How early is too early to talk about a team’s struggles or successes in Major League Baseball when the season is still incredibly young? Should we give a team until at least the start of May before we either start singing their praises or bashing them? Maybe, but I don’t feel like it. The season is a mere 16 days old, but the Boston Red Sox look bad. After last season ended with the Sox being swept by the Angels in the first round of the playoffs, Theo Epstein spent the offseason trying to sell Red Sox Nation on the idea of “run prevention.” With the way his team has started, even defensively, Theo can’t be sleeping well these days. Epstein probably won’t sleep any better tonight, as he absorbs the blow that is a five-game losing streak, the fifth of which came Monday in the finale of a four-game sweep by the AL East rival Rays.
The Red Sox will inevitably catch fire and go on some sort of hot streak. Their starting pitching is too good to continue performing the way it has to begin the year. Aside from Monday’s shellacking, John Lackey had pitched well in his other two starts with his new team. Josh Beckett has also been solid, but the Red Sox pedestrian offense has failed to pick him up. Jon Lester has been hit extremely hard, but let’s not forget how poor he started out last season before turning in a Cy Young-caliber year. It’s probably safe to say the Sox will smooth things out at some point, but in the meantime it wouldn’t hurt to talk about just how bad they’ve been.
While it has been no secret that Boston’s 2010 offense cannot match up to the quality of a team like say, the Yankees, the common belief has been that the Sox would make up that difference with their glove-work. In their Saturday night loss to the Rays, a glance at the box score may lead one to believe Clay Buchholz was roughed up a bit. However, that was not exactly the case, as he gave up four runs and only four hits in five-plus innings of work. All of the runs were unearned. Marco Scutaro — whom Epstein brought in to solidify the shortstop position — already has committed three errors, tying him for last in fielding percentage in the American League.
Offensively, the Sox have been worse. They rank 10th in the American League in runs scored, 8th in team batting average, and they have the 5th most strikeouts. David Ortiz, who many believe to be all-but-finished as a threat at the plate now that he is no longer taking steroids, is hitting .158 with 0 homers and 2 RBI. Fellow left-handed “power” hitter J.D. Drew has been worse, if you can believe it, as he checks in at .146 with 1 homer and 2 RBI. In other words, the Red Sox have absolutely no power right now from the left side of the plate. Oh, and to top it all off they’re amidst a 0-for-32 streak with runners in scoring position.
Is it too early for Red Sox fans to panic about their team’s struggles — and “struggles” is an understatement — to begin the 2010 campaign? Probably. But if you’ve followed the team at all to this point, you’ve undoubtedly gotten the feeling that its never too early to be concerned. Check that, extremely concerned.
Sources:
Rays complete sweep of stumbling Red Sox [Yahoo! Sports]
Stat Credit: MLB.com
