Tenth Player Award

Maybe the time has arrived to start contemplating the Tenth Player Award. I'd call it the 'Outperformed Expectations' award. You could probably divided the team into exceeded, met, and underperformed expectations. That doesn't mean that a player in a 'lower' category didn't produce more than one in a higher category. It's the expectations game.

EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS
Hideki Okajima
Dustin Pedroia
Tim Wakefield
Mike Lowell
Manny Delcarmen

MET EXPECTATIONS
Jason Varitek
Doug Mirabelli
Josh Beckett
Jonathan Papelbon
Jon Lester
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Kyle Snyder
Mike Timlin
Julian Tavarez
Eric Hinske
Alex Cora
Kevin Youkilis (first half exceeded, second half underperformed)
Coco Crisp

UNDERACHIEVED EXPECTATIONS
Brendan Donnelly
Curt Schilling
Eric Gagne
Julio Lugo (has met expectations recently)
J.D. Drew
Manny Ramirez (held to a high standard)
David Ortiz (held to a high standard)

If you project Win Shares of 30 as MVP type seasons and 20 as All-Star seasons, what do you see?

• Only one Red Sox player is in the top 50 (Ortiz)
• Varitek is 8th among catchers (11)
• Youkilis is 9th among first basemen (16)
• Pedroia is 7th among second basemen (15)
  
• Lowell is 8th among third basemen (16)
  
• Lugo is 20th among shortstops (10)
• Ramirez is 38th among outfielders (13)
• Crisp is 46th among outfielders (12)
• Drew is not in the top 50 among outfielders (8)
• Ortiz is first among DHs (17)
  
• Beckett is 10th among starters (15)
• Matsuzaka is 19th among starters (13)
• Okajima is tied for 5th among relievers (10)
• Papelbon is tied for 19th among relievers (8)

The top two contenders for the Red Sox split between Okajima and Pedroia in my opinion. I'd throw down for Okajima at this point, but it's a horse race.