30 Teams In 30 Days

Despite dropping a weekend series to the hated Cubby, things are going pretty well for the White Sox. They've won 4 out of their last 5 series, can get their first 3 game sweep of the season with a win over Oakland tonight, are finally scoring some runs, and are only 3 1/2 games out of first as we come up on Memorial Day.

So, the Sox are OK right now, and I'm going to take the focus off of them for a little while. Instead, for the next 30 days I aspire to check in with all 30 major league teams. We're a quarter of the way thru the season, enough time to have some meaningful stats to dig into, so this seems like an opportune time.

We'll start with the team for whom everything has been seashells and balloons so far in 2007, the 31-14 Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox have rebounded nicely from last year's injury plagued third place suckfest, and now find themselves an unconscionable 10 1/2 games ahead of a Yankees team whose fans are ready to burn down the observatory.

So, how did they achieve such a dizzying level of achievement? Let's break it down.





BOSTON RED SOX (31-14) 1ST PLACE AL EAST +10.5

SCHEDULE
The Red Sox have played almost half (21 of 45) of their games this year against teams in their own division. That division also happens to be probably the 2nd worst division in baseball, and definitely the worst in the AL. So that's worked out nice for them. Most importantly, they've stomped all over the Yankees this year, winning 6 out of 8 from their arch enemies.

LINEUP
Good Guys
David Ortiz has been even better than he usually is, he's got a 1.047 OPS. That's not a surprise. 2 other everyday players have been huge surprises though. First baseman Kevin Youkilis is hitting .343 with a .957 OPS, while 3B Mike Lowell has been neck and neck with Big Papi for the team lead in homers and RBI. Nobody expects Lowell and Youkilis to continue mashing at this clip, but they've already built a double digit lead in the division, so their work is done.



Bad Guys
CF Coco Crisp is off to wretched start, reaching base in only a little over 29% of his plate appearances. Shortstop Julio Lugo has scuffled at the plate, but has brought some speed to this team as he is a perfect 12 for 12 in stolen base attempts. Boy Genius Theo Epstein is not getting his 5 years at $14M per out of JD Drew either. Drew has a .679 OPS and has only 8 extra base hits this season, the same number as light hitting second sacker Dustin Pedroia. And then, there's Manny, who is hitting only .244 with a .727 OPS. If the Red Sox were struggling, that would be an issue, but they're not, so they have it in their back pocket that they've done all this with Manny Ramirez struggling. He should be able to pick up the slack when Lowell and Youkilis come back to reality.

ROTATION




#1- Josh Beckett
At 7-0 with a 2.66 ERA, he's probably the AL Cy Young if it was handed out today. He's on the DL now though with an injured middle finger, which is exactly what you get for doing the middle finger elephant walk with Joel Zumaya.

#2- Daisuke Matsuzaka
He hasn't changed the way we think about getting hit with pies in the face like everyone said he would, but he has been a solid #2. His 4.06 ERA isn't anything to yell banzai about, but he's 6-2 and has a 1.18 WHIP, and a 58/18 K/BB ratio, and those are all ace-type numbers.

#3- Curt Schilling
He's given up more hits than he has innings pitched, but he's been solid and keeping his team in the game every time out.

#4- Tim Wakefield
A 3.14 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP means that Wakefield's been on so far this year. You could translate that by saying he won't continue to pitch this well, and that could be a problem for the Red Sox, but the Red Sox are only 4-5 in games he's pitched, so he hasn't really been a factor in their fast start anyway.

#5- Julian Tavarez
Has kept his ERA under 6, and is averaging over 5 innings a start, which is really all he needs to do to hold onto the 5th starter spot as long as the team is winning.

CLOSER
Jonathan Papelbon has 11 saves, and 1.04 WHIP. He's lights out.

BULLPEN
The Red Sox have had the added bonus of having Hideki Okajima emerge as one of the premier setup men in baseball. He's given up only 2 runs in 22 innings pitched, and has a 0.79 WHIP. Between him and Papelbon, it's a seven inning game for the Red Sox every time out. The starters have usually been good enough to get the ball to those 2 guys, which is a good thing, because the rest of the pen has been mediocre at best. If Mike Timlin can come off the DL and be effective, that would help. Until then, Brandon Donnelly and JC Romero will continue to be the guys should a reliever be needed for the 7th inning.

BENCH
Wily Mo Pena and Alex Cora have both been useful part-timers. Cora is hitting .333 with a .923 OPS in 69 AB's, while Pena has supplied some pop in his 48 at bats.

ON THE FARM
The top prospect in the system looks to be AA pitcher Clay Buchholz. The 22 year old righty has a 1.82 ERA and 0.81 WHIP in 7 starts for the Portland Sea Dogs. He has an eye popping K/BB ratio of 53/7. OF Brandon Moss is tearing it up for the PawSox, slugging at a .526 clip with 31 RBI.

30 DAY OUTLOOK
3 at TEX (Rangers 11-11 at home)
3 vs. CLE (10-12)
3 vs. NYY (9-14)
4 at OAK (11-12)
3 at ARI (13-10)
3 vs. COL (9-14)
3 vs. SF (10-12)
3 at ATL (14-7)
3 at SD (13-8)

Total Combined Record Opp: 100-100 .500
Predicted Record Next 30 Days: 17-11
Predicted Record After Next 30 Days: 48-25

Tomorrow: The NY Mets