Sorts of Sports

Red Sox 2nd Half Preview

So it’s the most important game of the summer, who cares?  So, Baseball takes its weeklong vacation and will return on Friday.  So let’s take this time to review the first half of baseball.  The Red Sox went into the break atop of the American League with a 55 – 35 record sporting the best offense in baseball outscoring the next closest team by 25 runs (Texas is 25 runs behind and they have played 2 more games).  The Sox have just been pouring it on lately.  After an awful start, and I mean awful, this team did not hit .500 until May 15thwhen they reached 20 – 20.  Since that point, they have gone 35 – 15.  Even throughout their 20 – 20 slump they were scoring 4.325 runs per game.  Since then? 6.18 runs per game.

This Red Sox team has been on a killer run. Yeah they had a little slip up in June when they lost 2 out of 3 at home to San Diego, then went to Pittsburgh and dropped 2 there as well.  Besides that though, they went rampant in June going 17 – 8 including going 8 – 1 against the AL east.  The Red Sox started off so slow, but just turned it around to go into the break as one of the best teams in baseball.  Is it any surprise, that the only offense in the All – Star game came from Adrian Gonzalez’s long ball?  I mean I have to be honest this might be the best Red Sox team I have seen.  The offense is just on a tear, I mean this is no longer the steroids days of baseball, where home runs are being pelted left and right.

The team is just having an outburst offensively, and all things considered, the team’s big free agent signing, Carl Crawford really has not produced to what was expected.  He started out in an awful slump, but had started to turn it around before he landed on the DL with a hamstring problem.  With Crawford due back against the Orioles on July 18th, expect sparks to fly and not because of Crawford’s return.  Unless you have been living under a rock, right before the All-Star break, Kevin Gregg thought he would toughen up against Big Papi David Ortiz.  Ortiz took exception to Gregg throwing 3straight pitches inside.  Gregg then took exception to Papi slowly trotting down the line, and the fireworks went off.

So I wrote an article preseason, about how excited I was for this season.  I came up with 5 key things to watch:

Can Lester get to 20 wins? He had 19 last year

Can Buchholz continue his dominance?

How will Kevin Youkilis be affected moving back to third base?

Will Ellsbury stay healthy and play more than 18 games.

What will become of Jonathan Papelbon?

1.)   Lester has 10 wins going into the All-Star break.  He pitched well, in what looked to be his 11th win, but he had to leave after the 4th inning because he was hurt (soon to land on the DL). So I mean yeah, if he hit the halfway mark in the first half, presumably he can reach 20.  Now the question is how much his stint on the DL will affect him. I stand by it though, Lester will hit 20 wins.

2.)   Buchholz dominance has not continued.  Now he has not been awful, but he is not the same caliber that he was last year.  He is 6 – 3, with 5 no decisions.  He has a3.48 Era, which isn’t awful.  He went to the DL, hopefully the second half will show different Clay.

3.)   How will the move to third affect Youk?  So let’s be honest, his average is a little bit down compared to other years, but not much, at the break he is hitting.285.  He has 52 runs, career high is 100so he’s on pace to break that.  84 hits, career high is 168, so he’s on pace to tie that.  26 doubles, career high 43, once again on pace to break that.  He’s behind on homers, but typically, yeah he is just doing just fine with his move.  How about his fielding?  He is third in the AL at his position for Fielding percentage.

4.)   Oh yeah, Ellsbury has played more than 18 games this year, and come on, he is killing it. Without a doubt he is the biggest surprise of the Red Sox season.  Adrian Gonzalez is easily the best offensive weapon, but that was expected.  Ellsbury is hitting .316, has 11 homers, 28 stolen bases, he is 11 RBI’s off of hitting his career season high of 60.  Without a doubt this is going to be the best year of his career, as he will surpass almost all of his offensive numbers.  He is also the best defensive centerfielder in baseball.

5.)   Jonathan Papelbon.  His era is high, but he has 20 saves, and 1blown save.  That’s what matters, he isn’t blowing saves.  He is still having trouble in games giving up runs, but he is able to save it, which is all that matters at the end of the day.  He is striking out people, and attacking the batter like you expect him too.  Expect Pap to get the payday he wants and expects at the end of the season.  He wants Rivera money, now I will not go anywhere near as to compare him to Mariano Rivera, that guy is the best closer, but Pap did beat MO to 200 career saves, which is definitely impressive.

So I will leave you this this, my 5 key things to watch in the 2nd half of the season.

1.)   Can John Lackey turn it around (he did in his last start against Baltimore before the All Star break)

2.)   Will J.D Drew/Darnell McDonald continue to do what they have been doing?  Or will Francona give the role to Reddick

3.)   Is Big Papi going to continue the tear he is on?  With Adrian Gonzalez in the lineup, I do not see his numbers disappearing anytime soon.  Remember how good he was with Manny in the lineup, then Manny left and he had his huge slumps?  Yeah well there has not been a slump this year.

4.)   How is the bullpen going to hold up?  We know how Papelbon has been doing, but behind him, Bobby Jenks is awful. Wheeler has turned it around big time since his stint on the DL, and Bard has been really good since the May 15th

5.)   Can the whole team just continue to do what they have been doing?  They are in first now after a terrible start, so all they have to do is play like its June every month, no big slumps through August. This team has to continue to just erupt offensively, to take pressure off the pitching staff including Josh Beckett, who is having a great year.

Prediction: Red Sox win the AL East, and just like I said in my preview 04 + 07 = 11, its World Series time.