Boston Red Sox Outfield

It has come to be my understanding through the years of watching MLB, that winning Boston Red Sox teams need to have 2 centre fielders on the field in order to cover Fenway's centre and right field with it's massive depth and vicious jog in right-centre.

Fenway Park Ballpark Diagram & Dimensions - via Baseball Almanac | http://www.baseball-almanac.com/stadium/fenway_park.shtml

This is especially true in this era of the 'super-juiced' ball (the nuclear ball) where balls come off the bat at a much higher rate of speed compared with the pre-super-juiced era (pre-1994).

The idea is that in the nuclear ball era, fast outfielders are essential because they can limit runs by reducing their opponents Total Bases totals - the fast and quick outfielder can cut off hot-shot ground balls to the gaps and hot-shot line-drives to the walls better.

In Fenway speed a quick reaction to balls off the bat was necessary in centre and right during the regular juiced ball era (1921-1993); now in the nuclear ball era this is even more important.

From my watching of three games against the hard hitting Jays this weekend, this year's Boston team doesn't have that outfield.

Jays at Red Sox Game 3 - June 14, 2015
(Jays win 13-5 and extend their winning streak to 11 games; sitting 1 game back of the Yankees and the Rays for the division lead at the end of the day.)

Boston Outfield:
Hanley Ramirez LF
Rusney Castillo CF
Alejandro De Aza RF

Boston 25-man Roster (Outfielders) - June 14, 2015

#  NAME             POS BAT THW AGE HT  WT 
50 Mookie Betts     CF  R   R   22  5-9 155
38 Rusney Castillo  RF  R   R   27  5-8 186
31 Alejandro De Aza LF  L   L   31  6-0 195
26 Brock Holt       RF  L   R   27  5-10 185
13 Hanley Ramirez   LF  R   R   31  6-2 225

To contrast, the 2007 World Series Champion Red Sox Outfield

#   Name               Height Weight Throws Bats   Date Of Birth
10  Coco Crisp         5-10   185    Right  Both   1979-11-01
7   J.D. Drew          6-01   195    Right  Left   1975-11-20
46  Jacoby Ellsbury    6-01   195    Left   Left   1983-09-11
32  Bobby Kielty       6-01   215    Right  Both   1976-08-05
44  Brandon Moss       6-00   210    Right  Left   1983-09-16
44  David Murphy       6-04   210    Left   Left   1981-10-18
22  Wily Mo Pena       6-03   215    Right  Right  1982-01-23
24  Manny Ramirez      6-00   225    Right  Right  1972-05-30

Coco Crisp CF

Yr Age Tm   G   SB CS TB  Pos
07 27  BOS  145 28 6  201 8

J.D. Drew RF

Yr Age Tm   G   SB CS TB  Pos
07 31  BOS  140 4  2  197 9/8D

mh