After an up and down, narrative-filled first half for the Red Sox, Boston sits atop the AL East, 3.5 games up on the second-place Yankees, with a 50-39 record. Given the fact that this ballclub was sitting at .500 on May 20, they’re living the high life right now in early July. This is Boston’s first time hitting the fifty-win mark before the All-Star break since 2013.
Considering some of the stuff that has went down, from injuries, to inconsistencies, to the black hole that is third base and to way too many ugly baserunning mistakes, this team is in a pretty great spot. They’ve played some great ball, and they’ve played some not-so-great ball. This team has yet to play to their potential, and that should scare the rest of the already-falling American League East.
We can credit certain positions and players alone for the overall solid condition of this club, and we can also blame certain positions and players alone for the smaller more annoying issues and flaws that this club possesses at this point in time. What better way to do so than by letter grading and breaking down each position? Let’s jump in.
Starting pitching: B
Going into this season, the Red Sox were poised to have one of, if not the best starting rotation in all of baseball consisting of Rick Porcello, Chris Sale, David Price, the up-and-coming Eduardo Rodriguez and Drew Pomeranz.
To put a long story short, it hasn’t necessarily worked out that way. Porcello has severely regressed coming off of his Cy Young award-winning season, underachieving in every category you can think of. He’s allowed the most hits in baseball by an individual pitcher at 138, but is coming off of easily his best start of the season.
Price started the first two months of the season on the disabled list with an elbow scare and has pitched solidly to this point since rejoining the team at the end of May. He’s throwing the hardest he has ever thrown in his career, which is surprising considering the fact that he almost needed Tommy John surgery 3-4 months ago.
If I had to name a team MVP thus far, it’d be Sale by a WIDE margin. Sale has mightily surpassed Boston’s hefty expectations for him and has unsurprisingly broken the Red Sox first-year-with-the-team curse. Amid this rotation’s inconsistencies and injuries, Sale has been The Guy that this team can rely on every five days, whether they’re looking to extend a winning streak or bounce back from a loss the night before. The Red Sox have had five(!) different number five starters this season, and Sale has been the rotation’s rock. He’s easily the AL Cy Young Award winner if the season ended today, he’s starting the All-Star Game, he’s the Red Sox’ leader and my god, that slider, though. And all of those strikeouts. I could go on
Fan-favorite Dwew Pomeranz has quietly had a solid season, as well, putting together quality, winnable starts every five days and consistently making it through six innings, which is all we can ask for and more out of him. He’s turned into a reliable starter and hopefully it can and will stay that way as his innings pitched go up and up as the season progresses. He’s never had a workload quite like this in his career, but so far, he’s responded perfectly to it.
This rotation has had its ups and downs, like all rotations do, but despite everything it’s dealt with, it’s hard to be disappointed. If, and that’s a strong if, this starting five can stay healthy throughout the second half, you’re looking at one of the best in all of baseball.
Bullpen: A-
Looking at the big picture, this particular bullpen has probably overachieved, and considering the circumstances, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s without two of the team’s best relievers in Tyler Thornburg and Carson Smith. Thornburg will have to wait until 2018 to (hopefully) throw his first pitch in a Red Sox uniform and Smith might not even make it back until September coming off of Tommy John surgery.
The ‘pen has a 3.08 ERA, good for third best in all of baseball. Not too shabby, given they have virtually no depth and have no named setup man. Joe Kelly can’t pitch in back-to-back days, Matt Barnes can’t pitch on the road, Robby Scott is performing pretty below-average, as is Heath Hembree, and Craig Kimbrel isn’t allowed to toe the eighth inning rubber any longer, yet they’re (statistically) one of the best bullpens in the game. They’ve blown their fair share of winnable games, but that’s expected once in a while from every team.
I feel compelled to dedicate a paragraph to Craig Kimbrel, so here we go. In my opinion, Boston isn’t comfortably sitting in first place without their star closer. After a fairly disappointing first season with the Red Sox in 2016, the closer has made the ultimate bounceback in his sophomore season with the club. He’s the most dominant and reliable closer in the game and is essentially unhittable. He has a mind-numbing 1.19 ERA, has allowed only 14 hits and walked only 5 in 36 appearances. Kimbrel has faced 134 batters and has struck out 68 of them. For those keeping score at home, that’s nearly HALF. Even in this day and age, that’s extremely insane.
Designated Hitter: C+
Hanley Ramirez has been quite something so far for the Red Sox this year. When he “learned” that he had little to no success versus left-handed pitching this season, he flipped the switch for a week and absolutely went off, but since then, he’s cooled down. If I had to summarize the DH position for Boston this year, that right there would be it. Hanley has certainly had his moments in 2017, but he’s had far more disappointing moments than memorable ones.
This team simply needs more out of him. Never before have the Red Sox so desperately needed something out of their DH now that David Ortiz is gone. We all know, and so does Hanley, that Hanley is capable of producing at the plate and cannot be pitched to when he’s in a groove. And it really feels like he can just turn a switch on and off whenever he wants to and only hits when he wants to. He’s dealt with injuries and bad luck, but most of all, has just been a poor producer for this team that needs him to find his swing at least somewhat consistently as we head into the second half.
Catcher: B-
As for Christian Vazquez, he started the season off as a hitting machine, specifically a two-strike hitting machine. He hovered around .350 for a good chunk of the season, but has expectedly regressed since then and is batting .267 at this point in time. He gets his hits once in a while but isn’t anything quite like he was in April and May.
Sandy Leon, on the other hand, has also regressed from last season’s personal surge and looks pretty ugly at the plate more often than not. We know that Leon can hit, but he just isn’t that good of a hitter at the end of the day. He gets lucky once in a while and does have power, but he’s nothing like he was in 2016.
Most importantly, as it goes for defense, the defense behind the plate has been above average this season. Both catchers love to gun guys down on the bases, and it’s quite the sight to see, given that both have cannons of an arm. Combined, Vazquez and Leon have thrown out 21 runners on 60 attempts, which is 35 percent. Pretty damn solid, if you ask me.
First base: B
Let’s get this out of the way first and foremost: Hanley’s incapability/unwillingness has no impact on this grade. And, hey, let’s just forget about any possibility of him voluntarily playing first base probably ever again. All he wants to do is hit and has no interest in touching the infield grass.
Anyways, Mitch Moreland. It’s hard to say anything negative about him or the signing in general. I truly hope that the Red Sox keep him around for another year, because he’s been quite the steal offensively and defensively. Moreland wasn’t even supposed to be the everyday first basemen, but has gladly taken over that role. Moreland has only missed four games this entire season despite playing with a broken toe.
He’s played undeniable Gold Glove defense and has even carried this offense at times. He’s had his share of hot and cold streaks, but overall, has fared well as a middle-of-the-order bat thus far. Moreland has collected 31 extra-base hits, second on the team only to Mookie Betts. He’s everything this team needed to be and then some during a time in which Hanley is the stubborn ballplayer that he is.
As for the youngin Sam Travis, he hasn’t gotten much playing time, but he has shown that he has the ability to produce at the big league level. He can hit and play pretty average defense, but he’s been there when the team decides to give Moreland the day off completely or a day off from the field. Possibly, the Red Sox may choose to give Travis more playing time to lighten Moreland’s load in the second half and heading into the playoffs.
Second base: B+
Overall, Dustin Pedroia has been the good old trusty Dustin Pedroia. He’s playing his perennial Gold Glove defense at second; Pedey hasn’t made an error since August 19 of last season. He’s made his regular web gem plays despite being riddled with injuries here and there after spending most of if not all of last season mostly healthy.
Pedroia is on pace to reach his highest RBI total since 2013, as he drove in 41 runs in 71 games this first half. His power numbers are down (4 homers) and his OPS ranks 20th among qualified second basemen in baseball (.773), but he slowly found his groove leading up to the All-Star break at the plate with two home runs in his last three games.
Shortstop: B
Xander Bogaerts’ numbers at the half are nearly identical to Pedroia’s: .303 batting average (team-leading), 41 RBI and 6 home runs, two more than Pedey. Bogaerts has been somewhat of an offensive disappointment, still chasing bad pitches and has yet to find his home run swing. Given, he’s dealt with two separate hand-related injuries this season, but if Bogey can get in a groove of some sort some time soon, it will help this lineup so much.
In 2016, Bogaerts mashed 21 dingers and drove in 89, so he needs to up his game at the plate a bit in the second half. As the team’s number three hitter, we collectively expect a lot more out of him. He’s been, of course, above average in the field and has his annual Jeter-esque moments, but what’s important is that he finds his swing, which he’s capable of finding once more.
Third base: D-
Where do I even begin with this black hole of a hot corner? I would have given this position an F if it wasn’t for Tzu-Wei Lin’s recent positive impact on this team.
Let’s start with Pablo freaking Sandoval. He came into spring training in good shape, but started the season off incapable of both hitting from either side of the plate AND fielding routine ground balls. He promptly went on the disabled list about a week into the season, and Marco Hernandez was the temporary replacement, until HE went down with a season-ending shoulder injury and then surgery. The team went to Deven Marrero who got little playing time because Sandoval was back with the team, again, and promptly sucked at everything he did, again.
Brock Holt was then diagnosed with vertigo, which is still keeping him in the minor leagues to this day. The Red Sox then threw Pablo on the DL with a goddamn ear infection, who, by the way, is still “rehabbing” in Triple A. The team blatantly wants nothing to do with him; I don’t see why they can’t just release him. All he’s doing is taking up a roster spot. He’s one of their two backup plans (Jhonny Peralta) if, God forbid, Marrero or Lin go down at any point, but still.
Enter Marrero (again) and Tzu-Wei Lin, both of which have been somewhat of godsends. Marrero has played outstanding defense, but is hitting .225. Lin is a pretty solid hitter and has decent plate discipline and vision, almost always either drawing a walk or getting a hit. Lin has played above-average defense, too.
Overall, it’s been a shitstorm over there at third. As long as Boston sticks with Marrero and Lin and refuses to give Pablo another chance, they should be good to go for the time being. I wouldn’t rule out the team looking outside for a third base option at the trade deadline and letting either Marrero or Lin get some work in down in Pawtucket, though.
Outfield: A-
The last thing the Red Sox have to worry about is their outfield, that being one the best in all of baseball. The Red Sox as a team have driven in 402 total runs, and their outfield (Benintendi, Betts and Bradley) have combined for 142 of those, that being 35%. That’s pretty, pretty good.
Andrew Benintendi has been an exceptional player for this team with both a bat and a glove when he’s really feeling himself. Benny has dealt with a couple of cold streaks that he has eventually overcome tremendously, showing confidence in himself at such a young age that you just don’t see anymore, especially in rookies. He’s a legitimate threat at the plate when he’s got his beautiful swing going, even though he doesn’t have a set spot in this lineup. He’s bounced from second, to cleanup, to fifth, to sixth and even to seventh at points. No matter where you put him, if he’s in a groove, there’s no stopping him.
Benny Biceps has recently put on a show with his glove out in left field, making spectacular grabs here and there. He’s improved his arm accuracy and throwing speed greatly over the past year, and it’s noticeably paying off. He’s already recorded 6 outfield assists this season.
Mookie Betts has regressed from last season, as we all expected him to, but he ramped it up a bit heading into the All-Star break, which is a fantastic sign. He’s struggled a bit at the plate and is having trouble with pitch recognition, but he’s gradually getting better. He’s one of the smartest players in the league and uses his gift to his advantage, so it’s no surprise that any of his slumps don’t last too long. His hands are too quick and he’s just too good to lose his swing for any extended period of time. Mookie is starting the All-Star Game, too, which will be a sight to see, obviously.
Unsurprisingly, Mookie has also made his fair share of web gems in 2017 and is covering major right field ground, with 4 assists on the season. His defense only continues to get better as he matures as a player, Mookie is undoubtedly the best right fielder in all of baseball and he further cements that status each and every game at the plate and on the outfield grass.
Jackie Bradley Jr. has probably been this team’s best hitter this season, to this point. This is the most consistent Bradley has ever been at the plate in his career, which is a phenomenal sign, as he’s been one of the streakiest hitters in baseball over his short career. He’s putting up above-average numbers despite batting no higher than sixth in the lineup; he’s getting most of his at-bats in at the 7th spot, where he thrives. History has shown that moving Bradley up in the lineup comes with consequences, so it’s the best for him to produce at the back end of the order. He’s seeing the plate as well as he ever has, and he’s been the most reliable Red Sox bat in 2017.
As for JBJesus’ defense, along with being this team’s best hitter, he’s been this team’s best defender, too. It feels as if every other game, Bradley is sprawling out in center field making a jaw-dropping snag. He’s got 3 outfield assists so far, but if there were a stat for how many superhuman catches he’s made so far, he’d probably lead the league. With Tampa Bay’s Kevin Kiermaier out for an extended period of time with a hip injury, the American League’s center field Gold Glove presumably already has Jackie Bradley Jr. carved into it.
Farrell: B+
Considering some of the wild and unfathomably stupid moves John Farrell has made during his tenure as manager of the Red Sox, he’s done a solid job this season with the cards he’s been dealt. He’s made his typical peculiar bullpen and pinch hitting moves, but aside from that, Johnny’s done okay. I think he really turned a corner this season when he got into it with umpire Bob Miller in late June at Fenway, and I think it woke the team up a bit, too. Not only that, but Farrell giving Bradley a questionable few days off in a row back in May ended up paying off big time, and we have to give credit where credit is due.
He’s been handed a pretty depleted and average at best bullpen, but has found a way to make it work without a set-in-stone eighth inning man. He “overused” Kimbrel and was forced to quit doing so, but has since managed to make that situation work, too. He’s not a great manager by any means, but it could be so much worse.
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