Red Sox Grades

I wonder how much longer Clay Buchholz will have to pitch like this before I'll be able to believe that this is who he is now. Buchholz has been solid and shown flashes of brilliance in the past, but this is the most consistently dominant I remember him being. It's still only a month into the season, but Clay Buchholz is 6-0 in 6 starts with 6 quality starts and he leads the major leagues in wins, innings pitched and wins above replacement. He has the best ERA in the American League and is just a hair behind Jake Westbrook in St. Louis (Westbrook has pitched two fewer games than Buchholz). With the resurgent pitching I think that the explosiveness of the Sox offense hasn't been as noticeable as it might have been. Since that 13-0 rain out stinker against the A's the Red Sox have averaged over 7 runs per game and never had fewer than 6 runs in a game. They lead the league in OBP, OPS and Total Bases and trail only the A's in a number of other categories. This is in large part thanks to David Ortiz finding the fountain of youth. He's only been in 10 games, but he's been amazing. It's incredible that as well as the Red Sox have been and as banged up as the Yankees are, the Yankees are hanging in there and trail the Red Sox by just two games. That puts the Yankees in a three way tie for the second best record in baseball.

What more can you really say about Buchholz at this point? His stat line says it all: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K. Both hits were singles and no Jays player got past 1st base until his last inning in the 7th. The only snag he hit was in the 7th when he allowed a 1-out walk and a single where the batter was out at 2nd trying to stretch it into a double. He got the next batter out to wrap up the inning to preserve the 8-0 lead. Another gem from Buchholz.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: A

With Buchholz's pitch count over 100 and the Red Sox holding an 8-0 lead Alex Wilson was brought in for the 8th inning. Wilson struggled in the 8th, but with such a substantial lead some of it can be written off as pitching for contact. He got two strikeouts, but gave up a single, a triple to score the lone Jays run and then a walk. Clayton Mortensen came in to collect the final out in the 8th. Mortensen came back out for the 9th. Mortensen gave up a leadoff walk, but got the double play and then a strikeout to end the game.
BULLPEN GRADE: B-

The Sox bats were no slouches either coming up with 5 runs on Mark Buehrle and another 5 on the Jays bullpen. Stephen Drew had by far his best game in a Red Sox uniform going 3 for 5 and hitting a two run home run to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead in the 2nd. Somehow, Drew still managed to hit into two double plays this game. Mike Napoli and Daniel Nava hit back to back solo home runs to start the 4th to increase the lead to 4-0. They put the game out of reach in the 7th. Buehrle got the first two outs in the inning before giving up a walk to Jonny Gomes. With his pitch count climbing Buehrle was pulled from this game for Esmil Rogers with two down and Gomes on 1st base. Pedroia hit a single to advance Gomes to 3rd. Gomes would score on a wild pitch from Rogers to make it 5-0. David Ortiz was intentionally walked and they tried their luck against Mike Napoli, who already had a solo home run in this game. Napoli punished them with a 3-run home run to make it 8-0. Mike Carp added a solo home run in the 9th to make it 9-1 and a Mike Napoli double and a Daniel Nava single would add one more to make the final result 10-1. The Red Sox showed some great power this game with a total of 5 home runs. Everybody managed to contribute something. The only player to go hitless was Jonny Gomes and he managed to reach base twice on a pair of walks.
BATTING GRADE: A+

Red Sox Grades: Red Sox 9, A's 6

The A's are arguably the best team the Red Sox have faced so far this season. They were off to a comparable start to the Red Sox and won the AL West last season. A.J. Griffin went 7-1 last season in 15 starts and was 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA. This was one of those "Who's the top dog in the AL?" sort of games. The Red Sox rocked Griffin for 9 runs with a 3-run shot from Middlebrooks and a grand slam from Napoli. They literally doubled Griffin's ERA to 4.50 overnight. They finally were able to deliver a knockout blow and capitalize on the A's mistakes. Great teams capitalize on mistakes, shut the door and when one part of the team isn't doing so great another part steps up to compensate. The Red Sox have been reliant on their pitching to get by for the most part this year, but when the pitching was mediocre in this game the bats picked up the slack. It's also always nice to force an opposing bullpen to eat 4 innings in the first game of a series as it may limit their options in the remaining 2 games. A very encouraging win after dropping two games in that doubleheader to the Royals.

This was Doubront's best start of the season thus far. He went deeper into this game than his two previous starts and kept the run total low. This is more impressive considering that the A's lead the AL in runs scored this season. If he had wrapped up the 7th inning he would have had a quality start, but his pitch count was up to 113 when they pulled him from the game. It's nice to be getting this kind of production out of the back of your starting rotation.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B+

Doubront handed off the 7th inning to Clayton Mortensen with two outs and nobody on base. Mortensen wrapped up the 7th without an issue but hit some trouble in the 8th. A walk, a hit batter and back to back doubles cut the Red Sox lead to 3 in hurry. Alex Wilson came in with Josh Reddick on 2nd and 1 out. Wilson walked a batter and was pulled for Tazawa. It was scary to see the tying run come to the plate in a game where the Red Sox scored 9 runs, but Tazawa got the next two batters to end the inning. Andrew Bailey came on for the 9th and allowed a leadoff walk but got the next three batters to end the game and pick up his fourth save. Outside of Mortensen's mini-meltdown and Alex Wilson's one batter the bullpen wrapped up this game reasonably efficiently.
BULLPEN GRADE: C

I mentioned earlier that A.J. Griffin is typically a solid pitcher, but the Red Sox nailed him hard in two innings. Ortiz and Napoli went back to back with doubles to get on the board in the 2nd inning. In the fourth the Red Sox gave themselves some breathing room with a 3-run shot from Will Middlebrooks. The 5th is when they really broke this game open. Shane Victorino lead things off with a single. Pedroia hit what was most likely going to be a double play ball, but Andy Parrino bobbled the catch and dropped the ball and everybody was safe. David Ortiz worked a walk to load the bases and Mike Napoli hit the grand slam to make it 8-3. Daniel Nava hit into an out, but another error had him safe at first. At this point absolutely nothing was going right for Griffin and they pulled him from the game. Another run scored on a double from Salty. The double from Salty was the last hit the Red Sox would have in this game. The Red Sox would reload the bases with walks to Victorino and Ellsbury, but no more runs would score. Just about everybody in the lineup managed to contribute something this game, but Mike Napoli was an absolute beast going 2 for 4 with 5 RBIs. The only Red Sox player to go hitless this game was Dustin Pedroia and even he managed to reach on error and score a run. the 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position and 8 men left on base is still concerning, but the big homers from Napoli and Middlebrooks really take the sting out of that.
HITTING GRADE: A+

9 Sox, 6 A's

Mike Napoli is the steal of free agency huh? Even if we paid him his initial contract of 13 mil per year it would be a steal, but since he's only had for 5 million for 1 year it's ridiculous. Napoli just took the RBI lead with his grand salami off of AJ Griffen in the 5th. So far this season he has 4 home runs and 25 RBIs and his .278 batting average is pretty impressive. Even more impressive is that he has driven in 17 RBIs in the last nine games.

Felix Doubront was alright last night his line was 6 2/3 decent innings 3 ER, 8 SO, 5 BB. He's pretty good. He may never be anything but a 4th starter in the MLB but he always seems to have a high number of K's every game he pitches. Clayton Mortensen had a rough night as he gave up a walk, hit a guy, then Josh Donaldson and Josh Reddick hit back to back doubles to make it a 9-6. Taz came in to settle things down, Bailey for the save. Boom, another Sox victory.

Will Middlebrooks homered also, which I believe is the 1st homerun since the 3 bombs in one night and Salty drove in a couple.

Good win.

Red Sox 7, Indians 2

This wasn't much of a game. The Sox were on the right side of a starting pitcher imploding in Ubaldo Jimenez. He gave up 5 walks and 2 hits in the 2nd inning before being pulled for Cody Allen. Mike Napoli hit a bases clearing double to make it 7-0 in the 2nd. The Sox didn't score another run in the remaining 7 1/3 innings and the Tribe couldn't overcome such a huge deficit.

With such a substantial lead in the second inning, Felix Doubront managed to muddle through 5 innings, gave up 4 hits, 4 walks and 2 earned runs with 7 strikeouts. After five innings his pitch count had already climbed to 104. He gave one run back in the second when he allowed a leadoff single to Nick Swisher. Swisher would advance to third on a single by Brantley and score on a Mike Aviles sacrifice fly. Doubront really struggled in his last inning of work in the 5th. He was in a bases loaded one out jam because of two singles and a walk. He allowed a run to score from third on a passed ball and then gave up another walk to reload the bases with two outs. Doubront got the next out to end the inning and limit the damage to 1 run.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: C+

The Sox Bullpen had it's work cut out for it with 4 remaining innings to eat, but had a 5 run cushion as well. Clayton Mortensen ate two of those innings without giving up a run. He looked a little shaky in the 6th allowing a leadoff single and a two out walk, but he got the out and then pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 7th. Alex Wilson came on for the 8th and 9th innings. This was Wilson's second appearance in the majors, he made his debut last Thursday in the 3-2 loss to Baltimore where he pitched one inning, allowed a leadoff walk, got two outs on a double play and struck out the last batter. The exact same thing happened in the 8th last night as Wilson gave a leadoff walk to Reynolds, Brantley hit into a double play and then he struck out Mike Aviles. In the 9th Wilson got two ground outs before giving up a single and recording another ground out to mercifully end this game.
BULLPEN GRADE: B+

It feels strange to complain about the Red Sox offense that chased the starter from the game after 1 2/3 and put up 7 runs in the second inning, but I feel like Jimenez did a lot of the work for them. It's hard not to score some runs when he walks 5 batters in an inning. Mike Napoli was essential to the run scoring in the second, coming up with a leadoff double and followed up with a back breaking 3-run bases clearing double off of Cody Allen. After the second inning it was like the Sox mentally had already finished this game despite the fact that there was still 7 innings to play. They struck out 15 times against the Cleveland bullpen and couldn't get a hit off of Nick Hagadone, Rich Hill or Bryan Shaw. The only reason base runners made it past first base for the remainder of the game was due to walks and subsequent wild pitches.
HITTING GRADE: B

Why Were the Red Sox So Careful With Mike Napoli, Yet So Carefree With David Ortiz?

David Ortiz has been "shut down" for 5 to 7 days, due to inflammation in both heels. I don't know how you shut down a player who was barely active. Anyway, this is a significant setback for David Ortiz and his Achilles injury, and will likely push his return past Opening Day.

You probably remember that this injury started out as a minor issue. The Sox didn't even want to put him on the DL. That was about 9 months ago. It just went on and on. What was supposed to be a 500 word essay on Russian history has turned into the 1,200 pages of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

I'd peg the over/under on games Ortiz plays this season at 80.5. And I think I'm being generous.

What perturbs me is that the Red Sox were so very cautious about signing Mike Napoli due to injury concerns, eventually haggling with him for a discounted contract. With Ortiz there was no worry at all. Here was a 37 year old DH, with an injury that wasn't healing, and the Sox quickly gave him a 2 year, $26 million deal.

Would any other team have come close to paying Ortiz that much? Yet the Red Sox seemed eager to keep their sidelined star on the roster. I wonder why...

To be fair, the Sox did put a condition in Ortiz's contract. Ortiz gets $3 million more in 2014 if in 2013 he spends fewer than 20 days on the DL due to his Achilles injury. In other words, the Red Sox didn't protect themselves, but they will give a bonus to Ortiz for simply having a healthy Achilles.

I can't help but hypothesize that PR had something to do with the way the Red Sox handled Ortiz. There was little medical scrutiny, no delay, just a quick contract for the player who has become the grinning face of the franchise. The Sox signed the name, and didn't much care about the player. Wouldn't be the first time.

I have similar concerns over Jacoby Ellsbury still being on the roster. From a strictly baseball standpoint, it would make sense to shop Ellsbury around, especially if he's going to leave at the end of the season and you're not too optimistic about World Series contention in 2013. And it would make sense to let Ortiz go, or at least sign him to a deal similar to Napoli's. But then whose t-shirts would The Souvenir Store sell? Who would the pink hats ogle as he bends over in center-field? Who would the poor diehards cheer for with none on and 2 outs in the bottom of the 1st

I think the Red Sox are trying to tread water for the next 2-3 seasons. They want to field a semi-competitive team with a few marquee names. A team that will flirt with .500 and with the Wild Card spots. They might not sell Fenway out every night, but they want to avoid a young rebuilding team of no-names that will only draw 18,000 on a brisk Tuesday night in April.

Are they once again trying to be too clever in their effort to buy 3rd place? Or will it work? Will they win 85 games for a few seasons, then build a 95 win World Series winner?

Just like with Ortiz's injury, time will tell. Lots and lots of time.

-The Captain