State of the Red Sox

By Sean Bailey
Contributor

What a difference a year makes.

Last summer the Boston Red Sox were the biggest joke in town. With big money being funneled into unproductive, lazy, boring pieces such as Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett, the Sox were one of the more embarrassing tidbits in recent Boston sports. They were boring. They were bad. But most of all they were lazy, and just didn’t care about winning. Everything that Boston sports is not. (And not to mention the pink hat invasion of Fenway, where fans couldn’t recognize a fastball from a curve ball).

But this year, the Sox are burying the ugly Bobby V era, and moving into fresher grounds. They are fun to watch, with multiple clubhouse personalities like Johnny Gomes, and the rest of the bearded gang. They bust their asses, and want to win. Their 11 walk off wins are evidence enough that this team will not quit. This is a team that is fun to root for, and represent the hard working New England mentality.

Hell, even John Lackey is embracing the swift locker room change, and has excelled this year, becoming our most consistent starter. Dustin Pedroia, and David Ortiz are having their normal superb seasons, with Pedroia being a no doubt Gold Glover at second. Jacoby Ellsbury has removed his tampon and started playing again for the Sox, leading the league in steals and batting over .300.

The only thing that currently scares me about the Sox is their lack of a dominant starter. Lackey has been solid all season, but for whatever reason the Sox don’t score runs for him, dropping his win total. Can’t rely on Lackey as an ace, in spite of his great ERA, cause it all comes down to wins for a pitcher.

John Lester looked incredible to start the season but his mechanics have become unhinged, and now he is leaving balls up like he did last season.

Felix Doubront has come on strong for the Sox, working his walk totals down, and his velocity is creeping slowly back to where it was last season. But he is still young, with no post season experience so I wouldn’t put the ball in his hands as an ace.

Ryan Dempster has been a solid number four man in the rotation, but hasn’t done more than that. And besides, with the addition of Jake Peavy, I for one would love us to move Dempster to the back end of the pen, where he excelled with the Cubs for a stint years ago.

So basically, our post season and end of season run is keyed on the arm of Clay Buchholz. Buchholz has been out with a neck strain since June. Before that he was unbelievable, finally living up to the potential that he has with his stuff. Instead, now he is pulling an Ellsbury and whining his way out of the rotation. For the Sox to be successful securing the AL East and a deep playoff run we need Buchholz to stop being such a softie and start pitching through a little pain. Curt Schilling pitched on one ankle. Least Buck could do is pitch with a stiff neck.

This week the Sox take on the Blue Jays and Yankees, the fourth and fifth place teams in the AL East. It would be huge for them to snag four wins in these six games heading into their West coast swing, with the Rays charging hard behind them. It will certainly be an exciting September this year for Red Sox Nation, something we haven’t had in the past couple years.