GAME 1: 5-1 W

Jordan Montgomery who hadn’t made a start since his Tommy John Surgery in 2018 got the ball for the Yankees, and he struck out the first batter he faced, then got the next two guys to ground out to end his first inning of work. Montgomery retired the first six batters he faced until he left one up to second year man Michael Chavis, and Chavis didn’t miss it, which gave the Sox a 1-0 lead. After that Montgomery settled in and went 5.2 innings, allowing just that 1 run on 5 hits, while also striking out 5. A very impressive start from Montgomery in his first appearance in a while. The bats got going after the Chavis solo homerun, as in the bottom of the 3rd Aaron Judge hit a 2-run homerun to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead, that was also Judge’s third straight game with a homerun. Later on in the game, in the 4th inning Gio Urshela hit an opposite field homerun to extend the Yankees lead to 3-1, that was Gio’s first homerun of the year after a very promising 2019 campaign it was good to see Gio get one. Onto the bottom of the 8th inning where Brett Gardner finally gets going as he hit a towering shot to right field which made the score 5-1, which was the final score to game 1.

GAME 2: 5-2 W

Onto game 2 of the series where Masahiro Tanaka who got struck with a line drive from Giancarlo Stanton during summer camp took the bump for the Yankees, and in his first inning of work Tanaka had 2 strikeouts, allowed a soft hit single, and got a fly out. Moving to the bottom half of the inning, Aaron Judge launched a homerun to left center field off of Zack Godley to notch his 4th straight game with a homerun! In the second inning Tanaka did more of the same as he did in the first inning as he stranded a runner of first, then in the bottom half of the inning the bases were loaded for Gio Urshela who hit one that hit the top of the center field wall and bounced over for a grand slam! that made it 5-0 Yankees in the 2nd inning and that is all Tanaka needed as he fired 2.2 innings of 1 earned ball notching 3 strikeouts as well, Tanaka then turned the ball over to the bullpen as Aaron Boon used, Luis Avilan, Nick Nelson who made his ML Debut and didn’t upset as he fired 3 innings, striking out 4 and allowing 0 hits, Nelson also struck out the first batter he faced on just THREE pitches. Avilan fired 1.1 inning of 0 hit 2 strikeout ball, a good outing for him as well. After Nelson, Boone turned to David Hale out of the pen who surprisingly tossed 2 innings, 2 hits, 0 run ball striking out 3. Many Yankee fans were wondering why Tommy Kahnle wasn’t used, and it was annouced after the game that he wasn’t available due to a UCL problem and that he would likely need Tommy John Surgery….Get well soon Tommy!!

GAME 3: 9-7 W

Onto game 3 where James Paxton got the ball, looking for a bounce back start after only going 1 inning in his previous start vs the Nats. It was clear early that the Yankees needed to hit tonight as Paxton set down the first two batters but allowed a double to J.D. Martinez and then a 2-run homerun to the very next batter Xander Bogaerts who was torching the Yankees all series long with his bat and his glove. The Yankees faced Austin Brice who is the first ever MLB player to be born in Hong Kong, and the Yankees failed to capitalize on an error from Jose Peraza early in the game. Onto the bottom half of the 2nd inning where Aaron Judge would crush a ball into the second deck in left field to get the Yankees on the board and it just so happened to be a 3-run homerun, as Aaron Judge tied Alex Rodriguez for hitting a homerun in 5 STRAIGHT games! After that Paxton didnt have his stuff as he allows another 3 runs to the Red Sox now a 5-3 Red Sox lead. Gio Urshela went 3/4 tonight with an RBI, also Gary got a big RBI double to tie the game at 5. Later on in the game with the Yankees down 6-5, Luke Voit hit a line drive homerun to left field to tie it up. Michael King served up a solo HR to Rafael Devers to give the Red Sox the 7-6 lead, Michael King went 3.2 innings allowing 2 runs on 2 hits, striking out 4. After King, Ottavino came in and tossed 1.1 inning allowing 1 hit and striking out 2. In the bottom of the 8th, down 1, D.J. LeMahieu hit a single to tie up the game which scored Mike Tauchman who walked and then stole second all with 2 outs. After that LeMahieu single, Aaron Judge came up and he LAUNCHED one to left center field seats over the bullpen to give the Yankees a 9-7 lead, and that’s all Zack Britton needed as he cam in and got 2 groundouts along with a strikeout to seal the game!

Many MLB fans now have the consensus that LHP Chris Sale is washed and doesn’t have anything left in the tank. Rightfully so as he didn’t play as good as he has posting an ERA above 4 and dealing with injuries all season leading up to needing Tommy John surgery in the 2019 offseason. There clearly is an argument that can be made for Chris a Sale being washed, but I think that is absolutely wrong and essentially disrespectful to say that about Chris Sale and his dominance up until his 2019 seasons.

If you’re the casual MLB fan, you would look at the basic stats and say that Chris Sale is washed, he’s not good anymore, or he will never come back to form. I’m writing this article trying to debunk this theory. Looking at Sale’s advanced stats, he posted a 3.39 FIP, 2.93 xFIP, 13.32 K/9, 1.09 WHIP, and a 3.00 SIERA. Those numbers show that even with the ongoing injuries how good Sale was in the 2019 season. There is a bit of worry as Sale posted his highest BB/9 since 2014 which shows he may or may not be walking batters more often than not.

If you take a look into Sale’s career stats, it seems inevitable he will to back to his old self whenever the next season may be. For his career, he’s posted a 3.03 ERA, 2.90 FIP, 2.91 xFIP, 11.08 K/9, 2.07 BB/9, 0.95 HR/9, 1.03 WHIP, 2.81 SIERA, and a stellar 44.5 fWAR. Clearly Sale is dominant and should not be taken lightly just because of one season that looks bad on paper but was actually very productive and somewhat good. 

The 4 month ordeal is finally over. Ken Rosenthal tweeted out Wednesday afternoon confirming that the 2018 Red Sox were reportedly stealing signs but on a lesser scale than the 2017 Astros. They never came out with what evidence they have to back up that statement as we still await that or we may never find out exactly what they found. This investigation was sloppy, unprofessional, and filled with gaps. Rob Manfred back in November when he punished the Astros for their scandal got a lot of backlash from fans, disagreeing with his punishments.

In the punishment it looks as if replay operator J.T Watkins was the conductor of this whole cheating scandal which should make Red Sox fans feel a little bit better that they could not find any hard evidence of any Alex Cora wrongdoing. Watkins has been suspended through the 2020, and 2021 seasons. Alex Cora still remains banned from Baseball but only for his role in the 2017 Astros cheating scandal.

Since this whole ordeal began many Red Sox players spoke out about the investigation, including players who are no longer on the team. Mookie Betts, Joe Kelly, David Price, and most recently Steve Pearce claimed that the 2018 title was legit and won fair and square. Steve Pearce is the most interesting one to speak out about the investigation since it started because he did not actually have to say anything as he was just announcing his retirement at the time last week. “That’s such a joke to us. When it came out we were all kind of joking about it. We just want this to pass us. We won it fair and square. Whatever they accused us of, we were all kind of like, ‘I can’t believe this is even an issue.’ Once the report comes out we’re all going to be free.”

Here is a full timeline of the investigation from start to finish, not including how many times the investigation was delayed.

January 7th 2020: Rosenthal reports that the 2018 Red Sox illegally stole signs in the 2018 season when they eventually won the World Series vs the Dodgers.

January 13th 2020: Manfred rules on the 2017 Astros cheating scandal, and found hard evidence against Alex Cora. Manfred came to the conclusion that he was the mastermind behind the whole scandal.

January 14th 2020: Alex Cora was fired from the Red Sox because of his role in the Astros scandal shortly after the Astros fired A.J Hinch.

January 16th 2020: Mets manager, Carlos Beltran resigns from the Mets just 3 months after becoming their manager.

January 21st 2020: An LA Council unanimously approves a measure requesting that the 2017, and 2018 World Series titles be awarded to the Dodgers. Manfred dismisses the idea of forcing teams to vacant titles a day later.

February 16th 2020: Manfred refers to the World Series trophy as a piece of metal which causes backlash from players.

March 26th 2020: Rob Manfred says that they are not finished investigating the Red Sox and there has to be another delay due to the other problems they have.

April 22nd 2020: Rob Manfred punishes the Red Sox.

Photo via Yahoo! Sports

The Trade

Last night the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, and Minnesota Twins pulled off a blockbuster, three team trade. The Dodgers acquired Mookie Betts, David Price and cash while giving up Alex Verdugo and Kenta Maeda. The Red Sox acquired Alex Verdugo and Brusdar Graterol while giving up Mookie Betts, David Price, and cash. The Minnesota Twins acquired Kenta Maeda while giving up Brusdar Graterol.

Assessing the Dodgers

The obvious center piece of the trade is Mookie Betts. Betts is a four time all star, four time gold glove winner, 3 time silver slugger, 2018 AL MVP, and 2018 World Series Champion. In 2019, Betts hit 29 home runs, drove in 80 runs, scored 135 runs, stole 16 bases with a .391 OBP, .524 SLG, .915 OPS, .380 wOBA, 135 wRC+, 135 OPS+ as well as a 6.6 WAR in 150 games. Betts is also an amazing defender as he had 15 DRS, 12.9 UZR and .943 RZR in 2019. The Dodgers hit the jackpot by acquiring Betts because he is one of if not the best two way players in baseball putting the Dodgers in a prime position to win the National League and maybe the World Series. The Dodgers also acquired David Price and cash considerations as the Red Sox will pay about half of Price’s remaining 3 years and $66 million. In 2019, Price was ok as he struck out 128 batters with a 1.31 WHIP in 107.1 innings to a 4.28 ERA. Price struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings while walking 2.7 per nine innings. Price also had a 3.62 FIP, 113 ERA+ and 9 quality starts (out of 22). Although Price was ok in 2019, he in no way is performing to the level that his contract is paying him. I would give the Dodgers an A+ for this trade because this gives them even more fire power to an already stacked team without giving too much up in consideration for who they acquired

Photo via watchstadium.com

Assessing the Red Sox

In 2019, Alex Verdugo hit 12 home runs, drove in 44 runs, scored 43 runs with a .342 OBP, .475 SLG, .817 OPS, .341 wOBA, 114 wRC+, 114 OPS+ as well as a 3.1 WAR in 106 games. Verdugo is also a solid outfielder as he had 13 DRS, 3.4 UZR and .921 RZR. Verdugo is a valuable outfielder because he can play all three outfield positions very well. The Red Sox also acquired MLB.com’s number 83 overall prospect Brusdar Graterol. Graterol is only 21 years old and in 4 seasons of MiLB baseball has pitched 214.0 innings with 230 strikeouts, a 1.07 WHIP, and a 2.48 ERA. On a 20-80 scale, MLB.com gave Brusdar a 70 for his fastball, 50 for his curveball, 60 for his slider, 45 for his change up, 50 for his control and 55 overall grade. While the Red Sox acquired two great young players, they simply didn’t receive enough in return for Betts so I would give them a B-. (Red Sox clearly valued saving money in this trade).

Photo via Yahoo! Sports

Assessing the Twins

Lastly, the Minnesota Twins acquired pitcher Kenta Maeda. In 2019, Maeda pitched in 37 games (26 starts) with 169 strikeouts, a 1.07 WHIP and a 4.04 ERA in 153.2 innings pitched. Maeda struck out 9.9 batters per nine innings while walking 3.0 per nine innings. Maeda also had a 3.95 FIP, 102 ERA+ and 9 quality starts (out of 26). Although Maeda has proven to be a decent pitcher who is under a team friendly contract through 2024, it was very surprising to see the team trade Graterol just to land Maeda. I would give the Twins a B+ for this trade because Maeda will definitely be a reliable starter but we don’t know how well Graterol will perform at the Major League level.

Photo via twinkietown.com