The Only Game In Town (except the Celtics, but I don’t care about the Celtics. No you shut up)

With the National Hockey League having decided to cancel this year’s playoffs it looks like the only option for Boston sports fans is the Local Nine.  After a month of baseball things are decidedly adequate.  The Sox so far have about played to expectations clocking in at 15-14 with a potent offense (3rd in runs/game) and a pungent pitching staff (12th in runs/game).  Not coincidentally the defense has also been poor with only juggernauts Kansas City, Oakland and Chicago below them in Defensive Efficiency.  What’s been most interesting to me is that they have in fact been interesting.  I don’t think they are appreciably better or worse than anticipated but some things are happening that I find entertaining.  If this year is about trying to build toward a better future some things have happened over the first month that are providing some hope.

Jarren Duran - The eternal prospect seems to be figuring things out.  He still has something less than a great K:BB rate but what he’s doing to deal with that is being a bit more aggressive and putting the ball in play more regularly.  He has cut his K rate to roughly league average and with his speed putting balls in play is a good thing though I suspect, and I’m going out on a limb here, that the .486 BABIP will not continue.  But he has become much less pull happy (27% last year, 18% this year) and his line drive rate has skyrocketed.  Future star? No probably not.  But useful piece? Yeah absolutely.

Connor Wong - OK, I’m getting to Blake Swihart levels here on this kid but I’m starting to get excited. Let’s start with the real shocker, the dude has the best dWAR of any catcher in baseball and has gunned down a league best 46% (6 of 13) would be base stealers.  Add in that the Sox have a pitchers’ ERA over two runs better with him over McGuire and for a guy thought to be a defensive liability those are good signs.  The pitcher ERA thing is almost certainly just noise but the throwing has been impressive.  On top of that the bat seems to be finding itself.  After a terrible start (0 for 10) he’s hit .283/.365/.413 (yeah selective end points!) and just looks better to the naked eye.  I’m hopeful here.

Triston Casas - Casas has been totally domin…ok maybe not.  I like his approach though and that he has not really gotten himself out of that approach.  It reminds me a lot of Kevin Youkilis’ in his early days and I think Casas just needs to get a bit better at attacking hittable pitches early in the count.  Watching him right now I’m reminded of a game nearly exactly 26 years ago.  In that game Trot Nixon, hitting just .081/.128/.162, drew 3 walks and scored four runs to help the Sox to a 9-4 win.  It struck me that this kid in the midst of struggling at the plate was maintaining his plate discipline.  I feel the same way about Casas.  It may take some time but I remain hopeful.

Josh Winckowski - I’ll be honest, I’m not a big believer that he’s some stud reliever but he has been awfully impressive and his multi-inning ability is extremely useful.

None of these guys is a star at the moment and Casas is the only one likely to reach such status but they are contributors.  If the year ends and the Sox can solidify a third of the lineup and find a solid reliever under club control that’s a good bit of business.

It’s just a month and with Toronto coming to town things get tough.  The Sox have not had an especially easy schedule so far.  Opponent records (not including games against the Sox) so far;

Baltimore - 16-6 (3-3)
Cleveland - 12-13 (2-1)
Detroit - 10-14 (3-0)
Angels - 14-12 (3-1)
Milwaukee 17-8 (2-1)
Minnesota 16-10 (2-1)
Pittsburgh 17-9 (0-3)
Tampa Bay 19-6 (0-4)

Only the Tigers and Guardians are sub-.500 and the Sox have played 3 of the 6 division leaders.  Baseball-Reference has their strength of schedule so far ranked as 7th overall so they are doing their job.  None of this is to say “hey, they are going all the way” or even “hey, they are going to the playoffs” but I feel a lot more optimistic that this team is going to be interesting than I did a month ago.  Now watch the Blue Jays sweep and piss me off.