Can Red Sox's Killer B's Be Even Better Than Bryant-Russell-Rizzo-Baez?
The 2017 Boston Red Sox's alliteration game is strong.
From left field to right field, they've got Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts. At shortstop, there's Xander Bogaerts.
Call them the Killer B's from Beantown, ready to fill the cleats of retired franchise icon David Ortiz, aka Big Papi.
Once upon a time, from the mid-90s through the early 2000s, the Killer B's moniker belonged to the Houston Astros' Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and a revolving supporting cast that included Derek Bell, Sean Berry and Lance Berkman.
A tip of the cap to those 'Stros, who won four division titles and a National League pennant.
More immediately, though, Boston's B's can stack up next to the Chicago Cubs' young core, which features its own B-men, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez, as well as Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell. The radical R's? Naw—too much.
Both sets of players are young, athletic and multi-talented, with a mixture of power, speed and defense that defines the modern game. Both play for teams that are expected to win their divisions and compete for a title.
The Cubs are the defending champs and Bryant is the reigning NL MVP. They're the gold standard until further notice.
Still, it's worth asking if Boston's collection of emerging stars can match or surpass Chicago's in 2017.
Let's begin by stacking up last season's stats:
| Kris Bryant, 3B (CHC) | 25 | 155 | .292 | .939 | 39 | 8.4 |
| Anthony Rizzo, 1B (CHC) | 27 | 155 | .292 | .928 | 32 | 5.2 |
| Addison Russell, SS (CHC) | 23 | 151 | .238 | .738 | 21 | 3.9 |
| Javier Baez, INF (CHC) | 24 | 142 | .273 | .737 | 14 | 2.7 |
| Mookie Betts, RF (BOS) | 24 | 158 | .318 | .897 | 31 | 7.8 |
| Jackie Bradley Jr., CF (BOS) | 26 | 156 | .267 | .835 | 26 | 4.8 |
| Andrew Benintendi, LF (BOS) | 22 | 34 | .295 | .835 | 2 | 0.6 |
| Xander Bogaerts, SS (BOS) | 24 | 157 | .294 | .802 | 21 | 4.7 |
Here's the first thing that stands out: Every player listed is either climbing toward or just entering his prime.
Rizzo and Bradley, the elder statesmen, are only 26 and 27, respectively. Rizzo has been a steady offensive force for the past three seasons, while Bradley's lumber finally caught up with his superlative glove in 2017.
Everyone else is 25 or younger. "Potential" is the key word, and it's oozing from all sides.
Bryant has already won a Rookie of the Year Award and the aforementioned MVP, but with only two seasons under his belt, he could still be rising to his ceiling—a frightening thought for opposing pitchers.
Baez and Russell, too, appear primed to take a developmental leap. Russell has crushed the ball this spring, hitting five home runs and posting a 1.216 OPS in the Cactus League. Baez, meanwhile, was hitting .333 for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic entering Wednesday's championship game.
The same can be said for the Red Sox's young studs.
Betts, the 2016 American League MVP runner-up, took a giant leap on the year—with the bat, yes, but also on defense, where he posted 32 defensive runs saved. Even allowing for year-to-year fluctuations in defensive metrics, that's an eye-popping number.
Recently, I argued he's in the conversation to surpass Mike Trout as the game's No. 1 overall player. Bryant's in that conversation, too.
Bogaerts hit just .227 with the Netherlands in the WBC, but after breaking out as an All-Star in his third full season, he's as likely as Baez and Russell to make further strides in 2017.
One area where Russell and Baez have a clear advantage is defense. Bogaerts owns a career minus-10 DRS at shortstop, compared to Russell's 29 career DRS at short and Baez's 9 career DRS at second base.
The wildest card in either pack is Benintendi. The Red Sox top prospect showed poise and polish in a limited audition and got a taste of the playoffs, homering in the division series. He's played fewer than 50 big league games, however.
If he can extend his 2016 success over a full season, he could elevate Boston's offensive core to best-in-the-game status.
Benintendi benefited from a possibly unsustainable .367 batting average on balls in play during his MLB audition. He also showed excellent plate discipline, swinging at just 25.2 percent of pitches outside the strike zone compared to the league average of 30.3 percent.
Most promisingly, he barreled up many of the pitches he did swing at, making hard contact 32.9 percent of the time. That compares favorably to Betts' hard-contact rate of 33.4 percent.
Steamer projects a .282/.338/.439 slash line with 10 home runs and 14 stolen bases in 2017. That's perfectly respectable. But after watching eight of Benintendi's 13 spring hits go for extra bases—including six doubles and two home runs—I'm taking the over.
"Those are the players you want on your ballclub," Ortiz said to reporters of Benintendi, Bradley, Betts and Bogaerts. "Young, talented and with that mentality, that's on another level."
Does that mean Boston's Killer B's win this showdown? Not necessarily, and certainly not until they prove it over a full season and make a deep October run. Ortiz's praise could just as easily be heaped on the Cubbies' quartet.
Oh, and I haven't even mentioned Kyle Schwarber, who has yet to play a full season with Chicago and doesn't have an established everyday position but has the potential to be one of the game's elite power hitters.
"I think for all the young guys to get their first taste of the World Series and to perform as well as they did in this moment, I gotta believe their confidence is sky-high," veteran Ben Zobrist said after the Cubs' curse-busting Game 7 victory, per JJ Stankevitz of CSN Chicago. "It’s going to be more than ever next year."
As long as we're gazing ahead, there's a decent possibility Chicago and Boston could meet in the World Series thanks to their seasoned talent and young nucleuses.
It would be great for this debate and, more to the point, great for the game.
You don't need alliteration to appreciate that.
.jpg?w=600 "Mahomes Pitch Resurfaces 😅")
