How do Boston Red Sox players stack up against the rest of the league statistically? Let’s find out who has a shot at some end of the year awards.
The Boston Red Sox recently finished the first month of a still young baseball season with a record above .500, putting them in third place in the AL East behind the hated New York Yankees and equally disliked Baltimore Orioles. Join me as we take a look at the Red Sox statistical report for April.
The first month of the season included walk-off hits, heartbreaking losses, and even an incident at second base involving Dustin Pedroia. What it also gave us was some players that are in the running for some end of the year awards.
If you take a look at the numbers for the month of April, you will see a certain Red Sox outfielder in the top-10, sixth to be exact, in the batting average race. Andrew Benintendi is currently hitting at a .333 clip in 90 official at bats this season. As a rookie, being in the conversation with the likes of Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Jose Altuve, the future is bright for this kid. Not all categories are good to rank in the top-10 of, as Benintendi also ranks fourth in grounding into double plays with 5 this season.
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As we continue to meander around the statistical categories, we don’t see any Red Sox in the top-10 in home runs or triples, but we do find a player in first place with 12 doubles. Mitch Moreland is sporting 24 hits for the season, with half of those being doubles. Digging even deeper in the stats, Moreland also ranks in the top-10 in intentional walks.
On the pitching side of the ball, we find that our good friend Chris Sale ranked number one in strikeouts with 63. He has started six games so far in the season. If you are doing the math with me, that’s roughly 10 strikeouts per game. Toss in there that he also ranks fourth in ERA at 1.38. He is en fuego!
Sticking with pitching, we see that Craig Kimbrel ranked second in the league in saves. The amazing thing with Kimbrel is that he is averaging almost two strikeouts per game. You might not think that is a huge number, but consider that he has pitched in 12 games and 12.1 innings. Does that make it any better for you?
Taking a peek at the more well-known postseason awards, we have some possible contenders in the mix. For the Cy Young award, you almost have to toss Chris Sale in there because of the stats discussed above. The Red Sox don’t really have an MVP contender as of yet, but the season is still young. Benintendi, as well has to be in the early discussion for the Rookie of the year award.
Next: Sale finally gets run support
Make sure to watch the site for updates on Red Sox in statistical categories at the end of each month.