Positivity!"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Red Sox StoriesSionsYahoo Red Sox PhotosOdds About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub few things that have gone right during this disappointing stretchNew Barry Bonds Jersey ,35commentsPositivity!EDTShareTweetShareShareA few things that have gone right during this disappointing stretchBrian Fluharty-USA TODAY SportsSo, the start of the season hasn’t exactly gone the way anyone expected it to. Outside of the ring ceremony and seeing Gronk throwing out a first pitch, it seems as if nothing has gone right for this Red Sox team. We need to bring the mood up a bit or else we’ll all go mad. That’s why I’m here: to point out a few positives in the midst of a tough stretch. 1) Mitch MorelandGood ol’ Mitchy two-bags has been raking to start the season, and it’s scary to think about where this team would be without his bat. His slash line currently sits at .257/.350/.686, and his hard hit-rate is up almost 12 percentage points from last year’s mark in the very early going. His fly-ball rate is also up 7% from last year and his launch angle has increased significantly, but do keep in mind we’re dealing with a very small sample size and this could be mere randomness. Nonetheless, Mitch has still been mashing, and he’s been almost directly responsible for the only three Red Sox wins we’ve seen. 2) J.D. MartinezI’d go through changes in JD’s fly-ball rate, or launch angle Madison Bumgarner Jersey , or hard-hit rate, but there aren’t any; he’s just crushing the ball like he usually does. In 47 PA, his wRC+ is 152 and his OPS sits at .936. Not too shabby, and exactly what we expect from him every year. One thing of note is that he currently holds a strikeout rate of 11.8 percent, much lower than his career average of 24% and almost half of where it was in 2018. I would definitely say this has to do with a small sample size, but perhaps he has changed his approach a bit. At the very least it’s something to watch moving forward. He’s swinging at pitches in the strike zone at a career-high rate, in addition to swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone at a rate four percentage points lower than 2018. It remains to be seen if this approach lasts long-term, but it’s good to see Martinez off to the races after a slow start last year.3) Blake SwihartSwihart has seen just 19 plate appearances in 2019 thus far, but he’s made the most of them. He’s reached safely seven times Juan Marichal Jersey , and out of 12 batted balls, 2 of them have been ‘barrels’. Also, there’s been worry about his defense dating back to 2015, but so far seems to be holding his own thus far. With Sandy Le贸n in the minors, the Sox have no choice but to continue to play Swihart, which should reap benefits for them, particularly if he can continue to show growth with more and more consistent playing time.Well, that’s about it. Mookie has been solid, but not great. The bullpen has looked fine as well http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , although that’s partly by default because most of the games have been out of hand by the time the starter has walked off the mound. However, I fully believe the upcoming four-game series with Baltimore has the potential to be a sweep and serve as a step in the right direction in this young season. We’re here for positivity, right? Some financial details of the team were revealed Friday."The Ricketts family paid $845 million for the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field in October 2009, nearly 10 years ago. (Man, hard to believe it’s already been a decade!)Friday, Robert Channick of the Tribune revealed some information that pins the current team value at $2.15 billion:Of course, that $2.15 billion is all on paper, not to be realized in actual cash money until and unless the Ricketts family sells the team, which they say they won’t. Team chairman Tom Ricketts has always stated he wants his family to own the Cubs for “generations.”Forbes magazine releases an annual list of team valuations http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , which are, of course, only an estimate. They haven’t published a 2019 list yet, but their 2018 list had the Cubs valued at about $2.9 billion. That ranked third behind the Yankees ($4 billion) and the Dodgers ($3 billion) and just ahead of the Giants and Red Sox (both at $2.8 billion). This current valuation doesn’t mean the Cubs would drop in the 2019 Forbes ranking, just that we now know how much the team’s value was for the transaction that put all the Cubs’ shares in the hands of the Ricketts family.