Five years ago, they were the best team ever.
No, the 2011 Boston Red Sox were the "BEST TEAM EVER!" as proclaimed on the front cover of the Boston Herald. How could anyone have known that the Red Sox would actually end up with the worst collapse ever?
Or should that be the "WORST COLLAPSE EVER!"
Five years later, that Herald front cover stands out and lives on, and last week John Tomase (now at WEEI.com) wrote a story on how it all happened. The details are interesting, but it basically comes down to something simple.
We love hype.
It's not good enough to say the Chicago Cubs are heading in the right direction and look to be even better than the Cubs team that made the playoffs last year. No, they're the best team in baseball.
Hype is fun, even when it ends up as spectacularly wrong as that Boston Herald headline did five years ago.
As far as we can see, no newspaper proclaimed the Cubs or any other 2016 team as the best ever. But there's been plenty of hype, and history tells us quite a few of the most hyped teams won't live up to it.
Here's our guess at who those teams will be.
1. Chicago Cubs: It's easy to fall in love with what the Cubs have done. I know. I did, and when Bleacher Report asked me for Bold Predictions for 2016, I had the Cubs winning the World Series.
So how do they make this list, too?
Simple. The Cubs are good, but the idea they're by far the best team in baseball seems to be taking things a little too far. To live up to this hype, they'd need to win 110 games and romp through the postseason.
That's not happening.
And if it does, just remember, I predicted that, too!
2. Arizona Diamondbacks: They signed Zack Greinke and traded for Shelby Miller, and when the Diamondbacks were having a great spring training while their division rivals seemed to be faltering, the hype began that they were the best team in the National League West.
I know, I bought into that one, too.
But then A.J. Pollock hurt his elbow and needed surgery. Two games into the season, after starts by Greinke and Miller, the Arizona rotation had an 11.70 ERA that was the highest in baseball.
Not to overreact or anything, but the spring hype was a little much.
3. New York Mets: Quick confession: I almost took the Mets off this list after watching Noah Syndergaard dominate the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday afternoon. He was that good.
But the Mets make the list for much the same reason the Cubs did. They're good, just not as good as the talk would have you believe.
The bullpen was flawless in relief of Syndergaard Tuesday, but it could still become a major issue. David Wright had a nice bounce-back Tuesday after his worrisome Opening Day, but the back issue could be a problem for the Mets and their captain all season.
The offense always looks like it could be one significant injury from struggling. And Mets history tells you to expect a significant injury.
So yeah, they're on the list—at least until their next young starter throws a gem and gets me to reconsider.
4. New York Yankees: The hype hasn't been at Cubs levels, or Mets levels or even traditional Yankee levels. But this is supposed to be a better team than the one that went one-game-and-out in last year's postseason, and I'm not so sure it is.
A rotation full of question marks and a lineup full of aging stars are both concerns, but a scout who spent the spring in Tampa brought up another issue.
"I'm going to be interested to see how they get 27 outs every night," he said. "For me, the defense is a real question. [Third baseman Chase] Headley is erratic, [catcher Brian] McCann can't throw, [right fielder Carlos] Beltran can't move."
There are just too many things that could go wrong here.
5. Boston Red Sox: We considered other teams for this spot, including the Los Angeles Angels (can't they get Mike Trout a little help?) and the Detroit Tigers (a bullpen collapse on Opening Day? Really?). But it's too fitting to circle back to the Red Sox, even if this year's Boston Herald preview took the safer route and focused on David Ortiz and his final season.
There was Red Sox hype, but it peaked in the winter, after the Sox signed David Price and traded for Craig Kimbrel. They were going to go worst to first.
Then came spring training. Price gave them the No. 1 starter they needed, but suddenly everyone realized there were four more spots to fill. Speaking of that, did you see how Pablo Sandoval filled out his uniform, and lost his job?
No, this definitely isn't the Red Sox's best team ever.
Five years ago, the 2011 team didn't turn out to be, either.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments