Red Sox 2002?
For no reason other than my never-ending digging through Red Sox data and statistical archives, I give to you some randomness from 2002. The season had the mighty combination of Brian Daubach and Tony Clark as your first basemen.
Rey Sanchez was the second baseman and Carlos Baerga was the DH. No one was talking about WAR or RAR or xBA.
Let us not forget that 2002 had Mike Port as the team general manager after the Red Sox let Dan Duquette go. Port is now the Vice President of Umpiring for Major League Baseball as he was succeeded by Theo Epstein in November of 2002.
That 2002 team had the greatest base stealer in humankind’s history. It was an old Rickey Henderson, but it was still Ricky Henderson. Why I don’t have a Rickey Red Sox t-shirt jersey is beyond me considering his importance in MLB history.
How about some Jose Offerman, Cliff Floyd and Benny Agbayani?
All part of that 93-win team that managed to finish 10 games behind the New York Yankees. Framingham Lou Merloni was still on the team as well.
Quick question; Who lead the American League in errors for shortstops that season?
Answer: Nomar Garciaparra
Nomar Garciaparra, photo: Boston.com
Nomar was coming off his wrist injury and although he hit the ball well, he struggled with the glove, racking up 25 errors. He followed that up in 2003 with 20 more errors before being traded in 2004.
Despite some of the quirkiness in the lineup with the likes of Clark, Daubach, Baerga, etc, the Red Sox were still a potent offense powered by Nomar, Manny Ramirez, Shea Hillenbrand, Johnny Damon and Trot Nixon. The team scored 859 runs in 2002, second only to the Yankees’ 897.
On the mound, the Red Sox of course had Pedro Martinez. And in 2002, Derek Lowe combine with Pedro to rack up 41 wins. Lowe emerged as a top-flight #2 starter, giving the Red Sox their long-desired counter-punch to Martinez. The other two primary starters were John Burkett and Frank Castillo.
FRANK CASTILLO
One of the best things the Red Sox did it 2002 was fire Joe Kerrigan. Pitching coaches should never manage teams in my opinion. Good luck John Farrell.
How about Ugueth Urbina? The demonstrative Red Sox closer lead Boston with 40 saves. He trailed the MLB leader, John Smoltz by 10.
2002 was the season Manny broke his finger by sliding head-first into home plate against the Seattle Mariners. Manny missed 36 games and still hit .349 with 33 home runs and 107 RBI. I almost forgot the story about Manny where he was rehabbing the finger injury in Pawtucket and told the team he preferred to stay there instead of returning to the team. Manny being Manny.
And finally, the best thing to happen for the Boston Red Sox in 2002 was drafting Jon Lester in the 2nd round of the MLB Draft.
2002 was an interesting year and probably the most overlooked year of the decade.
Maybe because it was the last one without Theo?