Red Sox 50 Facts

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

Fact No. 1-10

1. New Red Sox ace David Price is 6-1 with a 1.95 ERA over 11 career starts at Fenway Park.

2. That 1.95 ERA is the best Price has produced in any ballpark in which he has made at least 2 career starts.

3. Price produced those dominant numbers while pitching against the Red Sox. Since Price’s rookie season in 2008, no major league team has scored more runs than the Red Sox. Now that he will be pitching for Boston he will get to pitch in Fenway against lineups that are less potent than those he faced in his career when taking the mound for the visiting team.

4. Joe Kelly strung together 8 consecutive wins after August 1, giving him the longest winning streak by a Red Sox pitcher since Pedro Martinez won 9 straight in 1999.

5. That winning streak surpassed the the 7 consecutive victories that Curt Schilling (2004) and Josh Beckett (2007) accomplished on their way to delivering a World Series championship.

6. Kelly’s winning streak did not fuel the Red Sox to a title. Neither did Pedro’s in ’99.

7. Kelly earned the win in his first start of the season on April 11, but collected only one other win prior to his streak that began in August. He finished with 10 wins.

8. Eduardo Rodriguez led all AL rookie starting pitchers with 10 wins and a 2.5 WAR.

9. Rodriguez led all AL starters with a 1.87 ERA in night games.

10. Only 13 of Rodriguez’s 21 starts (61 percent) came at night last season, while 67 percent of the Red Sox schedule was played at night.

Next: Fact No. 11-20

Fact No. 21-30

21. Xander Bogaerts led all AL shortstops with a .320 average, .355 OBP, .776 OPS, 81 RBI, 35 doubles and 4.6 WAR. Somehow he was left all the All-Star team.

22. Bogaerts had to settle for the second-highest batting average in the league, despite recording 51 more hits than Miguel Cabrera, who won the batting title with a .338 average.

23. Only five American League hitters age 22 or younger posted a 4.0+ WAR last season, per Baseball-Reference. The Red Sox have two of those players – Bogaerts and Mookie Betts.

24. The 6.0 WAR that Betts produced was tied for  6th in the league and 4th among AL outfielders. He also was left off the All-Star roster.

25. Brock Holt was the lone representative for the Red Sox at the 2015 All-Star Game.

26. Holt’s .280 average, .727 OPS and 2.6 WAR trailed both Bogaerts and Betts in each category.

27. Holt played 7 different defensive positions last season, including shortstop and center field, which are the primary positions played by Bogaerts and Betts respectively.

28. Betts produced an .823 OPS when hitting first in the order last season, which was 6th in the league from that spot. His 69 RBI hitting at the top of the order led the league among lead-off hitters.

29. Baltimore’s Manny Machado was the only 20/20 hitter in the league last year (35 home runs, 20 steals). Betts was the only other hitter in the league that came close (18 home runs, 21 steals).

30. The Red Sox haven’t had a 20/20 hitter since Jacoby Ellsbury blasted 32 homers and swiped 39 bases in 2011.

Next: Fact No. 31-40

Fact No. 31-40

31. Koji Uehara led all Red Sox relievers with a 10.49 K/9 last season. None of the team’s other relievers that pitched at least two innings out of the bullpen had a double-digit strikeout rate.

32. Uehara will be joined in the bullpen this season by Craig Kimbrel (13.20 K/9 – 6th in MLB) and Carson Smith (11.83 K/9 – 12th in MLB). Can you tell that Dave Dombrowski likes power arms?

33. Last season the entire Red Sox bullpen combined for 40 saves, led by 25 from Uehara. Last year, in his first and only season with the San Diego Padres, Kimbrel failed to reach 40 saves for the first time in his career.

34. Kimbrel finished with 39 saves in 2015, 6th most in the majors.

35. The Red Sox had 20 blown saves as a team last year. Kimbrel has 23 blown saves in his entire 6-year career.

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36. Smith saved 13 games as a rookie for the Seattle Mariners last season. The Red Sox plan to have him split time between the 6th and 7th inning with last year’s set-up man, Junichi Tazawa. Yup, this bullpen is loaded.

37. Tommy Layne held left-handed hitters to a .148 average last season, the 8th best mark in the majors. The Red Sox could use another lefty in the bullpen to pair with Robbie Ross.

38. If Layne doesn’t earn one of the final bullpen spots it may be because he allowed a .322 average to go along with a 6.86 ERA against right-handed hitters last year, putting him near the bottom of the league. He’s strictly a lefty specialist.

39. Knuckleball pitcher Steven Wright is vying for a spot as a long reliever in the bullpen. Last year he held opposing hitters to a .228 average and .692 OPS in his 9 starts, but was significantly worse out of the bullpen, allowing a .269 average and .797 OPS.

40. Alexi Ogando led Red Sox relievers with 65.1 innings pitched last season, followed by Craig Breslow with 65.0 innings. Neither of them are still on the roster heading into 2016.

Next: Fact No. 41-50

Fact No. 41-50

41. The Red Sox brought in the right-handed bat of Chris Young to be a fourth outfielder, valued primarily for his production against lefties. Last year he mashed left-handed pitching to the tune of a .327 average and .972 OPS.

42. The starting outfield trio of Betts, Jackie Bradley and Rusney Castillo all hit over .300 against lefties last season. So did Holt, who is also capable of playing in the outfield.

43. One area that Blake Swihart struggled at the plate as a rookie was against lefties, who limited him to a .225 average. Meanwhile, veteran Ryan Hanigan hit .364 in 44 at-bats against left-handed pitching.

44. Betts, a converted infielder, was 7th among major league center fielders with 9 defensive runs saved last season.

45. This year Betts will be pushed over to right field to make way for Jackie Bradley becoming the primary center fielder. Bradley, a defensive wizard widely considered to be one of the top outfield gloves in the game, had 8 defensive runs saved last year despite playing almost half as many games as Betts.

46. Ortiz has blasted 30+ home runs and driven in 100+ RBI in each of the past three seasons.

47. Ortiz is now 40 years old as he enters the final season of his career. No hitter age 40 or older has hit 30 home runs or driven in 100 RBI in a season since Darrell Evans (34 HR, 90 RBI) in 1987.

48. Ortiz enters the season 27th on the all-time home run list with 503.

49. Of those 503 career home runs for Ortiz, 445 of them have come wearing a Red Sox uniform, giving him the third most in franchise history. Carl Yastrzemski hit 452 for the Red Sox, while Ted Williams set the bar high for the franchise with 521.

Next: Prediction: Vazquez will be starting catcher

50. The Red Sox have finished last in the AL East in three of the last four years, yet are primed to jump back into contention with a reloaded roster in 2016. Fine, that’s not a fact, but there is enough talent on this team to turn those dreams into a reality.