The Red Sox ended May
dead last in the AL East. Incredibly, despite this abysmal performance, they sit just 4 games out of first place. Our
Dalton Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) participants were not fooled, however. The May DJIA fell 8.1 points to
69.6. The drop in the Index was fueled—once again—by low levels of confidence in the team's starting pitching (a raw score of 31.2). Relief pitching came in at 63.1—while the terribly inconsistent offense scored a dismal 32.3. Team defense had a raw score of 60.4.
FenwayNation offers its readers this monthly reading of "The Mood Of The Nation" through our exclusive
Dalton Jones Industrial Average—which 'crunches' all of those raw scores into a single Index Value. Named for the all-time Red Sox pinch-hit leader, the average is a composite index of four key metrics:
starting pitching,
relief pitching,
total offense and
total defense. The editors invite readers from around the world to weigh in every month on the state of the team. The Index number—and its fluctuation up or down—has proven, over the years, to be a pretty accurate bellwether of actual team status.
