Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2007 Red Sox land in this spot?
It took two years for the mega-trade that brought Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to the Red Sox to pay off as hoped, but it’s difficult to argue with the results once it finally did.
Acquired in November of 2005, Beckett was expected to be the replacement for Pedro Martinez in the Boston rotation that never surfaced that summer, but instead he posted a 5.01 ERA in 2006, leaving Curt Schilling as the lone ace on the squad again. In 2007, though, Beckett was exactly what the Red Sox wanted: he led AL pitchers in wins above replacement, ranked first in the majors in wins with 20 and posted a 3.27 ERA over 200 innings. Lowell was actually his usual quality self in 2006, but in 2007, he had the best season of his 13-year career, batting .324/.378/.501 to go along with his usual excellent defense at third.
It wasn’t just those two, though. J.D. Drew signed as a free agent before the season, and put up a .373 on-base percentage. Rookies Jacoby Ellsbury (.353/.394/.509 in 33 games) and Dustin Pedroia (.317/.380/.442) were standouts, with the latter taking home AL Rookie of the Year honors in a lopsided race. Kevin Youkilis hit .288/.390/.453 and won a Gold Glove at first base. Coco Crisp was also much better in his second year with Boston, and anchored the outfield defense… which was necessary, because Manny Ramirez was his usual self out in left. Ramirez could still hit, though, and contributed a .296/.388/.493 campaign. David Ortiz was the best of the bunch, leading the AL in on-base percentage at .445 while crushing 35 homers and 88 extra-base hits overall. The Red Sox as a team had a .362 on-base percentage. The league average was just .336: Boston was relentlessly on base, and their patience let them crush starters sooner than most clubs — the second time through the order instead of the third — and give them more opportunities against relievers, as well. Relievers weren’t an endless parade of 100-mph pitchers in 2007; things were different then, you wanted your starter in as long as possible.
Except for Boston’s pen, which featured Jonathan Papelbon (1.85 ERA in 59 games) and Hideki Okajima (2.22 ERA in 66). Before them, there was Beckett as well as Schilling, who managed just 151 innings across 24 regular season starts, but was healthy for four starts and three wins in October. Daisuke Matsuzaka wasn’t the ace he’d look like in 2008, but he did throw over 200 innings of above-average ball after signing a six-year, $52 million deal to leave the NPB for MLB. Tim Wakefield was his standard reliable self at the back-end of the rotation, and 23-year-old Jon Lester, after having his rookie season interrupted by a cancer diagnosis in 2006, returned to the mound and started the deciding game of a World Series sweep for Boston.
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