Big Contract Is No Guarantee Of Playing Time For Sandoval

Who will be the Red Sox's starting third baseman on Opening Day, April 4?

Travis Shaw has been red-hot (.450 average and 1.188 OPS in 14 games) and incumbent Pablo Sandoval - in the second year of his 5/95 contract and coming off a dismal 2015 season - will miss the next few days due to lower back tightness. Manager John Farrell says the final weeks of spring training will be key in seeing who gets the job. And GM Dave Dombrowski said that the size of a player's contract will not be a determining factor in whether he's in the starting lineup.

I think I've traditionally taken that approach. It's funny, Jim Leyland would always say, "A player's big contract would guarantee them one thing, that they had a bigger check to bring home every two weeks. It doesn't guarantee them anything else other than that." Normally, you hope there is a correlation between the two.

Dombrowski noted that both John Henry and Tom Werner agree with this philosophy.

Eduardo Rodriguez will begin the season on the disabled list after suffering a knee injury in late February. Because Henry Owens was optioned to Pawtucket, the fifth spot in the rotation is now between Steven Wright and Roenis Elias.

Reliever Carson Smith also will not be on the Opening Day roster. Smith had an MRI on Tuesday and it was determined that he has a strain of the flexor muscle in his right elbow.

Hanley Ramirez has been impressing people with his play at first base. HR:

Honestly, every time somebody is up there, I want it to be a ground ball. It's unbelievable. Every day is getting better and better and better and better. I feel like everybody is looking at me like, he's going to make a great play right here. That's what I expect from myself. Get ready to dive right here, catch everything.

Two SoSH posts from this week:

flymrfreakjar:

I've been able to watch a lot of games this spring, somehow, and from my eyes Hanley has been absolutely fine. He's made some picks, had a few diving plays, a successful pick-off. Everything you could ask. On this ESPN feed right now, Olney gave a little report on how pleased everyone in the organization has been with him. Someone in the booth right now is saying how people he's talked to around the league think he looks shockingly good. ...

luckysox:

The few times I've seen him, including yesterday, he's looked like a regular first baseman, not like a linebacker playing left field. He looked physically out of place all of last year, and now he just looks like any other first baseman. And what I think has been most noticeable to me is that he is engaged - because he has to be. He's excitable when his fielders make a good play ... I think being back in the infield and being needed on every play is going to suit him well. Viva El Hanley!

Ortiz To Bat Flip Haters: Drop Dead

Don't worry. In his last season, Big Papi will still "pimp the [expletive] out of" his home runs:

Of course as a pitcher you're not going to like it if I take you deep, but after I do it, suck it up, man. Take it like a man. I don't mind anybody doing anything when you strike me out or get myself out. You're never going to see me criticizing anybody, because you know what? Whatever you do out there, you just motivate me. ...

This game is competition. This ain't no baby-sitting. There ain't no crying. ... If you're going to take it like a baby, I'm going to take [you] deep again. How about that? Take it like a man and make better, quality pitches the next time I face you, and then you get [me] out, and then you do whatever the hell you want. ...

When you see a pitcher do a fist pump when they strike out any one of us, or jumping on the mound, I don't see anybody talking about that. Nobody's talking about that. Act the same way when we do a bat flip. It's emotion. It is, "I got you." Just like a pitcher does, "I got you," when they strike [you] out. As a hitter, I don't mind. You got myself out? Good for you. They work hard to do that [expletive]. But when I get you, good for me. Period.

Here he is annoying Chris "Guardian of the Game" Archer of the Rays:

A Look Back At 1986 ALCS Game 5: Red Sox 7, Angels 6 (11)

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) has just published a book about the 1986 Boston Red Sox.

There Was More Than Game Six includes extensive biographies of every player that wore a Boston uniform that season - from Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs to Mike Trujillo and Dave Sax - as well as recaps of the team's 14 postseason games. (You can read a little more about the book here.)

I rewatched (thanks to YouTube) and wrote about each of the Red Sox's seven American League Championship Series games against the California Angels.

The game recaps in the book are roughly 1,500 words each. Here is a longer version of Game Five (approximately 2,650 words):

Sunday, October 12, 1986 at Anaheim Stadium

Boston Red Sox    - 020 000 004 01 - 7 12  0
California Angels - 001 002 201 00 - 6 13  0

Before there was David Ortiz, there was Dave Henderson.

Before Big Papi thrilled Red Sox fans with his October heroics, the man they called Hendu brought Boston back from the dead in Game Five of the 1986 ALCS. Before Ortiz turned clutch, late-inning and game-winning hits into an art form for the Red Sox, Henderson made a spectacular bid to become the man who would lead Boston to the Promised Land of a World Series championship.

With the Angels one strike away from winning the pennant, Henderson – a backup outfielder obtained from the Seattle Mariners in mid-August – crushed a home run that gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead. Then, after the Angels tied the game in their half of the ninth, Henderson knocked in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly in the eleventh. Boston's 7-6 victory sent the ALCS back to Fenway Park for Game Six (and, possibly, Game Seven). (Henderson also homered in the 10th inning of Game Six of the 1986 World Series, what would have been the Red Sox's World Series-winning run if not for the Mets' comeback.)

The California Angels led the series 3-1 and fully expected to clinch the pennant in front of their own fans. Before Game Five, the Red Sox players had cited the Kansas City Royals, who came from being down 1-3 in both the ALCS (against the Toronto Blue Jays) and World Series (against the St. Louis Cardinals) to capture a world championship.

With the Red Sox's backs to the wall, manager John McNamara gave the ball to Bruce Hurst, who had pitched a complete game victory in Game Two. Compared to the media fuss surrounding Roger Clemens starting Game Four on three days of rest, it was barely noted that Hurst was also working on short rest in Game Five. Perhaps one reason was that, unlike Clemens, Hurst was considered timid and not aggressive. "I felt bad when it was said that I was timid because I was Mormon," Hurst said. "I don't think it should be put in that light. I don't think I'm timid and shy. The way I am doesn't mean I don't have a real drive to do well and be competitive."

The Red Sox would be facing Mike Witt, who had gone the distance in California's Game One win. However, Boston drew first blood in the second inning, when Jim Rice led off with a single and Rich Gedman – after barely getting his bat on, and fouling off, a 1-2 pitch – lined a two-run homer into the right field seats.

Hurst ended up pitching six innings, and left the game trailing 3-2. Bob Boone led off the third inning with a solo home run down by the left-field corner. With two outs in the sixth, Doug DeCinces ripped a double into the gap in right-center. Bobby Grich, who had struck out in his two earlier at-bats, drove a 1-2 pitch to deep left-center. Dave Henderson, who had taken over for Tony Armas in center field in the previous inning, raced towards the wall. Henderson timed his leap perfectly and the ball landed squarely in his glove. But his momentum carried him into the wall and his wrist struck the top of the fence. The collision jarred the ball loose and it fell over the fence. It was a two-run homer for Grich – and the Angels led 3-2.

"I thought I had it all the way," Henderson said. "But when my wrist hit the top of the fence it shook the ball loose and it was out of there. I was really disappointed, because I thought I should have caught it."

California added two runs off reliever Bob Stanley in the seventh - nickle-and-diming him on two infield hits - and led 5-2.

Meanwhile, Witt was (again) having little trouble with the Boston hitters. After Gedman's blast in the second, Witt retired the next eight batters and 10 of the next 11. Gedman broke up Witt's string with a one-out double in the fifth, but Armas flied to left and Spike Owen grounded to second. Boston had men on base in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, but could not get anyone past first base.

Wade Boggs singled to open the sixth, but he was forced at second by Barrett. Buckner then forced Barrett at second and Rice flied to right. Gedman singled with two down in the seventh (his third hit of the day against Witt), but Henderson struck out. Mike Greenwell, pinch-hitting for Owen in the eighth, singled, but was erased when Boggs hit into a double play.

The Anaheim Stadium crowd was roaring as Witt faced the heart of the Red Sox order in the ninth inning, leading 5-2. Three more outs – and the Angels would clinch their first-ever pennant. On a 2-0 pitch, Bill Buckner looked at a strike and then asked the home plate umpire to check the ball. The baseball was thrown out of play – and Buckner grounded Witt's next offering up the middle for a single. California shortstop Dick Schofield dove to his left, but could not grab it. Dave Stapleton pinch-ran for Buckner, who hobbled off the field on his bad ankles. Jim Rice fouled off two pitches, then looked at strike three on the outside edge.

Don Baylor worked the count to 2-2 and took a very close pitch that was inside and called a ball. Witt's full-count pitch was outside, but Baylor reached out and hooked it, pulling it to deep left. The ball carried and carried, sailing over the fence for a two-run homer. The crowd was quieter, but they knew their Angels still held a 5-4 lead – and when Dwight Evans fouled to third for the second out, they began loudly cheering again.

One out away – and Gene Mauch came out of the dugout to make a pitching change. He wanted left-hander Gary Lucas to face Gedman, who had singled, doubled, and homered against Witt. Gedman had faced Lucas only twice before – July 27, 1986 and in Game Four of this ALCS – and he had struck out both times. It was still a questionable decision.

Witt, who had thrown 123 pitches, said afterwards he was not tired. "I felt like I was pitching from the seventh inning on, on adrenalin mostly. But I was getting people out. . . . I called Boone out. We were going to discuss how we were going to handle [Gedman]. But . . . we never got to discuss it."

Mauch: "I've never had much success relieving Mike Witt. But I've also never seen Rich Gedman do anything but strike out against Gary Lucas. I can handle it this way. If I had left [Witt] in, and Gedman had another hit, I couldn't have handled that."

Lucas threw only one pitch – and it sailed up and in and hit Gedman on the right hand. As the Boston catcher trotted to first base, Mauch made another change, bringing in closer Donnie Moore to face Dave Henderson. Henderson took a ball low, then a strike that was a little higher. When he swung and missed a pitch low and away, Moore and the Angels were one strike away.

Dave Stapleton: "I looked across the field and I could see everyone in the Angels dugout getting ready to celebrate. . . . They had those nice little smiles that you get before you start hugging everyone."

Moore threw ball two in the dirt, and Henderson fouled off two pitches. Moore's 2-2 pitch – the seventh pitch of the at-bat – came in a little low. Henderson swung and as soon as he hit it, he knew. The ball sailed far over the fence in left for a two-run home run – a shot that gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead. Henderson took three steps out of the batter's box, watching the flight of the ball. As it cleared the fence, he jumped and spun around. And then he began a fast trot around the bases.

Henderson: "The pitch I fouled off was a fastball I should have hit. I had to step out of the batter's box and gather myself, think about what I had to do. With two strikes I had to protect the plate. I really just wanted to reach down and make sure I at least put the ball in play."

Henderson: "The pitch before was a fastball, and I was mad at myself for not doing something with that one. It was a changeup or a forkball. Just trying to get it into play, maybe in the gap . . ."

Moore: "I'd been throwing him fastballs, and he was fouling them off, fouling them off. Then I threw him an offspeed pitch and I shouldn't have thrown it. I should have stayed with the hard stuff. The kind of bat speed he has is offspeed. That pitch was right in his swing."

Henderson: "I knew when I hit it, it was gone."

Moore retired Ed Romero on a fly to right for the third out.

Stanley began the ninth – his third inning of work – by giving up a single to Boone (his third hit of the day). Ruppert Jones went in to pinch-run, and Gary Pettis dropped down a bunt, moving Jones to second. Lefty Joe Sambito came out of the bullpen to face Rob Wilfong, who promptly knocked Sambito's first pitch into right field. Dwight Evans charged the ball and made an accurate throw home, but Jones was too speedy and he slid in just ahead of the ball and tag. The game was tied: 6-6.

McNamara vowed before the game to stay away from Calvin Schiraldi, who had pitched in Games 3 and 4. The manager called on Steve Crawford, who had last worked one week earlier, in the final game of the regular season. Crawford was essentially the last man on the staff, taking the final spot on the playoff roster when starting pitcher Tom Seaver's knee kept him out of the rotation.

Schofield faced Crawford and lined a single to right, sending Wilfong (carrying the AL pennant in his back pocket) to third base. Wilfong was the only baserunner that mattered, so the Red Sox intentionally walked Brian Downing, moving Schofield to second and loading the bases. With both the infield and outfield playing in, Crawford faced DeCinces, who had doubled twice in the game. DeCinces swung at the first pitch and hit a fly ball to short right field. It was too shallow for Wilfong to tag up and attempt to score on Evans's strong arm. Bobby Grich then lined a 2-2 pitch right back to the mound, which Crawford speared easily in his follow-through. Game Five would go to extra innings.

Moore walked Wade Boggs to start the tenth. Marty Barrett forced him at second. Stapleton singled to right-center and Barrett went to third. It looked like a good opportunity for a run, but Jim Rice grounded the first pitch into a double play.

The Angels nearly won the game in the bottom of the 10th, when Gary Pettis hit a drive to deep left field. Rice, with his back to the wall, caught the ball over his head for the third out.

Moore hit Don Baylor to begin the Red Sox 11th. Evans singled to center. Gedman popped up a bunt attempt to third. DeCinces bare-handed the ball on a bounce, but his throw was off target, and the bases were loaded. Henderson swung at Moore's first pitch and flied to center – scoring Baylor and giving Boston a 7-6 lead. Henderson: "I just wanted to get the ball in the air and get a run in."

Schiraldi ended up pitching in the game after all, coming in to face the top of the California order in the bottom of the eleventh. He struck out Wilfong and Schofield, and ended the game when Downing fouled to first. "I was awake all night wondering if I'd ever get a chance to redeem myself," Schiraldi said, referring to his poor performance in Game Four. "This has to be the biggest game of my life."

Henderson had three RBI in Game Five, the same number of RBI he had for the Red Sox since the August 19 trade eight weeks earlier. "Yeah, but they came at the right time." Afterwards, in the clubhouse, Henderson asked, "Where's the brew? My throat's dry."

Henderson was an unlikely hero, making only 54 plate appearances in 36 games for Boston. He hit only .196 during the regular season with the Red Sox and was used mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement for centerfielder Tony Armas.

Earlier in the game, Tony Armas twisted his ankle trying to catch Doug DeCinces's double off the wall in center. He stayed in the game for a few innings, but left after batting in the top of the fifth. Dave Henderson took over in center. [Henderson had fouled a pitch off his leg on Saturday (Game Four). "I was hurting so badly this morning that I couldn't walk. . . . I took aspirin, lots of aspirin. This is no time to take yourself out of anything."]

John McNamara: "This was the most emotional, dramatic and unbelievable baseball game I've ever been associated with."

Calvin Schiraldi: "I got beat with what was definitely not my best pitch Saturday night [Game Four]. I tossed and turned all night thinking of that. I just wanted to get back out there and I told Mac that as soon as I got to the park."

Steve Crawford, the winning pitcher, was nearly in tears: "It was the game of my life. I've never experienced anything like it."

Marty Barrett: "I'll tell you where they lost the game. Mauch made a big mistake by taking Witt out. I don't know why Mauch took him out . . . I guess he was afraid of Richie Gedman hitting a home run. But to me, that's what cost them the game."

Mauch, on replacing Witt one out from the pennant: "That's hindsight and I don't like to look at hindsight."

Don Baylor: "I've been involved in 2,022 major league games and this was by far the best. . . . When you're down to your very last out, the very last pitch, and you turn around and win, there's an awful lot of emotion. All of a sudden, you're a kid again."

Roger Clemens: "That was the best game I've ever seen. . . . I was in the Astrodome in 1980 when the Astros had that remarkable game they had in extra innings. That's the only game I've ever seen even that's comparable to this." [Games Three, Four and Five of the 1980 NLCS (Astros/Philadelphia Phillies) were played in Houston and all three games went into extra innings. It's unclear to which game Clemens was referring (maybe Game Three since the Phillies won Games Four and Five).]

One interesting factoid from Steve Hirdt of ABC: In major league baseball's first 648 postseason games, no team had ever taken a lead of two or more runs into the ninth inning and lost. And then it happened twice within 24 hours. In Game Four, on October 11, Boston held a 3-0 lead in the ninth inning before the Angels tied it up and won in 11 innings. The following day, October 12, the Red Sox rallied against the Angels in Game Five, scoring four times in the top of the ninth, and eventually winning 7-6 in 11 innings. And then it happened a third time, on October 15, when the Astros blew a 3-0 lead in the ninth inning of Game Six of the National League Championship Series, as the Mets came back to win the game (and the pennant) 7-6 in 16 innings.

Clay Buchholz (And Johnny Damon) Endorse Donald Trump

No one has ever accused former Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon of being the sharpest bulb in the drawer. And his latest comment will not likely make anyone reconsider their opinion.

Damon: "I want (Trump) for president. I'm a Trump fan ever since I met him seven or eight years ago. Everything he does, he does first-class — his hotels, his businesses, his golf courses. The issues all the other politicians failed to discuss, (Trump) is bringing us up to speed. ... If (Trump) needs me anywhere, I'll be there. He's a good friend."

[His golf courses are tidy and well-watered? Well, that's certainly a ringing endorsement to be the leader of the United States. Damon also mentioned being a supporter of The Wall - and I don't mean the Pink Floyd album.]

Sadly, Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz also wants Trump to be president. (It turns out Trump introduced Buchholz to his wife.) "He says what a lot of people think and don't say. I like that part of him. I'm not really into politics, but I'm watching a lot more now. He's been awesome to me. He says what's on his mind, which is why he's accomplished so much in his life. I always found him to be a good-hearted person. ... He speaks and everyone listens."

What is this obsession with liking people because they say "what's on their mind"? I know I'm going Godwin, but Hitler and a thousand other evil people also spoke their minds. It should be obvious to any rational adult that it's not always an admirable trait.

Everyone Loves A Contest #20: 2016 Red Sox W-L

With Opening Day (April 4) only three weeks away, it's time for this year's Red Sox W-L Contest!

Correctly guess Boston's 2016 regular season record and you could win a hardcover copy of Glenn Stout's new book, The Selling Of The Babe (Thomas Dunne Books). Stout is also the author of Fenway 1912 - which I loved, and wrote about here.

Contest entries must be emailed to me and include the following two items:

1. Predicted 2016 W-L record
2. Tiebreaker: David Price's ERA

W-L guesses must be exact. Tiebreaker winner will be the closest guess, either over or under.

Deadline: Sunday, April 3, 11:59 PM.

All Eyes On Betts In 2016

ESPN's David Schoenfield calls Mookie Betts his "most intriguing player to watch in the AL East for 2016":

Red Sox players don't usually fly under the radar, but that seemed to be the case in 2015 with Betts, who quietly finished with a .291/.341/.479 batting line, 18 home runs, 42 doubles and 21 stolen bases. He also played solid defense in center field. And he did all that after a slow start that had him hitting .221 in the middle of May. So Betts already has a nice all-around game, but I think he can become a top-five MVP guy in 2016 for three reasons: (1) He's just 23, entering his second full season in the bigs; (2) I love his contact ability, as he ranked 26th in the majors in strikeout rate in 2015, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio should get better; (3) He has a swing tailor-made for Fenway, as he pulls the ball over and off the Green Monster.

Everyone seems to assume that Betts will move to right field this year while Jackie Bradley Jr. takes over in center, but that's not guaranteed. Betts averaged 2.68 putouts per nine innings in center last year compared with 2.45 for Bradley.

David Price is #5 on the list and Boston's new first baseman Hanley Ramirez is #10.

Prospects

The Sporting News 2016 Baseball Yearbook

Ranking of Farm Systems:

Red Sox, 5th (behind Atlanta, Rockies, Dodgers, and Pirates):
Only organizations as focused on player development as the Red Sox can afford to give up the talent Boston did for closer Craig Kimbrel, but the remaining inventory is still very impressive. Take top prospects such as second baseman Yoan Moncada, third baseman Rafael Devers and outfielder Andrew Benintendi, then factor in all the young standouts already in Boston - the direction is obvious.

(The Yankees are 13th.)

Superstars For 2018 And Beyond

"10 players who will have a large presence on the big-league radar near the end of this decade":

1. Yoan Moncada, Red Sox: The switch-hitting Moncada is an electric talent with plus bat speed, emerging power, and the ability to steal 30-plus bases in the majors. He's still a few years away from the bigs but he profiles as an All-Star second baseman at the highest level.

5. Rafael Devers, 3B, Boston: Devers is only 19 and won't arrive in Boston for a few more seasons, but he's got all the tools to be an above-average offensive contributor. With plus bat speed, a short swing and emerging plate discipline, Devers projects to hot for power and average.

Lindy's Sports Baseball 2016 Preview

Top 50 Prospects

3. Yoan Moncada, 2B
7. Rafael Devers, 3B

Athlon Sports 2016 MLB Preview

Top 50 Prospects

2. Yoan Moncada, 2B
Moncada was considered the best young prospect to come out of Cuba in years. He is always a threat to steal, has promising power potential and the swing to be an above-average hitter. And he could play anywhere in the field other than shortstop and catcher.
11. Anderson Espinoza, RHP
12. Andrew Benintendi, OF
24. Rafael Devers, 3B

MLB Top 100 Propects

7. Yoan Moncada, 2B
17. Rafael Devers, 3B
25. Andrew Benintendi, OF
39. Anderson Espinoza, RHP

Baseball America - Red Sox Top 10 Prospects

1. Yoan Moncada, 2B
2. Rafael Devers, 3B
3. Andrew Benintendi, OF
4. Anderson Espinoza, RHP
5. Michael Kopech, RHP
6. Brian Johnson, LHP
7. Sam Travis, 1B
8. Deven Marrero, SS
9. Luis Alexander Basabe, OF
10. Michael Chavis, 3B

FNC (Fire Nick Cafardo): The Hunger Games

I no longer waste my time reading the Boston Globe's sports section. The only reason to even consider clicking on the paper's website is for the work of the indefatigable Alex Speier and you can get your daily dose of his insightful writing/awesome link gathering by subscribing to 108 Stitches, his daily Red Sox newsletter.

While I was away in Oregon, Nick Cafardo published yet another worthless pile of shit masquerading as an insightful column. It's both scary and sad that this is what the once-great Globe sports section accepts from its national baseball writer.

Red Sox Need To Have That Hunger They Had In 2013
By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff
March 2, 2016

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Let's chat about hunger, and not the Pablo Sandoval kind.

Hi-yo! Nothing signals the beginning of a strong, hot-take sports column than a fat joke. The only thing better than that is a wisecrack about a pop culture event of 30 years ago in an attempt to sound hip.

It's the hunger that players feel, or should feel, after they've had a poor season — the hunger to reconnect with their fans and build goodwill, the kind of goodwill Sandoval used to have with Giants fans.

Why do I have the feeling that my stomach is going to be growling as I read this column?

For even though he had the same weight issues in San Francisco that he's having in Boston, Sandoval played exceptionally well in the World Series, and the fan base absolutely adored him for it. So in the lean years (I mean performance, not physical appearance), Sandoval had that reservoir to get him through.

Two fat jokes in the first three paragraphs? Go, Nick! ... Notice that Cafardo admits that Sandoval had the "same weight issues" when he played with the Giants and yet was a beloved World Series hero on the left coast. Could it be that his expanded size wasn't the reason for his poor play in Boston in 2015? With Nick, we'll never find out.

So here we are in 2016.

You can't slip a calendar change past Cafardo. He knows they happen about once every 10-14 months.

You have players on the Red Sox who need to build up some goodwill.

Because I and the other members of the local media have been shitting on them for the last two years. (Cafardo loves using "you" to pretend he is speaking for all fans. Personally, I have exactly zero players on the Red Sox.)

Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Rick Porcello, Clay Buchholz, Joe Kelly, and to some degree Dustin Pedroia all have a hunger to be better. Throw in Allen Craig, once a devastating hitter in the National League. How about David Ortiz wanting to end his career on top?

Players want to do well? To improve over past performances? Hmmmmm. Interesting take, Nick. Tell us more.

These are players who should feel the hunger, and this desire — to prove themselves or reboot their careers — should serve the team well. If the Red Sox are indeed moving away from analytics, then this intangible thing called hunger could be very important to this team.

A joyful Cafardo undoubtedly had to change his undershorts after John Henry said the team had "perhaps overly relied on numbers". Nick has been urging the Red Sox to move away from in-depth information and knowledge for years. It's obvious that he pines for the days when major league teams embraced nothing but gut feelings, impulse decisions, and reading chicken entrails. In a similar vein, his columns suggesting that all defensive shifts should be illegal - as if players in the field have always been stationary until a few years ago - are high comedy.

In 2013, Ben Cherington created that hunger here. He brought in veteran players who had come off subpar seasons but had the pride and the hunger to get back to being productive.

Cafardo is quickly losing what little coherence he had mustered so far. First, the Red Sox players should feel the hunger. Then we are told that the General Manager created the hunger. Then Cafardo switches back and says the players arrived in Boston with their hunger intact.

We saw it with Shane Victorino, who had been traded from Philadelphia, where he helped win a championship, to the Dodgers. His overall 2012 season wasn't great, but Boston gave him a three-year, $39 million deal. And Victorino became a big part of the Red Sox lineup.

I can almost guarantee that Cafardo was against the money and years given to Victorino. He also engages in some Monday morning quarterbacking, regarding the contract as a good deal because Shane did well.

They did likewise with Mike Napoli, who had good years in Texas, though 2012 wasn't one of them. His three-year deal was renegotiated to a one-year deal because of a health concern, but Napoli became their righthanded middle-of-the-order hitter and was a very good defensive first baseman.

Cafardo tells us things we already know - indeed what any casual fan knows. Victorino played with the Phillies. Napoli was with Texas. They both came to Boston and did well. No special insight.

Koji Uehara, Ryan Dempster, David Ross, Jonny Gomes, and Stephen Drew all played significant roles on that 2013 team.

Yes, they did. but we have no idea if any of them were hungry, though. Why is this sentence even in this article?

In addition to Sandoval, Ramirez is the other target here, but if there's a defense for him, it's that he had to change his position from shortstop to left field and he got hurt. You can call him out for work ethic issues; he didn't apply himself to left field while trying to navigate a shoulder injury he suffered in May after a very productive April.

It's interesting that Cafardo labels Ramirez as a "target". A target for who? Incompetent sportswriters who cannot resist low-hanging fruit?

Sandoval simply made a poor impression in his first season with his new team. He went from World Series hero to a guy who wasn't in shape, played poorly at third base, and was a shadow of himself as a hitter. He even gave up switch hitting.

Hey, Nick, a few paragraphs ago you said that Sandoval succeeded in San Francisco with the same weight issues. Now you are claiming the exact opposite.

Porcello had won 15 games for Dave Dombrowski's Tigers in 2014, but the future Sox president of baseball operations traded him to Boston for Yoenis Cespedes. Porcello didn't live up to the four-year, $80 million extension he signed. The weight of the world seemed to be on his shoulders as he went from a middle-of-the-rotation starter to a No. 1, which he had never been with the Tigers.

Cafardo again recaps a news story. I'll agree that Porcello did not light the world on fire, but charging that he did not live up to an $80 million deal in one season is moronic.

With David Price on board, Porcello should have the pressure lifted from him, yet he should be hungry to show the fan base that he can be depended on.

Price may now be a fat cat, but is he hungry?

Even though he's been with the Red Sox for seven years, Buchholz has never been a pitcher that fans feel they can depend on. Buchholz is extremely talented, but he's never been able to perform for a full season at that highest level.

He did win 17 games in his one semi-healthy season, 2010, when he made 28 starts. He has one more option year on his contract, for $13.5 million in 2017. But this time he needs to perform and stay healthy.

Who should be hungrier than Buchholz?

Again, Cafardo states the obvious and gives us some numbers any fan could get from Baseball Reference. ... But he also shows us that this is why ignorant fans like us need insiders like Cafardo, guys who are plugged into the day-to-day experience of MLB life. To tell us that starting pitchers need to "perform and stay healthy". I do admit that Buchholz is someone who could stand to eat an extra plate of pasta or two.

Pedroia is a different kind of hungry. He does have the reservoir of goodwill, because he has been part of two championships and has won an AL MVP award. He has been one of the best defensive second basemen in the game for a long time.

So there are different kinds of hungry. I had assumed there were only degrees, like a slight rumbling in one's stomach to fainting or having actual hallucinations. Sadly, Nick doesn't take the time to explain the distinctions.

But in recent times, the injury bug has bitten hard. His offense slipped each of the last four seasons, and his defensive metrics were down last season. You can tell Pedroia is irked by it. He refuses to acknowledge any defensive decline based on the metrics and has vowed to have a monster season.

Boo to defensive metrics, which measure a players's actual on-field performance, but cannot measure the depth of a player's hunger.

Pedroia has always had a chip on his shoulder over his size and what he's had to overcome. Now he's hungry to get back to being an elite overall player.

The thing about Pedroia is that he's always been hungry. That has never waned, so "hunger" may not be the right word to characterize his mind-set. But that proving-people-wrong attitude still lives within him, and that's good for the team.

While I just used the word "hunger" three times in relation to Pedroia, I am now saying it might not be the best word. But instead of editing what I previously typed, I'll simply ignore it and move on to another hungry player

Kelly is a 27-year-old pitcher who wants to be great. When he said around this time a year ago that he would win the Cy Young Award, he wasn't kidding. He knows he has the stuff to make that happen.

Pay attention, class. Kelly is that rare bird - "a pitcher who wants to be great". The big leagues are apparently filled with pitchers who desperately want to be shitty and get booed and be cut from rosters and miss out on multi-million dollar paydays. Thank God that Boston has pitchers who want to be good at their jobs.

He also has developed the wisdom. He understands pitching and that he can't always blow his 97-m.p.h. fastball past hitters. He now has confidence in a nasty changeup, a slider, and a curveball. So Kelly has all the hunger to finally take his career to a level of excellence.

Cafardo may eschew advanced stats, but he loves simple arithmetic. Wisdom + understanding + confidence = hunger.

Craig is an enigma to all, and probably to himself. How could someone lose it that quickly? The hope is that Craig will wake up one day and it will all come back. Whether he gets the opportunity is another story.

I have no doubt that the Red Sox hope Craig will become a decent hitter again. But that possibility seems highly unlikely and they have made other plans. Meanwhile, Craig is pocketing some serious coin while playing for Pawtucket. (Strangely, unlike Victorino and Napoli, Craig's hunger has not increased with his paycheck or his proximity to Massauchusetts.)

All in all, the Red Sox are in a good place with so many players who have something to prove.

So: As long as the Red Sox players have something to prove, they are a solid team. The desire to do well = wins. ... But really, is there a player in baseball that doesn't have something to prove? Bad players are under pressure to be better and great players are under pressure to stay great.

Sprinkle in young players such as Blake Swihart, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Jackie Bradley Jr., all trying to get to the next level of their careers. There's incentive.

Now Cafardo is just reading down the probably Opening Day roster. Is incentive the same as hunger?

And Ortiz has said that he doesn't want to go out as an old man who can't produce.

No shit.

You can even extend it to John Farrell, who has produced two last-place finishes here. You can say Dombrowski is hungry to prove he can turn around a struggling franchise in one year.

Look out, buffet tables in Fort Myers! Even the manager and GM are a-hankerin' for ... something.

There is lots of hunger on this Red Sox team. Will it be channeled in the direction it was in 2013? It is food for thought.

Actually, we don't know if there exists a lot of hunger on the 2016 Red Sox team. All we know is that Cafardo has said there should be widespread hunger. And after all his useless blather and non-information - including 17 mentions of "hungry" - Cafardo does what he does so often: he ends his column by asking "Who can really say?", thus undercutting everything he has written.

****

Here's a shorter take from SoSH's John Marzano Olympic Hero:

I can guarantee that Cafardo's thought process on writing this piece went something like this, "OH MY GOD! It's 3:30 and I'm starving. Too late for lunch, too early for dinner and linner doesn't exist ... YET! What should I do? I'll bang out a quick story about something stupid and then grab a snack. But what should I write about? I'm so hungry, this isn't fair. UGH! Why do I make deals with my self? I know that I'm no JP Riccardi, I'm just hungry. Curses! Wait a minute ... I've got it! What if the 2016 Red Sox were as hungry as me? That's a great premise but I have to change 'me' to something else? Hmmmm. But what? What should I change it to? Damn this brain, it always has the start of a grand thought but never the finish. Just like that Twix bar I ate here in 2013. I mean that was good, but it had so much promise. Ugh. Hey wait I second, did I say 2013? Hey! Hey! I did! Now I got something! What if the 2016 Red Sox were as hungry as the 2013 Red Sox? Huh? That's pretty freaking good. I bet I can bang out this column in 15 minutes, not research anything, write gobbledeegook that I've written a billion times in the past and be first in line at the Red Lobster! Cafardo, you magnificent bastard! I can taste those peel-n-eat shrimp now!"

And scene!

Vacation

I am away for two weeks, in Vancouver and Oregon. By the time I return, Boston's spring training schedule will have begun. The Red Sox open their Grapefruit League schedule against the Twins on Wednesday, March 2.

Review: "My Father, The Pornographer (A Memoir)", By Chris Offutt

My Father, The Pornographer (A Memoir)
By Chris Offutt
(Simon & Schuster)

When Andrew Offutt died in April 2013, he left his eldest son Chris with a ton of pornography. I mean that literally. When Chris packed up and shipped the contents of his father's office to his own home in Mississippi, the books and letters and assorted papers weighed more than 1,800 pounds.

Offutt writes, in this fascinating memoir: "My father was a brilliant, man, a true iconoclast, fiercely self-reliant, a dark genius, cruel, selfish, and eternally optimistic. ... Dad had no hobbies, no distractive activities. He didn't do household chores, wash the car, mow the grass, go shopping, or fix anything. ... He didn't sleep much. He drank. He rarely left the house. Dad was an old-school pulp writer, a machine who never stopped."

Andrew Offutt wrote and published more than four hundred books under eighteen different names (male and female), including John Cleve (which he regarded more as another persona than merely a pseudonym) and Turk Winter. His novels included some science fiction and fantasy, but most of it was classified as pornography. Offutt notes that the commercial popularity of written porn in America peaked during the 1970s, which was also his father's most prolific and energetic period. Andrew Offutt's goal was a minimum of one book per month. In 1972, he published 18 novels.

Dad wrote pirate porn, ghost porn, science fiction porn, vampire porn, historical porn, time-travel porn, secret agent porn, thriller porn, zombie porn, and Atlantis porn. ... Dad claimed to have single-handedly raised the quality of U.S. pornography. According to his private papers, he believed future scholars would refer to him as "King of XX Century Written Pornography".

Offutt gives us a look at his father's process and discusses several of his books, but I would have liked more context for the work. Andrew Offutt was incredibly prolific, but was he truly that influential? I have no idea. A brief history of the genre, some information about other authors, and when and why the genre died out would have been welcome.

The heart of the book is Chris Offutt, in his mid-50s, coming to terms with the complex relationship he had with his father. While clearing out his recently deceased father's office - a room he was forbidden to enter (and was afraid of) as a child - he quickly understands that this excavation offers a chance to "separate the writer from the man", although succeeds only partially at that.

I wanted an opportunity to understand him further through his work. ... Clearing Dad's office felt like prospecting within his brain. As I sorted, like an archaeologist, backward through time, I saw a remarkable mind at work, a life lived on its own terms.

By any measure, Andrew Offutt was not an easy man to live with. Chris Offutt's memories of his childhood in rural Kentucky, shared throughout the book, are dark and depressing. While his father sometimes joked that he was mentally ill, Offutt also quotes his father as saying (seriously, it seems) that he would have been a serial killer if it was not for the release of his writing career.

Offutt offers the few details he knows about his father's background. Andrew Offutt, a shy, sensitive bookworm, was born in 1934, during the worst of the Great Depression. It was a youth that was "shrouded in pain and difficulty". His own father died when he was only 17 years old.

His father "had little tact and no sense of diplomacy. ... None of us knew whom we were dealing with at any given moment." On visiting his parents as an adult: "Dad never made us feel welcome and didn't care for the presence of grandchildren."

Through the 1960s, married with children, Offutt worked as an insurance salesman while writing at night and on weekends. He was profoundly unhappy.

At age thirty-five he'd achieved his goals - social status, big house, nice car, his own business. He also felt snared by his values. He didn't like children. He made it clear to the family that he'd fathered kids due to Catholicism and resented the Church for the burden. ...

Though highly successful as a businessman, Dad was frustrated and miserable. ... Since childhood, all he'd ever wanted to do was write. Now he had more ideas and less time, and he hated the life he'd dutifully built. He wanted a way out but wouldn't leave my mother. Instead, he spread his misery to the family.

Chris Offutt cites two significant events that occurred in the mid-60s.

My mother recalls Dad sitting in the living room reading a pornographic novel he'd bought through the mail. Dad hurled it across the room and said, "I can write better than this!" She suggested he do so. By 1969, he'd published five and had contracts for two more.

Problems with Chris's teeth prompted the other event.

He believed he could double his output with a full-time typist. If he quit his job to write, and Mom typed manuscripts for submission, they'd make enough money to fix my teeth.

My parents were not brave people. Nor were they particularly bold in any way ... They worked hard and played it safe. After a great deal of planning, my father made the most courageous decision of his life, the only risk he ever took - but it was enormous. At age thirty-six, with four kids, an uneducated wife, and a big mortgage, he decided to pursue his lifelong dream of being a professional writer.

My father's sudden presence in the house jarred the family in many ways. He went from being gone fifty hours a week to being in the house all the time. Home was now a place of business. He was working, which meant the house had to be quiet - no loud talking, laughing, or walking. We learned to move silently up and down the steps. Doors had to be eased shut or left open. The slightest sound startled Dad, who would yell.

The office was off limits and its occupant was not to be disturbed. "Dad regarded any intrusion as not merely a distraction but a form of disrespect and attack. ... He never struck us or our mother, but we feared his anger, his belittling comments and inflictions of guilt. ... Our punishments were more of a temporary emotional shunning." Offutt's sister once told him: "I was afraid of the whole house."

In subsequent years, when the entire family would attend sci-fi conventions in the early 70s, Andrew Offutt would assume the persona of John Cleve, one of his many pen names. "The minute we arrived at the hotel, Dad began operating in full John Cleve mode, refusing to acknowledge his children." The Offutt offspring were given their own room, on a different floor than their parents. "It was well understood that John Cleve had no children."

Despite lifelong difficulties with my father, I lived for his attention. The only behavior that earned it was writing, which I began at age seven ...

Offutt is the author of several books, including Kentucky Straight, a collection of short stories, and The Same River Twice, a memoir from 2003. (It appears that he had been working on a version of this book about ten years ago, but stopped at the request of his mother).

Throughout his life, and especially when pouring through the physical history of his father's writing life (some of which is extremely disturbing), Chris Offutt worried about becoming more like his father.

The essential DNA of my father lay arrayed on the pages before me. This undertaking hadn't brought me closer to him. If anything, it's a constant reminder that no matter who I think I am, I will always be my father's son. I don't know if I'm a writer because of him or in spite of him. If my life has been motivated by rebellion against my father, what have I gained through the liberty of his demise? ...

I don't miss my father, but without his shackles to strain against, the world is terrifying and vast. I have lost a kind of purpose, a reason to prove myself. ...

I became concerned that examining the minutiae of his work was turning me into him. I wrote ten hours a day. At night I read. I avoided leaving the house. I got mad at small things, yelled at inanimate objects. ...

Months of close proximity to my father's pattern of thought influenced me to think like him, then behave like him - distant, preoccupied, and critical.

While Offutt ends the book on an uplifting note, he has to venture outside of his family to find it. It is a recollection of roaming the Kentucky woods with a pack of boys from the surrounding area. "I don't recall particular events, only the sense of friendship and loyalty, laughter and acceptance. There were no boundaries. ... We could go anywhere and we did. Nothing could hurt us but the land itself."

[Note: I received an advance reading copy of this book from the publisher.]

Baseball Prospectus Projected 2016 Standings

Baseball Prospectus' projected (PECOTA-based) 2016 standings.

             W    L    RS    RA
Rays        91   71   713   619
Red Sox     88   74   735   671
Blue Jays   86   76   765   711
Yankees     85   77   725   686
Orioles     72   90   697   786

As He Prepares For Final Season, David Ortiz Looks Good

To my Red Sox fans u guys deserve better Im getting ready for a monster season #staystrong #thebeast #punish pic.twitter.com/wxmUPZNtOJ

— David Ortiz (@davidortiz) January 11, 2016

Truck Day!

Today is Truck Day!

Part of what is being driven to Fort Myers:

— 20,400 baseballs
— 1,100 bats
— 200 batting gloves
— 200 batting helmets
— 320 batting practice tops
— 160 white game jerseys
— 300 pairs of pants
— 400 T-shirts
— 400 pairs of socks
— 20 cases of bubble gum
— 60 cases of sunflower seeds

The Awesomeness Of Babe Ruth

The Ace of MLB Stats tweeted a bunch of amazing things about Babe Ruth:

Babe Ruth would have to resurrect, return to baseball, and go 0-for-3,188 for his career slugging to dip below .500.

Babe Ruth would have to resurrect, return to baseball, and go 0-for-1,147 for his slugging percentage to drop below Barry Bonds's .6069.

Babe Ruth would have to resurrect, return to baseball, and go 0-for-1,501 for his career OPS to fall below 1.000.

Babe Ruth in the #WorldSeries
10 series played, 7 World Series Rings
3 GS, 3-0, 2 CG, 1 SHO, 0.87 ERA
41 G, .326/.470/.744, 15 HR

In 2015, Bryce Harper became the youngest player in baseball history with at least 40 HR & 120 BB in a season. Previously: Babe Ruth, 1920.

Barry Bonds would have to return to baseball & homer in 247 straight plate appearances to pass Babe Ruth's record .690 slugging percentage.

Babe Ruth had a career 2.28 ERA in 1221.1 IP. Only Mariano Rivera had a better ERA with at least as many IP since Ruth last pitched in 1933.

Just how good of a pitcher was Babe Ruth?
Career ERA+
Zack Greinke 123
Babe Ruth 122
Tom Glavine 118
Madison Bumgarner 118
Nolan Ryan 112

Babe Ruth allowed ZERO home runs over 323.2 innings in 1916. He slugged three homers that season.

Babe Ruth never batted .400 in a season. But he maintained a .402 BA over a 250 game span from April 30, 1923 to August 8, 1924.

Babe Ruth hit 71 HR over the span of 162 games from July 24, 1927 to July 30, 1928.

Babe Ruth batted .276/.391/.541 (.932 OPS) in the games in which he had at least one K. Hank Aaron had a .928 career OPS.

Babe Ruth hit 365 HR with runners on-base during his career. Most in baseball history. Nine more than Henry and 53 more than Barry.

Babe Ruth was tied for the lead in MLB with 11 HR in 1918. He ranked 83rd in plate appearances. He also had a 2.22 ERA with 18 CG.

Babe Ruth had a combined pitcher & position player WAR of 183.6 in his career.
That is 1.3 more WAR than Derek Jeter & Tom Seaver combined.

Ken Griffey Jr. batted .284/.370/.538 during his career.
Babe Ruth batted .314/.382/.534 in the 163 games in which he pitched.

Qualified seasons with at least a .350/.480/.730 slash-line
Babe Ruth: 7
The other 18,662 players in history: 5

Babe Ruth had three seasons in which he batted at least .375/.500/.750.
No other player in baseball history has even one.

The Red Sox were 17-9 (.654 -- 106-win pace per 162 games played) in games during which Babe Ruth both pitched and batted clean-up.

Babe Ruth last played for the Yankees in 1934. To that point he had hit 28.32% of all HR in team history. He still owns 4.33% of Yankee HR.

Babe Ruth reached base safely 379 times in 1923. Most in a season in baseball history. This is one of those "unbreakable" records.

Babe Ruth had 10 career steals of home. More than Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock, & Tim Raines had combined (9).

Pitching wins above replacement
Babe Ruth (1916-17) - 15.2
Clayton Kershaw (2014-15) - 15.0

Mike Trout has averaged 9.27 WAR per 162 games played during his career. Second all-time only to Babe Ruth (10.56 WAR/162). We should note that does NOT even count Babe's additional 20.6 WAR as a pitcher.

Babe Ruth, HR by batting order position:
1st: 0
2nd: 0
3rd: 553
4th: 148
5th: 1
6th: 1
7th: 1
8th: 0
9th: 10

Ruth also had the greatest letterhead in baseball history:

The Sporting News Predicts Red Sox World Championship

Punxsutawney Phil can go phuck himself. The true sign of spring is the arrival on newsstands of the pre-season baseball annuals. And this year, my favourite annual is The Sporting News, which predicts the Red Sox to beat the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Two other magazines tab Boston as one of the wild card teams. (None of the three annuals pick the Yankees to do anything.)

The Sporting News

After consecutive last-place finishes, new Boston exec Dave Dombrowski has added hope with a bolstered rotation and bullpen. The Sox have the talent to go worst-to-first.

Scout's View: David Price changes everything. He takes pressure off [Clay Buchholz], he takes the pressure off the young lefty [Eduardo Rodriguez] and Joe Kelly. They don't have to do too much. It takes pressure off their manager. John Farrell now has a very deep bullpen, too. That pitching has stabilized itself. They have a lot of good kids that can play like Mookie [Betts] and [Xander] Bogaerts and [Jackie] Bradley to go with Dustin Pedroia and [David] Ortiz. Now, if they can get Hanley [Ramirez] and Panda [Pablo Sandoval] out of the fat farm and play the way they should, they're dangerous.

Bottom Line: The Red Sox have gone from worst to first before, wining it all in 2013. They have also been champions of the offseason, only to see things fall apart once the games counted. No one in New England is taking a playoff berth for granted, but no one would be surprised if it happens.

AL Divisions: Red Sox, Royals, Rangers, with Cleveland, Astros (WC)
NL Divisions: Mets, Cubs, Giants, with Dodgers, Cardinals (WC)
ALCS: Red Sox over Royals
NLCS: Giants over Cubs
World Series: Red Sox over Giants
MVPs: Trout, Harper
Cy Youngs: Archer, Kershaw

Athlon

Scouting Report: They signed David Price when they hired Dave Dombrowski, and it's understandable. They overpaid for him and Craig Kimbrel, but it's what they had to do, and they didn't take anything away from their major league team to get them. They're the best team in that division, for me, but they still need a guy to start Game 2 of a playoff series. They're going to get more from Pablo Sandoval - they can't get much worse - and while Hanley Ramirez will probably be a poor first baseman, he'd going to bring value with his bat. Rusney Castillo doesn't have to be a great player, like Mookie Betts already is, and Chris Young is a good fourth outfielder who can play half the time, if needed. They can expect their young core - Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Blake Swihart and Jackie Bradley Jr. - to keep getting batter, and Dustin Pedroia is still an All-Star-caliber second baseman. After a long offseason, I expect him to be healthy and productive again.

Final Analysis: The Red Sox have finished last in three of the last four seasons, so naturally Las Vegas gives them the third-highest odds to win the World Series in 2016. That sounds optimistic, given a careful examination of the roster, but stranger things have happened. If Bogaerts and Betts develop into All-Stars and Ortiz digs deep to deliver one final monster season before walking into the sunset, the Red Sox could be ready to roll on offense. Starting pitching remains a concern, but count on this much - they'll finish closer to first than last.

AL East: Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Rays
AL Divisions: Blue Jays, Royals, Rangers with Red Sox, Astros (WC)
NL Divisions: Mets, Cubs, Giants with Nationals, Diamondbacks (WC)
ALCS: Blue Jays over Royals
NLCS: Giants over Cubs
World Series: Blue Jays over Giants
MVPs: Trout (with Betts 9th), Harper
Cy Youngs: Price, Kershaw

Lindy's

The Sox had a busy winter, reeling in David Price and one of the game's best closers, Craig Kimbrel, following a last-place finish in 2015. If Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval start earning their free-agent riches, Boston could turn it around quickly.

Scout's Take: Things are changing with Dombrowski in charge. He's a hard guy to work for and can be hard on his guys. But he gets things done. Dombrowski likes to trade prospects for proven guys. He can do a lot more of that with this club than in Detroit. They've got a great system, full of players. ... They're going to be stuck with two mistakes by Cherington: Ramirez and Sandoval. They're going to play Ramirez at first - that'll be a disaster. He's lost his skills, and he's a bad guy, too. An infield with Ramirez and Sandoval will be the worst in the majors. The pitchers will lose their minds. ... Their bullpen was terrible last year. It'll be a lot better with Kimbrel and Carson Smith.

AL East: Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, Orioles
AL Divisions: Blue Jays, Royals, Rangers with Red Sox, Astros (WC)
NL Divisions: Nationals, Pirates, Giants with Cubs, Diamondbacks (WC)
World Series: Blue Jays versus Nationals
MVPs: Correa, Goldschmidt
Cy Youngs: Sale, Scherzer

There's Talk Of National League Using DH As Soon As 2017

Mike Oz, Big League Stew:

If you love to watch MLB pitchers bat, take it in while you can, because 2016 may be the final season it happens.

At an MLB owners' meeting on Thursday in Coral Gables, Fla., Commissioner Rob Manfred said the idea of the designated hitter coming to the National League is "gaining momentum." What's more: Deciding whether to implement a unified DH rule could happen this year and then get rolled out for the 2017 season.

MLB is set to work on a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' union this year. The current CBA expires on Dec. 31, 2016 and it sounds as if the DH could be a big part of the new agreement.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Don Orsillo Discusses His Unexpected Departure From NESN

Don Orsillo, who will be calling Padres games in 2016:

I really don't know [why NESN replaced me], still. I've read things in articles and things that have been said. I've heard terms like "upgrade" and "re-energize" and both really kind of upset me, because obviously we had a lot of energy and I felt like we were quite good. Over the last 15 years and over the last five years, especially, with the way that we did have so many fill-ins, NESN's No. 1 product is Red Sox baseball, and I felt like it was done very well over that period. Unfortunately, they didn't agree. And so that was a big surprise. ...

First of all, the last home game, which I mentioned with the fans, and the great video tribute that the Red Sox did do, followed by the fans' reaction and then chanting my name in Fenway is something I'll never forget. I missed two batters afterwards. Jerry [Remy] picked it up, because I couldn't speak, I was so emotional. And then in Cleveland, to have the entire team come out and salute me at the end was something I never expected.

More On Mookie Betts, Bowler

Rolling Stone spent a day with the 23-year-old Red Sox outfielder:

I have no idea what it is about bowling. It's just a love I have for it. I can't even explain why. Bowling is just fun for me. ..

You focus for each pitch; [in bowling] you focus for 3-4 seconds as you approach and release the ball. Most people don't know about oil patterns and how to play them and transition with them. You have to have sound mechanics to repeat the same delivery each time. That's the hard part. Since I don't bowl all the time I'm not consistent with my mechanics.

Infinite Jest 20th Anniversary Edition: Fan-Designed Cover Contest Winner Announced

For the 20th anniversary of the publication of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, Little, Brown held a contest for the cover design.

Michael Pietsch, CEO of Little, Brown parent Hachette Book Group, and DFW's editor for IJ:

The internet has made it possible to see the massive amount of creative response readers have to Infinite Jest. I'd seen a lot of art connected to the book online, and it seemed that allowing readers who have loved it to submit cover designs for the anniversary edition was a way of honoring and highlighting all that creativity.

The winner is Joe Walsh, a designer in Ohio. The edition will be released February 23.

Walsh shared his creative process (with many drawings) here.

I am disappointed in this cover, though I'll buy the edition because (a) it's my favourite book of all time and (b) there is a new introductory essay by Tom Bissell.

Chris Ayers at Poor Yorick Entertainment posted some of the entries while the contest was still going on. I really liked Ayers's submission:

If Little, Brown wanted something video cartridge-related, they should have chosen The Made Shop's entry:

It's beautiful - and the infinity loop of the tape makes far more sense than the eye on the winning entry. I don't understand the inclusion of the eye at all.

The Made Shop should release a dust-jacket-sized version that readers could print out and use.

Cubs Scorecards

I have no idea who owns the copyright to this - the artist is Otis Shepard - but it would make a dynamite poster. (Found here.)

(I first blogged about Shepard back in 2011.)

RIP Hendu

Dave Henderson - Red Sox hero of the 1986 ALCS and World Series - died today, one month after receiving a kidney transplant. He was 57 years old.

Before there was David Ortiz, there was Dave Henderson.

Before Big Papi thrilled Red Sox fans with his October heroics, the man they called Hendu brought Boston back from the dead in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS. Before Ortiz turned clutch, late-inning and game-winning hits into an art form for the Red Sox, Henderson made a spectacular bid to become the man who would lead Boston to the Promised Land of a World Series championship.

With the California Angels one strike away from winning the 1986 AL pennant, Henderson – a backup outfielder obtained from the Seattle Mariners in mid-August of that season – crushed a two-run homer that gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead. (And despite World Series championships in 2004, 2007, and 2013, Henderson's blast will remain one of the most memorable moments in franchise history.) Then, after the Angels tied the game in their half of the ninth, Henderson knocked in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly in the eleventh. Boston's 7-6 victory sent the ALCS back to Fenway Park, where the Red Sox easily won Games 6 and 7.

Henderson: "The pitch I fouled off was a fastball I should have hit. I had to step out of the batter's box and gather myself, think about what I had to do. With two strikes I had to protect the plate. I really just wanted to reach down and make sure I at least put the ball in play."

Boston first baseman Dave Stapleton: "I looked across the field and I could see everyone in the Angels dugout getting ready to celebrate. Gene Mauch. Everyone. They had those nice little smiles that you get before you start hugging everyone."

Angels pitcher Donnie Moore: "I'd been throwing him fastballs, and he was fouling them off, fouling them off. Then I threw him an offspeed pitch and I shouldn't have thrown it. I should have stayed with the hard stuff. The kind of bat speed he has is offspeed. That pitch was right in his swing."

Henderson: "I knew when I hit it, it was gone."

And it was Henderson who whacked a solo home run in the top of the tenth inning in Game 6 of the World Series against the New York Mets - a drive that snapped a 3-3 tie would have forever made him a Red Sox God had his teammates (and his manager) be able to hold a two-run advantage in the home half of that inning.

David Lee Henderson played for five teams over 14 seasons.

Schoenfield: An Early Look At The 2016 AL East

ESPN's David Schoenfield takes an early look at the American League East - and how the five teams might finish in 2016:

This one's easy: The Red Sox rotation had a 4.39 ERA, better only than the Orioles and Detroit Tigers in the AL. So welcome to Boston, David Price.

It's not that simple. Price alone doesn't turn the Red Sox into a playoff team. They'll still need improvement from other guys in the rotation, most notably Rick Porcello, who posted a 4.92 ERA and allowed 25 home runs in 172 innings. The bullpen was just as bad as the rotation, posting a 4.24 ERA, also 13th in the AL. So new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski traded for closer Craig Kimbrel and setup guy Carson Smith, who had a dominant rookie season for the Mariners. With Kimbrel, Smith and Koji Uehara, the Red Sox could duplicate the late-inning dominance of teams like the Kansas City Royals and Yankees.

(This impact could be overstated, however. The Red Sox's winning percentage when leading after seven and eight innings was actually right at the MLB average. But improved bullpen depth could help facilitate more late-game comebacks.)

On the other side of the ball, the Red Sox saw Mookie Betts emerge as a star. He'll be even better in 2016. After a slow start, rookie catcher Blake Swihart showed promise in the second half, hitting .303/.353/.452. Second-year shortstop Xander Bogaerts hit .320 and is capable of adding some power and OBP to his game. That trio is the new core of the Boston offense. That leaves the veterans: Does David Ortiz have one big season left in him? Will Pablo Sandoval rebound from his minus-0.9-WAR season? Will Hanley Ramirez play first base better than he "played" left field? Is Rusney Castillo actually any good?

The FanGraphs projection system likes the Red Sox as the AL East favorite right now. Of course, the projection systems loved the Red Sox a year ago as well. But with one of the best starters in the game now heading the rotation, a dominant closer and a talented group of youngsters, the Red Sox look like the surest bet to improve in 2016. And maybe the division favorite.

Projection from FanGraphs:

Red Sox       92-70
Yankees       89-73
Blue Jays     87-75
Rays          84-78
Orioles       78-84

Fox Broadcast Booth: Reynolds And Verducci Out, Smoltz In

That's what you get for insulting Canada!

Andy Martino, Daily News:

After two years, Tom Verducci and Harold Reynolds are out of the Fox broadcast booth, and John Smoltz will be the network's lead game analyst, two people familiar with the plans told the Daily News. Smoltz and play-by-play man Joe Buck will be the new World Series team.

A Fox Sports spokesperson confirmed the change. An official announcement is expected later on Tuesday. ...

The three-man booth drew mixed reviews, and now Fox is making a change.

"Mixed reviews" is putting it kindly, because Reynolds was beyond horrible.

This is amazingly great news, although we will still have to put up with Joe Buck.

My favourite Reynolds meme:

Red Sox Will Retire Wade Boggs's #26

The Red Sox will retire Wade Boggs's #26 in a pre-game ceremony on May 26. It will be the 10th number retired by the team.

Boggs played 11 seasons with Boston (1982-92) and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005. His .338 batting average with the Red Sox is second in team history (trailing only Ted Williams's .344). Boggs played more games at third base than any player in Red Sox history. He led the American League in Times On Base for eight consecutive seasons (1983-90).

(Brock Holt will switch to #12.)

Baseball America: Top 10 Red Sox Prospects

Alex Speier of the Boston Globe has ranked Boston's Top 10 prospects for Baseball America:

1. Yoan Moncada, 2B
2. Rafael Devers, 3B
3. Andrew Benintendi, CF
4. Anderson Espinoza, RHP
5. Michael Kopech, RHP
6. Brian Johnson, LHP
7. Sam Travis, 1B
8. Deven Marrero, SS
9. Luis Alexander Basabe, CF
10. Michael Chavis 3B

Mookie Betts, Bowler

The Red Sox's young outfielder - and budding MLB superstar - is competing in the Professional Bowlers Association World Series of Bowling VII in Reno, Nevada.

When Betts was in high school, he thought he might have a future as a pro bowler.

He rolled a 224 in his first game as a professional last Tuesday. (Betts has rolled four perfect games in his life, including one recently as he prepared for the tournament.)

Betts: "I watch bowling pretty much every Sunday."

Betts's mother won her state championship when she was eight years old, and Mookie started bowling when he was four.

Spring 2016: The Selling Of The Babe & My Father, The Pornographer

Two books I am looking forward to reading next spring:

The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed Baseball and Created a Legend
By Glenn Stout
(Published by Thomas Dunne, March 8, 2016)

The complete story surrounding the most famous and significant player transaction in professional sports.

The sale of Babe Ruth by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in 1919 is one of the pivotal moments in baseball history, changing the fortunes of two of baseball's most storied franchises, changing the game forever and helping to create the legend of the greatest player the game has ever known.

More than a simple transaction, the sale resulted in a deal that created the Yankee dynasty, turned Boston into an also-ran, sold the American people on the modern home run era after the Black Sox scandal and led the public to fall in love with Ruth. Award-winning baseball historian Glenn Stout reveals brand-new information about Babe and the unique political situation surrounding his sale, including:

- The political battle among baseball's elite that inspired the sale.

- How Prohibition and the lifting of Blue Laws in New York affected Yankees owner and beer baron Jacob Ruppert.

- Reveals how a shortage of quality wool due to World War One led to changes in the way baseballs were made that resulted in the inadvertent creation of the "lively" ball.

- Uncovers Ruth's disruptive influence on the Red Sox in 1918 and 1919, and uses sabermetrics to showing his negative impact on the team as he transitioned from pitcher to outfielder.

The Selling of Babe is the first book to focus on the ramifications of the sale and captures the central moment of Ruth's evolution from player to icon, and will appeal to fans of The Kid and Pinstripe Empire. Babe's sale to New York and the subsequent selling of Ruth to America led baseball from the Deadball Era and sparked a new era in the game, one revolved around the long ball and one man, The Babe.

My Father, the Pornographer (A Memoir)
By Chris Offutt
(Published by Simon & Schuster, February 9, 2016)

After inheriting 400 novels of pornography written by his father in the 1970s and '80s, critically acclaimed author Chris Offutt sets out to make sense of a complicated father-son relationship in this carefully observed, beautifully written memoir.

"Clearing Dad's office felt like prospecting within his brain. As I sorted, like an archaeologist, backward through time, I saw a remarkable mind at work, a life lived on its own terms."

When Andrew Offutt died, his son, Chris, inherited a desk, a rifle, and 1800 pounds of porn. Andrew had been considered the "king of twentieth century smut," a career that began as a strategy to pay for his son's orthodontic needs and soon took on a life of its own, peaking during the '70s when the commercial popularity of the erotic novel was at its height.

With his dutiful wife serving as typist, Andrew wrote from their home in the Kentucky hills, locked away in an office no one dared intrude upon. In this fashion he wrote 400 novels, ranging from pirate porn and ghost porn, to historical porn and time travel porn, to secret agent porn and zombie porn. The more he wrote, the more intense his ambition became, and the more difficult it was for his children to penetrate his world.

Over one long summer in his hometown, helping his mother move out of the house, Chris began to examine his deceased father's possessions and realized he finally had an opportunity to come to grips with the mercurial man he always feared but never understood. Offutt takes us on the journey with him, showing us how only in his father's absence could he truly make sense of the man and his legacy. This riveting, evocatively told memoir of a deeply complex father-son relationship proves again why the New York Times Book Review said, "Offutt's obvious kin are Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff, and Ernest Hemingway."

Earlier this year, the New York Times ran a fascinating feature on Offutt and his father's books.

Red Sox Trade Miley/Aro to Mariners for Carson Smith/Roenis Elias

The Red Sox have traded Wade Miley and Jonathan Aro to the Mariners for right-handed reliever Carson Smith and lefty starter Roenis Elias.

David Schoenfield, ESPN:

After earlier acquiring Craig Kimbrel from the Padres, they've now added Smith, a right-hander who dominated in his first season in the majors, with a 2.31 ERA, 92 strikeouts in 70 innings and just two home runs. With a low arm slot and his fastball/slider combo, Smith gets a lot of movement and sink on his pitches and crushed right-handers, who hit just .169/.248/.254 against him; lefties weren't much better with a .227/.315/.273 line. He's not a big name, but he's very good.

Elias has started the past two seasons for the Mariners, but command issues mean he'll probably never develop into anything more than back-of-the-rotation starter. But his fastball/curveball/changeup repertoire means he could profile well in the bullpen, especially if his 91-92 mph fastball plays up in relief.

David Price Will Wear #24

Red Sox pitcher David Price will wear #24.

During Friday's introductory press conference, when asked about his 0-8 postseason record as a starting pitcher, Price replied: "I was just saving all my postseason wins for the Red Sox. I know good things are going to happen to me in October. ... That time is coming for me, and hopefully, it's in 2016."

ESPN asks (and answers) the question: What makes Price so good?

He threw 67 percent first-pitch strikes last season, which ranked 11th among pitchers who qualified for the ERA title. He ranked third in that stat in each of the previous two seasons. ...

Price's changeup has evolved into one of the best pitches in the game. ... Opponents have hit .218 against the pitch since the trade to the Tigers, chasing it (swinging when it was out of the strike zone) 46 percent of the time (compared to 35 percent with the Rays). ...

He went to a three-ball count against only 14 percent of the hitters he faced, about five percentage points below the major-league average. Price is one of five pitchers who had a walks per 9 innings rate of less than 2.0 while qualifying for the ERA title in each of the last three seasons.

He averaged nearly seven innings per start last season. Over the last three seasons he trails only Clayton Kershaw in average innings pitched per start. In 2015, Price held opposing hitters to a .205/.240/.285 slashline when facing a hitter for the third time in a game. Their OPS was 240 points lower against him than the average pitcher facing a lineup for the third time last season.

David Ortiz talked a little bit more about why he is retiring at the end of 2016. ... Now that they are teammates, Ortiz has called off the "war" he said he had with Price.

Red Sox Sign David Price To Highest Contract Ever Given To A Pitcher

The Red Sox have signed free agent David Price to head their 2016 rotation. Reports state that the team and Price, who turned 30 last August, have agreed on a seven-year, $217 million contract. Annual salaries: 30, 30, 30, 31, 32, 32. 32.

Ian Browne of mlb.com reports that the deal for the left-hander "is the largest contract ever awarded to a pitcher, narrowly edging out the $215 million extension Clayton Kershaw signed with the Dodgers and the $210 million pact Max Scherzer signed with the Nationals."

It appears that there is a three-year opt-out, so some SoSHers are calling this "a 3 year, $93 million deal with a player option for a 4 year, $124 million extension".

Price thought he was going to sign with the Cardinals today, but he ended up picking Boston. St. Louis' bid ended up being roughly $30 million less than the Red Sox's increased offer.

Price led the American League with a 2.45 ERA last season while pitching for the Tigers and Blue Jays. He finished fifth in fewest walks/hits allowed per inning. Price finished 2nd in Cy Young voting and 9th in MVP voting.

President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski made it quite clear he would be targeting a bullpen arm, a fourth outfielder, and an rotation ace during the off-season. ... And what do we have? Craig Kimbrel, Chris Young, and Price. ... I love it when a plan comes together.

Keith Law, ESPN:

The Red Sox had one overarching need this winter, and it wasn't a closer – it was a legitimate top-of-the-rotation, difference-making starter, preferably one with some history of durability. There were two such pitchers available, and the Red Sox landed the one who doesn't require them to give up their first-round draft pick.

David Price is an ace, regardless of what you may have heard about his performances in October; his regular-season body of work tells an accurate story. He's a five-win starter who has reached 200 innings in five of six full seasons as a big leaguer, who hasn't posted an ERA above 3.50 in any of those seasons, and who may very well have been the best starter in the American League in 2015. The Red Sox get him at the peak of his career, with no immediate warning signs that he's going to slide any time soon.

Bob Montgomery's Helmet Hat, SoSH:

So we got arguably one of the top 3 starters in baseball and one of the top 3 closers in baseball without parting with Bogaerts, Betts, Swihart, Edro, Moncada, Benintendi, Devers, or Espinosa. I absolutely love this, crazy money notwithstanding.