It doesn't make for good copy, but yes, they failed repeatedly, they had injuries and they had bad luck.
Lackey just plain sucks, and did the whole year. Wakefield is old, and sucks, and over the past few years has sucked more the deeper into the season he went. Kyle Weiland has fifth-starter potential, but he's not ready, and he sucked. Andrew Miller was a good gamble, but he sucked like he has for most of his major league career. Erik Bedard is a capable starter with good stuff, but he missed a large chunk of the season with injury, came back without rehab, hurt himself again, then came back again down the stretch -- out of desperation, and again with no rehab -- and sucked. All of those guys certainly could have pitched better than they did in September, but they didn't. It was a confluence of suckiness. The loss of Buchholz was huge, taking away an above-average pitcher and replacing him with sub-average ones. What hurt the most down the stretch is that Lester and Beckett collapsed. That's the part that we couldn't foresee. I don't have the energy to look up the numbers, but I don't think that's been the history of Beckett and Lester. But I have a hard time blaming Curt Young's not watching their beer consumption as the problem. Both of those guys missed starts in September with injuries -- isn't it entirely possible that neither one was at 100 percent, but they rushed back due to the dire situation? I was actually worried about Lester most of the summer. He went on the DL with the strained Lat in July, and when he got back, Tito immediately insisted on riding him hard -- with big pitch counts -- even in games where the Sox had big leads, even when the Sox had a big lead in the standings. He didn't have good command for most of the second half of the season. Yes, if Lester was in NFL-linebacker physical condition, maybe he wouldn't have worn down, but he's never been in that kind of condition. I think just plain bad pitching was the reason for the epic collapse. The pressure once the collapse started certainly didn't help, but clubhouse chemistry and beer are just scapegoats. There wasn't a single whiff of complaint in either regard on Aug. 31. It wasn't until after the fact that everyone started searching for a narrative to explain things. Anyway, glad to see both the Rays and Yanks done. Steve O On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 2:32 PM, Tom Salemi <[email protected]> wrote: > Steve, what is your reason for the epic collapse? They tried their best and > just failed...repeatedly? Just bad luck? > Yes, the team lost because they didn't play well. But there might be things > that led to that. > I'm not really buying the beer thing either, but if pitchers strayed from > programs that made them successful in the past than that's a very real > thing, and a problem. > > > On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 2:29 PM, Steve Ouellette <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> There are a lot of successful fat pitchers. Curt Schilling was hefty. >> David Wells was enormously successful in the postseason. They're >> baseball players, not athletes, and the whole beer thing is just a >> convenient excuse for the epic collapse. >> >> Steve O >> >> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 2:11 PM, Ray <[email protected]> wrote: >> > I've come to the conclusion that I agree with Tom. The season was lost >> > to fat pitchers who couldn't pitch. >> > >> > For this I blame the pitching coach who let them get fat. >> > >> > I blame Francona for protecting our fatsos in the media and protecting >> > the enabling pitching coach. >> > >> > Finally I blame Theo for bringing us Dice-K and Lackey, and for letting >> > the pitching staff get fat. I think that the Sox developed a culture of >> > fame >> > with no pressure or expectations. >> > >> > Pressure won't make you pitch better in a game, but it will keep the >> > beer from your lips and get you to push back from the buffet table. >> > >> > -- >> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> > Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. >> > To view this discussion on the web visit >> > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/redsoxcitizens/-/NkMuGU0mLpMJ. >> > 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. >> > > -- > 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. 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