Monday, June 16, 2008

A Little Love to the Red Sox

The Celtics have been hogging all of the sporting spotlight lately and rightly so. However, do you realize that with the season almost nearing the halfway point (90 games to go) the Sox have a 44-28 record (a .611 clip putting them on pace for 99 wins) which is tops in the AL? What's more, only the Cubs have a better record in MLB than them at 45-25. Even better they find themselves in the top 10 in MLB in pretty much every significant hitting and pitching category with the exception of runs allowed where they are 11th. Sure, their bullpen looks shaky and their offense can be slump prone at times, but the overall numbers don't lie. Furthermore there is something I really like about this Sox team - I think a big chunk of that are the Bartolo Colon and JD Drew redemptions - and hopefully after we finish feting what could be the first Celtics championship team since 1986 we can start focusing on what is turning out to be a really good Red Sox team. No need to rush into that though because the Celtics deserve the spotlight. Still, to prepare you for the second half of the Sox season, below are their MLB ranks in some pretty important categories methinks.

4th in runs scored with 371, leader (TX) has 394

11th in runs allowed with 301, leader (OAK) has allowed 252

3rd in run differential at +70, leader (CHC) is at +108

2nd in OBP at .356, leader (CHC) is at .361

5th in HR with 84, leader (FL) has 103

T3 in SLG% at .450, leader (TX) is at .462

4th in SB with 64, leader (TB) has 80

8th in ERA at 3.83, leader (CHW) is at 3.33

T9 in WHIP at 1.33, leader (CHW) is at 1.23

5th in K's at 525, leader (CIN) has 568

Not too bad. You can't help but love the chances of a team this balanced and well-rounded. If they can get Papi back and effective, even better, but even without him I still like this team.

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