by Jeffrey Jason Hill

Created on: July 22, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

If I ran the Boston Red Sox, why would I change anything? There is one team stat I adhere to above all others now: run differential. Guess who the top season leaders are? Cubs and Red Sox. As of this writing, the Red Sox are 91 runs ahead of their opponents, the Cubs 109 runs. The Chicago White Sox are third.

In spite of Boston's seesaw battle for 1st place with Tampa Bay, this a team I see back in the World Series. Most certainly. They're only going to get better in the second half of the year. When Big Papi comes back. He belted one out of Pawtucket the other night. The Red Sox pitching is only going to get better; they're going to pick up a left-handed reliever and even if they don't they've recalled this kid Justin Masterson from Triple-A Pawtucket. He had nine starts in the rotation down there and he was impressive in those, going 4-3 with a 3.67 ERA. But manager Terry Francona plans to use him in the middle relief corps as a bridge to closer Jonathan Palpebon. A right handed pitcher with a low 90s fastball, Justin Masterson was the second selection in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft.

Masterson, a large, 245 lb. 6' 6" guy rated the 24th best prospect coming into the 2006 draft by Baseball America, a record of 10 saved games for Wareham in the Cape Cod league while posting a 1.15 ERA.in 2005, has been looking forward to this moment for a long time. Whenever he is asked about his technique, which is often, he says: "Shoot, I'm a two-seamer guy. A lot of people call it a sinker, but it's a fastball to me. It's kind of like a lefty slider - I start in the middle of the plate and it goes down into the righties."

There is one caveat to all this optimism, of course. It's a measure of how rusty Big Papi's going to be when he comes back. Look at Jim Thome for the White Sox. Were it not for Carlos Quentin, who came out of nowhere (Arizona actually) to carry that team on his back Josh Hamilton-style in the first half, the White Sox would not be in first place in their division because Thome's has played below expectations for a whole half now and he was originally in number 3 in the batting order. I think the Red Sox are a significantly better offensive team when Big Papi shows up. He's going to be rusty, there's no way around that. But David Ortiz is coming along a lot faster than people, though. Anytime you start messing with a hitter's hands or his wrists it can really affect him. Saw him taking a few hacks inside the batting cage at the All Start game and he was looking good. Given the way the Red Sox have been scoring lately, he doesn't have to come back and carry the club. Again, however, he did hit a homer in Triple-A Pawtucket the other night and I believe their pitching and offense and bullpen will ultimately be too much for the rest of the pack, including upstart Tampa Bay.

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