Sox Patz Notebook

Patriots training camp kicked off this weekend and some would say earlier this month the Red Sox season truly began as well. With the Bruins and Celtics quite literally the furthest thing from my mind these days, I figured rather than a Boston Sports Round Up, we’ll just look at Red Sox and Patriots. (The title of this Notebook is an homage to best friend of the program John Beaupre, who for many years had a vanity license plate that read “Sox Patz”. I still don’t recognize his car without this tag on it.)

Red Sox

· Starting with the most obvious statement a Red Sox fan can make, “Boy that 15-game winning streak was fun!” Something that hadn’t happened in 80-years, it’s safe to say most of us have never experienced anything like it! We should do it again! With the first 9 before the All-Star break and the last 6 wins coming after the break, it feels like the team didn’t drop a ball game for a month. There were rainouts, double headers, home run derby’s, suspensions and appeals happened before the Sox lost two games. The last day that the Red Sox lost the only ball game they played on a date was July 1^st vs Washington and the next would be July 25th. The Red Sox sure know how to celebrate America’s 250^th!

· How long did the Red Sox go without losing a game? Willson Contreras got into a fight with Cade Cavalli on June 30^th in a 6-1 loss to the Nats. Contreras was given a 7-game suspension on July 1^st and appealed on July 3^rd, which was reduced to 5 games, which he began serving on July 9^th vs the White Sox, missing the entire Mets series. Then he competed in the Home Run Derby (lawless event that it is), the All-Star Game itself, then sat out game one of a double header vs Tampa on Friday, made his return to action that night hitting a home run in his first at-bat and then the Red Sox still won 5 more games before they lost again. Contreras won 5, was suspended 5 and won 5 more. Such a balanced player.

· Every year I get sucked into the Sox at the trade deadline. Last year we were going to get Joe Ryan and a power bat and maybe a top notch reliever, but like Spaulding Smails, we got nothing and liked it! (Not entirely true, we did not like Dustin May.) The year before, I don’t recall specifically what we were teased but we got reliever Lucas Sims (who was terrible) another reliever not named Lucas Sims but pitched like Lucas Sims (terrible too) “then we got a gas shortage, A Flock of Seagulls and that’s………about…….it.” (Shout out Austin Powers.)

So while I want to get excited about trading for a CJ Abrams or Shea Langeliers Bangoliers (not excited for the possibility of Angels SS Zach Neto) I’m not going to get my hopes up. (Update, Shea Langeliers is now injured and likely needs knee surgery, so that option is likely off the table.) Craig Breslow made some excellent moves last offseason (Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, maybe even the Durbin trade) but if you look at his last two trade deadlines, we were told we were going to be buyers and when the moment came, he froze.

For the last month the Red Sox have been in the conversation of being the best or at least hottest team in baseball but they could use a few pieces. They’ve played themselves into position to make some noise down the stretch against a diminished American League. They need some help up the middle at shortstop or second base and you can never have too much pitching. Bullpen can always use another quality arm, our rotation has been outstanding but Suarez and Early are banged up, we don’t know if Crochet is coming back this year, Bennett and Tolle have pitched more this year than in any year of their lives and at some point Sonny Gray will probably lose a second game. (Update: he did on Saturday.)

I don’t know what the price tag would be for Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams, but I’d kick the tires. Langeliers is a helluva catcher and someone you would have under control for 3 more years. (Again, injured.) I love Carlos Narvaez but I don’t know what’s happening there this year, it’s been bizarre for this guy who should have been an All-Star a year ago and probably should have won the Gold Glove now feels like a backup to Connor freakin Wong. Again, I wouldn’t trade assets for Zach Neto, but it’s the move that feels the most Craig.

(I’ve heard the rumor that the Padres would be willing to trade closer Mason Miller if a team was willing to take on the Xander Bogaerts contract. The Xander deal is easily the worst deal in sports, maybe in sports history, but the Sox do need a shortstop, he was great here and Mason Miller would be INCREDIBLE to watch on a nightly basis. The guy is unhittable. To me this is a win-win if I’m the Red Sox, also I don’t like these Mason Miller to the Yankees rumors I’ve heard. Would love to nip that in the bud if I could.)

UPDATE: On Saturday night I arrived home after rocking to Motley Crue all night to see that the Red Sox had just sent Connelly Early to Washington for 3^rd baseman Curtis Mead. I went from Dr. Feelgood to Dr. Who? in an instant. I knew and had been talking with Sox pals Mike and Rob earlier that the Red Sox were likely to trade one of their 3 young left handers (Early, Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett) and that Early seemed like the most likely. (Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Bennett and Early would be a potentially great rotation for the next 5-10 years, but can a team exist with only left handed starters?) Tolle feels untouchable, he wasn’t his sharpest in his last start and he still punched out 9 Orioles. Bennett ditto, not his sharpest outing but still just wins ball games. Early has a bad elbow at the moment.

This trade feels reactionary in that Tolle is a potential horse/character/star in the making, can’t trade a guy like that. Jake Bennett has been a revelation, but remember a year ago when Early was a revelation too? He started a road playoff game at Yankee Stadium for you last October. Making this trade right now feels like we are buying high on Bennett and trading low on Early. I did a Kick Start of My Heart and got to Googling of Curtis Mead (never a good sign). He has 17 homers for the Nats this season (but then again, who doesn’t?) he’s a right handed, pull hitter (who I’m assuming has a high lift rate, because that seems to be what Craig is after, see: Contreras, Willson and Durbin, Caleb. Say what you want about Breslow, but the guy definitely has a type.) Mead’s 25, so there’s some team control there, he’s Austrailian, so I don’t know what to make of that besides make Crocodile Dundee references and he was once DFA’d by the Chicago White Sox. Don’t know what to do with that either besides say “That’s not a knife, that’s a knife!”

I think Mead will play second base, his defense is below average at 3^rd, but average to slightly above average at 2^nd base. And you can’t move Durbin off of 3^rd. Not sure I love taking reps away from Anthony Seigler, but again there isn’t a whole lot I love about this trade. You had moves to make and one of them was probably dealing Connelly Early, but I feel like he should have been a major piece in a larger trade to bring a big piece to your team. Now we have bet that chip on a single spin of the roulette wheel, Mate.

Patriots

· I don’t really understand the Kayshon Boutte trade stuff. I guess it essentially comes down to him wanting a new contract and the team not wanting to give him one now that we’re paying AJ Brown. After seeing a highlight package of deep balls that Drake threw last year, part of me wants to say “pay that man his monies” but I get that you can’t pay everyone. (Especially if you are on the verge of giving Christian Gonzalez his well deserved pay day.) Wide receiver is the position, sort of like starting pitching that just when you think you have enough, suddenly you make two moves and you’re at a deficit again. Would love Boutte to be here another year especially opposite Brown, and then left him walk. However these are the things that happen when you’re a conference champion, suddenly everyone wants to get paid. I expect Kayshon to be traded before week 1, but something we’ll hear a lot about in the coming days and weeks.

· Speaking of receivers, lost in the LeBron on Philly-mania, I saw tweets saying the Patriots were bringing in DeAndre Hopkins. Which is a fun headline to see until you remember the state of his game last year in Baltimore. (I’ve wanted him in Foxborough for YEARS!) When Vrabel said that he was going to be at practice because he’s thinking about becoming a coach, I couldn’t be more in. Nuke is an all-time vibes guy and the kind of former player/influence that you want in a locker room. I think he’d be a great addition if he decides that coaching is something that he wants to do. Though I will say, going from someone who we didn’t know was retired to being a coach is a situation that feels like it could be fraught with potential peril. However if anybody could handle it, it’s my guy D-Hop.

· I was pleasantly surprised to see that 2^nd round pick Gabe Jacas finally signed his deal with the Patriots. That was a weird story on the horizon, rumors of injury, surgery that wasn’t disclosed, agents, holdouts and all the things you don’t want to hear about the player you just spent a second round pick on. Now he’s in the fold, hopefully he’s healthy (especially with Harold Landry starting the year on the PUP.