RED SOX – June 13, 2017
Sorry this is late, but I got hung up with remodelers yesterday. Actually, writing an advanced scouting report for the Phillies seems surreal. In most organizations, the advanced scout scouts the next team his guys will face with the hope of finding a way to beat them. In the Phillies case their front office has already told the team and their fans that they don’t care if they win any games, or not. When a glaring weakness showed up early in the bullpen, nobody tried to find a fix…too much trouble. Now the players are playing like they don’t care if they win.
To me, the Red Sox rebuilt that team the way it should be done. They cleaned house in a hurry, hired a GM who made their farm system the best in baseball and then demoted the GM because he didn’t want to go on the open market to add to the kids that were coming up. They hired Dombrowski who is a wheeler dealer and in record time were back in first place. Obviously, this year is not exactly what they had hoped for so far they are 4 games behind the Yankees.
The Red Sox are a pretty well rounded team. They are third in the American League in hitting, 5th in runs scored, 11th in slugging, but 15th in homers with 58. They are 4th in pitching and third in saves. The strongest part of this team seems to be the bullpen.
First base is the long time Ranger Mitch Moreland and he is hitting .282 with 8 homers. Yeah, they had a hole there and actually spent some money. Dustin Pedroia is back at second hitting .298 to go with his 4 golden gloves. Shortstop is Xavier Bogaerts. I’m still not sure he is a legitimate shortstop, but he is a hitter and good athlete. It looks like Josh Rutledge has taken third base away from Sandoval. He isn’t hitting all that well, but he is a lot better than Panda with the glove.
Left field is the 22 year old rookie Andrew Benintendi who is hitting .274 with 9 homers. Somebody forgot to tell Dombrowski that he needed another year in AAA. Jackie Bradley Jr. is back in center, but his offense has dropped off and he is hitting .242. Right field is Mookie Betts who is not having the year that he did last year. He is hitting .276, but with 9 homers.
Catching this year is pretty much being split by Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez. Vazquez is out hitting Leon and may be in the process of winning the position.
The starting pitching was supposed to be the real strength of this team, they have spent a lot on it. However, Porcello is not going to win the Cy Young this year, he is 3-6 with a 4.67. But Sale might win it, he is 8-2 with a 2.97 era. Pomeranz is a workman 6-4 with a little puffy 4.46 era. Eduardo Rodriguez is 4-2 with a 3.54 era. Their big problem has been David Price. Due to his injury, he has only made 3 starts this season, but as we see tonight, he is back and they hope that they will have that 5th starter slot solved.
The bullpen features 7 pitchers headed up by Craig Kimbrell who has an .094 era and has saved 18 of his 19 attempts. Of the other 6 pitchers, two of them have eras under 2, one under 3 and the other 4 under 4. Not a clinker in the group. It is best to beat this team before they get to the bullpen