Hitting Quick on the Red Sox
—Kevin Youkilis was activated on Tuesday and promptly participated in some heavy bridge work courtesy of Brian Matusz. Because my Little League All-Star team had more outfield depth than the Red Sox currently possess, Adrian Gonzalez started in right field, Will Middlebrooks held down the fort at third base, and Youk reclaimed the first base bag. I’m not a fan of of displacing Gonzalez for the sake of keeping better bats in the lineup. The Sox pitching staff isn’t exactly filled with Cy Young candidates and sacrificing defense surely won’t help Clay Buchholz‘s ever-rising earned run average. Nevertheless, I would rather have Gonzalez pushed to the outfield than Middlebrooks. So for now, I’ll accept the lesser of the two evils.
—Related to the above note, if you are someone who calls into radio stations, comments on blogs, or tweets to reporters stating that Player X should be able to play the outfield because Player X once played right field for his T-Ball team, please, for the love of Christ, stop.
—Bobby Valentine’s comfort level as manager of this team has certainly increased. It not out of the ordinary to see Valentine take a trip to the mound, speak with the pitcher, and head back to the dugout–without making a change. He gently slapped Matt Albers in the face within the past week. I like it.
—Felix Doubront lacks efficiency, but man, the kid has some poise. He knows how to pitch. I feel pretty good when the Venezuelan toes the rubber.
—I had an interesting exchange with a friend of mine today about Jacoby Ellsbury. Essentially, his premise was that Ells’ injury can only hurt him at the negotiation table following his first crack at free agency after the 2013 season. In turn, that benefits the Red Sox. My counter was that I would rather have a healthy, productive Ellsbury while he is making roughly $8MM and under team control. We finally realized that we weren’t disagreeing with each other, but rather raising two extremely fair points. Ultimately, the Red Sox are losing out on valuable team-controlled years thanks to two freak injuries that have derailed significant portions of Ellsbury’s young career. Simultaneously, it would stupid for any potential suitor to not bring up Ellsbury’s injury marred past when he reaches free agency.
—I was at the afternoon game against Seattle, where Tim Wakefield was honored. Minus the tackiness of Doug Mirabelli busting out of a police car, it was a well put together ceremony.
—In the bottom of the sixth inning, Doubront and Adam Jones, who is awesome, engaged in a pretty good battle. It lasted eleven pitches. Doubront threw only two pitches out of the strike zone during the exchange–one of which was a pitchout. Ultimately, Doubront won the showdown, striking out Jones on a breaking pitch. Again, I was impressed by the young lefty.
—David Ortiz held a players only meeting sometime after the first game of the four game set with the Indians a couple of weeks ago. Josh Beckett had just pitched like trash. Ortiz focused on the importance of accountability for each individual player and emphasis was placed on the pitching staff. Good for him. That is a guy is talking the talk and walking the walk.
Put This One on Bobby
Well that didn’t go as planned.
The Red Sox notched their first win of the young season two nights ago. They pitched well and showed some late-inning heart with their bats. Naturally, as a fan, you expected the Olde Towne Team to parlay the momentum from Monday night into Tuesday. Two straight wins is one away from a winning streak, after all.
That didn’t happen.
Daniel Bard pitched fine. He induced a number of ground balls that found holes through the Red Sox infield. Bard certainly did not have a great deal of luck on his side tonight. Nevertheless, he pitched relatively well. The tall righty, however, was not the story.
The Red Sox lost 7-3 last night because of some gross mismanagement on the part of Bobby Valentine.
Let’s take a closer look.
With the score 3-1 in favor of the Blue Jays in the bottom of the sixth and Bard’s pitch count in the mid-80′s, Edwin Encarnacion walked. Promptly, Encarnacion stole second. Brett Lawrie followed with an infield single to shortstop that allowed Encarnacion to move to third. Runners on the corners. No one out. Left handed hitting Eric Thames due up.
Valentine came out to take the ball from a noticeably upset Bard–as a disclaimer, I don’t care if Bard wasn’t happy with Valentine’s decision–finish your start, and there isn’t an issue, Dan. The skipper summoned lefty Justin Thomas from the bullpen (more on this later). Thames, a left handed hitter who hits miserably against left handed pitching, was provided a free pass by Thomas. Bases loaded, still no one out. Valentine left Thomas in to face J.P. Arencibia. Matt Albers and his sinker was ready in the bullpen, but for some inexplicable reason Valentine pushed his chips in the pot with Thomas. Arencibia singled to right center, scoring two runs. Colby Rasmus would plate a run with a sacrifice fly. 6-1 Blue Jays.
Gag.
Here are the issues. Thomas should not be on this team. He’s a left handed pitcher. I get it. And it’s real neat. But he’s not a major league pitcher on the Boston Red Sox. Scott Atchison, like Thomas, does not have great raw stuff, but the former is a proven pitcher who has contributed on the major league level. Thomas, on the other hand, is a warm
cadaverbody that happens to use his left hand to pitch. That’s it.Valentine and the Red Sox are carrying 13 pitchers. That is ridiculous. It is a noticeable flaw with this roster.
I can’t speak for Valentine, but I firmly believe that going to Thomas (and sticking with him) in a tight game is a result of the manager feeling like he has to keep his guys fresh. In the same fashion that Valentine used Nick Punto, Darnell McDonald, and Kelly Shoppach in Sunday’s game, he opted to go with (and stick with) Thomas tonight even though he may not have been the best option because he wants to keep his secondary players fresh. Unfortunately for Valentine, position players and bullpen arms are inherently different.
To summarize, Thomas should have never even had the opportunity to throw a pitch in a high leverage situation tonight. He should be in Pawtucket. That is on the guys in baseball operations.
Thomas should have gotten yanked after failing to do his job (walking Thames). That is on Valentine.