JUNKYARD DOGS, A Season of Redemption . . . and Hope.

17 of the starting 25 Red Sox for 2009 have much to prove this season. Of this number, 15 are rebounding from injuries which plagued 2008.

Using xBABIP and IF/F to predict some Sox’s 2009 numbers

A month ago, Chris Dutton and Peter Bendix collaborated together to come up with a new statistic -- xBABIP. For batters, a .300 BABIP is not a reliable benchline (as it is for pitchers), nor is there one standard benchline across all batters. They have to be personalized, which Dutton and Bendix did.

David Ortiz looks to be in line for a monster regression to the mean... except in this case, regression is a good thing. You can expect a .300 average as a reasonable forecast next year for Big Papi.

Check out the numbers behind the reasoning for Big Papi, plus some interesting numbers on Jason Bay, Julio Lugo and others...

Analyzing the Coco Crisp/Ramon Ramirez trade

Coco Crisp - Evan Brunell

This trade is excellent from the Red Sox's perspective. The Sox had a very solid bullpen last year but now add Ramirez to their corps of young, cost-controllable arms that are capable of setting up and/or closing.

This trade is the first of many dominoes that will start to fall for the Red Sox. The question is, where will these dominoes fall?

Wherever the Sox go from here, the opening salvo of the Sox's offseason was the Crisp/Ramirez trade, and it's going to impact the rest of the offseason fundamentally.

Projections for 2009 Red Sox and others

Bill James has come out with his new handbook for 2009, and in the handbook are the early statistical projections for players next year. This may be especially significant in the case of the Red Sox, as James has a vast amount of knowledge of players in the Red Sox system due to being employed by the team.

10/14: Is Wake our Savior?

@ Oct. 14 GAME 4 – ALCS 2008 Andy Sonnanstine (1-0, 3.18 @ Tim Wakefield (0-0, -.–) Fenway Park (Boston,…

Jacoby Ellsbury or Coco Crisp — who’s our CF?

Yesterday, I asked if Terry Francona should start Coco Crisp over Jacoby Ellsbury in Game 3, as Coco ended the…

Coco or Jacoby?

Should the Red Sox make a move to insert Coco Crisp into the lineup in place of the struggling Jacoby…

The Kids are Alright

The kids were the story last night. Yeah, Jason Bay paced the offensive game with a pivotal 2-run home run…

BOS 6, CLE 1: Lester keeps A.L. East title hopes alive

Jon Lester threw a two-hitter through 6 innings as the Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 6-1. Kevin Youkilis…

Crisp Coming Through

When words like those that follow are uttered in Spring Training, they usually precede a player shooting their way out…