Devers Set for Historic Season

July 6, 2019 Leave a Comment

What a season it’s turning out to be for Rafael Devers. At the midway point of the current campaign Devers is already among among just 13 Red Sox since at least 1908 with 25+ doubles and 60+ RBI in a single full season before turning 23.

The list of Red Sox youngsters with such an accomplishment over a full season includes Andrew Benintendi in 2017, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts in 2015, but also Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski (1961-62), Jim Rice (1975), Bobby Doerr (1938-40) and Ted Williams (1939-41). Devers is already a member of the club with nearly half the season more to go.

At his current pace, Devers projects to finish at 47 doubles and 114 RBI. The closest any Red Sox has come to that mark before turning 23 years old was Williams in 1939 (44 doubles and 145 RBI).

In Major League history only Albert Pujols and Alex Rodríguez (1996) have recorded 47+ doubles and 100+ RBI in a single season before turning 23. For Pujols it was 47 doubles and 130 RBI with Cardinals in 2001. For Rodríguez it was 54 doubles and 123 RBI with Mariners in 1996.

With 16 home runs already this season Devers is primed to join Williams (in 1939 and 41) and Tony Conigliaro (1965) as the only Boston batters with 30+ home runs in one season before turning 23 years old.

Walk This Way

January 2, 2019 Leave a Comment

Another fun article by Jayson Stark in The Athletic this week got me thinking about walking. Stark noted that while the Angels Mike Trout drew nine walks over just four games of 2018, Dee Gordon of the Mariners drew the same number of free passes in 588 plate appearances of the whole season! That’s the fewest walks in that many plate appearances of a single season in almost 70 years.

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Stark didn’t mention any Red Sox players in his analysis, but that’s where RSNStats gets to work. It turns out Boston’s own Eduardo Núñez made some Sox history of his own in this department last season.

Núñez stepped to the plate 502 times in 2018, his most PA in one season since a career-high 595 PA in his 2016 All-Star Season. But in all those trips to the dish last season Eduardo drew just 16 walks. Only the aforementioned Gordon had fewer in all of baseball. In fact, Núñez went walk-less in 41 straight games from April 19 to June 8, the longest such streak in the American League for 2018.

Núñez in 2018 became just the seventh Red Sox player in franchise history with fewer than 20 walks in 500 or more plate appearances, the first since Shano Collins set a club record with seven walks in 503 PA of the 1922 season.

Núñez and Gordon were two of just five major league players with fewer than 20 walks in 500 or more plate appearances last season. The others were Salvador Perez, Kevin Pillar, and Jonathan Schoop.

Red Sox Cash World Series Bonuses

November 28, 2018 Leave a Comment

What’s a World Series win worth? For fans, it’s priceless. For the players and others who share in the proceeds, however, the numbers are clear.

Every year, a pool of postseason cash is derived according to a formula agreed to in advance between Major League Baseball and the players. The pool is then split between the 10 teams that make it to October. The further a team goes, the greater their share of the pool.

This year’s postseason pool was formed from 50% of the gate receipts from the Wild Card games, plus 60% of the gate receipts from the first three games of the Division Series, the first four games of the League Championship Series, and the first four games of the World Series. That came to a record-high $88 million this season.

By limiting the pool to the first few games of each series, baseball eliminates the possibility teams would be tempted to draw a series out longer for financial benefit.

How the Pool is Divided

The Red Sox get the biggest share of that, a total of $31.7 million. The Dodgers, who finished 2018 as National League champions get the next biggest slice, a total of $21.2 million. The rest is divvied up as follows:

The runners-up in the League Championship Series (the Astros and the Brewers) received $10.5 million each.
The four runners-up in the Division Series (the Braves, Indians, Rockies, and Yankees) received $2.8 million each.
The two runners-up for the Wild Card game (the Cubs and the Athletics) get $1.3 million each.

Each team that receives a portion of the pool votes internally to decide how to split it up, dividing the total into equal sized shares. Full shares are typically awarded to all 25 players on the Opening Day roster, the manager, and regular coaching staff. Partial shares are often awarded to other contributors with what’s left over, typically much smaller amounts, awarded like bonus checks to lower-level staff. Naturally, the more shares the players elect to offer, the less value each share has.

The 2018 Red Sox players settled on issuing 66 full shares, compared to 58 shares dispensed in 2013. Each of the 2018 shares was worth $416,837.72. The club also awarded 10.025 partial shares and eight cash awards.

Red Sox are 2018 World Champions!

October 29, 2018 Leave a Comment

They didn’t squeak by, they dominated. The Red Sox pounded the competition during the 2018 regular season and then decisively won each postseason round. In the end, the Red Sox stand alone, for the ninth time in club history, as the World Champions of baseball.

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The Sox have now won the World Series in each of their last four trips to the Fall Classic making them just the fourth team to achieve as many as nine championships in their history. Moreover, Boston has now won four of their nine clinching World Series games on the road, including 2007 at Colorado, 2004 at St. Louis and 1915 at Philadelphia.

Powerful Price

The Dodgers’ fate was sealed by a dominating Game 5 performance from Red Sox starter David Price, who worked 7.0 IP and allowed just one run on three hits. Price was followed with a perfect inning of work for Joe Kelly. And then in the ninth, who better than Boston ace Chris Sale to nail down a championship with three straight strikeouts.

Price became just the fifth player in major league history to pitch at least 6.0 innings and allow three hits-or-fewer in three consecutive postseason starts, joining Jon Matlack (1973), Mike Mussina (1997), Kevin Brown (1998) and Clayton Kershaw (2013). Price finished the Fall Classic with 10 total strikeouts and a 1.98 overall ERA, allowing just three earned runs on six total hits to become the first pitcher to work at least 13.2 IP while allowing fewer than seven hits in a single Fall Classic since Hall of Famer John Smoltz in 1996.

For Price it was a postseason redemption after so many rough October outings. “My confidence was never altered through however many seasons I’ve been to the playoffs, however many times I’ve failed in October, however many times I failed,” Price said after the game. “To be able to come through on this stage and in October for myself and for my teammates, I know I can do it now. And it’s always a good feeling to have.”

Pearce is MVP

Steve Pearce, not content with getting the Sox on the board early with a first inning, two-run blast, added a second home run in the top of the eighth. Pearce became the fifth player in Red Sox history with a multi-homer World Series game, joining Rico Petrocelli (1967), Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski (1967) and Harry Hooper (1915), as well as Patsy Dougherty (1903).

Pearce, who was named Series MVP after the game, also became the fifth player in club history with three home runs in a single World Series, joining Dwight Evans (3), Larry Gardner (3), David Ortiz (3) and Yastrzemski (3).

Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez contributed a home run apiece in the win making Sunday’s game the fifth four-homer game for the Red Sox in any postseason game, and the first since the second game of the 2008 American League Championship Series.

Cora Magic

Manager Alex Cora, so calm and focused throughout the season, is the seventh different manager to lead the Red Sox to a World Championship. Cora is just the fifth rookie manager in baseball history to win the World Series, joining Bucky Harris (1924 Senators), Eddie Dyer (1946 Cardinals), Ralph Houk (1961 Yankees) and Bob Brenly (2001 Diamondbacks).

Cora, who has won the Series as a player with Boston in 2007, as the Astros bench coach last season and now, as a manager, said this was best of all. “To be able to, first of all, convince them to give me a chance to manage. That was hard work,” Cora said. “And then to see these guys compete on a nightly basis and finally win it,…at the end, obviously they decide games and what they did was amazing, very proud of them.”

The City of Boston will welcome the champion Red Sox back home with a Duck Boat parade on Wednesday.

Red Sox and Dodgers in World Series 1916

October 24, 2018 Leave a Comment

The Red Sox and Dodgers are facing off in their second ever World Series. The first was an epic affair (and a Boston win). Here’s a little of what it looked like: