Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu broke his bat on a check swing

Good morning! The Red Sox lost to the Pirates yesterday, with Ranger Suarez giving up a homer to the number one prospect in baseball, Konnor Griffin. Luckily, absolutely nothing that happens in a spring training game in February matters one stinking bit. In fact, if anyone remembers anything at all about yesterday’s game, it will be this:

For years, New England dads of a certain age have been regaling the world with a story about Jim Rice breaking his bat on a check swing. They don’t build ballplayers like that anymore!

I don’t necessarily doubt the Jim Rice story, but video evidence of such a swing does not seem to exist. But the video of yesterday’s game isn’t going anywhere, nor is video of Albert Belle, Carlos Santana, and Yasiel Puig all doing the same thing.

So, sorry dad, by they do in fact make ballplayers like that these days, and Wilyer Abreu is one of them. So the question of the day is: how many homers do you think Wilyer is going to hit this year? 73 is probably a bit too much to ask for. So I’ll go with 72.

Talk about what you want and be good to one another.