Not to say that I don’t get this excited every year for baseball season, but there is something special about this year. With Opening Day approaching rather quickly, many projections have been thrown around. For the first time in what seems like years, the Red Sox look as if they are starting with a fully healthy squad. Their pitching (both starters and in the bullpen) is finally coming around. Everyone seems to be picking up the pace and looking to redeem themselves from whatever it is that has plagued them in past seasons.
Lets talk about their hitting. The starting lineup alone has multiple names that may not necessarily be big-name power hitters, but there are plenty of them that can get on base for Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz. It’s safe to predict many RBI’s from Gonzalez, especially when he has three great hitters in front of him (Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Carl Crawford).
There isn’t one guy in the lineup that you can’t count to get on base, and you can’t help but think that the presence of one great hitter is only going to increase everyone else’s stats.
The bottom portion of the line up- Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, J.D. Drew, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Marco Scutaro are all guys you can expect many hits out of. Saltalamacchia and Scutaro have had their fair share of injuries but both of them are ready to start the season. Luckily, with Jed Lowrie still on the roster, Scutaro will be able to get the rest he needs when the time comes. This should help keep Scutaro healthy throughout the season.
When looking at the starting pitching, there is no where you could go wrong. While personally not being a huge fan of Dice-K from the beginning, I’m thinking this season could change my mind. He had a very strong spring, and with the remaining four starters being Jon Lester, John Lackey, Josh Beckett and Clay Buccholz, any winning record for Daisuke Matsuzaka will help.
The bullpen is nothing short of hard-throwing, effective guys. With Tim Wakefield in the bullpen this year, he’ll provide more than the average relief pitcher’s amount of innings. Bobby Jenks should prove to be an influential acquisition, as long as he can adjust to no longer being a closer. Daniel Bard should be nothing but a help to the Red Sox this season, especially if he continues to produce strikeouts. All should be said and done with Jonathon Papelbon this year, but then again, it’s Papelbon. Who knows what you can expect out of him, but everyone is only thinking positively about him so far. Good thing Jenks is around if all else fails though.
Everything considered, should we predict a first place finish in the American League East this year for the Boston Red Sox? I think so. Everyone else seems to think so. All we can do is hope for a healthy season (with fingers crossed) and we will soon start to find out.
