Drawing Conclusions!

Wow. Told you this team could be fun! With that game in the books, what conclusions can we draw?

Can you draw conclusions from one game?

Of course you can. You just need to ask the right questions.

For instance, can we conclude that Hanley Ramirez is going to be a power force that will lead the team with his power? Well, we probably could have assumed that anyway, but no. Yesterda’s game did nothing to affirm that. Nor did it affirm that Mookie Betts would be a leading MVP candidate.

So, what can we conclude?

Health concerns, for one. No, we can’t conclude that Pedroia, or Victorino, or Buchholz will stay healthy all year. But, we can conclude that they are currently healthy. Pedroia lost a lot of power last year because of his wrist. This year, apparently, his wrist is able to supply power. Now, will it be able to continue to supply power? No idea. Will he stubbornly overuse the wrist until it loses power? Possibly. Those things we don’t know. We do know that at least he’s starting out healthy.

Same thing goes for Victorino. One of the big questions going into camp was whether or not he’d be healthy enough to start the season in the line-up. Obviously we can conclude that he was. How healthy? Well, he stole a base. He actually tried to steal on the pitch before, but the ball was fouled off. So, if you’re a baserunner with a lingering back, or hamstring, or whatever issue…you might hesitate to try to steal third base. I imagine that year really hesitate to do it twice. He did it. So, we can conclude that he’s actually healthy. Will he stay healthy all season? No idea. All week? No idea. But, he’s healthy now.

What about Buchholz? Can we conclude anything? Well, we always knew he could pitch like he did yesterday. Heck, he’s done it plenty before. Much like the other two, we can conclude that he’s presently healthy. Whether that lasts until his next start? Again, no idea. We can also conclude at least one thing about his mental make-up. He didn’t wilt under the pressure of being an ace. Some noted that Jon Lester seemed a little over-hyped in his first game on Sunday. Perhaps the idea of being the hired ace with a new team got to him a bit. At the very least we can say it didn’t get to Clay. That’s a good sign.

We can also conclude that this team can score runs without everyone having a great game. With Napoili on the bench, and Papi and Panda hitless, this steam scored four runs against an ace, then added four more. So, half the line-up put up eight runs. Not a bad output.

I think we can conclude that this team will be fun to watch.