Welcome back to Read Sox! For this week’s edition, we’ll look at what hitters could replace the irreplaceable David Ortiz, people who don’t like David Ortiz and how being imperfect is okay for the Red Sox: the team with David Ortiz.
Going Deep
Come this time next year, David Ortiz will have put his bat away for good, and as WEEI’s Rob Bradford writes, the Red Sox need to start looking at potential replacements for the big DH. Most people assume it’ll be Hanley Ramirez and he’ll either abandon first base completely or only play in the field sporadically. That’s a nice idea, but if Hanley doesn’t hit anywhere close to what we expect, he might just be a DH replacement in name, and not in production. Granted, it’ll be nigh impossible to replace the offense Ortiz brings to the table, but the Sox won’t have very much financial flexibility to get a big bat, and – at least for now – they seem intent on keeping their blue-chip prospects. A lot can happen in a year, but losing Ortiz’s bat without having a competent replacement ready could very well be the worst thing to happen to the 2017 Red Sox.
BREAKING: there are a lot of people who don’t like David Ortiz. Shocker, I know. Maggie Rogers over at Over The Monster wrote about pitchers not liking David Ortiz showing emotion on the diamond, and man, I really dislike Kevin Gregg right about now. Ortiz isn’t shy in wearing his heart on his sleeve, whether it be watching a no-doubter or showing his disapproval of an umpire. Naturally, you’re going to have your fair share of detractors. Gregg didn’t like Ortiz getting mad about missing a pitch, which escalated to the point that Don Orsillo (RIP in San Diego) coined the phrase “Fight Night at Fenway”. David Price wasn’t a fan of Ortiz checking if his eventual homer was going to stay fair, so he got mad too. Now they’re teammates, and everybody loves everybody. In the end though, David Ortiz comes out on top where it counts: Papi – 1, dugout phone – 0.
Quick Hits
The Red Sox are not a perfect team. That much we can all agree on, no matter how blinding our fanaticism gets. Thankfully, The Providence Journal‘s Brian MacPherson is here to tell us that being imperfect is alright. Even Theo Epstein chimed in, saying that his Cubs are flawed as well, and that anything can happen during the season that could possibly make or break the year. The Red Sox look really good, sure, but they still have to play all 162 games and prove it.
We all enjoyed the coming of the Killer Bs last year, as Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, and Blake Swihart all arrived on the scene and proceeded to do wildly better than any of us truly expected. That being said, Alex Speier discusses what could happen next year for the two wunderkinds over at The Boston Globe. It’s hard to fathom – especially after what we just witnessed – but there’s a 5o/50 chance that they could either sink or swim next year. We’d all love it if they could progress in a linear fashion, but as reality so often reminds us, that’s seldom the case.
David Price has donned the title of Red Sox ace ever since signing that big contract. Over at the Boston Herald, Scott Lauber talks about the effects of having a hyper-competitive guy lead your pitching staff. The other four starters don’t feel pressured. Expectations for those guys get lowered just by being in the proximity of Price. There are quite a few unseen effects that a lot of his teammates feel, and Rick Porcello can attest to that, having been a teammate during his time on the Tigers.
The bullpen got some massive upgrades this offseason. Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith are the major additions to go along with Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara. The front four of the ‘pen looks great, but the depth is questionable, as MassLive’s Jen McCaffrey writes. Robbie Ross and Tommy Layne are the two main LHRPs, and while serviceable, could be very shaky. Brandon Workman could come back in a relief role after recovering from Tommy John surgery, which will shore up a bullpen that still has Steven Wright and Matt Barnes at its back-end.
Strikeouts have been on the rise for years, and many teams sold out on them when it came to hitting, becoming giant Three True Outcome machines of home runs, walks, and strikeouts. Then came the Royals, who put everything in play en route to a World Series title. FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan reflects on this, as he looks at early projections of team strikeout rates. As expected, the Royals lead the field, but the Red Sox come in fourth. Nearest AL East team? The Yankees at 13th. Don’t take this as a sign for great things to come, though – the Atlanta Braves are 5th. Grains of salt and all that, y’know.
Photo by Winslow Towson/USA Today Sports Images