While we’ve documented a bunch of this team’s pitching struggles of late, there is a whole other aspect that isn’t exactly helping the cause. A bunch of the Sox offensive pieces, pieces that are supposed to be part of one of the best offenses in baseball, are cold as the rain that washed away Wednesday’s game.
As of Thursday morning, the Sox are hitting a combined .230/.324/.348 (yes, that’s a .348 SLG, or what one might expect from Chone Figgins).
Carl Crawford, the $20M man
Crawford’s .152/.204/.174 start isn’t what Sox fans want to see, but it’s not as if this pace will continue forever. Crawford has actually been making fairly good contact. According to stats from Fan Graphs, his line drive/ground ball/fly ball rates are currently in line with his career averages. However, his current BABIP is a meager .184. You can rest assured that that number will rise before long. Crawford has only reached base nine times and has two stolen bases. When his luck begins to change and the hits begin to fall, Crawford will begin to look like the speedy weapon he was signed to be.
Jacoby Ellsbury, demoted down in the order already
Unlike Crawford, Ellsbury isn’t squaring the ball up as well. Off his 19 balls in play, only 4 have been line drives and his current strikeout rate is nearly twice his career average. Clearly, Ellsbury is not going to strike out the this current rate all season. He has 1553 career plat appearances and a minor league track record to back that up.
I personally don’t agree with messing with the batting order so early in the season, it only helps to defeat player’s mentally. If Ellsbury is best used at the top of the order, he should be hitting at the top of the order until he has enough at-bats to tell us otherwise.
Kevin Youkilis, a .426 OBP, a .182 AVG
Youk is the same hitter he has always been, patient and line-drive oriented. In his first 47 plate-appearances, Youk has walked 13 times and has three doubles, but he’s been topping balls into the grass too often. Sooner of later, his current 30.4 percent fly-ball rate will adjust closer to his 44.4 percent career fly-ball rate. That adjustment will lead to more doubles and home runs, which, along with a good line-drive rate (21.4 percent line-drive rate for his career), will bring Youk back to his expected level of production.
All three of these hitters have proven track records, but their small sample size of at-bats to start the season (and at a time when the pitching is also struggling) only makes it that much more frustrating for the fans.
All three of these hitters will come around. Let’s just hope the pitching does as well.