Kuzul

The Boston Red Sox need a leader.

This isn’t breaking news. This isn’t going to change your day. Heck, it definitely didn’t even phase you to read that.

That doesn’t change the fact that if it doesn’t happen now, the Red Sox will be headed toward a colossal meltdown that stretches beyond missing the postseason three seasons in a row. If things don’t turn around, they could be looking at a snowballing stretch of misery that spans at least a decade or more.

Dustin Pedroia, it’s time to step up.

After being dubbed the “de facto captain” following the 2011 departure of catcher Jason Varitek, ‘C’-sporter since 2005, Pedroia failed to initiate the kind of order in the clubhouse that was necessary after the chaotic way last season ended.

Needless to say, the tall order shouldn’t fall on one man’s diminutive shoulders and Bobby Valentine was expected to be the broom to Pedroia‘s dustpan, but the second baseman never seemed to gracefully accept his faux position and ended up spending the whole season with a chip on his shoulder for some mostly unknown reason.

(Things didn’t get off to a good start when Valentine called out Kevin Youkilis early in the season, but still. Give it a rest.)

Moving forward and assuming Valentine gets canned, Pedroia, under team control through 2015, stands as the alpha dog in the clubhouse.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that where he and former manager Terry Francona were so close, management will take some input from Pedroia during the upcoming managerial search.

After all, the next manager hired isn’t likely to be a one-and-done in the vein of Valentine. It’ll be someone who Boston hopes will be in the dugout for the next decade, along with the 29-year-old Pedroia.

The second-baseman needs to team with the next manager to reset the tone of the clubhouse and issue the precedents of how things should be, how they’d like things to be, and how things will be.

When a report came out on Tuesday that Pedroia, earlier reported to be sitting out the rest of the season due to a broken finger, would be in the lineup against the New York Yankees that night, he responded to questions like this, according to the Boston Herald:

“I get to compete two more games and then I’ve got to sit around six months until I get to do it again. Why not?”

That right there is precisely the Pedroia that the Red Sox need. 

Granted, it’s Game 161 and the Sox are nowhere within sniffing distance of either Wild Card spot, but this attitude is coming at the right time, as half of the farm system is in the clubhouse (and in that sorry, sorry lineup card). 

He later added: 

“I mean, you saw last year, the Orioles played all their guys and played hard and ended up beating us and gave Tampa a chance to get in. We’re playing to win. Nobody’s packing it in.”

With that type of leadership and gusto this late in the season, it’s a damn-near fact that heading into the offseason it’ll give the rest of the guys a reason to really examine themselves and the putridity that they contributed to this season and how to avoid it in 2013.

With Pedroia setting the right example, others will follow and eventually get the ball rolling again towards a clubhouse with its head on straight.

With so much turnover destined to come over the course of the next few months, it’s important for him to really dig his roots into the minds of all of those around him, so when the new additions come in, be it a new manager, free agents, players acquired through trade, or crops from the farm, they already know how things run around here.

They need to run by Pedroia‘s rules.

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It’s been 20 years since Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd pitched in the big leagues, but he can still bring some heat when it comes to conversation.

I met up with Boyd for a book signing at New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, Mass., last weekend, and then stayed after for a few hours to talk with one of my all-time favorite Red Sox pitchers. His book, They Call Me Oil Can (written with Mike Shalin) is a no-holds-barred, colorful look at his career and life, and he’s just as open—and outspoken—in person as in print.

From our chat, here are the Can’s reflections on…

How he got his nickname: “Everybody says it’s because I drank a lot of beer and they called beer “oil” down in Mississippi, but that’s not true. It was rot-gut whiskey. Everybody in Meridian, where I grew up, drank it. You got it from a lady up the street named Big Mama, who was the neighborhood moonshiner. I used to go up to her house and fetch it for my mother, sneaking it into our house under my shirt so my father wouldn’t see it.”

“When I was seven, I started drinking some myself. One day somebody caught us in a tin shed drinking Big Mama’s whiskey out of oil cans, so my friend Pap started calling me “Oil Can.” I wrote it under the bill of my baseball cap, and my high school teammates started calling me that too. It stuck.”

Bobby Valentine: “I played for Bobby in Texas, and he’s a good guy. He’s open and will talk straight to you. He could be temperamental, sure, but he’s a very, very smart baseball man. He knows games and respects players, but he’s the skipper. Ballplayers shouldn’t be telling him what to do.”

“Your job as a player is to hit the ball or catch the ball; he manages and you play. When you make up all kinds of distractions, this is what happens—the team can’t win. They got the talent, but they never listened to the man.”

Wade Boggs (who Boyd claims often directed racial slurs at him when they were teammates): “He’s a bigot; it’s ingrained in his family history. Coming from Central Florida, that’s just what you grow up hearing and learning. He was protected by baseball then, and nobody will say anything against him now. The Red Sox don’t invite me to anything that Wade is going to be at because they know I’ll kick his ass. He wasn’t at the 100th anniversary celebration, right? I was—so there you go.”

The summer of 1986 (when he was suspended for 21 games after briefly quitting the team following an All-Star snub, but still went 16-10 to help the Red Sox win the pennant): “Being a young ballplayer, with money in your pocket, makes you very vulnerable. There were a lot of distractions and a lot of ways to get into trouble. I found them. It was my fault, sure, but I felt there was nobody I could talk to about it.”

“Still, people looked out for me; I lived in Chelsea, and sometimes I’d be out late at night and the police would come and say, ‘C’mon, Oil Can, you don’t want to be messing around here, you can get shot or killed,’ and they would give me an escort home.”

“While I was suspended I hurt my arm in a tussle with some cops; they thought I was getting drugs from a guy and really roughed me up good. I would ice my arm every day, but it always hurt. I could hear a clicking in it. But still I kept pitching, winning the [AL East] clincher against the Blue Jays and through the playoffs and World Series. I didn’t tell anybody about the pain.”

On not starting Game 7 of the ’86 World Series, when, after a rainout, manager John McNamara decided to go with Bruce Hurst and skip over Boyd: “When it came time for Game 7, and he [McNamara] told me I wasn’t starting, I didn’t know what to say. I just ran off and cried. They used the rain as an excuse, and said Bruce had the hot hand, but I felt that circumstances during the season led to that decision. They put their personal feelings about me ahead of the team. They were not going to take a chance on my going out there and winning the World Series after everything that went on.”

[Hurst, who had already won twice in the Series, pitched six innings and left with the game tied 3-3. Boston relievers broke down, however, and the Mets won, 8-5. Boyd never got into the contest.]

How he stayed focused on the mound: “I smoked dope—every day. I started when I was 12 and never hid it. I was such a thinker, my mind was never idle, but when I smoked I got locked in. I was so focused, I couldn’t hear anything else on the field. I became creative, like an artist doing a painting. A little blue here, a little red there; a curve ball here, a slider there. It got to the point where [first baseman] Billy Buckner would come over and say, ‘Are you high?’ If I wasn’t, he’d say go get him some.”

Boyd was clearly upset as he talked about how things went after ’86, when a blood disorder required him to inject a needle with blood thinners into his stomach every day. He was on the disabled list much of the time, and after 1989 signed with the Expos as a free agent.

He rebounded to pitch nearly 200 innings each of the next two seasons—often very effectively—but after a trade to Texas and a late-season slump in 1991 was unable to find another big league job at age 31.

Oil Can felt he had been blackballed, and I realized he had a lot in common with another great free-spirited Red Sox who could pitch and talk up a storm: Bill “Spaceman” Lee.

Both men liked their weed, both men were passionate, personable ballplayers embraced by teammates and fans, and both had their careers in Boston end on a down note before a brief resurgence in Montreal. Both felt the baseball establishment kept them from staying on in the majors, and they had two of the greatest—and most famous—nicknames in big league history.

The Can seems at peace with himself these days. After a decade where he said anger over his shortish MLB career forced an estrangement from his wife and two kids, along with a bad cocaine habit, he’s quit hard drugs and is back with his family and running the Oil Can Boyd School of Baseball in Providence, Rhode Island.

He does some private coaching with high school teams as well, along with an occasional event for the Jimmy Fund or other charity. And while he rarely gets to Fenway, he was back for the 100th anniversary celebration in April and got a terrific hand from the crowd when introduced. That meant a lot to him.

“I fight every day not to go out and get drugs, but it’s a private fight,” he told me. “I don’t call it being clean, I call it being tolerant. I stay healthy, and I’m on a baseball field seven days a week. That’s where I feel the most comfortable.”

That’s one more thing he and the Spaceman have in common: Both are still pitching. Lee has hurled in a variety of leagues through the years, and this summer, at age 65, became the oldest man in history to win a professional game when he went all nine innings for his hometown San Rafael Pacifics of the North American League in a 9-4 victory over Maui.

Boyd, who moved back to New England just in time for the wonderful Red Sox summer of 2004, now lives in Providence and pitches with teams in two divisions of the Men’s Senior Baseball League—one for age 35-and-up, the other for 48-and-up. He’s still lean and spry a few weeks short of his 53rd birthday, and says he plays shortstop when not on the mound.

“I gotta go work out, I’m pitching tomorrow,” he told me with a smile as he left the Mobile Book Fair. I thanked him for the time, and all the joy he gave Red Sox fans back in the mid-’80s. It was fun to watch him then, and fun to talk to him now.  

Saul Wisnia lives less than seven miles from Fenway Park and works 300 yards from Yawkey Way. His latest book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, is available at http://amzn.to/qWjQRS, and his Fenway Reflections can be found at http://saulwisnia.blogspot.com. He can be reached at saulwizz@gmail.com and @saulwizz. 

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 As the crazy saga of Bobby Valentine’s managerial meltdown in Boston continues, I thought I’d add another tale to the mix, courtesy of my friend and sometimes Fenway Park seatmate Nancy.

During the All-Star break, when Red Sox fans were in the midst of panicking over a surprisingly weak starting rotation, Nancy went for a jog on a blistering hot morning. About one mile from Fenway, along Huntington Avenue, she literally ran into a man in front of the swanky Colonnade Hotel.

After a quick “sorry” she turned and started to jog away—but then froze in her tracks. She was pretty sure the man in the khaki shorts and plaid shirt who she had hit was Bobby Valentine.

Unlike many fans, Nancy had not yet soured on Bobby V. A season ticket holder, she had been very happy with the managerial change in Boston.

“I went to a game last September against the Rangers, when the Red Sox still had a big lead in the standings,” she recalls. “Lackey got bombed, they lost 11-4, and I remember having a bad feeling—a sense they weren’t playing with purpose. They were just going through the motions—they were not Kevin Millar’s team; they were not Johnny Damon’s team.”

Nancy turned to her companions, her sisters-in-law, and said, “‘This is it. We’re done.’”

She was right. The epic 7-20 September collapse sealed manager Terry Francona’s fate, and Nancy applauded the hiring of Valentine—who had a reputation for being just the sort of tough-talking disciplinarian she felt was needed. Nancy, who once shouted down fans for singing “Sweet Caroline” during the eighth inning of a lopsided Red Sox deficit, liked tough guys.

Now, even after a dismal first half-season, Nancy still hoped Bobby V. could turn things around. She ran back to him, smiled, and said, “Are you my guy?”

He laughed and replied, “Yeah, I guess I am!”

“I love you!” she shouted. “I know you can’t say anything, but we’ve got to get rid of Beckett, we’ve got to get rid of Lester, we’ve got to get rid of Lackey.”

Valentine put his finger up to his lips, smiled, and said, “You know I can’t say anything.” He turned around to leave, but then walked back, crossed his fingers, and said, “But we can only hope.”

Nancy can’t quite remember what he said next, either “I had no idea this is what it was like here” or “I had no idea it would be like this here.”

“I looked at him and just wanted to hug him,” she recalls. Instead, she said, “This is one tough town.”

Valentine sort of shrugged, so Nancy added “You listen to all this stuff, but not everybody is against you. I have season tickets—look at my tattoos! [She has a Red Sox “B” on her right ankle and a “dangling Sox” on her right shoulder.] Plenty of people want you to succeed.”

She describes what happened next: “Knowing he was a Catholic school boy, which means you’re required to take Latin in school, I said to him ‘Illegitimi Non Carborundum,’ which means ‘Don’t let the bastards get you down.’ I didn’t learn that from the nuns, but if you study Latin, you learn things.”

“He laughed, so I assumed he knew it too. If he was educated by the Jesuits, he knew it.”

Prior to this interview, Nancy had told her story to only a few close friends with whom she shared her seats.

“Why tell it to everyone now? I feel like it’s over,” she said. “They never stood behind him—Ben Cherington number one, along with the owners. I’m never going to forgive all of these people for the way it turned out. Tito was what I knew and it seemed to be working. But I was not a Tito guy before the end of last season, because he was enabling them to not ‘cowboy up’ and be our team.”

Now, with another disastrous season nearing its end, it’s time for another change. What does Nancy think?

“Now I’m really just sad. I love the Red Sox; I really just do not like this team. I can’t watch them. I feel really bad for Bobby V. This is not what he signed up for. It’s not what any of us—including the few players still trying—signed up for. We’re the embarrassment of MLB.”

Besides an attitude overhaul, here are her other recommendations:

“We have GOT to get rid of all the different jerseys—red, navy, etc. You have your home whites and your travel grays—period.”

“Sweet Caroline—kill it.”

“The Wave—do not allow it.”

“And they better not charge major-league prices next year—for tickets and beer—when they’re not fielding a major league team!”

Saul Wisnia lives less than seven miles from Fenway Park and works 300 yards from Yawkey Way. His latest book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, is available at http://amzn.to/qWjQRS, and his Fenway Reflections can be found at http://saulwisnia.blogspot.com. He can be reached at saulwizz@gmail.com and @saulwizz. 

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After watching him help the Angels sweep the Red Sox earlier this week, and based on his entire body of work this season, it’s clear that Mike Trout is one of the most exciting young players in the majors. He may even be the American League MVP when all is said and done, but there is one thing I don’t think the 21-year-old phenom should be:

Rookie of the Year.

Technically, Trout is a rookie. As the MLB rules state, “A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the period of 25-player limit (excluding time in the military service and time on the disabled list).

Trout makes the cut…barely. He played in 40 games (32 starts) during 2011, in which he had 123 at-bats. This may qualify someone for rookie status the next year, but it seems like an awful big sample set for me.

Forty games is nearly a quarter of the MLB schedule, and in Trout’s case, these were not just meaningless down-the-stretch contests. His first appearance came on July 8 against Seattle, and he wound up playing 14 games in July, eight in August, and 19 in September as the Angels battled for both an AL West title and a Wild Card spot. They got neither, but Trout (who hit .220 with five home runs and 16 RBI) got plenty of experience.

This year, of course, has been a different story. Trout has been with the Angels since late April and has torn up the league with an AL-best .336 average, 41 stolen bases, and 103 runs scored (along with 25 home runs) entering last night. Much hoopla was made when he became the first rookie to have both 25 homers and 40 steals during the Red Sox series, but he just doesn’t feel like a first-year guy to me.

He was an everyday player for Los Angeles during a good stretch of LAST season, and while he may seem like an entirely different performer this year, Trout is in fact the same guy who had already seen plenty of big-league pitching entering 2012.

To me, a true Rookie of the Year (ROY) winner is a guy who debuts the year he captures the award, or at most plays in 10 or 15 September games the previous season.

Baseball is the only one of the four major professional sports that has this type of shady rookie status. Football players, of course, go straight from college onto NFL rosters and have zero pro experience entering their first year. Ditto for hockey players, who enter the NHL from college or the minor league ranks. And while basketball players may have overseas professional experience, the first NBA games for every Rookie of the Year are played during his initial season in the league.

My 11-year-old son Jason had a very perceptive comment when I mentioned this discrepancy to him. “If Mike Trout is able to do this, what will keep managers from making sure young players don’t break the 130 at-bat limit so they can get better and older?”

I found no proof of this with Trout, who Angels manager Mike Scioscia played all game, every game down the stretch of 2011. It would have been interesting to see what might have happened had Trout gotten six more at-bats, of course.

Jason also had another funny premise: if a guy came up from the minors for 10 games a year for three years, would he still be considered a rookie going into his fourth season? According to the MLB rules above, he would. This seemed too funny to be plausible, but it happened…the 2008 NL ROY, Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, had played with Chicago for one game in 2005, 11 games in 2006, and 18 games in 2007. A fourth-year rookie!

I first started thinking about Trout’s freshman/sophomore status when Will Middlebrooks was shining for the Red Sox earlier this summer. A broken wrist derailed Middlebrooks in mid-August, and even if he had played out the string the chances are slim he would have put together stats like Trout.

But since Middlebrooks was a TRUE rookie whose 75 major games, 15 homers, and 54 RBI all came this season, one could argue (outside Los Angeles) that he is a more worthy Rookie of the Year winner than the guy who will get the award.

For some additional perspective, I looked back at AL and NL ROY winners from the past 10 seasons to see how they compare with Trout in pre-ROY experience. Soto was the only one I found with three MLB seasons under his belt, but one other player (Angel Berroa in 2003) had played shortstop for the Royals for a combined 35 games and 128 at-bats in 2001-2002. Talk about cutting it close to the 130 at-bat limit!

Most of the others fell into the more reasonable range of 15-20 pre-ROY games and 50-75 at-bats for position players and 5-15 games for pitchers. Six of the 20 awardees were “true” Rookies of the Year who saw their first MLB experience in their winning year: Chris Coughlin, Andrew Bailey, Evan Longoria, Ryan Braun, Dontrelle Willis and Eric Hinske. Honorable mentions go to 2006 winners Hanley Ramirez and Justin Verlander, who both played in just two MLB contests the previous season.

I think the system needs some revamping. Lower the pre-ROY maximum numbers to 20 games and/or 50 at-bats for position players, and 10 games and/or 30 innings for pitchers. This will ensure that September call-ups can still be considered rookies, but guys who played three months like Trout last year will be out of luck.

And what if Trout pulls off the double-win and captures both the Rookie of the Year and the MVP awards? He would be just the third man to achieve this feat, after Fred Lynn (in 1975) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001): two men who offer another contrast in rookies.

Lynn played in a reasonable 15 games in September of ’74, and while Suzuki was a “true” rookie in ’01 with regards to his MLB status, he did have nine seasons and more than 1,000 games in the Japanese professional leagues under his belt.

Now that’s another discussion altogether.  

Saul Wisnia lives less than seven miles from Fenway Park and works 300 yards from Yawkey Way. His latest book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, is available at http://amzn.to/qWjQRS, and his Fenway Reflections can be found athttp://saulwisnia.blogspot.com. He can be reached at saulwizz@gmail.com and @saulwizz. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Sometimes in the grind that is a 162-game MLB season, the All-Star break is seen by many players as a blessing. For some, the break provides a golden opportunity to spend time with family and friends. For other players, the break bestows a chance to simply get away and recharge batteries.

I do not know what Adrian Gonzalez did during the break. But whatever the great first baseman did, this consummate professional has had a breakout second half for a Red Sox team fighting mightily to find its way.   

Marching forward, it should be noted that Gonzalez did not produce a poor first half by any stretch of the imagination. For Sox fans, this slugger has been a calm amid the storm.

But keeping things in laymen’s terms, a split of Gonzalez’s first- and second-half stats (per MLB.com), shows a much different player:

Gonzalez’s second-half numbers are best amongst MLB first basemen.

Even scarier, Gonzalez is showing no signs of slowing down. In the past 10 games, he is batting an astounding .421 (16-for-38), with two home runs and 16 RBI.

And as usual, Gonzalez has been ironclad in the field, too. His .998 fielding percent at first base trails only that of Mark Teixeira of the New York Yankees.

As a baseball fan, I truly appreciate players like Gonzalez. Still just 30 years old, this guy carries himself well regardless of what is going on around him. Boston is lucky to have such a ballplayer taking  the field for its team.

As usual, I appreciate your readership and welcome your comments.

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Although Jon Lester did not emerge as the winning pitcher in the Boston Red Sox‘s 8-6 victory over the Yankees Saturday night, he did reach a milestone that serves as a reminder to just how good he’s been in the past—and could be again.

Lester’s final strikeout of the game, a whiff of dangerous Robinson Cano in the bottom of the sixth inning, gave the struggling hurler 1,000 strikeouts in his career. Just six Red Sox pitchers have reached this mark, and Lester is only the second left-hander after Bruce Hurst. Another 44 and he’ll be No. 1 among all Boston lefties.

It’s easy to forget just how impressive Lester’s career numbers were before last September’s meltdown, which has extended through all of this season, but here are a few samples:

Lester needed just 1,084 innings to reach 1,000 strikeouts. His average of nearly a strikeout an inning is second in team history to Pedro Martinez, and ahead of Roger Clemens.

Lester’s .691 career winning percentage entering this year was the second-best in club annals (behind Pedro) among pitchers with 100 or more decisions.

Lester’s postseason ERA as a starter is 2.35 over six games, including the clinching win of the 2007 World Series. Hurst (at 2.29) is the only pitcher in the post-1920 era who has done better among Red Sox starters with 30-plus playoff innings. 

Yes, none of this eliminates the problems Lester has struggled with this season, and in fact one can argue these numbers only make what’s happening now more frustrating. Even this game, in which the Red Sox scored three times in the sixth to stake Lester to a 6-1 lead, then watched him promptly give back all three runs in the bottom of the frame, was not close to what Big Jon has done in the past.

It was, however, a whole lot better than the four-inning, 11-run debacle Lester had against Toronto, and although the Yanks did get three homers off the lefty, they only had one other hit (and two walks) against him over six innings. He also had six strikeouts.

It wasn’t very pretty, and it wasn’t even enough for Lester’s sixth win of the season thanks to some shoddy relief work from Vicente Padilla. But it was a victory, and right now that’s what is most important to the Red Sox and their erstwhile ace. 

Saul Wisnia lives less than seven miles from Fenway Park and works 300 yards from Yawkey Way. His latest book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, is available at http://amzn.to/qWjQRS, and his Fenway Reflections can be found at http://saulwisnia.blogspot.com. He can be reached at saulwizz@gmail.com and @saulwizz.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There were a lot of late-arriving fans at Fenway Park Friday night, and they had the right idea: This year, with Josh Beckett pitching, the worst parts of the game for the Red Sox almost always come early.

Beckett had another dismal start to his start, and the Red Sox were down 4-0 to the Blue Jays after just two innings. A few hours before the game, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington had told Tony Massarotti of 98.5 The Sports Hub that Beckett has “been very consistent if you look at the entire year.”

That seems like a stretch, unless you consider the early parts of games—when the Texas Chicken King has been consistently bad.

Beckett allowed two runs in the first inning Friday, raising his first-inning ERA to 10.69 for the season. He allowed two more in the second, and is now averaging 6.65 runs allowed over the first three innings of his starts.

The fact he does far better from the fourth inning on is of little consolation; Beckett consistently puts the Red Sox in an early hole, and the team has won just six of his 16 starts.

This latest lackluster start in the eventual 6-1 loss was especially frustrating coming on the heels of Boston’s exhilarating walk-off win Thursday, and left fans wondering once again if the Red Sox can ever turn this season around. It also again raises the question of how long it will take before Cherington and the Red Sox brass say enough is enough and dump Beckett.

When Massarotti asked Cherington Friday whether Beckett (now 5-8) or fellow underachieving starter Jon Lester (5-7) was on the trading block,the GM would not confirm either way but did say that the clubhouse problems that helped derail last year’s team have not been a factor in this year’s struggles.

“I haven’t seen anything from anybody in our clubhouse this year, including the pitchers, that has been anything but professionalism and trying to get the job done on the field,” Cherington said.

There may be no longer be beer and chicken to worry about, but with the team now 12-22 in games pitched by its two “aces,” more than the menu has to change if Boston expects to stay in the wild-card hunt.

Tomorrow it’s Lester’s turn in the rotation. The trade deadline is July 31. Red Sox Nation is watching.

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It was a chilly October night at Wrigley. The Chicago Cubs were playing host to the Florida Marlins in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS. Holding a 3-2 series advantage, the Cubs brought a 3-0 lead into the top of the eighth. 

After getting Mike Mordecai to pop-out to begin the inning, Cubs 23-year-old ace Mark Prior had the Marlins right where he wanted them. More importantly, he had the Cubs a mere 5 outs away from their first World Series appearance in 58 years. Five outs away from a chance to end 95 years of misery.

With a regular season resume that boasted a 18-6 record to go along with a 2.43 ERA and a 10.45 K/9 ratio, who would have doubted that Prior was the man to get the job done?

However, even the most casual of baseball fans know what came next. 

Double. Bartman. RBI single. Gonzalez error. Two-run double. Just like that, the Cubs all-but-certain trip to the World Series didn’t look so certain anymore. Five more Marlins’ runs, a Game 7 defeat, and the Cubs’ most promising of chances was stolen right out of their hands (or glove, so to speak).

The Cubs haven’t won a play-off game since. Unfortunately for Prior, his career took an eerily similar turn for the worse as well. 

After missing only a month due to injuries during his first two seasons in the Majors, Prior became a regular on the DL from 2004-2006, missing a staggering nine months of playing time. If that wasn’t bad enough, shoulder surgery would have him miss the entire 2007 season as well.

During that stretch, Prior made 57 appearances, compiling a 18-17 record to go along with a pedestrian 4.26 ERA. A mere shadow of the pitcher who once dominated opposing hitters at will in 2003 on his way to finish third in the NL Cy Young voting. He hasn’t appeared in a Major League game since 2006. 

Fast forward six years. After wooing Boston Red Sox Director of Personnel Dave Finley in Spring Training, Prior secured himself a Minor League contract with the Pawtucket PawSox. 

While it’s a fresh start, it’s a far cry from where Prior thought he’d be at this point in his career. Now 31, nobody would blame him for throwing in the towel with everything he’s been through.  According to an ESPNBoston article:

‘There were times when I thought it was time to call it a day,’ Prior admitted….’There were times when I was really frustrated. But, ultimately, I still love playing the game. I still love going out and getting guys out.’

Getting guys out is an understatement. Try a 20.5 K/9 ratio on for size. 

Granted it’s only a small sample, Prior has been superb thus far. In seven relief appearances for the PawSox, Prior is 1-0 while recording 10.1 IP, one save, 4 earned runs, and a blistering 23 strikeouts. 

While impressed, PawSox pitching coach Rich Sauveur isn’t going to jump on the bandwagon just yet, as reported by the ESPNBoston article:

‘He hasn’t overcome anything yet,’ [Sauveur said.] ‘You have to remember he’s in Triple-A right now. His goal, obviously, is to get back to the big leagues. When he gets there, you can say he’s overcome something. Right now, he’s still working on everything.’

On June 24, Prior suffered a minor setback when he was placed on the seven-day disabled list with a strained oblique muscle. Luckily, the injury was short-term and he returned to action July 8. 

As reported in the same ESPNBoston article:

‘For me, I respect the fact that health is a major issue with me,’ [Prior said.] ‘It could turn on the drop of a dime. And I know that. But I also know that I can get guys out. I can still perform. I can still compete at a high level.’

If he wants to make an impact in the Red Sox bullpen he’s going to need to be performing at a high level. The Red Sox currently hold the sixth best bullpen ERA in the Majors at 3.08. So why throw a wrench into a bullpen that seems to be clicking on all cylinders? 

Also working against Prior is his age. A lot of people don’t believe he’s got enough left in his tank. Don’t count Sauveur among them, as reported in the ESPNBoston article:

‘I wouldn’t say the odds are against him…’ [Sauveur countered.] ‘[He’s got] plenty of years left….Since he’s been here, he’s shown me that he’s healthy…and could be called upon at any moment. Right now, everything’s going well.’

But don’t be expecting Prior to be waiting by the phone. He’s realized that nothing good comes from looking too far ahead. According to the same ESPNBoston article:

‘At this point in my career, I legitimately take it day-by-day,’ he said….’I’m having a good time with these guys and, yes, I want to get to the big leagues. I know I can still compete at that level. It’s about waking up and preparing to do my job and not worrying about…[all the] playing scenarios.’

And if he keeps up that attitude, along with his current production, it won’t be long before it’ll be opposing Major League hitters who’ll have to do all the worrying. 

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If the Red Sox expect to be in the running for a playoff spot in the second half of the season, they need to improve in one crucial area: their record in low-scoring games.

Including their 6-1 setback in Oakland Monday, the Sox are just 4-28 in games in which they have scored three or fewer runs. This translates out to a .125 winning percentage, placing them 26th out of 30 MLB teams in this category. It also points to a key deficiency on the year’s team—top-notch starting pitching.

Unlike past years—when the Red Sox always had at least one clear ace who could match up against top opposing starters—the inconsistency on this year’s Boston staff has made for many frustrating nights.

Adding to the angst is that the Sox still have one of baseball’s best offensive clubs overall, ranking third in the AL in average (.268), slugging (.444) and OPS (.772). They have won their share of 9-4 and 15-5 games, but have struggled along at around .500 all year because of their low-scoring losses.

June offers a perfect microcosm of the problem. While the Red Sox had a decent 15-12 record overall for the month, they were 1-9 when scoring three or less runs—including 1-0 and 3-2 losses to the lowly Mariners last week. 

During a 1-5 homestand against Baltimore and Washington earlier in June, Boston lost games of 2-1, 4-2 and 4-3. They were swept by the Nationals—who got excellent starting performances from their terrific trio of Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmerman. The Red Sox got decent pitching as well during that series, but it wasn’t quite good enough. 

Boston fans have been spoiled for most of the past 25 years. Even when the Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs, they had a dominating pitcher who could win the 2-1 and 4-2 games. First it was Roger Clemens, then Pedro Martinez, and then Curt Schilling. To a slightly lesser degree, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester have fit this bill the last couple of seasons, but this has been an ace-less year.

Beckett (4-7), Lester (5-5) and the demoted Daniel Bard (5-6) have all been disappointments; and while Clay Buchholz (8-2) and Felix Doubront (8-4) both have winning records, their ERAs of 5.53 and 4.42 make it clear they have been the beneficiary of very strong run support.

Only Boston’s surprisingly efficient relief corps and its sparking 3.10 combined ERA have kept them from falling even further into mediocrity. There is not much these guys can do, however, if they get the ball with the Sox already behind. 

After the end of this West Coast string, Boston has four big games with the AL East-leading Yankees heading into the all-star break. Somebody on the starting staff needs to step up against New York and in the weeks that follow if the Red Sox want to be playing come October.

Saul Wisnia lives less than seven miles from Fenway Park and works 300 yards from Yawkey Way. His latest book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, is available at amazon.com and his Red Sox reflections can be found at http://saulwisnia.blogspot.com/. You can reach him at saulwizz@gmail.com or @saulwizz.

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It doesn’t seem too long ago that I was standing among a mass of Red Sox fans in the streets of Boston at the 2007 World Series Championship parade. What I will never forget from that day, aside from Jonathan Papelbon’s horrible Irish step-dancing, is the unwavering support that was shown to former Sox third baseman Mike Lowell.

People may forget, but it was that offseason that Alex Rodriguez opted out of his contract with the Yankees, making it possible for Boston to try and pursue him. Now there is no question that A-Rod’s talent far outweighed that of Mike Lowell. But for Sox fans, it was not about that. It was about the character that Lowell had shown on a consistent basis that made him the guy that Boston fans wanted as their everyday third baseman. Chants of “Re-sign Lowell” rang down upon the famous duck boats, and it felt like the party would never end as this team was sure to contend for years to come.

The same jubilation and hope for the future I saw exhibited by Red Sox nation that day does not exist anymore. Instead, it’s been replaced by a festering pessimism that has been rapidly growing since the team’s epic collapse last September. And if you even mention the word character to a Sox fan about this roster as it is currently constituted, expect a full blown laugh-out-loud moment to ensue.

Boston’s beloved Red Sox have somehow lost their way. In a span of five years this team has not only destroyed all of the goodwill that two championships within a decade brought, it destroyed the unbelievable high of breaking an 86-year winless drought.

And no one has been able to avoid this gigantic wave of negativity.

Dustin Pedroia, who many consider to be the spark-plug of this team, turned fans off with his comments regarding manager Bobby Valentine’s handling of the massively slumping Kevin Youkilis (via WEEI). David Ortiz, who in his own right should be considered a Boston sports legend, went on a tear this week while being interviewed by reporters making it clear that he is not enjoying his time on Yawkey Way anymore (via NESN). Even the former captain and now retired Jason Varitek came under mass scrutiny for his part, or lack thereof, in the handling of last year’s dreadful September.

Tell someone in Boston that Tek’s leadership skills were not up to par after his A-Rod face shoving heroics in ’04 and they most likely would have spit in your face. And don’t even go down the road of addressing Josh Beckett. Talk about a fall from grace since 2007.

So what character we thought existed amongst these guys has either faded away or maybe just never existed in the first place. Whatever the case may be, something needs to drastically change. This team has become a three-ring circus and it seems that there is no end in sight.

Sox fans have lost that faith they were told to keep in the entire organization, from ownership on down. Maybe it’s time to clean house and start fresh with the young guns down in the minors. The Red Sox are surely not famished for young, up-and-coming talent.

My question is, can this team find its identity again? For years what we thought we knew about these guys now seems like it was merely a mirage. All I’m saying is that the nation had it right in ’07. Character counts.

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