Following Former Red Sox 2024...

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Throw Momma From the Train
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May 20, 2003
38,095
Deep inside Muppet Labs
Verdugo has an OPS+ of 87, has only 0.2 WAR on the year, and is somehow hitting for less power despite moving to a ballpark that ought to help him.

Plus he had an absolutely comical pratfall in the OF on the final play of yesterday's game.

He's certainly not missed.
 
The Napkin

The Napkin

wise ass al kaprielian
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Jul 13, 2002
29,718
right here
Whoop-La White said:
You wonder what's going through his mind when he takes just enough care to use his non-pitching hand but not enough to decide not to take on ballpark infrastructure.
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Did you hit me with your right hand or did you hit me with your left?
Huh?
Did you hit me with your right hand or did you hit me with your LEFT?
 
Van Everyman

Van Everyman

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Apr 30, 2009
29,243
Newton
Al Zarilla

Al Zarilla

Member
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Dec 8, 2005
61,494
San Andreas Fault
If Papi hates the Yankees, he still shows a good, if not great rapport with ARod on Fox’s post season pre and post game shows. OK, he’s that way with everybody.
 
The Gray Eagle

The Gray Eagle

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Aug 1, 2001
17,824
Cool story about Adrian Beltre and his fun quirks:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5630345/2024/07/15/adrian-beltre-hall-of-fame-oral-history/

Do not touch his head! No one can touch his head!
One of the first things Beltré’s teammates learned was he hated having his head touched. No one seems sure how or when it started.
Dave Roberts, Dodgers teammate: I can account for 2002 (with the Dodgers). I’m sure it’s before that as well. Once it got out, we had to tempt fate.
Elvis Andrus, Rangers teammate: When he was with Seattle, Félix Hernández told me about it. They were always trying to touch it. He went to Boston. Victor Martinez and (Marco) Scutaro would do it.
Emily Jones, sideline reporter: It became a thing, every time he hit a home run, Elvis would take off the helmet and try to touch his head.
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Though if you are a barber, you can touch his head. It's different.
Andrus: He tried to avoid Gatorade showers, too.
Jones: We had a deal where I would let him stand on the side where he thought they were coming from. They got him a few times, but he would run from it. There was a time he ran from it, and then picked up a rake and started swinging it.
Andrus: It was just fun seeing his face be angry. It was priceless.
Nelson Cruz, Rangers teammate: I would tease him, ‘OK, the barber is coming now and you aren’t jumping around, so what’s the deal? The barber is touching your head, why are you still in the chair?’ He would say, it’s different.
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Moving the on-deck circle:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWBCQBO-DO0&t=25s
Running away from the rundown:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nu9yAezfbw&t=3s


Here comes the judge:
Mitch Moreland, Rangers teammate: We did kangaroo court, and he was always the judge of it. He would have a robe on, and he had like the white curls like George Washington, and he would wear it when we went on our flights. And he would have the little hammer, like, mallet thing.
Andrus: He was the oldest guy on the field, but acted like the youngest.
Moreland: It was like the second, third game of spring. He always yelled at the umpire, ‘Outside!‘ Every pitch. If it looked like a good pitch and they called it a strike, he’d just yell ‘Outside!’ And I guess one of the umpires was having a bad day or something. He said, ‘Adrián, quit saying that!’ Adrián goes ‘Saying what?’ So the next pitch, he said ‘Outside!‘ And (the umpire) threw him out of the game, in spring training.
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The Nutcracker:
Beltré’s pain tolerance was legendary. In 2001, a life-threatening ruptured infected appendix resulted in him losing more than 30 pounds. He arrived at Dodgers camp getting nutrition through an IV port in his arm and a colostomy bag that he tucked into his pants to try to play. He only missed a few weeks.
In 2009, he damaged a testicle when he was hit by a bad hop while not wearing a cup. When he returned from the injury, teammate Ken Griffey Jr. conspired with Seattle’s public address announcers to change his at-bat song to the theme for Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.” Afterwards, Beltré still refused to wear a cup.
Daniel Nava, Red Sox teammate: That guy played through everything. Everything.
Alex Cora, Dodgers teammate: He played in ’04 with (bone spurs) when he hit 49 home runs with one leg. He took us to the playoffs.
Washington: He once played two weeks with an abdominal strain on the left side of his body. … He got all his hits on the right side.
Daniels: A grade 2 hammy strain, most guys are done for a month. And AB would say, ‘Give me a couple hours.’
Moreland: They had it wrapped up with this ACE wrap. It was so tight, there’s no way he could even feel his foot. … He goes up and hits a homer and wins us the game.
Daniels: Torn thumb ligament. We sat in Anaheim and (agent Scott) Boras was there, our medical staff, and Anaheim’s hand specialist. And the doctor was like, ‘Yeah, strong rec for surgery.’ And Adrián was like, ‘Can I make it worse playing?’
Beltré drove in 65 runs and hit .305 the rest of the season.
Daniels: It hurt him to turn the steering wheel.
Delino DeShields, Rangers teammate: I just remember thinking, this guy is literally playing with nine fingers.
Daniels: The playoffs in ‘15, I get a text … and the trainer said, ‘Hey, heads up, Adrián tweaked his back.’
Dave Magadan, Red Sox and Rangers hitting coach: He couldn’t even walk. I mean, it was really, really bad.
DeShields: He was like, ‘Guys, I’ve got one swing. I’m not going to come out of the game, but I’ve got one swing in me.’
Daniels: He gets up. There’s a runner on second, two outs, and he truly had one swing. He got on top of a fastball, lined it to center field.
Magadan: He had to swing and kind of gather himself to run to first so that he wouldn’t just buckle under the pain and collapse on the field … It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen on a baseball field.
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Hitting with one knee on the ground:
Nava: His ability to hit balls off of one knee was just unbelievable.
David Ortiz, Red Sox teammate: My kids were trying to do that at home! When he first got to Boston and he started doing that, all the baseball players’ kids were trying to do that!
Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox teammate: When he went down on a knee, he kind of got below the ball. … For one guy it works. For another guy, it totally would cripple him.
Ortiz: I told my kid this one time, ‘It looks cool, but that’s not easy to do. You’ve got to be very powerful.’ Because remember, every time he’d go down on his knee, it was a home run.
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The man was a danger to left fielders:
When Daniel Nava debuted for the Red Sox, Beltré had already taken out both left fielders on collisions: Jeremy Hermida and Jacoby Ellsbury. Beltré, of course, walked away unscathed.
Nava: One of the jokes was, ‘Listen, if there’s a popup over third, and you’re playing left, don’t even run for it. He’s on a mission, and he’s going to catch everything, so just stay out of his way.’
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SLC Sox

SLC Sox

New Member
Jul 16, 2005
552
Beltre has to be on the Mt. Rushmore of likeable HOFers. I used to love the clips of him getting mad when they touched his head.
 
Yelling At Clouds

Yelling At Clouds

Post-darwinian
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
4,074
Adam Duvall, a guy a lot of people wanted to bring back, is looking pretty toasty for the Braves. .129/.256/.329

James Paxton, a guy a lot of people wanted to bring back, has been pretty meh for the Dodgers (4.95 FIP), but on the plus side, he has pitched 84 innings.
 
mauidano

mauidano

Mai Tais for everyone!
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Aug 21, 2006
37,415
Maui
Thrilled to watch Helton & Beltre go into the HOF.

Todd Helton played on Maui for a Winter League season very early in his career. You could see even at a young age, fresh out of college that he was special.

Big Papi touching Beltre’s head at the start of his induction speech is classic.
 
Smiling Joe Hesketh

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Throw Momma From the Train
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May 20, 2003
38,095
Deep inside Muppet Labs
Yelling At Clouds said:
Adam Duvall, a guy a lot of people wanted to bring back, is looking pretty toasty for the Braves. .129/.256/.329

James Paxton, a guy a lot of people wanted to bring back, has been pretty meh for the Dodgers (4.95 FIP), but on the plus side, he has pitched 84 innings.
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And Paxton got DFA'd this week.

I would think someone would pick him up. He wasn't great this year but wasn't cover-your-eyes awful either.
 
Big Papa Smurph

Big Papa Smurph

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Aug 20, 2007
408
Boston
(I understand this thread is mostly about recent Red Sox now playing for other teams, so if this story is not fitting with the thread, the mods can move it.)

I teared up a few times reading this story about Rod Beck (then playing for the Giants) being one the first baseball players to help out and advocate on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS and his promotion of the "Until There's a Cure" foundation.
Sempadian, who was hired in a new player relations coordinator job to handle philanthropy from team members and their wives, said Beck was on a mission from the beginning. He began focusing on pediatric AIDS, signing stacks of 8x10 photos to benefit Camp Sunburst for AIDS-afflicted children, sometimes writing personal messages on dozens at a time on the team plane.
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Over the first three years, just one Giants player refused to wear the ribbon; another turned it sideways for religious reasons. But Baker, Beck and Magowan drowned out any dissent, making it clear where the organization stood. Beck can be seen in Chronicle photos holding reams of paper; he read the names of AIDS victims at every ceremony from 1994 until he signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1998.
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Tony Pena's Gas Cloud

Tony Pena's Gas Cloud

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Jun 12, 2019
439
Kimbrel doing Kimbrel things.
First 8 appearances: 0.82 ERA
Next four appearances: 21.60 ERA, two BS
Next 22 appearances: 0.43 ERA
Last four appearances: 14.73 ERA, two BS and one L
 
Al Zarilla

Al Zarilla

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Dec 8, 2005
61,494
San Andreas Fault
Xander since coming back from injury on July 12:

10 games, slashing .512/.535/.634/1.169. Padres have also won seven straight. Fun team, going to watch them some. They, of course, have Orsillo announcing too.
 
E5 Yaz

E5 Yaz

polka king
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Apr 25, 2002
96,244
Oregon
Kaleb Ort is in the Astros bullpen these days. In case you lost track:

October 13, 2023: Selected off waivers by the Seattle Mariners from the Boston Red Sox.

December 1, 2023: Selected off waivers by the Miami Marlins from the Seattle Mariners.

February 13, 2024: Selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Miami Marlins.

February 19, 2024: Purchased by the Baltimore Orioles from the Philadelphia Phillies.

May 28, 2024: Selected off waivers by the Houston Astros from the Baltimore Orioles.
 
Brianish

Brianish

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Dec 11, 2008
5,873
I assume the Chisholm trade sealed his fate. Or could be he asked for release after he got interest from Japan.
 
jon abbey

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
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Jul 15, 2005
74,954
Lose Remerswaal said:
Surprising, considering our Yankee fan friends here thought he might get called up to the big club just a few days ago
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Not really, just that he was playing like a possible call-up candidate, but guys in AAA know when they're not really being considered, plus NY traded for another infielder in Chisholm and maybe a second one today.
 
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