*Fangraphs* gives an early preview:
> Now, the question is, is the above a good team or a bad team? I would submit that it’s actually a pretty good team. Even during the worst offensive season of his career, Pedroia is still a top-10 second baseman, and both Aviles and Middlebrooks rank in the upper half of the league at their position this season. Ellsbury has shown that he can be a top-10 player in baseball, let alone a top-10 center fielder. When healthy, Ortiz has shown no signs of slowing down, and despite the best (or is it worst?) efforts of Melancon and Matt Albers this season, the Red Sox bullpen still sports an 88 FIP-, good for eighth-best in baseball entering Sunday. Catcher remains a concern, as does the starting rotation, but the structure of a good team still remains.
I will be fine going into next year with Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury and a bunch of young, unproven guys who play hard and always hustle[^stuff]. I would prefer watching that kind of team fight for a wild card spot over watching a team like the Sox had this year just collapse while they collect paychecks.
[^stuff]: I think I can consider Will Middlebrooks as “unproven” because his sample size is so small. Also, I think I would prefer to see the Red Sox give the starting shortstop position to Pedro Ciriaco instead of Aviles.