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The Boston Red Sox have the best record in all of baseball and by many power rankings are the cream of the crop of the league. To the casual fan, there is no doubt Boston has a scary lineup, especially with the addition of J.D. Martinez. And the casual fan wouldn't be wrong as this is a team that as of today, has scored 159 total runs, good for 2nd most in the MLB. They also possess an MLB best batting average (.273), rank 3rd in on-base-percentage (.340), and 2nd in slugging (.451). All elite numbers that leave little doubt they are a scary offense regardless of who they are facing.
So let me be the first to tell you..........Boston is not necessary an elite offense day in and day out. In fact, depending on the pitching matchup, the Red Sox may in fact be the worst team in the MLB. You heard that right, not first, not middle of the pack.......dead last. Say what! Yes, Boston has a very interesting and drastic team batting split when comparing right handed pitchers vs. left handed pitchers. The above statistics such as batting average and on-base-percentage are your grandfathers metrics and are outdated and don't truly paint a reliable picture. Yes, I understand all the advanced stats can be overkill at times but in truth, advanced metrics are used everyday by each major league club and are now being incorporated across all major sports.
There are three very important and reliable advanced stats used throughout baseball today we should focus on instead of (or in addition to) batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging. This includes wRC+, wOBA, and ISO. A glossary / definition is linked to each metric above but in general, they basically tell how well a team or player is at (1) getting on base, (2) creating runs, and (3) getting extra base hits.
To get a really good understanding of where Boston excels, we are going to compare how they fare vs. right handed pitchers separately from left handed pitchers. When looking at their ability to hit right handers, Boston unsparingly has been elite. Specifically, Red Sox have a 131 wRC+, .373 wOBA, and .205 ISO, all ranked #1 in MLB. Aka - the Red Sox are absolutely destroying right handed pitchers in 2018.
However, their ability to hit left handed pitchers so far has proven to be quite the opposite. In fact, the Boston Red Sox are worst team in MLB vs. left handed pitching. For 2018, Boston own a 47 wRC+, .245 wOBA, and .095 ISO, all ranked dead last in all of baseball. Yes, that means teams like the Miami Marlins have faired better vs. left handed pitchers in 2018 than the Boston Red Sox. Pretty unbelievable when you think about it and what is most surprising is that they are hitting right handers at such an elite level that it basically makes up for what they lack vs. left handers. I just can't believe the combination of J.D. Martinez (who has historically crushed left handers), Mookie Betts, and Hanley Ramirez has Boston sitting last in the league vs. left handers. If you don't believe me, just last week I started a very average left hander in Blake Snell vs. Boston. All he did was throw up 7.1 innings of 2 earned run ball with 9 strikeouts. The proof is in the pudding as they say and so far, Boston can't hit lefties.
So what do we get from all of this? Basically Boston is in general an elite offense as made evident from their ability to produce massive run totals. They are also the best in the business vs. right handed pitchers but that quickly changes when the face southpaws, where they rank as the worst team in baseball. Now, we are only a month or so into the season, I'm fairly confident their numbers, especially vs. left handers, will improve. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but be surprised at these crazy numbers.
I hope these numbers were just as crazy for you as there were to me. Let me know you thoughts and if you believe Boston truly has struggled vs. left handers so far in 2018.
