Re: The 2011 Boston Red Sox: This Space for Rent
I noticed the Texas #'s and that doesn't surprise me as Nolan Ryan made it crystal clear that he wanted his pitchers going deep into the game every start and not throwing 5 or 6 innings and calling it a good outing. I don't know if this is Francona's fault or not (although he's probably partly to blame) but the Sox baby their pitching staff way too much. I swear I think they'd yank a starting pitcher out of the game once he reached 100 pitchers even if he was throwing a no hitter. The result of this is by the end of the year your bullpen is either hurt or gassed as they never get a break (see Bard, Papelbon, etc). Worse yet, you can have a situation where the Sox starter is gone by the 6th inning forcing the team to go deep into the bullpen (because God forbid you bring Bard in earlier than the 8th inning) all the while a Sabathia or a Verlander are still chugging along for a few more innings. Their whole way of managing the pitching staff from an organizational standpoint needs to change. I'll make a slight exception for Lester, but the rest of them, including Beckett, aren't coming close to living up to their contracts.
Beyond this, the team needs to call guys out more in public. Lackey should have been sent to the minors. Hell, maybe AA ball. Can't do anything about his guaranteed contract but you can light a fire under him. Drew should have been benched before his many injuries and brought in as a defensive replacement when needed. IMHO there's too many big contract guys on this team. They need more hungry up and coming players from the farm system earning their way onto the field. I don't want to see any big signings this offseason. Give someone on the team a chance to earn the RF job, and get rid of Salty, sign back Varitek, and give the catching job to Lavarnway. Give Aceves a shot at being a starter and demote Lackey to long relief. This replaces three underachieving players with guys looking to make a name for themselves.
Games 6 and 7 of that collapse were in New York
The Red Sox need to get more from the rotation. Players with 4 or more starts/Players with 24+ starts:
Boston 9/3
Tampa 7/4
Yankees 6/5
Detroit 6/4
Texas 5/5
Arizona 9/4
Milwaukee 6/5
Phillies 7/3
St Louis 6/4
The Red Sox also received 23 starts from Wakefield, who started the season in the bullpen. The losses of Buchholz and Dice-K really hurt. Say what you will about Dice-K, but he averaged 25 starts and 146 IP coming into this season. They were #1 in almost every offensive category, but 28th in quality starts.
Get rid of Lackey, use JD's $14M to find a 4/5 starter and hope Crawford and Gonzalez start living up to those contracts.
I noticed the Texas #'s and that doesn't surprise me as Nolan Ryan made it crystal clear that he wanted his pitchers going deep into the game every start and not throwing 5 or 6 innings and calling it a good outing. I don't know if this is Francona's fault or not (although he's probably partly to blame) but the Sox baby their pitching staff way too much. I swear I think they'd yank a starting pitcher out of the game once he reached 100 pitchers even if he was throwing a no hitter. The result of this is by the end of the year your bullpen is either hurt or gassed as they never get a break (see Bard, Papelbon, etc). Worse yet, you can have a situation where the Sox starter is gone by the 6th inning forcing the team to go deep into the bullpen (because God forbid you bring Bard in earlier than the 8th inning) all the while a Sabathia or a Verlander are still chugging along for a few more innings. Their whole way of managing the pitching staff from an organizational standpoint needs to change. I'll make a slight exception for Lester, but the rest of them, including Beckett, aren't coming close to living up to their contracts.
Beyond this, the team needs to call guys out more in public. Lackey should have been sent to the minors. Hell, maybe AA ball. Can't do anything about his guaranteed contract but you can light a fire under him. Drew should have been benched before his many injuries and brought in as a defensive replacement when needed. IMHO there's too many big contract guys on this team. They need more hungry up and coming players from the farm system earning their way onto the field. I don't want to see any big signings this offseason. Give someone on the team a chance to earn the RF job, and get rid of Salty, sign back Varitek, and give the catching job to Lavarnway. Give Aceves a shot at being a starter and demote Lackey to long relief. This replaces three underachieving players with guys looking to make a name for themselves.
