Importance of Young Players

If you ask someone to name a Red Sox player, chances are you’ll hear “David Ortiz” or “Manny Ramirez”.  You’ll probably hear a “Jason Varitek” from time to time.  But these big sluggers and Sox stars aren’t the only players on the team.  Some of the most important parts of the Sox, or any team, are the young up-and-coming stars of the future.  This is what my blog has been about.

            Take Dustin Pedroia, ‘07’s Rookie of the Year.  He essentially led the Sox through the last game of the ALCS last year, securing the win with a 2-run homer and a bases-clearing double, finishing the game with 5 RBIs.  Then one game later, Game 1 of the World Series, he led off with a home run on the very first pitch, sparking a rally that ended in a 13-1 slaughter of the Rockies.  The youngster is an important on two planes: he is helpful to the Sox in winning games, and he also provides to the fans with acts such as his homer in Game 1, the first home run hit by a rookie on the very first pitch of a World Series opener.  This year, Pedroia’s leading the team in hits with 69.  He also has the only perfect attendance of the Sox, having played all 59 games this season.  However, Dustin is not the only young, dynamic player.

            Jacoby Ellsbury is one of my favorite players on the Sox, and he’s also one of the youngest.  He’s leading the team in runs scored (41) and on-base percentage (.389), but that’s not all.  He is DEMOLISHING his team in stolen bases with 27, that’s right, 27 steals.  The closest number of steals on the Sox is 7 from fellow center fielder Coco Crisp.  As stated in my Jacoby blog entry, the kid stole home from second in only his fourth major league game.  In the playoffs last year, he became only the second player to ever get two doubles in the same inning of a World Series game.  With his speed and his skill, the young Ellsbury is clearly a great asset to the Sox lineup.

            Of course, the stud veteran stars of the teams are usually the ones who rock the most, but even they had to start somewhere.  The year after Big Papi came to Boston, back in ’04, he was one of the most clutch players in the entire MLB, as we all remember.  But this season he is getting older; he suffered through one of his worst slumps of his career to start it off, and just yesterday he left the game with a hurting left wrist.  When players get older, their performance often gets rusty, and Ortiz is a good example of this.  This year is Papi’s 11^th year in baseball, and his worst since coming to Boston.  Clearly, baseball is not an old man’s sport, and the future of the game belongs to the young players of today, like Ellsbury, like Pedroia.  If they could produce just as much as they do now in the future, average teams with young players now could become the best teams of tomorrow.