If the Red Sox make the playoffs…
Posted by Andy on July 15, 2010
...remember today. Due to injury they are forced to start Daniel Nava in LF, Eric Patterson at 2B, Bill Hall at 3B, and Kevin Cash at C. Whoa.
Posted by Andy on July 15, 2010
...remember today. Due to injury they are forced to start Daniel Nava in LF, Eric Patterson at 2B, Bill Hall at 3B, and Kevin Cash at C. Whoa.
July 15th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Are the Red Sox the only team in baseball w/ injuries???
July 15th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
No but few teams miss 4 starting position players including 3 all-stars
July 15th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
so what?
July 15th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Sounds a lot like the Phillies of this year. They've also had subs at 2B, 3B, and C at the same time. Their outfielders have not lost significant time due to injury (much to Domonic Brown's chagrin, I'm sure), but all three of them have been in slumps that has led to temporary benching. (Plus LF Raul Ibanez saw some DH time during interleague play.)
Do the Red Sox play the Twins any time soon? If so and if Daniel Nava gets to bat against Brian Duensing, it will involve a batter hitting against a pitcher born on the same date (same year). A couple of years ago, after I did an all-time team of players born on my birthday, which I called the Eddie Kasko birthday team, I also did one for someone born on Feb. 22 that I called the Sparky Anderson birthday team. It included half of the Braves starting infield at the time (Casey Kotchman and Kelly Johnson). Ever since then, if I see a Feb. 22 birthday for a player, I mentally add him to the team.
July 15th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Red Sox and Twins are done with each other for the year.
July 15th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
We should also remember this: http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/6127
And this: http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/5502
AND this: http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/5775
Now, I don't think for a second that Boston possesses some magical elixir to overcome adversity, now or ever. BUT, thus far, they've overcome quite a few obstacles or otherwise surprised when left for dead. Maybe they will continue or maybe their luck will run out, but it is interesting to look back on these posts and the need to keep making them (as opposed to one sufficing to declare the end of the Sox season).
July 15th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Have you not been paying attention for the last three weeks? The only difference here is Beltre.
And both Beckett and Buchholz are pitching this weekend for Pawtucket.
July 15th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
They'll make it. There's just something about tat Fenway magic...
July 15th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
@DoubleDiamond (2nd paragraph)
Nice! I remember looking at the backs of baseball cards when I was young trying to find a player with the same birthday as I (June 20) and the only one I ever came across was Gary Varsho. Luckily I can see every player born on my birth date on Baseball-Reference.com, the greatest website on the web! (That was in my Billy Mays voice).
July 15th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
@8
I used to do the same thing. I found Vida Blue and Carmelo Martinez that way.
It is amazing what the Sox have been able to pull off with what is essentially a 4A lineup. MacDonald was a bust of a first round pick who flooated through the minors for eleven years. Nava was cut by his independant league team. Cash was in AAA for the Astros. This is a team full of nobodies, but they've managed to hang around. I think it says something about Francona as a manager, and possibly Theo for being able to see something in these players that no one else could.
July 15th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Is there some way to mine the play index for playoff teams with lots of regulars that missed time? Like the 1963 Yankees had Mantle & Maris on the DL for much of the year. Probably some way you could construct a query. Fewest number of players with 400 PA or 500 PA or whatever
July 15th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Yes, every team has injuries, but snide comments aside, it's pretty amazing the Red Sox are still competing with those players in the lineup. It's like the Reds with Corky Miller as catcher right now.
But Francona at least has a GM that's trying to get the best players. It's not like the 1890 Philadelphia Athletics of the AA, who were in first place on July 17 at 43-27. But then they ran into some tough luck and with the PL and NL also in Philly, the cranks abandoned the AA team. The owners, losing money, fired the team and played with whoever they could scrounge up where they were. At least Francona doesn't have to search the local American Legion teams for players.
July 15th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
This is Boston's power -- a solid top-to-bottom organization. If they miss the playoffs, whoever deucesthem out will have made a MAJOR accomplishment!
July 15th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
What I'm most surprised by is not so much that the Sox are winning as much as they are; we've seen far flukier things happen. But that, with all the injuries to a team that wasn't particularly stacked on offense, they still lead the league in Rs. Bizarre.
July 15th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
@ Double & Bryan,
I remember as a kid doing the same. When I was finished memorizing the stats of a card I would look at middle names and birthdays. (Gooden and Strawberry both have Eugene for a middle name!?)
Things started getting weird (for me) as the DOB on some of the players started entering the 70's. I remember Upper-deck's A-rod card threw me for a loop when I saw his DOB... same year as me. It freaked me out and simultaneously was the final nail in my centerfield fantasy. Now, when I see guys born while I was in highschool, it makes me feel quite old. Even Kevin Youkilis, who looks 40, is 5 years younger than me.
As a boy, the players, regardless of their age, seemed timeless. Now as a man, the boys playing baseball, still feel timeless...
Side note:
last MLB player born in the 50's?
Rickey Henderson.
July 15th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
oops,
sorry.
Julio Franco
July 16th, 2010 at 7:31 am
The Red Sox front office has addressed a problem that might arise in the unlikely event that they DO make the playoffs:
http://fenwaynation.blogspot.com/2010/07/sox-may-hire-bialystock.html
July 16th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Coolstandings has the Red Sox with a 32.9% chance of making the playoffs as of this morning.
http://www.coolstandings.com/baseball_standings.asp?i=1
July 17th, 2010 at 6:59 am
My Birthday bonanza thatnks to.BR
PEDR0
Read it and marvel
I also own Picasso and John Anderson of YES which bought a lot of cred in high school
Sox flagged in Texas last two nights
Could imagine the fade starting now
What we really need is for Yankles and Rays to stop aying 700 ball
July 17th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Red Sox down to 30.0% chance as of this morning
If anybody wants to look up their birthday, you can do it here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/birthdays.cgi
I'm not going to publish my birthdate...as an author here I need to be careful about how much personal information I post because if I post tiny bits many times, eventually I'll reveal my entire personal life here...heh. But I will say that I have a depressingly small talent pool born on my birthday--almost no players to reach even 1,000 games played in the big leagues.
July 17th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Rico Petrocelli - I thought you and I shared our birthday with Eddie Kasko.
I've also been intrigued by middle names and other interesting stuff such as hometowns.
There have only been four major leaguers from Donora, PA, but two of them have the same birthday (November 21). One's already in the Hall of Fame, and the other, a recent retiree, is believed to be a future inductee based on recent polling done here.
There have only been 11 major leaguers born on February 29, but they include two with the first name of Albert (Al Rosen and Al Autry), two with the middle name of Leonard (Pepper Martin, whose full name was Johnny Leonard Roosevelt Martin, and Rosen, who are also the two most successful big leaguers born on that day), and two with the last name of Long (the two most recent, Bill and Terrence, born in 1960 and 1976, respectively).
July 18th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Dukeofflatbush (#15,16): When you say "last MLB player born in the 50's", do you mean the player born last in the 1950's (i.e. closest to 12/31/1959) to play in the majors, or do you mean the player born in the 1950's to last play in the majors (i.e. with the latest date of a game played)?
The answer to the former is Mike Brown (born 12/29/1959), who played mostly RF in 315 games from 1983 - 1988 for the Angels and Pirates.
The answer to the latter is indeed Julio Franco, who played for 8 different teams from 1982 – 2007, and played his final major league game on 9/17/2007, four years later than the next two players on that list. Rickey Henderson was actually third; Jesse Orosco, who played for 9 different teams from 1979 – 2003 (and is 20 months older than Rickey) was second, played his last MLB game on 9/27/2003. Rickey, who also played for 9 different teams from 1979 – 2003, played his final MLB game on 9/19/2003, eight days before Jesse’s final game.
A baseball fan’s life can be marked by three eras; the first is as a kid, when all Major Leaguers are older than you. The second is as an adult, when there are a mixture of players that are older and younger than you. And the final is as an “elder”, when all players older than you are already retired. Julio's retirement marked the end of the second era for me; as he was the last Major Leaguer older than me (b. 1959). That second era for me began on 6/11/1978, when Mike Morgan became the first player younger than me to play in the majors.
Incidentally, while researching this, I found it interesting that in 2004 and 2005 the two oldest players in the majors were unrelated Francos; Julio (b. 8/23/1958) and John (b. 9/17/1960).