Ten years ago today, Curt Schilling pitched the Red Sox to a 4-2 victory over the Yankees in Game Six of the ALCS in what has become known as “the bloody sock” game. A retrospective by MLB.com’s Ian Browne chronicles Schilling’s performance with a torn tendon sheath in his ankle and the ingenuity of the Red Sox’s medical team suturing Schilling’s ankle tendon to his skin. Before making the decision to perform the procedure on Schilling, Dr. Bill Morgan first tried it on a cadaver to see if it worked. It did and Schilling and the Red Sox went on to make baseball history by becoming the first team to win a playoff series after facing a 3-0 deficit and winning the franchise’s first World Series in 86 years.
Flash forward a decade and here’s the latest from the AL East:
- The Orioles need to take advantage of Nelson Cruz’s warm feelings for the organization while they last and make their best offer to him early, opines the Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck. The Orioles, Schmuck adds, would like that offer to be a two-year deal with an option worth a guaranteed $30MM.
- Cruz is one of the top ten moves GM Dan Duquette made over the past two years to make the Orioles the AL East champions, writes CSNBaltimore’s Rich Dubroff.
- Despite Andrew Friedman’s departure, the decisions and evaluations that went into constructing the 2014 Rays will be the same decisions and evaluations that go into retooling the team for 2015, reports Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune. The operations department will remain the same, but with Matt Silverman at the helm and top assistants Chaim Bloom and Erik Neander sharing the mantle of VP of baseball ops.
- The Rays are expected to make a series of transactions over the next few weeks to clear 40-man roster space and protect several rising prospects, notes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Catcher Justin O’Conner, outfielder Mikie Mahtook, and left-hander Adam Liberatore are among those who will be shielded from the Rule 5 draft.
- Defense and leadership are the calling cards the Red Sox hope will make catcher Christian Vazquez their long-term solution behind the plate, according to the Boston Herald’s Scott Lauber. The Red Sox feel his offense will develop as future Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez compares Vazquez to the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina and a NL talent evaluator likens the 24-year-old to the Phillies’ Carlos Ruiz.
I read that story about Vazquez and immediately thought: They’re going to trade him. This is their way of bumping up his value. Been a Sox observer too long I guess.
That’s funny. I read it an though they’re going to trade Swihart.
Worth too much in my estimation. Swihart has the ceiling of a perennial all-star. Boy can hit, and isn’t THAT far behind Vazquez defensively. I think they make a push for Russel Martin and trade Vazquez, giving Swihart one more year.
They don’t have any reason to sign Martin, who’s going to be a desired commodity. There are far better uses for their money.
I don’t see Russell Martin in the Red Sox future regardless. No reason to sign him if you keep Vaz or wait a year for Swihart. Sign a stop gap for a year if you trade Vaz, but Martin isn’t in the budget. I think Swihart is the centerpiece they use to bring back a top of the rotation pitcher.
I see more of their backup option being Geovany Soto. Has a decent upside and is pretty low risk.
Signing Martin makes no sense for Boston and Martin isn’t coming to Boston to keep a seat warm for Vasquez. Martin will sign a 2- or 3-year deal with a contender who can use him behind the plate for maybe 100 games and find some starts for him at 1B & DH as well. Think Texas or Detroit if somebody steals V-Mart from them.
I really hope not. He looks like a legitimate hitter at the catcher position and his defensive I keep hearing is improving. Catchers can provide so much value and be undervalued for real big cost savings.
Does mean Swihart is getting dealt? I really hope not. Offense is hard to come by, especially in a catcher.
The only way Swihart gets traded is if he’s headlining a major deal. My guess is Swihart is more seen as Ortiz’s future replacement.
I don’t think the Red Sox will waste Swihart as the full time DH. His defense, while not as good as Vazquez’, will still be above average and putting him in the DH role wouldn’t make sense unless it’s an every 5th game kind of thing. I could see Swihart playing 1st in the future once Napoli hits free agency though.
I still see the Red Sox trading for Gattis as a stopgap until then moving him to dh once Ortiz retires.
I like that idea, although I would rather not give up anything significant for Gattis with his limited defensive ability
Swihart could be the long-term solution at 3B if they really view Vazquez as the long-term solution at C.
In ALCS Game 6 against Schilling, I Never understood why Torre did not have any Yankee bunt the ball.
Because it would have involved doing something other than staring silently off into space.
I was surprised as well. Boston media was all over that possibility
As much as I admire, respect, and am grateful to David Ross for all he has brought to the Red Sox over the past two years, the sad reality is his weak offense. So, why not make Blake Zwihart the 2nd Red Sox Major League catcher and be done with it?
Two years (even with an option) and $30m for Cruz, that just wont get it done and i suspect the O’s know that too.
Coming off a season like hes just had, you have to think Cruz is looking for possibly more years and definitely more dollars than that.
I think they’ll make him an offer, it’ll be knocked back, they’ll thank him for his contribution and wave him into the sunset and a four year deal somewhere.
It takes some trust in your medical staff to be down with a procedure based on “well it worked on a corpse.”