The Boston Red Sox are the 2018 World Series champions! Woo-hoo!
That's right: the 108-win team that everyone on sports talk radio said was a bunch of bums loaded with problems shocked the world and won the World Series. Just kidding. There's a very strong case to be made that this was the most talented team in Red Sox history--and David Price and the bullpen shut down the haters during the postseason.
Here's some random thoughts on our minds from the World Series:
Alex Cora is pretty much the greatest manager in MLB history at this point--or in good company, at least. He is just the fifth first-year manager to take home the crown and the first since 2001. Also, three of the last four Red Sox managers have won the World Series in their first season managing the team (Bobby Valentine is the outlier).
Who would have thought Steve Pearce would have had this kind of an impact in the postseason. The team dumped Hanley Ramirez so Mitch Moreland, who was an All-Star, could start. But Pearce ended up being the guy at first base in crunch time (and Moreland faded in the second half). Now that's a guy the Red Sox should really try to re-sign.
These guys, the pitchers especially, showed how badly they wanted to win. They were offering their services up on zero rest to start the next day, going down to the bullpen because they wanted to pitch and all that. Lock up Nathan Eovaldi too; what he did in the postseason was spectacular as well.
The Red Sox are in a great spot headed into next season as well--even if they can't re-sign Craig Kimbrel. There's a lot of talent here and a ton of depth. Can't wait for spring training now; pitchers and catchers reporting is only about 100 days away.