The 2012 season, may it rest in peace, was by far the worst I can remember being a witness to in a very long time. I’m sort of really tired of talking about just how much it did suck so this will be my last post about the miserableness of the last six months. I hope. I vow to now look forward to 2013 and what kind of magical rabbits the Sox brass will pull out of the hat to make sure “last place” are words I never have to utter (or type, for that matter) next season.

So here’s my short recap, Clint-style:

The Good

• Not much.
• Big Papi’s resurgence pre-injury. He was by far the most consistent force on the team for the 90 games he participated in. Playing for a contract will do that for you.
• The Red Sox pulling a fast one on the LA Dodgers and unloading $250 million in payroll.
• Not having to worry about Theo being there to spend that extra $250 million all in one place.
• The introduction of Will Middlebrooks. Hi, Will!

The Bad

• Everything.
• Injuries, injuries, injuries. The Sox used a record 56 players over the season.
• Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse — having a September almost identical to the colossal collapse of September of 2011.
• Bobby Valentine’s mismanagement of every aspect of the team and the player’s lack of respect for him.
• The injury ending Will Middlebrooks’ promising season. Bye, Will!

The Ugly

• Finishing last place in the division with a 69-93.
• The players’ whiny bitch attitude over the decisions of their new manager.
• Struggling starting rotation with not one pitcher having more than 11 wins.
• Will Middlebrooks going down with an injury just six weeks after Kevin Youkilis is traded leaving the team floundering for a third baseman.
• Bobby Valentine being a total fruitcake… enough said.

And that, my friends, concludes my recap of the 2012 Boston Red Sox season — one which makes me long for short-term memory loss so I never have to think about it again.

Dice K (c/o Keith Allison, Flickr.com)

I’d bet ten bucks Mr. Theo Epstein has quite a big smile on his face after his Cubs blanked the Red Sox this afternoon 3-0 at Wrigley Field. Actually, if I were more of a gambler, I’d probably bet a thousand, but I’m cheap. Going into this series, I’ll admit I was maybe a bit too confident. Coming off a two-game win streak, I thought maybe…just maybe…they could continue with the strong pitching and hot bats. I was wrong.

Daisuke Matsuzaka made his second start of the season and things were looking bad when he walked the bases loaded in the first. He then gave up a two-run double and that’s really all the Cubbies needed. Overall, Dice K pitched a pretty ok game after the first. He went six innings and gave up three runs on four hits (and three walks — those walks’ll kill ya.)

The problem was that Cubs’ pitcher Ryan Dempster was outstanding, blanking the Sox on just four singles. Scott Podsednik was really the only batter who had any success getting two of those four hits. And Dempster helped himself at the plate going 2 for 2 with a triple and a run scored.

The highlight of the game for me was a great play in the seventh inning when Scott Atchison came in to relieve Dice K. Tony Campana attempted a bunt for a base hit and while David Ortiz charged to field the ball, Scott Atchison sprinted to first base. Ortiz led him perfectly to the bag with a perfect toss. He just beat the head first slide of Campana. But yeah, other than that, the highlights were pretty nonexistent.

On another note: on the latest episode of “As the Injuries Turn,” Josh Beckett has been scratched from Sunday’s start with shoulder inflamation. Are we sure it’s not head inflamation from thinking so highly of himself? Whatever is inflamed, Franklin Morales has been slated to take Beckett’s start. After his scoreless 4.1 inning performance in early June in relief of Daniel Bard, I have great confidence in his ability too give us some quality innings.

Click here for the pretty uninspiring box score, courtesy of the Red Sox. Jon Lester takes the hill tomorrow night for a prime time, nationally televised game. Really? Two last place teams?

Oh well… go Sox.

The Boston Red Sox head to Chicago to open a set with the Cubs tonight.  The Red Sox are probably the most underachieving team in baseball this year, and the Cubs are literally the worst team in baseball so far this season.  Normally, this matchup wouldn’t really garner a lot of fan interest, let alone a nationally-televised broadcast.  But this series is turning heads because of Theo Epstein, the dashing young general manager who revamped the Red Sox for their championship run, and then turned tail and fled to Chicago after last September’s collapse and chicken-and-beer disaster.

The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy published a very revealing Q & A with Epstein.  A few impressions from the interview:

1.  This interview took place at the Starbucks on Route 9 in Chestnut Hill.  I know that Starbucks!  I met with my wedding photographer there.  The parking lot is tiny, and it’s hard to find a spot.  Why would they meet there?  Maybe if you’re Theo Epstein, the cars part for you and there’s just parking everywhere you look?

2.  Epstein calls the photo that the Chicago Sun-Times published of him walking across Lake Michigan on Opening Day “beyond ridiculous.”  He’s trying to protect himself here, by saying that he’s really not a miracle worker (yeah, no kidding, say the Sox, currently saddled with some of the worst free-agent contracts in baseball).  He also calls the Chicago fan base calmer, quotes a “Midwestern sensibility,” and notes that Cubs fans understand that building a winning team takes patience.

3.  Theo is still a Red Sox fan.  I mean, he grew up here, he worked for Boston, and he knows the people running the team now.  This is probably the least surprising update on Theo Epstein, like, ever.

4.  He rambles for a while about the compensation issue.  Essentially, he says it wasn’t as big a deal as the media made it out to be (welcome to Boston, Theo!), but that the September collapse threw all these issues into an even sharper relief that didn’t help matters.

5.  Theo excuses his terrible free-agent signings, and weakly tells Shaughnessy that the Red Sox had the best drafting program of the decade.  I’m not even sure that’s true.  There’s a difference between having prospects that are good, and having prospects that are hyped.  Sure, a lot of Red Sox minor leaguers have become good MLB players – so have a lot of Yankee minor leaguers.  Plus, I don’t see how saying that you’re good at drafting players answers for the millions of dollars of salary wasted on free agents that don’t/can’t play.

Anyway.  The series kicks off today with a 2:20 start at Wrigley, when Diasuke Matsuzaka (free agent signing, 0-1, 7.20 ERA) takes on Ryan Dempster (2-3, 2.31 ERA).  Saturday, Jon Lester takes on Jeff Samardzija (Jeff Samardzija!  I remember him playing football at Notre Dame, very Tim Riggins-ish!) and Sunday, Josh Beckett closes it out against Paul Maholm.

I think WordPress is a Marlins fan. I’ve been trying for 36 hours to write a post about the Red Sox pitching magic over the Marlins the past two games and WordPress hasn’t allowed me to get in. Therefore, I deduce they all must be Miami lovers. It’s quite a coincidence that after the series is over, I magically get in to post… right? But I digress…

I feel like I should be more excited about the progress of this team over the past two games in Miami. The pitching has been stellar and the offense (at least last night) really stepped up to the plate. Literally. So why these feelings of distaste and loathing for a team I’ve loved so much for my whole life?

You can’t blame the current state of the team entirely on injuries. Sure, Jacoby Ellsbury probably would’ve made some big contributions, but you can’t rely on him. He’s proved to us over the past few years that you don’t want to put all your eggs in his basket. He’s fragile. And you honestly can’t tell me (at least with a straight face) that Carl Crawford and/or John Lackey would’ve made a lick of difference either. If anything, I think this team is better without Lackey’s seemingly bad attitude and Crawford’s low self-esteem.

They youngsters that have come up from the minors to fill those injury-plagued positions have been nothing short of amazing. So really, who is chomping at the bit to get these guys back? Not me. A few of the veteran pick-ups — more specifically Ryan Sweeney and Scott Podsednik — have been outstanding. David Ortiz is having one of his best seasons in forever. Jarrod Saltalamacchia has turned his season around and is a force to be reckoned with at the plate.

Then it dawned on me the other day. This 2012 Red Sox team lacks heart and that makes me sad. I have a sneaking suspicion that when Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek retired this past off-season, they took the heart with them. We need to get it back! For the love of baseball, will someone please cowboy up and get this team excited. Where’s Kevin Millar when you need him?

Tuesday night, Clay Buccholz stymied the Miami Marlins bats, beating them 2-1 and improving to 7-2 on the season. In seven innings, he scattered five hits and allowed just one earned run while striking out nine Marlins batters. Remember all that bad stuff I said about him earlier in the season? Yeah, just kidding. Sort of. He’s been nothing short of lights out in June. Buccholz is 3-0 this month and has lasted an average of eight innings per outing, has struck out 22 total and allowed just three runs over those three games. Color me impressed. Click here for said “lights out” box score courtesy of the Red Sox.

Wednesday night, it was Felix Doubront’s turn to try and one-up Buccholz. Felix had a no hitter through nearly six innings, finishing his seven-inning outing surrendering just three hits and two runs and striking out nine. He’s now 7-3 on the season. The offense came through and scored more runs in this game than they had in the previous three games combined. The one through four hitters (Podsednik, Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez and Ortiz) combined to go 9 for 17 scoring six runs and knocking in seven. Not to mention, the Sox scored six runs in the eighth to really put the game out of reach. Click here for the hit parade box score courtesy of the Red Sox.

The Sox get a night off tonight before making the trip to the windy city to see old friend Theo Epstein’s Cubs (who, by the way, have the worst record in all of major league baseball.) Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-1, 7.20) takes the mound on Friday for a matinee game, trying to get his first win in a very long time.

Sorry about the headline – I couldn’t resist.

Check this out: as of June 3, the Boston Red Sox were officially out of the AL East basement:

Exciting – take THAT, Toronto Blue Jays!  The New York Yankees are only a half game ahead, and lately New York couldn’t hit its way out of a paper bag with RISP.  The Red Sox pitching finally seems to be shaping up, the bullpen is sorting itself out, and the lauded hitters are, well, hitting laudably.  Even some rookies and unknowns have started to step up and help the club out.  Most recently, Clay Buchholz and Felix Doubront led the Sox to wins over the (last-place, snicker) Blue Jays with dazzling outings, and unexpected offensive outbursts from the likes of Daniel Nava and Nick Punto put the Sox over the top.  Kevin Youkilis is back, Dustin Pedroia sounds like he’ll play on Tuesday, and even Daisuke Matsuzaka’s had a promising rehab stint in Pawtucket on Thursday.

Daniel Bard will try for the series sweep today.  He’s won his last four decisions.

So, things look pretty darn good in the Nation.  Ben Cherington?  Genius!  Bobby Valentine?  A master of strategery.  Even Wally the Green Monster looks a little more plush these days.

Now granted, this could all turn around again quickly.  The Boston media is ruthless, the Sox have some tough series coming up (Orioles, Nationals, Marlins, and then a showdown with Theo Epstein’s Cubs…).  If Alfredo Aceves blows a save, Adrian Gonzalez grounds into a few double plays, or Youkilis loses his hot bat again, then the mood around here will turn from glass half full to glass half empty quicker than you can say “fourth place… that means we’re only better than one other team in our division, right?”  The histrionics of Red Sox fans and Red Sox media, both optimistic and pessimistic, should never, ever, be underestimated.

But for now, Sox fans, let’s enjoy this moment.  In the past year, we’ve gone from the team that was supposed to win 100 games, to the team that collapsed and missed the playoffs, to the team that lost its manager and its general manager, to the team that took a chance on a green general manager and a has-been manager, to the team with no closer, to the team with no bullpen, to the team with no pitching, to the team with no hitting, to… this incarnation.  A team with some good pitching, a basically reliable, if patched-together, bullpen, and an offense that can string a few hits together.

It seems like now, finally, for some reason, the Sox have a fighting chance at this thing.  Maybe this is how baseball’s supposed to be.  If you won games on paper, there’d be no such things as baseball stadiums.  If you won championships in the off-season, then fantasy baseball would just be called baseball.  Sure, fourth place isn’t really that amazing – but it feels so much better than fifth, and this team feels so much better than fourth.

I guess we should have seen this one coming.  Former Red Sox player Curt Schilling and current Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, two of baseball’s most well-known and most outspoken personalities, have finally stopped careening past each other and have finally settled into the same orbit.  Problem is, the orbit doesn’t exactly seem heavenly.

The most dynamic picture on the internet of Curt Schilling talking. c/o clinicaltrialpartnershipsblog.com

Schilling – the dominant pitcher and instant Red Sox legend who hung up his spikes for an ESPN gig – had some choice words on Baseball Tonight when asked about the Daniel-Bard-as-starter effort: “Mismanaged on an epically horrible scale,” Schilling said.

Ooh.  Epically horrible scale?  Really?  That was, to quote the movie Clueless (which I firmly believe, even as a 30-something year old grown up woman, to be one of the best movies of all time), way harsh, Tai.  Epically horrible?  Epically?  I see how maybe some things could be tweaked, some expectations could be modified, and so forth, but epically horrible?  It’s not like Bobby Valentine’s broken Daniel Bard.  In fact, Bard pitched a smooth outing against the Twins today, allowing three runs on six hits over six innings, with three walks and seven strikeouts.  That’s a quality start – I’ll take that from a fourth or fifth starter any day of the week.

But, wait!  There’s more.  Schilling also made the rounds at WEEI this week, announcing to listeners that Valentine’s approach was already starting to wear thin in the clubhouse:

“I thought that the manager that managed the Mets, that I was not a big fan of, now was going to be a different manager.  And I don’t think there’s anything different at all.  And, I don’t think that’s going to be conducive to doing well here.  There are a lot of things I think that are happening not just from his perspective, but when you talk to these guys – and I’m still talking to some of these guys – I don’t think this is going well.  And I think it’s going bad quicker than I had expected it to.”

Schilling summed up his thoughts thusly: “I always feel like Bobby’s trying to reinvent the game.  I don’t think players have ever responded well to that.”

Here’s the thing: Schilling, for all his loudmouthing, generally knows what he’s talking about when it comes to baseball.  After all, he is a professional baseball analyst, and used to be a professional baseball player.  So if Curt Schilling, a former pitcher and future Hall of Famer, wants to opine about why the Sox are mismanaging Daniel Bard’s development, I think us hoi polloi should probably listen.  And, if Curt Schilling wants to explain to the masses why maybe a new manager – especially one with the outsize personality of Bobby Valentine, he of mustachioed renegade fame – should lay a little low during his first season in a fragile clubhouse, I think we should at least consider his point of view.

The problem here, that’s been pointed out extensively by the Boston media, is that during his own Boston days, Curt Schilling constantly railed on reporters that claimed to know anything about anything related to the team’s chemistry, the team’s clubhouse atmosphere, or anything that happened somewhere other than on a baseball diamond in front of thousands of fans.

In fact, when reporters asked Josh Beckett to respond to Schilling’s comments, Beckett simply, quietly, yet almost staggeringly elegantly said:

“I haven’t seen him around this year.  Is he one of our pitchers?”

I put that short, sweet quote in the special “quote” format, just because it’s so awesome.  Josh Beckett, you come off as ornery, intimidating, and quite possibly on the downside of your career, but your zingers will always keep me coming back for more.

A few other pitching tidbits: the Sox saw strong performances from Alfredo Aceves and Felix Doubront yesterday.  Aceves went six innings against Toronto, allowing only one earned run and striking out four.  Meanwhile, Doubront faced a minor-league Twins lineup for six innings, pulling off a two-hit shutout.

And, Not That Chris Carpenter – the player that got sent over from the Chicago Cubs as Theo Epstein compensation – has bone spurs in his pitching elbow.  He had surgery yesterday, and nobody’s yet said when he expects to return.  The Red Sox are playing it off like the bone spurs are a new injury (which, given that they had access to his medical records, they kind of have to do to save face).  But, Trusted Internet Resource webmd informs me that bone spurs form due to repeated stress that occurs over a long period of time.  I’m sure that pitching constitutes repeated stress over a long period of time – so maybe the Red Sox didn’t notice anything unusual in the records, because maybe there wasn’t anything unusual in the records.  But at the end of the day, it’s kind of a bummer, and definitely some lemon juice in the Theo wound.

Alfredo Aceves

How’s this for a striking contrast: the day after Daniel Bard coughed up seven runs and four walks in 2 and 2/3 innings in a loss to the Cardinals, the Yankees signed veteran postseason ace Andy Pettitte to a minor-league deal?  Total number of potential Yankees starting pitchers: seven.  Total number of potential Red Sox starting pitchers, including Bard: three?  maybe four?  Hmm.  The Yankees have a luxury stable of pitching, and the Red Sox might scramble just to put together a rotation.  We are the 99%, Red Sox Nation.

Well, maybe that’s a slight over-reaction.  Bard’s still pretty new to the starting pitching game, and he’s making his adjustments.  But still, he looked lost out there – he even messed up backing up third base on a throw from the outfield.  It definitely wasn’t pretty, that’s for sure.  Bright side: Alfredo Aceves (another lingering starting rotation option) went four strong, and upstart Pedro Ciriaco and Darnell McDonald each went 2 for 2 with 2 RBI.

In other news, the Sox got their player to be named later from the Theo Epstein Compensation Saga.  Right-handed reliever Aaron Kurcz reported to Red Sox camp today following a season with the Cubs’ A-ball Daytona affiliate, where he went 5-4 with a 3.28 ERA. The Sox will send their own player to be named later to the Cubs before the start of the regular season.

Back to Andy Pettitte for a second: the 240-game winner came out of retirement to pitch this year.  It’s a minor-league deal, but the Yankees have a great insurance policy in him: unless his skills have fallen off a cliff, they can use him to win 10 or 12 games in the dog days of summer.  Plus, he’s one of, if not the best, postseason pitcher in modern baseball history.  A larger question is, can the Red Sox keep up with that, especially in an always-competitive AL East?  Boston’s personnel seemed impressed, at least.  According to Peter Abraham at the Boston Globe, Josh Beckett was shocked, David Ortiz advocated for a Hall of Fame slot for Pettitte, and Bobby Valentine said that the Yankees front office was “doing good.”

I want to think that these Red Sox will win games, compete in the division, and make the postseason.  Things like Jacoby Ellsbury’s comeback and Carl Crawford’s continued promise make me think they will.  But at the same time, there’s still no sense of who Boston’s five starters are; there’s a new manager; there’s a new general manager; and two of the old pillars of the team retired (although, given Pettitte’s return, maybe Wakefield will make a dramatic, triumphant return to Fenway?).  It’s pretty rare that we can look at a team and just have No Idea how they’ll do.  But I feel like this is one of those teams – they could be great, or they could be mediocre.  I just don’t know.

The Theo Epstein Compensation Issue is over, folks!  The Boston Globe reported today that the Chicago Cubs will give up their 13th-ranked prospect, relief pitcher Chris Carpenter, in exchange for Boston’s former general manager.  Both teams will also give up a player to be named later.

The subject Chris Carpenter is, as the Globe so eloquently puts it, “not the more established starter by the same name who plays for the Cardinals.”

No kidding.  This Chris Carpenter is a 26-year old righty who has lodged ten major league appearance for Chicago.  He has a high-90s fastball but, apparently, also has some control issues.

I mean, let’s see how he does, I guess.  I’m not expecting greatness from Not That Chris Carpenter, but another bullpen option won’t hurt.

He looks happy to be here...right? Photo: USA Today

Now that 2011 is behind me, I’d like to take this first day of the new year to reflect on some of my favorite Red Sox moments from last year. I’m normally not a big reflector, but that late season implosion nearly made me forget all the good stuff that happened.

July: When was the last time the Sox had a 20-6 record in July? What? You don’t remember? Because the last time was never. It was one of those things I wasn’t quite aware of while it was happening. But then I just couldn’t remember when they last lost. And when all was said and done, the team that started the season a dismal 2-10 in early April, finished the month with a .769 winning percentage, capping their best July in club history.
» Continue reading “My Favorite Red Sox Moments of 2011″

When I heard the news that Theo Epstein had signed a 5 year deal with the Chicago Cubs, I was surprisingly okay with it. I loved Theo just as much as the next Boston fan in the early days — hometown boy makes it big — but as his failures continued to pile up, I became more and more disgruntled. It wasn’t until recently that I actually took a step back and looked at all the horrific free agent deals Theo had spearheaded during his nine year tenure as the Red Sox GM. Once I did, I actually felt good about the move. Maybe even ecstatic.
» Continue reading “5 Reasons I’m Not Sad to See Theo Leave”