El Guapo's Ghost Rambles on about the Red Sox

IT FEELS LIKE 2003

As side from a few, they Red Sox were terrible in Sept. If they were healthy or had a better farm system, they probably would have just been bad and gotten into the playoffs. Teams go into slumps. This one got out of hand primarily because Buchholz and Youkilis were out. But Sept is not the issue, it is the year long suck-a-tude of Crawford and Lackey.

Crawford's forecast to actual performance had to have a much bigger variance than anyone. Last year, he was a seven win player this year .4.

Lackey has been a bust. It was expected he would suck in the later two-thirds of his contract but not at the start. The Red Sox not having an alternative is one part bad luck, ineffective pre-hab or injury prevention and poor minor league pitching development.

Regardless, the Red Sox still have a strong core so an overhaul would be a shock. They need a true top of the rotation starter and a closer in 2012. This kind of sounds like 2003, no?

THE STARTING PITCHING HAS SUCKED

The Red Sox problem is the ineptitude of John Lackey and Tim Wakefield (yeah, I’m calling out the second living Red Sox Saint). Both have been awful. Period.

The Sox had sufficient pitching depth and acquiring another arm in-season would seem to be imprudent, as Brian MacPherson wrote for the Projo.com. It appears that the Sox took all rationale steps in the off season to protect themselves against this very situation at the major league level. The issue that McPherson does not get into enough and probably warrants its own article is the lack of ready capable arms in the minors.

Relative to other development systems, the Red Sox could be doing just fine developing quality starters. But when you have a near perfect storm of injuries and ineffectiveness to spots 3-10 in the rotation, then everything needs to be analyzed including minor league development pipeline.