Posted in 2008, Bench, Bullpen, Contracts, Defense, Discussion, Infield, Injuries, Lineup, Manager, Predictions, Prospects, Roster, Rotation, Rumors, tagged A.J. Burnett, Bartolo Colon, Brandon Moss, Brian Fuentes, C.C. Sabathia, Charlie Zink, Clay Buchholz, Coco Crisp, Craig Hansen, Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Damaso Marte, David Aardsma, David Ortiz, Erik Bedard, Hideki Okajima, J.D. Drew, Jason Varitek, Javier Lopez, Jed Lowrie, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Josh Beckett, Julio Lugo, Justin Masterson, Kevin Youkilis, Manny Delcarmen, Manny Ramirez, Michael Bowden, Mike Lowell, Mike Timlin, Tim Wakefield on June 26, 2008 | No Comments »
At 49-32, the Boston Red Sox hold a 1-game lead over Tampa Bay in the AL East. Their .605 winning percentage is second in the AL only to the Los Angeles Angels (.608), but we have a much better run differential of +70, suggesting that they are (once again) playing over their heads a little [...]
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With all the excitement this season about Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester and Justin Masterson, it’s easy to forget that Michael Bowden is also an elite pitching prospect.
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Posted in 2008, Discussion, News, Predictions, Rotation, Sabermetrics, tagged Clay Buchholz, Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka, James Shields, Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Matt Garza, Scott Kazmir, Tim Wakefield on March 27, 2008 | No Comments »
David Pinto was playing around with PECOTA’s numbers and came up with an interesting result: apparently the statheads at Baseball Prospectus think that Tampa Bay will have the best rotation in the AL East. The numbers have Boston somewhere between 2nd and 4th, depending on whether you use straight predictions, or you fill out the [...]
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For those of you not into sabermetrics, Dan Szymborski over at Baseball Think Factory has projected the career of David Ortiz to the year 2016, when he will be 40 years old.
Some things of note:
Papi’s walk rate is projected to drop significantly starting this season, and 2008 shows a spike in strikeouts. Personally, I don’t [...]
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Posted in 2008, Bullpen, Defense, Predictions, Rotation, Sabermetrics, Stats, tagged Bartolo Colon, Bryan Corey, Bryce Cox, Clay Buchholz, Craig Hansen, Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka, David Pauley, Devern Hansack, Hideki Okajima, Javier Lopez, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Josh Beckett, Julian Tavarez, Kyle Snyder, Manny Delcarmen, Mike Timlin, Tim Wakefield on March 3, 2008 | No Comments »
In order to project the team’s performance this year, I’m going to look at each pitcher’s projections and trends for the coming year and use that to generate an estimated runs given up total.
Defense should be roughly the same, given that we basically have the whole starting lineup back; substituting Jacoby Ellsbury for Coco Crisp [...]
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Posted in Bench, Discussion, Lineup, Outfield, Predictions, Stats, tagged Coco Crisp, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kevin Youkilis on February 23, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Both Theo Epstein and Terry Francona spoke this week about Coco Crisp being the “incumbent” centerfielder and the starter for the 2008 season. This despite an unspoken assumption by everyone that the job belongs to one Jacoby Ellsbury.
Some have speculated that this is just a ploy to try and build up trade value for Crisp [...]
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Now that I’ve projected the whole starting lineup, I plugged my values into Baseball Musing’s lineup tool to see what the sum result might be this year.
Here’s the lineup I plugged in:
J. Ellsbury
D. Pedroia
D. Ortiz
M. Ramirez
K. Youkilis
M. Lowell
J. Drew
J. Varitek
J. Lugo
The result is a lineup that could produce 5.772 runs per game, or 935 runs [...]
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Jacoby Ellsbury came up and lit Red Sox Nation on fire last season. His combination of speed, defense and hitting has everyone excited about the possibilities. He hit .353/.394/.509 in limited duty last season, and brought energy and excitement in every game he played. He stole 9 bases in just 33 games (and wasn’t caught [...]
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We round out our infield with El Captain, Jason Varitek. Tek’s 2007 was a solid rebound from 2006 offensively, and his .255/.367/.421 line was very good, when you consider that AL average for the position is just .254/.318/.395. His .787 OPS was good for fourth-best among all qualifying Major League catchers, ahead of Brian [...]
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In a season when both Big Papi and Manny Ramirez struggled (relatively speaking), Mike Lowell was a godsend for the Boston Red Sox. Filling the fifth and even the cleanup spot in the order, Lowell turned in a monster season, hitting .324/.378/.501 with 60 XBH and 120 RBI. He made the All-Star team, finished fifth [...]
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