While it's tough to say a team like the Red Sox who had such high pre-season expectations are gaining momentum when their record is .500 it's not completely untrue. They've won 10 of their last 13 and have taken the series against two different division leaders in the process. Are they where they need to be? No, but at least it looks like they're on the right track now.
The Sox are currently 3rd in team batting average and 2nd in runs scored in all of baseball. Granted their on-base percentage isn't that high, 8th overall, but if they keep hitting the way they are, there is no doubt that is going to rise. But to be honest, the offense isn't high on my list of concerns.
You can probably tell where this is going, I'm still concerned about the pitching staff. I already went over my issues with Buchholz, so I won't rehash that. And I know I've written about Daniel Bard and how I don't think he's a starter, but Wednesday's game proved it even further. Yes he picked up the win, but he's just not efficient enough. Especially with the way Buchholz has come to rely on the bullpen. Bard threw 90 pitches in 5.1 innings on Wednesday, 49 of which went for strikes. He walked 4, struck out 2, and gave up 2 earned runs. These just aren't starting pitching numbers. Between Bard and Buchholz, the bullpen is getting worked to death.
The starting staff has an ERA of 5.10, which is 3rd worst in all of baseball. Thankfully the bullpen has an ERA of 3.80, which while it isn't great, considering it was 5.54 during the month of April, it's definitely an improvement. I still think it would benefit the Red Sox if they moved Bard to the closer's spot, Aceves to the set up, and Padilla to the 5th spot in the rotation. Even keeping Aceves as the closer and putting Bard back into his 8th inning role would be beneficial.
All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic about the Red Sox right now. Lester and Beckett are pitching much better, the offense is firing as we thought it would, and the bullpen has drastically improved. Also, at some point, the Sox are going to get Ellsbury, Crawford, Ross, Bailey, and Dice-K back. Hopefully they can continue to build on this momentum, and be within striking distance of the division lead when the team gets healthy.
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Showing posts with label Red Sox Building Confidence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red Sox Building Confidence. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Still Not Buying The Red Sox
Call me a pessimist if you must, but I just don't think the weekend series win over the Indians by the Red Sox means all that much. Sure Cleveland is leading the AL Central at the moment, but there is no reason to think they'll be in that position at the end of this month. So taking 3 out of the 4 games from the Indians shouldn't be seen as that big of an accomplishment.
Did the Sox play better against Cleveland than they have in the past few weeks? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean they've turned the season around. The Indians are not a strong team, although they are leading their division, they only have 18 wins. They are the only division leading team in all of baseball that doesn't have at least 20 wins. Right now, it's pretty safe to say that division is the worst in baseball, so I'm not getting my hopes up just yet.
The Sox did manage to get back to their high-scoring ways, combining for a total of 26 runs in the 4 games, and the pitching staff was much better giving up a total of 10 runs. So while on paper this may look like a sign of things turning around in Boston, I'm just not convinced yet.
Thursday's game saw Josh Beckett get absolutely shelled and subsequently booed off the mound, and while Clay Buccholz did look better in his outing on Friday, he didn't strike out a single batter in his 6 and 1/3 innings pitched. He once again benefited from the offense scoring a lot of runs for him. Felix Doubront continued to improve with his performance on Saturday, but his ERA is still nearly 4.50. He did only give up 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 5, so I won't complain too much about him.
All of this brings me to Daniel Bard. He picked up the win on Sunday and only gave up 1 run, but he still doesn't look like he has the confidence to be a starting pitcher. In his 6 innings he threw 97 pitches, gave up 6 hits, walked 4, and struck out 2. These just aren't the numbers anyone expected to see out of Bard. He even admitted that Sunday's start was step back for him. This sets up Bard's return to the bullpen when Daisuke Matsuzaka returns this summer. While I don't think anyone was expecting Bard to be an ace starting pitcher this year, the expectations were certainly greater than a 3-4 record with a 4.30 ERA. Someone in the rotation is going to get bumped when Dice-K is healthy, and right now it sure looks like the axe is going to fall on Bard.
All in all, I'm very happy the Sox took 3 out of 4 games against a weak team like the Indians, and I'm even happier the Mariners are in Boston for a quick 2 game series and Felix Hernandez won't be pitching. The Red Sox head down to Tampa for 2 against the Rays and then to Philly for their first interleague matchup of the season. Facing both of those teams after winning 5 of their last 6 games would be a huge confidence boost for them. I'm just saying I'm not ready to call this a turning point yet. It does give me hope that things are headed in the right direction, but we'll see how they fair this week.
Follow me on Twitter- @TwittinSports
Did the Sox play better against Cleveland than they have in the past few weeks? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean they've turned the season around. The Indians are not a strong team, although they are leading their division, they only have 18 wins. They are the only division leading team in all of baseball that doesn't have at least 20 wins. Right now, it's pretty safe to say that division is the worst in baseball, so I'm not getting my hopes up just yet.
The Sox did manage to get back to their high-scoring ways, combining for a total of 26 runs in the 4 games, and the pitching staff was much better giving up a total of 10 runs. So while on paper this may look like a sign of things turning around in Boston, I'm just not convinced yet.
Thursday's game saw Josh Beckett get absolutely shelled and subsequently booed off the mound, and while Clay Buccholz did look better in his outing on Friday, he didn't strike out a single batter in his 6 and 1/3 innings pitched. He once again benefited from the offense scoring a lot of runs for him. Felix Doubront continued to improve with his performance on Saturday, but his ERA is still nearly 4.50. He did only give up 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 5, so I won't complain too much about him.
All of this brings me to Daniel Bard. He picked up the win on Sunday and only gave up 1 run, but he still doesn't look like he has the confidence to be a starting pitcher. In his 6 innings he threw 97 pitches, gave up 6 hits, walked 4, and struck out 2. These just aren't the numbers anyone expected to see out of Bard. He even admitted that Sunday's start was step back for him. This sets up Bard's return to the bullpen when Daisuke Matsuzaka returns this summer. While I don't think anyone was expecting Bard to be an ace starting pitcher this year, the expectations were certainly greater than a 3-4 record with a 4.30 ERA. Someone in the rotation is going to get bumped when Dice-K is healthy, and right now it sure looks like the axe is going to fall on Bard.
All in all, I'm very happy the Sox took 3 out of 4 games against a weak team like the Indians, and I'm even happier the Mariners are in Boston for a quick 2 game series and Felix Hernandez won't be pitching. The Red Sox head down to Tampa for 2 against the Rays and then to Philly for their first interleague matchup of the season. Facing both of those teams after winning 5 of their last 6 games would be a huge confidence boost for them. I'm just saying I'm not ready to call this a turning point yet. It does give me hope that things are headed in the right direction, but we'll see how they fair this week.
Follow me on Twitter- @TwittinSports
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