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.

Does Boston have the arms to make the playoffs?

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

It's really sad to see.

The team that was said of have one of the best pitching staffs in the game heading into the season is now relying on Clay Buchholz and Junichi Tazawa to get into the playoffs.

Remember when nothing made you more confident than to look at the Red Sox' rotation heading into a pivotal series? It seems a million years ago. Brad Penny didn't look so bad when he was your fifth starter. Now he's your third and lo and behold, the Red Sox are being left in the dust in the AL East and now trail in the Wild Card race.

Josh Beckett and Jon Lester have been all that you would expect them to be. Beckett has to be one of the favorites for the Cy Young award, especially with his current tear. He's 7-1 in his last 10 starts with a 1.93 ERA. Clearly he has done everything you could ask of your ace. Lester, likewise, has looked more than solid. He hasn't earned a decision in his last four starts, but has only allowed nine runs in 24.6 innings (3.29 ERA) in that span.

But Penny has been simply atrocious basically since the All-Star break. He's won just one of his six starts and dropped four with an ERA north of 6.50 after making Theo Epstein look like a genius over the first half of the season, especially when June rolled along. Perhaps the whiplash is getting to him, as he's allowed seven post-All-Star homers after giving up just 10 taters in 17 starts to begin the year.

Buchholz has done nothing to give Sox fans a warm and fuzzy feeling. He's learning the hard way once again that there's a major difference between AAA hitters and major league ones. Yes, he's been left out to dry in his last two starts by zero run support, but he's very lucky he hasn't gotten blown up with that 20/19 K/BB ratio. In fact, he's failed to strike out more batters than he's walked in each of his last three outings.

Tazawa has been placed in one tough position after another. Ok, go hold off the Yankees in extra innings in your first big-league appearance. Ok, go beat the Tigers on the road. Ok, help us hold the lead in the Wild Card against Texas. The kid has 20 professional appearances before being called up and while people have raved about his talent (though he has been overshadowed by Buchholz and Michael Bowden), he's still a green 23-year-old. Expect a lot more where today's outing came from against quality opponents (5 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 3BB, 0K).

Is this team and its postseason hopes fading away as its pitching staff falls apart? John Smoltz was an epic failure. You can't blame the organization for taking a gamble on a future Hall-of-Famer, but you can question their decision not to hold him out for longer, even when he complained. Anyone counting on Daisuke Matsuzaka needs to step away from the pipe and head to their nearest N.A. meeting. It seems ridiculous to say, but at this point, the Red Sox desperately need Tim Wakefield and unfortunately, he's still limping around.

Two pitchers does not a rotation make and at this point, that is what the Red Sox have to work with.

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.

Beckett: Don't worry, bullpen. I got this one

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

It was all too fitting.

A day after the Boston bullpen blew up once again, Josh Beckett did what you'd expect an ace to do. He picked up the Red Sox on his back and int he process, picked up his 100th career win.

The Red Sox bullpen has been one of the best for most of the first half, but they've also been one of the most overworked. Justin Masterson is on pace to throw over 120 innings after throwing just 153.1 over his first two seasons (that included 15 starts). Hideiki Okajima is on pace to excede his career high in innings, as is Ramon Ramirez. Jonathan Papelbon is on pace to surpass them both.

It's not because the Red Sox have decided to add more innings to their games. Daisuke Matsuzaka averaged just 4.1 innings per start before going on the DL with "shoulder weakness," otherwise known as leaving batting practice fastballs over the plate. Brad Penny, as good as he's been lately (3.44 ERA since the beginning of June), has averaged just about 5.2 innings per start. John Smoltz hasn't gone more than five innings since coming off the DL. Jon Lester has come around, but going seven innings was a struggle for him over the first two months of the season.

The All-Star break seems to be coming at just the right time for the Sox' pen, which is showing signed of weakeness over the past month or so. They still have the best ERA among American League bullpens, but over the last month, they have been strictly mediocre.

After watching them give up a combined six runs over the final three innings of last night's game, Beckett decided to give the pen a night off.

Beckett dominated over nine shutout innings, allowing just three hits. He struck out seven, including four of the first five batters he faced and threw 66 of his 94 pitches for strikes. That's right, folks. He needed just 94 pitches to go nine innings.

The shutout was the second of the season and his second in his last five games. Over that span, he's gone nine innings twice and seven innings twice and 6.2 innings once. He's not only eating innings, but he's being the guy he needs to be - a sure-fire winner. The righty is 4-0 and Red Sox are 5-0 over those five starts.

What's more, Beckett has a with a 1.63 ERA in those games. It's just scary.

When this guy's on, he's untouchable. The Red Sox need to hope he can keep being that guy.

Morrow's better off starting, but not like this

Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

It's been a long, long time since Brandon Morrow had himself a decision. It's been even longer since that decision has been a victory

Morrow's season has been very much a strange one and while the Mariners are doing the right thing in making him a starter, they're doing it in all the wrong ways. They should have committed to Morrow as a starter at the end of last year and had him conditioning for the position during the offseason. Instead, even though he has constantly said he wants to be a starter, the Marriners made him their closer again this year. Then Morrow played the good teammate and said he was happy relieving. It was only after he struggled, went on the disabled list, came back, struggled again and ultimately lost his job to David Aardsma did the M's consider him for a starting spot when he went begging to them to allow him to start.

What should have happened is a prolonged trip to AAA Tacoma to build up arm strength. Instead, he spent a whole four days in AAA, then was brought up to the majors. He's been a mess since.

Going into today's game against the Red Sox, Morrow had had four starts, going 16.2 innings (an average of just over four per start), allowing nine runs. He's walked 11, while striking out 18. Not an incredible ratio.

Today's start was his most encouraging as he went six innings, allowing three runs in six innings. Most importantly, he walked only one. Still, is this the way you want to break a promising young pitcher into starting in the big leagues? Have him struggle through five or six innings per start for a team that can't promise to win a game for him? Seems more like a way to destroy a pitcher's confidence than anything to me.

Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of moving Morrow to the rotation. I am one who believes Jonathan Papelbon would be a sure-fire ace if the Red Sox had inserted him in the rotation as they had originally planned going into the 2007 season. There was a time when Papelbon was considered a superior starting pitching option than any the Red Sox had in their farm system, including Jon Lester. Sure, he's topped the Red Sox' saves list, but I am a firm believer that saves are a vastly overrated stat (Holds and range factor top the list of overrated stats).

Having one of your best pitchers pitching one inning in a game you hold a three-run lead in is just a waste if you ask me. There are a lot of guys who can protect a three-run lead for an inning.

It's too late for Papelbon. He's too firmly entrenched as the closer for the Red Sox. For Morrow, it's not too late, but the Mariners just aren't going about it the right way.