There’s A Lot Here…
Steven Goldman takes a look at the Sox through his Pinstriped glasses…
the Red Sox have the best record in the American League, but they have barely outscored their opponents, allowing 51 runs while scoring 55. The offensive problems that had been predicted for them have materialized, and a great deal now depends on Manny Ramírez, who has yet to record his first extra-base hit of the season. The pitching has been good but conceals weaknesses. Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling are pitching over their heads, Matt Clement is a mystery, and David Wells may be finished. The Red Sox are doing it with mirrors and David Ortíz.
Well now the Sox have outscored their opponents by 16 runs. A hat-tip is in order for Goldman’s prediction of Coco Crisp’s and Trot Nixon’s injuries, Jason Varitek’s becoming an offensive cess pool and Manny slugging his weight. All of those have “materialized.” Matt Clement is a “mystery” the same way any other league average-plus pitcher is. Yes, Beckett and Schilling are “pitching over their heads” but not that far over. Both are pretty good, Steve. And yes, David Wells may be finished but there is plenty of organizational depth to cover that loss, either via a call-up or a trade. As for the “mirrors and David Ortiz” quip, whatever. So Goldman’s a little cranky as the Sox get fat while improvement candidates outnumber regression ones.
He’s a Yankee fan. Can you blame him?
April 20th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
And a preprogrammed YES Network guy. The preprogramming comes with the job.
April 20th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
To be clear, I think Goldman is fantastic. The paragraph I quoted above is about as analytically haphazard as he gets.
April 20th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
He does (or, more accurately, did) raise a decent point, though; the Sox record is 11-5 only because of our 5-0 record in one run games. This is a good club, and the first two games of the Tampa series were goo for our run differential, but this isn’t an 11-5 team just as the Yankees - best in RS and in the top 5 in RA (surprisingly) aren’t a .500 team. The question for us is whether we’ll start playing to our real record or whether the record will sink to our performance; given Manny’s early struggles and Crisp’s absence, having the differential we have is pretty impressive and it’ll only get better.
April 21st, 2006 at 8:13 am
It’s early.
Pre season, the talk would have been about question marks over Youkilis, Loretta and Lowell. So far, two of those three are looking good, with the third not looking as bad as had been feared.
I thought the most sensible paragraph in the piece was the one after the one quoted above.
Lets wait until the clubs have at least played each other once (and the Sox have played the Royals!!)to compare relative strengths.