Raining on the Pre-Victory Parade 

"You do understand that there is zero chance that the Red Sox repeat, right?

Last year was fun, but it’s not going to happen again. Not this year, anyway."

Thanks, Eric Wilbur. You mean it’s hard for a baseball team to win the World Series, let alone win them back to back? Well, I’ll be. I never would have figured.

This shit is why people hate sports writers. There is zero in this article that is worthwhile. This is a contrarian article to get page views, and generate some ad dollars for boston.com, and maybe get Wilbur a few a couple more spots on radio or local tv.

Yes, it’s hard to win the World Series. Yes, the Red Sox are not a dominant team, going to steam roll the league (that just doesn’t happen in baseball any more). Are they the most likely team to win? Not by the odds—Baseball Prospectus has them the 6th best odds to win it all, Vegas has them 6th as well).

But, this tripe:

Boston still isn’t viewed as the best team in the American League. It probably even has to surrender that honor to the Tampa Bay Rays in their very own division. The Tigers are more complete. The Rangers have more firepower. The Royals are young, hungry, and ready to burst onto the scene.

The Rays are absolutely a solid team, betting on a very young rotation once again. Definitely one of the best teams in the AL. The Tigers have no shortstop, but have put together a great (if defensively flawed team), and have one of the best rotations in the AL. They have little depth to handle injuries. The Rangers … the Rangers? They’ve got a pretty horrible rotation (topped with their ace being on the DL), a questionable bullpen, and an offense that is very different than last season’s. They’re a good team, but not one most folks are even betting on to win their division (that’d be the Oakland A’s or Los Angeles Angels). And, jeez, the Royals? Now you’re just trolling. They’ve got one of the worst hitting infields in the American League, and have one starting pitcher on their staff likely to have an ERA under 4.

The Sox? Well, they’ve got a hole in the outfield, no matter how you slice it. I wasn’t a huge Ellsbury fan, but his 2013 is likely to be better than the Sizemore/Bradley combo (though not for as much as he got paid). Bogaerts is a rookie, and Middlebrooks is Middlebrooks. What the Sox have is depth. Depth for call ups and depth for trades. Sizemore gets hurt? Bradley is there. Bradley not cutting it? Bring up Brentz, or trade for an OF. Bogaerts scuffling at SS or Middlebrooks not getting it done? Drew is still out there …

Are the Sox going to win it in 2014? Probably not. There’s just no way you can say that any team is going to win it. But to say they aren’t going to win it, and to mention the Royals and Rangers as reasons why? That’s just being a douchebag.

(Via Boston.com.)