Drafted by CHC #19 overall. Was in the Rizzo trade. (I had to look this up.)
Josh A Smith notably had to use the middle initial to distinguish himself from Josh D Smith when they were teammates in Pawtucket.
Similar time frame, but different SoSH hall of fame worthy event. Jeremi Gonzales's 3 inning save is the reference. He won an award for it.
I had to look up their stats to see if I was actually just remembering the other Josh Smith, but it looks like Josh D never pitched in the Majors for the Sox. Neither face looked familiar though.
Thanks for this. I should've done the research on my own but was entertaining myself by trying to remember things off the top of my head and then went for a run rather than double-checking my work.
I think I mostly remember Willie Banks for the very reason we're talking about him now - his one save with the Red Sox happened to be one of the cheapest saves in MLB history. He pitched the last three innings of a 22-4 win over the Devil Rays; it was in that game in 2002 when Nomar hit three home runs on his birthday. Banks held the title of "cheapest save in the 21st century" until 2007, when Wes Littleton took it from him by pitching the last three innings in a 30-3 Rangers/Orioles blowout.
The Giants signed him to a huge deal and he is not remembered fondly by Giants fans. I was shocked that, based on his numbers alone, he was above-average for them except in 2017. You really never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Edward James Olmos played Lt. Castillo on Miami Vice. His character's name was not Frank, but details, details...
No worries. I was trying to remember who drafted Cashner and couldn't so I looked it up, saw that he was traded for Rizzo, and figured I'd post it.
I remember distinctly that one of Wasdin's saves (and perhaps all) was one of those clean 3 innings in a game the Sox won by at least 10 runs.
Those are the three I have no memory whatsoever of. Schiell, Badenhop I could at least get on the "Red Sox or Capitol Hill rioter"
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199906260.shtml
Bringing Pedro's record to 14-2 before the end of June. Man, that was quite the game. 17 runs and Darren Lewis still managed to go 0-for-5.
Chuck Person?
Burke Badenhop is the answer to the trivia question, "Of the six players that the Marlins acquired when they sent Miguel Cabrera to the Tigers, which one spent the most time on the Marlins' roster?" In a related story, that was an awful trade for the Marlins.
While amassing a 5.36 ERA and a -1.2 WAR... in case you needed a nice example that saves are not necessarily correlated with performance.
I don't think he was as bad as he is remembered to be (or his season numbers suggest). He was trash out of the gate and got sent down, but after he came back he was good. But by then, I guess, the die was cast.
Still, Ace was a saving grace in the atrocity known as 2011. One of the few guys who gutted outing after outing and pitched extremely well down the horrid stretch of September.
2011 Alfredo Aceves was the man. Shame he fell off a Kellerman afterwards. I’m pretty sure it was the WBC in 2013 where there was a brawl between Canada and Mexico with Ace in the middle of it. I think Larry Walker said something along the lines of “He had satan in his eyes.”
Yeah, me neither. Still suffering from a little PBobbyVSD.
Well you're right - that did happen in 2012. But why should Bobby Valentine turn what was (and apparently still is) an elite reliever into such trash? How does that happen?
K-Rod saved 62 for the Angels in 2008 and I don't believe they won 124 games that year, so his percentage must be higher.
Yeah, that is an amazing figure. For the Sox specifically, I haven't found any Red Sock beating Gordon's percentage, though Derek Lowe in 2000 came very close — 42 saves on an 85-win team.
It's his skill. That 2012 team had a bunch of people in their prime who drastically underperformed.
Pick 2012 out of this run of Jon Lester ERA+ seasons: 144, 136, 134, 124, 87, 110, 158, 114, 171...
Nope. Javy caught all his games for the Sox from August 4 to September 2 (while Varitek was sidelined by arthroscopic knee surgery). During that period, Javier only pitched in one game (August 20), caught by Mirabelli.
Even crazier to me is that his one save happened in 2004, not 2003. I would have thought that with all of the bullpen chaos in 2003, he would have managed to snag at least one save, but BRef says he did not; apparently he was just setting up for BH Kim until the postseason.
Banks was the #3 overall pick in the draft where Ken Griffey Jr was #1, also he played high school basketball with Bobby Hurley Jr at national power St. Anthony’s in Jersey City (which I remember because I lived in JC, then and still).
