Koji Uehara making Ben Cherrington look like Albert Einstein: Why Koji Uehara's off-season signing may have been smarter than anyother

One man completely revolutionized the field of theoretical physics, the other discovered Koji Uehara.

After he was instated as Red Sox manager back in October of 2011, Ben Cherinton has been right on the mark in the 2 years since and has dominantly made a case to become GM of the year in 2013. He signed Shane Victorino, signed Johnny Gomes, and signed David Ross. Those are all good moves. He traded for Jake Peavy and took his time before calling up Xander Bogaerts from AAA Pawtuket. So still nothing bad.

"It starts with Ben," John Farrell admitted. "There was a clear vision on his part to go out and bring in talented players that had strong teammate reputations. They love to work. They love to compete. Day by day, it's been a turnaround, but there's a long way to go."

But then you look to the bull pen. Standing as one of the few blemishes in a season of great moves, Joel Hanrahan came to Boston holding great promise among Red Sox nation. Here was a 6 year vet and a man who just 2 years ago had recorded 40 saves. Was he the answer to a Red Sox bull pen that had struggled to consistently preform in 2012? No, and when Hanrahan went down following a May 6th injury neither was the man who came to replace him.  Following Hanrahan, Andrew Bailey became Boston's closer where he would go on to blow an astronomical 4 saves while only completing 8. He was eventually removed from the position following 3 straight blown saves from June 18th to June 20th.  

So with the top 2 guys on the Boston closer depth chart now down the drain, Farrell in collaboration with Ben Cherrington turned to a man not previously known as a superstar. That man's name was Koji Uehara. 

Once a 10 year veteran of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, Uehara came to the MLB following the 2008 NPB season and made his debut on April 8th 2009 for the Baltimore Orioles. He actually started games that year but after only 2 wins and a bucket of no decisions he was moved to the position of closer before the 2010 season. He would play better in 2010 but by 2011 he was out of Baltimore heading to Texas in exchange for Chris Davis who went to the Orioles. 

No when you look at the 2013 numbers that seemed to be a fair trade. Davis has been piling up the hits and homers in Baltimore and Koji Uehara has been doing the opposite as a pitcher. The only problem was that all mighty Ben Cherrington somehow managed to snatch Koji out of the grips of Texas and bring him to Boston. 

So there you have it, whether he knew it or not, Ben Cherrington pulled off one of his greatest moves when nobody was looking and since Koji was named closer he has been on fire proving that his manager was right after all and that the Rangers were well foolish for letting Koji go. 

"Above and beyond what we've talked about with the consistency of strikes, I've come away from a lot of games in which he's closed out thinking almost that he has a sixth sense on the mound," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "Which pitch to throw and which location, almost a feel for what the hitter at the time is looking for. He's very calm. Regardless of the role we've had him in this year, we've seen the consistency start to finish and he has saved our tail end all year long." 

Koji Uehara has not blown a save since July 6th which also happens to be the last time he allowed a run. Since that situation Koji has allowed just 6 hits retiring each of the last 17 batters he has faced. 

"He's a great pitcher," Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. "He throws a lot of strikes and keeps guys off balance. That split does three different things at times, so you can't really be ready for it. I've seen guys that look like they're pretty much sitting on it and it just does something different. He knows how to manipulate it and it's fun to catch."

As a fan of the Red Sox while it would be near criminal to discredit what Koji Uehara has accomplished in this season one cannot help but wonder. Is Ben Cherington the man who deserves the most praise? 

You can answer that question as you wish but in a slice of indisputable fact, the spectacular run of this 2013 Red Sox teams has largely been made possibly by the sheer genius of Ben Cherrington.