2011 Calendar

So, I finally got my hands on the 2011 Red Sox team calendar. Always better to grab calendars after the new year, right? I was struck by the player selection. Here is who they decided to feature.

Mike Cameron

Daniel Bard

Jacoby Ellsbury

Tim Wakefield

Kevin Youkilis

Jon Lester

Jonathan Papelbon

Josh Beckett

Marco Scutaro

John Lackey

JD Drew

Dustin Pedroia

There were a couple interesting things. First, all twelve players are still members of the Red Sox. I can only assume this wasn’t luck. I wonder if they had mock-ups of Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre ready to go just in case they came back to the team. Obviously, they don’t have the two biggest additions. They couldn’t have gotten pictures of them in a Sox uniform in time anyway.

But, I assume that these calendars are made by some central office. I assume that all major league teams are made by the same group of people. They just add the pictures and logos of whichever team they need. So, the selection of two bullpen pitchers not named Papelbon is an interesting move. Tim Wakefield was the Red Sox long relief guy last season, and looks to fill the same role this year. You mean to tell me the guy at corporate headquarters knew that Red Sox fans would want that particular mop up guy included? Wouldn’t you think a standard inclusion of the starting rotation would be the way to go? Do other teams have long relievers included? Maybe they make the assumption that most teams don’t have four starters worth featuring? Not every team would be excluding Clay Buchholz. I mean, he finished sixth in the Cy Young voting last year, and can’t get a month? Daniel bard is another interesting inclusion. I’m guessing there isn’t a standard “The set up guy will be in February” rule that the designers were following. So, it’s great to see.

It’s also interesting that both Ellsbury and Cameron are listed as centerfielders. So, either they couldn’t make up their minds, or knew they were including a back-up and just went with it anyway. In that case, though, wouldn’t you pick Clay over a guy on the bench?

So, how did they make the selections? A poll of Red Sox fans? A look at poplar google searches? How did they select which players to feature?

Because, they did quite a good job.