If you watched the regular season it is easy to see why the Boston Red Sox will win the World Series.  From day one the Sox have been rolling as they went 18-8 in April and never looked back.  For a few days later in the summer the Tampa Bay Rays caught up, only for the Red Sox to take over and roll through the rest of the year to end the season with home field throughout the playoffs.  If that’s not enough to convince you why the Sox will win it all, here are the top five reasons the Sox will win the World Series.

5. Batting Average and On Base Percentage

The Boston Red Sox own the second highest batting average in the league and own the top On Base Percentage in the league overall.  In the playoffs anything can happen, but when you are getting on base, either by hit or by walk, good things can happen, and the Sox do it better than anyone in the league right now.

4. Back End Bullpen

For a good portion of the season the Sox were struggling with closing out games.  They went out and traded for Joel Hanrahan from the Pirates before the season to take over the closer role from Andrew Bailey, whom they traded for the season before for the same reason.  Both had a shot at the role they were expected to fill, and both failed before succoming to injury.  Eventually the Sox found their man in Koji Uehara and slotted the smartest man in baseball, Craig Breslow, in as the set-up man.  Since they have taken over their positions they have been nearly unhittable with ERAs of 1.09 and 1.81 respectively.

3. Starting Rotation

Although he has dealt with injury Clay Buchholz has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.  Now in the ALCS he anchors a staff that includes two guys who could be number one pitchers for most teams, Jake Peavy and Jon Lester.  The top three are enough to convince most people that these top three pitchers can win a team a World Series, but they also have veteran John Lackey in their back pocket.  Some may argue that the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers have a better rotation than them, but it is hard to argue with a rotation like the Red Sox with a stud like Buchholz and veterans who have World Series experience.

2. Offensive Experience

While the Tigers have been there last season, their lack of experience deep in playoff games seemed to cost them in the past.  That will not be an issue for the Sox.  The Sox have guys like Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz who have World Series rings and know what they need to do in the playoffs to make it to the next level.

1. Heart/Grit

It’s not measurable, but this team has it.  The past two seasons, in which they failed miserably down the stretch, the Sox had guys who they had thrown together with huge contracts that never seemed to click while with the Sox.  After trading away guys like Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford during last season, the Sox went out and signed good character guys with a will to win like Jonny Gomes and Mike Napoli who play hard no matter what their role is.  By matching these guys with the already solid character guys of Pedroia and Ortiz the Sox have turned their entire organization around.