Boston Red Sox: 2007 vs. 2011, Which Team Had/Has a Better Offense?

The 2007 Boston Red Sox had a dominant offensive lineup which helped them to a 96-66 record. They ran away with the American League East title, followed that up with a [ennant win over the Cleveland Indians in seven games and finished with a sweep of the Colorado Rockies to win the World Series.

That team still had David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez batting third and fourth, a duo which has been considered to be one of the most dangerous hitting combinations of all time. There was no intentionally walking Big Papi because you would have to deal with Manny directly after.

There were other veterans such as Mike Lowell, Coco Crisp and Jason Varitek who all added solid offensive depth to the team.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia were both rookies on the team, and Pedroia even won the American League Rookie of the Year award.

But the real question is, was the World Series winning offense better than the team that stands at the plate now?

Today, Ellsbury and Pedroia are no longer rookies but stars, David Ortiz and Jason Varitek are getting older, and new expensive faces such as Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez are making an impact on the roster.

In 2007 the Red Sox had only three players with 20 or more home runs and the team total for home runs was 166. As of this morning, the Sox have already smacked 162 home runs this season with three players over the 20 home run mark. Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are at 16 and 17 home runs respectively, so they can probably be expected to make it to 20 as well.

The 2007 team also witnessed the beginning of the end for Manny Ramirez who hit only 20 home runs for 88 RBI that year. Fortunately, Ortiz picked up the slack that year with 35 homers for 117 RBI but he wasn't even the team's RBI leader. Mike Lowell was with 120 RBI.

The first five guys in the lineup that year were Pedroia, Youkilis, Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell. Now the leadoff five consists of Ellsbury, Pedroia, Gonzalez, Youkilis and Ortiz. You will note that three of the same guys are there still, but all three of them produce at totally different levels than they used to. Pedroia has since won an American League MVP award, Youkilis has been runner up for MVP, and Ortiz has aged four years, bringing down his power totals.

The five guys from 2007 hit 100 home runs for 413 RBI while the current five has already hit 104 home runs for 411 RBI with still a month to play. 

Looking at the back end of the lineup, Varitek had better numbers in 2007 than Jarrod Saltalamacchia does this year, but the tandem of Salty and Varitek has produced better numbers then Varitek and Doug Mirabelli did in 2007.

The combination of Marco Scutaro and Jed Lowrie has far exceeded the production of Julio Lugo in any of his years with Boston, so that's an immediate upgrade at the shortstop position.

And then we cannot forget about Carl Crawford who Boston spent $142 million on in the offseason this year and he has yet to find a consistent groove with the Sox. He was injured for a month, but his abysmal start to the season will prevent him from having the great numbers we all expected to see from him.

At the end of the day, Crawford has added speed to this offense which has 90 stolen bases under its belt which is just six less than the 96 Boston had in 2007 and there's still a month of sprinting around the bases to go.

These offenses are pretty close in comparison, both teams have nearly the same batting average but the power and speed both clearly seem to be more dominant with the current team.

The most important part about all this might be that there is still a month to play in the 2011 season. Carl Crawford is on an 8 game hitting streak. Adrian Gonzalez has hit five home runs in three games against the Texas Rangers. Jacoby Ellsbury is having an MVP caliber season and Dustin Pedroia is doing his thing...again.

The 2011 Red Sox is certainly more star studded than the 2007 team, but is their offense truly better? Only time will tell as we inch closer to October, when this years offense will see if they can duplicate the results of the 2007 team.

What do you think?