With all the dust being kicked up in Boston throughout opening week about their 0-5 start, I was curious as to how bad an 0-5 start really was? Turns out, it's not that bad at all. There has been plenty of cases where teams that have decent (at best) records still go on to win the World Series. The crazy thing is that it happens more than you think.
In 1987 The World Series was won by the Minnesota Twins. In 87 the Twins finished with only 85 wins and when you factor in the records from all MLB teams that year, they sit barely above average, in terms of win percentage. However somehow they managed to squeak in through a weak division and topple the heavy favorites, Detroit and St. Louis. In 2006 The St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series with an 83-78 record (the lowest win percentage ever for a World Series winning team). Only 83 wins, even the Jays had more wins that year. The "powers that be" say it takes at least 90 wins to make a run for the post-season... 90, yet the Cards did it with a measly 83. In 2000 the Yankees won it all with only 87 wins, practically sleep walking through September, just narrowly making it to the dance. Yet they came alive and won it all. The truth is no one cares what the record is that got you to the post-season, because once you're there the only thing that matters is the next game, not the previous game.
I know people will think "yeah but this is a really slow start and I expected more than this..." Well in 2008 the Phillies actually lost all 3 of their first series and one of those was to a brutal Nationals team. Yet the Phillies managed to overcome and go on to win the World Series. Boston knows how to win and definitely will come around. There's no way Lester will have the same brutal outing as he did on opening day, he's too good a pitcher to let that happen again. Crawford will not continue hitting .211, I guarantee it and Youks will most definitely find his stroke and finish above .300. Baseball is a game of averages for the most part and averages always win. A guy that is a lifetime .300+ hitter (although is prone to rough stretches) will "dollars to doughnuts" finish around .300 give or take a bit. It's just the great thing about baseball, you can't fake it.
People get too excited and can forget that it's a long season and start to over react. Remember this is a team that came back from an impossible 3-0 stranglehold to win the 2004 ALCS and go on to take the World Series in 4 straight, proving anything can happen. Besides, last year if I told you that in May there would be not 1 but 2 perfect games tossed, you would've said I was crazy, but in fact there were 2 perfect games thrown in May of 2010. The Sox will be fine and are still a huge favorite to win the World Series regardless of their slow start, they're just working out some kinks. Let the dust settle and stay the course, it'll pay off.
It really comes down to divisional games when you speak of low number of wins and then going to the playoffs and doing well. Most of these teams beat up on each other. Its who is standing at the end that goes on...don't count on a team like the Orioles even sniffing the Wild Card this year.
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