The Red Sox didn’t just win their second championship in 4 years. That alone would be an amazing accomplishment. But let’s look deeper:
-The Red Sox have been to the LCS 3 times in 5 years.
-They have gone 28-15 in the post-season since John Henry, Theo Epstein. Larry Luchino, etc took over, winning 7 out of 9 series.
-The Red Sox hit .333 over the WS, the highest batting average ever for a WS winning team.
-All four Red Sox starters recorded a win.
-The Rockies led for a TOTAL of 3 out of the 36 innings.
-Of the 27 players who contributed significantly to this season and post-season, 14 are under 30 including Youkilis, Pedroia, Ellsbury, Beckett, Dice-K, Lester, Bucholz, and DelCarmen.
October 29th, 2007
Mike – you should add what should be an impressive number, but I don’t know it myself (and am too lazy to calculate it.) The number of BoSox who played in the post-season who were drafted and/or built by the farm system.
October 29th, 2007
Well, just from memory (and I won’t count Schilling or the Japanese imports, but will count Varitek and other minor-leaguers acquired via trade):9
Varitek, Mirabelli, Youkilis, Pedroia, Lester, DelCarmen, Ellsbury, Papelbon, and Bucholz.
I may be forgetting someone…and I’m not positive about Mirabelli.
October 29th, 2007
They talked about during the telecast of last night’s game 4 – it’s not that many. Was something like 8. The Rockies, on the other hand, was something like 17 – somewhere around half or more of the WS roster.
Frankly, I don’t know that it matters: grow ‘em, build ‘em, trade for ‘em, buy ‘em… so what. The Sox built a championship team, and won. That’s all that matters. Unless Sox fans try to play ‘holier than thou’ w/r/t the Yankees. They no longer can do that, I don’t think. According to USA Today, the Yanks and Sox had the two highest 2007 team payrolls in the MLB. Only 7 teams are above $100M, and the Yanks were $189M and the Sox $143M. #3 was the Mets at $115M.
Anyway you slice it, the Sox are the best team in baseball – and one built upon an ungodly large payroll.
October 29th, 2007
I don’t think you can say any Sox fans on this blog play any “holier than thou” game with respect to the Yankees. Frankly, if the whole team was 25 free agents and we won and the Yankees didn’t, I wouldn’t mind. The reason I like home grown talent is that it’s cheaper and allows the Red Sox to use their vast wealth to pursue areas which the farm system hasn’t produced yet.
That’s why having a good farm system is crucial – so that you can overspend on the other areas (Dice-K for example) that you need.
October 29th, 2007
John Henry was on NESN defending the size of the payroll this morning.
October 29th, 2007
The farm system is the key to sustainability. Even the BoSox and Yanks can’t afford to buy a top player at every position. They are only paying Lester $380k, Papelbon $425k, Pedroia $380k, and Youkilis $425k. Its frankly stunning you can spend that you can spend $143 million given that.
However, in the post-Moneyball era, you have to have both great scouting/development and a ability to build a significant payroll. Otherwise, you build great players, and then effectively become a farm system for large payroll teams. Boston has achieved this.