Boston Red Sox 2013 Season

Why is Winning the American League East such an Accomplishment?

This past weekend the Boston Red Sox clinched the American League East division for the first time since 2007, which is one of the hardest divisions to win in major league baseball.The amount of good teams in the east makes it hard to win. The New York Yankees are always a good team, even though they are old and have injury problems, they almost made a run late. Derek Jeter has still got it, Robinson Cano is an elite player, and Brett Gardner is one of the best outfielders in the American League. The Tampa Bay Rays hands down have the best pitching in major league baseball, as well as some solid hitters at the plate. Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist manage to put up enough runs to win a majority of their games. Tampa Bay is in the wild card race as we speak. The Baltimore Orioles recently have turned their franchise around to be one of the most dangerous offensive teams in the league. With Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, and J.J Hardy getting on base so that Chris Davis, Adam Jones, and Manny Machado can hit them home, that is a dangerous group of six right there. Not to mention Jim Johnson, arguably one of the best closers in the games. Baltimore is going to be good for many years to come. If they could only get some solid starting pitchers they would be unstoppable. The Blue Jays have not been good for a while, but many superstars like Roy Halladay have played there. This year they have a stacked team that just did not live up to its hype. The Jays signed Melky Cabrera in the outfield, and traded for R.A. Dickey, a right handed knuckleball pitcher, part of a seven player deal. They also snagged SP Josh Johnson, SP Mark Buehrle, and SS Jose Reyes from the Marlins. The combination of all these players plus Brett Lawrie, Adam Lind, Ricky Romero, Edwin Encarnacion, and Colby Rasmus, I would’ve thought the Blue Jays would be a one hundred plus win team. But, as the Red Sox showed the past two years, teams with a lot of hype can sometimes screw up badly. The Blue Jays may not have been very good this year, but there were not the easiest team to play against.

The Red Sox on the other hand were expected to lose many games, and be hands down one of the worst teams in the MLB. They were expected to be a laughing stock. My opinion was sort of in the middle, I’m not going to be that person who claims that I thought the Red Sox were going to win all along. This is because I really did not. I will say I did not think they would be as bad as most people said, but I thought middle of the division would be the most likely finish. I had some hope that they would be real good, between John Farrell coming in and trading away all the big money under performing stars. That was one side of me, while the other side was saying that they would be lucky to win fifty games, and would go into a rebuilding mode. The combination of these two feelings gave me the conclusion that they would be a middle seeded team. Thankfully, they exceeded mostly everyone's expectations and became the best team in major league baseball.

What did the Red Sox do to get to the Playoffs and How will this apply to them in the Playoffs?

The Red Sox this past offseason made many moves to change the atmosphere of the club house and to bring a winning vibe back to Boston. Many of the moves they made were questioned though, like the signing of Mike Napoli. Mike Napoli had a hip injury before the season, but the Red Sox took the risk. He has turned out to be a solid power hitter, even though he strikes out a lot, he contributed 23 home runs. Nobody expected much of Shane Victorino either, but he turned out to be a star on the Red Sox this season. He is a talented hitter and a former gold glove winning fielder, as well as a former World Series champ with the Philadelphia Phillies. The signings of Ryan Dempster, Johnny Gomes, and Stephen Drew went way under the radar, and they all have exceeded expectations. Johnny Gomes is a great power hitter, and brings a lot of energy to a team which needed some. Stephen Drew is sound in the field, and delivered many key late inning hits this past season. even though he started out injured, he turned out well worth it. Ryan Dempster was just one more solid pitcher in the much improved pitching rotation. I believe this is the best rotation in a while for Sox, as well as one of the best in the MLB. The most important player signed over this past off season was Koji Uehara. At the beginning of the year, Uehara was expected to be a late inning reliever, but after Bailey and Hanrahan went down, he stepped up into the role of the closer. Uehara, at age 38, did so well closing out games that he has been considered in the CY Young award conversation, which is rare for a reliever. The Red Sox counted on Uehara to perform every night, and ninety-nine percent of the time he did. All of these players contributed greatly to make the Boston Red Sox as good as they are, but the people who mattered the most were these six returning veterans.

When people think of the Red Sox, there's always one players that sticks out first. This is David Ortiz, also known as Big Papi. David Ortiz was a free agent before the season started, and many doubted that he would be healthy. It is no easy task recovering from an ACL injury. Ignoring all of the criticism, the Red Sox signed him to a two year deal, to the media’s dismay. Boston fans wanted to sign Ortiz to a one year deal, because of his age and injury problem. Thankfully, they signed him to two years, and he successfully recovered from his ACL injury. David Ortiz was a monster this past year. Between slugging home runs, having clutch late game hits, and rallying the team when he was needed most, David Ortiz did it all. Big Papi was a major factor to the Red Sox success this year. He will have to be a machine as well as a leader in the playoffs if they want to win it all. David Ortiz is the only player left from the 2004 team, so he is the only true veteran for the Red Sox.

Dustin Pedroia came into the season looking for a long term deal, and he played like he wanted that deal badly. Pedroia had an all star year, batting .299 with 186 hits. He also played marvelously at second base, making hardly any errors. His hard work paid with a 7 year, 100 million dollar contract extension. Now he has even harder work ahead of him, it is to lead the Red Sox to the World Series. He is going to have to produce similar numbers in the playoffs if he wants to accomplish this.

Clay Buchholz’s may have been injured for most of the year, but having a 9-0 start is no easy feat. Buchholz played a major role in getting this team's winning ways started, as he was an ace on the mound and a projected All star.He strained his neck, and was out for about two months. Now, with Clay Buchholz’s finally back in the rotation, the Red Sox have another weapon to use in the playoffs.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia does not get as much credit as he should. He was the catcher, and he was relied on heavily in the field. Salty’s job was to keep pitches in front of him and to throw runners out. This year he did a wonder job at both of these things, which kept them in games. Saltalamacchia was the backbone of the defense, and they would not be nearly as effective without him. Not to mention Saltalamacchia’s .263 average and 13 home runs. He may not have been a superstar at the plate, but he contributed.

Jon Lester was a very streaky pitcher this year. He had some times where he would really struggle on the mound. Lester may not have been the best ace in the league, but he did a very good job, and this gave the Sox a strong number one pitcher. Jon Lester played an important role in the teams success, throwing for 208 innings with 173 strikeouts. Lester performed well in the top spot.

Jacoby Ellsbury's contract is up at the end of the year, and we have no idea where he will be next year. The one thing we do know is that one of the fastest players in the MLB had a fantastic 2013 season, with 52 steals on 56 attempts. He also played some solid defense in center field. Hopefully Ellsbury can return healthy from his foot injury to help the Red Sox in the playoffs.

All of these players made the Red Sox successful this year, and they will all need to play well for the Sox to do well in the playoffs.The most important part to this team though, is probably the signing of John Farrell.  He brought a winning spirit which was lost since 2007, and he deserves a lot of credit. If the Red Sox continue to have solid pitching throughout the playoffs, like they did throughout the season. As well as some solid defense, they will continue to win like they have all year long. The Red Sox also must continue to be patient at the plate. They have watched more pitches than most MLB teams this year,and must continue to do this to succeed in the postseason. It worked this season, so it should work in the playoffs. This strategy depletes the pitchers stamina, and keeps the batter from jumping at bad pitches. Doing this has generated some good offense all season, so hopefully the same will happen in the playoffs.

To be simple, the Red Sox need to just continue what they are doing. They have just under one hundred wins, and are at the top of the MLB. As long as the Red Sox don’t mess up big time, I see them winning the World series.