Author: Lefty

2016 Red Sox Roster Preview: Outfielders

Posted on April 5, 2016 in Players
red sox outfielders

Your 2016 Boston Red Sox starting outfield. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

The Starters

Left Field

Brock Holt

2015: 129 games (58 at 2B, 33 at 3B, 20 at RF, 8 at LF, 7 at SS, 5 at 1B, 2 at CF, 1 at DH), .280/.349/.379, 2 HRs, 8 SBs (1 CS), made 1st All-Star Game.

The Brock Star’s propensity for excellent production before the All-Star break and a precipitous decline afterwards carried itself to its logical conclusion last year. He earned an I-shit-you-not All-Star nod on the strength of his utility player heroics and .791 OPS, and then not-unexpectedly crashed down to Earth with a very pedestrian .653 OPS the rest of the way.

I guess what I’m saying is that you could do much worse than Holt as an opening day left fielder, but he’s probably better suited to fill in at other spots once injuries inevitably come into play. And that means a certain 27-year-old Cuban would-be phenom is going to have to step up.

Center Field

Jackie Bradley, Jr.

2015: 74 games (32 at RF, 27 at CF, 17 at LF), .249/.335/.498, 10 HRs, 3 SBs (0 CS)

That’s right, it’s everyone’s favorite mercurially talented outfielder, hopefully ready to finally lay claim to his rightful everyday spot in Boston’s outfield. When he’s not making catches at the wall look routine or throwing the ball from home plate over the center field wall for kicks and giggles, he could either be found going 5 for 40 (see May through July) or looking like Willie Mays’ secret mutant son (see August). This is a guy who had 55 hits last year, and most of them were for extra bases. So yeah. He could be pretty good.

Right Field

Mookie Betts

2015: 145 games (133 at CF, 11 at RF, 1 at DH), .291/.341/.479, 18 HRs, 21 SBs (6 CS), 19th in MVP voting.

Mookie slashed his way into the hearts and minds of Sox fans last year despite the team’s dreadful overall performance. He’s one of maybe 2 or 3 players that I think of as untouchable (in terms of trade discussions), and it’s as much for his bat as for stuff like this:

via GIPHY

Yeah, he’s tremendous. If both he and Bradley can come close to their performances at the plate in the 2nd half of 2015 – well, that would probably be too much to hope for, but it would be amazing. And it’s hard not to feel good about Betts in right field. He’s already proven that he’s more than capable of handling center, and it’s no slight against him that Bradley is a better fit for center field. Mookie is an incredible athlete, but he’s also a converted second baseman. And JBJ is a savant.

The Bench

Rusney Castillo

2015: 75 games (48 at RF, 24 at LF, 6 at CF, 2 at DH), .253/.288/.359, 5 HRs, 4 SBs (5 CS)

Not a super showing for Rusney last year, and that performance combined with his struggles this spring have led to Brock Holt starting in left field. So far, he can’t really run, he doesn’t walk, he doesn’t slug, he doesn’t hit for average, he plays okay defense, and he’s 28 years old. I’d say it’s now or never, except that the Sox are due to pay him $11 million a year for the next 4 years. Oh boy.

Chris Young

2015: 140 games (76 at RF, 55 at LF, 15 at CF, 2 at DH), .252/.320/.453, 14 HRs, 3 SBs (1 CS)

A Yankee last year, Young is a pretty durable guy, having played at least 100 games every year since 2007. He was an All-Star in 2010 for Arizona, and hey, you know, he’s pretty good. He had the 5th best fielding percentage among AL outfielders last year. You could do much, MUCH worse than Young as a backup outfielder. And we have (see Craig, Allen).

Stay tuned for more roster analysis over the next couple days as we scratch and claw to make this blog look respectable.

Lefty and Righty are Back for 2016!

Posted on March 28, 2016 in Random Stuff

Well, at least Brock is happy to see us again. (Boston Herald/Matt Stone)

Welp. We may have dropped the ball a little bit over the offseason. Fortunately for us, we have a readership of almost zero, so no harm done, really. But hey, it’s baseball season again, and that means literally months of slogging through the middle innings of games that are already hopelessly out of reach. FEEL THE EXCITEMENT.

In all seriousness, though, this year’s version of the Red Sox can’t possibly be worse than the 2015 edition (right?). So Lefty and Righty are back to bring you all the Red Sox analysis you can handle, and if last year’s output is any indication, probably much more than you would ever actually want. But wait! Can you expect changes from Lefty and Righty this year? Maybe! Changes may include:

  • A shift away from game-by-game recaps. I know, you’re pretty broken up that we won’t be delving into the minutiae of every single Red Sox game this season. How will you cope? But this means more time to think about the content we want to post and less of me waking up at 3:15 in the morning slouched over my laptop. It’s a win-win. Look for posts for each series instead of every game from now on.
  • We’ll pay you to read our website! Just kidding. I’m actually not even sure that would work.
  • More roster analysis. Especially because Boston’s success this year is going to have a lot to do with its roster construction.
  • Less Don Orsillo. Sigh.
  • More Rich Hill analysis. Yes, I know he’s on the A’s now. But I’ve been saying that the Sox were idiots all winter not to re-sign him, and he’s gone ahead and walked 12 batters and given up 10 hits over 7 and 2/3 innings in spring training, and I need to find out if I’m an idiot or what.
  • More blogs about other Boston teams. The Celtics are super fun to watch, the Bruins are going to make the playoffs, and the NFL Draft is coming up. So you can, at the very least, expect us to deliver some uninformed content about the hockey playoffs.

In terms of what you can expect over the next week, we’ll break down the roster once it’s been finalized, and we’ll have a preview of Boston’s first series of the season, a 3-game trip to Cleveland. And then we just write a few more posts, bingo bango, we’re famous. Should be fun!

Mets Win NLCS, Prove Back to the Future II Wrong

Posted on October 22, 2015 in Game Recap

Him? What, is he funny or something? (Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports)

Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets, Mets win series 4-0

Game 4: Jason Hammel (CHC) vs. Steven Matz (NYM) – New York 8, Chicago 3

There’s not much to say for the Chicago Cubs. They were doomed from the start. Or, more accurately, they were doomed AT the start, because they started Jason Hammel. I feel for the guy, but after a frisky April-to-June stretch, he was downright bad from July on. Why? I’m sure that there’s a litany of reasons, but his lousy performance in the 1st inning was risk factor #1.

For the duration of 2015, Hammel’s 1st-inning ERA was 5.23, and he allowed batters faced in the first frame to rack up a .921 OPS. In all other innings, he put up a respectable ERA of 3.42. And his OPS against was all the way down at .664. Does he take a while to get going? Does he just have trouble against the top part of a lineup the first time through? You tell me, but the Cubs paid for Hammel’s deficiencies last night, no matter the cause.

The game was effectively over in the top of the 1st. Hammel gave up a single to Curtis Granderson and a 2-out walk to Yoenis Cespedes to bring Lucas Duda to the plate, and Duda made him pay.

Before Cubs fans could pick themselves up off the floor, Travis d’Arnaud took Hammel deep again to make it 4-0.

The Cubs pulled Hammel after he walked David Wright with 1 out, and the Mets added two more runs against Travis Wood on an RBI double by Duda. Chicago, meanwhile, didn’t record its first hit until the 4th inning, when a Jorge Soler double started the Cubs’ first attempt at a rally on the night. The bases were eventually loaded with no outs, but only Soler scored. 6-1, Mets.

Just when things couldn’t get worse for Chicago, Daniel Murphy remembered that he had history to make.

Kris Bryant also hit a 2-run shot in the 8th inning to bring the deficit back to 5 runs, but people didn’t seem to care as much about his as they did about Murphy’s.

This was now all a lie:

And that’s a darn shame. Mets win, 8-3, and advance to the World Series.

Toronto Blue Jays vs. Kansas City Royals, Royals lead series 3-2

Next game: Tomorrow, Friday, 8:07 ET, in Kansas City. David Price (TOR) vs. Yordano Ventura (KC)

Lightning Recap: Blue Jays Take Must-Win Game 3

Posted on October 20, 2015 in Game Recap, Random Stuff
blue jays take must-win game 3

It looks like Kris was Medlen with the wrong guy. Sorry. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

Toronto Blue Jays vs. Kansas City Royals, Royals lead series 2-1

Game 3: Marcus Stroman (TOR) vs. Johnny Cueto (KC) – Toronto 11, Kansas City 8

In what amounted to a must-win game (they’d have been down 3-0 in the ALCS with a loss), Toronto’s sluggers finally delivered after scoring a combined 3 runs in the series’ first two games.

Neither starter was sharp, but Cueto had an especially forgettable performance, lapsing into a reenactment of his late August/early September blues. By the time the bottom of the third came around, Stroman and Cueto had already surrendered 8 combined hits, and the score was 3-2, Toronto. But Cueto chose this moment to completely fall to pieces.

He gave up a leadoff single to Edwin Encarnacion and walked Chris Colabello on four pitches before paying dearly for those mistakes on a high fastball that Troy Tulowitzki took deep to center for a 3-run home run.

Cueto apparently later complained that the Blue Jays were stealing signs (a familiar storyline in Toronto), but got no sympathy from teammate Edinson Volquez, who said, “Johnny said [that] last night, but that’s your fault. You’ve got to hide the ball and have better communication with the catcher giving you signs when you’re pitching.”

Anyway, the bad times kept rolling for Cueto, who gave up a walk and an RBI double before getting pulled for Kris Medlen, who got 2 outs before giving up an absolute BOMB on a breaking ball to Josh Donaldson.

With a 9-2 lead, Stroman could coast a bit, and he did, giving 2 runs back in the top of the 5th before Ryan Goins gave the lead another boost with a solo shot in the bottom half of the inning.

Tulowitzki struck out in the bottom of the 7th and was thrown out of the game in bizarre fashion for arguing balls and strikes as he came out to play defense in the top of the 8th.

The Royals actually made it look closer than it was with a 4-run 9th inning that included a 2-run shot by Kendrys Morales off closer Roberto Osuna.

But it was too little, too late, and the Blue Jays get a chance to even the series at 2 wins apiece this afternoon.

Next game: Today, Tuesday, 4:07 ET, in Toronto. R.A. Dickey (TOR) vs. Chris Young (KC)

Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets

Tonight, Tuesday, 8:07 ET, in Chicago. Kyle Hendricks (CHC) vs. Jacob deGrom (NYM)