MLB Playoff Preview: Boston Red Sox
2013 AL East Champions – Current record 95-62
Offense
Late in the 2012 MLB season, Boston Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherington decided his team needed to go in a different direction. He made the brave decision to trade Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers for James Loney and a bunch of prospects.
The true effect of this for Boston would not be seen until the 2012 offseason. Cherington used the money saved from shedding the expensive contracts of the previously mentioned players to sign, Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes and Stephen Drew.
The new signees have melded well with the likes of proven Red Sox stalwarts, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury.
As well as the veterans, bean town has a good emerging young core of players including Jackie Bradley Junior, Daniel Nava, Will Middlebrooks and Xander Bogaerts.
The results of combining these different groups of players have been frankly outstanding.
The Red Sox lead Baseball in runs – 812, RBIs – 781, are also second in batting average – .275, OBP -.348 and OPS – .791.
While there have been contributions up and down the lineup, Boston’s MVP without a doubt has been David Ortiz. He leads the Red Sox in pretty much every offensive category including home runs – 29, batting average – .307, .OBP – .393 and OPS – .955.
The key to the Boston Red Sox offensive success has been patience, as evidenced by their OBP. They also lead MLB in pitches seen.
Key Hitter: Without a doubt the heart and soul of the Red Sox is Dustin Pedroia. Generally, when Boston is doing well, Pedroia is also having a good season. This year Dustin has not disappointed, batting .299, driving in 83 RBIs as well as stealing 17 bases.
Pitching Rotation
The Boston Red Sox pitching rotation started the season off on fire. Throughout April and May Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz formed the best starting pitching one/two punch in Baseball. In the number three spot, John Lackey has, to the surprise of many had a very good but unexpected bounce back year.
Unfortunately for Red Sox nation, Clay would end up on the DL from June 8th until September 15th.
Despite this huge loss, the Red Sox managed to stay afloat. Lester became inconsistent but Lackey was arguably the most consistent of Boston’s starters. John as previously mentioned has pitched well accruing a 10-12 record with a 3.44 ERA. Jon Lester currently holds a record of 15-8 with a 3.67 ERA. Lackey has a losing record, because he has received poor run support from the Red Sox.
Since his return from the disabled list, Buchholz has carried on where he left off. In three starts his record is 2-1, allowing 0 runs in his first two starts (11innings in total) and three runs (two earned runs) over six innings in his last start.
In July Ben Cherington decided to make a move to strengthen the Boston rotation and hopefully give them an edge over their AL East rivals. He traded for former NL Cy Young award winner Jake Peavy.
Peavy has performed as well as expected, garnering a 3-1 record with a 3.68 ERA and a lowly 1.074 WHIP in nine starts.
Key Pitcher: If Clay Buchholz can continue his hot season, the Red Sox may have the most formidable AL pitching staff in the playoffs. With Lester likely to be the number 1, Buchholz will very likely slot in at #2 with Peavy and Lackey fighting it out for the number 3 slot. With Lester pitching well lately, and Buchholz coming back on form, it would be like having two number one type ace pitchers for the Sox.
Bullpen
When it comes to a bullpen, the nightmare scenario for a manager and general manager is for the closer to get injured. Imagine the panic in the Red Sox front office when this happened twice.
Firstly Joel Hanrahan hit the disabled list in May then close to the end of July, replacement closer Andrew Bailey joined Hanrahan on the DL with both being out for the season.
Boston then went to Junichi Tazawa (2.96 ERA) as the closer for a short time, before settling on the lights out Koji Uehara. Uehara has been nothing short of sensational at one point retiring 37 hitters in a row, not allowing a run in 30 and one-third innings (27 outings). His ERA stands at a spectacular 1.12 with his WHIP being a ridiculously low 0.567.
The Red Sox strengthened their bullpen through trading for the likes of Craig Breslow (1.91 ERA) and Matt Thornton (3.21 ERA) as well as promoting from within, i.e. Brandon Workman (4.43 ERA).
The high turnover of relievers in the bullpen for Boston has led them to a cumulative bullpen ERA of 3.56, 16th in MLB, although this does not tell the whole story as Boston’s four most important relievers all sport ERA’s of 2.96 or below.
Key Reliever: Without a doubt it’s Koji Uehara. Bullpens especially closers become all the more important in the extreme spotlight of the playoffs. Koji has no doubt been stellar in the regular season, but the playoffs is a whole new question.
Predictions
John Farrell has a very good chance of being named AL Manager of the year and it will be very well deserved if it happens.
The transformation between 2012 (69-93) to 2013 has been incredible.
My only concern is the offense ranks seventh in MLB with 1270 strikeouts but as long as they continue to be productive on the bases and supported by both quality starting pitching and relief pitching, this should not be a problem.
For everything they have overcome this year and frankly for being a class above the rest in the most competitive division in Baseball, I must rank the Boston Red Sox as my #1 AL playoff team.