7/18 @ Angels

[a700hitter]

Pitching was an obvious flaw going into the season. Everyone started to get optimistic at the beginning of the season that the staff would be an inning eating group where the whole would be greater than the sum of its parts. Even Fred picked us to win the division. I never drank that FO kool aid. This staff had trouble written all over it without a number 1 or 2 and delicate inconsistent Buch as a #3. I couldn't convince myself that Porcello would be a #2. And he isn't and never will be. He is rotation filler. Good solid filler, reliable filler, but back of the rotation back fill.

 

I marvel at the argument that Ben's plan was sound, because the mediocre pitching was supposed to be offset by a high powered offense and a plus defense. What was that assumption based upon? Adding Panda and Hanley to the terrible lineup from last year was not going to convert the Red Sox offense into the Big Red Machine. Panda has had 2 seasons out of 8 where he OPSed more than 800 and the last time was 2011. He can't hit right handed at all anymore. He has never been a onbase powerhouse either. Hanley is a stud, but he has a history of injuries causing him to miss a lot of playing time. Nevertheless, he was a big addition, but there were signs last season that Ortiz was declining and Napoli too. Those declines due to age were likely to not reverse. Adding one big bopper was not going to turn this lineup into the 27 Yankees. It was unrealistic to think so. The offense is talented and much better than our shitbox pitching, but it is not topline. It will be at seasons end top half, and that too was foreseeable. We have had pleasant surprises with Betts and XB, so not everyone is underperforming. After last season, no one was projecting a .300 season for Xander. We were also prepared to have a light hitting catcher.

 

As for the defense, why did anyone think it would be plus D? Was Panda so much better in SF? What made us think that Hanley would be good in LF without ever seeing him in the OF for an inning? Baseless faith. One game was all I needed to see to know that he is not an outfielder. Xander has been fun to watch at SS, but we had no basis to know that his improvement would be so great. Mookie is a second base convert to the OF and his arm is on the weak side.

 

All in all, Ben put together an offense that just cracks the top half. Pitching that has nothing below it except the black line at the bottom of the chart and an okay defense. None of this is due to some enigmatic underperformance. It is who this group is. We have guys performing at career levels some above and some below. You will have that on every team. We might have a little more underperformance than usual in the first half, but that should correct itself and when it does, we will be a team with better than average offense, the worst pitching and okay defense. That adds up to being noncompetitive. Good job, Ben.

Edited July 19, 2015 by a700hitter

[d-money]

I feel this team should be above 500 at least. They need to clean house after the season's over.