Wait till next year
The time has come to officially throw in the towel on the 2006 Red Sox. When Mark Loretta is your DH, Youkilis your left fielder, your manager is spitting up blood and you have three starting pitchers on the DL it's bad. I'm not shocked by this turn of events, merely saddened. The sweep by the Yankees was a bad omen, but I knew the Sox were in trouble when they were swept by the Royals. The same Royals who have a better record in August than the Sox. If you remove the Sox's dominance of interleague play you have a .500 team.
What went wrong? Obviously the injury bug has bit hard. Clement has been out almost the entire year, he might not be all that great but he would be an upgrade over Kason Gabbard. Wakefield's absence further exposes an already thin staff. I guess we have further proof of why they gave Varitek that red C because the pitching and catching have gone to shit in his absence. On top of that it seems half the team is nicked up to one degree or another. I wouldn't be surprised if Timlin's arm falls off at some point.
Another factor is that some of the players brought in through trades or free agency have not performed as expected. Beckett needs an off speed pitch below 90 to complement his fast ball. I hope this year serves as his adjustment to the AL but I have doubts as to his ability to change his approach to pitching, which is reminiscent of Nuke Laloosh's. Coco Crisp should have waited to establish himself as an effective player before doing all those asinine commercials for the club. He never seemed to recover from his broken finger and he might get the Renteria treatment over the off season. Personally I'd give him another year. Seanez and Tavarez just suck, middle relievers performances are hard to predict year to year. However considering Seanez's performance in his previous stint with Boston I'm confused as to why management thought this time would be different. Foulke had one good year, and has been an enigma wrapped in an injury ever since. Clement had a good half season and has apparently fallen of the face of the planet. Maybe he and Carl Pavano are sharing the same bunker, giggling as they swim through piles of undeserved lucre. There are probably others but I'm too tired to list them.
Now I know Theo is the golden boy, and he and the other egg heads over in the fens brought home a Championship in 04, but what have you done for me lately? With the signings and moves of the past two seasons its hard to discern a pattern or theme. This could be a symptom of the schizoid culture that resulted in last off season's soap opera. Some of the moves are head scratchers, like Arroyo for Pena. I don't care how many starters you think you have, you don't trade a quality 4th or 5th starter for a reserve outfielder, particularly when your rotation is aging. The front office's evaluation of hitters and defense seems to be spot on, but evaluation of pitchers, particularly the bullpen seems spotty. This has been a consistent weakness of the the current regime. Granted the bullpen managed to gel in time for the play offs in 03 and 04 but it was never close to lights out. Papelbon has been a revelation, but the rest of the pen is a mess. Oh, Riske for Javier Lopez? Riske wasn't all that impressive but why trade for the equivalent of Craig Breslow? Lately our trades seem to be born of desperation and magical thinking rather than Machiavellian masterpieces.
I hope this is a momentary problem and that the club uses the off season wisely. But we seem to be collecting a lot of dead weight on the payroll. Oh well, at least I'm not a Royals fan.
What went wrong? Obviously the injury bug has bit hard. Clement has been out almost the entire year, he might not be all that great but he would be an upgrade over Kason Gabbard. Wakefield's absence further exposes an already thin staff. I guess we have further proof of why they gave Varitek that red C because the pitching and catching have gone to shit in his absence. On top of that it seems half the team is nicked up to one degree or another. I wouldn't be surprised if Timlin's arm falls off at some point.
Another factor is that some of the players brought in through trades or free agency have not performed as expected. Beckett needs an off speed pitch below 90 to complement his fast ball. I hope this year serves as his adjustment to the AL but I have doubts as to his ability to change his approach to pitching, which is reminiscent of Nuke Laloosh's. Coco Crisp should have waited to establish himself as an effective player before doing all those asinine commercials for the club. He never seemed to recover from his broken finger and he might get the Renteria treatment over the off season. Personally I'd give him another year. Seanez and Tavarez just suck, middle relievers performances are hard to predict year to year. However considering Seanez's performance in his previous stint with Boston I'm confused as to why management thought this time would be different. Foulke had one good year, and has been an enigma wrapped in an injury ever since. Clement had a good half season and has apparently fallen of the face of the planet. Maybe he and Carl Pavano are sharing the same bunker, giggling as they swim through piles of undeserved lucre. There are probably others but I'm too tired to list them.
Now I know Theo is the golden boy, and he and the other egg heads over in the fens brought home a Championship in 04, but what have you done for me lately? With the signings and moves of the past two seasons its hard to discern a pattern or theme. This could be a symptom of the schizoid culture that resulted in last off season's soap opera. Some of the moves are head scratchers, like Arroyo for Pena. I don't care how many starters you think you have, you don't trade a quality 4th or 5th starter for a reserve outfielder, particularly when your rotation is aging. The front office's evaluation of hitters and defense seems to be spot on, but evaluation of pitchers, particularly the bullpen seems spotty. This has been a consistent weakness of the the current regime. Granted the bullpen managed to gel in time for the play offs in 03 and 04 but it was never close to lights out. Papelbon has been a revelation, but the rest of the pen is a mess. Oh, Riske for Javier Lopez? Riske wasn't all that impressive but why trade for the equivalent of Craig Breslow? Lately our trades seem to be born of desperation and magical thinking rather than Machiavellian masterpieces.
I hope this is a momentary problem and that the club uses the off season wisely. But we seem to be collecting a lot of dead weight on the payroll. Oh well, at least I'm not a Royals fan.