Re-signing Beckett was a no-brainer

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Excuse me if I don't do any back flips or call Theo a genius for signing Josh Beckett to a four-year extension. Why? Because I don't pat people on the back for making easy decisions.

When the Red Sox signed John Lackey to a lucrative deal this offseason, it was believed by some that the front office was preparing to let Beckett hit the free agent market at the end of the season with Lackey acting as his replacement. I had to chuckle.

And that's not a knock on Lackey, who is a fine pitcher. But Josh Beckett, whether you want to call him the ace or not, has been the anchor of the Red Sox pitching staff and there was no reason to let him go.

If the team is ready to pay $8.6 million to a player who is now playing for a division foe and pay another $12 million for a player who is essentially a backup designated hitter at this point in his career, it had better have been ready to pay the man with 65 wins and a .657 winning percentage and a 5-1 postseason mark in four years with the team.

With him retained, the Red Sox could have one of the most formidible pitching staffs in baseball for a long time. Beckett, Jon Lester and Lackey are now all assured spots in the rotation (barring something unexpected happening, of course) from now until 2013 and possibly 2014 if the Red Sox pick up Lester's option that year. Clay Buchholz, who many teams would love to have as a second or third starter down the road, is also under Red Sox' control until 2014. Granted, this is all with the unrealistic assumption that no one gets hurt, traded, etc.

Normally, I am not a fan of long-term deals with pitchers because so few of them have worked out and likewise, the deal with Lackey makes me nervous because he has had difficulty staying healthy. Beckett hasn't had such issues with the Red Sox, starting at least 30 games in three of the four seasons he's been in Boston. It's especially impressive after getting a reputation for being injury-prone with the Marlins, although he often voiced frustrations with them, once calling himself the healthiest man on the DL.

Beckett seems like an old man simply because he's been around forever. He pitched his first game at 21 years of age and will turn 31 in May, so the odds of this extension turning out to be a Mike Lowell-esque disaster are not as high.

I don't know if I like using the term "big game pitcher," but the bottom line is if you were looking for someone who fit that description on the Red Sox, it would have to be this guy. Given is track record, age and the fact that the price tag wasn't all that unreasonable, given what the team has handed out in terms of contracts recently, this was a no-brainer.

So congrats, Theo, on making maybe the easiest decision in your professional career.

Staying Power: Sox Can't Shake Lowell

By Rick Eggleston
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Is it possible to trade Mike Lowell and not trade Mike Lowell at the same time? If you’re the Red Sox, apparently you can.

Leave it to the Red Sox to turn an otherwise mundane matter into a game of hot potato. With Lowell playing the role of the Sox' proverbial potato, to date Boston has had no luck dropping the five-time all-star third baseman. Instead, the 2007 World Series MVP continues to keep landing right back into the Sox’ hot little hands. This, after a recent deal to trade Lowell to the Texas Rangers in exchange for rookie prospect Max Ramirez went up in smoke when it was revealed Lowell would require surgery on his ailing right thumb.

It’s pretty clear that the Red Sox are through with Lowell, as evidenced by their most recent attempt to move the injury-plagued corner man to Texas. Coming off a season in which he was slowed by a balky hip that required surgery last offseason, Lowell still managed to put up OK numbers batting .209 with 17 home runs and 75 RBI. Lowell’s numbers nearly mirrored his 2008 season — the first of a three-year $38 million contract — with the Sox, who awarded Lowell the extension following his 21 homers and career-high 120 RBI effort in 2007.

Now, after what are soon to be two surgeries later, Lowell enters the final year of his contract still a Red Sox — something arguably GM Theo Epstein and company weren’t expecting. Not with free agents Adrian Beltre and San Diego Adrian Gonzalez both still available, and journeyman Casey Kotchman slated — for now — to start at first and Kevin Youkilis taking over at third.

Quite simply, there’s nowhere to put Lowell, who will have plenty of veteran company on the bench with catcher Jason Varitek having more-or-less agreed to backup Victor Martinez, while Tim Wakefield may lose his starting job now that John Lackey is aboard. The Red Sox may enter 2010 with the deepest bench in MLB.

So much for a rejuvinated offense

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sport Staff

Yes, Sox fans. It was as ugly as it seemed.

In the six-game embarasment that was the Red Sox' last road trip, they found pretty much every concievable way to lose a ballgame.

But in pretty much all of them, there was one common theme - an extreme lack off offense. And as bad as it looked, when you mull over the numbers, it's enough to make a grown man cry.

Let's start with the basics. The Red Sox managed to score a whopping 16 runs on 39 hits over the six-game stretch. Now remember that two of those games went into extras, so in reality, Boston scored 16 runs in 64 innings. Average that out and the Red Sox scored once every four innings. You can't win ballgames that way. Not against good teams.

Who can you blame? How about everybody? As a team, the Red Sox batted a dismal .176, accumulating just 39 hits in 222 at bats. At the top of the order, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia were unproductive. The leadoff hittter batted .233, while the former MVP was just a shade better at .240. But wait, it gets worse. Here's a list of the Red Sox' key players who laid eggs in the pivotal series.

Victor Martinez: 6-for-26 (.231)
Kevin Youkilis: 5-for-23 (.217)
J.D. Drew: 4-for-19 (.210)
Mike Lowell: 2-for-13 (.154)
David Ortiz: 1-for-18 (.056)
Jason Varitek: 1-for-19 (.053)

Jason Bay was absent for most of the week because of a re-aggravated hamstring injury, but he went 2-for-8, extending his horrible post-All-Star slump. He's now batting .204 since the Midsummer Classic. (In the process, he's become a statistical enigma of sorts. He is slugging just .296, but stil has an on-base percentage of .377 in that time.)

The road trip was one of the worst stretches of offense in Red Sox history, including a scoreless streak of 31 straight innings. At least they avoided getting shut out in back-to-back-to-back games for the first time since 1981.

Say what you will about John Smoltz. The rest of the starting pitching in either series was good enough that they could have won. Jon Lester was superb in both of his starts. Josh Beckett was dominant through seven innings in his start against the Yankees. Clay Buchholz was less than spectacular, but still wriggled his way through six inning to put the Red Sox into a decent position in game three of the Yankees series. Brad Penny did not pitch well, but five runs is not exactly disastrous.

Some could point to the bullpen being the problem, having been tagged with the loss in three of the six games and some of the blame could be placed on it, but consider how much they have had to pitch over those last six games and it's not hard to see that they miss having a long man like Justin Masterson (though I doubt anyone would be willing to hand Victor Martinez back). And had the Red Sox been able to muster anything more than nine hits in the combined 28 innings of the two extra-inning games they played, maybe, just maybe those games could have been a lot shorter.

You have to also tip your cap to the opposing pitchers, especially the Yankees, but some of the blame has to fall on what was supposed to be one of the better, most balanced lineups in baseball. Now the Red Sox sit at a .262 batting average as a team, planting them behind the Seattle Mariners in that department. That's just not going to do it for a team that wants to hold onto its postseason dreams.

Ortiz still has a lot more to prove

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

Another home run for David Ortiz.

That makes six on the year and five in June with eight games left in the month.

So as the weather gets hotter, will Ortiz's bat follow suit? His recent production would suggest yes, but this is one fan that remains skeptical.

The Red Sox need Ortiz to produce in the DH spot for one reason more than any - they don't have anyone to replace him with. No one on the bench or in Pawtucket could provide the kind of offense you desire at the designated hitter position, otherwise, you have to think they at least you have been given a look at this point.

So many fans have come to the conclusion that the Red Sox don't need Ortiz because the team has managed to be successful thus far without him. Jason Bay has been an RBI machine. Kevin Youkilis has thrived in the three spot. Most importantly, the Red Sox are in first place and still winning.

But what happens if things go wrong? Mike Lowell, who has played a major part in helping people forget Ortiz's struggles, now has sat out two games with discomfort in his surgically repaired hip. Losing a valuable guy has to make you start thinking, "What if?"

What if Bay hits a prolonged slump? What if Youkilis goes down or Lowell needs to miss significant time? Or there are other less dramatic questions. For instance, what if Nick Green remembers he's the guy who didn't have a job this time last year? What if the Red Sox will need offensive production from other means.

Ortiz has to be that guy. The DH cannot be a hole in the batting order.

His recent success has to give you hope, but at the same time, can we count on Ortiz to be David Ortiz when it really counts? He's connecting when he was missing and he's hit some mistakes out of the ballpark. But when it comes down to it, can Ortiz still hack it against the best of the best as he'd be called upon to do if/when the Red Sox make the postseason?

He's still late on a good fastball and still looks confused at times. You have to hope if you're a Sox fan that this will continue to improve as he gets more comfortable. But at the same time, you have to realize that all season this has not looked like the David Ortiz fans have come to know and love. Something is off and sometimes big, aging ballplayers just lose something, especially ones coming off of injury. He just might not make it back to become "our" David Ortiz ever again.