The top 5 Lowlights of the 2012 Red Sox Season

Dale Sams — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 17:39:16 -0000

1. Aceves blows three run lead to Tigers: Sets the tone for the season. Tigers were favored and winning this game would show that the Sox could hang with anyone.

2. Sox lose in 17 innings: Valentine plays checkers, Showalter plays chess.

3. Sox blow two six run leads in three days, including one game in which they blow lead three times: Sox pitch to the score. The wrong one.

4. Sox lose to A's 20-2: Nuff ced'

5....taking nominations...

The Case for Pedro Ciriaco as starting shortstop in 2013

Dale Sams — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 15:03:38 -0000

I know people see Ciriaco in the same light as Nava or any number of 'got hot for a litttle while, but there's a reason he never caught on anywhere'

But this is different. And the reason is, he plays shortstop. Shortstop numbers are so depressed that Mike Aviles with a 79 OPS+ is going to end up a 3 WAR player.

Pedro Ciriaco is better than Aviles on the basepaths (last night notwithstanding) and he's better with a glove. Any offense advantage he has over Aviles is just gravy. Siri tends to swing at everything, but he hits a lot of linedrives.

There's no reason to pay some vet 3-5 million to be worse defensively and on the basepaths when we have Siri for practically free.

If Aviles is a 3 WAR player, than Siri would be a 4 at least. That's how bad SS's are these days. So let's not trade Ellsbury for Andrus please. (As some are so hot to do) Asssuming (probably correctly that Andrus is better defensively and offensively than Siri) the bump isn't that much greater and Ellsbury should be worth more than a 1 WAR bump. Not to mention Andrus will cost 11 million over the next two seasons. 11 million for a 2 WAR (2 years) bump? No thanks

now...flame away.

The Curious Case of Daniel Nava

Dale Sams — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:13:31 -0000

Like everyone here, and apparently in the Red Sox front office, Daniel Nava wasn't even a blip on the radar. He was just a trivia question from 2010. But a few weeks ago, the incompetence of Marlon Byrd, and to a lesser degree Darnell McDonald, drove me to exclaim: "Sit Byrd and just stick in the guy who is doing best in AAA." Then a quick perusal of stats led me to the addendum of, "Even Daniel Nava! Daniel Nava could do better than Marlon Byrd!"

This led to a little derision and the general sentiment of, "Let's give Linares time before Nava".

Now that Nava has succeeded at the MLB level, the general sentiment is, "Ha ha, a nice story but he can't sit at the Adults Table for long." Now generally, a sentiment like this is driven by stats that show an AAAA player being moderatly sucessful, but appears to be playing over his head. And before I looked up his stats I thought that was the case. Normally a 29 year old has very little chance of playing MLB ball. After looking into his minor-league stats and some biographical work, I'm of the opinion that he didn't get enough of a chance. I think he can succeed at the big-league level.

Daniel Nava went undrafted after a single great year in college. He played for the Chico Outlaws and was a success there, and was picked up by the Sox. With only the slightest of blips, Nava has succeeded at every single level he's played at. Even his cup of coffee in 2010 was better than some of the dreck we've sent out every year, Hermida, Cameron, Byrd, DMac.

If Nava was your typical 29 year old minor leaguer, a guy who had been given opportunity after opportunity, then I'd agree with the snap-shot judgements of him. But he isn't. The stats don't lie. When a guy ascends the baseball ladder like he has, you let him keep going until he fails miserably. Another knock I've heard is on his D. I haven't seen it this year, and an article today said the Sox were impressed with the improvements in his defense.

This led to a little derision and the general sentiment of, "Let's give Linares time before Nava".

SBNation.com User Blog: Dale Sams

The top 5 Lowlights of the 2012 Red Sox Season

The Case for Pedro Ciriaco as starting shortstop in 2013

The Curious Case of Daniel Nava