You agree with everything Mazz says, as long as it's disparaging the Red Sox. As for the article, he's not completely wrong, but he's not completely right either. Beckett and Buchholz have both had a myriad maladies for the season, and with a healthy Dice-K (like it or not) the Bard experiment probably doesn't happen, or the plug would have been pulled earlier. As you said yourself, a healthy Crawford and Ellsbury overperform their replacements not only offensively, but defensively too, which also helps the pitching staff. Ditto for Kalish, who is a great defender in RF, and they've had a rotating circus of defensive suck there all season.