Aug 26, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Boston Red Sox left fielder Hanley Ramirez (13) helmet comes off mid swing during the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox at U.S Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports
Every season brings the potential for individual and group failure. In 2015, the Red Sox certainly gave us more group failure than anyone could have anticipated. Coming off the disater of 2014 it was back-to-back misery.
Players come in and sometimes they are new to the team and simply fail. Others come in and do the opposite. A cosmic dance for baseball with a very thin line that impacts performance. An injury, marital problems, sheer laziness or just some quirky anomaly that ruins a season and, hopefully, does not set in motion a career trend.
For the negative there is always the positive that surfaces. For Boston, the hope eternal was the sudden plethora of young players of varying degrees of promise. That was the focus during the season as management cut ranks with several veterans of note and some that were nothing more than an item to be forgotten on the transaction page.
This coming season there will be player’s who both breakdown and some who will breakout. This will be a list of four that I expect to pick it up a notch or several notches.