Beckett Questionable to Start the Season

[SoxSport]

Beckett says his thumb was OK yesterday. He said he just threw too many strikes down the middle of the plate.Now, how did that happen? Why didn't he throw some off speed stuff the first three batters? I saw all straight fastballs. No curves until the 4th batter. A case of just bad pitch selection. I thought he wasted a lot of time with the baserunner and got distracted. Inexcusable for a veteran pitcher. He lost his concentration, and threw a few meatballs. That has happened before with him. He does lose concentration at times and grooves it.

[Elktonnick]

Beckett says his thumb was OK yesterday. He said he just threw too many strikes down the middle of the plate.Now' date=' how did that happen? Why didn't he throw some off speed stuff the first three batters? I saw all straight fastballs. No curves until the 4th batter. A case of just bad pitch selection. I thought he wasted a lot of time with the baserunner and got distracted. Inexcusable for a veteran pitcher. He lost his concentration, and threw a few meatballs. That has happened before with him. He does lose concentration at times and grooves it.[/quote']

 

 

Beckett is very much a piitcher who needs to feel comfortable when he pitches. Hence his insistence in years past to being caught only by Tek. Despite what he may have said, I believe no one can deny that the thumb issue was mentally if not physically troublesome to him. Beckett simply doesn't pitch well when he is distracted. He was so bad yesterday I believe there was a causal relationship between his performance and his concern over his thumb. As Yogi Berra is alleged to have said " 90% of this game is half mental"

[jung]

If that is Beckett pitching without any physical impediments, then he is off to suckville. No top line pitcher just stands on the mound and grooves the ball like that pitch after pitch. I could give a rats ass about Josh and what are now his multiple distractions. What was he wondering about yesterday? "Gee I wonder if my new baby had a healthy post breakfast burp today."

 

He can only pitch to Tek...for what a career. Well Josh I guess your off to retirement then cause that is where Tek is.

 

Bad pitch selection....let me see.....maybe this doing nothing, no movement, 90 mph fastball right down broadway is the right pitch to throw Prince....Oh Gosh...he missed it....well then lets another.

[mvp 78]

One bad start = career over.

 

Obviously.

[Elktonnick]

If that is Beckett pitching without any physical impediments, then he is off to suckville. No top line pitcher just stands on the mound and grooves the ball like that pitch after pitch. I could give a rats ass about Josh and what are now his multiple distractions. What was he wondering about yesterday? "Gee I wonder if my new baby had a healthy post breakfast burp today."

 

He can only pitch to Tek...for what a career. Well Josh I guess your off to retirement then cause that is where Tek is.

 

Bad pitch selection....let me see.....maybe this doing nothing, no movement, 90 mph fastball right down broadway is the right pitch to throw Prince....Oh Gosh...he missed it....well then lets another.

 

Do not get me wrong. I am not defending or excusing Beckett but rather trying to understand and explain him. For the record, remember I think Beckett is a punk and should have been traded. I think he is an overall negative influence. If were up to me he would hve been pitching elsewhere.

[jung]

Maybe his career is over. Maybe without the focus and intensity that got him to where he was....he will have more and more of these. He is already telling the world that he no longer has that focus as if the world gives a s*** what random thought wafted through his mind. He certainly is not a contending team's number 2 pitcher if he can go out and stink up the place that badly. So either this is not a contending team or Josh is not this team's number 2 pitcher. Take your pick.

[Elktonnick]

Maybe his career is over. Maybe without the focus and intensity that got him to where he was....he will have more and more of these. He is already telling the world that he no longer has that focus as if the world gives a s*** what random thought wafted through his mind. He certainly is not a contending team's number 2 pitcher if he can go out and stink up the place that badly. So either this is not a contending team or Josh is not this team's number 2 pitcher. Take your pick.

 

He may be all of that and this team has a lot to prove. In any case many of us do not believe the FO put together a contending team. Many of us also believe the FO have constrained their manager from putting players in the proper roles. Time will tell. Two games do not a season make.

[jung]

It is only one start...the problem is that the spectrum of potential performances for Beckett just got widened to the point where you now have to hope that is the worst he can do. Even if that is the worst he can do that also means there are likely more performances in that arm of his that are not that bad but bad enough to make for a higher percentage of games that he pitches that will be difficult for the Sox to win unless they can pound out runs.

 

Heck the Tiger's had to dip into their pen in the 4th. I did not see much pounding from the vaunted Sox lineup.

 

Maybe the Sox should have traded Josh. The problem was that they were not going to get anything back for him at that point. So they were stuck.

 

I do think the Sox will hit this season....eventually....hopefully sooner rather than later. However, pitchers have their good days, their bad days and their days in between....Josh just redefined what a bad day looks like for Josh Beckett in a way that will make it hard to see how he can put up numbers anything like what he had last year....

[Elktonnick]

It is only one start...the problem is that the spectrum of potential performances for Beckett just got widened to the point where you now have to hope that is the worst he can do. Even if that is the worst he can do that also means there are likely more performances in that arm of his that are not that bad but bad enough to make for a higher percentage of games that he pitches that will be difficult for the Sox to win unless they can pound out runs.

 

Heck the Tiger's had to dip into their pen in the 4th. I did not see much pounding from the vaunted Sox lineup.

 

Maybe the Sox should have traded Josh. The problem was that they were not going to get anything back for him at that point. So they were stuck.

 

I do think the Sox will hit this season....eventually....hopefully sooner rather than later. However, pitchers have their good days, their bad days and their days in between....Josh just redefined what a bad day looks like for Josh Beckett in a way that will make it hard to see how he can put up numbers anything like what he had last year....

 

They'll hit, with the possible exception of Youk who I have no confidence that he'll be an everyday player the second half of the year. The problem is pitching. Although it is a moot point now, I think a competent GM could have gotten adequate compensation for Beckett, but then again Cherrington is hardly a competent GM.

[jung]

Well the problem is the pitching without question....we knew that and have said that more times than anybody cares to think about and for longer than anybody cares to think about.

 

Notice if you will that as it did last year when bats started to contact Red Sox pitched balls with more regularity, their defense is once again exposed. The only difference is that it is being exposed earlier in the season than it was last year...as in the first two games.

 

Aviles played like he is well capable of playing, as in stone handed, out of position and generally awful SS. Salty showed off that outstanding arm again. AGons even wondered aimlessly over to second base for some unexplained reason and while I doubt he will make that error often and even though AGons is generally an excellent fielder, I did notice how AGons was moving right. He was rigid and stilted. There was no fluidity in his movements at all much like that day in ST when V had him go from 1st to 3rd on a single.

 

While Youk's problems at the plate are pretty obvious, we will see more of THIS Youk in the field than we are going to like as well making for what might be the weakest left side of any infield in recent ML history, never mind Red Sox history and lets not even start to talk about the armless Red Sox outfield although that problem made a brief appearance in game 1 of this opening series from hell.

[mvp 78]

It is only one start...the problem is that the spectrum of potential performances for Beckett just got widened to the point where you now have to hope that is the worst he can do....

How so? He's given up 5 HR's before. He sucked in September. How does yesterday change anything?

[jacksonianmarch]

I wish I could have watched the game. Gamecast had him mostly low 90s. The highest I saw was 93, but he was mostly in the 90-92 range. Was that true?

[jung]

How so? He's given up 5 HR's before. He sucked in September. How does yesterday change anything?

 

It was the way he pitched....right down broadway.....up in the strike zone....nothing on the ball and yes Jackson his FB was 90-92 for the entire stint. Gave up the 5 dingers in only 4 2/3 and they were moon shots in one of the biggest parks in baseball. There were no Green Monster pipe dream homers in that bunch. They were all crushed, some of them crushed to the point of being awe inspiring. In fact none of the balls hit off of him were cheap by any means...everything was stung.

[FredLynn]

Beckett says his thumb was OK yesterday. He said he just threw too many strikes down the middle of the plate.Now' date=' how did that happen? Why didn't he throw some off speed stuff the first three batters? I saw all straight fastballs. No curves until the 4th batter. A case of just bad pitch selection. I thought he wasted a lot of time with the baserunner and got distracted. Inexcusable for a veteran pitcher. He lost his concentration, and threw a few meatballs. That has happened before with him. He does lose concentration at times and grooves it.[/quote']

 

I remember a few years ago when we were in the playoffs playing (and losing to) the Rays. I cannot recall the details, but Beckett was clearly injured. I think it might have been his back. His velocity was way down and it was obvious to everyone that he was playing hurt.

All the while Beckett said that he was fine.

He was lying then, and my guess is that he is lying now too.

[User Name]

I remember a few years ago when we were in the playoffs playing (and losing to) the Rays. I cannot recall the details, but Beckett was clearly injured. I think it might have been his back. His velocity was way down and it was obvious to everyone that he was playing hurt.

All the while Beckett said that he was fine.

He was lying then, and my guess is that he is lying now too.

 

Funny, because the one apparently lying here is you.

 

Beckett had a very publicized oblique injury and both him and Francona admitted it was affecting him.

[FredLynn]

I have a bad feeling that Beckett is headed to the DL' date=' maybe even surgery. It feels like 'two thumbs down' is gonna be the tagline of our season.[/quote']

 

I posted the same thing earlier. If his velocity and location remain poor over the next 2-3 starts then we can be pretty sure he is playing hurt. My guess is that the thumb surgeon he saw "for piece of mind" probably told him that by continuing to play hurt he was not risking his career but that eventually he would need surgery and until then he would play in pain. Of course I have no proof of that....just a gut feeling.

[jacksonianmarch]

EEI was saying that Beckett was told he will eventually need surgery but can play with it.

[jung]

Like I said yesterday as much as I don't want to see him on the DL I would rather think he is pitching hurt than is actually pitching that way healthy. He was that bad.

 

If however that is the case, then he may end up having to shut it down cause that was not even close to the type of outing that would help this team. If he pitches like that the only factor will be the strength and hitting prowess of the opposition. A lesser team will still sting him pitching like that. Homers will be doubles.

[FredLynn]

EEI was saying that Beckett was told he will eventually need surgery but can play with it.

 

Then I was right. Eventually his ineffectiveness will force his hand (so to speak). I applaud him for wanting to try to play hurt; I'll I've him that much. Other guys refuse to do that.

[iortiz]

This team needs an operating room in the clubhouse LOL!

[jung]

Whether Beckett is hurt or not remains to be seen.

 

This is the going to be the first year (if he does pitch) that he will have to fully be a pitcher and not rely on heat anything like he used to. His FB is likely to top out at 92 this year, maybe 93.

 

At least in my view Josh has been grooming himself for this day. However he may just have not gotten there. One thing you saw yesterday was if your FB is going to top out at 92 then you need to be able to ratchet back the change. Once a pitcher has got to many of his pitches coming in to the hitters at about the same velocity then the good hitters are just going to pick on the pitch they want and they will be right on it.