Despite winning the AL Least, Boston's playoff performance mirrored their season and highlighted their extreme deficiencies.
1) Station to station lineup in the New Home Run Era
This Red Sox team is one of the faster teams in franchise history. Our problem was, ironically, very poor effort in the station to station game. This is a doubles park first and foremost. Load the bases and plug the gaps is the traditional Fenway strategy (to paraphrase Earl Weaver, "pitching, defense and the 2 run double") and it works for us far more often than it doesn't. Our problem is not lack of power or lack of speed. For some reason the talent we have didn't execute up to its ability this year.
2) Swooning starting pitching carried into the playoffs
They have all the talent they need at SP, if they can't get performance out of these pieces, then the problem is not with the pieces.
3) Middle relievers better on paper than in real life
Middle relief is the single area of any baseball franchise most prone to selection bias in analysis. It was also the best asset of the franchise this year. Yes the bullpen blows games, and of course every time they do, the bullpen is The Worst Thing Ever. You are disappointingly unexceptional in this.
4) $100 million of salary providing little to nothing on the field: Fat Panda, Porcello, Price, Han Ram, Castillo, Craig, Smith
Many teams find ways to succeed without the kind of money we have tied up right now. Money is not the problem. Money was only ever the problem because it was spent poorly. Even with that money, we have all the talent we need to compete if we stop throwing people away the first time they don't look spotless.
Unfortunately.....the extreme financial issues will not be going away any time soon. And with few assets in the minor league system ...plus major league chips that lost much of their shine...the Sox are stuck with this team.
No way can this team win with so many slap hitters who can't even reach the wall.
The Yankees will stomp them in '18
The Yankees have problems of their own. Let's wait until 18 to be so pointlessly gloomy. We beat NYY this year with all the horrible evil awful nasty uncomfortable flaws you didn't like. It's baseball. The only thing certain is nothing is certain.
I want Farrell gone just because his media sessions infuriate me to no end. I can't imagine having to listen to this wonk 24/7/365
That is a terrible reason to dismiss a manager. Do you think you get extra runs after the game for a good press conference or something?
Dismiss Farrell because you don't like the effort on the field, because you don't think he inspires the team, you don't think he's doing a good job of fostering chemistry, teaching fundamentals or both. That's his job. Managing the media is at best a side duty, and I honestly wish that teams would fob that off to a press secretary and let the manager and players focus respectively on managing and playing.
Bobby Valentine was good at media, do you want him back? Heck no, because the game left him behind and he couldn't make the team do its job. If Farrell was good at baseball, nobody would care about his media presence. Nobody that matters anyway. The media can go hang itself as far as I care.
Pedroia...he's the Little Engine That Can't and deserves honorable mention in the most over rated MLB player category. Love his glove.....but not his 3 grounders/game
I agree. He's been a soldier for us, but his body is breaking down and it's becoming obvious that he can't keep up with the game for 162+ anymore. Lot of little guys break down when they hit their early 30s, looks like Pedey's one of them. I can't see it getting better from here.
Chili Davis......It was a great run....but baseball has transformed itself in 2 years and the station to station game no longer applies...not when the ball has been reconfigured to fly out of parks
The Boston Red Sox are not going to compete by trying to transform their entire lineup into home run hitters. That's incredibly ignorant wishful thinking. You take the talent you have and work with it. This isn't a great homer park, short porch in left aside. This is a line drive park, that should be the goal. If Chilli can't get the LD% up, he needs to go, but because a hitting coach needs to get the most out of the players he has, not because we have to slavishly copy the rest of the league and how it does offense.
Bogaerts....no longer an enigma.....he is what he is....a singles hitter
Yes, Xander Bogaerts is not Nomar. He's still a very good, productive shortstop. Get over your disappointment and see the guy for what he is, good mentality there. He's not going to win MVPs or Gold Gloves, but he's a solid producer.
What I see are lots of smallish batters who are intimidated by the expansive right field and have adjusted to slap hitting mode to compensate
For the way we have to hit to take advantage of Fenway, that right field is an asset. line drives go there to fall in, because there's so much ground to cover. No hitter should ever tailor his style for fear of the defense, if that's what's happening the hitting coach, bench coach and manager all need to be fired immediately for letting it happen.
I doubt that's what's happening.
I'm sure Big Dave would love to go after Stanton but his Saux can't match the likely bounty other teams have to offer
Wild card next year....but don't expect them to win the one game play in.
Thanks for spelling it out, nostradumbass. I guess I can give a miss to the entire next season. Oh wait, it's baseball. We could be last place or we could win it all, especially with this roster and its problems and opportunities. Waaaaaay to early to be saying this kinda stuff and everyone with more than a single digit IQ knows that.
