Fresh Take: So do the Sox suck again?

Do the Red Sox suck? In my honest opinion, no. Despite being 18-20 and 3rd place in a mediocre AL East, the Red Sox by no means “suck”. We’ve won 5 of our last 8 and have moved into 3rd place in the AL East after being in dead last the week before. I’m not going to sit here and say that the Sox are perfect because they are certainly not perfect, but we are getting to where we should be with the talent and payroll we have. Our pitching has gone through a miraculous turnaround in recent games, excluding that horrible performance from Justin Masterson (which I’ll cover shortly) and last night’s outing by Wright. However, as our pitching has gotten better our offense has regressed dramatically.

Earlier in the year (yeah I mean like 3 weeks ago get over it) our bats were crushing balls left and right and even made the Nationals stacked rotation look like they belong in Triple-A. But now, the very same line-up struggles nightly to put up even 1 run before the 6th inning. In our last 8 games we’ve scored 22 runs but have let in 26 in these last 8 games. So despite being 5-3 in our last 8, we still have given up more runs that we scored. Granted that 9-2 loss to Oakland tilts that stat a bit but the Sox have been shutout once and have put up 2 runs or less in 5 of those last 8 games. That’s just pitiful for the talent we brought in this off-season. Ortiz, Mookie, Panda, Hanley, Napoli, Holt, and Pedroia are as cool as the large iced coffee I get at Dunks every morning on my way to work. For God’s sake Victorino is our hottest hitter right now. Don’t even get me started on Jackie Bradley Jr. either, that kid is a B-U-S-T, BUST. What is he like 0-19 this season? Pathetic.

“But Matt, the Sox have faced 2 of the top 5 AL pitchers during those games that’s why our bats suck.” Solid argument except that the Sox bats did the best against those pitchers stats wise. We got Sonny Gray (best ERA in the AL) for 1 run and 3 hits in Oakland which proved to be sufficient and hung 4 runs on King Felix (#4 ERA in AL) over the weekend.  Otherwise it’s been the same story as the last week and a half, the Sox can’t hit (especially against lefties). When you can’t hit, you can’t score. And when you can’t score, you don’t win. Simple. But despite what I’ve said about our offense, they’re still going out there every night and trying to right the ship. Panda and Ortiz just went yard the other night off Felix Hernandez, and Swihart is settling into the majors and keeps producing more and more. Pedroia needs to be better with runners in scoring position and Mookie will find his swing again.

Despite our offensive struggle, the level of play from our pitching staff has been nearly impeccable through these last games. I say nearly only because of Masterson’s atrocity of an outing versus Oakland where he went 3 IP and allowed 6 runs. Justin Masterson has no right to be in this rotation. The dude just cannot get his noodle arms to throw 90+ mph. Maybe he is actually “fatigued” but I honestly think he’s damaged. There just isn’t a good excuse for him other than he just is burnt out. Knuckleballer Steven Wright has since taken Masterson’s spot in the rotation and his first start was not much of an improvement from Masterson. But when your offense can’t give you some runs to work with, your job as a pitcher gets a million times more difficult, you really get limited to what you can throw. Just saying, as an aside, I called all of this, well not Masterson and Wright, but everything else having to do with the increase in quality outings by our pitchers. Carl Willis has not taken any credit for the sudden improvement, saying he’s still observing and taking in the situation, but since his hire, this rotation has been something else. For God’s sake Clay Buchholz went 8 IP allowed 1 run and struck out 11 batters! That’s an ace caliber performance if I’ve ever seen one. Joe Kelly calmed down finally and commanded the plate in his last start. And, like I’ve been saying since Day 1, since our starters have started playing to their potential (mostly) it’s alleviated a lot of the stress on our relievers and especially Koji.

So do we suck? I still say no. We definitely do not suck and are by no means close to being out of anything. The AL East is mediocre this year and it’s only May. We’ll figure it out and if we are at least .500 at the trade deadline odds are we’ll make a move to put us in contention. But if you’ve got something to say otherwise I’d love to hear it.

Tweet at me @mlmcclin (new handle) and we can discuss your opinions.

Random thoughts from the first week of Red Sox baseball

The 2015 edition of the Boston Red Sox is only 8 games old, but so far the early signs are positive. The team has raced out of the gate at 6-2, the best mark after 8 games since 2006.  Coming into the season, the biggest question mark was the pitching, specifically the starting pitching, so that’s where we’ll begin. 

 

 In year 1 AJL (after Jon Lester), the immortal Clay Buchholz has taken the reigns as the supposed “ace” of the staff. Through two starts, the Buchholz we know and love is back and better than ever. Opening day Buchholz tossed a gem, granted against the lowly Phillies, allowing zero runs in seven innings. The next time out against New York, Clay was shelled for 10 runs (nine earned) in a brutal loss in front of the entire nation on Sunday Night Baseball. That’s Clay Buchholz in a nutshell, consistency is almost never there with him. There’s no way the Sox can continue with him as their ace. Wade Miley had also struggled, and is getting roughed up by the Nationals as I type this, but the bullpen has been an early bright spot. Tazawa, Uehara, Varvaro, Breslow, and Ross have a combined ERA of precisely 0.00 in albeit limited action.

  

While the pitching has struggled at times as we all expected, the lineup has more than covered for them. For the first time in what seems like three years, Pedroia is finally healthy, and is back to being the laser show we have all come to love. Hanley Ramirez is one of the most purely talented hitters in the game, and is proving that so far. The only thing you have to worry about with him is his attitude if things happen to go south, which is usually the case at some point over a 162 game season. But the bat making the most noise so far is that of Mookie Betts, the 22 year old phenom who can literally do it all. He has all five tools, as he showed in the home opener, robbing a homerun off the bat of Bryce Harper, hitting a HR of his own, and stealing two bases on one play. Mook should be very fun to watch both this year and years to come. An encouraging sign is that this team has been scoring runs without much contributions from Ortiz or Napoli thus far. Once they heat up, watch out American League.

  

One guy I’m absolutely sick of is Shane Victorino. Yes, he was a massive part of the 2013 championship team. That grand slam against the Tigers will be remembered around here forever. But just because you did something two years ago, doesn’t mean you have a free pass for the rest of your life. Victorino has become entitled simply due to the fact he was on a duckboat, as if a guarantees him a job for life. In case you’re wondering, he’s hitting .100 this year. He even hinted that he would be ok trading away young outfield pieces for Cole Hamels, showing that he doesn’t want a competition with the likes of Betts and Rusney Castillo. You just don’t say things like that about guys on your own team. At the end of the day, I am forever grateful for what he has done, but baseball is a business, and you have to hit better than what Victorino is hitting right now. Once Rusney returns healthy, I expect to see him as the everyday RF on this team. Sorry Shane, but your time has passed.

As far as the AL East goes, it is wide open, and there for the taking. The pitching needs to improve if this team wants to reliably compete, but they should be at least in the mix come September, and this season is sure to be one of the most fun to watch in recent memory.

Go Sox