Miles from Fenway: Those Foulking O's

The Sox game last night warrants a bit of space today. Because I am starting to get worried.

I don't care what the Sports Guy says about fans of championship winning teams taking a five year break from complaining about their teams after said championship is won. I expect more out of this team than what we're seeing right now.

Actually, I guess that's not true. I was worried about our pitching before the season even started, and all of my fears have come to fruition in this first month of play. So perhaps I should say I was hoping for more.

Our offense isn't really the problem, as is evident from the score of last night's game. The O's came from behind to beat the Sox 11 - 8. And I don't want to take anything away from Baltimore, they're looking like a real contender right now, though at points last season they did as well. What I'm worried about is our rotation and our bullpen.

I have never been a David Wells fan. When the Sox signed him in the off-season I felt much like Curt Schilling must have when he said "Well, I guess I hate the Yankees now" at his first press conference. I guessed I liked Wells. But he needed to show me something to really win my love. He hasn't And not only has he not, but he's now on the DL and could miss as much as a month of action.

Then there's Clement, who's 2 wins and 0 losses are a testament to how ridiculous the win-loss stat is. Clement pitched in the Tampa Bay game I saw up in Boston a few weeks ago, and while his numbers from that game were actually pretty good, Tampa Bay was getting too many solid shots off him to make me feel comfortable. Especially considering the Tampa Bay lineup.

Curt Schilling gets a bit of a pass at the moment. Coming off ankle surgery this winter, he shouldn't be expected to carry this team. That leaves us with Arroyo and Wake. Arroyo I have an insane amount of faith in. Give him another year or two and I think he's going to be hot shit. Wake, as it is well known is my favorite Sox player, and at the moment has the best ERA on the team at 1.75. The problem here is, these are our 4 and 5 guys. Arroyo should be a number 3 at best, and since Wake is a knuckleballer he is inevitably streaky. One night when that pitch isn't dancing and his ERA could jump to the 4s. The two of them have been great at stopping the bleeding, but we need the first half of our rotation to step up.

That, or Wade Miller needs to come back from rehab and absolutely shut the opposition down. Not something I'm expecting after this long an absence.

And poor Alan Embree. The man's been called into 12 games already. But what really scares me about the bullpen is Keith Foulke. Last year Keith was our go to guy. For the first time in a LONG time, the Sox finally had a closer that I felt content bringing into a one run game in the ninth. Not so anymore. Suddenly we're back where we were in 2003 - using a closer by committee approach.

I know I know. It's early. Yes, I remember how poorly we did at points last year and somehow still managed to win the World Series. But I'm a Sox fan, did you really think I'd be able to make it through that "Five year grace period"? Not a chance in hell.

Labels: Boston, Red Sox, sports

posted by FINY @ Wednesday, April 27, 2005

1 Comments:

At 4/27/2005, Anonymous said…

At least the injuries are happening in April, not August. The Sox should be set for June-July this year, the time of year when they usually suck ass.