Classic Boston Fan Reaction To Early Season Happenings

As a Red Sox fan, I am as happy as the next guy that the team is off to a great start.  Five wins, all on the road.  You cannot ask for more.

But enough with the hysteria.  Especially the celebrating over the Yankees' pitiful showing out west, where they posted a 2-4 record.

The fact is, things that happen early in the season are always grossly overrated.  Even the worst teams in baseball will win five of six games many times during the course of the season.  Winning five of six out of the gate means about as much as it would mean if the club did it in July.   

But - and this is a large "but" - this is not to say that there have not been some really positive signs.  The starting pitching has been mostly solid.  Two good starts by Schilling, one by Beckett and one by Wakefield.  Clement allowed four runs in his start, but he kept the Orioles scoreless through six innings.  Five of six good starts.  The Sox will take that level of performance any time.

Defensively, the club has made several big plays.  Ramirez, Crisp and others have made the highlight film on more than one occasion.  Spectacular catches don't necessarily evidence a great defensive team, but they don't hurt.  And when there are a lot of them at minimum you can give the club props for being entertaining.

The offense - with Ramirez, Ortiz and Varitek in the middle of the order - has been, and should continue to be, just fine.  The big thing with the offense is health - so long as Manny, Big Papi and the other key starters are available and unimpaired there is no rational reason to expect them not to put solid numbers.

Its almost a baseball cliche but the fact is, like any modern team, the big question with the Sox remains the bullpen.  Timlin has looked pretty good in the set up role, and Papelbon has been almost unhittable as the closer.  I think closers are vastly overrated, but I also think Oswald acted alone, and I haven't had anymore luck convincing people of that either.  The team wants to have someone in the closer role, and right now Foulke is a few great appearances away from showing he can reclaim the job.

One negative has been middle relief, where Seanez and company have failed to impress.  Here's my feeling about that.  For the last few years, the bullpen has changed dramatically from April to mid-season.  It won't surprise me at all if some of the guys they have there now are answers to trivia questions by July 1, if not sooner.  I expect them to hang around a while, but if they are not effective there is almost no chance they will remain with the club.  In other words, the risk of them doing long term damage to the Sox' prospects is low.

Now let's turn to the Yankees for a minute.  Does anybody really expect them to stumble around and play .500 ball?  People forget - they did this last year, when they were baseball's streakiest team by a wide margin.  Win 9 of 11; lose 4 of 5; win 20 of 25; lose 8 of 12; that sort of thing.  Eventually, the good streaks outweighed the bad and there they were, atop the division leaderboard come late September.

So here is the deal - be happy the Red Sox are winning.  Be happy the Yankees are losing.  But don't focus on the big picture just yet, its way to early to count anybody in, or out.