Nov 19th 2008 3:30PM by Jacob Wheatley-Schaller (author feed)
Dayton Moore’s busy offseason continued on Wednesday as he made another trade, acquiring outfielder Coco Crisp from the Red Sox in exchange for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Crisp had been on the trading block for awhile, ever since the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury in the Boston outfield. He’s a career .280 hitter, who draws a decent amount of walks, doesn’t have much power, and is a threat to run, with 20 or more stolen bases in each of the last three seasons. He had a brilliant year defensively in 2007, but was just in the years before and after; overall, it looks like he’s a slightly above average center fielder.

Crisp goes from one crowded outfield to another, as the Royals already have Mark Teahen, David DeJesus, and Jose Guillen. This move, which comes three weeks after Kansas City picked up Mike Jacobs from the Marlins, suggests that Moore has yet another transaction in mind, and that Teahen, or even DeJesus, could be traded to free up an outfield spot.

The Red Sox dealt from a strength — they still have an excellent starting outfield of Jason Bay, Jacoby Ellsbury, and J.D. Drew — and received an asset you can really never have enough of, in a quality bullpen arm. The 28-year old Ramirez has an excellent season in 2008, with a 2.84 ERA in 71.2 innings. Some of that success won’t continue though, as he allowed just two home runs despite allowing an average number of fly balls.

He was very good in other areas, notching 70 strikeouts, a rate of 8.8 per nine innings. Ramirez joins an increasingly strong Boston bullpen; Jonathan Papelbon is one of the best closers in baseball, and they now have four above average relievers to bridge the gap to him, with Ramirez, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, and Justin Masterson.

Nov 18th 2008 2:20PM by Jacob Wheatley-Schaller (author feed)
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced its final 2008 award on Tuesday, as Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia emerged from a wide open field to edge out Minnesota’s Justin Morneau.

Pedroia had a breakout season in 2007, taking AL Rookie of the Year honors, and he improved this year, with a .326 batting average, .376 on-base percentage, and 54 doubles while playing an above average second base. He received 16 first place votes, and was in the top four on every ballot except one, which strangely left him off entirely.

The top four finishers all came from the Red Sox and Twins, as Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis finished third, and Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer came in fourth. Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez finished sixth, receiving a single first place vote.

Though it wasn’t always pretty, the BBWAA ended up with entirely reasonable selections for each of the eight awards it hands out. Pedroia wasn’t head and shoulders above the competition like Albert Pujols, who won the NL MVP on Monday, but he was a deserving candidate. It’s very rare to find a second baseman who hits for a high average, draws some walks, steals bases at a high clip (20/21 on the year), and even displays some power.

Nov 18th 2008 6:45PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
The big baseball news of the day was the announcement the Dustin Pedroia was named the American League MVP. A minor footnote to that story, though, was the fact that Pedroia won despite being completely left off the ballot by one of the voters.

For what it’s worth, voters seem to be getting better at this: they rightly recognized Tim Lincecum as NL Cy Young and Albert Pujols as the NL MVP despite the fact that neither one played on a team that even resembled a playoff contender, which in the past would have disqualified as serious candidates by a lot of voters.

But on the other hand, you’re telling me there’s someone out there who actually watched the games and didn’t walk away thinking that Pedroia was one of the 10 best players in the game? That’s not quite as bad as thinking Edison Volquez was still eligible for the NL Rookie of the Year award (which three voters did), but it certainly reeks of a backlash against the Red Sox … right?Continue Reading

Nov 16th 2008 6:00PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
The Manny Ramirez Saga from last season was one of the bigger storylines enveloping baseball for the latter half of the season. Manny wanted a trade and refused to play and eventually the Red Sox acquiesced and sent him to Los Angeles for 50 cents on the dollar.

But it turns out that there’s a little more to the story; in fact, the Red Sox had planned on suspending Manny just a week before dealing him out to the West Coast.
According to multiple sources, Boston management had drafted an official letter of suspension for Ramirez, and delivered it to him at Fenway Park at around 11 p.m. on Friday night, July 25. For the second straight game, Ramirez had refused to play that evening, and the Red Sox lost 1-0 to the rival New York Yankees in front of a boisterous and sold-out home crowd.

The letter informed Ramirez that the suspension was to go into effect the next day, Saturday, July 26. It said Ramirez was being suspended without pay for being unwilling to play. Copies of the letter were also sent to Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association and Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras.
Now, this is a pretty strong step/statement/what-have-you, and you’re probably wondering why we never heard about this during the season. Well — your good thought process aside — I was wondering the same thing. Turns out that the Sox got two calls right after delivering the letter. One was from an unnamed player on the team and the other was from Manny, both saying that Ramirez would suit up the following day.Continue Reading

Nov 16th 2008 10:48PM by B (author feed)
Great, now we’re getting to that point in the offseason where every news update is about how the Yankees are “interested in” the big free agents and how some guy from some network interviewed them and they totally said they’d love to play for the Yankees, and on and on and blah blah blah. We’ve been doing this comic long enough to know the two great truths about the Yankees, and they are presented to you in chatroom form below.

Have the Yankees considered getting new uniforms? It works for everybody else. Maybe they can get a mascot. Make him a vague, shaggy grey thing named “OPS the Dog!”

Tonight’s giant-sized Dugout is after the jump.Continue Reading

Nov 13th 2008 9:00AM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)

The Red Sox may have fallen short of the Rays in the AL East and in the ALCS in 2008, but despite the frustrating end to their season, they actually proved something quite significant and positive. The team that was once known mostly for a championship drought that spanned eight decades is now known as the premier franchise in baseball.

Boston has won the World Series twice since 2004 and been to the ALCS in four of the last six seasons. Perhaps more importantly, GM Theo Epstein has proven deft at mixing in new talent — at providing stability while also keeping the roster fresh and young. Indeed, the Red Sox have won two championships with two almost entirely different groups of players.

That’s going to be more important than ever going forward. The AL East has become a cruel beast and Tampa Bay, not Boston, has suddenly become the young, deep power in the division. With the Yankees looming as well, Epstein is going to have to keep working his magic. Get younger, Theo. Get better. Oh, and be a perennial World Series contender while you’re at it.Continue Reading

Nov 12th 2008 8:50PM by Eamonn Brennan (author feed)
For the most part, the Red Sox and their players have been mum on the big, 800-pound dreadlocked elephant in the room: Manny Ramirez’s ugly midseason departure. Few have talked out of turn. “Few”, unfortunately, does not include Curt Schilling, who of course felt it necessary to offer his opinion. Curt’s like that when he gets in front of a Wordpress dashboard.

Among the quiet ones has been Manny’s friend, or former friend, David Ortiz. No more. Ortiz broke his silence today to WEEI in Boston: Ortiz said he urged Ramirez to get along with the front office, his teammates and the media.
“Everything started one day that I told Manny: ‘Hey look, look at the numbers that you have put up your whole career, and you have never been able to win an MVP, there’s a reason why,’” Ortiz said. “And the media is our family.” He urged Ramirez to “pull yourself together and start getting connected with the media because that’s how you express your feelings and people get to know more and Manny’s good things, that people don’t know about Manny. And he agreed with me.”
Obviously, that didn’t happen, and now Manny is a man without a country — no longer a Red Sox, no longer a Dodger; merely one of Scott Boras’ minions. See what happens when you don’t listen to David Ortiz, kids?*

Nov 10th 2008 12:35PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
Over the last few weeks Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia has been hearing rumors that he may end up being traded to the Boston Red Sox this winter. The Rangers are rather crowded behind the plate, as they also have Gerald Laird and Taylor Teagarden, and a trade of one of them would make sense.

Well, while nothing is set in stone as to which one the Rangers are going to trade, that hasn’t stopped Jarrod from sharing his feelings on the situation. He’s not exactly trying to hide the sheer excitement he feels when he pictures himself in a Red Sox uniform.”That would be a dream come true,” said Saltalamacchia, 23. “I’d love to go there and either work under Jason [Varitek] for a year or two or just go there and catch full-time.

“I love watching Jason. He’s like an idol of mine. I watch him and I learn from him and I’d love to be able to spend time with him. I saw him this year and we talked for a while and I learned so much from him in the short time we had.”Jarrod also goes on to say he’d welcome the trade because it would give him a chance to catch more often than he does in Texas. Of course, I’m not sure Jarrod realizes that if the Red Sox trade for him and also re-sign Varitek, they’ll have three catchers as well. Well, unless Jarrod can show he knows how to catch a knuckleball and the team parts ways with Kevin Cash, which I don’t see happening.

Nov 5th 2008 12:33PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
Since the Boston Red Sox season came to an end a few weeks ago, one of the main stories of their offseason has been the free agency of Jason Varitek. It’s not known whether or not the Red Sox captain will return to the team next year, or whether he’ll be handling the pitching staff of another team like the Detroit Tigers.

In my opinion the move for Varitek that would make the most sense would be to sign a one-year deal to stay in Boston, and to keep doing so until he finally feels it’s time to hang up his mask. Unfortunately Jason’s agent is Scott Boras, and doing things that make sense is seldom part of his modus operandi. No, instead of a one-year deal, Boras thinks his soon to be 37-year old catcher deserves a four-year deal.Continue Reading

Nov 3rd 2008 2:30PM by Josh Alper (author feed)
John McCain and Barack Obama are shuttling across the country today, trying to close the deal on an election that’s coming to an end after what feels like a decade of campaigning. In a couple of swing states, they’re getting help from baseball players who are trying to use their popularity to try and rally votes in their candidate’s direction.

Curt Schilling is putting his New England cred to use by stumping for John McCain in New Hampshire. He compared Obama’s edge in money and polling to the one held by the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.
“The size of the payroll has nothing to do with the heart and talent of the team. They’d have you believe that we’re down 3-0, but let me tell you I have a little bit of experience with that and it doesn’t mean anything.”
Not to be outdone, Jimmy Rollins, a pretty popular guy in parts of Pennsylvania these days, is throwing his support behind Obama.Continue Reading