As sk7326 has already pointed out, the umps rely heavy on the catchers and their mitt placements to determine balls and strikes for them. That's why pitch-framing is now a measurable skill!
Vazquez has an MLB OPS of .595. That's bad, but the average MLB catcher only has an OPS of .683. He doesn't have to improve that much to get to average.
Also, I agree that Wright came out of nowhere, but so what? He's on the team. There's good luck and bad luck with player performance. We've had plenty of the bad kind too.
Yes, MJ did have a supporting cast, absolutely. But history speaks volumes: the 8 year stretch with MJ missing the 2 years in the middle:
Ring
Ring
Ring
Lost in 2nd round
Lost in 2nd round
Ring
Ring
Ring
Fair enough. But a lot of times, especially at crunch time, the Bulls offense was get the ball to MJ and let him score, and he was able to do just that.
Slash, the most-MJ like player besides MJ was Kobe, IMO, and he did pretty well in this later era you're talking about.
MJ's 6 rings without a great supporting cast was pretty good work.
What are you talking about with the lack of control stuff? Every pitch to Pedroia was around the plate. And as you said the pitch he struck out on was down the middle.
This Gonzalez dude pitching for Chicago tonight is a guy we let go of and then passed on. I realize he isn't all that good or young, but he's plenty cheap and he does at least resemble a major league pitcher.