State Of The Red Sox

Who are the Red Sox you ask? My answer is....who the hell are these guys? After considerably disappointing series against both the Twins and Rays and a - record, there are more questions than answers left with the team. Sure, we're only 12 games into the season, but in the AL East no team can afford to get behind because the rest will put you away. First impressions of the Sox were a pitching dominant team with some bats. They have not lived up to this expectation if you exclude John Lackey, Josh Beckett, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. Sure, Buchholz pitched a decent a game Saturday, and other guys have gone long (Martinez, Varitek, etc.), but simply everyone needs to contribute. The bats aren't as anemic as people thought they'd be. They blow chances with advancing runners and scoring opportunities. It hurts not having Ellsbury's (who figures to be back mid-week) speed on the basepaths. I have yet to be excited that Mike Cameron (.233) and Marco Scutaro (.286) are Red Sox. Beltre (.300) started off good, but has tapered off as of late. Drew hasn't hit since his stiff neck incident ( a paltry .132). David Ortiz probably won't be around much longer to watch strike out continuously. Mike Lowell should be a good DH as a replacement. Victor Martinez can hit the ball well, however, defensively he makes me cry. Seriously, he's like 1/24 against base-stealers. The writers at MLBtraderumors.com think the Angels and Sox could work out a deal for C Jeff Mathis. It would involve Lowell going there, which I'd be less than excited about getting a guy whose known only for his defense (I'd rather get Mike Napoli). Youk and V-Mart would be able to switch days at first though as a solution.

The pitching from the starting five leaves some to be desired. Jon Lester is lost and needs to find himself. Wakefield can spin a fantastic game and can have a total melt-down the next. Buchholz needs to be consistent and he would be a good pitcher. The bullpen is abysmal. I curl up in a ball every time Manny Delcarmen comes on in a close game. Bard is great, but can get himself into trouble. Okajima and Paps are fine with me, but I wonder what happened to the Ramon S. Ramirez of last season (Ramon A. Ramirez was released yesterday). Bonser's addition to the pen should be good and Alan Embree has extended the deadline another 15 days for the Sox to get him a spot in the bigs (yet, he's thrown 3.1 sub-par innings of relief in AAA).

We'll have to see what happens in the coming months, but for the one thing Theo Epstein knows it's hard to come from 15 games back in June when they Yankees are getting very hot. Trade chips include Delcarmen (please trade him), Junichi Tazawa, Clay Buchholz, and Mike Lowell. Pretty sure at least two out of four of these guys won't finish the season in Boston.

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