It’s human nature to listen for the negative.
And right now everything feels negative. Two weeks ago I said this was about the time of year that the Chicken Littles come out and try to stir the pot of impending doom.
Usually though, it’s not paired-up with a punishing losing streak at the hands of division opponents. Right now the Red Sox are slowly losing their position in the race and fans are looking for answers.
The most obvious of targets for blame have in 2011 been the trifecta of John Lackey, Carl Crawford and JD Drew. Crawford has been a bum all year. Usually we will wait out a guy through a tough patch but his 2011 has been barely better than a street free-agent. And most days, he feels like a sinkhole.
Drew is a lost cause who will forever be debated between sabr-heads and non-sabr. RBI, no RBI. It all depends on where you stand. And Lackey… I like Lackey, but man, this is getting ridiculous. Can anyone not employed by the Boston Red Sox say they have confidence in him anymore? Talk about Jeckyll and Hyde.
When you talk about elephants in the room it’s the things a little less acknowledged. With this team, very little goes undiscussed.
The dynamic of the Red Sox offense this year is also bi-polar in some sorts. When the top 3rd of the lineup is rolling the team scores a ton of runs, but if Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez aren’t hitting, the offense looks like it has no identity. David Ortiz has mashed all year but it seems like they are collectively hot or oppositely cold. I wish I could say I was conditioned to handle these roller coaster hills given the number of streaks they have gone on in 2011, but I’m not.
The Red Sox pitching staff looks really thin as we approach mid-September. The complexion of this pitching rotation in April looked wonderful with Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka forming a staff that appeared to be one for a deep playoff run.
But then injuries slowly eroded their depth and right now the staff has a lot of question marks over their head. Curt Schilling said on the radio the other day that you want to be in full-gear as you head into the postseason — not gearing back up from time off. Thankfully, Beckett is a fiery competitor, but it still makes you less comfortable trying to talk yourself through how you can beat Texas or Detroit even if Beckett is teetering with health.
The cone of uncertainty the Red Sox have is hard to gauge. The bands of of questions will eventually have a conclusion, but trying to to ride that out as the playoffs approach is challenging.
The starters are an interesting dichotomy with Lackey and someone like Beckett. Without both of them, the Red Sox are in different kinds of trouble. You know Beckett is going to dominate when he is out there, but he gets a grade “D” in health. We never know if he take the mound based on his past history.
Lackey on the other hand, will make every start but who knows what you are going to get out of him? By my count, Lackey has had eight disasters in 2011 and six dominant outings with everything else being mostly below average.
To me, this Tim Wakefield chase for ‘200’ thing needs to end. I really hope he gets it on Tuesday because it’s becoming a tiresome sub-plot for the recording of an arbitrary win total. It’s not even a record. People will probably frown upon me saying that.
Aside from Wakefield’s tenure, I don’t understand the public’s sentiment for him to acquire this win count. The guy has a ton of losses and he’s been hanging on for dear life ever since Joe Maddon gave him his honorary All-Star appearance in 2009. Since the second half of 2009, Wake has been nothing more than an innings-eater giving you 120 IP of replacement-level baseball a year. Why do we want this so bad? Because he throws a unique pitch, is a nice man and has played for a long time?
What really does getting to 200 even mean? I don’t see or understand the significance. He’s not going to catch Cy Young and Roger Clemens for the team record unless they bring him back again (which who knows they might let him pitch until he is 60) so really why is he being trotted out there every five days?
Is there no other options who can give you innings? Where are the kids? The Red Sox have received nearly nothing from their minor league system this year save three Kyle Weiland starts, eight Felix Doubront appearances (no starts) and some Tommy Hottovy sighting.
Instead the Red Sox have relied on old Wakefield, a scrap heap Andrew Miller and the ever-versatile Alfredo Aceves. It’s too bad that there is no one from the farm who can step in and excel like Ivan Nova in the Bronx. Heck, Nova has 24 starts and 15 wins. I’d take half that from someone raised in the organization.
Another elephant that I am still somewhat shocked no one talks about is Kevin Youkilis’ road numbers. He is hitting .191 the road. He’s basically a part-time player this year because of the ineptness away from Fenway. Then you add in the injuries and he’s really only been productive at home, when healthy. Part-time, part-time player this year. He’s still my favorite player on the team but this 2011 version of Youkilis really concerns me for the rest of the year and the future in general. I think it was Dale Arnold the other night who said Youk is an ‘old’ 30 and he is right. We know he’s going to have surgery on his labrum this offseason. What does that do to him to start ’12?
Even if Youk returns from this current hip issue and plays the rest of the season out, how helpful is he really going to be? Again, anything at Fenway and you get vintage Youkilis, but away from Boston and it’s a shell.
This weekend in Tampa Bay really tightened the screws of doubt into place. It’s easy to slip into worry when you see Tampa Bay whip your ass and position themselves in your rearview mirror, 3.5 car lengths back. The Sox better wake from their slumber or they will create themselves a dogfight in the end.
It feels right now like they are in danger even if they make October baseball. But the thing with the postseason is, you never really know.
There have been countless examples of postseason, hit-fueled performances from unlikely heroes. All the Red Sox need to do now is get there.
The biggest problem right now is not-knowing the severity or length of this particular Red Sox streak. We have seen Boston ride these thrilling ups and downs all year. All we can hope is that they play like a team who can’t be stopped in the postseason.
Provided they don’t play themselves out of position.