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A Look Back at the 1975 Boston Red Sox - Denny Doyle, Second Baseman

1/17/2018

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network
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Going into June 1975, second base was a position of need for the Red Sox. Fortunately, the California Angels had a second baseman in Denny Doyle who had been displaced by some young speedster named Jerry Remy. The Sox acquired Doyle for a player to be named later, pitcher Chuck Ross, who never saw the Majors. The defensive-minded Doyle would go on to post a .768 OPS in 89 games, good for a 109 OPS+ (9 percent better than league average offense). At second base, that production was extremely valuable and added about two and a half wins to Boston's efforts.

Sadly for Doyle, he was about replacement level for the next two seasons and was out of baseball after the 1977 season. In December 1977, the Red Sox replaced Doyle with the very man who had replaced him in California: Jerry Remy. The Sox gave up pitcher Don Aase, who would have a couple of mediocre seasons starting for the Angels. However, he later became a very useful relief pitcher.

Remy never became a star, but that's mostly because of knee injuries he would suffer in the next few seasons. In the long run, the Sox probably missed having Aase, who actually had a nice little career. Still, Jerry was a fan favorite and useful player who has made quite a nice career for himself as the Sox color commentator.


So, there you have it. Remy displaced Doyle so that he could help the 1975 Red Sox. Then, Remy became the starting Red Sox second baseman after Doyle's departure. Interesting how that worked out.

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A Look Back at the 1975 Boston Red Sox - Cecil Cooper, First Baseman and Designated Hitter

1/17/2018

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network
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Cecil Cooper enjoyed a strong season in 1975 with the Boston Red Sox. Cooper hit .311/.355/.544 in 106 games, 54 of them as Designated Hitter, the rest at first base. It would end up being the best year Cooper would have in a Red Sox uniform. However, it was far from the last good season that Cooper would have.

After an off-year in 1976, the Red Sox had an opportunity to reacquire two players from the Milwaukee Brewers: Bernie Carbo and George Scott. Carbo was great for the Sox in 1975 and George Scott was a star player for the Sox from 1966-1971. While Carbo and Scott would be great for the Red Sox in 1977, their careers would quickly go south after that.

Cooper, on the other hand, would go on to post very good numbers in Milwaukee for 11 seasons. It was a trade that the Red Sox would come to regret in the long-term. Cecil Cooper gave the Brewers the consistent stalwart at first base that the Red Sox would lack for many years.

This trade of Cooper for Scott and Carbo would end up being almost as bad as the trade that sent George Scott to Milwaukee in the first place. The prize in that deal for the Red Sox was speedy outfielder Tommy Harper, who would have one great season for Boston in between two not so great ones. The Brewers got one great year of pitcher Jim Lonborg out of that deal and 5 of Scott's best career seasons.

In hindsight, the Red Sox should have kept Cecil Cooper. But, considering they were selling low, at the time, it probably didn't look so bad. Still, it’s one in a long line of trades that went bad for the Sox. While losing Cooper alone may not have contributed to their World Series title draught, it certainly did not help.

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A Look Back at the 1975 Boston Red Sox Team

1/17/2018

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by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network
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2015 marked the 40th anniversary of the 1975 Red Sox, a team that came very close to winning the World Series. The 1975 World Series went the full seven games and the Sox battle with the Cincinnati "Big Red Machine" has gone down in history as one of the best Series of all time. The 1975 Sox went 95-65 during the regular season, finishing 4 and a half games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in first place. They outplayed their Pythagorean Win-Loss Record (runs scored/runs allowed) by 7 wins, led well by manager Darrell Johnson.

Leading the way on offense was Rookie of the Year and American League MVP Fred Lynn with his 7.4 Wins Above Replacement (WAR from Baseball-Reference). Lynn is one of only two players in MLB history to win both the Rookie of the Year award and MVP award, along with Ichiro Suzuki. In Lynn's case, there were other players with similar WAR figures, such as Twins great Rod Carew. But it's hard to fault the voters for selecting Lynn who was on the AL pennant winning team. (In Ichiro's case, he wasn't even the best player on his own team; that honor belonged to second baseman Bret Boone.)

The Sox offense did include future Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk, but Yaz did not enjoy one of his better seasons and Fisk only played in 79 games. However, Fisk was excellent when he did play, posting a batting line 50% above league average. Left fielder Jim Rice turned in an excellent rookie season (3 WAR) on his way to a Hall of Fame career. The always solid right fielder Dwight Evans was also excellent, and the primary designated hitter Cecil Cooper provided an .899 OPS. Also, Bernie Carbo, famous for his three-run homer that set up the extra innings in which Fisk would hit his historic shot over the Green Monster, had a fine regular season as well. The former Red and Cardinal had a .892 OPS in 107 games, splitting his time between Designated Hitter (DH) and the outfield.

The pitching staff wasn't exactly composed of world beaters, though. Sox legend Luis Tiant didn't have close to his best season. Bill Lee, Tiant, and Rick Wise were only slightly above average starters, but the bullpen was decent. Swingman Roger Maret was also above average. They kept their team in games. With good defense and timely offense, no one had to be extremely excellent on the mound for the team to succeed.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Lynn and Rice put this team over the top after a mediocre 1974 season. They replaced the lousy batting lines of Tommy Harper and Juan Beniquez in left field and center field, respectively. This team came nearly as close to winning the World Series as the 1986 team would. But, considering the heartbreak of Bill Buckner's error and Calvin Schiraldi's implosions, the 1975 team is remembered much more fondly.
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Matt Diaz Was a Good MLB Baseball Player

1/16/2018

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner ofIntent-sive Nature & theBrand Shamans network
Braves @ Dodgers
Once I was taking a look at Google Trends, and I noticed a couple of names among trending baseball players that surprised me: Rich Hill and Matt Diaz. I quickly realized that the trending for Rich Hill had to do with the documentary film that shares his name. However, former ballplayer Matt Diaz was coming up for something else, the Diaz Family Foundation. It was started by Matt and his family. The Foundation helps orphans and disadvantaged youth in Polk County Georgia.

I'd like to take some time to say something about Matt Diaz as a ballplayer, who also happens to be a great guy, as well. I watched a lot of Atlanta Braves baseball when I was younger. Many of their games were broadcast on TBS, so it was easy to. I loved watching Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and the many underrated players that suited up for the Braves year after year.

One particularly underrated player was Matt Diaz from 2006-2012, with a brief intermission in Pittsburgh for the better part of 2011. His best years were 2006, 2007, and 2009. In those seasons, he posted OPS numbers of .839, .865, and .878 respectively. If he was such a slugger, as those numbers would suggest, then why did he never get an All-Star nod?

Diaz was the kind of player that manager Bobby Cox and general manager John Schuerholtz valued greatly. He did one thing exceptionally well, and that was destroy left-handed pitching. There were a lot of left-handed pitchers that the Braves faced on a regular basis. So, Diaz, even being part of the "weak" side of a corner outfield platoon, saw a lot of plate appearances. He made the most of them.

For his career, Diaz hit .322/.363/.495 (.858 OPS) versus left-handed pitching in roughly 1000 plate appearances. That's compared to .258/.313/.360 (.673 OPS) versus right-handed pitching. Diaz was no Gold Glove outfielder, either, but in left field, he actually was decent defensively (career 1 Defensive Runs Saved). It was in right field that he had trouble (-10 DRS for his career in RF). Considering he saw almost 3 times as much play in left as in right, that gives you some idea how badly he performed in right.

All in all, when Diaz played left field against southpaw starters, he was an above-average player. The rest of the time... well, he was flawed. A former 17th round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays (then known as the Devil Rays) he had a couple cups of coffee before being selected off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles. He was later released, signed with the Royals, then was traded in December 2005 for a pitcher named Ricardo Rodriguez who was out of organized baseball after the 2006 season. It's safe to say that the Braves won that trade.

Even after letting Diaz go after a subpar 2010 season, the Braves would reacquire him for the 2011 stretch run for another minor leaguer who hasn't amounted to anything, either. Unfortunately, that was the end of Diaz. He had a lousy 2012 season, and couldn't stick with the Yankees in 2013. He did manage to get into a few games with the Miami Marlins in 2013, however. He officially retired in 2014 to spend more time with his family.

Matt's a great guy and it was nice to rekindle the old memories of a very useful ballplayer. It would be nice to see the Atlanta Braves return to their old value-hunting ways during their current massive rebuilding project. Who knows if they'll find another Matt Diaz off the scrap heap?
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