Boston Sports Update

We're up for an intriguing year in Boston sports. Whether you think the first four games of the Patriots' season is going to be exciting or not (it is, regardless of who's at QB), we're in for an exciting year across all fronts. We've got the Bruins re-tooling and continuing it's progress under Head Coach Claude Julien as they change from a fore-checking team to a more agile and offense-minded one. The Celtics are becoming more and more compelling each season under Head Coach Brad Stevens. They're being talked about as a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference going in to the 2016-17 NBA season (and Isaiah Thomas completely won me over after I read his Players' Tribune article this past April .

We'll start talking about the team I didn't mention earlier: our Red Sox. The team has brought a mix of joy and agony to this writer for the whole season, and that is in no small part due to John Farrell. I think that 2014 and 2015 is a better indication of what managerial chops Farrell possesses than 2013 would have suggested, and at times this season I'm sure you've wanted to scream at the television or radio at many of the in-game moves he's made (Steven Wright pitch running, anyone?) which lends that statement more credence. That being said, he's been integral in the development of the team's future: Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, and Jackie Bradley Jr. (I've left Andrew Benintendi off that list because he's only played in 15 games under Farrell as of this writing). These three have solidly developed in to All-Stars under his watch and he deserves a lot of the credit. We can't deny him that. We've seen him excel as a pitching coach and he can absolutely keep the clubhouse running smoothly even when results on the field aren't making everyone warm and fuzzy. These two facts combined with the development of our prime prospects that we've witnessed tell us that Ferrell has great value to the team even when his in-game management makes us think he's more a liability than an asset.

I came in to this season holding only the hope that the Red Sox would improve overall and make a competitive push towards the Second Wild Card position. I would have settled for an 81-81 record. The first couple months of the season fed the belief that they could send Papi off with another Championship ring, so I've allowed myself to get very frustrated at times with some of the losses that seemed like they were sure wins. Overall, this season has been a huge success for the Sox, if for no other reason than we get to see Papi perform like the "Big Papi" that delivered for us for so long. Unlike our counterparts in New York, when their "face of the franchise" rode off in to the sunset, they weren't excited about the future. Papi is leaving us with three, maybe four, "B"'s to carry us forward.