Wednesday Links: Welcome to October

The 2014 MLB postseason kicked off with a bang on Tuesday night, as the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals battled for 12 innings in the win or go home American League Wild Card game. On paper, the winner take all contest appeared to favor pitching, as both...

Rivalry Redirect

From our inception as Boston Red Sox fans, we have been taught to despise the New York Yankees, to hate anything and anyone associated with them, to worship arguably the greatest rivalry in sports. After so much anguish at their hands – 1978, the 1999 ALCS, the...

Ghosts Of Red Sox Past: The 2013 Playoffs

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but the Red Sox have undergone a tremendous amount of change over the past few years. Sure, some mainstays like David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and Jacoby Ellsbury have defined the core of this team. Yet by my count,...

My 2013 All-Star Ballot

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is one of my favorite mile markers of the summer. I’m not talking about a horrendous “Celebrity” Softball game, or the even more unbearable Home Run Derby. I mean the actual baseball game, and nothing else. I...

The Advanced Scout – Oakland Athletics

After losing two of three to the Royals during an emotional weekend, the Boston Red Sox (12-6, leading the AL East by 1.5 games) welcome the Oakland Athletics (12-7, .5 games behind in the AL West) to Fenway Park for a three-game series. (Please note the changes to...

Know Thy Enemy 2013: Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay Rays 2013 Season Preview As you may recall, it began on June 5, 2008. The night prior, Coco Crisp had slid questionably hard into the knees of Rays’ second baseman Akinori Iwamura. Words were exchanged, but the teams shortly thereafter went about their...

Jackie Bradley Jr.: Different, But Good

For the better part of the past decade, the Red Sox have allowed three players to roam center field: Johnny Damon, Coco Crisp and Jacoby Ellsbury. Damon finished his career as one of the better Red Sox players of the 2000s: a postseason hero blessed with tremendous...

The Advanced Scout – Oakland Athletics

After getting swept by the Angels, the Boston Red Sox (62-70, 14 games back in the AL East) travel north on their final West Coast trip of the season to take on the Oakland Athletics (73-57, 4 games back in the AL West). The Athletics are 8-2 in their last 10 and have...

The Advanced Scout – Oakland Athletics

Having earned a split against the surprisingly tough Seattle Mariners, the Boston Red Sox (42-37, 6-4 in the last 10 games) travel to Oakland for a three-game set against the Athletics (38-42, 4-6 in the last 10 games). Billy Beane has always loved young pitchers and...

Cafardo Mailbag: The Let’s Play A-Gon in CF Edition

<a title=" If you think playing A-Gon in center is a crazy idea, you’ll love the first question in today’s Cafardo mailbag… Has any thought been given to moving Middlebrooks to shortstop (his original position) upon the return of Youkilis to...