Boston Red Sox 2015 Preview, by Scotty McCreery
Scotty McCreery drawled his way onto the scene as the winner of “American Idol’s” tenth season, and in the years since, he’s established himself as a genuine country hitmaker, and one of the biggest baseball fans in a genre loaded with them.
But had the whole country crooner thing not worked out, McCreery might have made it as a pitcher: a standout at Garner High School in North Carolina, he even managed to start games while on tour with Brad Paisley – “I’d come home and play baseball,” he laughs. “I actually had my best season ever.” That certainly would have thrilled his father, a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, who passed his love of the team on to Scotty. Here’s McCreery’s take on the 2015 Sox.
A few years ago we were the worst team in baseball, and then two years ago we won the World Series and then last year we were the worst team in baseball again. So there’s a pattern going on. If it continues, I think we have a good shot at the World Series! But realistically, you know, we’ll see. We just added Pablo Sandoval, the Panda, and Hanley Ramirez, so we should be hitting well. I’m just wondering about our pitching. You know, Jon Lester got traded away, so we’ll see if Clay Buchholz and the other guys can hold it down. But I think if our pitching holds up, our lineup, with the Panda and Ramirez, should be alright.
I loved bringing in Sandoval. I think he’s a perfect fit for them and I’m sure that the Giants fans are unhappy because they loved him out there. But him, David Ortiz and Hanley – I follow them all on Twitter and Instagram, and they are always posting pictures together. It kind of reminds me of the team in 2004; they called themselves a bunch of idiots, so hopefully this team will get along again.
It will be good to have Dustin Pedroia healthy; he’s the epitome of a Red Sox player. They brought him in and everybody said he was too short, too small to play the game and he comes in and he’s just got something to prove. He was tearing it up, so I think he’s still got it in him. He can still hit a few home runs for us, but mainly just hold it down in the infield.
When it comes to the pitching, they’re looking all right. Buchholz is the main guy and he’ll be holding down the Sox this year. But he’s one of those guys that either he’s on or he’s not. I think in the second game he ever he pitched, he threw a no hitter, and then, you know, he had a few off games the next year, so we’ll see where his arm’s at this year. But I dig him.
Famous Fan Fearless Forecast: I could see us going 80-82. I don’t think we’re going to come out and just blow people out of the water, but I think we’ll win 80. I could see us doing that and hopefully making a good run at the playoffs. As long as they get in, who knows? It’s just one of those things, once you get into the postseason anything can happen. All you got to do is be hot; all you got to do is get on a little run, so it’s not like you are playing 162 games all over again. You got to try to fight to get in, and then in 5 games or 7 games anything can happen.