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Jake Peavy will finally pitch in a League Championship Series when he takes the mound for the Boston Red Sox in Game 4 in Detroit tonight. Part of it's been his fault, as Peavy lost both of his NLDS starts with the Padres, and not in pitchers' duels, either. I remember hearing talk about him pitching hurt at the time, which, whoa, whaaaaaat, nah, can't be true, not him, etc.
Peavy has Rally Mode engaged, and I agree with James at Southside Showdown:
Seeing the hyperbolic Peavy quote machine on a national stage is very...right
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) October 15, 2013
Peavy talking about putting it all on the line for some lightly-attended September game against the Royals just didn't fit
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) October 15, 2013
So you get this one, via Paul Sullivan:
"Win, lose or draw we're going to walk away knowing absolutely we emptied the tank. We believe we're going to win."
I'd like to see a draw. Or this one from MLB.com:
"When you get traded, you know you're going to a contender and this is what, as a competitor, as a baseball player, playing at the highest level, you dream of being able to do, pitch in games that mean the world to your teammates, to yourself, to your coaching staff and your fan base."
But Dan Hayes got the best one:
"[The beards have] kind of become a theme here and a sign of unity," Peavy said. "This team went through a lot last year. It started in spring training where a lot of guys said ‘You know what, this is a new chapter. This clubhouse isn’t going to get broken up. We’re going to be a family.’ A few of the guys got the beard thing going and here we are looking like this, which is awful. I apologize. It is what it is and I’m happy to have it."
Also, Matt Thornton is around, but not on the playoff roster. His beard is lustrous.
Terrerobytes
Scot Gregor mulls over some possible candidates to replace Jeff Manto, a mix of guys inside and outside the organization. Wally Joyner is a name I hadn't heard before in this context.
Speaking of new names, Tim Dierkes suggests Chris Young could return to the organization that drafted him if the demand for Curtis Granderson pushes his offers beyond the Sox's comfort level. Flyers aside, his analysis is centered on the Sox trying to acquire position players under 30, and he's pretty grounded in doing so.
The Red Sox aren't exploiting Miguel Cabrera, which sounds familiar. But John Farrell actually has an explanation for it. I don't know if it justifies not even trying it, but it's an applicable answer nevertheless.
Lewie Pollis looks back at WAR/dollar evaluations and says the cost of one win above replacement should be $7 million. Dave Cameron, whose work Pollis is seeking to improve, offers some good rebuttals in the comments.
Ben Lindbergh's series on scouting school is still worth following. In this installment, he writes about writing up his first scouting report, and what goes into (and comes out of) a "Follow."
Wally Bell passed away from a heart attack at the age of 48, becoming the first active umpire to die since John McSherry suffered a fatal heart attack in Cincinnati on Opening Day in 1996. I was interested in seeing the reaction, because outside of being a pitcher's umpire, I couldn't really tie Bell to any specific event. Usually a bad call or controversy will follow umps around for years, but he stayed out of the headlines, which is probably one of the best compliments you can give somebody in his profession. He received more of them as news spread:
During the national anthem in Detroit before Game 3, the umpires stood in a "missing man" formation in Bell's honor.
(Photo by Andrew Weber / USA Today Sports)