3 Up 3 Down

With another week of baseball in the books, the Boston Red Sox stand at an impressive 5-4 due to the combination of rock solid starting pitching, consistent and timely hitting, and an unyielding bullpen that seems to be finding its groove (well, with the exception of the past two nights). It is also good to note that the Sox took 2 of 3 in both of their road series’ in New York and Toronto. And despite their two late inning meltdowns against the Orioles on Tuesday and Thursday, the Red Sox are off to a great start. While it might be premature to say this team is ready to punch tickets to the World Series or anything, this looks like a more than capable, fun to watch club. Let’s take a look at who impressed Red Sox Nation and who did not in the past 7 days.

3 Up

Jon Lester (1 Up, 0 Down) and Clay Buchholz (2 Up, 0 Down)

Photo by Kelly O’Connor of sittingstill.net

If you listened to any MLB analyst analyze the Red Sox, they, more often than not, always said that the Red Sox would fair as well or as poorly as Lester and Buchholz performed. ESPNBoston’s Gordon Edes ranked the Red Sox roster based upon their importance to the team and pinned Lester #1 with Buchholz #3. Fire Brand’s own Jack Keller had them 1 and 4, respectively. Well, it is safe to say that they both have been phenomenal through their first two starts and it is not a coincidence that the Red Sox find themselves above .500 and tied for 1^st place.

Both Lester and Buchholz have been completely different pitchers from 2012 to 2013. My, oh, my, what a difference a year and a new manager makes. Check out the table below. It shows Lester and Buchholz through their first 4 starts in 2012 compared to their first 2 this year:

Through 2013 the Sox are 4-0 when these two start. Through 2012 the Sox were 3-5 when these two started. It is a world of difference, and we can only hope it will continue. For what it is worth, Lester’s career xFIP is 3.73 so we can certainly expect a bit of a regression back towards the mean. One the other hand, Buchholz xFIP in 2013 is much closer to his 4.20 career xFIP. While he is certainly outperforming his xFIP, he maintained and outperformed it in 2010 and 2011 before the 2012 let down. Let’s hope he can continue to outperform that metric this year. As Dan Podheiser points out, perhaps Buchholz has figured out how to pitch instead of simply try to overpower everyone.

Jose Iglesias Daniel Nava (1 Up, 0 Down)

Fire Brand’s Jack Keller wrote a fantastic article on Nava’s journey to this point in his career. It is truly remarkable that Nava has battled to a point in his where he is finally being appreciated, proving his doubters wrong (myself included), and showing that he deserves to be on a Major League Baseball team for 162 games. And the way things are going for Nava right now, I would not bet against him for spending those 162 in a Boston Red Sox uniform.

Through 6 games in 2013, Nava is hitting .421/.520/.947 with a 1.467 OPS. While this is certainly a small sample size, this is nothing short of remarkable if you know Nava’s story. Not to mention that he single handedly defeated the Orioles last Tuesday with a 3-run HR in the 7^th inning to give Buchholz the win and propel the Sox to a 3-1 victory.

 Andrew Bailey, Koji Uehara, and Junichi Tazawa (All 1Up, 0 Down)

Bailey, Uehara, and Tazawa all serve as set-up men in front of Hanrahan and have all been exceptional thus far with ERA’s of 0.00, 0.00, and 1.80 respectively. The only blemish was last night’s 7^th inning against the O’s when Uehara relieved a walk friendly Andrew Miller and immediately hung a slider that Adam Jones ripped down the left field line to drive in what would be the game winning run. However, other than that these three have been as reliable as advertised. It is good to know the Sox have a plethora of insurance if Hanrahan continues to struggle.

3 Down

Jose Iglesias (1 Up, 1 Down)

Photo by Kelly O’Connor of sittingstill.net

Iglesias is only here because he was literally sent down to the Minors. I loved watching Iglesias for the past few weeks (drag bunts, great defense, putting the ball in play) and he did nothing wrong to deserve the demotion. Although I understand that Stephen Drew was signed to a one year $9.5 million contract to be the Sox starting shortstop in 2013, I hate it. I also understand that the Sox thought one of two things of Iglesias:

1. He was not prepared or ready to be the everyday shortstop and he needed another year of seasoning.
2. The front office decided he never would be the starting shortstop and wanted to give Bogaerts another year of development.

I would hope that his .450 BA through 9 games while playing great defense changed some minds.

Joel Hanrahan and Andrew Miller (Both have 1 Up, 1 Down)

After a great start, Hanny has given up a homerun in each of his last two appearances and blew a two run lead against the O’s on Wednesday night for his first blown save of the season. Hanrahan’s control issue was a big topic of conversation during the offseason and after his 32 pitch 2 out 9^th inning, I think we all can agree that we must be prepared to take the good with the bad.

Meanwhile, Miller, the left specialist with electric stuff can’t seem to find the strike zone when he comes in to pitch to left handed hitters; he has already walked 3 in 1.1 innings. Also, his walk of Markakis in the 7^th inning led to the Jones two out hit off Uehara.

 Will Middlebrooks (0 Up, 2 Down)

After struggling out of the gates, Middlebrooks had a coming out party last Sunday in Toronto when he went 4-4 with 3 HRs, 4 RBI, and a 2B. The Red Sox need Middlebrooks to hit for power and to drive in runs consistently if they want to be in contention when August rolls around. What they can’t have is Middlebrooks going through stretches where he goes hitless for 3, 4, or 5 straight games. After that 4 hit performance on Sunday, Middlebrooks is 0 for his last 11. While a 3 HR explosion is wonderful, Middlebrooks needs to find consistency.

3 Up, 3 Down Overall Standings

Up:

Clay Buchholz: 2

Jose Iglesias: 1

Shane Victorino: 1

Jon Lester: 1

Daniel Nava: 1

Down:

Will Middlebrooks: 2

Mike Napoli: 1

Andrew Miller: 1

Joel Hanrahan: 1

Ryan Dempster: 1

Jose Iglesias: 1