Summary 89-73 B
I’m sure Red Sox fans would tell you that the season was a great disappointment – they expected to contend and play in October, and while they were in it for a while they eventually wound up 7 games out of a playoff berth. Their off-season acquisition of Belter worked very well, but Lackey not so much. Once again (as in 2009) there were a lot of injuries, and you COULD argue that those injuries cost them the 7 games and more.
Hitters 84.5-77.5 C+
The Red Sox scored quite a few runs but did not organize them all that well. Marco Scutaro led them in plate appearances, which could be part of the problem. David Ortiz started slowly but wound up hitting well, Beltre was great, and Youkilis and Pedroia both hit well but both were hurt and missed playing time. Victor Martinez was good but the surrounding cast, like Scutaro, Ellsbury, Drew, McDonald and Hall dragged the team down.
Starters 92.75-69.25 B+
The Sox rotation was a case of great strength harnessed with disappointing teammates. Lackey was supposed to be a horse, and indeed led the team in innings, but pitched like a fourth starter – he deserved a barely above average record. Lester and Buchholz, the two young guys, were both phenomenal, and deserved to be in the Cy Young discussion, but Dice-K was ordinary and erstwhile ace Beckett was genuinely bad, so the resulting rotation was not all that it was expected to be.
Bullpen 55/443 C
And the bullpen was not good, and it dragged the team down a lot – the starters should have taken the team to 92.75 wins with average hitting and bullpen. In fact, the hitting and bullpen were about average, and the Sox won 89 games, close to the 92 you would expect. The ONLY pitcher in the Sox bullpen to be really good was Josh Bard – even Papelbon was somewhat ordinary. The Sox failure to play in October can be traced, in part, to the pen.
Charts
Run Scoring
| Runs | Times |
| <3 | 42 |
| 3 | 20 |
| 4 | 14 |
| 5 | 21 |
| 6 | 19 |
| >6 | 46 |
___________________________________________________________________
Batters
| Batter | PA | OPS | wOBA | Grade |
| Marco Scutaro | 695 | 721 | .319 | C- |
| Adrian Beltre | 641 | 918 | .390 | A- |
| David Ortiz | 606 | 899 | .380 | B+ |
| J.D. Drew | 546 | 793 | .346 | C+ |
| Victor Martinez | 538 | 844 | .364 | B |
| Kevin Youkilis | 435 | 975 | .419 | A+ |
| Bill Hall | 382 | 772 | .342 | C+ |
| Darnell McDonald | 363 | 765 | .342 | C+ |
| Dustin Pedroia | 351 | 860 | .377 | B+ |
| Mike Lowell | 244 | 674 | .298 | D |
| Jeremy Hermida | 239 | 619 | .275 | F |
| Jed Lowrie | 197 | 907 | .393 | A- |
| Daniel Nava | 188 | 711 | .321 | C- |
| Mike Cameron | 180 | 729 | .321 | C- |
| Ryan Kalish | 179 | 710 | .323 | C |
| Kevin Cash | 129 | 483 | .226 | F |
| Jason Varitek | 123 | 766 | .324 | C |
| Jacoby Ellsbury | 84 | 485 | .237 | F |
___________________________________________________________________
Starters
| Starter | Games | Innings | ERA | W/L | Deserved |
| John Lackey | 33 | 214.2 | 4.40 | 14 – 11 | 17.25 – 15.75 |
| Jon Lester | 32 | 208.0 | 3.25 | 19 – 9 | 23.25 – 8.75 |
| Clay Buchholz | 28 | 173.2 | 2.33 | 17 – 7 | 21 – 7 |
| Daisuke Matsuzaka | 25 | 153.2 | 4.69 | 9 – 6 | 12.75 – 12.25 |
| Josh Beckett | 21 | 127.2 | 5.78 | 6 – 6 | 9 – 12 |
| Tim Wakefield | 19 | 115.0 | 5.71 | 4 – 9 | 8.25 – 10.75 |
| Felix Doubront | 3 | 15.1 | 4.11 | 1 – 2 | 1 – 2 |
| Scott Atchison | 1 | 3.0 | 6.00 | 0 – 0 | .25 – .75 |
___________________________________________________________________
Relievers
| Reliever | G | IP | ERA | Val | Gr | Effective | Ineffective | yikes | YIKES! |
| Daniel Bard | 73 | 74.2 | 1.93 | 36 | A+ | 56 | 14 | 3 | 0 |
| Jonathan Papelbon | 65 | 66.2 | 3.90 | 14 | B | 45 | 13 | 3 | 4 |
| Scott Atchison | 42 | 56.2 | 4.42 | -1 | F | 24 | 13 | 3 | 2 |
| Hideki Okajima | 56 | 45.2 | 4.50 | 1 | D- | 33 | 15 | 7 | 1 |
| Manny Delcarmen | 48 | 43.2 | 4.70 | 5 | C- | 30 | 14 | 1 | 3 |
| Ramon Ramirez | 44 | 42.1 | 4.46 | 6 | C | 27 | 14 | 2 | 1 |
| Tim Wakefield | 13 | 25.0 | 3.60 | 4 | A- | 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Michael Bowden | 14 | 15.1 | 4.70 | 0 | D- | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Scott Schoeneweis | 15 | 13.2 | 7.90 | -5 | F | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Dustin Richardson | 26 | 13.0 | 4.15 | -4 | F | 12 | 13 | 0 | 1 |
| Robert Manuel | 10 | 12.2 | 4.26 | 3 | A- | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Felix Doubront | 9 | 9.2 | 4.66 | 1 | C | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Nelson | 8 | 8.1 | 9.72 | -4 | F | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Robert Coello | 6 | 5.2 | 4.76 | 2 | A | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Rich Hill | 6 | 4.0 | 0.00 | 4 | A+ | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Boof Bonser | 2 | 2.0 | 18.00 | -2 | F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Matt Fox | 3 | 1.2 | 10.80 | -3 | F | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Fernando Cabrera | 1 | 1.1 | 20.25 | -2 | F | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Bill Hall | 1 | 1.0 | 0.00 | 1 | A+ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jonathan Van Every | 1 | 1.0 | 18.00 | -1 | F | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
2 Responses to “Boston Red Sox”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Clear lesson from this post = We should have had Bill Hall and Rich Hill pitch more innings out of the pen. As before, the AL East will come down to health, as the 3 top teams look awesome, and the next 2 don’t look putrid (as in compete for the NL Central crown good) either.
Any team can, of course, be derailed by injuries, and have its season wrecked. The Phillies look very tough, but not tough enough to withstand the result of losing Utley, Halladay and Oswalt (for example). The Red Sox look very good pre-season, but have been hurt by injuries two straight seasons, and one never knows.Too bad you lost Bill Hall – he could have anchored your bullpen!