Red Sox 2016: The Lard of Pablo, or No More Papis in MA

forever in our hearts, dougie, forever going deep tonight

JBJ's onetime inability to hit seems so far in the past given how well he's done lately

in retrospect it does kinda suck that sandoval had to go down in the year "panda" by desiigner is a major hit, but

a. he prob wouldn't use it as his walkup song
b. i enjoy travis shaw playing 3rd

otm i love travis shaw and his dazed, glazed mein

Ortiz just tried to bunt.

maybe ortiz should keep playing

i would rather he not end his career like a certain hollowed-out, gift-basket-distributing husk, even if the lack of fielding means he /might/ have one to two more years in him - the final of those years, if they occurred, would be the same sort of facile shitshow

but yeah having a current slash line (#smallsamplesize etc.) of .308/.393/.673 is pretty cool

also cool: steven fuckin knuckleballin' wright all of a sudden pulling off pitching lines like this: CG, 3H, 1R/ER (the gardner homer), 1BB, 7K.

did they flip flop which day was supposed to be the daygame? i was looking forward to seeing steve wright in the afternoon (that's a bbc radio joke, folks)

hah I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it had to do with ESPN wanting the sunday game for that prime time exclusivity viewership cheddar

well i'm pissed off because i got to watch yet another completely forgettable david price performance through to the bitter end instead of papi hitting two dingers and wright getting his CG

how do you watch - MLB TV? blackout rules are annoying as hell

Yup and I'm international so ... no blackouts :D

lol sox are legit starting a dude named sean o'sullivan tonight,who I cannot confirm WASNT just pulled out of a booth at cask & flagon just before the game

these guys are hitting the shit out of the ball

looking more and more like a classic sox home offense

if the trend continues against the As the run differential will go up by like 25 just due to these 3 games

^^^predictive

:D

speaking of "international", Tracer...

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2016/05/11/report-the-red-sox-are-being-investigated-by-mlb-for-questionable-international-signings/

JBJ's last 11 games: .475/.512/1.025

jfc this offense :] :] :]

Matias: How is it possible that Bradley Jr went from being “trash”, talked about a potential trade for a mediocre Mariners reliever, to this exciting player that is putting great numbers, with some pop? Between the last months of last season and this start, we cant say its small sample size, right?

Klaw: Well, he was never trash, right? People buried him based on what was still a small sample but didn’t look like one. The part that’s surprising to me is that he’s hitting for average AND power. I thought he could do one or the other. I still kind of think with his low contact rate, he’s going to see the average drop, and he kind of has to sell out a little bit to get to this power. I’d rather see him cut down on the swing a little to improve his contact rate, but that’s kind of a stupid criticism when the guy is hitting .322 and slugging .610.

well

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-red-sox-offense-has-been-better-than-the-1927-yankees/

jbj 20 game hit streak

maybe ortiz should keep playing

― mookieproof, Sunday, May 8, 2016 9:26 PM (6 days ago)

A couple of years ago, before the 2014 season started, I posted that Ortiz wouldn't go into the HOF as long as Edgar Martinez didn't get there first. NoTime argued that no, he'll go in. I'll stand by what I said at the time, but I'm thinking that the Edgar Factor is barely visible on the horizon at this point.

Something I never knew: Ortiz was first signed by Seattle in 1992--Edgar Martinez's breakout year (he'd been good in '90 and '91, but not yet the dominant hitter he'd become).

Bradley batted .469 (15-for-32) with six runs scored, two doubles, three home runs and 15 RBI over seven games to earn his first career AL Player of the Week Award.

killer b's baby

i was at saturday's game and it was SO MUCH FUN. ortiz had to be at his daughter's quincañera that night and i have a feeling he was just like 'ok, if nobody else does this, i will.' 600th double was the cherry on top

simmons said yesterday that Ortiz is now m/l as big a boston icon as ted williams

my 7-year-old agrees

unless the PED thing is a bigger deal for him than I think it will be, Ortiz is definitely getting into the HOF at this point. the DH thing and the WAR thing are pretty good counterarguments but i think the postseason performances and his iconic status will push him over the top.

even if he falls off considerably in the second half he'll probably end up with a wRC+ around 140-150 by the end of the season, pretty incredible. wonder what the record is for a final season?

wonder if Bradley will play both games of the doubleheader w his streak

imagine if Papi was a complete baseball player

he'll probably end up with a wRC+ around 140-150 by the end of the season, pretty incredible. wonder what the record is for a final season?

without looking, i'm going to guess it belongs to Bonds.

turns out there's a fangraphs post about it from yesterday: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/best-final-seasons-part-two/

although that one uses WAR, not wRC+

let's see, here's final season wRC+ for some of the players listed in the article with the highest WARs

Williams 184: (in 113 games)
Joe Jackson: 167
Bonds: 157
Will Clark: 146
Mantle: 145
Clemente: 135

papi is huger than ever (pardon the pun?). it helps that the sox are pulling out all the stops for his last year. kevin millar announced his first at-bat the other day, and his daughter sang the anthem at the opener (as a surprise), etc. 'we want papi' chants definitely cropped up during sunday's long-ass back-and-forth with the astros.

lol had to be juan friggin uribe to break up the no no huh

you didn't want kelly going any longer anyway

JBJ streakwatch: 27 straight

so fukin awesome

just got a notification to tune in because papi needs a triple fot the cycle

got stupidly close to one, but the hit ended up a ground rule double

will totally take 4 for 4 with a homer and 3 RBIs tho

Interesting seeing Mantle on that list of greatest last seasons. You'd always hear about how broken-down he was at the end, but indeed, in 1968, 18 homers and 106 walks was pretty damn productive.