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Boston Red Sox: Are the 2018 Red Sox the best team in franchise history?

By Bobby Mueller

BOSTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 24: Mookie Betts #50 of the Boston Red Sox returns to the dugout after hitting a two-run home run in the second inning of a game against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park on September 24, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 24: Mookie Betts #50 of the Boston Red Sox returns to the dugout after hitting a two-run home run in the second inning of a game against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park on September 24, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /
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Boston Red Sox
(Original Caption) Babe Ruth wearing the uniform of the Boston Red Sox, the team he played with from 1915 until he joined the Yankees in 1920, Half length photograph. /

When the Babe was just a babe

1915 Red Sox, 101-50-4, .669, won World Series
Pythagorean W-L: .631, +170 run-differential
Top Hitter: Tris Speaker (7.1 bWAR)
Top Pitcher: Ernie Shore (5.4 bWAR)
Position Players AL rank: 3rd
Pitchers AL rank: 4th

This Red Sox team has the fourth-most wins in franchise history and the fifth-best Pythagorean win-loss record, although their run-differential doesn’t rank in the top five. They got off to a slow start, going 14-15 in their first 29 games. As the season moved into late May, they were in fourth place, 6.5 games out of first.

Starting with the second game of a double-header on May 29, the Red Sox went 15-3 over the next few weeks. A 22-10 July helped them take over first place in the American League and a 21-6 August kept them at the top of the standings, but Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers were hanging close. The Red Sox went 20-7 in September, but still couldn’t shake Detroit. Ultimately, they finished the season in early October with a record of 101-50-4 while the Tigers were 100-54, 2.5 games out.

Their top hitter on the 1915 Red Sox was still Tris Speaker, just like in 1912. Speaker hit .322/.416/.411, with 108 runs scored and 29 steals. He was part of a terrific outfield that included Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis, which was considered the best outfield in baseball. Unfortunately for Red Sox fans of the time, this would be Speaker’s last season with the team. When he refused to take a 50 percent pay cut before the 1916 season, the Red Sox traded him to Cleveland.

In addition to their “million dollar outfield”, the Red Sox had solid production from first baseman Dick Hoblitzell and third baseman Larry Gardner. The key to the team, though, was their strong pitching staff. Ernie Shore (19-8, 1.64 ERA, 247 IP) and Smoky Joe Wood (15-5, 1.49 ERA, 157.3 IP) were their top starters, with Rube Foster (19-8, 2.11 ERA, 255.3 IP) and Dutch Leonard (15-7, 2.36 ERA, 183.3 IP) right there with them.

The youngest member of the starting rotation was 20-year-old Babe Ruth, who was in his second major league season. Ruth pitched 217.7 innings with a 2.44 ERA in 1915. At the plate, he hit .315/.375/.576, with four home runs in 103 plate appearances. No other Red Sox player hit more than two homers and the three players who hit that many did so in 450 or more plate appearances.

Ruth would continue mainly as a pitcher over the next three years before transitioning to a two-way player in 1918 and 1919. In December of 1919, the Red Sox infamously sold Ruth to the Yankees. Ruth crushed an MLB-record 54 dingers in 1920 and dominated baseball for the next decade. The Red Sox, meanwhile, went into a tailspin that lasted into the 1940s.

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