Red Sox 50 Facts
By Sean Penney
A list of 50 facts to consider pertaining to the Boston Red Sox heading into the 2016 season.
There are three types of lies in this world: lies, damned lies and statistics.
We use statistics as a means to analyze player performance in ways that go beyond what the eye test can tell us. The wave of sabermetrics that has washed over the landscape of professional sports in recent years has given us useful tools that can be used to improve our way of valuing players – at least when used correctly.
When taken out of context, some statistics can be misleading. For example:
Player A posts a 9-16 record with a respectable 3.49 ERA.
Player B posts a 9-7 record with a more appealing 3.18 ERA.
Based solely on this limited amount of data, one would incur that Player B was the superior pitcher in 2015. While you could attempt to make a case that this is true, most would much prefer to have 2014 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber (Player A) anchoring their staff over A.J. Burnett (Player B). Not to take anything away from Burnett, who has been a solid pitcher in his career, but Kluber pitched nearly 60 more innings with a significantly higher strikeout rate and lower walk rate last season. Burnett also had the benefit of facing the easier to navigate lineups of the National League while calling home to a much more pitcher-friendly ballpark.
Without that added context we may be led to an inaccurate analysis. Throughout the season you are bound to be flooded with various statistics used to convey a point the writer or analyst wants to make, while numbers can be manipulated in order to get that point across.
With that in mind, here are 50 facts about the Red Sox that we know heading into the season. Some of these are meant to excite you about this team’s potential, some are simply interesting, while others may intentionally be misleading when taken out of context. The one thing they all have in common is that they are 100 percent factual. How you interpret these facts is up to you.
Next: Fact No. 1-10