The Boston Red Sox: A Season in Question
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by user 71.233.164.162
The Boston Red Sox have faced several tests over the past three games against their most hated rival and have failed all of them horribly. Disgusted would probably be the best adjective to describe the feeling that most Boston fans are experiencing over their team's recent freefall in the standings. The New York Yankees have murdered Boston's pitching to the tune of 41 runs in the past three games, and have made the series look extremely one-sided. Most of the time it is nearly impossible to stomach the disappointment of losing this badly to our most hated rival, and this time it is especially so. The Red Sox are out of the race because of bad managing, bad scouting, and a stubborn GM.
Those are some bold statements to make for any person who is not experienced in the daily operations of running a Major League Franchise, however I feel I might be able to offer some defendable reasons as to why this has all occured. Several key players on the team have not done the job that was expected of them this season. There were flags being raised all over the team even before the All Star break hit, but there wasn't any actions taken to fix any of the problems.
So where do I start? Where does a season go wrong? When does a player become labeled as being unproductive and past the point of being an asset to the team? When does the front office identify problem areas and address them accordingly? When does a team determine that they are not built to go deep into the playoffs and make necessary changes to fix their weak components? These are all questions I hope to answer in the rest of this blog. Lets start with the big reason that this team has not performed up to expections.
Josh Beckett: We might as well start with this kid because as far as I see it, he is quite possibly the biggest reason that the Red Sox are not in contention as of right now. Beckett was brought in not only because of his stellar resume (World Series MVP, more talent than 95% of the pitchers in baseball) and his competitive spirit, but because it was assumed that he could be our ace not only now, but for years to come. He was a sound investment because of his extreme upside, his youth, and his playoff experience. He was worth every bit of trading Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez regardless of their potential. In fact, he was worth trading for with those two players alone, Mike Lowell was simply an added bonus.
So what the hell went wrong? Beckett currently has a 5.35 ERA on the season with a 13-8 record and a below average WHIP. Hardly ace material. Hell, hardly fifth starter material on even a mediocre team. So what's his problem? How does someone with so much God-given talent and ability overcome his biggest problem (staying healthy) yet have so much difficulty being effective and consistent? I'll tell you what his problem is. It's the fact that he has stayed healthy all season. Sounds crazy doesn't it? Josh Beckett has stayed off the DL for the first time in his career, yet that has been his biggest problem. So how does that work? Let me explain.
Josh's biggest and most well-known problem has been his re-occuring blister issues on his pitching hand. The extreme friction that occurs whenever he throws a multitude of curveballs and two-seam fastballs in a game causes such an irritation on his fingers that it is impossible for him to avoid getting a blister. However, that has not been a problem this year so far. Why? Because the Red Sox coaching staff has adjusted his warm-up routine to compensate for that problem. If his biggest issue was throwing too many curveballs in a game, then the solution was to simply to just have him throw less cureballs in a game. So now, Josh Beckett doesn't throw any curveballs during his warm-up routine before a start. On top of that, it would be more likely to spot a UFO in the sky before you even see a curveball in the first inning from Beckett. Therefore, batters see nothing but fastballs in the first inning, hence his first inning troubles. I don't care if you throw 102 mph, if a major league team knows that you are going to be throwing nothing but fastballs, then they will take full advantage of that every time.
By the time Beckett throws his first breaking ball it is usually around the second inning, and it is not only the first of the inning but the first of the entire day. Without another good complimentary pitch and no curveball, Josh is simply serving up batting practice every time he goes out there. Face it, we all know by now his 89 mph change-up ain't cutting it.
So what is the solution? Listen to Curt Schilling. If it was predetermined that he couldn't throw a lot of curveballs in order for him to stay healthy, then he should have done what Papelbon did during Spring Training. Learned a split-finger fastball. You need another pitch to offset that fastball. You simply cannot rely on a curveball that has a hard time finding the strike zone. Until Beckett finds a miraculous solution to his blister issues, he will need to develop another pitch in order to become dominant again. If he doesn't, well, Theo just spent a lot of money on a guy who is always going to have that big upside but will to continue to disappoint all of us.
Julian Tavarez: I used up my long winded explanation on Josh Beckett, so I plan on making the following player assesments quick and easy. Julian Tavarez has been used wrong all year if you ask me. He was a set-up man in St. Louis, and for a period was even used as the closer. He is a one inning guy and should never be expected to be used for any more than that. However, we have all seen Julian get brought in to pitch one, two, sometimes even three innings a game. He is not our long relief guy and should have never been used in that aspect. Too many times I saw Tavarez go out and pitch a clean inning only to be brought back in and have a complete implosion. This should have been identified early and fixed. Unfortunately, it was not. Yes, he did struggle in the beginning of the year, but as we all know, a lot of pitchers do. Taking him out of the role may have seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but ultimately proved to be a poor decision in the long run. Terry needed a long relief guy from the beginning, but was never provided one thus causing him to try and rely on Tavarez to do the job.
Rudy Seanez: This guy is a bum, period. I have no explanation as to why he was signed because he has always been inconsistent throughout his career and has never been all that effective anyway. I hate relying on a pitcher who has a mediocre fastball and throws breaking balls the majority of the time. He is a junk-ball pitcher, plain and simple.
Mike Timlin: You can't blame the guy for going to the WBC, but if you wanted a reason for his struggles I would look there before I looked at his age. He still has his stuff, but I would chalk up his inconsistency to a poor spring training, or in his case, a complete lack of a Spring Training. Here is to hoping Major League Baseball fixes this issue the next time around.
Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen: These two guys still have the stuff to be very good relief pitchers however, it is simply to soon for them. The both could have used a full season in Pawtuckett this year, but were not granted that luxury because of the team's desperate need for relief pitching. They have been heavily taxed because of ineffective starting pitching and are showing the effects of fatigue every time they pitch. These kids will be good if their progression into a Major League Pitcher has not already been set back by their early introduction to the pro level.
I could continue to go on about the questionable and desperate signings of guys like Jason Johnson and Kyle Snyder but that would be identifying things that are quite obvious to anyone who even watches Baseball. Jon Lester is in the majors too early and should have spent the rest of the year at AAA. I believe that he will still be an effective number two or most likely a number three starter on this club, but we are at least a full season away from seeing that. Jonathan Papelbon should have been in the rotation all along, but because of an injury-prone Keith Foulke who has never been healthy long enough in the past two years to find a groove, we had to turn to Papelbon as a solution. And please don't give me that Papelbon should be a closer crap, because I will take a starter with his mentality and ability over a dominant closer 100% of the time.
The Red Sox found themselves in a hole when the trade deadline came around, and because they were desperate for relief help and a starting pitcher or two, teams that were selling simply drove up the price because they knew that the Red Sox build to contend every year. Other GM's could ask Boston for more because they were in the driver's seat. They didn't need to trade with Boston, but the Red Sox most certainly needed to trade with them. In the end, Theo did not want to pull the trigger because it was ultimately too costly for the team. A simple case of problem areas not being identified early enough.
The Red Sox do have the talent and the farm system to be a very very good team next year. Wily Mo Pena, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Manny Delcarmen, Craig Hansen, Dustin Pedroia, and possibly even Jacoby Ellsbury could have a great offseason and Spring Training and become integral parts to the 2007 team. The team will have some freed up salary to trade for players like Roy Oswalt or Vernon Wells, or they could sign a guy like Jason Schmidt and possibly some better relief pitching. One thing is for sure, they will need a closer. I will be very disappointed if don't see Papelbon in the rotation next year.
Barring some kind of miracle, Boston simply does not have the horses to get their team into the playoffs this year, let alone deep into the postseason. It has been a difficult and frustrating ride this season, but it will soon come to an end. If you are looking for evidence as to whether Boston has the team to compete with the better teams in baseball, look no further than the series with Detroit and New York. The Red Sox were overmatched and were just beaten by the better team. It's as simple as that. I ahet to sound sound negative, but I had to identify why the Red Sox are where they are for my own well-being. I personally feel that there might not be anything else to look forward to other than next year and Big Papi's run at 55 home runs. Here's hoping for a good offseason....
Posted from http://www.obstructedseats.net - A Red Sox fan blog.
Date
Sat 08/19/06, 10:59 pm EST
