Sunday Notes: Hot-Hitting Austin Wells is Catching On in New York
Austin Wells is doing more than just establishing himself as a solid everyday catcher in his first full big-league season. Thanks in part to a hot July that saw him slug five home runs and put up a .941 OPS, he’s been batting cleanup for the New York Yankees. The 25-year-old left-handed-hitting backstop isn’t exactly on his way to becoming the next Yogi Berra or Bill Dickey, but what he’s doing is notable nonetheless.
In the present-day iteration of the Bronx Bombers, slotting into the four-hole means following Juan Soto and Aaron Judge in the lineup. Is it easier or harder to hit directly behind a pair of players who are on track for the Hall of Fame? I asked Wells that question last weekend at Fenway Park.
“I think it’s easier or harder depending on the pressure you put on yourself,” replied Wells, whom the Yankees drafted 28th overall in 2020 out of the University of Arizona. “If you look at it like you’re expected to do what they’re doing, then there’s going to be a lot of pressure to perform. Being able to stay in your zone and know what you do well takes the pressure off.”
That he’s not about to match the exploits of the team’s dynamic duo is stating the obvious. Judge has 41 home runs and a 216 wRC+ in the current campaign, while comparably a mere mortal (can a superstar be a more mortal?) Soto has 27 home runs and a 187 wRC+. Wells understands that he isn’t at their level. At the same time, he’s not about to put strict limits on his long-ball potential.
“They’re going to hit 40-plus homers every single year, and that’s not never been me,” the humble-yet-confident catcher told me. “I mean, who knows? It could possibly happen, but right now my is to keep the lineup moving. That’s where I’m at right now.”
Wells’s overall numbers on the season include eight home runs, a 116 wRC+ over 253 plate appearances, and 2.5 WAR.
Eric Longenhagen is bullish on his potential. When our Yankees Top Prospects list went up in December, my colleague described a swing “beautifully connected from the ground up,” adding that the “blend of his barrel control and the natural lift in his swing gives him a potent contact and power combination.” Despite concerns about his defense — primarily his throwing arm — Longenhagen assigned Wells a 50 FV.
His work behind the plate has been more than adequate. While his throwing remains a bit below average, Wells is plus-six in Framing Runs Above Average and he has seven Defensive Runs Saved. The strides he’s made defensively are laudable.
“I believe in my ability to get better every time I catch,” said Wells. “That’s been the biggest key, just believing. It’s led me to where I’m at now, and hopefully it continues to lead me into even better catching, better numbers, and more wins.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Bobby Richardson went 1 for 17 against Eli Grba.
Doug Gwosdz went 1 for 11 against Steve Carlton.
Mark Grudzielanek went 9 for 11 against Tim Hudson.
Doug Mientkiewicz went 7 for 11 against Bronson Arroyo.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia went 7 for 15 against Jeremy Guthrie.
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I recently talked to a pitcher who described what he considers the worst pitch he’s thrown all season, and while I haven’t yet shared his telling — stay tuned — the conversation did lead me down the same path with Tarik Skubal prior to last night’s Tigers-Royals game at Comerica Park. He cited a pitch that Hunter Renfroe stroked for a run-scoring extra-base the previous night.
“I threw a changeup that cut like crazy,” Skubal told me. “Whenever I do that, I usually throw the ball out. I didn’t throw the ball out. On the next pitch, I gave up a double down the line on a changeup that cut again. I should have thrown it out, but instead, I was like, ‘Ah, what are the odds I cut it twice in a row?’”
Skubal explained that of all his pitches, the changeup is most-impacted by a difference in baseballs. Moreover, not all baseballs are created equal. As the Tigers ace put it, “Some balls are wound a little different — the seams are a little different — so the seam effect isn’t consistent. I rely on a lot of seam effect with that pitch specifically.”
Skubal went on to say that the pitch he threw to Renfroe cut enough that it registered as a slider. In reality, it was a changeup delivered with a baseball that he normally would have thrown out — but regretfully didn’t.
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A quiz:
Fergie Jenkins has the most career wins (284) by a pitcher born in Canada. Which Canadian-born pitcher has the second-most wins? (A hint: He won a World Series ring in the current century.)
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
A reminder that SABR’s 52nd annual convention will be held in downtown Minneapolis beginning this Wednesday and running through Saturday. Featured speakers include Bert Blyleven, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, and Twins GM Thad Levine. More information can be found here.
Denny Lemaster, a left-handed pitcher whose MLB career spanned the 1962-1972 season, died on July 24 at age 85. LeMaster went 17-11 with the Milwaukee Braves in 1964 and later played with the Houston Astros and Montreal Expos.
Reyes Moronta, who had been pitching in the Mexican League after playing for four MLB teams from 2017-2023, died in a motor vehicle accident this past week at age 31 (per Baseball Player Passings). The Santo Domingo native made 136 of his 177 big-league appearances with the San Francisco Giants.
Jim Weber, the longtime play-by-play announcer for the Toledo Mud Hens, has died at age 78. He began calling games for Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate in 1975.
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The answer to the quiz Ryan Dempster, with 132 wins. The Sechelt, British Columbia native won a World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2013.
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When the Seattle Mariners acquired Justin Turner at the trade deadline, they brought on board a 39-year-old veteran of 16 big-league seasons who is, for all intents and purposes, a hitting guru in uniform. Reputation-wise, he has been akin to an extra hitting coach in the later part of his career.
I asked Mariners manager Scott Servais if veterans of Turner’s ilk can positively impact young hitters when they join a new team.
“Absolutely,” said Servais. “I’ve often said that as coaches and managers you talk to players and try to lead them in a certain direction, but players are always going to listen to players more than they listen to others — and certainly to a guy that has a track record like Justin Turner has.”
Following up, I asked the ninth-year skipper if he could give an example of a player who came to one of his teams and made an especially-meaningful impact. It wasn’t a position player he named, but rather a pitcher.
“When we signed Robbie Ray [prior to the 2022 season],” said Servais. “We’re seeing the maturing of Logan Gilbert and George Kirby. A lot of what Robbie brought, those guys have taken and run with. You see it happen all over the league… It’s welcome. Players like it. I enjoy it. If you have a guy like that who carries so much respect amongst the group, it’s a way for me to funnel messaging through.”
Servais proceeded to add an entertaining caveat:
“If he agrees. If he doesn’t agree, that’s another conversation. Those have happened before too. But it is another voice.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Kia Tigers have the KBO’s best record, at 61-42-2. The Kiwoom Heroes have the KBO’s worst record, at 45-57.
Hyun Jin Ryu is 6-6 with a 3.91 ERA in 115 innings with the Hanwha Eagles. The 37-year-old left-hander spent seven seasons with the KBO club before pitching in MLB from 2013-2023.
Mel Rojas Jr. is slashing .338/.433/.593 with 25 home runs in 480 plate appearances for the KBO’s KT Wiz. The 34-year-old former Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves prospect last played stateside in 2017.
Jeter Downs signed with NPB’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks earlier this week. A first-round pick by the Cincinnati Reds in 2017 who was later part of the Mookie Betts trade between the Red Sox-Dodgers, the 26-year-old infielder was released by the Yankees on July 30.
Shugo Maki is slashing .274/.333/.482 with 16 home runs in 363 plate appearances for the Yokohama BayStars. A three-time NPB All-Star, the 26-year-old second baseman has stolen nine bases without getting caught.
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have NPB’s best record, at 62-31. The Saitama Seibu Lions have NPB’s worst record, at 29-64.
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I’ve mentioned Hiroto Takahashi a handful of times this season, and for good reason: The 21-year-old Chunichi Dragons right-hander has been NPB’S most-dominant pitcher. In 13 starts, Takahashi has a record of 8-1 to go with a 0.48 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 93 innings. Moreover, he has surrendered just 58 hits, none of which have left the yard.
Wanting to know more about him, I asked one of his 2023 World Baseball Classic teammates for a snapshot scouting report.
“I haven’t faced him, but velocity-wise he throws really hard,“ Red Sox DH Masataka Yoshida told me prior to a recent game at Fenway Park. “The breaking ball is elite level, too. He’s got different [pitches] in his arsenal that can be used as a put-away pitch. He definitely has the potential to come over here in the future.”
In search of another perspective, I also checked in with my friend Jim Allen (@JballAllen).
“He’s the real deal,” the Tokyo-based baseball scribe replied via email. “He lacks the velocity that makes MLB GMs drool like they do over [Roki] Sasaki, but his secondary pitches are probably better. I don’t have his max, but my guess would be 98 mph. He sits at 95.”
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Don Leshnock faced five batters in a scoreless inning for the Detroit Tigers against the California Angels on June 7, 1972. The southpaw from Youngstown, Ohio retired Leo Cardenas on a groundout, then sandwiched singles by Sandy Alomar Sr. and Mickey Rivers with punch-outs of Nolan Ryan and Vada Pinson. It was his only big-league game. Prior to that outing, Leshnock hurled a no-hitter while playing for the Carolina League’s Rocky Mount Leafs in 1970.
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FARM NOTES
Travis Bazzana hit his first professional home run on Wednesday as the High-A Lake County Captains lambasted the Beloit Sky Carp 17-5. The 21-year-old native of New South Wales, Australia was drafted first overall this summer by the Cleveland Guardians.
The Minnesota Twins promoted their top-rated prospect, Walker Jenkins, to High-A Cedar Rapids earlier this week. Drafted fifth overall last year out of a Southport, North Carolina high school, the 19-year-old outfielder had been slashing .273/.404/.413 with three home runs and a 139 wRC+ with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.
Cole Carrigg is slashing .284/.360/.472 with 10 home runs and a 133 wRC+, and has swiped 36 bases in 44 attempts, with the High-A Spokane Indians. Drafted in the second round last year out of San Diego State University, the 22-year-old infielder/outfielder is No. 25 on our Colorado Rockies Top Prospects list.
Keiverson Ramirez has a 4-1 record to go with a 0.71 ERA and a 2.39 FIP over 38 innings in the Dominican Summer League. The 18-year-old right-hander from Valencia, Venezuela was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in January.
The Tigers won the Florida Complex League championship on Monday by defeating the Pirates 12-1. Detroit’s rookie-level affiliate was managed by Salvador Paniagua.
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My writeup of the trade deadline deal that sent a pair of New York Yankees prospects to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Mark Leiter Jr. included reports on on the promising youngsters from Eric Longenhagen. My colleague isn’t the only source I solicited a perspective from. I also reached out to someone who has seen all of Ben Cowles’s games this season, and the majority of Jack Neely’s.
“Cowles shows confidence and comfortability at all three infield positions (other than first base),” Somerset Patriots broadcaster Steven Cusumano said of the 24-year-old infielder, who had a 140 wRC+ with the Double-A affiliate. “I wouldn’t say that he stuck out at any one over the other; he plays all three very, very well. He is as consistent a player as they come, including defensively, in spite of how much inconsistency there would be in what position he played every day. Also worth mentioning, he’s as good a baserunner as you’ll find. That quickness does show in the field from time-to-time and he has excellent baseball instincts.
“Neely profiles as a back-end reliever: big and intimidating presence with two excellent pitches,” he said of the 24-year-old right-handed reliever who had a 2.90 ERA over 31 innings with Somerset. “Fastball (94-97) and a really good slider (82-25). Huge frame physically, a lot of tenacity on the mound and one of the most confident players you’ll ever encounter.”
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I also solicited quotes for a trade that I didn’t write about. The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Nick Yorke from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for right-hander Quinn Priester, and I asked two of the 22-year-old infield prospect’s former teammates for their thoughts on him.
“He’s a good player, man,” Boston infielder Jamie Westbrook said of Yorke, whom Eric Longehagen has assigned a 45 FV. “He’s got good bat-to-ball. He’s got some pop. He drives the ball to right field well. He plays a good second base and has also started to play the outfield this year. When I was with Yorkie for a short period of time in [Triple-A] Worcester, he had good at-bats and moved the ball around. I would hate to put a comp on him, but he’s a solid player.”
“Outside of the player he is, he is one of the best friends I’ve had in the organization,” said Red Sox infielder/outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela. “He’s’s a tremendous person. He’s always there for you as a teammate. And he’s obviously a good hitter. I’ve seen him through the years, and he’s getting better and better. Hopefully he will get the chance there to play in the major leagues.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
Over The Monster’s Maura McGurk went to a Decemberists concert and proceeded to wonder what’s next for the Red Sox now that the trade deadline has passed.
Trade acquisition Yusei Kikuchi utilized his changeup more frequently than he had in Toronto while fanning 11 batters in his Houston Astros debut. Chandler Rome has the story at The Athletic (subscription required).
The Athletic’s Zack Meisel wrote about CC Sabathia’s journey from unpolished draft pick to Cleveland Hall of Famer (subscription required).
Ron LeFlore made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers on August 1, 1974, one year after he’d been released from Jackson State Prison, where he served a sentence for armed robbery. Adam Henig wrote about it for The Metro Times.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
The Chicago White Sox have a record of 27-86 following their worst-in-franchise-history 19th straight loss last night. The 1962 New York Mets, who infamously finished 40-120, were 30-83 through 113 games.
The Milwaukee Brewers are a big-league-best 46-4 this year when outhitting their opponents. The Detroit Tigers, at 40-4, have the second-best record when outhitting their opponents.
Nine consecutive Kansas City Royals batters had hits in the seventh inning of Friday night’s 9-2 win over the Detroit Tigers. The nine straight hits tied a franchise record that had been set in a May 7, 1980 game against the Chicago White Sox.
Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has gone 16-for-22 in his last six games against the White Sox.
George Kirby hasn’t allowed more than three walks in any of his 79 big-league starts. The Seattle Mariners right-hander is the only pitcher in the modern era with at least 50 starts and more games started than walks allowed (56).
Max Scherzer has has 3,405 strikeouts and 112 HBPs.
Justin Verlander has 3,393 strikeouts and 113 HBPs.
In 1980, the Billy Martin-managed Oakland Athletics had five starters throw 211 or more innings and combine to throw 93 complete games. Bob Lacey, who made 46 of his 47 appearances as a reliever, threw a complete-game shutout in his lone start.
Players born on today’s date include Gabe Gabler, whose big-league career comprised three pinch-hit appearances for the Chicago Cubs in 1958. The St. Louis native fanned all three times.
Also born on today’s date was Ray Oyler, who started 70 games at shortstop for the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers despite slashing just .135/.213/.186 over the course of the season. The slick-fielding, offensively-inept infielder had a sacrifice bunt in his lone Fall Classic plate appearance.
On today’s date in 1934, the New York Giants scored 11 runs in the ninth inning while routing the Philadelphia Phillies 21-4 in the second game of a Saturday double-header. Right-hander Reggie Grabowski incurred all of the damage in his lone inning of work, while Mel Ott finished 4-for-4 with two homers, a double, and six runs scored.
On August 5, 2001, the Cleveland Indians rallied from a 14-2 seventh-inning deficit to beat the Seattle Mariners 15-14. Omar Vizquel’s two-out, bases-clearing triple in the ninth tied it, while Jolbert Cabrera’s walk-off single plated Kenny Lofton in the 11th to cap the comeback.
David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.
Got the quiz right, but for the wrong reason. Spent a long time thinking through Canadian pitchers (Paxton, Francis, Bedard, Dempster) who played this century and I could only think of one who played for a World Series winner. But I thought he played on then Cubs’ championship team, not the Red Sox. I got my timeline all jumbled.
I got it because Dempster was the only Canadian pitcher my mind could come up with. I didn’t think he made it to 2016, but I knew he had played for some other teams and couldn’t come up with any of the other guys.
I couldn’t come up with anyone other than Kirk McCaskill. Was pretty certain he retired before 2000 but thought maybe I got my timeline off and he was part of the 2005 team. My initial thought was right though and his last year was 1996. He wasn’t too far behind Dempster with 106 W. I wonder if he is 3rd on the all-Canada list. . . .
Kirk McCaskill is indeed 3rd, one win ahead of Reggie Cleveland.
White Sox on an incredible 19 game losing streak right now with a .239 losing percentage. That is worse than the 2003 Tigers, which to me is the most impressive bad-team of all time because there were no mitigating circumstances. It happened in a time of high-parity, not an expansion team, no rival team purchasing them and shipping off all their best players, etc.
They win 30% or less of their games going forward and they beat the Tigers. They win 26% or less of their remaining games and they beat the expansion-era Mets. If they keep with their current winning percentage, they will beat the 1935 Boston Braves, who were bad enough that Babe Ruth retired in the middle of it.
Beating the 1916 Athletics is the only major stretch here, since it would require them playing even worse than their current winning percentage (which seems unlikely, even for them). But if my math is right, another 3 games in their losing streak and they will be below the 1916 A’s.
But even then they *still* would likely be projected above the 2003 Tigers. The projections seem to think they will play at a .400 pace from here on out. They would have to lose another 10 or 11 games in this losing streak before FG’s projections see them falling below the 2003 Tigers. Which would be the worst losing streak of all time in MLB history, including those infamously bad teams before 1900.
I know it always seems like a team will never win again when they are playing this badly and I haven’t been paying hardly any attention beyond just checking if they lost again, but the hitting, defense, and bullpen are so very bad that anything is possible.
Their position players have -5.9 fWAR. That’s fourth worst since 1900 and they have done it in just 113 games. They probably won’t catch the 1920 Athletics (-9.9) or 1979 A’s (-9.6), but have a shot at the 1977 Braves mark of -6.6. 19 of the 28 position players they have fielded are below replacement level for the year with another right at 0.0. Two players have wRC+ of 100 or greater – Pham and Moncada. One was traded, the other has been on the IL since April 9th.
“The projections seem to think they will play at a .400 pace from here on out”. Those numbers boggle the mind. The team gave away, it is hard to say traded when Miguel Vargas is the best player received in return, what passed for most of the major leaguers on the team and started a team last night that had no players with a batting average above .228. It is numbers like this that make it very difficult to accept computer projections over logic and the eye test.
Projections have a terrible time when players are below replacement level. They just can’t really conceptualize it because of regression to the mean. I assume it also has to do with the fact that the training data doesn’t have a lot of below-replacement players in it. Players that bad tend to get benched and/or cut. For these reasons, they project that a player will roughly be replacement level the rest of the way out, even when it looks like they are very done. For example, ZiPS projects only 16 players will be below replacement for the rest of the season and two of them don’t even have a team (Hicks and Maldonado).
Two of those 16 players are members of the White Sox (Maldonado was a third, but his career is probably over). The computer model just doesn’t believe that Benintendi, Vaughn, and others could be that bad. But there are good reasons why they predict that way. Almost everyone this bad in the past hasn’t stayed that way, either because they have rebounded or they stop playing.
What mean are these “players” reverting to? I mean to think that Andrew Benintendi, probably on the worst non-injured contract in the game, is going to suddenly return to 2018 couldn’t come from a human mind. When I see Chris Flexen with a positive bWAR with a stat line that is simply not up to any major league standard it only adds to my ever increasing belief that much of what is being passed off as new age information is nothing more than The Wizard of Oz.
I honestly wrote that comment before I saw that Flexen’s line today is, I have to laugh when I write it, 1.2/7/8/6/3/3. Maybe that will drop him below replacement level.
I believe that in ZiPS’s case, it’s comparisons to their own previous baseline as well as similar players at similar points in their careers. So that’s the “mean” it is trying to revert him towards–Benintendi was a 2 win player two years ago, and thirty year olds who put up 2 win seasons at age 28 don’t do this. Except now we can’t say that anymore. (How is he only 30 years old? Has he been hurt the last two years? Did he just decide to give up?)
That is the basis for one of my arguments. The human mind is able to recognize dramatic change quickly and doesn’t have to include and average in previous occurrences. Basically regression to the mean. Like many Red Sox fans we were excited to see if Wilyer Abreu was actually good. He taunted us with a surprising cameo in 2023, far exceeding anything that any projection indicated. After today’s 2 HR’s, including his first off a left-hander, and where did this Dewey Evans defense come from, he should be seen as a legitimate ROY candidate though Gil is definitely leading.
What you are describing are the processes that lead to recency bias, overvaluing of small sample sizes, and the incorrect belief that outliers are the norm. Regression towards the mean exists because it is what happens most often and citing a few cases where it didn’t happen just illustrates that humans are bad at statistics and risk estimation. It is also what Las Vegas is built on.
I don’t disagree that regression to the mean is the norm but I do believe that the ability to recognize when there is an outlier before the mob does is a talent that separates the wheat from the chaff. That should be obvious to all.
Lost again..now need to go .333 Winning % the rest of the way to tie the 03 Tigers.
I found this way after everyone stopped reading the Aaron Judge/Juan Soto thread, so I’m going to drop it again here: The team that got only 17.24% of its total wRC* from its two best players was.. the 2023 Twins. Max Kepler was first with 72 wRC and Carlos Correa and Edouard Julien tied for second with 66. The secret is that they were a good offense (109 wRC+, sixth best in the majors) where only Correa qualified for the batting title or even broke 500 PA, and he had a down year so he didn’t hog the counting stats much.
It’s kind of funny that so many of us were racking our brains to figure out which team this was and didn’t realize it was one from last year. In fairness to us, I found almost no one mentioning that the Twins had only one player qualify for the batting title. This isn’t that unusual–Oakland also did it in 2023, Miami and Cincinnati in 2022–but I bet it’s rare on good offenses.
(The 2022 Marlins are probably second or third on the leaderboard anyway; Garrett Cooper had 61 wRC and Jesus Aguilar had 46 out of a team total of 589, for 18.1% of the total. The only qualifier was Miguel Rojas, with a 70 wRC+ and 41 wRC, in only 507 PA.)
*not wRC+
I did see you posted that. On the high side, I did find one of the mid-60’s Cubs teams got over 40% which is more than Judge/Soto. The other team I thought of was the late 20’s and early 30’s Yankees with Gehrig and Ruth. Even though they had MONSTER seasons (over 400 combined wRC a couple times), they never got over 40% – partly because they had some other great hitters, partly because the offensive numbers of that era were insane. Those Yankees had multiple years over 1,000 wRC as a team.
Noticed that sweet 37:3 K:BB ratio for Keiverson Ramirez as well. Cardinals have another strong DSL performer this year in SS Yairo Padilla. Turned 17 6/28/24. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=padill000yai
The Ron LeFlore article reminds me of a (not current) prison baseball story I just read–Chris Correa, of the Cardinals/Astros hack scandal, managing his prison softball team to an undefeated season with advanced defensive alignments. It looks like, after his release, Correa has gone to work for Code for America on programs to help former inmates–good for him.
Now there’s a book I would read
Absolutely loved the Ron LeFlore story as a kid; it made you feel/think/believe in possibilities & helped put the idea in my head that most criminals are just people who made mistakes and only vary rarely actually evil. One of the small ways that following baseball helped open my mind to a much bigger world.
Dempster was easy to come up with because he played an important role in the great Marathon season of 2013. A year no Red Sox fan will ever forget.
Still hard to believe that the Cardinals didn’t just walk Ortiz every time or that Wacha thought he could sneak a change up past the dude.
It was an amazing year. After the Marathon tragedy an atmosphere came over the area that cannot be easily described. The Saturday when the team returned home is easily the most emotional day I have ever spent. David Ortiz, perhaps as much the face of a franchise as any man who ever played, saying what every person in my part of the world wanted to hear then Daniel Nava providing a moment that will never be forgotten. I cried then and just writing this brings more tears, of joy, but also of sadness. Whether it was Nava, or Mike Napoli, or the transcendent personalities of Johnny Gomes and Shane Victorino, these men were on a mission and nothing was going to stand in their way. As I have said many times I was lucky enough to go to Fenway Park in August of 1948 and walk up the ramp and see this huge baseball field before me. Being a dedicated Red Sox fan, undivided after the Giants left New York, I have been through the well known ups, 1967, 1975, 1986 (how can something be great and terrible at the same time but 2003 was even worse) and downs, but 2004 erased every negative and nothing can surpass that ALCS. However 2013 was different. I was now accustomed to winning and it would take something special to reignite the embers that success had cooled. There was a complacency that fell over New England that summer. The regular season a mere formality and the Devil Rays were easily brushed aside then came the Tigers. The Tigers won Game 1 and held a commanding 5-1 lead in to the bottom of the 8th and with one swing of the bat the most important player in the history of the Boston Red Sox levitated himself above all others. Ted was better and so was Yaz but Big Papi did it in the 1st inning of Game 7 in the 2004 ALCS and transcended even that in 2013. John Lackey, reviled for so long, earned the respect of Red Sox Nation in the gripping 1-0 Game 3 while Mike Napoli took Verlander deep. It was ovah!. Papi’s World Series, possibly the best ever, cemented his legacy and we Red Sox fans are left to cherish the memories of that great, but sad, year. I have much to be thankful for and Red Sox baseball has been a big part of it and I thank you David and you Marcus for helping me reminisce some of my most indelible memories.