The good? The Red Sox carry the best record in baseball with a starting pitching staff that has more wins than any rotation.
The bad? Well, that's up for interpretation.
The Red Sox' strategy of introducing the option for their catchers to receive the ball while setting up on one knee has been a conversation going back to spring training. At first, every catcher participated in the exercise with the exception of Christian Vazquez. Now Vazquez has joined the group.
But, heading into their series against the A's, some of the surface-level numbers suggest there hasn't been a big payoff. Most notably, the Red Sox caught-stealing percentage is the fifth-worst in the majors (16.7).
According to the chief proponent of the implementation, Jason Varitek, however, such numbers aren't telling the whole story.
"There is a lot that goes into the buy-in of it," Varitek explained Tuesday. "I've spent a lot of time over the previous year going through the metrics and different things that came out of this catchers con. Both (Chad Epperson) Eppy and myself, we started introducing it last spring, not as a mandate but as something if you're interested in we'll work in all capacities and all stances and find out what works best for you. I've had the advantage of manually being able to collect data for what it means to me and what it can mean to different people, besides just the metrics part of it. It became a complete buy-in for me at that point. But it's not the same for everybody. Not every start hitting mechanism works for every hitter. You morph it, see guys strength and stuff. But there are some attributes from it that take a little pressure off that position."
When it comes to pitch framing, according to StatCast, Vazquez is consistent with what he has produced the previous two seasons. Backup Kevin Plawecki, however, is below league average after excelling in 2019.
As for controlling the running game, it is element that the Red Sox will have to improve on considering teams' propensity to start running on them. Since May 2, the Sox have allowed 10 stolen bases -- the second-most in the majors during that span -- while throwing out two runners.
“I think it’s an ongoing process. We have to be better as an entire unit," Varitek explained. "There’s times that we’ve made throws that should have gotten some people. There’s quite a few times there’s been no chance and we have to get better on the other end. It’s about minimizing run and damage and stuff, and continue to grow in the newness of their throwing mechanics and what they’re doing in a different setup.”