Red Sox Preview

Let’s face it, as awesome as the Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins are, Boston is a baseball town. Us New Englanders, minus a few Yankee fan nuts, eat, sleep and breathe Red Sox baseball, we pack the cathedral of Fenway Park to cheer on our boys in the red stockings. Last year was a rough year for Sox fans. Coming off the high of another World Series title was exhilarating. We went from the laughing stock of the league under Bobby Valentine to the promise land with new manager John Ferrell, We were going to take it all again in 2014 right? 

WRONG, injuries plagued us, and the pitching just wasn’t there. The trade deadline came along and many names we knew from the 2013 team were shipped away, gone were the arms of Lester, Lackey, and Peavey in came the arms of Workman, Kelley, and Webster. Along came September and the Sox were irrelevant to the postseason chase and near the end of the year the Sox looked more a like 3rd grade tee ball team, than a winning, professional organization. Red Sox fans do not accept this from their team. We went 86 years without winning and we don’t want to do it again. 

Moves were made in the offseason to get back to winning form. Former third basemen of the 2014 champion San Francisco Giants Pablo Sandoval signed on to play with the Sox. It was also announced that former Sox shortstop Hanley Ramirez signed back on to play outfield. These two signings bring some sexy pop to the Sox lineup, as both combined for 144 RBI’s last year for their respective teams. To make room for Sandoval, third baseman Will Middlebrooks was shipped off to San Diego. Middlebrooks was an enigma for Boston, having many hit and miss games and never really living up to his full potential. It was well speculated that when the Sox traded Lester to Oakland in July, they would make a big play to bring him back this spring. While the Red Sox did make a push, it wasn’t enough to beat the Chicago Cubs offer to the veteran left hander and therefore Lester took his talents to the Windy City. The Red Sox weren’t discouraged by this, though, as they set out to gain some new pitching in the form of former Detroit right hander Rick Porcello. Porcello comes to Boston after a somewhat disappointing year in Motown going 15-13 with a 3.43 ERA. The Sox also acquired former Diamondbacks pitcher Wade Miley, as well as an old friend in former Sox player Justin Masterson from Cleveland. They retain pitchers Clay Bucholz, and Joe Kelley. 

As spring training loomed, many wondered what we would see from this year’s version of the Sox. We were still recovering ring from our anger at Jon Lester not coming back almost as much as we were “Deflategate.” The other main topic us Sox fans puzzled over was how on Earth we were going to fit five outfielders into three spots. We had some faith in GM Ben Cherington, but weren’t really sure if he knew how to count. When both Rusney Castillo and Jackie Bradley Jr. were optioned to Pawtucket the perplexing situation was solved. Near the end of March, the injury bug already started to plague Boston as pitcher Joe Kelly was placed on the 15 day disabled list and starting catcher Christian Vazquez was lost for the season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery. On a side note, do you think Tommy John gets royalties every time a new player gets that surgery? I mean his name only gets mentioned in the media maybe a thousand times a year. 

Anyway, here’s how the Sox look heading into the grueling regular season. The Sox signed catcher Ryan Hanigan to compensate for the loss of Vazquez, Mike Napoli returns to play first base and after the powerful spring he had blasting some moon shots, I think it’s safe to say fans are quite hopeful for him this season, a finally healthy (knock on wood) Dustin Pedroia returns to play second, and Kung Fu panda himself Pablo Sandoval will play third. Shortstop is being played by the young and talented Xander Bogaerts, and the starting outfield consists of left fielder Hanley Ramirez, center fielder Mookie Betts, and right fielder Shane Victorino. Of course, the always ageless wonder David Ortiz will be the Sox designated hitter. 

The Red Sox rotation is led by “ace” Clay Bucholz, Rick Porcello, Justin Masterson, Wade Miley, and Joe Kelly when he returns. In the Bullpen you’ll see familiar faces Junichi Tazawa, Craig Breslow, Tommy Layne, and Steven Wright, who will be starting until Kelley comes back, as well as new faces Anthony Varvaro and Alexi Ogando. Sox pitcher Edward Mujica will be the closer while the normal candidate Koji Uehara finishes his stint on the DL.

So the question on everyone’s mind is can the Sox go from worst to first to worst back to first? To be very honest, it is too early to tell; baseball is so different than any other sport in that you play day in and day out for sixth months for a total of 162 games. So much can happen in the way of injuries and being able to predict how it will come out is just impossible. I personally still have my doubts with the pitching rotation, this lineup will score a lot of runs but if the pitching gives up a lot of runs the point is moot. Any rotation who touts the hit or miss Bucholz as its ace is a little concerning.

I’d like to maybe see the Sox trade off one of their touted outfielders for a another decent arm to add to the rotation. Cole Hamels was a name tossed around near the beginning of the season. What I really want to see from the Sox this season is to be relevant come September. As avid as a fan that I am, even I had a hard time tuning in to watch games last September when they meant absolutely nothing. I will consider this season a success if we take a winning record into September and stay relevant for the playoff push. It should definitely be an interesting year for all of us in Red Sox Nation and I along with all of you will be glued in to this team to go get ring number 9, let’s play ball!