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...

The Human Howitzer

There’s a new center fielder in town. Jackie Bradley Jr., through his considerable skill set, is now entrenched in center field for the foreseeable future. Out with the (relatively) old, in with the new, as they say. Bradley, however, has a tool that seems to be...

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,...

The Advanced Scout – Los Angeles Dodgers

The moment you saw this series on the schedule, you had to know Narratives Day was coming. Well, it’s arrived. Merry Christmas, beat writers. Thankfully, I’m not here to talk the potential storylines. I love you guys enough that I’m here to talk...

What is this Felix Doubront and what do we do with it?

Sometimes I wonder why Felix Doubront isn’t held in higher regard among Red Sox fans, but then again, I’m not that surprised. After all, Doubront was signed as an international free agent in 2004 at the age of 16 – during a period in time where the Red Sox farm system...

The Red Sox and the trade deadline: What not to do edition

With all the talk about whom the Red Sox should go out and try to get at the trade deadline, there hasn’t been much discussion surrounding some of the players they should avoid. And trust me when I say – there are a lots of guys who aren’t close to worth their...

The Advanced Scout – Oakland Athletics

Your friendly neighborhood advanced scout took a day off to bask in the glory that was The Greatest Starting Pitcher In The History Of Baseball starting for a night. But I must get back to work. So. Billy Beane. Sabermetrics. A movie based ever so loosely on 2002....

The MLB Draft: The Henry Ownership Years

With the 2013 Rule 4 draft finally in the books, I thought it’d be fun to take a look back at all of the drafts that have occurred during the John Henry ownership era.  In this piece, we’ll review their successes, their failures, the trends they’ve...

A Look Back at Baseball America’s Top Red Sox Prospects in 2006

After spending a rousing afternoon playing shuffleboard, I kicked back poolside over champagne coolies with my archrival and BFF, Murray Chass, and waxed about our days writing about the game of baseball.  He expressed how his deep seeded irrational fear of back acne...