Red Sox Season Review: The Road to Recovery

The start of the 2012/13 season is going to be a rough one for the Boston Red Sox. The Sox are coming off one of their worst collapses in a while. With new management, issues in the club house and key players being hurt, the remaining core players of the Sox are going to have to step up in order to start this season strong.

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Bobby Valentine's fun and outgoing personality towards the

press should help take some of the attention and stress off

  the players.

It’s not going to be easy for the Sox to get into the swing of things this season. Pun Intended. Many feel Valentine’s micromanagement isn’t necessarily the way to coach this veteran team like he coached in Japan. Former manager Terry Francona worked because he didn’t worry about the little things, yet the little things are all that new manager Bobby Valentine worries about. However, after the way last season ended, perhaps any change is good. If the players are willing to work their hardest to win games then that is what is going to happen and the core players are certainly going to have to do that. With Crawford, Lackey, Matsuzaka, Jenks, Bailey and Beckett all hurt, the team is beat up, more specifically the starting rotation. Core players such as Gonzalez, Pedroia and Ellsbury are really going to have to step up.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses. Let’s get these out of the way first, even though I’d much rather talk about why my team should do well rather than poorly. But weaknesses are part of the game and part of each ball club, but how you handle the weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths is what’s going to help a team win games. The biggest concern with the team is the starting rotation. It’s never good to have pitching issues right away, but if Bucholz and Bard can do well and Lester stays healthy there shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Another weakness the Sox face is the shortstop position. Aviles won the spot for short over Iglesias but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the latter. Defensively Iglesias is a great player, but when the decision comes to pick a starter, the better bat is usually going to win. "At this time, we decided it was best for him and this organization that he gets some real regular at-bats and works a little more on the consistency of his swing and play," Valentine told Mlb.com on the issue of Iglesias. "He's working on things. About two weeks he had a mechanic that looked like it was real functional, and I think an 0-for-3 took him out of it. That's one of the things that he has to develop: confidence in his program." Luckily the team doesn’t revolve around one player and the Sox are arguably sporting one of the best hitting lineups in the league.

Strengths

This brings us to strengths. Boston’s core is one of the best out there. Gonzo, Pedroia and Ellsbury are all tops at their positions. All are veterans and hold gold gloves, a solid composition of players to have on a team. The season is going to rely strongly on their ability to perform well and act as leaders for the team. It’s also worth noting that the Sox have strong veterans in Ortiz, Youkilis (if he stays healthy) and Beckett. “From our room - the coaches’ and manager’s room - I think we’re very satisfied that every facet of the game of baseball has been prepared, and I think prepared properly,” Valentine said to ESPN. If he’s confident, so am I. Bring on the season.”

Prediction

 Barring injuries, the Sox should be competitive within their division but are coming off as more of a wild card team. The American League has some great teams in the division so nothing is guaranteed for the recovering Red Sox. Overall the season is going to come down to how well the starting pitching rotation can handle itself. If pitching can stay solid there’s no doubt that the core players can come through both offensively and defensively. Good fielders behind you and good insurance runs to support the pitchers is essential to any team. Time to step up, Sox.