The 2013 Boston Red Sox were baseball’s biggest surprises. I actually picked the Sox to be an underdog and come in 2nd in the American League East, and they blew past that, dominating the East from start to finish.
The 2014 Sox will be on everyone’s radar.
The defending World Series Champs were rejuvenated by a new a new manager, a new attitude, and an almost complete makeover.
I thought at the time the Red Sox made good moves in getting Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli, and those two really proved me right in a lot of ways. David Ortiz had a vintage 27-year old Ortiz year. Dustin Pedroia was classic Pedroia. Jacoby Ellsbury had a good enough year to get a giant contract from the Yankees. Daniel Nava really broke out and became another strong left-handed bat in the Boston order. Mike Carp was maybe one of the top pinch-hitters in all of baseball. The Red Sox really had a lot of things go right last year.
With Ellsbury moved on to bigger and better things, and big defensive loss in Stephen Drew, the Red Sox have two very nice replacements for those two guys in Jackie Bradley Jr and Xander Bogarts. Two of the top prospects in baseball, the duo will now get a chance at full time jobs. Bogarts was brought up as a September call up and ended being a huge reason for the Red Sox run through the postseason. Bogarts wasn’t blinded by the spotlight of the postseason nor the Word Series. Bradley saw limited time in the big leagues last year, mostly towards the beginning of the year, and wasn’t as good as Bogarts, but the talent is there to be very close. The lefty Bradley comes from the baseball factory of South Carolina, which is a big reason why I think Bradley is so good. The lefty may take some time to get re-accustomed to the big leagues, but I don’t think it will be long before he’s coming up big for the Red Sox.
Bogarts, regarded as the top prospect by so many scouting sites, has already shown the big leagues isn’t too much for him.The Red Sox have talked about moving him to third, and I’ll talk about Will Middlebrooks in a moment, but if Middlebrooks becomes the dynamite player he was in the minors, the Red Sox may not ever have to think about moving Bogarts to 3B, his permanent position may become shortstop. It’s entirely possible Bogarts doesn’t need major league seasoning, and could quickly become one of the game’s best middle infielders.
I mentioned Will Middlebrooks getting back to his minor league form. Middlebrooks tore the minor leagues apart, showing tremendous power along the way. This big Texan should be in for a big time year. Middlebrooks battled injuries throughout 2013, which at one point got him demoted, but I think in the middle of this lineup, Middlebrooks could be in for a 25-30 home run campaign.
Another big reason the Red Sox were so good was because of their pitching. Jon Lester was tremendous, going for 200 innings, and winning 15 games. John Lackey was excellent despite a rough record. When Clay Buchholz was healthy, he was filthy. Jake Peavy was a sound late season pickup for Boston. Felix Doubront came on to be very solid for the Red Sox. The 2014 may look a little underwhelming compared to other rosters around the majors, but make no mistake about it, these five hurlers could get the Red Sox back to the promised land. The one real question this rotation has is the health of Clay Buchholz. Can he make it through an entire season and make around 30 starts? If he can, look out, because the Red Sox will be one tough out come October.
The revival of Koji Uehera’s career was well documented throughout the postseason, and of course, the incredible efficiency and poise he pitched with all season. Uehara will rarely blow you away with traditional-closer fastballs, it’s his craftiness and deception that will get hitters out, and I expect that to continue into 2014.
I also really like the rest of this Boston bullpen. One guy I really like is Brandon Workman. While his numbers don’t jump out at you, he is a very big, strong arm the Red Sox could rely in the middle innings. I also like the pickup of Edward Mujica. Mujica was given the Cardinals closing job a few weeks into the season last year, and ultimately couldn’t finish out what was a decent year. Unfortunately when you’re blowing games that are costing in the standings, things aren’t going to end well, and they didn’t. But I think Mujica in a set up role for Boston could be exactly what he needs to get back to being a very effective reliever.
I also think the ageless Chris Capuano will end up being a great pick up. Capuano is another guy who’s numbers won’t ever dazzle, but he provides big innings and can be used in almost any role. I think Capuano could be one of the most valuable additions Boston makes this season.
Like I said at the top, the Red Sox will be on everyone’s radar this season, and it won’t just be because of the talent that this team is successful. It will be because of gritty, hard nose players like Pedroia, Victorino, and Ortiz among others on this roster. I like the Red Sox to once again contend for the division, if not, win the division again.
No comments:
Post a Comment