Kuzul

I am in the midst of a series examining the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position are ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in comparison to the other players.

Today, the series continues with a look at the No. 2 starters in each rotation.

The best player will earn 10 points for his team, with the remaining players being assigned either seven, five, three and one points.

At the end of the process, I will accumulate all of the points for each team and create a divisional power ranking.

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Perhaps the greatest statistical achievement for a Major League pitcher to accomplish is that of the Triple Crown of pitching.

In the history of Major League Baseball, only 35 times has a pitcher led his respective league in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

In the American League, 10 pitchers have combined for 15 Triple Crown seasons. In the National League, it has been done 20 times by 15 pitchers.

Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Lefty Gomez, Roger Clemens, Christy Matthewson, Grover Alexander and Sandy Colfax are the only pitchers to accomplish the feat more than once.

Since 1970, it has only been done eight times, and it’s happened just three times since 2000.

The last pitcher to win the Triple Crown was Jake Peavy in 2007.

With so many dominant pitchers in today’s game, will 2011 be the year that we see someone win a Triple Crown for the first time in five seasons?

Who will be the 26th pitcher to win baseball’s Triple Crown of pitching and join this “Who’s Who” list of pitching legends?

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It is preposterous to think we know what is going to happen as the season progresses. There will be injuries. There will be trades. There will be unexpected distractions that impede a team’s progress.

That being said, this is how one person thinks the 2011 MLB Postseason might go, if the teams stay as they are, and no key players get hurt, and players don’t crash into unlucky, year-long, Adam Lind-status slumps. 

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Before I get started, a tip of the cap from all of us in Red Sox nation to Theo Epstein, our maverick genius, our watchful protector, our Dark Kni-…never mind. But I stand in awe of what the 37 year old son of Brookline, MA has accomplished.

For the services of Adrian Gonzalez, he still managed to keep Jose Iglesias and our draft picks. Under the cover of darkness, he locked up one of the most complete outfielders in the game and disrupted the Yankee-Lee negotiations with his free hand.

For his next trick, he avoided any long, bloated contracts for relievers and secured the services of two solid bullpen arms, one from a division rival. Bruce Wayne he is not, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find a cape and mask in his secret lair.

Lost in the frenzy over the immediate impact the new additions will make, I’m equally amazed at how well Epstein & Co. has set up the Red Sox to remain successful over the next several seasons. As much excitement as the 2011 campaign holds, I am equally looking forward to the team’s potential 2, 3, and as much as 5 years down the line. Here are a few reasons why…

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The Red Sox have one of the most solid rotations in baseball, both in terms of on-field quality and stability.  They have six major league-ready starters and, barring injury, not many of their prospects will see a start. 

Jon Lester is one of my favorite pitchers in baseball.  I’ve loved him since 2008, when I stupidly refused to trade Shawn Marcum for him, and made sure I drafted him in 2009 and 2010.  

I mean, what’s not to like? 

He’s improved every year, he strikes out a ton of hitters (more than a strikeout per inning in both 2009 and 2010), he wins (16, 15 and 19 wins over the past three years, he doesn’t get hurt (33, 32 and 32 starts the past three years) and he keeps his ERA and WHIP manageable and his BAA even better.  

He’s one of the first pitchers I’m taking this year—right in the same class as Halladay, Lee, Sabathia, etc.

John Lackey used to be one of my favorite pitchers in baseball.  I owned him for what felt like 10 straight years, including last year.  

But I can’t help but wonder if his best days are behind him.  

Yes, he pitching for the Red Sox probably means five extra wins per year, but considering he only won 14 last year, those wins are not enough to offset the fact that his ERA, WHIP, BAA and K/IP have all worsened since 2008.  

For a guy with a history of arm troubles and an age on the wrong side of 30 by a couple years, I say buyer beware.

Josh Beckett…

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I saw Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz pitch for the first time on June 26, 2007, in Manchester, NH. I instantly knew that I was watching a star in the making. I could not wait to get home to report what I had seen. I told Red Sox Nation to get to the ballpark to see him pitch and declared, “You’re in for a heckuva treat!”

He threw a no-hitter on September 1st of that year and his road to stardom seemed assured. But he struggled mightily for the next two years, bouncing back and forth between Pawtucket, RI, and Boston. For every outstanding outing there was a disastrous one…and in between there were a bunch of forgettable efforts. At times he got very frustrated. Pundits suggested that the no-hitter had actually been counter-productive, that it prompted him to take success for granted. As his struggles persisted, there were some in Red Sox Nation who started to question his status as a prospect. Many fans said the Red Sox should trade him—as recently as last winter—before the floor fell out on his trade value.

I was not among the doubters, not even for a minute. I’ve said on MANY occasions that, in my mind, it wasn’t a matter of whether he would be a star…the only question was whether he would develop into a SUPERstar. And if last year is any indication, it appears superstardom is just around the corner. For Buchholz, the trick will be to keep moving forward without having to take a step back beforehand.

To their credit, the Red Sox organization stuck with the Nederland, TX native throughout his struggles. GM Theo Epstein knew what he had and was determined to stick with him. The Red Sox front office and coaching staff advised him to stay with the program and learn from his struggles. At times it was hard—next to impossible. But he persevered. He applied himself. He grew as a pitcher and a person.

Last spring he went into spring training uncertain as to whether he would have a spot in the rotation when the club headed north. He got his first start on April 11th and went 3-3, 3.82 in his first six starts. And then he hit his stride. He went 7-1 in his next eight starts. Then, after a no decision, he went 5-1 (with two more NDs) in his next eight starts. He made his first All-Star team in July, and when the season was finished his numbers came to 17-7 with a 2.33 ERA (second in the league).

It was an extraordinary season by any measure, but in spite of last year’s long-awaited success he is not looking back. He is fully focused on 2011, a season that promises to continue well into October or even early November.

When he CAN be coaxed into talking about 2010, he generally keeps it brief and quickly looks ahead once again: “I feel like I stepped in and did a decent job last year…I made strides, (but) I still have things I need to improve on and to work on. That is what spring training is for. I need to get ready for the season.”

He says he is looking forward to going to Florida: “I’m definitely ready to go. It’s something I’ve been thinking about since the second week of the offseason.” Obviously, as he prepares to report to Fort Myers, he has a much greater level of comfort knowing there is a spot in the rotation with his name on it: “It makes me feel a lot better…A lot of stress will be withered away and (the stress) won’t be there as much as it has been the last couple of years going in to spring training.”

Of the club’s prospects in the upcoming season, he said: “I’ve talked to a few people and they’ve said it’s the best they’ve seen on paper in a long time. If everybody is healthy and ready coming into spring training, I think it’ll be a pretty eventful year for us.”

And it all begins in a little more than three weeks…

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Last year, Clay Buchholz was one of the bigger surprises in baseball. In his first full season on the MLB level, he finished with a 17-7 record, 2.33 ERA (second in the AL), and a 1.20 WHIP.

He finished sixth in Cy Young voting, and might have garnered more attention had he not missed nearly a month of the season from June to July.

It’s also worth a mention that Buchholz was the clear winner when it came to ERA+ (park adjusted ERA). His 187 ERA+ was the best total in the AL, well ahead of guys like Felix Hernandez (174), and David Price (145).

However, a closer look at the stats might indicate that Buchholz was somewhat “lucky” in 2010.

His BABIP (batting average against balls in play) was .265, a fairly low average. BABIP is used to measure how well a team fielded around a pitcher, and to a certain extent how fortunate a pitcher was that uncontrollable circumstances, like hit location, contact, and team fielding, worked in his favor. 

Also, some of Buchholz’s peripheral stats weren’t as favorable. His 6.22 K/9 was lower than the league average of 7.13. His 3.47 BB/9 was higher than the league average of 3.28.

Also, despite a 31.5% fly ball rate, Buchholz gave up just nine home runs all season long. Additionally, his 0.47 HR/9 rate was lower than the league average of 0.96.

Given the fact that Buchholz makes roughly half his starts in one of the better hitters’ parks in all of baseball, and has to make a few appearances per year in Yankee Stadium, Camden Yards, and the Rogers Centre (all favorable hitters’ parks), such a favorable bottom line, given his less-than-stellar peripherals, could be interpreted as “luck,” at least to a certain extent.

Logical? Sure. Is it relevant information? Definitely. Does that mean Buchholz is due for a large drop off next year? Well, not necessarily. 

For starters, I should disprove the fact that the Red Sox had a good defense in 2010. Despite an offseason campaign that boldy pronounced the new goals of “pitching and defense,” the Red Sox struggled in both aspects.

Much of the sabermetrical goodness that helps determine how fluky a pitchers season was is hinged on the fact that they either did or didn’t have a good defense behind them, or performed in favorable or unfavorable pitchers parks.

Well, the Sox didn’t have a good defense last year. Just take a look at some of their defensive totals and metrics:

They committed 111 errors (23rd most in baseball), featured a .982 fielding percentage (23rd worst overall, third worst in AL), -2.3 UZR/150 (21st worst overall, fourth worst in AL), -15.1 UZR (23rd worst overall, third worst in AL), and a -3.0 ARM rating (19th worst overall, fifth worst in AL).

Even if you aren’t familiar with all of these statistical measurements, they all mean one thing: the Red Sox were a subpar fielding team in virtually every aspect of the game.

Much of this has to do with Gold Glovers going down (Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis), injuries to solid fielders (Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Cameron, Marco Scutaro), and the subsequent defensive shuffling that resulted (Bill Hall, Darnell McDonald, Daniel Nava, Jed Lowrie, Kevin Cash, Eric Patterson, Ryan Kalish, Yaimaico Navarro, etc., etc., etc.).

For virtually the entire second half of the 2010 season, the Red Sox were putting out an entirely different lineup each night.

So, unless you’re going to tell me that every ball was hit at Adrian Beltre while Buchholz was on the mound, you can’t really credit Buchholz’s success to a solid defense.

Also, it’s fairly obvious that Buchholz loses when it comes to performing in pitcher friendly venues. Eighteen of his 28 starts (nearly 65%) were made in Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Rogers Centre, Camden Yards, or U.S. Cellular Field.

All four parks were eighth or higher in PPF (park pitching factor) in 2010, which measures how much a park favors either the hitter or the pitcher. All five parks significantly favored the hitter.

Clay didn’t have a great defense behind him, and he didn’t perform in pitcher-friendly parks. It would be nearly impossible to attribute his success to either of these factors.

However, Clay’s peripherals still weren’t that great. But, there’s still a reason that he posted the microscopic ERA that he did. 

For starters, Buchholz at age 26 already has some of the best stuff in baseball. His changeup is already comparable to guys like Johan Santana and Cole Hamels.

He throws a left-handed changeup as a right-handed pitcher, which has always been his calling card around the league.

However, it might be Buchholz’s fastball that does the most damage. I once heard Kevin Millar (former Red Sox player and Baltimore Oriole present during Buchholz’s no-hitter in 2007) describe it as a “heavy fastball.”

This description does it justice. What Millar meant has nothing to do with the actual weight of the ball; rather, Buchholz throws it with such force and such movement, that it actually appears to be going faster than it is.

Last year, he averaged 94.1 mph on his fastball, and he’s capable of getting it up into the high ’90’s if need be. He throws both a regular and cut fastball, and is capable of locating it to either half of the plate, up or down.

When it comes to win value for fastballs, Buchholz was in esteemed company in 2010:

Of the 10 players on this list, seven finished with a sub-3.00 ERA. Only Matt Cain (3.14), Cliff Lee (3.18), and Ted Lilly (3.62) finished with ERA’s higher than 3.00.

Also, of the 10 players on this list, eight used changeups as a significant part of their repertoire. The two who didn’t were Tim Hudson and Ted Lilly.

Hudson relied heavily on his fastball in 2010, throwing it 63.8% of the time. He limited his walks (2.9 BB/9) and kept the ball on the ground (1.81 Ground Ball/Fly Ball; 2.77 Ground Outs/Air Outs).

Lilly also relied heavily on his fastball, and mixed in a mediocre to ineffective curve, slider, and change-up. His lack of a second above-average pitch is probably why he has the highest ERA of anyone in this group.

But what does this all have to do with Buchholz? My point is that a prominent fastball-changeup combination is the best in baseball for getting weak contact and swings and misses.

Other guys not mentioned here who feature a strong fastball and changeup: Tim Lincecum, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester, Cole Hamels, CC Sabathia, Jered Weaver, Roy Oswalt, Josh Johnson…you get the idea.

All of these guys use their combo’s in different ways and to varying degrees of success and overall usage, but all of these guys can be described as having above average fastballs and change-ups.

I think this is the overwhelming reason why Buchholz’ bottom line was so good last year. Because of his ability as a pitcher, he was able to overcome a great deal of the mistakes he made on the mound.

For instance, with RISP (runners in scoring position), batters hit just .161 off Buchholz with 0 HR.

With RISP and two outs, batters hit just .109 off Buchholz, scoring 11 runs on just 7 hits in 64 total AB’s.

These stats are important for a number of different reasons. First, Buchholz’ one biggest problem was always the mental aspect of the game. He often struggled with his focus, especially when he had runners on base. Well, that obviously wasn’t much of an issue in 2010.

Secondly, it’s important to note that Buchholz is capable of putting up such good numbers when he has a season where his peripheral stats were, for the most part, lower than his career averages.

In 447.0 total innings of minor league work across parts of six seasons, Buchholz has accumulated 508 strikeouts. That’s a 10.2 K/9 ratio.

Buchholz is a strikeout pitcher who hasn’t started striking people out yet (just 120 in 173.2 IP last year). Obviously, a fastball-changeup combination lends itself most readily to getting swings and misses.

The fact that he didn’t strike as many batters out last year shows again that Buchholz was focused more on pitching, not just throwing. It’s not a question of if Buchholz starts striking more batters out, it’s when. 

Buchholz’ overall major league 3.8 BB/9 ratio isn’t stellar, but he posted a 2.5 BB/9 ratio in the minor leagues.

Again, if you’ve ever seen Buchholz work, he’s not really someone you can characterize as wild. As he gets older and gains more major league experience, it would be reasonable to expect a dip in walks.

All signs point to an improvement in peripheral stats in 2011 and beyond. 

While it might be easy to characterize Buchholz’ 2.33 ERA as “lucky,” there are few pitchers who post averages that small without some sort of regression.

The fact that Buchholz hasn’t yet peaked should delight Red Sox fans; he’s only going to get better as time goes on.

Prediction for 2011: 19-9, 2.89 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 199 SO

Dan is a Boston Red Sox and Celtics featured columnist. Follow him on Twitter at danhartelbr.

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It was a tremendous 2010 campaign for Clay Buchholz, who emerged as a great fantasy option despite pitching in the ultra-competitive AL East.  Now owners have to decide if they think he can replicate these impressive numbers, or if a regression is in his future:

17 Wins
173.2 Innings
2.33 ERA
1.20 WHIP
120 Strikeouts (6.22 K/9)
67 Walks (3.47 BB/9)
.265 BABIP

The ERA was sparkling, though you can easily attribute that partially to his luck metrics.  Not only was his BABIP on the lucky side, so was his strand rate (79.0 percent).  

In fact, among pitchers who qualified for the ERA title, Buchholz’ strand rate was the eighth best in the league. Is this something that we can realistically expect him to replicate?  Probably not.

A fall in his BABIP and strand rate will certainly hurt his ERA.  You also have to wonder if he can repeat his performance within the AL East:

• Baltimore – 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 15.0 IP
• Blue Jays – 3-0, 0.41 ERA, 22.0 IP
• Rays – 1-1, 0.98 ERA, 18.1 IP
• Yankees – 1-1, 5.84 ERA, 12.1 IP

While he did struggle against the Yankees, he was lights out against the other three teams.  While the Rays lineup will look significantly different in 2011, the Blue Jays can score runs and the Orioles have taken strides to improve their lineup.

It is hard to imagine seeing these types of minuscule numbers for a second consecutive season.

Of course, his likely decrease in luck will also affect his WHIP, which is seemingly a lock to increase.  Yes, he could improve on his walk rate (his career minor league rate was at 2.54), but an increase in BABIP is obviously going to lead to more hits.

However, there is something that will help to offset that.

While Buchholz may not have been sparkling in 2010 in the strikeout department, there is reason to believe that he could take a significant step forward this season. 

Over his minor league career he posted a K/9 of 10.23, including an 8.86 at Triple-A in 2008 (43.2 IP) and an 8.9 at Triple-A in 2009 (99.0 IP). 

Is he going to suddenly evolve into a pitcher who is going to strike out over eight batters per nine innings?  It’s not likely, considering that he had more than seven strikeouts in a game just three times, the last of which came on June 15. 

Would it be a surprise to see him improve his strikeout rate by at least one per nine innings?  Not at all.

Let’s see how it all adds up for 2011:

195.0 IP, 17 W, 3.46 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 162 K (7.48 K/9), 68 BB (3.14 BB/9)

Those numbers certainly would put him in the discussion of the Top 20 starting pitchers, and while I feel like he belongs there (click here for my recent rankings) it certainly is a fine line between 15 and 25. 

Clearly, with the upgraded lineup, his wins potential is significantly better than a lot of other pitchers out there, helping to give him an edge.

While his luck will likely decrease, an improvement in strikeouts will certainly go a long way in helping to offset that. 

He’s not going to replicate last year’s surprising success, but he should continue to be one of the better options in all formats.  As a SP2, he certainly should have plenty of value.

What are your thoughts on Buchholz?  How good could he be in 2011?  What type of numbers do you see him posting?

Make sure to check out some of our 2011 projections:

• Butler, Billy
• Choo, Shin-Soo
• Ethier, Andre
• Freese, David
• Jaso, John
• Morrow, Brandon
• Reyes, Jose
• Willingham, Josh
• Young, Michael

THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO FEATURED ON WWW.ROTOPROFESSOR.COM

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The MLB Winter Meetings take place next Monday through Thursday and with a new regime in place, you’d figure a big trade will be made or at least attempted. After all, it’s long overdue that the Mets part ways with a member or two of their “core.” Why it’s called that is confusing since the Mets have never won a pennant with those players.

Two guys come to mind when thinking of core members to trade and they are Jose Reyes and David Wright. If neither of them are dealt, this would be their seventh full season together. So, which one should the Mets think of dealing?

Jose Reyes doesn’t seem to be a Sandy Alderson type of guy and David Wright rebounded to a have a solid season in his second at Citi Field.

If only one were to go, it’ll come down to who fits the new system more. Playing at a spacious ballpark such as Citi Field, the team should be built around three things: pitching, defense, and speed. Concerning Reyes and Wright, they both fall into the categories of defense and speed.

Reyes when healthy is obviously one of the quickest runners in the game and when his head is into it, he can play solid defense. The admitted lapses, though, is a huge problem. Reyes said during the season that he can’t concentrate through the course of a game with the pitcher throwing 100 pitches. Is that the type of guy Alderson and the Mets want to bring back when trying to start new?

Plus, the nagging and recurring hamstring and leg injuries are of major concern. Will those problems all hurt the Mets and his trade value? It’s very possible if the Mets are looking for some nice starting pitching in return.

The ideal team to make a trade for Reyes with is the Red Sox. They’ve been starving for a shortstop since dealing Hanley Ramirez away to the Marlins for Josh Beckett and they have the starting pitchers the Mets would want.

They can trade guys like Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester which would help the Mets in the rotation and finally give the Red Sox a premiere shortstop. Plus, the Red Sox have asked the Mets about Reyes in the past.

When it comes to Wright, he’s more of a dynamic player than Reyes at this stage of their careers. He almost never gets injured as he’s been on the disabled list once in his career and that was for a concussion.

He’s entering his prime as he’ll turn 28 in December and after an awful statistical 2009 season, he hit 29 home runs and drove in over 100 runs this past season. He can also play defense as he could’ve won the Gold Glove this season—he’s won two in his career—and he can also steal bases better than a lot of third baseman.

Other than a high number of strikeouts, he brings more potential to the table than the man to his left on the infield.

The Red Sox can also use a third baseman with Adrian Beltre most likely not returning and they were rumored to have offered Jacoby Ellsbury for Wright around the trade deadline. The Mets have no need for Ellsbury unless they trade Carlos Beltran but perhaps one of those Red Sox starting pitchers can be dealt in return.

If you’re looking for pure speed and warning track power, you’d want to keep Reyes. If you’re looking for some speed along with power and overall smart baseball, you’d want to keep Wright.

It’s an interesting debate and one should be traded, but the Mets must have a replacement for either position which is hard to find.

If the Mets enter 2011 with both Reyes and Wright on the roster, they’ll be looking at another season of the same old team. Something must change for the sake of a new feel and look.

The Mets have stated they’d be willing to speak to teams about Reyes. When it comes to Wright, the Mets already called him a day after the season ended to tell him he’s staying aboard. Stay tuned.

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I won’t go as far to say that candidates like Ron Gardenhire, Ron Washington, and Joe Maddon aren’t deserving American League Manager of the Year recipients. Far from it.

However, it’s become clear that Boston Red Sox skipper Terry Francona doesn’t get as much respect from the Baseball Writers Association of America as one might think.

Before I get into any analysis, let’s examine the facts:

Francona is currently the third longest tenured manager with any one Major League team (only Ron Gardenhire of the Twins and Tony LaRussa of the Cardinals have been with their respective teams longer). 

Francona has won and managed the most playoff games of any Red Sox skipper, and has the best postseason record since Bill Carrigan went 8-2 from 1913-1916. He and Carrigan are the only Red Sox managers with multiple World Series titles on their resume.

His record of 565-407 (.581), is second only to Joe Cronin (1,071-916; 1935-47) in terms of games managed in Red Sox history.

Francona has led the Red Sox to the playoffs in five of the seven years he’s been with the team, despite having to battle the ever-present New York Yankees, and newly emerging Tampa Bay Rays.

You can legitimately make the case that Terry Francona is the greatest manager in the history of the organization. 

It was under his watch that the Red Sox broke the 86 year curse that had filled Red Sox fans with agony and despair for decades. His World Series championship in 2004 single-handedly changed the way the Boston Red Sox were perceived. No longer were they the lovable losers who couldn’t manage to get over the hump. No longer was a successful season judged by whether or not the Yankees won the World Series that year.

You might think that a manager with a resume like Francona might be a valid candidate for the AL Manager of the Year. Yet, this is not so. In his seven years with the team, Tito has never won the award, nor has he ever finished above fourth place.

In fact, he’s never even received a single, solitary first place vote.

The irony of the situation is that Francona’s history with the award is representative of his style of management. Francona receives little credit for the team’s success, yet often bears the majority of blame for when things do go wrong. This is just how Francona likes to do things.

Terry is the consummate players manager. He has never, ever thrown any of his player’s under the bus publicly, for any reason, large or small. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, the Boston Red Sox clubhouse has and always will be filled with could-do-no-wrongers. 

When the team plays poorly, or when a questionable decision is made, Francona is the first one to sit down with the media and take accountability.

This is just his style. It might not make him the most flashy or popular manager in the eyes of the outside world, but rest assured, he has the ultimate respect of his players, which is what counts the most when it comes down to winning.

Part of the knock on Francona is that he does little to actually bring the team to success. People have sometimes accredited the recent Red Sox success to the teams ability to spend on high caliber talent. People have often took the “team wins despite him” approach.

I say bologna.

If any year has been indicative of Francona’s ability at the helm of a Major League team, it has been 2010.

Many Sox fans had high hopes for this season, yet a rash of injuries put a damper on title aspirations and ultimately kept the Red Sox from a playoff berth.

Boston was without leadoff man and gold glove caliber outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury for virtually the entire season. Three separate rib fractures limited the high flyer to just 18 games.

The Sox were also without former MVP Dustin Pedroia, who missed the last two months with a fractured foot, and all star first baseman Kevin Youkilis, who missed the last two months while recovering from thumb surgery.

Oh, and catchers Victor Martinez and Jason Varitek, outfielders Mike Cameron and Jeremy Hermida, infielder Mike Lowell, and starters Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, and Clay Buchholz all missed time due to injury during the season.

By the end of the year, about two-thirds of the everyday starting lineup was made up of minor league journeymen, young kids, and fill ins. Names like Daniel Nava, Bill Hall, Ryan Kalish, and Darnell McDonald quickly became household names.

This, coupled with inconsistencies from the starting rotation (John Lackey, Josh Beckett, and Daisuke Matsuzaka never quite put it together), and one of the worst bullpens in baseball (4.24 ERA, 12th in the AL) might lead fans to think that they had a very poor season. 

But they didn’t. They went 89-73 (.549)

To put this in perspective, the Sox won one less regular season game than the AL Champion Texas Rangers, and three less games than the NL Champion San Francisco Giants.

Injuries to key players + inconsistent pitching + a poor bullpen + playing the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays eighteen or so times a year shouldn’t equal 89 wins. But it did. Terry Francona made it happen.

He kept his players motivated, and got more than anyone expected from an injury-riddled team.

However, like every year, Francona went mostly unnoticed when it came time to dole out the regular season awards.

With many deserving candidates, maybe 2010 isn’t quite the season to put the BBWAA on trial. But rest assured, it doesn’t sit well with me that he’s never gotten any serious consideration during any of his seven seasons in Boston.

He most certainly deserves better.

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