Rant time:
The Boston Red Sox, as it stands, are not going to the playoffs this year.
1.) Manny Ramirez. Manny's latest antics are mostly due to the fact that there's no way the Sox are picking up his $20 million option. Now he's publicly firing at the team, faking injuries, and dogging it. I'm glad the Sox called him out on his bullshit and had MRIs done on both knees, of course revealing that they were fine. Now, Theo has announced that he's willing to listen to offers for Manny. With the Trade Deadline approaching Thursday, the odds that Theo manages to deal him and his gigantic contract are really slim, especially where he's a 10/5 guy and can veto a trade to any team.
Any way you cut it, Manny has to realize he's not the 30 HR, 100 RBI guy he used to be. He's being outproduced by Xavier Nady, for crying out loud. Part of me wants the Sox to deal him now, but then he'll probably go to the Mets for Aaron Heilman and a pupu platter of horrible prospects. If they stick the season out with him, he'll walk at the end of the season, and they'll probably get compensatory draft picks.
It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation with him, and the fact that he's holding the team hostage sucks... especially when guys like JD Drew have worked so hard to live up to his contract, and Ortiz worked so hard to come back from an injury that was originally supposed to knock him out for the season.
Is Manny a major part of the breakdown? Absolutely, but there are still major problems.
2.) The situation at catcher - Jason Varitek is still unquestionably the captain of the team. That doesn't change the fact that since June, he's hitting below .175. That is in a word, pathetic. I still have no idea how he was voted an all-star. He's in the last year of his contract, and Scott Boras is his agent. I don't see him sticking around. The backup is Kevin Cash, a 30 year old journeyman who has been a serviceable replacement for Doug Mirabelli. He has no business ever being a full-time starter anywhere though. The minor leagues are full of catchers who will never be anything more than backups. There's a major problem here as well.
3.) Julio Lugo - Lugo's owed a shitload of money over the next two years. He's also been horrible for his two years here, between not hitting the ball, and not fielding the ball. I knew his signing was a major mistake from the start, and I've been right. Jed Lowrie has been doing great stepping in for Lugo, and he's ready to start for the Red Sox. It's easy to say that the Red Sox can just Renteria him out of town, but the problem with that is that Renteria was always an all-star player who seemed to just struggle in Boston. Lugo's always been mediocre at best. Getting rid of him is NOT going to be easy, regardless of how much salary the Sox eat.
4.) Starting Pitching - Josh Beckett is definitely having a down year after being the Cy Young runnerup (he should have won). He's not having a disastrous season like 2006, but it's still a cause for concern. Daisuke Matsuzaka is getting wins (11-1), but wins are a pretty worthless stat. He walks a shitload of guys, and the fact that he always escapes not allowing a lot of runs is mind-boggling. It's going to catch up with him sooner or later. Clay Buchholz is still a work in progress, Bartolo Colon is still injured, and Tim Wakefield is as out of control as his knuckleball is. Either he'll be great, or do awful (i.e. yesterday's game). Jon Lester has been our best starter.
5.) Relief Pitching Papelbon is fine. Okajima is having a problem with inherited runners, and isn't as dominant as he was last year. It's time to write Craig Hansen off as a bust. Mike Timlin really needs to fucking retire already. Manny Delcarmen was supposed to be making the leap to being an elite reliever this year, and it hasn't worked out. Justin Masterson was just converted to a reliever and still needs time to work out the kinks. David Aardsma and Javier Lopez are doing great jobs.
6.) The bottom of the lineup = Black hole I've already talked at length about Jason Varitek's problems. But Coco Crisp has been a major disappointment. He's never gotten things together since getting traded here, and I don't like him because he told me to "fuck off". Jacoby Ellsbury, after a really hot start, has severely cooled off.
The Red Sox are full of problems, and the Yankees are working on trying to make a run. With Nady, Marte, and most likely Jarrod Washburn, they're going to be a lot scarier down the stretch. The Rays are one trade away from being a major favorite in the AL. It's not like they don't have the minor league talent to move. If Theo stands pat, I see this season turning out a lot like 2006, a really hot start that leads absolutely nowhere.
And fuck Manny. He regressed and he has to deal with it.
