The struggling Boston Red Sox held a players-only meeting Saturday night after a 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays dropped them into last place in the American League East.
“Everything was said that had to be said, plain and simple,” said first baseman Mike Napoli of the meeting. “We know what we have to do.”
“We’ve got to try to find a way to come together and play better,” said second baseman Dustin Pedroia. “That’s the bottom line.”
Other veterans probably said similarly insightful things about how the team must play better baseball in order to win baseball games. So did the meeting work? Did it ever! The Red Sox won their very next game over the Blue Jays, 6-3, on Sunday. “The way we played today is the way we know we can play,” Napoli said after the win. “That’s the way we should play.”
Mission accomplished. The Red Sox held a players-only meeting and now they’re good again. More teams should try this!
More teams have. So far this young season three have, in fact. (At least. Official numbers on these things aren’t kept because players-only meetings are private. That’s sort of the point.)
• The Philadelphia Phillies held a players-only meeting on 15 April before a game against the Mets. The team was 3-5 before the meeting. They then lost their next three games and have a worse winning percentage now than they did pre-meeting.
• The Miami Marlins held a players-only meeting on 18 April before a game against the Mets. (Apparently losing to the Mets makes teams get serious.) The team were 3-8 before the meeting. They then lost their next three games and still remain below .500.
• The Toronto Blue Jays held a players-only meeting on 21 April before a game against the Orioles. The team was 6-7 before the meeting. They then won their next three games (hooray!) ... but followed that up by losing four in a row (boo). They’re now 16-16.
Players-only meetings aren’t new to baseball in 2015, of course.
The Milwaukee Brewers held a players-only meeting last season on 8 September after a game against the Cardinals. The team then lost their next two games, went on to complete their late-season collapse and proceeded to be terrible again this season, culminating in manager Ron Roenicke getting fired 25 games into this season.
The Texas Rangers held a players-only meeting last season on 18 May before a game against the Blue Jays. The team was 20-23 before the meeting. They then won that day, lost the next and proceeded to lose more than 70 more over the next four months to finish 67-95. This season they’re 13-18 – exactly on pace to be a dreadful 67-95 again.
So while the Red Sox may hope their players-only meeting will turn their season around, there are few examples in baseball history of such meetings actually working. Because if a team is struggling enough to have a players-only meeting, it usually means that the very players gathering together aren’t good enough at baseball to win with any regularity, no matter the motivational cliches they yell at each other behind closed doors.
The best way to fix a losing baseball team? It’s not to have their bad players spend more time together. It’s to replace them with good players who really only need to meet on the field for a few hours a night to get a win. Replacing bad players with good ones: a revolutionary sports idea, I know.
Quote of the Week
Everybody was yelling at him ... in multiple languages
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, on his players trying to get third baseman Jung Ho Kang’s attention to tell him to finish off a triple play opportunity Saturday against the Cardinals.
Maybe this incident will compel the Pirates to learn how to say “triple play” in Korean. It’s probably easier to learn than whatever is Korean for “TOOTBLAN.”
Stat of the Week
15 – Giants starter Tim Hudson gave up 15 hits in 6.2 innings in his start Thursday night against the Marlins, the most hits allowed in a game by a major league starter since Mark Buehrle gave up 15 in 2011. It’s an old baseball cliche to say a pitcher “scattered” his hits in game in which he’s knocked a round a bit. But perhaps it’s time we establish an official cap for how many hits is too many to still use the “scattered” term. I say it should be 11. If you give up more than 11 hits, you haven’t scattered anything. You’ve carried a giant box full of hits out onto the field, tripped over the mound and spilled them all over the field.
This Week’s Horrible Fantasy Team That’s Better Than Your Team
Yasmani Grandal, C, Dodgers - 10-for-15, 3 HR, 11 RBI
Aaron Hill, 2B, Diamondbacks - 8-for-15, 2 HR, 5 RBI
Eduardo Escobar, OF, Twins - 10-for-19, HR, 9 RBI
Ryan Howard, 1B, Phillies - 8-for-16, 2 HR, 5 RBI
Tim Lincecum, P, Giants - 14 innings, 2 wins, 12 strikeouts, 0.00 ERA
David Phelps, P, Marlins - 12.1 innings, 1 win, 7 strikeouts, 2.19 ERA
Reader Twitter Question of the Week
@DJGalloEtc Even with the 2 missed seasons, can the Yankees spike the football on the Montero/Pineda trade yet? Can you spike a baseball?
— Smart Internet Guy (@JakeMHS) May 10, 2015
It’s risky to declare a clear winner in a baseball trade involving two players who are still in their mid-20s, but: yes, with Michael Pineda striking out 16 versus the Orioles on Sunday while Montero is in Triple-A, the Yankees look like the clear winner in the 2012 deal. That said, the Yankees probably should’t allow Pineda to do their spiking because he’s liable to blow out his arm doing it or spike the ball on his foot, exploding toe shrapnel all over the locker room.
Phillies-ness of the Week
Chase Utley went 1-for-3 on Sunday in the Phillies loss to the Mets, raising his batting average on the season to .116. Through Philadelphia’s first 30 games of the season he hit .099. According to Baseball Reference, that’s the worst by any player with a qualifying number of at-bats through 30 games since 1914. So, yes, things are going so poorly for the Phillies this year that the great, beloved and dependable Chase Utley needs to go on a significant hot streak just to reach the lofty heights of Ryan Howard’s .222 average. Yikes. It may be time to sacrifice the Phillie Phanatic and beg the baseball gods for mercy.
Cubs World Series odds: Falling
The Cubs dropped three of four to their “rival” Cardinals last week and have also lost four games to the Brewers in the last nine days. New manager Joe Maddon is getting heat for pulling his starters early and taxing the bullpen, and highly-touted rookie Kris Bryant has two hits and 10 strikeouts in his last 17 at-bats. All is not great in Cubs land. But there is good news: Bryant hit his first career home run this week.
And when he returned to the dugout, he found what’s left of the 2015 Chicago Cubs bandwagon.
A-Rod-ness of the Week
Alex Rodriguez hit his first triple of the season Friday night in the Yankees win over the Orioles, but missed the team’s next game because of having to run those 270-feet. “His legs were heavy,” said manager Joe Girardi of the decision to keep A-Rod out of the lineup. “I guess guys that are almost 40 shouldn’t hit triples.”
Exactly. Everyone leave Chase Utley alone now. He knows what he’s doing.
10 Things I Think They Think I Thought
1) Concerns that the Cardinals might be in trouble when Adam Wainwright was lost for the season now seem legit. In the 15 games since he was injured, St Louis starters have a 5.06 ERA. Yet the Cardinals are 10-5 over that time. So the Cardinals are both vulnerable and unbeatable. The Cardinals remain the Cardinals.
2) The Cardinals say they are considering a six-man rotation to help deal with the loss of Wainwright. I’m not sure what that would do. If five pitchers aren’t doing well, why add a presumably worse sixth pitcher? I’d suggest getting better pitchers than the ones you already have. (This is an addendum to my genius “get better players” proposal from the start of the column. It could really work!)
3) Los Angeles Clippers forward Matt Barnes was fined $50,000 by the NBA this week for yelling a rather colorful request at the mother of an opponent during a playoff game. But lest we think all sporting Matt Barneses are bad, Red Sox pitcher Matt Barnes had this to share on Mother’s Day:
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, especially my mom who has been there since day 1 with love and support. Love you
— Matt Barnes (@mattbarnesRHP) May 10, 2015
Awwww, thanks baseball Matt Barnes. You’re the kind of Matt Barnes we’d all happily introduce to our mother.
4) Josh Hamilton played his first game of the season on Sunday, going 1-for-3 for Triple-A Round Rock. His performance didn’t come against just any minor league pitcher either. He faced Nashville Sounds starter Barry Zito. Yes, that Barry Zito, the guy who not so long ago had a seven-year, $126m contract with the San Francisco Giants. Zito. Hamilton. Apparently Triple-A baseball is now played in 2010. Those minor league fans are going to go nuts when they get Gangnam Style in a couple years.
5) The Red Sox sent Allen Craig to the minors on Sunday. So let’s update our Triple-A list to include Hamilton, Zito and now Craig. A once formidable core to a fantasy baseball team could now fill roster spots on your fantasy Triple-A team. (By the way, you don’t really have a fantasy Triple-A team, do you?)
6) The Rockies woke up on Sunday morning to find their city covered in snow. The grounds crew then spent several hours clearing the field before Colorado’s game against the Dodgers. Stupid. You’re playing a team from Los Angeles. Make your field as snowy and frozen as possible. But, no. You foolishly cleared the whole thing. You made it nice and grassy ... and then lost 9-5. No wonder this organization has never won a World Series.
7) Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy is out for the year after getting Tommy John Surgery. How is he filling all of his free time? Bathing, apparently.
my penis looks ridiculous when i take a bath
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) May 4, 2015
Maybe McCarthy should get surgery on it to make it less ridiculous looking. The procedure can be called Brandon McCarthy Surgery. What a legacy it would leave behind.
8) Some batters can’t hit curveballs. Some can. But until Sunday night, I’ve never seen a batter hit a curveball quite like Christian Colon can.
9. Suggested marketing slogan for Major League Baseball: “Our balls don’t deflate.” (Sorry, Red Sox pitchers. They don’t. You’ll have to try another approach to prevent your pitches from being launched out of sight.)
10) With the Red Sox also-rans for the second season in a row, their rivalry with the Yankees is not all that interesting. (Shhhh. Don’t tell ESPN.) That probably makes Royals-Tigers the best relevant rivalry going in baseball right now. Some new rivalry blood is good for the future of baseball and, thanks to the Royals, it could be good for the future of boxing, too. It’s like punching two birds with one stone.
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