The Red Sox have completed 22 of their 31 Spring Training games this season. Today is a day off and then there are 10 straight days of games before the regular season begins.
With the day off, now’s a good time to have a look at some club leaders, bearing in mind the usual caveats that stellar spring performance is not necessarily an indicator of regular season excellence. Last spring, for instance, a .400/.467/.875 slash line for Mike Napoli turned into .224/.324/.410 in regulation play.
In all, the Sox are 9-13 (.409), in 4th place among the five American League East clubs. The Blue Jays are tops at 13-4 (.765), followed by the Yankees at 9-9 (.500), the Rays at 8-9 (.471), Boston, and the Orioles at 5-13 (.278). In the Grapefruit League Toronto’s 13-4 record is tied with the Nationals for the best mark; only the Braves (at 6-16) have a worse record than the Orioles.
Boston is 4-7 at home at JetBlue park, they are 5-6 on the road.
Red Sox batters are averaging .275 (putting them 9th of the 15 AL teams). Club on-base percentage is .324 (10th); slugging percentage is just .414 (13th). The club has scored 98 runs (13th) and allowed 114 (8th). 142 runners have been left on base (tied for 7th).
Boston’s pitching staff ERA is 4.55 (ranked 8th of the 15 AL teams). Pitchers have allowed 65 walks (8th), struck out 166 batters (8th).
Shaw makes his mark
At .450, Travis Shaw owns the 3rd best spring training batting average in the AL, and the best in the Grapefruit League. Old friend Pedro Ciriaco, now in the Rangers organization, is tops at .487. Elsewhere in the AL, Shaw is tied for 1st in OBP (.488), is tied for 2nd in hits (18), 2nd in RBI (13), 4th in SLG (.700), and 6th in total bases (28). No other Boston players features so prominently among AL spring time leaders.
Mookie Betts‘ 4 home runs ties him for most in the Grapefruit League, 2nd most among American Leaguers.
The Sox have drawn 109,530 fans for home games this spring, 3rd most among AL clubs after Rangers (115,014) and Yankees (109,612).
Interesting post, John Tomase and Michael Silverman had columns today praising Hanley Ramirez. His work ethic, commitment etc.etc. it’s just puff pieces trying to convince the pink hats, very few, who still believe what the beat writers say, that everything is going to be great at first base…..no need to worry folks…..nothing to see here.
They choose to ignore his career numbers , a -6.5 career Dwar. Ramirez says all the right things, but his past actions leave a lot to be concerned about. He had the same “commitment” last year, but the facts are that he didn’t work hard, he wasn’t committed and the Red Sox public relations dept. (the Boston beat writers) wrote the same columns last year.
Instead of making a assessment of his aptitude at first after 3 weeks of spring training games, let’s wait until Memorial Day. Let’s be fair about this, first basemen are going to make errors, it’s in the numbers, more chances more mistakes. The criticism will come if he plays first base in the same incompetent manner that he played left field.
I hope he hits .300/40/150 and wins the MVP, but knowing his past performance , I’d be happy if he plays 130 games and isn’t a defensive liability like he was last year. Tomase and Silverman’s cheerleading is just more nonsense from the weak Boston media.