The second time through the rotation showed us two great starts two bad ones and then the massive dumb by Daisuke that Fenway cleaning crew is still cleaning up. After their 0-5 start the Red Sox turned to their ace, Jon Lester, to stop the skid and hopefully break his trend of poor pitching in April in the rubber match versus the Indians. Well all know Cleveland is a terrible team (more proof that analyzing a team's record before the first 40 games of the season is a waste of time and energy) and Lester finally made their offense live up that reputation tossing 7 shutout innings with 9 Ks. His fastball velocity was still 91-93 instead of the 94-96 we're used to seeing, but it's still early in the season and over his next couple starts we should see an increase as his he gets his arm strength back. Unfortunately for Lester the offense continued to struggle and the Red Sox went back to Boston to start a 3 game series with an 0-6 record.
Lackey's box score wasn't good and he'll need to improve his command but in a hitter friendly park, such as Fenway, against an offensive team like the Yankees, 5 innings 6 runs and 2 Ks isn't the worst thing that can happen. Don't get me wrong Lackey has struggled mightily with his command this year and his 91MPH fastball may wind up being in the high 80s by the end of his contract. The offense finally showed up and knocked Phil Hughes around for 5 runs in the 2nd inning alone. Hughes struggled with his velocity and command during spring training and it has clearly carried over to the regular season. His fastball velocity is currently at 86-88 MPH. Hughes has a a good curveball and solid change up but they become moot when his fastball is slow and hittable. Jenks, Bard and Papelbon came in and preformed up to their potential and slammed the door to get the Red Sox first win of the season. Papelbon was once again lights out throwing hit fastball at 94-95, his splitter at 87-90 and his slider at 82-84 all with great control. If he continues to throw like he has in his first 3 outings he will solidify himself as a type A free agent and will net the Red Sox a first round pick and a supplemental first round pick in the 2012 draft.
Buchholz went into his second start looking to achieve what Lester did against the Indians, break his trend of struggling in April. Unfortunately he wasn't successful and he struggled in 3.2 innings, 4 earned runs, 2 Ks and gave up another homerun. Buchholz has already given up 5 homeruns compared to the 9 he gave up all of last season. Right now his fastball velocity is similar to Lester's, he's sitting 91-93 when he's usually at 94-96. Throughout Buchholz's career he has gotten stronger as the season has gone on and his velocity as increased simultaneously. Ivan Nova controlled the Red Sox line up and worked his way out of trouble as the Red Sox struggled to push runners across the plate. On sunday the Red Sox announced that Buchholz signed a 4 year $30M contract with two club options. Once again Theo has locked up a young talented player to a team friendly deal with a club option at the end. This is the first time there has been 2 club options. The deal is very similar to to the one Lester signed before last year and with good reason. If you compare the two players at same point in their career when they signed their respective contracts they are almost exactly the same. K/9, BB/9, IP, HR/9, FIP (pitching stat that only factors in what a pitcher can control HRs walks Ks per inning pitched) are extremely similar while Buchholz has a noticeably better BABIP (batting average on balls in play) and a slightly better ERA.
In the rubber match Beckett matched up against Yankees' ace CC Sabathia and Beckett stole the show. Beckett struck out 10 Yankees over 8 shutout innings. This is the Beckett that Theo signed to a four year $68M deal at the beginning of last season. If Beckett can return to his 2007 form, like he did on Sunday, the Red Sox will be able to go toe to toe with the Phillies if both teams meet in the World Series. The offense was good but not great on Sunday they left a lot of runners on base and in scoring position and failed put a nail in the Yankees coffin early. The amount of runners LOB (left on base) has been a topic of discussion amongst Red Sox fans recently and it's not without merit but its being blown out of proportion. The Red Sox will always leave a lot of runners on base because they are one of the best teams at getting on base, a better representation of their success with runners on base is how many runners they drive in per baserunner. More great stuff from Papelbon he's prime for a 40+ save season.
I won't waste much time on Daisuke's start against the Rays, he was flat out terrible. He left all his pitches up in the zone and right over the plate. After games like this you need to chalk it up a bad start and move on to the next one. The one thing this does bring up is whether or not Theo is will to trade Daisuke and will Daisuke waive his no trade clause. I for one don't believe this will happen because if Daisuke is traded the Red Sox won't get a starter of equal or greater value do they will need to dip into their starting depth, Doubront Aceves or Wakefield which means if one more starter goes down the Red Sox could be in much more trouble than with Daisuke on the mound.
Any and all questions or request should be sent to strikeoneblog@gmail.com or on twitter @strikeoneblog.
No comments:
Post a Comment