Apocalypse Now

 The veil has been lifted and revelations have been made concerning the 2014 edition of the Red Sox. I mentioned in my last post that Boston was mired in purgatory with their inability sustain .500 baseball http://buzzingthetowersawx.blogspot.ca/2014/05/sox-wallow-in-baseball-purgatory.html. The Red Sox descended from this perch of temporal punishment into the fires of Hell with a nightmarish tour through a ten game losing streak. On May 13^th, the team dropped the finale of their three game series with the Twins and were then swept by Detroit, Toronto and Tampa losing 6 games at home. After Boston broke even in April at 13-13 they slid to 13-15 in May.

Obviously, the end is not yet near as Boston resiliently rebounded from that devastating skid with a seven game winning streak which included a home and home sweep of the Braves and a payback sweep of the Rays as they fell flat on their face in a heated three game set at Fenway. 
 

During this current wave of success, Boston won more than two games in a row for the first time this season. As we enter June, Boston has stumbled against former manager Terry Francona and the Indians and has succumbed to a series loss after dropping the first two games at Progressive Field. The term apocalypse translated from Greek literally means “disclosure of knowledge” and, boy, a lot was learned during these past few weeks and I will delve into some of these nuggets of truth.

First of all, the poster boy above, Clay Buchholz, is indeed the Omen. It was he who was pitching when the catastrophic losing streak began and he also was ready to send us to an 11^th straight loss in Atlanta until the team found salvation, primarily in the bat of David Ortiz. Ironically, the loss in Minnesota that kicked off the drought in the win column was one of Clay’s better efforts. He went 6 innings and gave up only 3 runs but the seed was sowed as Andrew Miller would be the hard luck loser in a walk off defeat. He suffered a loss against Toronto and then channeled his inner 50 Cent walking 8 batters and giving up 6 runs in only 3 innings in Atlanta. 

To compound things, Braves’ announcers quipped that a despondent Buchholz was weeping in the dugout. He has now hit the couch with sports psychologist Bob Tewksbury solidifying what I have always maintained about Clay – he’s a bit of a headcase. Unfortunately, I think his Cy Young type days are behind him, but he could certainly be a serviceable middle to back end of the rotation type of guy.

Speaking of pitching, Peavy is who I thought he was before the season began. He is a decent number five at this point of his career. In his last 30.1 IP (5 games), he has allowed 24 ER. Jake allows home runs with maddening frequency, but has managed to hang around enough to give his team a chance to win, especially earlier in the season. My fear is that we’ve seen the best of him though. On the bright side, Doubront’s bizarre car door injury and Buchholz’s breakdown has opened a door to the future. Rubby de la Rosa has a “Pedro Martinez Pedigree” as Martinez anointed him as a big time talent. He has that lights out heater coupled with a devastating changeup that Pedro himself featured in his HOF career. He manhandled the Tampa Bay lineup in his first Major League start since 2011 and has all of us chomping at the bit for his next appearance. Brandon Workman has been in the “bend not break” mode as he stretches out from being in the bullpen in the beginning of the year. He has been used as a starter in Pawtucket and has yet to complete 6 innings in his two starts. He might have made it had he not tried to seek retribution for the David Ortiz beaning in Fenway by throwing behind Evan Longoria. He was ejected and had been suspended for six games, but due to the fact he is appealing this, he will make his next start in the Cleveland finale. He has walked 6 batters in those two starts and needs to be a bit more consistent in the strike zone.

Rubby de la Rosa's terrific outing

A welcome discovery has been the play of Brock Holt. He’s making Middlebrooks expendable as he could very well follow girlfriend Jenny Dell out of Boston. Apparently, in order to address his hitting woes, Will is also in need of contacts, but he want to wear them because they were uncomfortable. I hope he has his eyes wide open now as Holt has been a catalyst at the top of the order. In 21 games, Brock has hit .305 with 9 RBI and 5 doubles and a .353 OBP. Even more incredible though is the fact he’s hitting .371 against lefties and .357 with RISP. He has provided solid defense and has increased his versatility playing first base in the Rays’ series finale. The stench of Nava’s breakthrough year last season is all over Holt for 2014.

The signing of Stephen Drew seemed to be a lightning rod for Xander Bogaerts as he has simply gone off at the plate. He led the Red Sox in the month of May in hitting with a .327 mark, and his OBP was a dazzling .407. In his last 11 games, he owns a.404 average (19-47).He was also rounding into form defensively at the shortstop position as well, but since the acquisition of Drew he has struggled at third. It’s a shame that Middlebrooks injury precipitated the need for Drew. Had they waited a bit longer with the exploits of Brock Holt, they could have focused their energy more productively on the need for a corner outfielder. It’s not a matter of if but when with regards to Xander winning a batting title. He has a very polished, patient approach at the plate and is among the leaders in the AL with two strike hits along with teammate Dustin Pedroia.

Another eye-opener that made me cringe was when John Farrell announced that Jonny Gomes “won” the starting left field position. How do you win something when there was no real opposition? Daniel Nava is back in town but is hitting (and I use that term lightly) .130. John, if you think Gomes is a starter, then you need to get the rose-colored glasses checked. Farrell’s commitment to some players borders on infatuation by times. All that “energy” talk John uses when justifying Gomes increased playing time gets old as he states something positive seems to happen when he is in the lineup. It seems Gomes is the current version of Kevin Millar (a guy I actually was never crazy about) and Chad Finn has a great piece on this here http://www.boston.com/sports/touching_all_the_bases/2014/06/jonny_gomes_daniel_nava_red_sox.html?camp=twit:tatb&dlvrit=845880. 

Gomes has started both games in Cleveland and is 1-7 with 4 Ks and has 7 LOB. In the past 14 days, he’s hitting all of .182 and his strikeout percentage is 34% against righties. Hey, we all love Jonny’s moxie but he is an accessory piece, not a focal cog in the machine. He is the best bad outfielder in baseball as he seems to need to dive at any ball hit 20 feet beyond him either way. His arm is hit or miss, and his lack of defensive range is accentuated when he is not backed up by the Green Monster. 

Having said all this, Gomes is the best hitting outfielder Boston has (.231/ .333/ .381) which is even more offensive (pun intended). Jackie Bradley Jr.  has a slash line of .202/ .287/ .301 and newcomer Alex Hassan followed up Sunday’s coming out party, when he got first Major League hit, by promptly striking out 4 times in the second game against the Tribe. Grady Sizemore’s return wasn’t rosy in Cleveland, and despite squaring up the ball with more gusto in the past few games, he has a line of .224/ .294/ .344. In fact, this is probably the worst hitting outfield in the history of the franchise as they rank last in the Majors in batting average as a group with these ugly numbers .215/.287/.327.  A deal for an outfielder with pop is pretty much a necessity as Carp is now on the shelf with Victorino. A proven offensive outfielder would also allow Boston to continue being patient with Bradley as his defense is Gold Glove caliber. The spotlight is on his poor plate performance (for good reason) but the glare wouldn’t be as bright with production from the corners. There are rumblings about Holt taking fly balls in the outfield but this type of move might sound the death knell for this being a season of playoff aspirations. Playing first base in Napoli’s absence is one thing but playing the outfield too? As Homer once said, “If you serve too many masters, you’ll soon suffer”. We’ve suffered enough in the outfield already.

All in all, it has been an interesting season to date, and even through the dark days, salvation could be around the corner. Napoli is set to return on the weekend which should add some much needed power and if de la Rosa and Workman can stabilize the rotation this could spell another successful run at the elusive .500 mark. The question remains: “Is this season simply a quest for breaking even with patchwork lineups and auditioning youngsters?” or do the Red Sox want to sacrifice some of their precious trading chips on the farm and push for another crack at playoff baseball? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess when these questions will be answered, but this much is true:

“In a war baseball season, there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action - what is often called ruthless - what may in many circumstances be only clarity, seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it, directly, quickly, awake, looking at it.”

- Capt. Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen, Apocalypse Now)