As a life long Red Sox fan, never in my 39 years have I been more embarrassed of a team than I am today, of the 2011 Boston Red Sox. A more pitiful bunch of chokers, there could not be, as evidenced by their historic Sept. The Rays won nothing, the Red Sox just sucked.
I hear people calling for Tito and Theo to be fired: PLEASE! If you want to fire someone, fire the players who played very well for nearly an entire season and then decided to fold for the final month. I can tell you who should be fired:
1. John Lackey. The most over-paid, over-rated, over-weight, piece of garbage in the game. John Lackey, YOU SUCK! You have never been able to handle the pressure in Boston and you never will. Go eat another Dunkin Donut. Nuff said.
2. Carl Crawford. What a poser. 5-6 skill player? Get real. His fielding and throwing was a joke, he hit .250 and he was about as clutch as Jean Van de Velde. Crawford, you are a JOKE. Might as well have put Wily Mo Pena out there.
3. Beckett. You sucked the last month. There is no excuse. You are supposed to be a shut down pitcher. There is no reason why you can dominate the whole season and then totally lose it the last month. You choked
4. Lester. You choked. Pitiful. The best lefty in the game? Apparently not
5. Daniel Bard. What happened to you? Did you start getting counseling from Eric Gagne? Pitiful
6. Papelbon. You suck. You want to act like one of the games elite closers? I got news for you, my friend: great players come up big in big situations. You blew leads at the end of the season that could have saved your team. Mariano Rivera you are not.
7. Eric Bedard. Real good. 85 pitches over 3 innings, real impressive. Go back to AAA.
8. Darnell McDonald. Really? Hits about .170 in between playing a terrible outfield and getting caught stealing. This was the best they could come up with? You suck, Darnell
9. JD Drew. As usual a disappearing act. At least you play a decent outfield when you are in, but can't count on you for anything.
10. Wakefield. I got news for you people, Wake gave them about what he does every year. He eats up a lot of innings and always has an ERA between 4 and 5. I remember many games down the stretch where he gave up 3 earned, but left behind 6 runs because Crawford couldn't bother to catch a ground ball to the outfield, so it rolled to the wall and let to unearned score. Don't blame Wake.
11. Any other relief pitcher not named Alfredo Aceves SUCKED, especially down the strech.
12. Weiland. Why the hell was he even in there? To pad the other teams stats? What happened to Andrew Miller, at least he tossed a couple of decent games.
The bad part is, there were some guys that played with a ton of heart on this team and did not choke:
1.Jacoby Elsbury. MVP. Period.
2. Adrian Gonzales. Excellent first year. Faded a bit down the stretch, but carried the team for periods. Great.
3. Pedroia. As usual, shouldered the team. Deserves a ton of credit for an excellent year.
4. Ortiz. Who thought he would have this kind of year. Big Papi was excellent all year long. Incredible year.
5. Scutaro. Big ups. In a strange situation with Lowie, put in a stellar year, especially down the stretch. Quality guy=quality player.
6. Saltalamacchia/Varitek. Sox got WAY more production from this position than they had any right to expect.
Jed Lowrie has been revealed as the utility player that he should be. Nothing more, nothing less. Reddick is decent, but doesn't have much of a grip on playing Right. He cost the Sox several games with his glove. Needs work.
Sure, Youkilis being injured didn't help. But, there is no excuse for so many 'big time' 'clutch' players playing so badly for a month at a time and ruining a season for the guys who had some heart.
You all should be ashamed.
