Over the last couple of months, I have noticed that Red Sox fans seem to be losing attention to the team. Tickets are harder to sell off if you can’t make a game. Comments on Red Sox blogs have dropped.
We are in mid-September, atop the wild card lead by only two games, and it seems as if Red Sox Nation is in a collective funk — myself included.
What’s going on?
This season has certainly been trying — one of the more trying ones that I can remember in recent memory. We started the season hot. The Sox were on top of the world and nothing could go wrong. Then the pieces started breaking off.
Daisuke Matsuzaka would go on to have a lost season. David Ortiz’s slump just kept going… and going… and going. One by one, the vaunted pitching depth got so bad that we had to drag Paul Byrd out of retirement. The Yankees had a light turn on in late May that has yet to turn off as they have been playing what feels to be and probably is .700 ball since.
The offense shattered before Victor Martinez was able to piece it back together. Jonathan Papelbon has looked shaky, and his long-term commitment to the Sox and possibility of being traded after the season has come up. Our starting shortstop for most of the season was Nick Green. John Smoltz took a collective dump on our hopes and dreams. Brad Penny is making a late Cy Young run now that he’s out of Boston.
Maybe it’s because we’ve been through the gauntlet this season — even the woefully disappointing 2006 season wasn’t as exhausting as this. But the enthusiasm just doesn’t seem to be there anymore.
Why?
Yes, the Red Sox aren’t the best team, top-to-bottom, in baseball, maybe not top three.
But three salient points:
- The Red Sox are currently in a position to make the postseason.
- Anything can happen in the postseason. See: 2004, 2006.
- The Red Sox are far better built for the postseason than the regular season.
Let me tackle the last point real quick.
The postseason is an affair that requires three starters, four every now and then. Josh Beckett and Jon Lester have a case to be the top two duo of any potential playoff team, factoring in regular season and postseason success.
The No. 3 starter looks to be Clay Buchholz, who has turned his season around after looking to be 2008 Buchholz all over again. Given his outings recently, I’m more than comfortable stacking him up in the postseason against another team.
The No. 4 starter — whether that be the consistent-but-oft-injured Tim Wakefield, the inconsistent-but-talented Daisuke Matsuzaka or the I-can-fall-out-of-bed-and-throw-strikes-and-keep-you-in-the-game Paul Byrd — will be a quality No. 4.
The Sox’s bullpen makes games a six-inning affair. Daniel Bard, Billy Wagner, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon can all nail the door shut in the seventh inning and on. And may I remind you that Ramon Ramirez and Takashi Saito have sub 2.80 ERAs?
The bullpen takes on a heightened role in October, and the Sox rank third in baseball in bullpen ERA with 3.66. That’s No. 1 in the American League. No. 2 is Oakland (3.77) which is actually No. 8 in all of baseball. That’s quite a dropoff. It just shows you how dominant the Sox bullpen is.
That’s not to say the Sox are the best team entering the postseason. But the way the postseason is set up to cancel the No. 5 starter and marginalize the No. 4 starter will benefit Boston directly.
So snap yourself out of the doldrums and let’s get pumped for October! If we can hold off Texas, that is…
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I’m in. This is certainly a team built for the postseason. Horses in the rotation and real bulls in the pen, a veteran lineup but not a particularly old one.
And I for one like the feeling of a tough Yankees team lurking. It adds a huge element of suspense to the whole deal, knowing that if the Sox can’t stop them they might go all the way. Overcoming this kind of adversity is what built the Red Sox legend this decade, and now this group has their chance to add to it.
i think fans sense when their team has a really good chance of winning the WS. I think they sense Sox have not chance. Last year was their opportunity, but we know how that ended.
I’ve still been excited about the year, yeah we won’t catch the Yanks, but they’ve been other worldly after the ASB. What has turned me off is the constant negativism and gloom and doom lamenting that seems to be permeating the forums. I’ve been keeping as close an eye on the team as the rest of the year, but I’ve felt less inclined to communicate with other fans.
Evan-
You are right on target. Sox fans seem to be in a delusional haze—assuming this team (deeply flawed at different spots throughout the year) is somehow a lock for the post-season. Far from it. I agree with your guarded optimism should we make the playoffs. Of course, a lot of your case is built on Josh Beckett returning to form. I also noted that you correctly left out Manny Delcarmen from your bullpen discussion. He has been the hidden disaster in the ‘pen this year—unable to prevent inherited runners from scoring and routinely coughing up leads. He should not be on the post-season roster (or on the team in 2010).
Best,
Ernie Paicopolos
Editor-In-Chief
fenwaynation.com
I just felt like I was sitting in a pew, and the preacher pushed my buttons, and now everyone’s singing “Just As I Am.”
It broke my heart when we got swept in 4 games by the Yankees. And f’ing A-Rod in extra innings in that Friday game.
But you brought me back with this article. We’re a better team in the playoffs.
Let’s GET ‘EM!!!
“I just felt like I was sitting in a pew, and the preacher pushed my buttons, and now everyone’s singing “Just As I Am.”
I have no idea what that means, but welcome back anyway.
Yeah I think that series took a lot of fans out of it. Getting swept is one thing, but getting swept then falling out of contention in the division is another.
At least they’ll come back for the playoffs, as long as we can hold off Texas.
Kool-Aid tastes good!
Marcos, representing the worst of Red Sox Nation…and it’s a VERY LARGE subgroup of spineless, irrational chicken littles spurred on by the Tony Massarottis of the world…it’s been disgusting to witness over these last couple months
the truth is the Red Sox can obviously beat any team in baseball in a playoff series, and would probably be favored against anybody by the Yankees…and I dont think any smart red sox fan is too scared of the Yankees bc their rotation isnt dominant…
the whole key is Josh Beckett…if he pitches like he has for most of the season, I really think the Red Sox will win the World Series
imagine what a huge boost to the team it would be for Beckett to turn in 2-3 dominant starts down the stretch and give the Sox a legit 2-ace playoff rotation to pair with the best bullpen in baseball and a top 5 offense
Blohard here
It’s that the yankles are so dominant. Best team money can buy is 40 over 500….and seem to win every night. depressing.
I live in NYC…it is a jeter lovefrwst these days, pone could puke.
HOWEVER. Detroit could esily trump tthem. Verlander mows em down, Edwin Jackson shows experience and Burnett is uneven. Petite goes either way (and could be good or bad). Joba is bad more than good.
We could face detroit in the final and we own them.
Must push past angels and must win wild card. Texas is scoring 10 runs a game these days so I see it as quite a ride.
I for one check the blogs every spare minute, still.
I don’t think its fair to call me spineless, just because you don’t agree with what I think.
Yanks losing tonie like they did so often in first half — petite coughs it up. 6-4 in the sixth.
Imagine this is game 3 of a palyoff series against a team that is not the oriles
mond you yanks could win on swisher homer or saint jeter squibber…but they won’t
THEY WON’T
O FOR 21ST CENTURY!!!!
GO SOX
Nothing could be more sweet than having the Yanks sweep into the post-season with something like 105 wins, while the Sox limp in as the wild card… and then cleaning their clock in the championship series. New York will go insane.
If that can happen, it will be far more satisfying than running away with the division title.