Monday, May 2, 2011

Angry Weekend



First, I'd like to extend a hello to anyone who happens to already be reading this. My name is Brad, and as Randy has already suggested, I'm a life-long Sox fan who happens to take this shit just a little too seriously.



Many a night has been spent in front of my television watching the Sox, arguing with Randy, and flat out throwing shit around my house in frustration, and thus far in 2011, not much has changed.



Going into this season, both Randy and myself lauded this team with accolades that it had yet earned. We praised moves that had failed to even take the field. We heralded a General Manager for a team that had yet to even swing a bat. And now, at least to date, we all look like fools.



Now, lets not mis-remember our own history here: This isn't New York, and guys don't suddenly come here and turn into superstars after living a life of complete mediocrity before arrival. No, here in Boston, guys tend to hold true to what they are, which makes the start of this season even more baffling. To me, the only thing worse than a guy who just collects a paycheck from the Red Sox, and doesn't really give a shit one way or the other, well there's nothing worse than that, but a collection of guys cumulatively hitting below what their baseball cards indicate the should is nearly as bad. Again, to me.



This April marked the single worst month Carl Crawford had ever posted after ten years in the league. The Worst batting average. The worst flipping everything. He was awful, and there's not circumnavigating the issue here: he's uncomfortable. Yesterday was a nice hit for him, but it doesn't go very far for me. I realize each journey begins with a step, but for fucks sake, this entire team is underperforming.



How many times does an inning have to end with the bases loaded and no runs pushed through? How many times does Jacoby (whom I can't stand, for the record here) lead off with a double just to be stranded there? This lineup is poorly constructed, and doesn't take advantage of the tools at hand here. Yep, I'm saying it: It's time to make a move right now. Not in a month, not at the deadline, but right the hell now.


There I said it. This team needs a right-handed bat in the middle of the lineup. Don't get me wrong, I love Youkilis and all he brings, but he's more of an on base kind of threat than he is a four hitter kind of threat. I want a guy that evens out the lefty/righty balance in this lineup, so Youkilis can be moved to a spot that takes advantage of that. Gone are the days when Ortiz was going to knock in 110 runs a year from the three hole, and gone are the days that anyone could count on Drew to do anyhting. This team needs a legitimate threat in that hole, because as it stands now, even the most hardened pitcher would rather pitch to Ortiz with the sacks juiced than to even think about pitching to Youkilis with a base open.

In my next post, I'll take a look at what's available, and what overrated CF currently playing for the Sox we can move to get him.







1 comment:

  1. Wow! For your first post that was pretty much how I expected it! While I know Carl Crawford has had a very difficult start almost the entire team has gone into a prolonged slump (maybe not Lowrie yet)I agree that we need a big bat and I think the move must be to get rid of David Ortiz! We need better protection behind Youk! I'd like to see who you think is available so I can rip every one of them! I'm not going to blame Carl Crawford....yet.

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