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Fenway Set For 2018 Opening

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There may have been snow around these parts just yesterday, but Fenway Park will be ready all the same for the Red Sox home opener on Thursday. Today the club showed off to the media the latest round of updates to baseball’s oldest ballpark.

Most visible to fans will be further extensions to Fenway’s protective netting. The new system extends from Field Box Section 79 to Field Box Section 9 (expanded from an area previously covering Field Box Section 61 to Field Box Section 29). The netting stands 12-feet-8-inches off the playing surface and is painted green to help minimize its impact to sight lines.

A new premium seating option, the Jim Beam Dugout, will debut this season for groups of up to 25 people. The experience, which is meant to give fans a view similar to actually being in the dugout, comes with a pregame meal, a Fenway tour, and in-seat service for drinks and snacks.

In addition, 30 new seats have been added just past the Visitors’ dugout for 2018. The new row, which aligns with the camera well, is positioned behind the newly expanded protective netting.

With the new Sam Deck the Sox further expand their relationship with beer makers Samuel Adams this season. The deck will feature a variety of Sam Adams brews and “Sam Adams-inspired food items.” The old “3rd Base Saloon” has also been re-branded as “Sammy’s on 3rd” this season.

As usual, Fenway’s concessionaires have lined up a new array of over-the-top snacks for hungry fans. During the chill of April ice cream stands will instead serve chowder, chili, and hot beverages.

The club reports that over $300 million has been invested in Fenway Park improvements since 2002.


New Tech To Keep Red Sox Healthy

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Fans likely roll their eyes when they hear about the official this or the official that of the Boston Red Sox. But after last year’s miserable, flu-ravaged start to the season, it’s no surprise the team was keen to avoid a repeat.

At one point early in the 2017 campaign, Mookie Betts, Brock Holt, Joe Kelly, Mitch Moreland, Hanley Ramírez, Robbie Ross and some assorted members of the coaching staff were all suffering effects of the flu, which quickly moved from person to person in the close confines of the clubhouse.

This spring, amidst a very tough US flu season, the Dodgers had fatigue, chills, fever, and other flu-like symptoms sweep through their workout facilities. Manager Dave Roberts said he’d sent home 25 players from camp to nurse their way back to health.

Red Sox Sickest Team In Baseball

The flu made it a rough start to the season for the Sox in 2017, but it turned out the issue was not an isolated one.

According to a study by Surgically Clean Air, Inc. that was reported in the Boston Globe, even before the start of the 2017 season, Boston already led the majors in days missed by sickness since 2011 with 85. That equates to a cost of more than $3.9 million, or about $45,882 per game lost because of sickness. Those aren’t numbers ownership could just ignore.

This week the Red Sox announced a partnership with Clorox to introduce that company’s Total 360® System to the club’s existing protocols. Clubhouse staff say that they can now spray down the facilities with a sanitizing solution far more efficiently than using their previous methods. “What used to take our team hours now only takes them minutes,” said Jon Lister, Fenway’s senior director of facilities management.

Can’t get enough about this? Well, for you there’s even a video:

https://youtu.be/R8agytoJq-k


Red Sox Cut 18 One-Year Deals

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In one fell swoop, the Red Sox today announced that they have agreed to terms with 18 pre-arbitration-eligible players for one-year deals for the 2018 season.

According to ESPN’s Scott Lauber, the Red Sox will pay Andrew Benintendi $620,500 this season.

With these agreements, all players on the major league roster are under contract for the 2018 season.

Pitchers

Infielders

Outfielders


Astros Earn Record World Series Bonus

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Being a World Champion has its perks, not the least of which is a check for $438,901.57. That’s what a full postseason share is worth for the Houston Astros, a record-setting amount according to Major League Baseball. The National League Champion Los Angeles Dodgers’ shares were worth $259,722.14 each.

Each share’s value is determined by the size of the players’ pool, and this season that pool was bigger than ever.

The players’ pool consists of percentages of gate receipts as follows: 50% from the Wild Card games plus 60% 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. Taken together, that came to a record total of $84,500,432.15 this season.

By comparison, the last time the Red Sox went to the World Series in 2013, the players’ pool totaled $62,683,966.80.

All 10 teams that participated in the postseason split the pool relative to their performance. 36% of the pool’s total value ($30.4 million) went to the Astros, 24% of it ($20.3 million) was sent to the Dodgers.

This season’s League Championship runners-up, the Cubs and the Yankees, earned 12% of the pool ($10.1 million each). As Division Series runners-up, the Sox, Diamondbacks, Indians, and Nationals each got 3.25% of the total ($2.7 million each). The Rockies and Twins, the Wild Card runners-up, are entitled to 1.5% of the pool ($1.3 million each).

Awarding Shares

Each team splits its award into equal shares and votes in advance as to how those shares will be distributed. Full shares go to players, but full or partial shares are often awarded to coaches or training staff members. The more shares awarded, of course, the less each share is worth.

In 2007, the National League Champion Rockies gave a full share, worth nearly a quarter million dollars, to the widow of former big leaguer Mike Coolbaugh, who was tragically killed by a line drive to the head while working as first base coach in a Rockies minor league game (it was that event that led to MLB’s mandate for first and third base coaches to wear helmets, rather than ball caps).

This year’s Red Sox elected to issue 65 full shares, 10.01 partial shares, and make six cash awards of lesser amounts. All told, each Sox share was worth $36,438.21.

The 2013 World Champion Red Sox awarded 58 full shares, 14.895 partial shares and made 21 cash awards. Each Boston share was worth $307,322.68.


Clean Sweep: Coaches Butterfield, Davis, Willis Gone

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Just like that, three of the more recognizable faces to Red Sox Nation have left the building.

Earlier today the Indians announced that they had signed Sox pitching coach Carl Willis to the same role in Cleveland. Now, the Cubs have announced that they’ve signed Sox hitting coach Chili Davis and third base coach Brian Butterfield.

The moves come following Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski’s invitation for coaches to seek other opportunities following the dismissal of John Farrell.

Davis and Butterfield will have the same roles with the Cubs under Manager Joe Maddon. They replace John Mallee, who served as major league hitting coach for the last three seasons, and Gary Jones, who served as major league third base coach for the last four seasons, respectively.

Davis was Red Sox hitting coach these past three seasons after serving in that capacity for three years with the Athletics. Over his three seasons in Boston the Red Sox led the majors in runs (2,411) and pitches per plate appearances (3.95), tied for first in on-base percentage (.334), ranked second in batting average (.268), third in OPS (.762) and plate appearances per strikeout (5.35). Despite the success in the aggregate, however, Sox offensive power was notably limited in 2017, falling well short of expectations.

Highly respected Butterfield has served as third base coach, infield coach and baserunning coach for the Red Sox for the last five seasons starting in 2013.

Though newly named Red Sox manager Álex Cora was under no obligation to retain any of the coaches, today’s moves make certain that Cora will bring a team very much of his own choosing to the ballpark in 2018.