There were many reasons the Sox season ended as it did. A combination of bad offseason signing, injuries, age and bad luck all seemed to come together in the perfect storm of crappy baseball the last few weeks. If you asked any fan of the team they would tell you they could see this coming a long a way off. Baseball teams are a lot like bad movies: you can tell what you are going to be in for pretty quickly. When the team started slowly you got the impression that this was not going to be the juggernaut everyone anticipated. Even when they finally started rolling in the middle of the year no one ever got too comfortable as the Sox were way too reliant of guys like Josh Reddick and Darnell MacDonald. When you're payroll is north of $160 million, you shouldn't be starting guys who normally would be 4th outfielders.
I think it was the fact that they made it interesting is what makes today worse than normal. If they had just completely collapsed and not even made it interesting last evening then people could have just shrugged their shoulders and said that they were playing above their heads for most of the year. But the fact that for 98% of the night they were in control and everything that had to break their way was just makes their eventual elimination harder to take. Seriously, if you're going to rip someone's heart out at the end of the night, it's just plain cruel to take them dancing beforehand. [Sidebar: that being said, SportsCenter needs to shut the hell up about how depressed the state of Massachusetts is today. Yes, we're annoyed with this team, but no one is about to go throw themselves off the Tobin. We've won two World Series in the last decade to go along with 3 Super Bowl as well as NBA and NHL Championships. Boston sports fans are doing just fine, thank you very much. Why don't you go and interview a Rays fan, if you can find any.]
Now the question is where we go from here. First things first, I don't blame Terry Francona for this at all. There have been reports that he was managing for his job last night, but I don't know what more could be expected from him when he's asked to throw guys like Andrew Miller out there every couple of days because the rest of his starters are hurt. Baseball managers are a little like ship captains: they are only as good as the ship beneath their feet. All you can do is ask them not sink the boat and Francona did that. Frankly, the lack of depth on this team should fall on general manager Theo Epstein, but you haven't heard a peep about his job security (then again, you also aren't hearing those Chicago rumors anymore). I don't think Theo is incompetent, but I do think he needs to take a long look in the mirror before he thinks about handing out pink slips.
As for the rest of the team, I expect a lot of roster turn-over. This will probably be the end of the road for veterans Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek. I know you don't want to mess with a team that just won 90 games too much, but I think it's pretty clear they need some bullpen reinforcements and starting pitching. Also, I don't want to hear ownership complaining about lack of funds. A lot of contracts are coming off the books following this year. The experiment that was Dice-K is officially over, as should be the Red Sox career of J.D. Drew. The big question mark is David Ortiz. Something tells me he still expects to be paid like the Ortiz of 2006 and that just shouldn't happen. I don't see a National League team signing him and if I hope he doesn't expect the Yankees to start a bidding war over him, because they have plenty of guys who can hit for power while playing questionable defense. I have a sinking feeling he's gone, probably to Anaheim.
So, all in all, this year was a wasted opportunity. Given their record against the teams that did make the playoffs the Red Sox should have fared much better then they did. Yes, they faced obstacles along the way, but nothing worse than any other team had to deal with and they had better resources than most to combat them. All they can do is move on and start planning for next season. However, if you're banging your head against the wall today, I want to remind you there is a silver lining to this whole thing: you get to go the rest of the year without having to hear Tim McCarver once. If you can remember that when you start to think about all the missed opportunities in September, it will almost make last night worth it.
Now the question is where we go from here. First things first, I don't blame Terry Francona for this at all. There have been reports that he was managing for his job last night, but I don't know what more could be expected from him when he's asked to throw guys like Andrew Miller out there every couple of days because the rest of his starters are hurt. Baseball managers are a little like ship captains: they are only as good as the ship beneath their feet. All you can do is ask them not sink the boat and Francona did that. Frankly, the lack of depth on this team should fall on general manager Theo Epstein, but you haven't heard a peep about his job security (then again, you also aren't hearing those Chicago rumors anymore). I don't think Theo is incompetent, but I do think he needs to take a long look in the mirror before he thinks about handing out pink slips.
As for the rest of the team, I expect a lot of roster turn-over. This will probably be the end of the road for veterans Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek. I know you don't want to mess with a team that just won 90 games too much, but I think it's pretty clear they need some bullpen reinforcements and starting pitching. Also, I don't want to hear ownership complaining about lack of funds. A lot of contracts are coming off the books following this year. The experiment that was Dice-K is officially over, as should be the Red Sox career of J.D. Drew. The big question mark is David Ortiz. Something tells me he still expects to be paid like the Ortiz of 2006 and that just shouldn't happen. I don't see a National League team signing him and if I hope he doesn't expect the Yankees to start a bidding war over him, because they have plenty of guys who can hit for power while playing questionable defense. I have a sinking feeling he's gone, probably to Anaheim.
So, all in all, this year was a wasted opportunity. Given their record against the teams that did make the playoffs the Red Sox should have fared much better then they did. Yes, they faced obstacles along the way, but nothing worse than any other team had to deal with and they had better resources than most to combat them. All they can do is move on and start planning for next season. However, if you're banging your head against the wall today, I want to remind you there is a silver lining to this whole thing: you get to go the rest of the year without having to hear Tim McCarver once. If you can remember that when you start to think about all the missed opportunities in September, it will almost make last night worth it.
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