Jonah Keri just posted an article on Grantland about how the Sox are using money, data and a couple of other things to gain an advantage over other teams. The areas he talks about are health, platoons, shifts and prospects. The article covers some of the things we have been talking about here. Very interesting read.
Health
Platoons
Shifts
Prospects
Health
In the same way that teams employ roving pitching, hitting, fielding, and baserunning coaches to help players focus on certain elements of their game, the Red Sox realized they could find specialists to deal with these soft-tissue concerns. Physical therapists craft regimens to help players avoid the kind of nagging injuries that can linger for far too long; when those injuries do occur, they can help players recover in weeks instead of months, or days instead of weeks. In essence, the Red Sox are using a physical therapist like a roving medical coach. This helped Ortiz last year, and the Sox hope it will help players like the oft-injured Grady Sizemore this year. In fact, if the Red Sox weren’t this confident in their health regimen, they probably wouldn’t have gone after a beleaguered player like Sizemore at all.
Platoons
The Red Sox couldn’t settle for simply having more money than the A’s and Rays; they needed to find a similar edge, needed to beat those teams at their own game. So they assembled an eventual World Series–winning roster with the kind of 1-to-25 depth that Billy Beane and Andrew Friedman harp on 365 days a year. While flashier signees like Shane Victorino and Koji Uehara garnered most of the attention in Boston last offseason, part-time players like Jonny Gomes and Mike Carp also came on board, giving Boston the kind of top-to-bottom strength on which Oakland and Tampa Bay rely. The Red Sox built a team around healthy superstars, but they also built a team capable of squeezing the most out of a talented but flawed player like Daniel Nava, who hit .322/.411/.484 against right-handed pitchers in 2013, but just .252/.311/.336 against lefties, making him an ideal candidate for a platoon with Gomes.
Shifts
Once again not wanting to cede the advantage to low-budget teams looking for an edge, the Red Sox shifted more than nearly every other club last year. They’ve also shown their commitment to teamwide defense in subtler ways. Earlier this week, I explored Boston’scommitment to its young talent. While going with Jackie Bradley Jr. as the Opening Day center fielder represents a commitment to giving a promising prospect a clean shot,2 it also illustrates Boston’s continued emphasis on defense. The Red Sox would surely have enjoyed acquiring Beltran’s bat, and they certainly could have afforded him, but a Beltran-Victorino outfield would have been far less effective than a Bradley-Victorino pairing. And like the Pirates, the Sox now care about that sort of thing.
Prospects
Bradley isn’t Boston’s only gifted youngster. Even though the Red Sox have enough money to fill every roster hole with a shiny new free agent, Cherington & Co. are giving the kids a chance this year. Pedroia and Ortiz can stay healthy and the veteran pitching staff can perform, but it won’t matter if the club’s three 25-and-under lineup regulars fail to deliver.