The Red Sox Need to Come Together

The Tigers looked like kings against the Boston Red Sox, sweeping them on the road. That, or the Red Sox are not looking good at all.

Jacoby Ellsbury is gone, Jarrod Saltalamacchia is no longer the starting catcher, Stephen Drew is still a free agent, and their replacements have been… disappointing. Jackie Bradley Jr. has been great in center field, but is hitting only .205/.303/.299. A.J Pierzynski was one of the big sleepers that Bill James has wanted to use this year as Boston’s Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations. He seemed like a cheap way to replace Salty, but his OPS .634, the worst in his 17 year career.

Rookie star Xander Bogaerts hasn’t put up any all-star qualities, either. I love that he can put up an OBP 100 points higher than his batting average, but despite him being able to walk well, he has yet to put up any staggering offensive numbers. To be fair, he’s still only 21 years old, but Boston needs more out of him.

Dustin Pedroia too has had the lowest OPS of his career, Mike Carp’s is down 200, and Jonny Gomes’ is down by almost 50. Shane Victorino is battling injuries. Mike Napoli has yet to hit a home run since he blasted one off Masahiro Tanaka on April 22. So the only two players that have been living up to expectations are David Ortiz and Koji Uehara.

Why did the Tigers trounce them to sweep? Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez have both batted .375 in the month of May, and Cabrera has had 24 RBI’s in that span. They are arguably the best 3-4 hitters in baseball right now. Dusty and Big Papi need to challenge that.

This was the best offense in creating runs last year, and now they are 16^th in runs scored. They are 4^th in OBP at least, but let’s compare them to another team that gets on base, like the Oakland Athletics. Oakland is 2^nd in OBP, but they are also 2^nd in runs scored. That’s because they are 5^th in batting average with RISP (Boston is 17^th), and are 6^th in average against right handed pitchers (Boston in 21^st).

So yes, Boston offense, be like Oakland’s offense.

Though the offense has been the key problem for the Red Sox, pitching has also been an issue. Losing Ryan Dempster has been more of an issue than expected because they lack an extra man in the starting rotation. John Lackey has been doing fine, but his last start put his ERA above 4. Jake Peavy has been quite a disappointment, and Felix Doubront is still proving that he will forever be a career 4.50 ERA pitcher.

And what about Clay Buchholz? At this time last year, Buchholz was running against Max Scherzer for Cy Young, and he was winning. Yes, injuries set him aside, but he still finished with an ERA under 2. Now his ERA is 6.17 in 8 starts, and his WHIP is the highest on the team (minus Mike Carp, who pitched just one inning, and he’s not even a pitcher).

So why have the Red Sox become a mediocre team that’s now lost 4 in a row, the first time that’s happened since 2012? I think it’s a mental game. Everything worked together for them last year. They were problem-solvers last season, and they have yet to be like that this season. They have about 4 ½ months to do so.

There’s no Ellsbury on this team anymore and they need to start realizing that. Lucky for them, the AL Central has been quite a disappointment this season, and they are still in 2^nd place. There is time to change, but they need to do it soon before they are completely forgotten about.

My solution? Draw more walks, but stop relying so much on Bogaerts to do so. Get another starter, or find some solution to Clay Buchholz’s problems. Find a 3-4 combo like Miggy and V-Mart in Detroit, and watch how Oakland plays baseball, because man is that special. Tie those things together, and they can easily win the division again.