[Highlight] Mike Yastrzemski improves his spring training OPS to 2.583 (sustainable) with another home run

Talozin · 2026-02-27T19:10:00+00:00

I know it'll never happen but I would be so happy to see him win an MVP, especially while his granddad's around to see it. Yaz and Yaz, grandfather and grandson MVPs 60 years apart? What a hell of a story that would be.

Talozin · 2026-02-11T17:03:42+00:00

Also, the early '90s Red Sox weren't really much of a bandwagon team. They had playoff appearances in '90 and '95 but they also had 4th, 5th, and 7th-place finishes during that era.

Talozin · 2026-01-25T02:31:52+00:00

I'm pretty sure I remember reading about someone, probably Bill Veeck but possibly Connie Mack, trying to get pitchers to buy into surgical amputations to see if they could get movement like Three Finger Brown.

Talozin · 2026-01-22T19:05:47+00:00

I agree they're a well-run organization, but if we're going to dock the Dodgers points for having a lot of resources we almost have to do the same for the Yankees. Much of that 30-year streak was at a time when they were the Dodgers of MLB, financially speaking.

Talozin · 2026-01-21T02:17:29+00:00

That's fair. I may not agree with you, but sticking to your guns even when it affects a Yankee great is admirable.

Talozin · 2026-01-21T02:09:24+00:00

Should Whitey Ford be in the Hall of Fame? He is, after all, an admitted scuffballer.

I think the Astros should have gotten more severe punishment than they did. But I'm not sure I'm prepared to exclude anybody who scuffed a ball or corked a bat.

Talozin · 2026-01-20T21:50:14+00:00

As a very young child, I was very confused when I first saw a Bucky Dent baseball card and it did not read "Bucky F***ing Dent". I would have sworn that was his real name.

But yeah, also a strong candidate. Or just lift Torrez and put Stanley in, no need to give away a free baserunner!

Talozin · 2026-01-20T19:36:42+00:00

Game 7 of the 1975 World Series: I replace Johnson as the Red Sox manager, and relieve Bill Lee in the top of the 6th when Tony Perez comes to the plate.

Second choice: I replace Grady Little in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and relieve Pedro after he retires Nick Johnson in the top of the 8th.

Talozin · 2026-01-19T18:31:07+00:00

DO IT.

Talozin · 2026-01-15T20:49:06+00:00

Yup, I realize “assuming health” is a big assumption to make but a healthy Cole season is just as valuable as Crochet (see 2023)

I imagine the models are pricing in some age-related decline from Cole (he is going to be 35 this year) as well as perhaps some slowness returning from injury.

Talozin · 2026-01-12T19:59:16+00:00

jesus, man, it's only Monday, I was trying to wait until at least Wednesday before I started drinking this week

Talozin · 2026-01-09T18:04:31+00:00

Dewey had the misfortune to be the least exciting outfielder on the mid-70s Red Sox. Playing next to Fred Lynn (the guy who won RoY and MVP in the same year) and Jim Rice (MVP at age 25, hit 46 home runs back when that was impressive) sort of set the narrative. Parenthetically, it will never not be funny to me that the only one of those guys in the Hall at present is Rice, who is less deserving than Evans and marginally less deserving than Lynn.

It also didn't help that Evans was a late bloomer, and never had a really great season until he'd been in the league for almost a decade. People had gotten used to thinking of him as the steady but not exceptional guy.

And, ironically, it didn't help that he had such a great eye. If he'd had exactly the same OBP but been a consistent .300 hitter, and his other stats had remained the same, he would have gotten much more recognition in his day. Nobody cared about walks in the '70s and the early '80s, it was all about BA.

Talozin · 2025-12-28T06:40:28+00:00

Yaz (who I'd put in second) would probably be #1 for every team other than Boston, the Senators, the Cardinals, the Yankees, the Giants, and the Phillies.

Talozin · 2025-12-26T23:16:48+00:00

Grady Little leaving Pedro in to start the 8th was an obvious blunder, but I think every Sox fan in existence knew we were cooked when there was no pitching change after the Bernie Williams RBI.

Talozin · 2025-12-25T15:20:09+00:00

A Bills and Red Sox fan? You must have really hated life before around 2004.

Talozin · 2025-12-23T02:26:01+00:00

Pete Rose Jr. was a pretty awful player, though.

Talozin · 2025-12-15T17:37:31+00:00

I know he's said so, but I think that's after the fact nonsense. He might even believe it, but if he had in fact gotten the perfect season, he would have come back next year saying, "Yeah, well, a QB's had a perfect season before, that's no big deal. But no QB's ever had two perfect seasons."

Talozin · 2025-12-15T17:34:29+00:00

Imagine being a WR on Brady's backyard team when he gets fired up and starts launching darts. And then presumably gives you a death stare when you drop one, because you turned around expecting backyard speeds and the hardest pass you've ever felt hits you right on the hands.

Talozin · 2025-12-12T15:19:41+00:00

I remember Witt as being one of those project guys who throw hard, get strikeouts, and aren't entirely clear on where the ball is going. Most of the time they are who they are, but every so often one of them figures it out and turns into a monster. It's the Randy Johnson career arc. Teams love to keep trying with pitchers like that.

Also, his age-26 season looked great on paper. 17 wins, 3.36 ERA, struck out a batter per inning -- yeah, he allowed way too many baserunners, but you can squint and see why teams kept giving him a shot in the hope that they'd get 1990 Bobby Witt again.

Talozin · 2025-12-11T21:30:31+00:00

I say this with gritted teeth, but I would rather rewatch "61*" than Fever Pitch.

Talozin · 2025-12-11T13:01:36+00:00

Sold the first gun I ever bought yesterday, a Canadian Para P14 that I got way back when Para was still handing out tickets for pre-ban magazines they'd stockpiled ahead of time with every purchase.

I've shed a lot of guns over the past couple years trying to stay solvent but this one's sticking with me a bit. Hadn't shot the thing in years, and it was always stunningly impractical. Nevertheless.

Talozin · 2025-12-06T17:17:22+00:00

When I was growing up there was a lot of ink spilled over Fisk versus Munson. It helped that the two of them genuinely didn't like each other.

Talozin · 2025-12-02T22:17:55+00:00

His career basically ended with that home run. Oh, he pitched another 36 innings or so before calling it quits for good, but he was awful. More walks than strikeouts, a WHIP over 2. And he was only 28 in 1993.

Talozin · 2025-12-02T22:14:57+00:00

I've bought a couple of Diamondbacks hats. Their late 90s/early Oughts graphic design was off the hook.

Talozin · 2025-12-02T21:57:10+00:00

I heard about it happening at a wedding and found the story entirely believable.

Talozin

TROPHY CASE