Thankfully, April is over (although May has been far from kind to us so far). The Red Sox ended the opening month of the 2014 season with a sub .500 record at 13-14. Now, the team that came into this season wanting to “Turn the Page” is heading into a new month still trying to do the same thing.
Clay Buchholz — the most frustrating player from a very frustrating month. (Keith Allison/Flickr)
Every month during the season, here on Fire Brand, I take a look at the relative value of the 25 players on the current active roster. If you’re unfamiliar with the criteria for these rankings, check out last month’s column.
| Rank | Player | Previous | Comment |
| 25 | Edward Mujica | 20 | Opposing batters have hit .341/.400/.537 against Mujica, so essentially he turns every player he faces into Mike Trout at the plate. |
| 24 | Craig Breslow | N/A (DL) | Breslow got a late start in spring and then rolled that right into a poor start to the season. One of last year’s most reliable relievers has a 7.50 ERA and 2.167 WHIP in five games. |
| 23 | Jonathan Herrera | 24 | If I was Brock Holt I would spend every free minute I had in Pawtucket working on becoming a mildly passable defensive SS, because that is the only reason Herrera has stuck in Boston while Brock has been riding the Route 95 roller coaster up and down. |
| 22 | Clay Buchholz | 5 | Clay’s April ERA was appropriately 6.66. Appropriate because his starts have been absolute hell to watch and endure. I’m not sure why the organization has allowed him to “build arm strength” in the majors. I’m pretty sure that’s what extended spring training and the minor league teams are for. |
| 21 | Felix Doubront | 12 | I’ve never been a Felix guy. Similar to the Dice-K experience even when he’s good I still find him to be frustrating. I can’t imagine that his leash will be too much longer with strong options like Brandon Workman and Rubby De La Rosa waiting in the wings. |
| 20 | Mike Carp | 17 | It’s pretty hard to trade a guy batting .226 with no power. It’s possible that the team caught lightning in a bottle with Carp last year but that it hasn’t carried over to this season. Far more often than not he still feels like a waste of a roster spot. |
| 19 | Grady Sizemore | 14 | For a few minutes Grady was the consensus favorite to win the Comeback Player of the Year award. Now he’s a below replacement level player struggling at the plate, in the field, and on the base paths. I’m still pulling for the guy, and I believe he can be a serviceable fourth outfielder, but he definitely isn’t an everyday center fielder at this stage in his career. |
| 18 | David Ross | 19 | Ross hit .179 in April while striking out three times more often than he walked. Still, he’s a solid backup catcher who leads the staff well and will have his fair share of big hits as the season wears on. Also, he isn’t AJP which is a huge plus. |
| 17 | Burke Badenhop | 23 | A 3.86 ERA is nice to see from the journeyman reliever, but a 1.531 WHIP isn’t. |
| 16 | Andrew Miller | 21 | 2.45 ERA, 2.03 FIP, no home runs allowed. Miller has retuned to the bullpen healthy and continues to be one of the better relief options for John Farrell. |
| 15 | Jonny Gomes | 18 | .230 average, two home runs, 23 strikeouts, and a swing that looks like he’s trying to chop down a tree. Gomes has been what we all would have realistically expected him to be at the start of the season. |
| 14 | A.J. Pierzynski | 16 | Is there a bigger indictment of the dWAR stat than Pierzynski already having 0.3 wins? He has two passed balls and has allowed ten wild pitches. Are wild pitches technically on the pitcher? Of course, but if you’re watching the games you’re all too aware that AJ isn’t doing his pitching staff any favors. The next ball he blocks in the dirt will be his first in a Red Sox uniform. |
| 13 | Will Middlebrooks | 10 | After last season I think we’re all willing to live with this kind of performance from Middlebrooks. He hit .259/.375/.593 in 32 April plate appearances. He has also settled back down at third base, committing only one error during the opening month. |
| 12 | Shane Victorino | 8 | Victorino played in only four April games, so this ranking is probably too generous, but he hit .316 in those games and his presence in RF alongside JBJ solidified a previously horrific defensive outfield. Hopefully it wasn’t a coincidence that the team was 3-1 in the four April games after his return. |
| 11 | Junichi Tazawa | 13 | Keep him away from the Blue Jays and he continues to be one of the best relievers in the major leagues. After surrendering six of the nine total home runs he allowed last season to Toronto batters, the Blue Jays came out of the gate hitting .800 against him in April. |
| 10 | Chris Capuano | 22 | If I told you in March that a relief pitcher would finish April with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.698 WHIP you would have guessed that it was Koji. You then probably would have guessed five or six more options before you got to Capuano. |
| 9 | Xander Bogaerts | 9 | Everyone needs to slow their role on Xander. As a 21-year-old in his first full month as an everyday major league player he posted an on base percentage of .387. That would be great for a shortstop in their prime. Another SS that wears #2 and will be in the Hall of Fame in five years has a career OBP of .381, by comparison. His defense will improve, so take a deep breath everyone. It’s hilariously ironic though that the same short-sighted clowns who spent all of last year hating Stephen Drew are now clamoring for the team to re-sign him. |
| 8 | Jackie Bradley | NA (AAA) | If you think this is too high you don’t understand the premium value of outstanding center field defense, or you just don’t realize how great JBJ has been in center. Through 1/6 of the season he has been a 0.6 WAR player, projecting him to 3.6 WAR on the year which would be an absolutely outstanding rookie campaign. Comparatively, Jacoby Ellsbury sits just ahead of him at 0.8 WAR for 42 times ($21M vs. $500K) the salary. Goodbye, Jake! |
| 7 | David Ortiz | 3 | Ortiz keeps telling everyone that “When the weather heats up, Papi heats up.” Honestly, we could really use both, and fast. The five home runs are fine for a single month, but the .250/.352/.446 splits are all well below what we’ve come to expect from the Big Papi Experience. |
| 6 | Dustin Pedroia | 2 | Pedroia’s 0.3 WAR to this point in the season is drastically behind his general standards and ties him with Middlebrooks (who has done that in 18 less games), Xander, Ortiz, and the Notorious AJP. Pedroia, when playing well, should never have to see his name in the same sentence as #AJPlaceholder. |
| 5 | Koji Uehara | 4 | Do you want to know how good Koji is? He finished April with a 0.93 ERA, 0.931 WHIP, K/9 of 15.8, and K/BB of 17/1…and everyone is still worried that something isn’t right. He may not be right (and he certainly didn’t begin May the way we would want him to) but give me a not-right Koji over almost any other reliever in the game. |
| 4 | Jake Peavy | 11 | Peavy’s 2.87 ERA in five April starts was an encouraging beginning to the season for the veteran righty. The five home runs allowed in the month stands out as a concern, but allowing one home run every game probably won’t kill you if you keep the bases clear and every homer he has allowed this year has been a solo shot. |
| 3 | John Lackey | 6 | Big John Stud. His 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 11 K, 0 BB performance against the Yankees at Fenway on the 23rd was the best (and possibly most important) pitching performance of any Red Sox starter in April. |
| 2 | Jon Lester | 1 | 3.10 ERA, 2.55 FIP, 140 ERA+, 9.5 K/9, with the team only scoring 12 total runs in his six starts. He’s pitching for a new contract, and with every start that goes by it looks more and more like that contract won’t be with the Red Sox. |
| 1 | Mike Napoli | 7 | Nap’s .305/.405/.526 slash line in April made him one of the very few Red Sox players to exceed expectations in this difficult opening month. Last season, and most of his career, has been a series of peaks and valleys. Hopefully this early peak doesn’t mean we’re headed into a valley because this team desperately needs consistent production out of him. |