Still Too Early to Write Off the Sox?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

We are now one quarter of the way through the 2010 season and this much we know: the Red Sox are far from a perfect team. But should we be writing them off this early? Maybe not.

If you were to put Boston fans on the truth-o-meter, most would tell you that it is likely that the 2010 Sox will come up short of a post season spot. And with good reason. They have been hovering around the .500 mark most of the way and are currently in fourth place in the AL East ahead of only the lowly Baltimore Orioles. An Orioles team that swept them, I might add.

They were a team built for “run prevention,” according to GM Theo Epstein yet their pitching and defense has been subpar to this point. Their ace Josh Beckett has had a disastrous start to the season and has been placed on the 15-day DL with back problems. The newly acquired John Lackey has been up and down and Dice K Matsuzaka remains as frustrating as ever.

In the bullpen, Jonathan Papelbon has not been as dominant as he normally is and others like Okajima, Ramirez and Schoeneweis have struggled mightily.

Opponents continue to run wild once on the base paths against the Red Sox thanks to a pitchers who don’t do a great job of holding runners and a pair of catchers who can’t throw them out. And the left side of the infield has been a sieve with Beltre and Scutaro combining for 13 errors thus far.

But here’s why Sox fans may want to keep the faith for a little bit longer. This team’s pitching was supposed to be its strength and may yet turn out to be. If Beckett’s back improves it stands to reason that he should be a lot better than what we have seen so far. Lackey should improve as well. Lester and Buchholz have been solid and they can always solidify the fifth spot in the rotation by banishing Dice K to the bullpen or elsewhere in favor of Tim Wakefield.

Leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury will be back soon which should give a boost to both the outfield defense and an offensive line-up which has been surprisingly productive. David Ortiz and JD Drew have busted out of their April slumps with a solid hitting month of May. In fact, Big Papi’s 8 HR’s have him tied for 12^thin the American League and place him even with baseball’s best slugger – Albert Puljos who also has 8.

Plus, this team has shown that they are not to be counted out no matter what the score. In their two games against the Yankees earlier in the week, Boston rallied from 5-0 deficits in both games. And that was on the road against a good baseball team. That type of resiliency cannot be discounted.

If the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins taught us anything this year, it is that things may not always be as bad as they appear. So maybe we should wait a while longer before officially writing off the Red Sox this season.