Daisuke Matsuzaka took care of the Tigers last night and tonight it’ll be Tim Wakefield hoping to seal game two. In the meantime, the Red Sox added to their already major league best record so it was timely that Baseball Prospectus’ Joe Sheehan is taking a look at the the liklihood of the Red Sox being in the top spot at season’s end.
And of course, there’s a lot of optimism. He talks about how Jon Papelbon putting himself into the closer role really did wonders for what looked like a weak bullpen and how the emergence of Hideki Okajima has also helped the Red Sox hold onto their leads. The rotation seems solid but the Josh Beckett injury has me worried. He’s had his problems with blisters in the past so hopefully this is just one of those things. He closes things out with a look at the offense and it’s hard to go wrong when you get to build around Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz.
He closes things out with the fact that while the Red Sox have had their surprises, the disappointments are there as well. Imagine what will happen when J.D. Drew begins to hit or Julio Lugo really gets it going. The sky is the limit and I don’t even think Roger Clemens will tip the balance that much, considering the Red Sox already have such a nice cushion.
