Sox Offenders
Mid - Season Report Card
Well, here we are. Half-way through the 2009 season…how did that happen? I must be drinking more than I thought. Anyway, you can’t really complain about rolling up to the All-Star Break with the best record in the American League. More than a thin one-game lead over Ms. Teixeira and the Yankees would be nice, but we’ll take it. There have been a lot of surprises and a few ups and downs along the way. Come, let’s reminisce.
Starting Pitching: Let’s get right into this. Josh Beckett has hit a few bumps but he is still fearless and the guy I want on the hill to start game seven in any series. Jon Lester has become a strikeout machine and a perfect one-two punch behind Beckett. Tim Wakefield is an All-Star for the first time in his 17 year career: do I really have to say any more on that? Brad Penny has given this team more that I ever expected. He’s 6-3 with a 4.67 ERA in his 16 starts, pretty damn good. Dice-K is the weak link. He’s yet to make it out of the 6th inning and is on the “DL” which is code for he sucks too bad to crack the rotation. Jon Smoltz has stepped in…and not done a whole lot better. It’s Buchholz time. Overall, I’ll give the starters a B+ at this point.
The Bullpen: Up until July, the bullpen was a wrecking crew for opposing hitters. Delcarmen, Saito, Ramirez, Oki, and of course Papelbon were, to coin a phrase, lights out. Tito would trot any one or any combination of them, and the game was in hand. That’s changed a bit since the 11-10 abortion against Baltimore. Since then, cracks are appearing. Perhaps just a bad week-and-a-half, perhaps just tiring after pitching so many innings in any Dice-K/Smoltz start, time will tell. I’m still giving them an A.
Defense: The outfield has been a fucking highlight reel all season. Tek is Tek, great behind the dish but couldn’t throw out Jim Belushi trying to steal second. Solid infield play at the corners and second, but shortstop has been problematic. With Lowrie hurt and Lugo…sucking, Nick Green has filled in nicely. I’ll give the “D” a C when Lugo plays and a B when he doesn’t.
Offense: This is tough to give a single grade. The bats have been pretty inconsistent and the injuries to Lowrie and Lowell and the extended Ortiz slump have caused line-up juggling on a weekly basis. The Sox have been in too many games where a single timely hit would have been the difference. Instead, the LOB’s were the post-game topic. It’s been, like the pitching, contributions from different areas that have kept them in a lot of games. Jason Bay, Ellsbury, and a power-surging Tek: they’ve eased the pain until Papi got back on track. But the grade is for the first half of the season and I have to give them a C-plus. It would have been lower if not for the return of Ortiz.
That’s the way I see it. Agree with it, praise my wisdom, or fuck off. Your choice.
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