The Red Sox Darkhorse MVP

Coming off an impressive string of back to back walk-off wins the Boston Red Sox sit at an American League best 68-41 on pace for 101 wins, which is good enough for first place in treacherous AL East.  The dog days of summer are truly upon us and I thought to myself, who has been the most valuable member of this team through 109 games?  The first names to pop into my head were Adrian Gonzalez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Josh Beckett.  I’ve decided to however take a rather unorthodox outlook on this question and highlight the relief Alfredo Aceves has provided to this team.

In just 199.1 career innings with the Yankees and Red Sox Aceves sports a record of 21-2 with a 3.21 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.  Aceves, being the most versatile member of the staff, can ably fill any role you ask of him: starting pitcher, long reliever, and late-inning reliever.  If you asked him I’m sure he’d put on a mask and get behind the plate for you.  Considering that 4 of the 5 members of the Red Sox opening day rotation have been on the disabled list at some point this season, Aceves was able to string together 3 useful starts (and later on 1 spot start) when starting pitching was thin. Returning to the bullpen Aceves proved to be invaluable, cleaning up the messes created by the likes of John Lackey, Kyle Weiland and Andrew Miller.

Of his 27 relief appears this season, over half (14) have been for the span of 2 or more innings.  It is no secret that the Red Sox are winning games because of their offensive output of 5.5 runs per game, which is good for best in the major leagues. Their pitching on the other hand could be described as merely pedestrian, mostly held together by Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and the human glue that is Aceves.  Unfortunately Aceves’ long relief role out of the pen has been so vital to the Red Sox that he could not once again step into the rotation if the acquisition of Erik Bedard and resurgence (sort of?) of John Lackey just aren’t cutting it.  I’m curious to see how the competition for third starter in the playoffs pans out for the rest of the season, but we can rest assured that Alfredo Aceves, the most underappreciated member of the 2011 Red Sox team, will be there to clean up the mess if something goes sour.

An afterthought of the Red Sox key offseason acquisitions of Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Bobby Jenks and Dan Wheeler, it took until February 8^th 2011 for Aceves to receive an offer he liked.  It brings me great pleasure that the Red Sox took him away from the rival Yankees of all teams.