Crazy unfunny garbage!
Link time!
Some actual baseball news: the Red Sox signed Australian teenager Daniel McGrath. The Globe has a piece here on the signing and Marc wrote about it here (with a video!) at OTM last night as well. Not much is known about McGrath. For instance, he may not exist. Or he might. It's unclear. He is either 7'3 tall or 3'7. It's unclear. His pet peeves are either dogs that believe in gods or gods that believe in dogs. It's unclear. Also, he may nor may not play baseball. It's unclear. My prediction for McGrath: he will be flummoxed by toilets that flush the 'wrong' way. This may nor may not matter. It's unclear.
Mike Andrews of Sox Prospects wrote about Xander Bogaerts, the 19 year old super-prospect in the Red Sox system for ESPN Boston. As Andrews notes, Bogaerts has the highest ceiling of any player currently in the Sox system. That alone should be impressive, but he's not just a set of tools. He's been successful at every level, despite being years younger than the competition. That is impressive and exciting. Bogaerts (that's B-O-G-A-E-R-T-S) is a name Sox fans should commit to memory.
Hardball Talk's Aaron Gleeman was the featured contributor in Baseball Prospectus's long running Baseball ProGuestus feature this week. Mr. Gleeman wrote about something the majority of Red Sox fans probably recall, the great Johan Santana sweepstakes of '07-'08. As Mr. Gleeman notes, some names that were mentioned as possibly going to Minnesota in exchange for Santana were Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, and Justin Masterson. That's called dodging a bullet there, folks. It's true, sometimes the best deals you make are the ones you don't. Theo should get credit for holding on to his young talent, young talent that nobody would trade for even a healthy Johan Santana now.
OTM's own Marc Normandin, writing at Baseball Nation yesterday, penned this piece summing up the Red Sox rotation. If you've been reading OTM for a while you've probably read Marc discourse on a number of these topics, but this here puts them all in one convenient place, and at one convenient price, how could you not buy two?! Order now!!
We should all congratulate (and read) the newest member of the Platoon Advantage, OTM's own Cee Angi! And while you're over there, you can read the all the other good stuff they do there, most of it involving writing about baseball-related things on the internet. For example, Friend of OTM (FoOTM) Jason Wojciechowski wrote about the miraculous Rick Ankiel, and the mononymous Bill wrote about the beauty that is sac bunts.
If you're on twitter, you probably noticed that #baseballboyfriends became a thing yesterday afternoon. Hardball Talk's Craig Calcaterra gives you the lowdown on something so misguidedly offensive that it got kinda funny.
Some quickies after the jump...
This Boston Herald article looking at David Ortiz's arbitration case was posted a few days ago, but nothing has changed since and it's got some good information in it.
Former Red Sox utility player Bill Hall has signed with the Yankees. TRAITOR!! (I kid.)
Dave Studeman of The Hardball Times looks at the correlation between money and wins in baseball over time
Dustin Pedroia: nuts or super duper nuts?
According to Tiger Tales, the 1912 Boston Red Sox had the best starting pitching rotation ever in the history of baseball history. That's something to hang your replica hats on.
Finally, it's time to cook with crazy (warning: video plays upon being clicked.) (Other Warning: Weird Al) (Yet Another Warning: Awesomeness)