives you perspective

I haven't written an article in the ongoing Baseball is AWESOME series in a while.  But today as I watch the tribute to Tanner Craswell and Mitch MacLean during the Blue Jays home opener against the Red Sox, I am once again reminded why Baseball is indeed awesome.  For the past few days I have been discussing the problems with the Red Sox.  Holes in the lineup, not enough starting pitching, shaky bullpen, Bobby the 5th is an idiot... blah, blah, blah. And after last night's loss it only got worse.

But listening to the tragedy (which I wrote about previously on my sister blog) that befell these young players and their families, helps put everything in perspective.  We watch these games to entertain us. It's really not life and death.  What happened to these boys and their friend Tabitha Steeple, as well as Shanya Conway who survived the ordeal but has to live with what she witnessed the rest of her life, is.

It sometimes takes a meaningless baseball game to remind oneself what truly is and isn't important.

Yu Darvish

There have been rumours over the last few days that he could be going to one of our rivals.  Among the favourites are the Yankees (who are rarely not favoured to win a bidding war) and the Blue Jays.  If either team wins, it will make our path to the postseason more difficult than it already is.  Rangers and Cubs among others are also supposedly in the mix.  But let me clear up all the confusion for you.

I have breaking news am am glad to be the first to publicly announce this.  An inside source has CONFIRMED that

How to hold up the sky?

Superhuman strength?   Not needed.

Divine intervention? Not gonna happen.

A visit by some pesky little birds to Fenway?   As Dave Hester likes to say, "YUUUUUUP!"

Last time things looked bleak after we started 2-10, I warned that a visit by Toronto would right our ship.  And sure enough we won 8 of the next 9 and that dismal start was quickly forgotten.   The first win in that series happened to coincide with the first ever Red Sox Nation international event.   The Red Sox have had great success at these, winning all 5 games at these watch parties.  As luck would have it, the next one is tomorrow, Tuesday September 13th, 5 PM at the Melrose Cafe.

So instead of looking back at the Rays that are gaining on us, look ahead to the next couple of games.  I wouldn't be surprised if after these games the talk shifts from "will the Rays catch us" to "will we catch the Yankees".

If you're in the area, come support your team, and join us as we watch the Red Sox get back to their winning ways.

Thank you Toronto!

As I mentioned earlier, good things happen when we play the Blue Jays.  Not only are we now on a 3 game winning streak (after having only 2 wins in the first 11 games), but some individual players have broken out too.  Most importantly, was Dice-K going from being on the edge of Sayonara, to looking like a Cy Young candidate with his 7 IP, 0R, 1 BB, 1 H performance today.  As well, even though Youks had been getting on base, he wasn't showing any power, and a couple of home runs against the Jays has hopefully helped him break out of his hitting slump.  Jed Lowrie is hitting the ball like an MVP candidate, instead of a backup middle infielder.

Don't listen to David Lee Roth

I hear that there is a long wait time on the Tobin Bridge (if you're in Boston), and if you are in my home province, well, good luck finding a bridge. We're sort of landlocked here.

And besides, the Blue Jays coming to town is just what the doctor ordered!