Talkin' Baseball...The Red Sox Are Dead

     Welcome back to the latest edition of talkin' baseball. I have been wondering what kind of topic to write about for today, I've done lots of football so I wanted to break it up at least a little bit. Winter sports are still about a month away from preseason so no point in doing any previews for that and so naturally we find ourselves on the baseball diamond. So let's get into it with the Boston Red Sox.

    This season has not been great for the Sox. What started out as a winter of hope with talks from the front office of spending big on free agents to get the team back into contention after a few years of bottoming out, turned into getting a few solid pieces and letting Alex Cora go to work and try and get the guys to play hard. I think Cora has done a magnificent job of that, except in one major area--fielding. The Sox have been abysmal in the field. A .980 fielding percentage. Which really don't sound bad, 98% of the time they're not making any errors, which is pretty great. Can you imagine if a basketball player had a 98% field goal percentage? They'd be the best shooter in history! Unfortunately when you put that percentage in the context of baseball fielding stats, the Sox current have a firm hold of LAST PLACE in this category. Even the Chicago White Sox, who are about to SMASH the record for most losses in a season, have a better fielding percentage than their Sox Brothers from Boston. It has not been good, to say the least.

    Now, as we know, baseball is a multi action sport. You're not just in the field trying to keep the other team from scoring. You're also trying to score yourself while in the batters box and luckily for the Sox, that's a big part of why they are right around the .500 mark. They are top 5 in team batting average at .256. The leaders in San Diego are averaging .265 in batting percentage, so the sox really aren't all that far off. 

    The biggest issue, for me, with the Red Sox is they should be better. Boston is a city of winners, and they won not too long ago in 2018, but since then they really haven't done much. The ownership group, Fenway Sports Group, apparently doesn't want to spend any money. Prior to Chaim Bloom being fired, his big project was to get the Sox back under the luxury tax, which he did. In 2019 the Red Sox led the MLB in highest payroll, they are currently in the middle of the pack, 5 years later. Living in a small market, I completely understand the desire of an owner for their team to not be over the luxury tax. I bet it sucks (but I would pay the luxury tax every single year if I owned a team could) to pay all that money just for a slim chance at winning the championship. The problem here is these are the BOSTON RED SOX. They are one of the most popular teams in all of baseball. They are the 3rd most valuable MLB franchise according to Forbes, only beat by the Yankees and Dodgers. Its an absolute crime that the Red Sox are signing the biggest free agents and bringing a winning culture back into the clubhouse. There is a bright future in the minor leagues and quite a few players will be brought up soon but there's really not a guarantee that they will work out in the majors. 

    Time will only tell how the future of the Boston Red Sox looks, but for now it doesn't look good. But it doesn't look bad either. If FSG decides to starting spending more money, which is a huge IF and the reports that they are a top contender to buy the Celtics doesn't help the equation, I think the future will look even brighter. The Red Sox will eventually come back to winning... I hope.