It’s not often that David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady can be in the same place at the same time and be overshadowed.

It happened yesterday at Fenway Park.

Here are your top 10 reads for this morning, in no particular order, other than sport.

In Red Sox’ Impressive Opening Act at Fenway, Mookie Betts Steals the Show – Chad Finn looks at the Fenway opening day festivities, which were overshadowed quickly once the game started.

Mookie Betts’ phenomenal 1st act at Fenway – Scott Lauber looks at the 22-year-old Betts stealing the show in the home opener.

Mookie Betts provides spark Sox have been missing -Kevin Thomas says that Betts gives the team the type of excitement on the basepaths that they’ve lacked since Jacoby Ellsbury left.

After a scary first, Rick Porcello settled right in – Julian Benbow has the Red Sox starter getting the job done.

Tom Brady’s latest title fuels David Ortiz – Michael Silverman has the Red Sox slugger hungry to match the Patriots QB in titles.

Having exceeded expectations with playoff berth, Celtics aim for more – Chris Forsberg has the Celtics not satisfied to just be sneaking into the playoffs.

5 ways Celtics have paved path into playoffs – Mark Murphy has a good look at how the Celtics ended up in this position.

Bruins must quicken pace for 2015-16 – Fluto Shinzawa says that moving the puck from one end to the other more swiftly should be a major goal for the Bruins.

Deflategate questions that need answering by Wells – With the Wells investigation passing the 80-day mark, Tom E Curran looks at the issues we most need answers to.

Taking stock of the Patriots – With the midseason about at the halfway point, Glen Farley takes a look at the state of the team.

Bonus: (But you need to be an ESPN Insider to read it.) Patriots’ options to replace Revis – Field Yates looks in-depth at how the Patriots can try to account for the departure of Darrelle Revis.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

13 thoughts on “Mookie Magic”

  1. Also overshadowed by Mookie Betts: Xander Bogaerts

    It’s pretty crazy when the 8th batter in your everyday lineup has a slash line of .433 / .500 .533.

    Now the question becomes, with the strength of this lineup, if Victorino continues to not do much of anything at the plate and require a day-off every other day, do we see JBJ in Fenway before Castillo?

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    1. As much as I like JBJ and think he could and will make a pretty good major league outfielder I don’t see how they can keep him and Castillo in the organization together, not with the $ commitment made to Castillo coupled with the fact that it looks like he can play at the MLB level also. I think in the next month the Sox have to move Victoino and then I think by the all star break JBJ goes. It then leaves them with Nava and Craig for depth behind Ramirez, Betts, Castillo.

      Of course the talking heads will have a field day with the scenario but to me it is the only one that makes sense. Some might argue you could move Craig but in my opinion if he does not bitch about playing time having a good veteran coming off the bench rather than the kid (JBJ) is the better move short run…maybe not long run.

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      1. I agree with your timetable on Victorino. It’s hard to imagine him in a Sox uniform for much longer.

        I forgot to include this in my first response and the JBJ comments might make more sense after you read it. JBJ is hitting well so far for Pawtucket and barely striking out compared to last season. If he is called up and duplicates that success, he become all the more attractive in trade scenarios.

        Castillo to DL

        http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/04/14/red-sox-outfielder-rusney-castillo-headed/Mi06fVSd4ZbEyDFvNd4KMI/story.html

        Manager John Farrell is expected to offer more precise details regarding the nature of his shoulder injury later Tuesday, but multiple major league sources describe Castillo’s prognosis as encouraging, suggesting that worst-case scenarios (such as surgery to repair a tear) appear unlikely to come to fruition at this time.

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    1. http://nesn.com/2015/04/uconns-geno-auriemma-bill-belichick-is-only-coach-worth-expletive-right-now/

      The UConn women’s basketball coach matched John Wooden with 10 national championships whenhis Huskies claimed the title Tuesday with a 63-53 win over Notre Dame.In the postgame press conference, Auriemma was asked for his thoughts on how his accomplishments match up against his peers in men’s sports.

      Suffice to say, Auriemma puts himself in elite company.

      “We go by what’s the most important sport in the country, the NFL,” Auriemma said, according to a transcript. “Bill Belichick is the only coach worth a (expletive) right now. Everybody else is just trying to catch up to him.

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    2. Yeah, BUT HE COULD HAVE HAD CLAY MATTHEWS! HE COULD HAVE HAD DEZ BRYANT! HE PASSED ON (insert here the name of another team’s superstar who was drafted after BB selected a “reach” or a “bust” a few picks earlier)! I actually disagree (sort of) with the “blind spots” the writer of the article points out. Yes, BB has missed on several WRs and DBs, but he’s also hit on a few. Part of the problem, for lack of a better term, is that he usually designates the use of non-first rounder’s on those positions. He’s never drafted a WR in the first round (a philosophy with which I completely agree, since that’s the most overvalued position in all of pro sports), and he’s only spent two first rounder’s on the secondary (Meriweather and McCourty), I think. After the first round, the available talent drops off and you’re hoping to get lucky. At WR, he got lucky with Branch and Givens, but he’s been on a losing streak since then, pretty much (I still hold out some hope for Dobson if he can get healthy). With that said, WR is one position where you don’t have to draft your own guys. There are always plenty of quality WRs available in free agency and via trades (not always a Randy Moss, but usually some good players are available every offseason). At DB, he got lucky with Samuel in 2003, and I always believed that Ellis Hobbs and James Sanders (both 2005) were underrated contributors during their time in NE; he hasn’t been so lucky with a lot of the other picks at those positions, but at least Chung’s second turn with the team has been better than the first. Dennard, if healthy, is a pretty good player (he started for the better part of two seasons before getting hurt last year, and wasn’t needed because of the presence of Revis and Browner). The jury is still out on Ryan and Harmon, but both have made some plays over the last two years (especially Harmon). Malcolm Butler, of course, was not drafted, but he still counts as a draft “find” — hopefully, he will be more than a flash-in-the-pan success story. Anyway, a GM must be graded on his overall performance, not just his performance on draft weekend, and that’s where BB really shines — in overall roster-building prowess.

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  3. As I was driving today I gave f and m a listen. The Red Sox very early success is killing their material. All they talked about is how the Patriots want the Hernandez verdict and deflategate verdict to come down at the same time or during an already busy news cycle or on a Friday afternoon. These 2 morons think that the eventual Hernandez guilty verdict is going to greatly tarnish the brand. I for one do not see it. They cut ties with him immediately, not like the Ravens giving Ray Rice a heroes welcome back during training camp. And their conspiracy lunacy on deflategate has quickly surpassed the Doyel/Kravits to the nth degree. I think the Kraft group should have a long chat with cbs about sending these 2 on a slow boat to oblivion with Thomase and carrot top shank. Have a great day all and be thankful you do not live a life as miserable as these hacks.

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    1. I stopped listening outright, F+M are white noise that appeal to the lemmings, who buy right into their daily diatribe about how sports suck in this market. At this point I’m not even sure F+M even believe everything they’re saying, it’s a formula designed to rile people up, irritate and provoke. The only thing that matters to them are the ratings and they’re in their corner, but their reaction to the day’s events are so predictable you needn’t even listen in. And their “game breakdowns” are embarrassing. They seldom talk specifics, more “big picture issues” intended to piss everyone off.

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  4. Finn has the Winter book ratings up. Kinda as you expect:

    http://www.boston.com/sports/touching_all_the_bases/2015/04/sports_hub_first_weei_third_in_winter_nielsen_audio_ratings.html?camp=twit:tatb&dlvrit=845880

    One example (Rest are at the article):

    No shocker there.

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    1. Strikes me that the midday slot is still lagging horribly behind for EEI. They’ve made strong gains in a year overall but the uptick for MFB is negligible…and to me it’s a spot they could make some progress in. With Gresh gone from football coverage, the 10-2 98.5 “Zo and Beetle Show” has taken steps backwards. They have no chemistry together and Bertrand is a near total disaster as a show-runner. I think Zolak has taken to calling into F+M because he’s so disinterested with his show now. The problem is MFB is godawful. I’d trash all three of them.

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