Qualifier: players will be classified under one position even if they played at more than one.

Jimmie Foxx:

Hall of Fame legend Jimmie Foxx remains one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. From 1936 to 1942, Foxx anchored the Boston Red Sox lineup with some of the best power numbers ever tallied. He maintained a .320 batting average, .429 on-base percentage and .605 slugging percentage over 887 games in Boston for a 1.034 OPS that ranks second only to Ted Williams in franchise history. He won the 1938 American League MVP, the third of his career, while also winning his second batting title. Foxx totaled 222 home runs with the Red Sox and 534 overall in his 20-year Major League career. Just four players own higher career slugging numbers and only seven have driven in more runs.

Kevin Youkilis(notes):

A three-time All-Star corner infielder for the Red Sox since 2004, Kevin Youkilis stands out as one of the great on-base hitters of today’s generation. Through 911 games with the Red Sox, Youkilis boasts a .289 average, .391 OBP and .492 slugging percentage. He has been an above average defender at both first and third throughout his career; he owns one Gold Glove and briefly held the Major League record for consecutive games without an error by a first baseman. Youkilis has posted a WAR (wins above replacement) north of 4.0 in each of the last five seasons, maxing out at 6.0 in 2008 to rank second in the AL.

Mo Vaughn:

Former AL MVP Mo Vaughn was the Red Sox’s star slugger of the 1990s. In an outstanding six-year stretch from 1993 to 1998, Vaughn batted .315 with a .405 OBP, 148 OPS+ (league average is 100) and averages of 36 home runs and 110 RBI per season. He won the 1995 AL MVP and finished in the top five in voting in two other years. Vaughn ranks seventh in Red Sox history with 230 home runs and his career .936 OPS is good for fifth.

George Scott:

Top defensive first baseman George “Boomer” Scott was a fan favorite in Boston for nine of his 14 Major League seasons from 1966 to 1979. Scott went to three All-Star Games, won eight Gold Gloves and maintained a lifetime OPS+ of 114. He enjoyed his breakout year and finished in the top ten in MVP voting with the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox of 1967 when he batted .303 with a .373 OBP and 138 OPS+. Scott hit 154 home runs with the Red Sox and 271 overall in his career.

Jake Stahl:

Jake Stahl served as player/manager for Boston’s first 100-win team and second World Series Champion in 1912. Stahl was consistently one of the best all-around hitters of his generation. Over six nonconsecutive years in Boston from 1903 to 1913, he maintained a .277 average, .350 OBP and 134 OPS+. He batted a career-high .301 in the 1912 title campaign while leading the team to a .691 winning percentage.

Honorable mentions: Dick Hoblitzell, Candy LaChance, Adrian Gonzalez(notes), Dale Alexander, Stuffy McInnis, Wally Dropo, and Kevin Millar(notes).

Sources:

Boston Red Sox Team History & Encyclopedia, Baseball-Reference.com

More from this contributor:

Boston Red Sox top five catchers

Detroit Tigers top five catchers

Cincinnati Reds top five catchers

Chicago Cubs top five catchers

Baltimore Orioles top five first basemen

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BOSTON — Ben Cherington will have plenty to do if, as expected, he follows Theo Epstein as the general manager of the Boston Red Sox.

He’ll also have plenty to work with.

Cherington is expected to be promoted on Tuesday, when the Red Sox have scheduled a news conference to introduce Epstein’s replacement. Epstein resigned from Boston to take over as president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs on Friday, and the teams said they would hold off on more announcements out of respect for the teams in the World Series; Tuesday is the next off-day.

Cherington’s first job will be to find a manager to replace Terry Francona, a two-time World Series winner who admitted he lost the clubhouse in his eighth season and was let go after the team’s unprecedented September collapse. The coaching staff also will need to be rebuilt as pitching coach Curt Young left for the Oakland Athletics earlier Friday.

Cherington also will have to deal with the fallout from the team’s 7-20 September that left it one game short of the playoffs. The pitching staff disintegrated over the final month, followed by news reports that several starters were drinking beer and eating fast-food fried chicken in the clubhouse during games.

Among them was John Lackey, who was 12-12 with a 6.41 ERA in the second year of a five-year, $82.5 million deal. The Red Sox are unlikely to find a taker unless they eat most of Lackey’s remaining salary. Cherington also will be saddled with six more years of Carl Crawford’s contract, a seven-year, $142 million deal signed by Epstein.

But the Red Sox have reason to be hopeful with the core of the team that went 81-43 over a 4 1/2-month stretch of the season and a payroll that is among the biggest in baseball. All-Star Adrian Gonzalez just finished the first year of a seven-year, $154 million deal, Jacoby Ellsbury developed into an MVP candidate, and Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are locked up long term.

Josh Beckett was an ace for most of the year and Jon Lester remains one of the top lefties in the AL, but their performance in September was a key reason for the collapse. Clay Buchholz is expected to return from a stress fracture.

J.D. Drew’s contract is up, giving the Red Sox some payroll flexibility, and Daisuke Matsuzaka is at the end of the six-year deal that brought him over from Japan for a total of $103 million.

They’ll need the money to re-sign closer Jonathan Papelbon, who can file for free agency for the first time, and for designated hitter David Ortiz, who’s also a free agent.

Because Epstein’s move was in the works for a while, Cherington has been filling in as GM since the regular season ended.

Cherington also served as co-GM during the three-month period after the 2005 season when Epstein walked away from the Red Sox. He shared the job with Jed Hoyer. Now the San Diego Padres’ GM, Hoyer is expected to be Epstein’s top hire with the Cubs.

Because the teams were unable to agree to compensation for allowing Epstein out of the last year of his contract, Hoyer and Cherington will probably have to work on that, too.

Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.

As the postseason soldiers on, the eliminated teams are facing an offseason filled with golf rounds and hot-stove strategery.

But we’re not going to let them get off that easy. No sir. No way. In an attempt to bring some closure between franchise and follower, we’re giving a blogger from each team the opportunity to detain their squads for the equivalent of a Saturday morning detention stay.

Up next in our series is our old pal Kris Liakos. He’d like to know what kind of beers Boston’s pitcher were crushing in the clubhouse, but he can probably already guess.

Alright, 2011 Boston Red Sox. Have a seat over there. We can’t dwell on this too long. We’ve got a couple of your other divisional cronies due in here pretty soon. You look surprised to be here, Golden Boys. Well not as surprised as I am, I’ll tell you that. I had such high hopes for you going into this year. The way you fell apart at the end of the year … just a month before graduating! You lost a nine-game lead quicker than any other team in history. It’s just kind of a shock, kid.

You know, 2011 Boston Red Sox. I’m not even mad. I’m disappointed because your family had really turned a corner around here. Your older brothers, 2004 and 2007 were model students. Top of their class! Who’d have thought you’d have more in common with your uncles from ’78 and ’06. And the arrogance! You guys just strolled in here, started the season 2-10 and were working out of a hole right from the start. I bet you would have liked to have had one or two of those games back by the end of your stinkbomb September.

Or maybe you wouldn’t have. Maybe you just didn’t care at all and that’s the worst part of all this. By the time you guys lost your 18th game of that month in Baltimore, you were a chore to watch. You had all the potential in the world and you have no one to blame but yourself. Especially you, John Lackey(notes).

Punishable Offenses: Your attendance sucked. For the second straight year there were a bunch of missed games by a bunch of key guys. Top of the list is Clay Buchholz(notes). Stress fractures in your back do not sound fun, but the second guessing, phantom bullpen sessions and whispers about his actual readiness vs. perceived readiness soured the story beyond the injury. At a time when the Red Sox had all the starting depth of a petri dish a front line guy was shrouded in mystery.

Kevin Youkilis’(notes) season ended early after a sea of maladies that you have to wade through. One of the anchors in the lineup, dude has averaged only 119 GP over the last three years. Tack on season-ending injuries to Daisuke Matsuzaka(notes) and J.D. Drew(notes) plus a parade of missed games at all positions during that dark final month and you have a team that was significantly hurt by injuries for the second consecutive season. But every team in baseball has injuries and things have gotten so bad in Boston that even the owner has openly questioned the team’s conditioning methods.

On the field and off, some of your bigger free agent signings haven’t panned out. The aforementioned Lackey has become one of the most reviled members of a Boston sports franchise that I can remember. His numbers would make fans laugh if they weren’t already sobbing. He isn’t saved at all by his propensity for hideous scowling and yelling at his teammates. I hate to tell you I told you so, Theo. But I kind of did three years ago.
And Carl Crawford(notes). We were all rooting for you, man. Despite any asinine and revisionist comments Brian Cashman might make to the contrary, every team in baseball would have signed you if they’d had the resources. But you just didn’t really do much. One trip to the DL, a couple hot weeks here and there but a .694 OPS and a paltry 18 stolen bases (after averaging 50 for the prior 8 years) didn’t justify the hype or the cheddar.

The rotation was never stable. Jon Lester(notes), you threw a couple of stinkers down the stretch, Josh Beckett(notes) , you appeared to be losing parts on the field (I never even knew humans had mufflers until I saw yoursfall off going over a speedbump), and once Buchholz was gone you were relying on the likes of Tim “I AM SO SICK OF LOOKING AT YOU” Wakefield and the seemingly atrocious Kyle Weiland(notes). Oh, you also experimented with Erik Bedard(notes). Real big shocker how that turned out.

You were no doubt a team of flaws and serious structural issues that you somehow managed to keep from us for a good chunk of the summer. Maybe we were at fault for not seeing September coming. But I don’t know, even with all these problems who could? Even your heretofore good defense failed. I need to move on before I start crying. You’re supposed to be the ones in trouble.

Partners In Crime: Someone had to answer for this whole mess and it turned out to be Terry Francona. People seemed surprised that a guy who’d had that much success got bounced (whether it was mutual or not, he returns next year if you guys had pulled through) but it seemed pretty obvious from where I was sitting. After tanking that dramatically, shuffling around the hitting and pitching coaches wasn’t going to suffice. There needed to be real changes. Problem is most of you are too old to move, have too large a contract to move, or are too old and have too large a contract to move. Tito was the only movable part. So they greased up his bald head and sent him shooting out the birth canal of Yawkey Way.

Was it the right decision? I’m of the mindset that managers get too much credit for winning and too much blame for losing. But there’s no question that a bunch of the players in the Red Sox clubhouse pay no heed to their manager. Whether or not the next one can get them to change that is anyone’s guess, but in the long run I gotta think that Francona himself becomes the real beneficiary of this change. Farewell dude, you’re gonna make a lot more money than you would have eight years ago.

Something To Build On: Well, you did win 90 games and this is not a team going into a rebuilding year. Jon Lester is still your ace, Adrian Gonzalez(notes) looked great for huge chunks of the season, the catcher position looks to be in good shape after a couple years of post-sentient Jason Varitek(notes) doubt, Jacoby Ellsbury(notes) has turned into Carl Yastrzemski with legs, and despite one, um, pretty major exception Papelbon had a solid year at closer. Don’t expect the forthcoming managerial hire to shake anything up. The Red Sox will hire a guy that listens to the front office and the front office is listening to stats. Do that, former bench coach for whoever, and you’ll get a nice little pay check. Not bad work if you can get it.

Shape Up Or Ship Out: Sunny Listen, DON’T GO 7-19 FOR THE LAST THREE WEEKS OF NEXT SEASON AND YOU WON’T BE BACK HERE IN DETENTION. NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE.

Principal Liakos
@K_Liakos

Read more of Big League Stew’s Detention Lecture series here

Related: Kyle Weiland, Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Adrián González, Kevin Youkilis, John Lackey, Erik Bedard, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Jason Varitek, J.D. Drew, Boston Red Sox, Detention Lecture

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Boston Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis will have surgery on Tuesday for a sports hernia which made him unavailable for almost all of Boston’s ill-fated stretch run.

In 120 games, Youkilis hit a career low .258. He had 17 home runs and 80 RBIs in a season that saw him move from first base back to his original major league position of third base.

At the All-Star break, he was among the league leaders in several offensive categories, was named to his third All-Star team and had pushed his average from an uncharacteristically low point to .285.

He was bothered by a variety of injuries, including hip bursitis and a back problem.

His last game was Sept. 15.

Youkilis, 32, has had his last two seasons shortened by injuries. In 2010, he was limited to 102 games after requiring thumb surgery.

He has not played more than 136 games in a season since 2008. Youkilis’ contract expires after the 2012 season, with the club holding an option for 2013.

Youkilis spoke in a radio interview on a variety of topics, including the Red Sox collapse, the departure of manager Terry Francona and reports of a team that crumbled inside the clubhouse.

The Boston Globe blog on his interview can be read here.

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TORONTO (AP)—Brett Lawrie(notes) homered in the 11th inning to lift the Toronto
Blue Jays to a 1-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Monday.

Lawrie homered to center off Dan Wheeler(notes) (2-2) with two outs in the 11th,
his eighth homer since being called up from Triple-A Las Vegas on Aug. 4.

Shawn Camp(notes) (3-3) pitched one scoreless inning for the win as the Blue Jays
snapped a three-game losing streak.

Boston lost for the fifth time in seven games.

Red Sox starter Josh Beckett(notes) left in the fourth inning with a sprained right
ankle. Manager Terry Francona and trainer Mike Reinold came to the mound after
the right-hander threw a ball to Lawrie. After a brief discussion, Beckett
walked off the field without assistance and was replaced by right-hander Alfredo
Aceves(notes).

An All-Star for the third time this season, Beckett came in having won his
past three starts. He allowed three hits in 3 2-3 scoreless innings with six
strikeouts and one walk.

Blue Jays right-hander Henderson Alvarez(notes) pitched six scoreless innings,
extending his shutout streak to 14 innings. Alvarez allowed four hits, walked
one and struck out four.

Alvarez retired the first eight batters in order before Marco Scutaro(notes)
singled in the third. Jacoby Ellsbury(notes) doubled him to third but Dustin Pedroia(notes)
grounded out to end the threat.

The Red Sox put runners at first and second with two outs in the fourth but
Josh Reddick(notes) struck out looking.

Scutaro hit a one-out double in the fifth but was caught in a rundown after
Alvarez grabbed Ellsbury’s grounder to the mound. Ellsbury tried to advance to
second but was thrown out, completing the 1-5-6 double play.

Carlos Villanueva(notes) replaced Alvarez and walked Kevin Youkilis(notes) to begin the
seventh. After Carl Crawford(notes) flied out, Reddick singled to right and both
runners advanced on Jason Varitek’s(notes) grounder. Scutaro ended the inning by
grounding out to shortstop.

Adrian Gonzalez(notes) hit a two-out double off Casey Janssen(notes) in the eighth and
David Ortiz(notes) was intentionally walked to bring up Youkilis, who struck out
looking.

Toronto put a runner at third base three times in the first four innings.
Edwin Encarnacion(notes) struck out to end the first, Jose Molina(notes) grounded out and
Dewayne Wise(notes) struck out in the second and, after Aceves walked Lawrie in the
fourth, Molina ended the inning by flying out to right.

Aceves left after walking Mike McCoy(notes) and hitting Eric Thames(notes) with one out in
the eighth. Daniel Bard(notes) came on and got Jose Bautista(notes) to fly out, then struck
out Adam Lind(notes).

Jonathan Papelbon(notes) struck out Lind on three pitches to leave the bases loaded
in the bottom of the 10th.

NOTES: Boston recalled C Ryan Lavarnway(notes) and RHP Kyle Weiland(notes) and purchased
the contract of INF Nate Spears(notes), all from Triple-A Pawtucket. … Red Sox LHP
Erik Bedard(notes) (left knee) will be skipped in his next scheduled start, Friday at
Tampa Bay. … Francona said RHP Bobby Jenks(notes) (back) is unlikely to pitch again
this season. … Blue Jays SS Yunel Escobar(notes) (left wrist) missed his second
straight game. … Toronto reinstated RHP Dustin McGowan(notes) (shoulder) off the
60-day DL. McGowan last pitched in the majors July 8, 2008. … Blue Jays
manager John Farrell returned after missing 10 games with pneumonia. … Wise
made a superb diving catch on Crawford’s sinking liner to center to begin the
ninth.

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BOSTON Jacoby Ellsbury hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth inning, Josh Beckett improved to 4-0 against the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox came from behind for a 9-5 win on Wednesday night.

The Red Sox, who lost the series opener 5-2 on Tuesday night, extended their AL East lead over the Yankees to 1 ½ games and improved their record to 11-3 this season against their division rivals.

David Ortiz and Jason Varitek also hit two-run homers for Boston.

The Yankees scored four runs in the sixth off Beckett (12-5) — the same amount they managed in his other 32 innings against them this season — and went ahead 5-4.

In the bottom of the inning, Phil Hughes (4-5) retired the first batter. Then he went ahead of Josh Reddick 0-2 before walking him, and Reddick scored the tying run on Varitek’s double. After Marco Scutaro flied out, left-hander Boone Logan came in to face lefty Ellsbury. On a 3-and-1 count, Ellsbury hit his 24th homer into the left-field seats above the Green Monster.

Beckett allowed four earned runs and six hits through seven innings. He struck out eight and walked three.

Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon each pitched a scoreless inning and the Red Sox improved to 62-3 this season when leading after six.

The Yankees had taken a 1-0 lead in the third on Derek Jeter’s RBI single. The Red Sox went ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the inning, scoring on Dustin Pedroia’s groundout with runners at second and third and on Jed Lowrie’s RBI single.

Jeter got his second single in the top of the fifth, moving into 20th place all-time, ahead of Craig Biggio, with 3,061 career hits. He was left stranded.

Boston made it 4-1 in the fifth on Ortiz’s homer deep into the centre field bleachers after Adrian Gonzalez singled. It was Ortiz’s 28th homer of the year and extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

The Yankees regained the lead in the sixth, helped by an error by right fielder Reddick.

Mark Teixeira was hit by a pitch leading off the inning, took second on a wild pitch by Beckett and scored on a double by Robinson Cano. Nick Swisher then walked and Eric Chavez followed with a liner down the right field line. It got by Reddick and Chavez was credited with a double. The error allowed him to take third and Swisher to score. Eduardo Nunez’s sacrifice fly put the Yankees on top 5-4.

Varitek gave the Red Sox a four-run cushion in the eighth with his 10th homer.

NOTES: Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez missed his fourth straight game with a sprained left thumb. … Red Sox 3B Kevin Youkilis, on the DL since Aug. 18 with a low back strain, played his second straight rehab game for triple-A Pawtucket and can be activated on Friday. … Boston RF J.D. Drew missed the second game of his scheduled two-day rehab assignment at Pawtucket on Wednesday night with a sprained middle finger. He was hurt Tuesday night when he went 3 for 3. Plans for the Red Sox to activate him on Thursday may change. He went on the disabled list on July 26, retroactive to July 20, with a shoulder injury. … Yankees C Russell Martin of Chelsea, Que., with a sore left thumb, missed the game. Manager Joe Girardi said he planned to use him Thursday night in the finale of the three-game series. … Struggling RHP A.J. Burnett (9-11) faces LHP Jon Lester (14-6) on Thursday night.

The Associated Press

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BOSTON (AP)—Jacoby Ellsbury(notes) hit a tie-breaking two-run homer in the sixth
inning, Josh Beckett(notes) improved to 4-0 against the New York Yankees and the Boston
Red Sox came from behind for a 9-5 win on Wednesday night.

The Red Sox, who lost the series opener 5-2 on Tuesday night, extended their
AL East lead over the Yankees to 1 1/2 games and improved their record to 11-3 this
season against their division rivals.

David Ortiz(notes) and Jason Varitek(notes) also hit two-run homers for Boston.

The Yankees scored four runs in the sixth off Beckett (12-5)—the same
amount they managed in his other 32 innings against them this season—and went
ahead 5-4.

In the bottom of the inning, Phil Hughes(notes) (4-5) retired the first batter.
Then he went ahead of Josh Reddick(notes) 0-2 before walking him, and Reddick scored
the tying run on Varitek’s double. After Marco Scutaro(notes) flied out, left-hander
Boone Logan(notes) came in to face lefty Ellsbury. On a 3-and-1 count, Ellsbury hit his
24th homer into the left-field seats above the Green Monster.

Beckett allowed four earned runs and six hits through seven innings. He
struck out eight and walked three.

Daniel Bard(notes) and Jonathan Papelbon(notes) each pitched a scoreless inning and the
Red Sox improved to 62-3 this season when leading after six.

The Yankees had taken a 1-0 lead in the third on Derek Jeter’s(notes) RBI single.
The Red Sox went ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the inning, scoring on Dustin
Pedroia’s(notes) groundout with runners at second and third and on Jed Lowrie’s(notes) RBI
single.

Jeter got his second single in the top of the fifth, moving into 20th place
all-time, ahead of Craig Biggio, with 3,061 career hits. He was left stranded.

Boston made it 4-1 in the fifth on Ortiz’s homer deep into the center field
bleachers after Adrian Gonzalez(notes) singled. It was Ortiz’s 28th homer of the year
and extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

The Yankees regained the lead in the sixth, helped by an error by right
fielder Reddick.

Mark Teixeira(notes) was hit by a pitch leading off the inning, took second on a
wild pitch by Beckett and scored on a double by Robinson Cano(notes). Nick Swisher(notes) then
walked and Eric Chavez(notes) followed with a liner down the right field line. It got
by Reddick and Chavez was credited with a double. The error allowed him to take
third and Swisher to score. Eduardo Nunez’s(notes) sacrifice fly put the Yankees on top
5-4.

Varitek gave the Red Sox a four-run cushion in the eighth with his 10th
homer.

Notes: Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez(notes) missed his fourth straight game with a
sprained left thumb. … Red Sox 3B Kevin Youkilis(notes), on the DL since Aug. 18 with
a low back strain, played his second straight rehab game for Triple-A Pawtucket
and can be activated on Friday. … Boston RF J.D. Drew(notes) missed the second game
of his scheduled two-day rehab assignment at Pawtucket on Wednesday night with a
sprained middle finger. He was hurt Tuesday night when he went 3 for 3. Plans
for the Red Sox to activate him on Thursday may change. He went on the disabled
list on July 26, retroactive to July 20, with a shoulder injury. … Yankees C
Russell Martin(notes), with a sore left thumb, missed the game. Manager Joe Girardi
said he planned to use him Thursday night in the finale of the three-game
series. … Struggling RHP A.J. Burnett(notes) (9-11) faces LHP Jon Lester(notes) (14-6) on
Thursday night.

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