It's not the injuries nor the talent

[MTL-RSOX]

It seems to me that the Sox are having an all or nothing season. It is not surprising to see their record hovering around the .500 mark.

I question the team's competitiveness game in and game out. This is indicative of coaching problems or an negative environment when it comes to team morale.

The Sox have some of the best talent in the league but can not put together solid consistent peperformances.

Even if they did not face the injury issues early on, I sincerely doubt they would be in a much better position.

I do not think that Valentine will be there for the long term. Let's hope this does not start a revolving coaches' door.

 

MTL

[Elktonnick]

It seems to me that the Sox are having an all or nothing season. It is not surprising to see their record hovering around the .500 mark.

I question the team's competitiveness game in and game out. This is indicative of coaching problems or an negative environment when it comes to team morale.

The Sox have some of the best talent in the league but can not put together solid consistent peperformances.

Even if they did not face the injury issues early on, I sincerely doubt they would be in a much better position.

I do not think that Valentine will be there for the long term. Let's hope this does not start a revolving coaches' door.

 

MTL

 

At the risk of starting a raging debate but all the research in organization management shows that morale is not necessarily related to performance. From everything that is been written the team ( the players) have good morale ie cohesion among themselves. That is the problem. Their unit cohesion is not focused on winning as we saw last September. That's why many feel (correctly I might add) that Beckett and Lackey are the core of the problem. Finally I hope there is a revolving coaches door. Tuck and especially McClure are problems. They must go whether or not BV goes or stays.

[jung]

There starting pitching sucks. That is most of the story. The offense lacks cohesion. That is most of the rest of the story. The defense is porous in the most important defensive positions.....that about covers what remains of the story.

[MTL-RSOX]

At the risk of starting a raging debate but all the research in organization management shows that morale is not necessarily related to performance. From everything that is been written the team ( the players) have good morale ie cohesion among themselves. That is the problem. Their unit cohesion is not focused on winning as we saw last September. That's why many feel (correctly I might add) that Beckett and Lackey are the core of the problem. Finally I hope there is a revolving coaches door. Tuck and especially McClure are problems. They must go whether or not BV goes or stays.

That is an interesting theory. Do you think a lack of cohesion would show up in team stats? T

In the majors the Sox are:

 

- 7th in fielding pct

- 12th in defensive efficiency

- 4th in DPs

- 3rd in POs

 

If you could define a stat to measure cohesion, what would you measure?

 

MTL

[a700hitter]

There starting pitching sucks. That is most of the story. The offense lacks cohesion. That is most of the rest of the story. The defense is porous in the most important defensive positions.....that about covers what remains of the story.

^ This about covers it.

[SemperFi Sox]

High priced talent doesn't always make the best 'team'. There are some serious issues with this team.

[SoxFanForsyth]

This team sucks because of 2 reasons.

 

1. Complete and utter underperformance from the top 2 SP. The Red Sox are 15-27 when Lester and Beckett start. If they were merely 21-21, a .500 record (which, from your top 2 should be worst case scenario), the Red Sox would be 62-52 and leading in the WC race.

 

2. Complete and utter lack of the ability to take a walk or get on base in ways other than base hits.

 

Ellsbury, Crawford, Salty, and Aviles all have OBP's of .301 or less right now. That's 1/2 of your starting lineup. This team has no idea how to grind out at bats or foul off tough pitches to work a walk or get themselves into good hitters counts.

 

Last season, the Sox had a team .349 OBP. This season, only 2 regulars (Gonzalez, .351, and Ortiz, .414) have OBP's over that mark.

 

This cannot be overstated. Only TWO of the current starters have an OBP higher than the TEAM OBP from last year. Welcome to mediocrity.

[SCM33]

There starting pitching sucks. That is most of the story. The offense lacks cohesion. That is most of the rest of the story. The defense is porous in the most important defensive positions.....that about covers what remains of the story.

 

^ This about covers it.

 

.....and Salty. Its pretty clear that none of them are comfortable throwing to him. The numbers are drastically better throwing to Shoppach.

 

I wonder where they would be if Shoppach were the starting catcher and those numbers were stretched across a full season.

 

Beckett gets most of the blame....like 50%, but Salty is right behind at 35% with management at 15%.

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

Inconsistency

[lospunchados]

low obp and bad starting pitching. that is the problem

[jung]

The only issue I have with focusing on Lester and Beckett in the rotation of starters is that your starting pitching has to last the entire season. Clearly they have not lasted. Bard fell apart early. Felix as expected now has to simply be put on the shelf as he has hit his limit. Cook has hot really been a solution and Frank is probably only a step behind Felix.

 

So while Lester and Beckett have been abysmal....this starting rotation was

doomed from the start. Hence our bullpen is now dead in the water...spared only by Buch's starts. Don't let the FO and Management off the hook here as this was a known problem before the first pitch of the regular season.

[Emmz]

.....and Salty. Its pretty clear that none of them are comfortable throwing to him. The numbers are drastically better throwing to Shoppach.

 

I wonder where they would be if Shoppach were the starting catcher and those numbers were stretched across a full season.

 

Beckett gets most of the blame....like 50%, but Salty is right behind at 35% with management at 15%.

 

 

You seriously think Beckett holds 50% of the blame for the season's failures? He's an admittedly huge part of it, but he's not even necessarily the biggest problem in the rotation. It's been health, bad starting pitching, inconsistent offense, and poor management that allowed this team to take the field.

 

Salty, as much as I can't stand him, is not a guy to single out either. This has been a team effort in incompetence.

[SoxSport]

and oh yeah...the guys that put this team together did a lousy job.