MVN - Most Valuable Network

Review: MSP Red Sox Annual 2007

[Disclaimer: I wrote the Minor League Review/Preview article and the Top 20 Prospect List for this publication.]

Name: Maple Street Press Red Sox Annual 2007
Publisher: Maple Street Press
ISBN: 978-0-9777-436-6-7
Retail Price: $14.95
Available: NOW

For the second consecutive season, Maple Street Press brings forth a new type of Pre-Season publication, a publication dedicated to one team. As Publisher Jim Walsh says in his opening Letter from the Editor, he always wanted more than the page or two that the national publications tend to bring.

The first article in this years Annual is Chad Finn’s (Copy Editor at the Boston Globe and writer at his own Blog, Touching All the Bases) look at the 2007 Red Sox. After a short look back at 2006, Chad details the moves that the Red Sox made in the offseason, and then looks at all of the potential players who had a chance (as of January) to make the Sox 25 man roster.

Following Finn’s piece is Jeff Kuhn’s debut piece for the Annual, a look at the 13 other American League teams. [Jeff writes at both the Sons of Sam Horn and The House that Dewey Built] The capsules, as makes sense, are longer for the 4 AL East teams, the best capsule is the irreverent one Jeff wrote for Kansas City Royals.

Rob Bradford (of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune and Bradford on Baseball) follows with his debut for the Annual, writing a fascinating piece on the pursuit of Daisuke Matsuzaka. There are many heroes in this pursuit, including some that aren’t as well known to the general public.

At this point, the Annual moves into more “sabermetric” content, as Pete Palmer (of Total Baseball, The Hidden Game of Baseball, ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, etc.) breaks down the numbers on whether Jonathan Papelbon should be a closer or a starter. You might not like his conclusion if you were not a fan of the 2003 Bullpen.

It only makes sense that the next piece is one of two David Laurila interviews in the Annual, this one of the aforementioned Jon Papelbon. How timely is the interview? There is a question that directly references Pete Palmer’s conclusions. Synergy!

Steve Mastroyin (of Sons of Sam Horn… and a co-editor of the publication) uses Pete Palmer’s numbers to look at the offense. The projections say the team will be far better offensively… his conclusion seems even more optimistic.

Vince Gennaro (Diamond Dollars) returns with his look at the economics of baseball, in this case, a look at whether or not the Red Sox were efficient in their spending on Free Agents this off-season. Without giving away his answer, I will say the conclusion he draws would be different for another random major league team.

Stephen Vetere follows with his look at the struggles Theo Epstein has had in constructing a bullpen. Could we be looking at 2003 again this season?

The final article in the “2007 Olde Towne Team” Section is Mark Brown’s (of SoSH) look at the dynamic duo that is David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. How do they rank over a four year period with other great 3-4 duos? You may be surprised at Mark’s conclusion.

The Annual follows the “Olde Towne Team” section with the “Down on the Farm” Section, which leads off with my pieces (which, for obvious reasons will be ignored).

Chris Paddock (of Diehard Magazine) writes about the 2006 draft in the next piece. In particular, he writes about how the 2006 Draft (and the signings of Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish, Richie Lenz, et.al.) was influenced by the 2005 draft, and the failure to sign Pedro Alvarez or draft Justin Smoak. David Laurila follows with an interview of 2006 Draftee Daniel Bard.

The third section of the publication is “Heroes of Yesteryear”, which takes a look not only at the players and teams of the past, but the history of the Red Sox. This is best shown with the first article, an in depth look at the Standell’s “Dirty Water” and how it became the victory song of the Red Sox. I’ll admit, it was the first article I read (other than the minor league articles) once I received the publication. And, the article was only a snippet - Chuck Burgess and Bill Nowlin has a 176 page book soon to be released on the entire story.

Shaun Kelly (the starter of the famous SoSH thread turned book, Win it For…) fondly remembers the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox. Mark Armour (Paths to Glory) takes a look at Joe Cronin, the man behind the retired #4. Robert Sullivan (Our Red Sox) writes about the aftermath of the 2004 season, and what 2005/2006 meant to a longtime fan.

Of the three pieces, I was most fond of the profile of Joe Cronin, as I learned about a figure I did not know much about. The two look backs are well written and most certainly fit the goal of the publisher, these are not the type of articles I go for.

The final article is from Tobey Dorsey (Baseball Think Factory) takes a look at the youth movements of 1987 and 1997, relieving the first years of Nomar, O’Leary, Burks and Greenwell.

The final piece is a compendium of Red Sox bars for those on the road. I imagine if the list is included next year, there will be more than one place in Japan friendly to Red Sox fans.

There are only a few issues with the publication, and the few worth mentioning are due to publishing deadlines. Although the Publication was put to press late enough to include Curt Schilling’s desire to pitch in 2008, it was too late to account for Lenny DiNardo’s waiving (and pick up by Oakland) or Keith Foulke’s retirement from Baseball (in Jeff Kuhn’s piece). There was also a flip-flop of captions in the Pete Palmer article. However, considering that almost all pre-season publications have errors (sometimes, egregious ones), there issues are really nothing more than nits to pick.

Overall, the 2007 Annual is a cohesive compendium of articles, and is a must have for Red Sox fans. It is slightly expanded from last years addition (112 pages, with less filler) and is fully in color. Unlike most preview magazines, there are only a total of 2 pages of advertisements, a half-page for Baseball-reference.com, and a total of a page and a half for 3 Maple Street Press Publications [Vince Gennaro’s aforementioned Diamond Dollar, David Laurila’s Interviews from Red Sox Nation and Pete Palmer/Gary Gillette’s Ultimate Red Sox Companion.]

Maple Street Press Red Sox Annual 2007 can be purchased directly from the publisher, at local New England area newsstands, or through your favorite on-line Book seller (Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, etc.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Boston Red Sox, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.