It’s December 31.
That means that Fire Brand has hit its fourth-year anniversary and it comes on the heels of what was by all designs a grand year for the Red Sox and a grand year for Boston.
Boston put itself squarely on the map as the current capital of the sports world with successes in baseball, basketball, football and soccer and brought home a second World Series title in four years (and if I may be presumptuous, four Super Bowls in seven years and a NBA title).
Along the same vein, MVN has made tremendous strides over the past year and we’ve got some great things planned for 2008 that we can’t wait for. MVN’s undergone quite a bit of layout changes and URL changes, but the one constant has been Fire Brand. We here at Fire Brand strive to present our opinions and analysis in a reasoned and thought-out manner consistently for readers to then analyze and promote discussion.
I’ve always thought that Fire Brand is a great place to talk Sox: It’s a focused, intelligent place with a large number of “Fire Branders” that help advance the discussion. Other Red Sox sites are fantastic and do some things better than we do; comedy, general observations… but for day-in and day-out analysis, I’m proud to say that I believe we have all made Fire Brand that destination.
I thank you all for taking the time (for some of you, every hour and for others just once in Fire Brand’s lifetime) to read Fire Brand, whether it was for one article three years ago and you have never returned to the ones that are constantly in the comments. I’m always glad when I give Fire Brand readers the opportunity to win something: Mike Onorato won the $100 NFL gift card for his idea of the Red Sox re-acquiring Hanley Ramirez.
So again and forever: Thank you.
Now, to unveil the 2008 Fire Brand of the Year award. Here’s a quick recap:
The Fire Brand of the American League is a Red Sox player who exhibits character under pressure, an unassuming man who leaves the spotlight for other people but makes his indelible mark on the past season
Loading ...
I can’t wait for Sean O’s response.
I’m just saying that I saw Sean O coming out of a gun shop with a very long box in his hand. I thought it was weird that he was wearing a ski mask at the time.
Evan, what kind of security you have around ya’?
Congrats Mikey! I completely agree with the choice, and I think the extension was a pretty nice reward. Hopefully Lowell will live up to his end of the bargain, and defy Voros McCracken’s BABIP genius.
I get the feeling Dustin’s will come sometime soon, too. In fact, I’ll make that prediction right now: Pedroia wins the 2009 Fire Brand.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Kudos on your choice. Pedroia had a great year, but Lowell was the glue that kept us together all year long.
Great call. We love you Mikey
Congratulations to Mike Lowell and to Fire Brand for an excellent choice!
I’ve been a Red Sox fan since 1950 and have NEVER been this excited about the team during “Hot Stove” season. A great part of that exceitement is due to Lowell and his extension. GO RED SOX!
One suggestion for Fire Brand: if you really want to succeed beyond this anniversary (and I’m sure you do, and I’m hoping that you do), take a refresher course on English Grammar or hire an editor or at least a proof reader. If you already have one or both, fire him/her/ them and hire competent new ones.
Haha, yeah, we’ll see what Sean O says. But keep in mind his beef is with the extension, not the 2007 Mike Lowell…
I’m not happy, since Lowell is horribly overrated in every facet of his game, but whatever. Beckett and Ortiz were far more valuable consistently throughout the season, and Dustin is far more of a sparkplug who will help us infinitely more in ‘08 than Lowell (and wasn’t far behind this year), and Papelbon was light years more interesting and shutdown.
It’s ok, no freakout ’til April. I officially blame everything that goes wrong with this team this year on Mike Lowell, so it’s nice having co-scapegoats in Lugo and Lowell. $21m of nothin’!
Picking the top kudo on this WS champion team with ROY, next year’s ROY, next year’s Cy Young (shoulda been a repeat), WS MVP, a team full of All-Stars, and dozens of other awards . . . your choice is a good one. Whether or not Mike’s incredible 2007 season was a one-time thing, it was an awesome one time thing, consistent from April through October, and drove us through the season, through ALCS and past the Rockies. Mike’s future? Who can doubt he will hit .300+ with plenty of HR/RBI’s and a solid glove throughout his contract. If Mike, like so many of us, is a late bloomer on a winning team, so much the better for us. Go Mike.
“Who can doubt he will hit .300+ with plenty of HR/RBI
If I were a betting man I’d have bet all my money that PedRoYa would walk away with the 2007 Fire Brand of the Year. That shows how much I know.
I would have picked Papi or Beckett, but thats just my personal opinion.
Happy 4th Firebrand! I’m glad I discovered this site prior to this season, it was quite the wild ride.
I think everybody knows that my vote would have gone to Jonathan Papelbon. I’m still sporting a papelboner from the World Series and I doubt it’s going to go away anytime soon!
That being said, see everybody in February!
I’d hate to feed the fire before I disappear until spring training, but Sean O…you’ve got a lot riding on how well Mikey does next season. Why can’t you suck up your pride and hope he does well otherwise we’re screwed out of a lot of money and an old man just taking up space at third.
Support your boys, especially the one that brought the Sox to the playoffs…and don’t say he didn’t. This year belongs to Mike Lowell aka the one who stuck around while Manny took a vacation.
Speaking of which, how did Manny get a free pass for being…for being Manny again? I can’t believe he didn’t get 500 homers this season, what a joke.
Now I’m out. Peace!
I don’t understand people who trash Manny, but support Lowell. What about Lowell quitting on his team in 2005? Or the second half of 2006? Hell, what about Lowell taking a vacation in the second half of every season he’s ever had except 2007?
Manny has been a machine for us ever since he stepped onto the field. Lowell is an overrated average third baseman making a ridiculous sum of money for his production. The stathead side of me hates it, the economic side of me hates it, and the fan side of me hates the wait for him to collapse.
Lowell is a career .280/.344/.468 hitter playing a position which averages .266/.334/.427. He amasses most of those ABs in a far easier league, and he will be 34 on opening day. And our front office seems to continually ignore all logic, just like they did with E6gar and Lugo before him.
I hope he does well, but he very clearly will not, because he’s not that good.
I don’t think “quitting” is the right word Sean, but other than that, spot on.
I’m not pleased with his extension, but I’m not in an uproar over it.
I’m sure Theo did due diligence to find the best option and once he exhausted other options he went to Lowell.
Wonder who we’ll get for Coco.
Hypothetical – Would the AL East Be More Difficult for Santana?
http://www.modernrooters.blogspot.com/
The AL east will definitely be more difficult, but he’s still Johan freaking Santana. In the end he’d be fine pitching anywhere.
As for “quitting”, people say all the time that Manny quits on his team in August and September, while nobody seems to notice or care that Lowell can’t hit after the ASB. He has had one season since 2000 where he’s hit within .075 OPS points of his first half in the second half, and that was 2007. In years like 2000, it’s a total collapse.
And we couldn’t wait to bring him back, on the strength of one good year. He better be a damn fine defensive player to make this contract even half worth it in the end. What upside are we expecting? Is $11-$12m a year worth it for a .290/.350/.480 hitter?
Maybe not. But a 290 hitter with 20HR and 100RBI and a good glove is hard to find . . . and he worked hard through October. In 2007, he was to 3B and the lineup what Oki was for the bullpen. Let’s hope their numbers are remotely close for 2008. We will know in a few months.
Is 20M a year plus Lester/Masterson/Lowrie worth it for a 29 year old pitcher with alot of innings on his arm, and a W-L record not as good as Becket, Dice-K and Wakefield; and an ERA higher than half our rotation? And he will have a tougher time in the AL?
Maybe, with our team, Johan will win 23 games with a 3.2 ERA, but he has never done that.
Maybe Mikey, who just had one of the best years of his life, might have another one. Meanwhile, we can assume that Manny will have a great year, and hope he will be around for a couple of more.
Let’s also assume Lester will win 15, Dice-K maybe 20, Ellsbury and Pedroia will prove 2007 was no fluke, Papie will come back stronger; and maybe the Captain will hit 20HR, and JD, MDC, Javy and Breslow will blossom.
What a great team. What a great feeling. This is so much better than wondering when we will blow the season.