You're being too hard on Beckett. He's had some very good (and some not so good) years. Tough to tell how much of his bad performance was injury related. Other than that, I agree with you. Don't forget how much the bullpen sucked, too. Letting John (and Theo Epstein) explain this year on injuries is too convenient.
________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ray Salemi Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 2:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: The Injury Inconsistency Well, John is totally blaming the injuries. But I'm blaming the pitchers. I'm sorry, but when you score the 2nd most runs in the league you need to be in the running for the playoffs unless your pitching is faltering. And it was. But really, I never understood the whole "World Class Rotation" story: Dice-K -- A washout Beckett -- "Waiting for Beckett to be Beckett" has become a cliche Lackey -- Really, what was all the fuss about? Lester -- The man! Buckholz -- Also the man! Wakefield -- Spunky old guy. Was this really the rotation that was to take us to glory? Ray PS. Remember when "run prevention" and "defense" were the buzz words? On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:21 AM, Dan DiBiase <[email protected]> wrote: I'm not sure anyone is totally blaming injuries. Most of what is written is along the lines of 'injuries have hurt, but some pitchers haven't pitched to their potential' (read: Lackey, Beckett, Matsuzaka). For certain, the Sox would have been more of a contender if Beckett had his average season of 12 wins, 8 losses and ERA of 3.94. I mean, there are 8 more wins right there. Lackey is actually pretty much on his averages other than ERA, but his contract certainly made for higher expectations, rightly or wrongly. Dice-K - who knows what his average is, but expectations were much higher for him this year, given his apparent acceptance of the off-season conditioning program. And Wakefield has been awful and sure seems done, again not what was expected by most people. Thank God for Buchholtz and Lester. And the defense certainly hasn't been stellar either. Some of that is, of course, due to have back-ups and AAA players on the field a lot, which is, of course, caused by injuries.... Dan D Central NJ USA ________________________________ From: Ray Salemi <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wed, September 1, 2010 8:54:34 AM Subject: The Injury Inconsistency There is no doubt that injures will have cost the Sox something like 5 games this year (91 wins vs 96 perhaps). The narrative goes like this, "The Sox would have had a great season because of their pitching, but were decimated by injuries." The Sox were 9th out of 14 in ERA this year. So one should look at the list of injuries and expect to see a lot of pitchers. Here's what we see: Pitchers Injured Clay Buchholz (2 15d) DiceK (2 15d) Oki (1 15d) Beckett (1 d2d, 1 60d) Delcarman (1 15d) Lester(d2d) Players injured Beltre (d2d) Pedroia (d2d, 15d, d2d, 15d) Patterson(15d) JD Drew (d2d, d2d, d2d, d2d, d2d, d2d) Ellsbury (15d, 15d, d2d, 15d, 15d) Salty (15d) Veritek(season) Lowrie (60d) Hermida (15d) Cash (15d) Youk (d2d, d2d, d2d, season) Cameron(d2d, 15d, 15d) Lowell (15d) Martinez (d2d, 15d) So this team,built upon pitching, pitched very poorly. But it didn't have that many pitching injuries to point to. (And, despite all the injuries to players, the replacement players did a great job. The Sox are 2nd in Runs Scored.) So I think all this puts the lie to the idea that this season was lost due to injuries alone. If that were the case, one might just keep roughly the same team and try again next year. Instead, I think that this pitching focused organization failed in its primary strategy this year of delivering strong pitching, and that is the question that needs to be addressed in the off season. Ray -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:redsoxcitizens%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:redsoxcitizens%[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en. -- Author of "FPGA Simulation: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide" www.fpgasimulation.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en.
