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Benintendi Agent Fired

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Some startling news today. Jason Wood, the president of baseball for the agency CSE, was fired for allegedly filming ballplayers in the shower at his home in St. Louis. Multiple players, including Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi, have stayed with Wood during the off-season. Other players associated with Wood include Jake Odorizzi, Riley Pint, David Phelps, Joey Wentz, and Matt Reynolds.

Wood has specialized in aggressively signing amateur players across the Midwest, according to Yahoo Sports.

CSE acquired Wood’s original firm, Arland Sports, last April after which Wood became head of its baseball division. The Major League Baseball Players Association confirmed an investigation is underway according to FanRag Sports.

Now some other news and notes for Red Sox fans:

  • Red Sox baseball president Dave Dombrowski has been called “Dealer Dave” for his many high-profile signings over the years. When it comes to getting the Sox a deal for slugger J.D. Martinez, however, some are wondering why Dombrowski appears gun shy. Over at WEEI.com, Rob Bradford makes the case for going beyond the five year commitment that the Sox have reportedly already offered.
  • Michael Chavis, the Red Sox Minor League Offensive Player the Year for 2017, hopes this will be the year he makes it to the big leagues. Chavis, 22, slashed .282/.347/.563 with 31 home runs and 94 RBIs last season in 126 games at High-A Salem and Double-A Portland. He says he’s received a good sign from the heavens that he may have a spot on the field at Fenway in 2018.
  • Jason Groome tops the new Red Sox prospects list at Baseball Prospectus. Chavis was second followed by Bryan Mata. Groome and Chavis also held the top two spots on a similar recent list from Baseball America, though they went with Tanner Houck for third place, then Mata in the four-spot.
  • This Tuesday marked the 65th anniversary of Ted Williams‘ call to active duty by the US Marines. Williams had already played four seasons with the Sox (1939-42) before missing the next three for service to his country. In Korea, the future Hall of Famer flew 39 missions and even survived a crash-landing after taking on enemy fire. Williams returned to baseball in 1946 and picked up where he left off with six straight All-Star seasons, continuing his streak of three consecutive All-Star selections before the war. In all, the Splendid Splinter would be recognized at the Mid-Summer Classic in 17 of his 19 MLB seasons.
  • Tuesday also marked a somber anniversary in the life of Red Sox Hall of Famer Tony Canigliaro. It was on that day in 1982 that Conigliaro suffered a massive heart attack in Boston while returning from an interview for a broadcasting job. A subsequent stroke left Tony C in a vegetative state for eight years before he succumbed in 1990 at age 45.
  • The Sox have avoided arbitration with pitchers Steven Wright and Carson Smith. It’s been reported they will earn $1.1 million and $850,000 next season, respectively.

Sunday Morning Odds ‘n Ends

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Random thoughts from the Red Sox week that just finished:

  1. The Yankees are in last place and while that’s unlikely to last, the Sox are capitalizing on New York’s slow start, taking the first two games of this weekend’s series. Saturday night’s shut out win over New York was historical for a number of reasons.
    • Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, Saturday’s win ended a string of 6 straight series win at Fenway for the Bombers over the Sox dating back to 2014.
    • Saturday’s game featured two triples by Jackie Bradley, Jr., making the Red Sox the first team since the 1962 Cardinals to have two different players with two triples in a game before the end of April, according to Elias. Mookie Betts also had two triples on April 22.
    • Saturday’s shutout of the Yankees was the first by the Red sox since June 2, 2013 at Yankee Stadium and the first at Fenway in over five years (May 14, 2011).
    • The 8-0 win was the widest margin of victory by the Red Sox in a shutout of the Yankees since an 11-0 win on September 6, 2003 in the Bronx. The Sox hadn’t shutout the Yanks in Boston by that margin since a 10-0 win at Fenway on August 2, 1973.
  2. It’s impossible not to be impressed with the way David Ortiz is going in this, his final MLB season. Last Wednesday, April 27, Papi became just the 11th player in baseball history (and first Red Sox player ever) to collect three doubles in a game at age 40 or older. Before Ortiz, the last MLB player to accomplish that feat was the Giants’ Omar Vizquel on August 1, 2007.
  3. Sox pitcher Steven Wright is in some elite company. Wright started this season working at least 6.0 innings in four starts without allowing more than two earned runs. The only other Red Sox pitchers to do that in the past 20 seasons are Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, and Clay Buchholz. If you count his work in the 2015 season, Wright has pitched at least 5.0 innings and allowed two runs-or-fewer in each of his last seven starts, the longest active streak in the Majors.
  4. Happily, Hanley Ramirez has settled in nicely at first base, error-free in 150 total chances going into Saturday’s game. Ramirez does, however, lead the club in strikeouts with at least one SO in 17 games of the first 24 games of the season, the most since Mike Napoli collected 19 such games in that span of time during the 2014 campaign. In 2014 Napoli tied the team record for strikeouts over the first 24 Red Sox games (21, also Dick Stuart in 1963).
  5. Cardinals rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz enters May with a .423 batting average after 71 at-bats. Earlier in the week Elias reported said Diaz was the first rookie in Major League Baseball’s modern era (post 1900) to post a .500 batting average after 50-or-more career at-bats.
  6. Though largely reduced over the past couple seasons, doubles have long been a major part of the Red Sox offensive toolbox. In fact, no club has led MLB for doubles in a season more frequently than the Sox, who’ve topped baseball’s Doubles List for 45 non-consecutive seasons starting in 1912 and ending in 2013. In 2016, doubles appear to be back in style for Boston, which starts the month of May with 66, the most in the majors and the club’s most in a first month since 2003 (71). The Red Sox have five players with six or more doubles thus far (Xander Bogaerts, Bradley, Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, and Travis Shaw). No other club has more than four such players.
  7. The Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen produced three home runs in one game last Tuesday for the second time in his career. He joins Hall of Famers Ralph Kiner (who had four such games), Willie Stargell (4), and Roberto Clemente (2) as the only players in Pittsburgh history with multiple three-HR games. In Red Sox history since 1913, Hall of Famer Ted Williams had three career games with three HRs each. Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, and Hall of Famer Jim Rice each had two such games. Dustin Pedroia is one of 17 Sox players with one such game.
  8. Good starts: No American League club has more first inning runs than the Red Sox (29). The nearest AL competitor has just 17. In all of baseball, only the Nationals have more first-inning runs (30) than the Sox. There’s still a long way to go, but for all of 2015, the Sox had the fourth fewest such runs in the AL.
  9. We keep hearing that this Red Sox lineup will hit home runs when the weather warms. We’ll see. Their 19 in the first month is the club’s fewest over a first month of play since the 1974 team also had 19. Interestingly, the Sox’ 21 stolen bases are the club’s second most ever for the first month of a campaign. Only the 2013 team had more (22).

Red Sox in Month One

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Red Sox Wins Over First 30 Games

Stats help put it in perspective. Excluding the blip of the 2013 season, the Red Sox have averaged over the past seven seasons just under 15 wins for their first 30 games. They’ve played .493 ball in the early going during that time. Sure enough, in the Championship years of 2004, 2007, and 2013 Boston got off to winning records, besting opponents with 19, 20, and 20 wins, respectively.

After a tough 2014 season, and despite a thrilling win on Opening Day, the first 30 games of 2015 ended with just 13 wins, the fewest since 12 in 2012. It was the 45th time since 1914 that the Sox started the first 30 games of a season with a sub .500 record.

As your correspondent reminded you at the start of last season, just nine teams have won the World Series since 1914 when opening the season with a sub .500 win percentage over the first 30 games.

Since 1914, the Sox most wins over the opening 30 is 24 (.800) in 1946. The nadir was just five (.167) in 1932.

Farrell’s Hotseat

Much is being said and written about the importance of a “win now” approach as the Red Sox enter the 2016 regular season. Manager John Farrell, his job likely on the line, surely feels the importance of getting off to a good start.

FirstMonthDoubles2000-15Sox offense in Month One of 2015 didn’t foretell the disastrous season to come, save for one anomaly unseen by Red Sox Nation for some time: the absolute paucity of doubles.

The Sox had 22 doubles April of 2015, the fewest since the 1981 club collected 21 in the first month of a season. Contrast that with Boston’s 58 doubles in the first month of the 2013 season, the most doubles by an eventual World Series winner in the first month of a season since 2000.

Despite the doubles drop-off, Boston scored 113 runs that first month of 2015. Only Toronto (122) and Kansas City (119) scored more across baseball.

Never In-Balance

Starting with the silly t-shirts in spring training camp, the “no ace” Sox pitching strategy, if one can call it that, had trouble written all over it right from the start.

With 12 wins and 10 losses came a bloated 5.04 first month team ERA that rivaled that of another best forgotten season, the Valentine’s massacre of 2012. That year, Boston opened with a 5.54 ERA in April. It turns out that 2015 was just the 11th season since at least 1913 that Boston’s team ERA was 5.00+ in the first month.

Screen Shot 2016-03-24 6.18.10 PMThe Red Sox never seemed in balance in 2015. Having scored the third most runs in baseball in April is only valuable if you don’t give up so many at the same time. But instead, Red Sox pitchers allowed 119 runs that first month, the most in baseball and more than twice as many as the Cardinals (55).

From third best to the cellar, Boston offense all but disappeared in May. Just 82 runs scored was the fewest by any MLB club that month. Still, offensive production rallied and stayed in the top third of all major league clubs for every remaining month but July.

The damage, of course, was done. By August 1st, in last place at 47-58, even another strong month of offense couldn’t overcome the Sox pitchers’ seeming inability to protect a lead. Time and again, Boston needed to come from behind for a win. In 40 of the club’s 162 games, Boston left the first inning behind in the score.

Time for Predictions

Spring Training isn’t a real indicator of regular season performance. That said, the Sox look solid offensively again this year. There’s no reason to believe Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts won’t have great seasons. Dustin Pedroia says (again) he is healthy. David Ortiz will experience the joys (and perhaps pressures) of his final season. One would expect Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval have something to prove. Travis Shaw has had a monster spring, for whatever that’s worth.

The arrival of David Price, a legitimate ace with a 2.45 ERA last season, at the head Boston’s rotation is unquestionably good news. The early injuries to Eduardo Rodriguez and reliever Carson Smith, on the other hand, are disappointments. Smith, a lights out reliever, is said to be down for at least the first month. Clay Buchholz is not an ace but more of the wild card in the deck. Rick Porcello, with his 12.00 ERA over 3 spring starts is, well, less than inspiring. Joe Kelly and Steven Wright, on the other hand, have made their cases to be in the rotation somewhere.

We’re just a few days to the start of the season. 181 days later, as we turn the calendar to October, the regular season will close with the Blue Jays at Fenway.

Now’s the time when predictions are worth something. Feel free to record and lock in yours in the comments section below. Just where will our Sox be in the standings after 30 games? Where will they be on October 2nd?


Rock Bottom

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There’s no way to sugarcoat it. The Red Sox have played some of their worst baseball of the season, getting swept by the Angels in a tough 4-game series. It was the first time Boston has been swept by the Angels in Anaheim in the history of the matchup, which dates back to 1961.

The Red Sox’ 4 total runs scored was their 5th fewest runs scored in a 4-game series in franchise history. The 1906 club scored fewest ever (2) in 4 games against the St. Louis Browns.

Ominous signs

Dark clouds brought heavy rain to Southern California Sunday night forcing the first rainout at Angels Stadium since June 16, 1995 (for contrast, the Red Sox have had 55 home games postponed since that date, not counting postponements related to the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and the Boston Marathon bombing).

Sunday’s postponement forced a Monday doubleheader. Even with Eduardo Rodríguez on the mound, the Sox’ fate was sealed early when the Angels scored 7 in the bottom of the 2nd inning.

In Game 2, with Steven Wright pitching, Los Angeles again scored in the 2nd inning with 1 run. The Angels tacked on 4 more in the 3rd, all coming with 2 outs.

The Red Sox are now 11-39 when opponents score first this season.

When playing two on the same day, Boston has now swept 496, split 834, and been swept 447 times.

Pujols crushes it

Fresh from the Home Run Derby and with no discernible after effects, Albert Pujols managed 3 home runs on Monday, 1 in the first game and 2 in the second. Game 2 was his third multi-home run game this season. Only the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado has more such games in 2015 (4). Monday’s 3 Pujols home runs made him the current  MLB home run leader with 29 so far this season.

Since his first home run in 2001, no MLB player has more multi-home run games than Pujols (11). Before Monday night he had been tied with Alex Rodríguez, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds.

Now it’s on to Houston for 3 with the solid Astros. Angels fans will be cheering for Boston now, as the Astros start this next series just two games behind Anaheim for the Western division lead.