Bold Predictions for 2013, Part 3 — The League
The truck has left Boston, and the facilities in Ft. Myers are starting fill up with players eager to prove that 2012 was an aberration. Spring is just around the corner!
Category: Denard Span
Jackie Bradley Jr.: Different, But Good
To truly appreciate Jackie Bradley Jr., you have to look past traditional "counting" stats.
The Advanced Scout – Minnesota Twins
The Advanced Scout takes two Advil to cure his Olympic fever and analyzes the Minnesota Twins
The Advanced Scout – Minnesota Twins
Oh you betcha, The Advanced Scout is loading up on cheese curds to analyze the Minnesota Twins. Yah!
The intangible benefit of Pedroia
The Sox lineup, as always, is a meat grinder. They have four players in the top 20 in the American League in pitches seen per plate appearance (P/PA) and Pedroia ranks seventh at 4.27 (behind Youkilis who is fourth at 4.36) through 217 plate appearances (Victor Martinez is 11th at 4.12, J.D. Drew 13th at 4.11 while Marco Scutaro is 33rd at 3.92). Pedroia is also second in the league in total plate appearances at 217, behind only Denard Span of the Twins at 218, and leads the league in total pitches seen. Factoring in the entire majors, Youkilis ranks ninth and Pedroia 19th in P/PA.
Sitting in the No. 2 hole in the Sox lineup, Pedroia pesky plate appearances have a ripple down effect. Take for instance last Thursday when Boston beat Minnesota 6-2 on the strength of Jon Lester's nine-strikeout complete game. Pedroia was 0-3 with a walk and a run against the Twins and Francisco Liriano and was instrumental in knocking Minnesota's wily lefty out of the game after 4.2 innings with five earned runs on five hits and three walks. Pedroia was in the midst of a 4 for 39 slump at the time that spanned from May 12 to 23 before putting up three hits against the Rays on Monday.
MIN 5, BOS 2: Lester loses it in fifth
Jon Lester has a case of the Dice-K syndrome.