Four Unapparent Reasons the Red Sox are on Fire

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After beating the Seattle Mariners this afternoon 12-8, the Boston Red Sox remained three games up on the New York Yankees and improved their record to 62-37. Since their slow 2-10 start, the Red Sox have played ridiculously good baseball and have led the majors with a 60-27 record (.690 winning percentage). But how have the Red Sox been able to keep up on this torrent pace? Let's look at four reasons that aren't that obvious.

1. Offensive Catching - Defensively Jason Varitek is not what he used to be and Jarrod Saltalamacchia is decent, but what has been a pleasant surprise is the production the Red Sox have received from these two men at the plate. Saltalamacchia has an impressive VORP of 10.5 and Varitek has a 5.9. That is already higher than Varitek's VORP from 2010 (5.0). To add to this, Saltalamacchia has been racking up some extra base hits and has an OPS of .780. This was not a position the Red Sox were thinking would provide them with a lot of production offensively, but it has turned into one reason the Red Sox have been playing solid baseball thus far.

2. Incredible Depth - I could sit here and write about every player who has landed on the DL this year for the Red Sox but I don't want to compete with War and Peace in length. Basically they have had a plethora of players on it at one time or another. But thanks to their incredible depth (mostly by bulking up the farm system and not trading those players away before they make it to the majors) the Red Sox have survived the injury bug and continued to win. One player who has been electric thus far is Josh Reddick. With J.D. Drew struggling at the plate (but not in the field) Reddick has stepped up with an OPS of 1.030 and a TrR of 33.0. And on the pitching side Alfredo Aceves has been very good in all roles he has undertaken for the pitching staff. He has been able to stand in and pitch a spot start or eat up valuable innings out of the bullpen.

3. Patience at the Plate - The worst part of any pitching staff is their middle relief pitchers. That is why part of the Red Sox philosophy is to drive up pitch counts and get to this part of the bullpen early in the game. Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are two of the best players at driving up pitch count. Also, The Red Sox have a team OBP of .353 compared to their opponents who have a measly .314 OBP. I do not have the statistics on me, but the Red Sox have done a lot of damage in the seventh inning this year. This is mostly due to the fact that they have forced the starter to be pulled early in the game thanks to a high pitch count and then they have followed this up by absolutely dominating middle relief pitching.

4. Defense - The Red Sox have also had a very solid year defensively. Fielding percentage, to me, is a poor way of judging how good a defense is. Mainly because fielding percentage does not take range into account. Looking at some defensive statistics that incorporate all aspects of fielding, the Red Sox rank high in most of the categories. They rank fourth in UZR (behind only the Angels, Reds and Diamondbacks), second in RngR (Diamondbacks), and sixth in ErrR. The Red Sox team defense is very good because they have a lot of range, thereby lowering opponents scoring chances.

These are obviously not the four biggest reasons why the Red Sox have the best record in the American League; however, these are four aspects the Red Sox are not getting enough credit for.