Does Anyone Actually Care That The Red Sox Won The World Series?
On Sunday night, the inevitable finally became a reality, with The Boston Red Sox defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five to take home another world series title. Great news for anyone from Boston, or any fan of the team. But in terms of the game of baseball, this whole series sucked.
Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of story-lines that got beaten into the ground. David Price finally learned how to pitch in October (at $217 Million you would hope he'd have that figured out by now.) Both AL MVP candidates in this series were non-existent in the series until game 5, when they both managed to hit solo home runs. Nate Eovaldi showed off his giant pair of kahonas in that game three marathon, and finally, The Toronto Blue Jays became the 2018 world series MVP when Steve "Reggie Jackson" Pearce decided to put the team on his back for the final two games. All four storylines are examples of what would normally be an incredible series.
This year, however, those stories really didn't matter. Everyone knew since day one of the MLB season that this outcome was inevitable. And why? I don't know, sometimes it helps to pay nearly $230 million a year to field a team (more than $20 million more than the second highest team.) Essentially, the Red Sox decided that if they bought everyone they could get their hands on, then they'd give themselves a great chance to win it all. And what do you know... that's exactly what they did.
I watched an episode of Tim & Sid, where Sid Sexeiro stated that Boston has built this team internally, and I don't think I've heard a better unintentional joke on that show in my life. I understand they have a couple key guys that grew through the Red Sox system, and I don't want to take anything away from their ability to build good young players. But, take a look at the top 10 contracts on this team.
There's only three players in the top ten that came up through the Red Sox system, so to sit here and pretend like this team was built organically is a joke.
To me, a good world series has at least one team that has a bit of an "underdog" vibe to them. Coming in as the highest paid team in the league obviously doesn't put the Red Sox anywhere near that category. Unfortunately, the other side of the series wasn't much better. As the reigning World Series runner up, the Dodgers were almost expected to be back there for 2018.
On top of being the previous runner up, the Dodgers also happen to own the third biggest payroll in the MLB ($199.5 million.) Unlike the Red Sox, however, there was next to zero homegrown talent on their World Series roster. In the top 15 contracts on the Dodgers roster, there are only three players that have spent their entire career with the Dodgers.
One of the three players, Joc Pederson, served next to no role in the NL hosted games, as the Dodgers have plenty of depth in their outfield. So essentially, the Dodgers dropped a small fortune to build an entire core, in an attempt to guarantee themselves a spot in the World Series.
So forgive me if I saw no intrigue in a match up between two owners flexing their wallets at each other; but, there's 28 other teams that I would've rather seen in the series.
To top things off, it's almost as if Dave Roberts was doing his best to rejoin the Red Sox roster again. So much so, that he probably could've been named the World Series MVP. A complete mismanagement of the second best bullpen in the playoffs (I miss the Brewers already), a continuous "flip-flopping" of an incredibly deep roster, and a total lack of knowledge on his own starting rotation, lead to a beyond dismal display from one of the best teams in the MLB.The lack of a competent manager made the Dodgers even more painful to watch.
So now you've got two ridiculously overpaid teams, one of which completely underachieving, the other of which, seemingly pretending like they were the underdog of the entire MLB.
I understand that every team needs their "bulletin board" material to help drive a bit of motivation; but, this team seemed to take every negative thing ever said about them, and performed their best Marcus Stroman "the world is against me" imitation with it. In reality, unless you knew nothing about the sport, or you were a Yankees fan (which is basically the same thing), then you knew from day one that this team was a juggernaut. The fact that the entire Red Sox team was trying to "prove themselves", made me that much more disinterested in them.
That's the match up. Two teams, both of which have plenty of reasons to be hated. So how do you choose a side? You could find someone on the roster you like, and cheer for that players team; but both teams had their fair share of shitty teammates. The Dodgers slimeball of the year needs no introduction. Manny Machado has been a disgrace to watch throughout the duration of the playoffs, and did himself no favours in the World Series (nice single to the wall pal.)
But unless you're a Red Sox fan, there isn't too many solid character guys to cheer for on the other side. Chris Sale turned into a bit of a baby in Chicago (did everyone forget the jersey cutting incident, or....), David Price has had a ton of problems with the media since arriving in Boston, and their outfield possesses one of the cockier units in the MLB.
Now what? I don't want to see anyone from either team succeed, nobody wants this league to be run by two or three teams with a lot of money, and the Dodgers brought a manager that looked like he didn't know what he was doing. Put all this together and you now have one of the least interesting series you'll ever see.
Sure, congrats to the Red Sox for winning yet another championship, and congrats to the Dodgers for coming oh so close yet again. But just know, I hope for the state of the league, that neither of you even sniff the World Series again anytime soon.
I'll leave you with the picture as a wonderful note of positivity...
