Tenacious Red Sox Will Be Tough Out

In Advanced Scouting, MLB FanHouse's professional talent evaluator breaks down each of the playoff teams from a scouting perspective.

There are enough intangibles that this Red Sox team has, aside from the obvious talent their roster possesses, to give any opponent fits, which is why it's going to be all the more important to exploit any holes they may have. With the style and fire they take the field with, it is more crucial to jump on them early than any other club in the postseason.

Power pitchers like Josh Beckett and Jon Lester need to be touched up early, in most cases, if you are going to get to them at all. And, in a playoff atmosphere, an over-amped power pitcher can be prone to command issues in the early going.

Boston hitters may be the best in the game at making a pitcher throw them their pitch in the zone they want. There is a difference between what most people conceive as the Moneyball philosophy of just drawing walks and seeing pitches and what the Red Sox do.

It's a common cliché in baseball to attack the zone, and that of course can be a good thing, but giving in is not always wise against this lineup. Hitters like Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, and Jason Bay thrive on getting pitchers deep into the count where they are afraid to give a free pass.

It is this group of pitchers, the ones who give in to avoid the base on balls that will be punished. So, how can such a tenacious lineup be stopped? A tone needs to be set early by establishing at least one quality secondary pitch. If hitters of this caliber only need to think about a fastball in a 3-2 count, it's going to be a long night. Bottom line: put a pitcher on the mound that has the command and confidence in his secondary pitches to ride out these long battles against the likes of Kevin Youkilis and his gang of tough outs and that's your best shot. Deep counts, and in turn, high pitch counts in the early innings are nearly inevitable against this lineup, but by putting the idea of a secondary pitch in their heads, you can keep damage to a minimum.

Matchups To Watch

The Red Sox feast on pitchers that are forced to go to their fastball when they don't want to. What will be interesting to follow is their matchup against two Angel pitchers who have had success against them this season, John Lackey and Ervin Santana. Both rely heavily on a steady diet of breaking balls, and have shown little hesitation to throw them in hitters' counts. It is certainly not a distinct weakness of Boston's, but how it matches up against this particular style of pitcher will be interesting to follow.

David Ortiz will be a factor in this postseason. Despite any struggles he's had this year, it is hard to count out the big man, and you can bet the advanced scouts are preparing for him as heavily as ever. So, how to keep the damage he does to a minimum is the question at hand. At this stage in his career, Ortiz needs to be matched against a southpaw that can come inside with some velocity. But, in the bullpen, the Angels are without that option. Keep an eye on how they try to combat Ortiz in the later innings without that pure hard-throwing lefty arm available in relief.

X-Factors

Daniel Bard: In playoff baseball, guys that can miss bats are a premium commodity, and to say Bard can miss bats is an understatement. One of the best pure arms in the game today, Bard matches up particularly well against the Angels. L.A. has a contact approach, and they will wear down opponents who try and finesse their way through their lineup.

• Scouting Perspective: With an exploding fastball between 96-100 mph, Bard should be as aggressive as possible with the fastball. As history can tell us, many pitchers with dynamic sliders have suffered crushing fates in the playoffs, and Bard's slider truly is dynamic, but watching him recently, it is clear that he doesn't always know where it's going. Something to watch is how well he elevates his fastball. He drives the ball into the lower quadrants, and by so consciously doing so tends to yank the ball back toward the middle of the plate. If he can elevate the fastball as an out pitch and cut down the risk with the slider, his impact could be enormous in playoff action.

Jacoby Ellsbury: Catalysts like Ellsbury are always important, but they play an even more key role in a playoff atmosphere. Ellsbury gives Boston the ability to create runs and keep its opponent on its toes. The Angels, and any other team they face, will likely try to pound him in along the waistline. But he's developing into a good enough hitter where it will take continued adjustments to get him out.

• Scouting Perspective: Jacoby Ellsbury hits as well with his hands as anyone in the league, which is one of the better compliments a hitter can receive. Take a look at a side angle of any one of his singles this year. Many come on off-speed pitches that leave his lower half out of sync, but watch as his hands remain back. Keeping the hands back has become somewhat of a cliché, but the Sox centerfielder does it with the best of them, and he has the outstanding quickness in his hands to back it up. It's these mechanical traits that have allowed Derek Jeter, for example, to have postseason success against the league's top pitchers.

Daisuke Matsuzaka: Watching Matsuzaka operate his way through a game is not always pretty, but one way or another he seems to come out of it clean. How does he do it? What causes his often excruciating, high-pitch-count outings is what also allows him to still be effective.

• Scouting Perspective: If you look back at Dice-K's impressive outing against the Angels on Sept. 15, there are a number of things of which to make note. He shut down a playoff lineup despite making mistakes all night in the middle of the plate with a 90-93 mph fastball. Given his torso rotation, his shoulders tended to open early, causing his fastball to drift back towards the middle of the plate on the arm side. These mistakes, however, continued to produce little more than foul balls back to the screen. Dice-K's willingness to throw his secondary pitches at any point, even though his nibbling can lead to walks and long innings, makes his fastball his best change of pace. Look for him to potentially be a major factor against Los Angeles in the first round. His ability to pitch backwards could be a perfect foil for the Angels' aggressive hitters. His fastball, even in poor location, is difficult to adjust to when a hitter is down in the count after a steady diet of off-speed pitches.

Frankie Piliere has spent the last three seasons working as a scout, most recently in the professional scouting department for the Texas Rangers in 2009. He now serves as the National Baseball Analyst here at FanHouse.