by chipbuck | Jan 20, 2012 | Alfredo Aceves, Boston Red Sox, Carl Crawford, Daniel Bard, David Ortiz
If you heard a loud thumping noise a few minutes ago, that wasn’t your imagination. It was me bashing my head against the desk as I was reading Dan Shaughnessy’s latest opus. Like all Shaughnessy articles, he channels his most emotional nerves to...
by guest | Jan 9, 2012 | Clay Buchholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Josh Beckett
This guest post was written by David Schubert of Sabeanmetrics and Curse of Benitez, blogs about the San Francisco Giants. This is his first guest post for Fire Brand of the American League. One of my favorite things about humans is the innate, relentless drive to...
by chipbuck | Dec 16, 2011 | Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Kevin Youkilis, Luxury Tax
On Wednesday, I discussed the Red Sox current payroll situation, and explained the club’s motives for avoiding long-term commitments with big named free agents this winter. With the team having already exceeded the luxury tax threshold in 2010 and 2011,...
by charliesap | Dec 13, 2011 | Adrian Gonzalez, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis
Every year thousands upon thousands of baseball fans await the unveiling of Bill James’ projections. Thanks to the great and free information at FanGraphs, we are able to view these projections at no cost. In part one, we’ll take a look at the 2012...
by chipbuck | Dec 7, 2011 | Andrew Bailey, Boston Red Sox, Daniel Bard, David Ortiz, Hiroki Kuroda, Josh Willingham
Some people feel that baseball’s winter meetings are an overblown festivity, but I couldn’t disagree more. For a hot stove junkie like myself, the winter meetings are like an early Christmas present. Rumors, mystery teams, big contracts, quotes from GMs,...
by charliesap | Dec 6, 2011 | Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz
The winter meetings are underway and the offseason action is picking up. One of the possible targets of the Red Sox, Heath Bell, has already signed and those that were hoping to see Jose Reyes in Beantown are out of luck. However, there is hope that one of...
by charliesap | Nov 29, 2011 | Adrian Gonzalez, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis
Aging designated hitters haven’t been striking it rich (relatively speaking, of course) in the free agent market over the last few years. Last offseason, Vladimir Guerrero, who had hit .300/.345/.496 with 29 home runs that summer, could not find a team willing...
by guest | Nov 16, 2011 | Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis
This guest post was written by Matt Collins of Red Stockings Thoughts, a blog about the Red Sox. This is his second guest post for Fire Brand of the American League. He is perhaps most well-known for his insane ability to get on base, but Kevin Youkilis has been an...
by chipbuck | Nov 15, 2011 | Alfredo Aceves, Barry Zito, Bobby Valentine, Carlos Beltran, David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jed Lowrie, John Lackey, Jonathan Papelbon, Jonathan Sanchez, Josh Reddick, Kevin Youkilis, Lars Anderson, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Nick Cafardo Mail Bag, Ryan Kalish, Ryan Lavarnway, Tim Lincecum
To those of you who read Nick Cafardo regularly, this will come as no surprise to you. Mr. Cafardo has a giant non-sexual man crush on Bobby Valentine. Just huge. Massive. At times, the gushing is unbarable to the point of being a bit embarrassing. Still, Cafardo...
by chipbuck | Nov 11, 2011 | Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon
If you were banking on the Red Sox making a big splash this winter by chasing after the cream of this year’s free agent crop, you might want to readjust your expectations. According to new General Manager, Ben Cherington, that won’t be the case. Brian...
