Daily Archives: March 13, 2017
The Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox- A Review
The Boston Red Sox have a fan base and teams that create memories unlike most sports teams. Often, the two inform and feed off the other. Herb Crehan’s The Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox: Birth of Red Sox Nation (2016, Summer Game Books) celebrates the 50thanniversary of one of those greatest collaborations, which was so memorable it spawned a team name for the history books and launched an identity for those on the sidelines that persists to this day.
Spotlight on the 2017 Washington Nationals
Off The Bench’s season previews this year are being run a bit differently. We’ll runa divisional preview for each of baseball’s 6 divisions, and a spotlight on the most interesting team in each division. The spotlight does not necessarily have to be the “most interesting team,” so perhaps a more accurate description is that it is the team that we feel like writing about whenever we sit down to write. It’s our blog, thank you very much.
With that, I will be previewing the Washington Nationals’ 2017 season, not because they are the most interesting team in the NL East (for my money, that’s the Phillies), nor because they’re the easiest for me to write about (this Braves fan could write 4,000 words on Bartolo Colon and the new stadium that could get us ready for 2018). No, I’m writing about the Nationals because they might just be the best team that we never talk about. Sure, Max covered their Presidential tryouts, but the last piece dedicated to the Nats was when we wrote about Trea Turner in November. It just feels like they’re due for a Sean Morash analysis.
So where do the Nats stand? They’re the odds-on favorite to win the NL East, just as they have in 3 of the last 5 years. Unfortunately, they’ve lost in the Division Series each of the three times they’ve made the playoffs since moving to DC. They feel like the Atlanta Braves in the early 2000’s: clearly very good, but definitely not the best team in baseball.
Why though? Well, their superstars Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper haven’t simultaneously carried their halves of the roster. That may sound like tall order, but let’s not forget that these are two of the very most talented players that baseball has seen in the last 20 years. First, let’s look at Harper’s Position Player group.
To continue reading our Washington Nationals 2017 Season preview, please click on over to Off The Bench Baseball.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – March 13, 2017
Picture by Wally Fong, AP
On the campus of UC Berkeley, I talked about Tommy John and how his career and impact on the game as a pioneer had more effect on the game than many Hall of Famers.
I did NOT risk my body on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
MLB Reports 
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