Landslide! Mookie Betts Is AL's 2018 Most Valuable Player

Led MLB in batting average: .346.

The only batting champion in MLB history to hit 30+ home runs and steal 30+ bases.

Led MLB in slugging percentage: .640.

First Red Sox player to lead MLB in both average and slugging since Ted Williams (.388/.731 in 1957).

Led MLB in runs scored: 129 (tied with Lindor).

Led MLB in Wins Above Replacement (FanGraphs): 10.4.

Led MLB in Wins Above Replacement (Baseball Reference): 10.9.

Highest WAR by a position player since 2002 (Barry Bonds, 11.8).
Third-highest WAR by a position player in Red Sox history, behind Carl Yastrzemski (12.5 in 1967) and Ted Williams (10.9 in 1946).
Fifth-highest WAR by a position player before turning 26, trailing Babe Ruth (1920), Lou Gehrig (1927), and Mickey Mantle (1956, 1957).

Led MLB in Runs Created: 156.

2nd in MLB in total bases: 84 (Story: 85).

2nd in MLB in on-base percentage: .438 (Trout: .460).

2nd in MLB in OPS: 1.078 (Trout: 1.088).

Tied for 3rd in MLB in doubles: 47 (Bregman 51, Escobar 48).

Won third consecutive Gold Glove Award.

Betts collected 28 of the 30 first-place votes. Two writers placed him second: Dave Campbell of the Associated Press (J.D. Martinez first, Mike Trout fourth) and Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Trout first, JDM fifth). ... All ballots can be seen here.

The Big Question: Will NESN spell his name correctly?

Snell, deGrom Win Cy Young Awards (Sale Finishes 4th In AL)

Blake Snell of the Rays won the American League Cy Young Award. Chris Sale received two second-place votes and finished fourth.

Snell's 1.89 ERA was only the fourth time since 1973 (when the AL deviated from proper baseball practice by permitting a DH) that a starting pitcher finished a season with an ERA below 2.00. The other three: Pedro Martinez (1.74 in 2000), Fat Billy from Ohio (1.93 in 1990), and Ron Guidry (1.74 in 1978).

Snell finished the season strong, allowing only nine runs over his final 11 starts (61.2 innings, 1.17 ERA). His batting average allowed of .178 was the fifth lowest ever for a starting pitcher and the lowest since Pedro's all-time record of .167 average in 2000.

                            1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   Total
Blake Snell, Rays            17    11     2                 169
Justin Verlander, Astros     13    13     3                 154
Corey Kluber, Cleveland             4    12     7     5      71
Chris Sale, Red Sox                 2     8    12     3      59
Gerrit Cole, Astros                       3     4     9      26
Trevor Bauer, Cleveland                   1     3     4      13
Blake Treinen, A's                        1     3     4      13
Edwin Diaz, Mariners                                  4       4
Luis Severino, Yankees                                1       1

In the National League, Mets starter Jacob deGrom received 29 of 30 first-place votes. His season should be the final nail in the coffin of the antiquated idea that a pitcher's win-loss record is relevant. (But it won't be.)

Scherzer  220.2 IP    2.53 ERA
deGrom    217.0 IP    1.70 ERA

If deGrom had allowed 20 earned runs while recording the 11 outs that separated him from Scherzer's MLB-best innings pitched total, he still would have finished with a better ERA (2.49).

Tim Britton (The Athletic) notes that a team whose starter pitched at least seven innings and allowed two or fewer earned runs won more than 75 percent of the time in 2018. When deGrom did that, the Mets went 8-10. More from Britton:

DeGrom allowed four runs to the Marlins in an April sixth inning [April 10]. He did not allow four in a game after that. ... In his worst month, June, deGrom pitched to a 2.36 ERA. That would have led the league over the course of the season. That mark is better than 11 of the 16 Cy Young winners this decade ...

During one span of seven starts, the Mets totaled 10 runs (and deGrom drove in four of those himself).

From April 21 to June 2 (eight starts), deGrom allowed three runs in 47.1 innings (0.57 ERA). The Mets went 2-6. Add two more starts to that span (April 21 to June 13) and the Mets went 2-8 despite deGrom's ERA of 0.87.

deGrom allowed 0 runs in 9 starts: the Mets went 5-4. He allowed 1 or 2 runs in 17 starts: the Mets went 8-9.

Alex Cora Finishes Second In AL Manager Of The Year Voting

Bob Melvin of the Athletics was named American League Manager of the Year, with Alex Cora finishing second. Melvin also won the award in 2012 (Athletics) and was NL Manager of the Year in 2007 (Diamondbacks).

                       1st   2nd   3rd   Total
Bob Melvin, Athletics   18    10     1     121
Alex Cora, Red Sox       7    11    11      79
Kevin Cash, Rays         5     6    14      57
AJ Hinch, Astros               3     2      11
Aaron Boone, Yankees                 2       2

Red Sox principal owner John Henry, on Einstein's genius:

He put together a clubhouse that had more unity than I had ever seen. It showed day to day perseverance, sense of purpose, dedication every day. He had them ready every day. On every level, he was a superior manager. He was every bit as good as our best player.

Sean McAdam (Boston Sports Journal) writes that the award should be renamed "Manager Who Most Exceeded Expectations":

Some voters undoubtedly expected the Sox to reach the postseason a third straight season, aided and abetted by their enormous resources. The A's, meanwhile, were no one's choice to qualify for the playoffs, but did anyway. ...

This has been a hallmark of this award for some time: successful managers from big-market teams are routinely overlooked because they were supposed to win, while managers from small-market teams are rewarded for overachieving.

McAdam notes that Terry Francona, despite five trips to the postseason in eight years with Boston, never won the award, but since moving on to Cleveland, has won it twice in his first four years. In fact, Tito never received even one first-place vote while with the Red Sox and never finished higher than fourth!

Craig Kimbrel has rejected the Red Sox's $17.9 million qualifying offer (as the team expected) and will be a free agent.

Daisuke Matsuzaka (Chunichi Dragons) was named the NPB's Comeback Player of the Year Award (Nippon Professional Baseball).

TJ Cotterill of the Tacoma News Tribune reports:

Lorena Martin was hired just over a year ago to fill a position unique to baseball. No other organization before the Seattle Mariners had a director of high performance in the baseball operations department.

But on Monday, just over a month after the Mariners fired her, Lorena Martin [accused the team] of racism and discrimination and specifically nam[ed] general manager Jerry Dipoto, manager Scott Servais and director of player development Andy McKay. ...

Martin told The News Tribune that Dipoto, in a meeting with Martin and McKay in January, called her a "cocky Latina." In that same meeting McKay said Dominican players are "just plain stupid" and, in a separate meeting, Servais told her that you don't see Latino catchers or managers because "they aren't bright enough. They are dumb." ...

The Mariners have described Martin's allegations as "false and ludicrous".

Warning About The Boston Globe's Unscrupulous Behaviour Regarding Its Digital Subscriptions

The Boston Globe's behaviour regarding the way it charges customers for its digital subscriptions may not be criminal, but it is certainly unscrupulous and dishonest.

If you sign up (and pay for) a reduced-price subscription to the Globe's website, the explanation you receive about the offer will claim one thing, but the Globe's subsequent actions will be very different. Well before your trial period ends, you will be charged full-price for weeks or months beyond your initial purchase.

On October 25, after Game 2 of the World Series, I purchased a four-week subscription to the Globe at 99 cents per week. I was charged $3.96. According to the billing information at manage.bostonglobe.com, I had access to the Globe until November 22.

I received a confirmation email. At the bottom, I read this:

BostonGlobe.com digital subscription is a credit card only offer. ... At the end of your introductory period, you will continue to be charged every 4 weeks for $27.72 (99¢/day) unless you cancel your subscription.

To avoid any additional charges, the Globe stated I had to cancel my subscription before November 22. Fair enough.

But this afternoon - November 12 - I received an email notifying me that Boston Globe Media Partners had charged me $27.72 for an additional month of access.

The Globe stated I would be charged "at the end of [my] introductory period" unless I cancelled my subscription. The company ignored its own policy and charged me 10 days early.

I immediately called the Globe and a customer service person said I would be refunded $27.72. However, it would take up to seven business days for the refund to appear on my credit card statement. ... So the Globe can charge me immediately when I order something (it does not take even seven minutes), but when I catch the Globe trying to pull some bullshit, it suddenly takes - not seven days - but seven business days, to correct their 'mistake'.

The Globe enjoys some additional interest on my money before they finally relent and give back to me what they never should have charged me in the first place. (The customer service person said the Globe always charges customers up to two weeks before the expiration of an offer. When I told her that was in direct contradiction to the Globe's own stated policy, she said: "I understand." Obviously, she has no control over her employer's policies and she may truly agree with me. I think the Globe should have its employees be a bit more honest and say: "Yeah, whatever, fuck you.")

All that is bad enough, but here's the kicker: I had cancelled the subscription last Wednesday (November 7)! And the Globe had provided me with a confirmation code: C114673!

So here is your warning: Not only will the Globe jump the gun and charge you well before when it stated they would charge you, but even if you cancel your four-week trial two weeks early, you run the very real risk of still being charged for something you never signed up for. If you are not in the habit of carefully reviewing your credit card statements, it could be months before you notice that the Globe never made your cancellation official. If that happens, you will likely not get a full refund, despite the Globe being 100% at fault.

All things considered, it might be best to get your news elsewhere.

The Red Sox Roster May Look Extremely Different In Two Years

Evan Drellich (NBC Sports) reports that both J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts will probably hit the free agent market at the end of next season.

Martinez can opt out of his contract after the 2019 or 2020 seasons.

Agent Scott Boras, in noting that Houston's Jose Altuve signed a 5/151 extension in 2018 during spring training, added that Bogaerts is 2.5 years younger and he's a shortstop. "[H]e's done a lot." (Drellich writes: "That's Boras code for: 'Bogaerts is going to be really rich, and I'm going to make sure of it.'")

Chris Sale and Rick Porcello could also be free agents after 2019, along with Mitch Moreland, Brock Holt, and Eduardo Nunez.

Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley will be free agents after the 2020 season.

Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski: "We got a lot of decisions to make. ... [S]ome big contracts. And we have great ownership, wherewithal. But still, everybody has some limitations too. ... [W]e'll be prepared to keep a lot of our players, but I'm not sure which ones ..."

The Red Sox presented a qualifying offer to Craig Kimbrel, but Dombrowski was doubtful that it would be accepted.

World Series hero David Price has stated that he will not opt out of his contract this winter.

Bill James In Spotlight For Several Tweets Some Players Found Offensive

On Wednesday, Bill James, the revolutionary baseball historian who currently works as a special adviser to the Red Sox, posted a series tweets that drew the anger of MLBPA executive director Tony Clark and several players. Some of the posts were later deleted.

One of James's comments was:

If the players all retired tomorrow, we would replace them. The game would go on; in three years it would make no difference whatsoever. The players are NOT the game, any more than the beer vendors are.

Clark blasted this opinion as "reckless and insulting considering our game's history regarding the use of replacement players". Justin Verlander and Torii Hunter also referred to replacement players in their condemnation of James.

I found this reaction odd, because James - at least in that quote - did not mention anything about "replacement players" (as that term was used back in the spring of 1995, which seems like what Verlander was referring to).

James said that if every player RETIRED and other players had to take their place, the sport of baseball would survive and "would go on". That's common sense and we have seen evidence of the truth of that statement for almost 150 years of professional baseball. The players change and the game continues. (The Red Sox no longer have David Ortiz or Carl Yastrzemski or Ted Williams in their lineup, but they still play - and win - games.) While you obviously need players of some type to play the game, baseball is certainly bigger than the current group of major league players.

We can all agree that no major league player from 2018 will be playing in 2048. In other words, over the next thirty years, every single player currently on a major league roster WILL HAVE BEEN REPLACED by another player. And baseball (presumably) will still be around. The game will "go on".

NBC Sports Bill Baer noted "fans root for the name on the front of the uniform, not the back. That's generally true — fans tend not to hop from team to team along with their favorite players. The players come and go but team fandom sticks for life." However, Baer called this interpretation "the most generous reading" of James's "clumsy" argument.

James explained his thoughts in an interview with the New York Times (my emphasis):

I don't speak for the Red Sox and I try to make that clear as often as I can. But from the Red Sox standpoint, we have a responsibility not to offend the players and it's unfortunate that I did offend the players. I didn't mean to do that. I don't know that the idea that the game endures and we're all just passing through it is inherently an offensive idea. But if I phrased it in an offensive way, that was not my intention. ... I enjoy working for the Red Sox and I would like to continue that as much as I can.

James had tweeted that it was "asinine to say that players making only a few million a year are underpaid":

It's a question of which perspective you choose. ... I got in trouble by trying to tell people you don't have to choose the players' perspective. That is what I was trying to say: You can choose the perspective of broader society. It makes equal sense to do so.

Tyler Kepner of the Times stated that James's tweets "seemed to play into the skepticism among some players and fans about the growing influence of analytics". James:

I don't think it's true that players in general dislike analytics or distrust them. It is true that there are a lot of players who have images associated with analytics which are not friendly images — that's true of a certain number of players; it's true of a certain number of sportswriters; it's true of a certain number of air-conditioning repairmen; it's just a general condition of the world. There's nothing I can do about that, but I have to be more careful not to feed into those negative images.

2018 Red Sox Are One Of Only Eight Teams To Win 108+ Games And The World Series

Jayson Stark (The Athletic) writes: "It's so hard to comprehend history when you're making it."

Stark provides a list of the major league teams that have won 108+ games and won the World Series.

1909 Pirates   110-42   Beat Tigers in World Series (4-3)
1927 Yankees   110-44   Beat Pirates in World Series (4-0)
1961 Yankees   109-53   Beat Reds in World Series (4-1)
1970 Orioles   108-54   Beat Twins in ALCS (3-0), Reds in World Series (4-1)
1975 Reds      108-54   Beat Pirates in NLCS (3-0), Red Sox in World Series (4-3)
1986 Mets      108-54   Beat Astros in NLCS (4-2), Red Sox in World Series (4-3)
1998 Yankees   114-48   Beat Rangers in ALDS (3-0), Cleveland in ALCS (4-2), Padres in World Series (4-0)
2018 Red Sox   108-54   Beat Yankees in ALDS (3-1), Astros in ALCS (4-1), Dodgers in World Series (4-1)

That's it. Eight teams.

Stark: "Perhaps you don't think that this team [the 2018 Red Sox] deserves to be in the same conversation with those [other] teams. If you don't, we've got news for you: You think wrong."

Of those 8 teams:

OPS-PLUS
1927 Yankees   127
1998 Yankees   116
2018 Red Sox   112

ERA-PLUS
1909 Pirates   125
1927 Yankees   122
2018 Red Sox   117

RUN DIFFERENTIAL (162-GAME SCHEDULE ERA ONLY)
1998 Yankees   plus-309
1975 Reds      plus-254
2018 Red Sox   plus-229

The 2018 Red Sox beat the 100-win Yankees in the Division Series. They pushed past the 103-win Astros in the ALCS. They wiped out the Dodgers, who have represented the National League in the World Series for the last two seasons.

Stark:

• The Red Sox were the first team ever that had to beat two 100-win teams just to reach the World Series.

• They were also the first team ever to beat both of the previous year's World Series teams (the Astros and Dodgers) in a single postseason.

• And the Red Sox had to face the two teams (Astros and Dodgers) that led each league in ERA on their way to the World Series. Only five other teams have had to do that — none of them members of the 108-win club. ...

• They started out 17-2 ...

• They went 42 straight series without being swept … and 100 straight games without losing three games in a row … and never lost four in a row at any point ...

• They went 7-1 on the road in the postseason — the second-most postseason road wins ever. They went 2-0 in Yankee Stadium, 3-0 in Houston and 2-1 in Dodger Stadium.

• They went 11-3 in this postseason — a record topped by just the 1999 Yankees (11-1), 2005 White Sox (11-1) and 1998 Yankees (11-2).

• And they never lost more than one game in any of the three rounds — something just three other teams could say (those '99 and '05 White Sox, plus the 2008 Phillies).

Ian Kinsler:

It's not just that we won the World Series. This team ran through the playoffs. Ran through the New York Yankees. Ran through the defending champions. And then beat the L.A. Dodgers in their stadium to be world champs. Those, by all measures, by all media outlets, were the three best teams besides the Boston Red Sox. And this team dismantled those three teams.

Among eighteen amazing facts about the 2018 postseason:

1. The Red Sox went 10-0 this postseason when scoring first. That 10-game winning streak when scoring first was tied for the longest single-season streak in postseason history, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. The only other team to win 10 straight games in a postseason when scoring first was the 2004 Red Sox, who also won the World Series. The third-longest streak also belongs to the Red Sox -- the 2007 team won nine straight when scoring first.

2. David Price was the winning pitcher for the Red Sox in the clinching game of the ALCS opposite Justin Verlander, as well as the clinching game of the World Series opposite Clayton Kershaw. Verlander and Kershaw have each won a Cy Young Award in their careers. (Price has, too.) Elias research tells us that Price is the first pitcher to win LCS and World Series clinchers in the same year, defeating Cy Young Award winners in both. ...

6. The Dodgers lost World Series Game 4 despite leading by four runs after a Yasiel Puig home run. The Dodgers went 54-0 in games they led by four runs at any point in 2018 -- including the postseason -- until that game. ...

8. Boston's top four spots in the order went 0-for-28 in [World Series] Game 3. Elias research tells us that it was the first game in the modern era (since 1900) in the regular season or postseason in which a team's 1 through 4 hitters went 0-for-28 or worse. ...

14. It's tough to mention numbers from the 2018 postseason without noting the Red Sox's 16-1 victory over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the ALDS. That 15-run margin was the largest road victory in postseason history. The 16 runs were the most the Yankees have allowed in a postseason game.

48 Minutes Of Red Sox Postseason Highlights

If you cannot wait until December 4, when the 2018 World Series Collector's Edition DVD Box Set* is released ...

American League Division Series - Red Sox defeat Yankees 3-1 (13:21)



American League Championship Series - Red Sox defeat Astros 4-1 (17:08)



World Series - Red Sox defeat Dodgers 4-1 (17:36)



Also: Almost one hour of highlights from the entire 2018 season



(Videos made and posted by Exe-Edits)

*: At 8 discs, we will probably get the World Series and the deciding game of the ALCS.

At Parade, Cora Chides 'Chicken Little' Fans (And Media) For Not Believing In Red Sox

[More pictures below.]

Think about it. The New York Yankees ... yeah, the sky was falling. You know, we lost Game 2, and it was panicking here (waving his arms in mock panic), everyone was saying, "Whoa, it's over!" ... We scored 16 at Yankee Stadium. Suck on it. (cheers)

And then, for how much I care about those guys in Houston, well, we went to Houston and we swept them down there. (cheers) And to finish it off, we go to this historic ballpark that holds 55,000 people. I played there for six years and I know how special Dodger Stadium is. And when Steve Pearce hit that home run in Game 5, it felt like we had 40,000 fans cheering for us at Dodger Stadium. (cheers)

It was an amazing run, it was an amazing year, and you guys made it that special. Thank you very much! Enjoy!

Alex Cora, Boston Red Sox World Series Victory Parade

"Defeat May Be Victory In Disguise; The Lowest Ebb Is The Turn Of The Tide."Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1882)

Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated, October 30, 2018:

[F]or all [of the Red Sox's 119] wins it was one defeat that defined the team's soul and spirit. To deeply understand these Red Sox, not just remember them, you have to hear the hidden story of the longest, most grueling, most absurd loss any team ever suffered in 665 World Series games.

It was half past midnight at Dodger Stadium, and more than an hour after the trains in Boston stopped running and the bars stopped serving, when the Red Sox, still jet-lagged from the 2,611-air-mile trip to L.A., trudged back to their clubhouse with a 3–2 walk-off loss that had taken 18 innings and seven hours, 20 minutes, Series records for toil and time.

"Everybody, clubhouse!" Cora shouted in the labyrinth under the first base stands. "Meeting!"

Cora is a rookie manager who abhors team meetings, so the call to gather, especially at such an hour after two fitfully long days, hinted at the importance of the moment. What happened next will make for the best stories these championship brothers tell when they gather years from now, as their bodies and competitive edges soften. ...

"It's a big reason," Holt says, "why we won the next two games. It's a great example of how the whole group played for each other and would do anything to help the team." ...

No team ever invested more in a World Series loss than did the Red Sox in Game 3. It had all the marks of a devastating defeat, one that had cut their Series lead to 2–1 and had given L.A. an apparent edge in Game 4, since Price and Eovaldi had just pitched. Nobody knew who was starting Game 4 ... Most people saw a beaten team. Cora saw a proud one, which is why he called the team meeting. ...

"There were tears," Holt says. Porcello was one of those crying. ...

[Porcello:] "We just lost a World Series game in 18 innings. But after that [meeting], it didn't feel like we lost. It felt like we won."

A short while later, as Cora unwound from the game, he looked up to see a line outside his office. There stood Price, Porcello and Sale, whose combined contracts are worth $332 million. They all told him they were ready to pitch the next game. ...

About 15 minutes [after the final out of Game 5], on the field, Porcello was crying again. During the last week of the season Porcello, Moreland, Price and second baseman Ian Kinsler—all of whom had been to the World Series with other teams and lost—made a vow over "three, four, five, 13 beers," Porcello said, "that we would do everything we could to win it this time. I can't hold back the tears. ... This . . . it's beautiful."

The World Series parade in Boston will begin tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM.

A Banner Year