In fact, on an interview with WEEI's Mut and Bradford Show, Dustin Pedroia was very outspoken about the perception that [his] the team's offense will be weak:
“I think a lot of guys are going to take that personal, and as an offensive unit we need to score a lot of runs and I have a lot of confidence we’re going to do all kind of good things... It gets to you a little bit. Every time I’m on the show somebody is calling asking about that. It kind of gets to you a little bit. A lot of guys take pride in having good at-bats and doing everything we can to score runs."
Honestly, every time he says "a lot of guys," I mentally replace it with "I." We all know Pedroia is one of the most feisty and proud players in the game, and that he uses the words of doubters as motivation; I think it's pretty clear what the scrappy second baseman thinks of when he has to get through that last set of sprints.
Personally, I'm rather optimistic about the potential for a big year from the offense. Scutaro and Martinez will fill the vortexes that were in the lineup last year, and though David Ortiz's level of production is a BIG question mark, this team has the potential to be very, very good. And in the end, does it really matter if there were more games with scores of 2-0 than 12-8?
So long as we get to the promised land of October baseball, I think not.
I agree that now the team with the departure of Bay has lost a strong bat and now the strong bats are Ortiz, MartÃnez and Youk, the key will be how they respond offensively because other can be placed on base but the important point is bring them home. Pedroia undoubtedly lost much of his offensive power last season but I think that pressure was coming from 2 years where he was rookie of the year and mvp, but of course that this year he will have to improve, because along with Ellsbury are opening the batting for the team and so are key to attack early in games.
ReplyDeleteI don't think most people recognize how bad the Red Sox defense was last year, because they didn't make a ton of errors. I think there is a tendency to overrate your own guys, like A-Gonz, even if most metrics only have him as an average defender now. And sorry, but Lowell can't play third base now; it seems like most people have finally come around to that line of thinking.
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