A longtime Merrimack Valley resident, Sea Dogs manager Epperson enjoying life close to home

Jun. 5—When you're living the minor league lifestyle, you learn to appreciate the luxury of getting to sleep in your own bed.

Chad Epperson is no stranger to living out of a suitcase. He's spent the past two decades coaching in the Red Sox minor league system and between 2010-21 served as the club's minor league catching coordinator. That's meant a lot of travel and a lot of time away from his family, which made the new opportunity presented to him this past offseason particularly appealing.

Epperson recently took over as manager of the Portland Sea Dogs, the Red Sox Double-A affiliate, and beyond having a chance to work directly with some of the top prospects in the system the job also happens to be just a short drive from his home in southern New Hampshire.

"It's been outstanding, that was kind of a perk of it," Epperson said before Tuesday's game against the nearby New Hampshire Fisher Cats. "Being able to get home Sunday night and being able to sleep in your bed Sunday night and Monday most days, you can't beat it."

Originally from Kentucky, Epperson and his family have lived in the Merrimack Valley for the last 12 years. The family spent most of that time in Andover before moving over the state line to Derry, N.H. this past summer.

"It's awesome. It really is. I'm from the south so still adjusting to the winters, but days like this you can't beat it," Epperson said. "It's beautiful up here, my kids have excelled through school in Massachusetts and my daughter is loving it at UNH. My wife teaches at Timberlane High, so we love it. It has everything we need."

Though Epperson still travels a lot, the Sea Dogs' Eastern League schedule usually doesn't take him far and sometimes even brings him right into his backyard. This past week the Sea Dogs have been just a few miles up the road in Manchester for a six-game series against the Fisher Cats, and all told Epperson will get to manage 15 games total in his adopted home state.

"It's great, I drove up, took me about 18 minutes to get here and you got to love it," he said. "I'm looking forward to the whole week, that's for sure, and the rest of the time during the season when we're here."

Even without deGrom and Scherzer, Mets just keep winningSomething is different about this New York Mets team.

Much like Red Sox and Cubs fans from the pre-championship days, Mets fandom has often been defined by the lingering fear that at some point the other shoe is going to drop.

A key injury here, a late collapse there, no matter how good things are going something always seems to go wrong in the end.

This year the worst thing imaginable has already happened to the Mets and it hasn't mattered. Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, two of the best pitchers in baseball and the aces who were supposed to lead New York to the promised land, both went down with significant injuries and have missed a sizable chunk of the season.

And yet the Mets keep winning without them.

The Mets are enjoying a dream season, ranking among the best teams in baseball in both runs per game and runs allowed per game, and that combination has helped them keep a stranglehold on the NL East essentially from day one.

How have the Mets done it? Even without deGrom and Scherzer the starting pitching has been excellent. Chris Bassitt has been a revelation since being acquired from the Oakland Athletics, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco have both vastly exceeded expectations and David Peterson has enjoyed a breakout campaign of his own.

Combine that with a rock solid bullpen, the steady hand of new manager Buck Showalter and an explosive and deep offense that has clearly moved past last year's struggles, and you have yourself a club that has every reason to carry itself like the championship contender it is.

The Mets breakthrough has been among the season's most interesting subplots, one that could set the stage for some fascinating heavyweight postseason matchups down the road. Across town the New York Yankees have asserted themselves as the teams to beat in the AL East, and across the country the Los Angeles Dodgers remain the perennial title favorites they've been for nearly a decade.

Toss in the Los Angeles Angels, who boast several of the world's biggest stars and seem to have finally broken through as a serious contender, and the league office has to be giddy with the potential World Series matchups.

Will the Mets stand tall at the end? Only time will tell, but with deGrom nearing a return and Scherzer expected back around the All-Star break, these are exciting times in Queens for sure.

Bogaerts breaks century-old recordWill Xander Bogaerts remain Boston's starting shortstop in the years to come? That remains to be seen, but whether he and the Red Sox can agree to an extension or not his place in club history is secure.

This week Bogaerts surpassed Everett Scott for the most games played at shortstop in franchise history. Scott played 1,093 games at shortstop over eight seasons with the Red Sox between 1914-21 and his club record had stood for 101 years.

Scott played a key role in three World Series titles with Boston and is a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, but he also batted .246 with an unremarkable .588 OPS over his eight seasons with the club. Bogaerts by comparison has batted .291 with an .814 OPS for his career and has helped the Red Sox win two World Series titles.

While Bogaerts now stands alone atop the most games played leaderboard, he likely still has a ways to go before he can decisively beat Nomar Garciaparra in any argument for greatest shortstop in club history. As it stands now Bogaerts ranks second to Garciaparra in club history for wins above replacement among shortstops, with Garciaparra posting 41.2 compared to Bogaerts' 30.7.

NESN available to cord cutters... for a price

If you're one of the millions of Americans who have abandoned traditional cable packages in favor of streaming services and other alternative content providers, watching the Red Sox has probably been an adventure over the past few years.

Cord cutters haven't had many options to watch the Red Sox or Bruins, especially since YouTube TV dropped NESN, but that changed on Wednesday as NESN announced it will become the first regional sports network to offer a direct to consumer subscription service.

The new streaming service, called NESN 360, will allow in-market fans to subscribe to the network directly without a cable package and access all of the network's content, including live Red Sox and Bruins broadcasts. The service also includes on-demand Red Sox and Bruins highlights, select historical games, NESN's original shows and all sorts of other content, and those who already subscribe to cable will be able to access the service as well.

The service has the potential to be a game-changer, but it comes with one significant drawback — the price.

NESN 360 will cost $29.99 per month, making it among the most expensive streaming services on the market. As part of the launch NESN is running a promotion where the first month will cost just $1, and there is also a $329.99 annual plan that comes with eight Red Sox tickets, but no matter how you slice it signing up will be a major financial commitment.

For many fans the price could be a sticking point. If you already pay for a standalone internet service while subscribing to YouTube TV, Netflix and a couple of other streaming services, tacking on NESN 360 could push the price to a point where you may as well just get cable.

But at the same time, if watching the Red Sox means that much to you, $29.99 could be a bargain. NESN is counting on there being a big market of people out there who feel that way, and it will be interesting to see if that bet pays off.

Four Sox in top 50Baseball America released its latest Top 100 prospect rankings earlier this week, and the update included great news for Red Sox fans. Top pitching prospect Brayan Bello surged 30 spots in the rankings to go from No. 79 to No. 49, giving Boston four prospects in the top 50 overall.

In addition to Bello, shortstop Marcelo Mayer moved up a spot to No. 12, first baseman Triston Casas dropped four spots to No. 20 and second baseman Nick Yorke dropped five spots to No. 33. Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, who Red Sox fans saw recently during last weekend's five-game series at Fenway Park, remains the No. 1 prospect in baseball.

Also of note, Lexington's Sal Frelick, the former Boston College star now in the Milwaukee Brewers system, moved up a spot to No. 94 overall.

Thumbs up for pitch clockThis past week I had the opportunity to experience Minor League Baseball's pitch clock rule for the first time when I visited Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats vs. Portland Sea Dogs game. Unlike in MLB, where pitchers can take as long as they want to throw a pitch, minor leaguers currently get 14 seconds to throw once they've received the ball and 18 seconds when runners are on base.

My verdict? The pitch clock can't come to MLB soon enough.

I was blown away by what a positive impact the pitch clock had on the viewing experience. The game moved along so much quicker, but it didn't feel rushed either. All of the action unfolded at an appropriate pace without the interminable downtime between pitches that typically drags things out.

Case in point, despite the game going into extra innings after a lengthy eighth-inning rally, the game was finished after only two hours and 35 minutes. That also happens to be the exact time Baseball America calculated the average nine-inning minor league game took after a month's worth of games with the pitch clock in effect.

By comparison, games without the pitch clock last season and through the first two weeks this year took roughly three hours flat, and major league games have been creeping up even longer than that.

It doesn't need to be that way, and once you've experienced the pitch clock for yourself you'll never want to go back.

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.