Red Sox: Player awards for first half of 2017 season

The Boston Red Sox first half is in the books and there are players who have surprised and disappointed.  Here are my choices for the best.

The first half of the season has now concluded and Red Sox Nation can rest a bit easier during the All-Star break. The Boys of Summer have managed to climb into first place in the American League East after a tumultuous few months where it appeared the team was sliding into a baseball abyss and becoming irrelevant for the year. What a difference a few weeks can make.

The abyss may have been just an illusion since the Red Sox were amazingly consistent.  Every month was a winning month. Even the road record finished at 25-25 and that means 50 road games have been played and only 31 remain for the 2017 season.

There were high and low points for the season and that is not unusual, but what I will concentrate upon is value – as in the most valuable players for the team.  This is not an exercise that will max out my neural connectors and it is fairly simple, but I have one player that has stood out from my perspective.

First Half Player – Rotation

This is certainly one in which I have to mull over for about three seconds before placing the obvious forward – lefty Chris Sale. The trade for Sale was a gamble, as most deals are, but with Boston it is really high stakes since our collective ire can be forever non-forgiving.

Sale is more than advertised and this may finally be the season he gets a coveted Cy Young Award. Sale has finished in the top five for the honor in each of the last five seasons.  Remarkable consistency was well noted prior to Boston and that has continued.

The southpaw leads the American League in innings pitched with 127.2, 178 strikeouts, 2.09 FIP, 0.90 WHIP and the lowest H/9 in the league. The result is an 11-4 record that could conceivably be 13 or 14 in wins with some run support.

Sale has displayed an honest and refreshing approach to his few – very few – mound failures.  A businesslike, professional with zero attitude adjustment needed. Take note, David Price.  Sale is both a stopper and an Ace and that is essential to prevent extended losing streaks. The impact of Sale has solidified a good rotation and made it a great rotation.

First Half Player – Bullpen

What a difference a year makes.  Last year Craig Kimbrel was a pitching reincarnation of Heathcliff Slocumb. The 5.1 BB/9 was horrid, as each game seemed to be a display of how to miss the plate. As bad as it appeared, Kimbrel was still unhittable, as batters hit just .151 against the hard-throwing righty.

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Kimbrel’s 1.18 BB/9 is an amazing drop from the previous year.  Batters know that Kimbrel will throw strikes. Looking at the metrics, Kimbrel leads all American League relievers (30+ innings) in ERA (1.19), FIP (0.78), xFIP (1.23), K/9 (16.25) and fWAR at 2.3. Want a negative? The .211 BABIP – actually four relievers are better.

His workload will certainly be monitored by the coaching staff.  In today’s brand of baseball, the idea is to limit the closer’s usage unless some work is needed. I can’t get that excited about a four or five out save since I do have a tendency to harken back to when a multiple inning closer was the norm.

Kimbrel anchors a bullpen that does have the shakes at the time and that is fortunate. A Kimbrel of 2016 may have killed this team – now he is saving it.

First Half Player – Defense

I had mentioned one player that stood out and that is Deven Marrero.  Marrero is now 26-years-old and a former first round pick who I thought would not survive spring training.  Marrero simply can’t hit or can he?

In the International League in 2016 and for 2017 if you looked at the very bottom of the individual hitting statistics you would find Marrero. How bad was it?  Maybe a new category called the Marrero Line to describe the hitting deficiency that even exceeds the Mendoza Line. Now we have suddenly seen a new and improved Marrero, who is hitting .225 and .340 for the last 18 games. Marrero is doing all the “little things” offensively.

If Marrero went hitless in July he would still be a plus.  Third base has become a hazardous landfill for the Red Sox. The EPA could have intervened before Marrero arrived and stabilized a porous defense. How good is it? Marrero has the top UZR/150 among AL third basemen.

Next: Mid-Season state of the Red Sox

Marrero is smooth, smart, quick and has a great arm – and that has been the defensive glue for Boston.