Alright, most of you are probably reading the headline and asking yourself, "WTF is BS writing?" My job as an author on Over The Monster will be to do a daily links story so that we're all informed and OTM gets spread around the Web. This is the debut of said stories, which are going to be published under the title of "Bloody Sox Laundry", in honor of Curt Schilling's epic Game 6 performance in the 2004 ALCS. If anybody objects to this title, for any reason, email me or leave a comment. Also, a disclaimer: today's Laundry will have a lot more stuff than usual, just because I felt like making a big debut. Okay? Okay - let's get to it.

 

 

Everyone remembers the fracas from Tuesday, right? Youk gets intentionally hit for the second time in two nights, the first batter after Porcello had backed VMart up before retiring him to end the previous inning. Youk rushed the mound, threw his helmet at Kid Rick, and tried to tackle the young pitcher. Unfortunately for Youk, Porcello appears to be an UFC fan and was able to use Youk's momentum against him to him toss The Greek God of Walks into the ground, falling on top of him before the rest of the teams could pile around. Of course, some people took offense to this, but others decided to flash the comedy muscles, leading to this from Plunk Everyone:

Then later in the next inning, Rick Porcello hit Kevin Youkilis and that was the 5,925th time a batter born in Ohio was hit by a pitch. Youk was so excited by this, he wanted to celebrate and rushed out to the mound yelling "5925 for Ohio! WOoooOO! Give me a hug!" and Rick Porcello yelled "That's ridiculous! I'm uncomfortable with your affection! And that's not even a round number, why are you so excited about an arbitrary milestone like 5,925?" and the fans yelled "Yoouuuuuuuk" (because they do that no matter what he does), and his manager yelled "This is the inappropriate time and place to celebrate!". And the benches emptied and everyone jumped around trying to seperate the over-excited Youkilis from the uncomfortable Porcello. And then the umpire, misunderstanding the whole situation, threw both Porcello and Youkilis out of the game.

And now, for some sabermetric content:

Pedro Martinez Returns - Beyond the Box Score
A PITCHf/x review of Pedro's impressive return to action.

WAR Chart Design Input - Beyond the Boxscore
I've posted a couple WAR charts as FanShots and in comments. This is your chance to have input into what you'd like to see included in the standard form that several saber-blogs are trying to create.

Little League World Series - Beyond the Box Score
A look at the Little League World Series qualifying teams - anyone got any favorites? OTM's spread out pretty far, so maybe some of you have a connection to one of the teams, or played in the LLWS as a kid.

1984 Cy Young Race, Broken Down By WAR - Beyond the Box Score
Or, how the Baseball Writers Association of America robbed Doc Gooden. And, on a related note...

2000 NL MVP Comments by Neyer Declared Wrong by devil_fingers - Driveline Mechanics
I'll let d_f  speak for his work:

A brief comment on Rob Neyer's claim that, despite Todd Helton's road numbers in 2000, Jeff Kent was still the better MVP candidate. Neyer is wrong.

PS: d_f recently became a father to Branyan Langerhans Fingers - why don't you congratulate him while you're over there?

BtB Power Rankings: 8/12/2009 - Beyond the Box Score
The Phillies fall from first, the Yankees are back on top, and the Diamondbacks may have found themselves in this week's installment of the BtB Power Rankings. Also, based on the leaders in this week's rankings, we will be lucky to make the post season.

Don't worry, MassGal & Co., not EVERYTHING is going to be sabermetrics.

The Hunt for Bryce Harper - Beyond the Box Score
RJ Anderson looks at teams who have a chance to "win" the first pick in the draft, which should be Bryce Harper, a catching phenom who's finishing high school a year early to enter the MLB Draft a year ahead of the stocked Class of 2011.

Bronson Arroyo Exhibits Some Honesty; Media Goes Berserk - Driveline Mechanics
The man who took a slap from ARod for us speaks about his use of various pharmacons.

BostonHerald.com's Clubhouse Insider - The strangest ejection ever
Tito was once ejected while being IBB'd. One of the weirdest stories I've seen in a while.

Jason Bay is going streaking - Extra Bases
Safe for work, I assure you. EB's got some interesting splits for Bay.

Epstein on trade deadline, Ortiz, and more - Extra Bases
Some interesting stuff from our GM, including this little revelation:

On whether the team was close to acquiring Jays ace Roy Halladay before the trade deadline:

Epstein: "I never got the sense that we were close, but we were pretty aggressive. We actually made J.P. [Ricciardi, Toronto's GM] an offer -- we actually made several different offers -- but our last offer was the most aggressive. It came the day before the deadline, and he said that it was a good offer, it was probably the best offer he had received, but that it wasn't . . . he was looking to get blown away, and it didn't blow him away.

I'm kinda hoping that Theo was just saying to this to appease those who were pushing for this deal to be made, but I don't know if that's the case. There's some other good quotes in there, as you can tell from the title in the link.

Tickets for Troops Ceremony - Extra Bases
Sox and season ticket holders made a nice gesture to military personnel - well covered on NESN and the national broadcast on MLB Network.

Red Sox Nation Looking Forward to RemDawg's Return - NESN.com
Get well soon, Remy. Even if it pushes Eck out of the booth and into Heidi's role.

Yankees Have Rotation Lined Up for Fenway Series - NESN.com
Pettitte, Burnett, Sabathia ready to go, it would seem. Looks like the offense is going to have a job on their hands.

Red Sox have to admit Yankees got it right - FOX Sports on MSN

It is perhaps just now dawning on the Red Sox exactly how much was lost when Teixeira opted for New York over Boston. General manager Theo Epstein pried Victor Martinez loose from Cleveland at the deadline to give his team's lineup an infusion, but not before aiming higher for San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Epstein was willing to part with a handful of top prospects to get Gonzalez, a slick-fielding run producer just now entering his prime.

Not saying I agree with the author here, but this is an interesting piece. Anyone have some thoughts about how Theo and the Front Office have done compared to their MFY counterparts?

Sun-Sentinel - Florida Marlins among the teams interested in John Smoltz

Oh. Well, maybe they will help relieve the salary due to him at least a little bit. I guess he's theirs...

John Smoltz headed to Dodgers or Cardinals? - Yahoo! Sports

Or not. I guess there is a market for this guy after all. I doubt anyone's going to give up anything of real value to get him though.

USG's Department - Do I have to do yer work for ya?

SoxProspects.com News: Player of the Week, August 3-9: Jorge Jimenez

SoxProspects.com News: Pitcher of the Week, August 3-9: Adam Mills

@SoxProspects - Duncan Removed From 40-Man Roster

General Baseball News

Baseball makes its pitch for '16 Olympics | MLB.com: News
@MLB had a couple of tweets on the subject:

• http://twitter.com/MLB/status/3286365218
• http://twitter.com/MLB/status/3286404406
• http://twitter.com/MLB/status/3286418394
• http://twitter.com/MLB/status/3286815520
• http://twitter.com/MLB/status/3287399291
• http://twitter.com/MLB/status/3290897949
• http://twitter.com/MLB/status/3290877536

Jayson Stark: Clock ticking on Washington Nationals and Scott Boras in Stephen Strasburg negotiations - ESPN
Here's the multimillion-dollar question: Will Stephen Strasburg -- the No. 1 pick in the June draft -- sign with the Washington Nationals? We'll soon find out.

NEW Hacks with Haggs - VMart Ready for Wake

And... that's it. If you find any cool links today, post'em in the comments. RIP LES PAUL