FanPost

Juxtiposition

Last year's debacle is behind us, but the Boston Red Sox still are suffering.

Just a look into some things. Of course, we all know what happened last September, and quickly the Braves put it behind themselves. The Red Sox decided to go in a completely different route, which included replacing their manager and jettisoning many of their players. To put this in perspective, they got rid of their closer (Papelbon), their starting catcher (Varitek), RF (J.D. Drew), SS/2B (Scutaro) and one of the SP (Bedard). Within the season, they traded away their 3B (Youkilis), backup SS (Liliibridge), another SP (Beckett), LF (Crawford), 1B (Gonzalez), and many assorted pieces.

In contrast, the Braves got rid of SS (Gonzo), backup OF (McClouth), two SPs (Lowe and Kawakami), and our backup utilityman (Conrad) with a few other assorted pieces. In trades, we traded away Hoover (minors), Redmond (minors), Chapman (minors), and Vizcaino (DL) for Fransisco, Janish, Johnson, and Maholm, all of whom have contributed to the Braves wild card position.

Two more things: Pythagorean W-L on Baseball-Reference gives the Braves 91-70, but we finished 94-68. The Red Sox Pythagorean W-L is 75-86, but went 69-93.

Finally, it was announced today that Bobby Valentine (who many wanted the Braves to interview before Fredi was hired), is being shown the door. This will move the Red Sox into another managerial move with no major contenders for the job. The Red Sox are also rebuilding once again, attempting to figure out how to make do with the minors system that, while not as bare as some like the Phillies, are not producing the kinds of players such as the Braves are.

Amazing how one season has changed one franchise into what looks like a dumpster fire and the other has hummed merrily along back into the playoffs.

This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Battery Power.