Red Sox Report: What To Make Of The 2012 Red Sox?

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalWorcester Sports Editor

Another night, another loss for the Boston Red Sox. So what are we supposed to think about this 2012 edition of the local nine?

That is a very difficult question to answer.

On one hand, 61 games (or 38%) into the season should be a large enough sample to make a judgement. With that said, this appears to be a .500 baseball team give or take a few games. They seem to do okay against the lesser teams and struggle against the better ones.

On the other hand, this is a team that has been hit hard by injuries to key players which certainly hasn’t helped the cause. Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, John Lackey, Andrew Bailey. All of these men could have been key contributors to the 2012 club yet none, with the exception of Ellsbury for a few games, has been able to contribute to the team this season.

But injuries are part of the game and how a team deals with these issues can often separate the contenders from the pretenders.

But there are two very important things about the big picture when it comes to this team. The first thing is that many of those who have been healthy haven’t been performing at the levels expected of them. This is particularly true of Boston’s starting rotation. The team’s 4.45 ERA is second worst in the American League ahead of only the Minnesota Twins who, not coincidentally, have the worst record in the AL.

And the pitchers aren’t the only ones to blame. Adrian Gonzalez is supposed to be the lynchpin of the team’s line-up. He has been anything but that thus far which is really disappointing because without the likes of Ellsbury and Crawford, you would like to think that Gonzo would be one of the sluggers who could pick up the slack.

But, as disappointing as this team has been to date, you have to also remember that making it to the postseason is not as difficult as it used to be. No longer must you win your division or the lone Wild Card spot to get in. There is now a second Wild Card berth in each league and as of today, Boston is a mere 5 ½ games out of that final playoff spot.

It is possible that this team will get more healthy and that many of those who are underperforming will step up their games to make this an interesting summer after all. But my gut tells me that this team will likely be on the outside looking it at the postseason come October.

NOTES:

-Josh Beckett gave up 4 runs in the first 2 innings Monday night and that was enough for the Miami Marlins to beat Boston 4-1 in south Florida. It was the first time Beckett faced the Marlins for whom he pitched from 2001-2005 before being traded to Boston. That’s 4 straight losses for the Red Sox who have dropped 7 of their last 8. Miami snapped a 6-game losing streak with Monday night’s win.

-Monday night’s game was Boston’s first visit to the new Marlins Park which opened up this season. The stadium has a retractable roof and is a hug upgrade from Dolphins’ Stadium where they used to play their home games. The problem for the Marlins and for every pro sports franchise in Miami is that south Florida is made up of such a large number of transients making it hard to develop a large and loyal fan base.

-Carl Crawford continues his light throwing program as he returns from elbow and wrist injuries. The Red Sox outfielder feels that he is a couple of weeks away from being ready to play in games as part of his road back to Boston.

-Jacoby Ellsbury reports that his dislocated shoulder is “making progress” but did not give a timetable for his return.

-Sox reliever Rich Hill was diagnosed by Dr. James Andrews as having a strained flexor muscle and is expected to miss about a month.

-Aaron Cook’s spiked left knee has completely healed and the veteran pitcher is now on a program to get his arm “back to where it was.” Cook will begin a minor league rehab assignment shortly.

-Cody Ross (foot) is also feeling better and could begin a minor league rehab assignment soon himself.

-Daniel Nava was not back in the line-up Monday night due to his injured hand. He is expected back in the next day or two.

-Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine was still steamed about what he thought was very poor umpiring at Fenway over the weekend. Before Monday night’s game against the Marlins, Valentine said, "I want a ball called a ball and a strike called a strike, and figure out how to do it. Let the humans do it somehow. That's what the game is. It's not Eric Gregg's strike zone. It's not what our game is. I don't care what anyone says. I could get fined for it every day of my life. It's my belief. Our game is not somebody else's strike zone. Our game is what the book says. That's how it should be played from Little League to Cooperstown, to make it fair, to make it right."

Valentine also said that he understands how difficult it is for umpires to accurately enforce the strike zone as it is laid out in the rule book. "I think they're very well trained, and I think they're very good at what they do,” he said. “I think it's almost impossible to do what they do, so why do we ask them to do the impossible? If in fact you can't see the ball the last five feet, and now pitchers are throwing pitches that are moving in that zone, cutting and splitting and moving in the zone, your eye can't see what's happening. They're humans. We're asking humans to do a feat a human can't do."

The Red Sox manager isn’t exactly sure what the league should do to enforce the strike zone but he does seem certain that there has to be a way to incorporate today’s modern technology to make it work. "I don't know how to do it. I know you can do it. It's 2012," he said. "Maybe it should start in Little League. Start it so the kid doesn't go home crying and not want to play our game again because of this thing that happened, and it's happening thousands of times a day. I think it's a flaw. I'm not talking about what happened this weekend, or what's going to happen tonight. I know it's part of the game, but I say it shouldn't be. I don't know how the Internet works. How about a fax? How about putting a thing in a machine and it showing up in Europe? If they can do that, they can figure out how to call a strike and a ball. Are you kidding me? That isn't tough. It's whether or not they want to do it."