Kuzul

The Boston Red Sox need to do something drastic to have any reasonable chance at even making the second wild card spot this season.

That drastic deal should involve dealing Josh Beckett to the Miami Marlins in return for Josh Johnson.

The first thing to consider is contract status.

Beckett is in the middle of a four year, $68 million contract. He will be a free agent in 2015. Johnson is in a four year, $39 million contract. He will be a free agent in 2014.

Beckett is 5-8, with a 4.53 ERA in 101.1 innings pitched. This year Johnson is 6-7, with a 4.14 ERA in 119.2 innings pitched.

Although their numbers are similar, trading Beckett now would be a huge shakeup for the Red Sox. The Red Sox should not wait until July 31st—the trade deadline—to make this deal happen. This is something that should get done now.  

A shakeup is something the Red Sox sorely need. They have been incredibly mediocre this season. And while the Red Sox are not a bad team, they are not a great team either. They hover in the horrible grey area of mediocrity.

The team gives Red Sox fans hope for a week, just to rip it away the following week.  

If the the Red Sox traded Beckett, the entire clubhouse would change. The face of the negativity that has surrounded this team last season would be gone.

In short, this deal is more about trading Beckett than acquiring Johnson. The fact Johnson has shown flashes of brilliance in his career is simply the sugar on top of this trade scenario.

The Red Sox would be assuming a health risk with Johnson. His pitching shoulder limited his availability in 2011. He was only able to pitch 60.1 innings last season.

But Johnson is worth the risk. When healthy, Johnson has ace like stuff. The same could be said of Beckett, but his time with the Red Sox has taken a turn for the worse.

The chicken and beer drama has been well documented. His ill-timed golf outing also received a lot of attention.

It is the golf outing that reignited the controversy surrounding Beckett this season.

Beckett had lat discomfort and missed a start, but still felt good enough to play golf on his off day.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote:  

Shouldn’t you exercise a little discretion? I mean, you already have the beer and fried chicken stigma. You didn’t tell your manager about the lat discomfort before he left you in for 126 pitches. Then you have to skip a start. And then you play golf?  

The feelings surrounding Beckett really have not fully gone away this season. Beckett is 32 years old and may still have a few good seasons left in him. But those seasons may come in a different ballpark.

Beckett is still a big-name pitcher and started his career in Florida. The Red Sox may have to eat part of his contract to make a deal like this happen, but it is worth it.

Johnson is a 28-year-old health risk who may still prove to be an ace.

Both sides would assume some risk in this scenario. But it is a risk both sides should strongly consider. 

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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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Like a skipping CD in dire need of a cleansing, Josh Beckett is following a mortifying motif of practically conceding critical games against American League East adversaries before sundown.

The visiting Toronto Blue Jays proved to pick up all they would need in the first inning on Friday, then doubled their output in the second inning before pacing themselves to a 6-1 thrashing of the Red Sox.

Beckett is now 1-4, and the team 1-6, in his last seven starts since May 31. He was previously 4-4, and the Sox 5-4, when he started, though the team’s overall progress has not swayed too far in either direction.

Boston was 26-25 after Beckett’s losing decision to Detroit on May 31 and was 48-46 by the end of Friday’s falter to the Blue Jays.

If anything, though, that means Boston could be further along in its effort to retain its postseason viability if Beckett were consistently and certifiably committed. Instead, his blatant lack of preparedness is holding the club back.

After three strikes of this nature, manager Bobby Valentine ought to consider experimenting with a radical reformation to try to remedy the pitching staff. Perhaps Beckett should temporarily swap jobs with the versatile Franklin Morales, who has alternated between starting and relieving this season and is 2-1 with two no-decisions in games in which he has pitched at least five full innings.

There is enough room and enough potential for improvement in such a switch for Valentine to try it. For if the last two weeks and his last three outings are any indication, continuing with the status quo is no way to get the best out of Beckett at this time.

Within the first two innings Friday night, Beckett authorized eight baserunners, including three on extra-base hits, and saw half of them cross the plate, for a swiftly sculpted 4-0 deficit.

This was coming five nights after he recovered from a three-run, four-hit, five-baserunner first inning en route to a rare winning decision at Tampa Bay.

One could call that an appropriate mulligan for a fairly tough, 3-2 loss in Seattle on June 30. But between those two starts, he yielded 5-0 and 6-5 deficits within the first two stanzas of an eventual 10-8 loss to the Yankees in his final start before his not-so-hard-earned All-Star break.

In that July 6 tilt at Fenway Park, Beckett’s first bout with the Bronx Bombers since before last year’s September meltdown, he loaded the bases on a hit batsman and walked in the opening run before he had even recorded an out.

By the time he sat down for the bottom of the second, he had yielded six runs on six hits and eight total runners.

Yet just as routinely, after each of these three early-inning sputters, Beckett has recovered and apparently settled in for comparatively smoother third, fourth, fifth and sometimes sixth innings.

He lasted four more frames on Friday and allowed one run on two hits, threw five straight shutout innings against the Rays, and tamed the Yankees for three stanzas July 6 before giving way to Matt Albers.

Not only could relegation to the bullpen ultimately signal the right wake-up call to Beckett, but it may also bar his current bane while promoting his current boon to help serve Boston’s interests.

So far in July, Beckett’s inning-by-inning transcript has pointed to a tendency to settle in and start pitching to a much less reprehensible effect only after extramural baseball has been played for a while.

Whether he realizes it or not, it could be that Beckett is focused and committed only after the game-time atmosphere has officially kicked in at the ballpark.

Accordingly, instead of banking on Beckett’s finishing his mental preparation in the clubhouse right before the national anthem, Valentine should put him in the bullpen for an indefinite period. That way, Beckett can prolong his warm-up and be surrounded by that tangible game-time atmosphere for one or two hours before he is summoned to the mound.

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General manager Ben Cherington, manager Bobby Valentine and the Boston Red Sox have their next big task on their plate—replacing the injured Josh Beckett in the starting rotation.

Boston placed Beckett on the 15-day disabled list with an inflamed shoulder and has chosen reliever Franklin Morales to take his place tomorrow night, according Ian Browne of MLB.com.

It’s still unknown as to how long Beckett will be out for, but you can expect him to miss at least two starts.

Morales will start against the Chicago Cubs, but should Daniel Bard take any future starts that Beckett will end up missing?

Bard is currently pitching in Triple-A Pawtucket trying to find his feel for the pitching rubber.

He’s pitched in three games for the Paw Sox, getting roughed up in the opener and pitching better since. In four innings he’s allowed four earned runs on three hits, while walking two and striking out eight.

After transitioning into a starting pitcher during the offseason and spring training, Bard was about as bad as it gets in his first 11 starts. His June 3 start against the Toronto Blue Jays was the final straw, as he allowed five earned runs in 1.2 innings while walking six batters and hitting two.

Already in last place in the AL East, Boston can’t afford to give away any games. The team will need a starting pitcher to replace Beckett.

Franklin Morales cannot be the interim starter. He’s much too valuable coming out of the bullpen and the last thing they need is for him to get injured trying to go four innings.

I understand that they just found out about Beckett, which is why he’ll start tomorrow. But, that should be the only game that he starts.

That being said, Daniel Bard might be the best option that Boston has.

It actually would make a lot of sense.

If Bard comes back up to the majors and pitches well, great.

If not, then he goes back to the bullpen once Beckett is healthy. He gets around two more starts to prove that he can do it.

If he can’t, it was worth one last shot.

I know there’s a big risk of putting Bard back out there, but Boston has been losing games with the other four starting pitchers on the mound.

What’s the worst that happens?

There aren’t any other better options that Boston currently has.

They could go out and sign someone who just got released, but that doesn’t really solve anything. At least with Bard, there’s a shot at something positive for the future.

There’s no doubt that the Red Sox have their hands tied with this situation. But, it might be best if Daniel Bard’s final chance at starting comes while Beckett is on the DL.

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It appears as if the Boston Red Sox‘ rough season is about to get worse, as news has broke that they are going to be losing starting pitcher Josh Beckett to the 15-day disabled list because of an injured shoulder.

The last update on Beckett’s shoulder was that it was sore because of inflammation in the joint and that he would miss his scheduled start on Sunday night, but Boston Globe baseball writer Nick Cafardo tweets that he’ll be going on the DL now:

Looks like Josh Beckett heading to 15 day disabled list with sore right shoulder.

— Nick Cafardo (@nickcafardo) June 16, 2012

This is a huge loss for the Sox, who are currently dead last in a very tough American League East. They sit 7.5 games behind the division-leading Yankees, and can’t afford to lose the best pitcher in their rotation.

That said, the Sox are doing the smart thing here by allowing Beckett time to rest. Any time a pitcher is dealing with a sore shoulder, it’s much better to be safe than sorry, so fans will have to hope the rest will give him time to heal up and get back to normal.

The bad news is that it’s going to be real tough for the Sox to claw back in this division without their ace. Even at this point in the season, every game counts.

The sooner Beckett can get fully healthy the better it will be for the Red Sox. As of right now, it appears as if they’ll be without him for the next 15 days though.

Check back in for more updates on Beckett as they become available.

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Remember back in May when Josh Beckett was embroiled in a PR snafu that involved an ill-timed golf outing?

He was supposed to be resting a sore lat muscle but hit the links instead. The worst part about it was that he missed a start.

When he did make his next start he only lasted 2.1 innings against the Cleveland Indians. He allowed seven runs, seven hits and two home runs. He exited the game to a chorus of boos from the Fenway Faithful. 

After the game he showed no contrition for the golf outing. He would not even acknowledge how the golf outing could be perceived in a negative light.

His post-game press conference with went down like this:

Question: Any regrets?

Answer: My off day is my off day.

Question: Given that you were skipped a start with what was described as a tight lat muscle, do people have the right to question why you were golfing?

Answer: Not on my off day.

Question: Do you understand the perception that leaves when the team is playing as poorly as it is?

Answer: We get 18 off days a year. I think we deserve a little time to ourselves. (h/t USA Today)

It seemed the death knells were ringing on Beckett’s time with Boston.

But then something happened.

He started pitching like the Beckett of old. He started pitching like the Beckett who was the undeniable ace of Boston’s staff.

He is 4-6 on the season with a 4.04 ERA. He has 51 strikeouts in 71.1 innings pitched.

But it is what he has done since that 2.1 inning disaster against Cleveland that has Boston fans excited.

Since May 10 Beckett’s ERA is 2.21. He has struck out 25 batters and has walked only five in 36.2 innings pitched. Opponents are only batting .227 against Beckett in that time frame.

Beckett was great in Boston’s tough loss to the Baltimore Orioles on June 6. He went eight innings, struck out five and only allowed two runs.

After the game Bobby Valentine told the Boston Herald, “Those are eight of the best innings I’ve seen all year. He was efficient with great stuff, all of his pitches. We’ll take that every time out.”

He has retaken his throne. Beckett is once again Boston’s ace. 

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The Boston Red Sox have managed to string together five wins in a row.

Over the course of the last several games, the team has only allowed eight runs, while scoring 34 of their own, showing that the offense is clearly clicking at the right time as well.

While I think it would be a bit premature to say that the team is set to tear up the rest of baseball, there are still some positives that can be drawn from the performance of the pitching staff.

The obvious positive is what we saw from Jon Lester. His complete game, one-run performance was impressive.

The next obvious positive was seeing Josh Beckett come out and throw seven scoreless innings against the Seattle Mariners, striking out nine.

The blemish on the record comes at the hands of Clay Buchholz. While he did not pitch poorly, and the Red Sox were able to win, he did give up four runs in 6.1 innings in a game that the team needed to put up seven runs to win.

What is truly inspiring is the team ERA over the past five games: 1.40. 

If you look at just the past four games, the starters have only allowed three runs in 28 innings of work, which translates into a 0.75 ERA. In other words, they’re getting it done.

As much as Josh Beckett has frustrated Red Sox Nation, right now he is showing that he can still perform, having dropped his ERA from 5.97 to 5.02 after his fine performance against the Mariners.

What the team needs to do now is string together a few runs through the rotation with similar results. Once they manage to do that, then perhaps we can assume a new leaf has been turned.

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Although the Boston Red Sox have won their last four games, they currently sit in last place in the AL East with a 16-19 record. Many pundits have counted them out for the season and expect they’ll finish around .500 or below.

The reality is that while the Red Sox have gotten off to a slow start this season, they will be competing for the top spot in the division well into September.

The Sox have been carried so far by their championship-level offense, which has scored 194 runs, second in the MLB to only the Texas Rangers led by Josh Hamilton.

David Ortiz has led the way with a .346 batting average and 26 RBIs, both top-five in the league. Dustin Pedroia is his usual self, and the Sox have gotten quality contributions from newcomers Cody Ross, Ryan Sweeney, and rookie Will Middlebrooks.

But Boston has missed Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford, who have played seven games between them this season due to injury. If either Ellsbury can come back and pick up where he left off last year, or if Crawford can return to his pre-2011 form, the offense will be even better.

This is a team that’s given 56 at-bats so far to expected reserve outfielder Darnell McDonald and his .179 batting average. Having Ellsbury, Crawford or both back and hitting well for Boston should give them an even bigger boost to an already formidable attack.

While their offense is one of the best in the league, the reason the Sox currently sit in last place to start the year is because of their dreadful pitching.

They’ve given up 187 runs, which is the highest figure in the MLB—not something you’d usually associate with a pitching staff led by Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and Clay Buchholz.

Lester has been a model of consistency for the Sox the past few years, sporting an ERA between 3.21 and 3.47 for each of the past four seasons. His complete game last night lowered his ERA to 3.71, and he looks to be back on track to another fine campaign.

Beckett has an ERA of 5.97 after his last start when he gave up seven runs in less than three innings, an outing in which manager Bobby Valentine suggested Beckett was tipping his pitches. Beckett had a 4.10 ERA in his career with the Sox, a number that’s inflated by his adjustment year to the AL in 2006 and his injury-filled 2010 campaign.

This is a player who had a 2.89 ERA last season; he should be able to turn it around and finish another solid year with a sub 4.00 ERA.

Buchholz, on the other hand, sports an 8.31 ERA and 1.97 WHIP, both last in the majors by far.

Although he hasn’t looked good all year, he showed signs of improvement in his last start, giving up three runs in six innings. Buchholz has the pitching repertoire to succeed—he’s had seasons of 2.33 and 3.48 ERAs—but just needs to harness his stuff properly.

If he continues to fail, the Red Sox have the pitching depth to replace him. Aaron Cook has looked great in Triple-A ball, and Daisuke Matsuzaka is close to returning from his elbow injury.  

Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard have both been strong at the back end of the rotation, and the first-time starters should continue to improve as the season progresses.

The bullpen started off rocky but has pitched well of late, with Alfredo Aceves looking more and more like an elite closer after each outing.

The pen should get a boost both when Andrew Bailey returns from his thumb injury and when Mark Melancon gets called up from the minors. Although the former Astros closer looked terrible in his work with the Sox earlier this season, Melancon has struck out 19 batters in 11 innings in Triple-A without giving up a run and should be back to being a solid reliever when he gets another shot in Boston.

Poor pitching to start the year is the reason the Sox currently stand at three games under .500. As long as their offense continue to hit, once the pitching stabilizes they should be back in contention for the AL East crown.

Baseball’s a long season, and with only 35 out of 162 games played, the Red Sox surely have a chance to finish first in one of the toughest divisions in baseball.

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Like most of Red Sox nation, I am angry with Josh Beckett for many reason: the golfing; the unavailability out of the bullpen in the 17-inning marathon against the Baltimore Orioles; and the overall indifference to the state of the franchise and the fans.

But I was fully expecting him to come out Thursday evening and have a six-inning, three-run performance; one that is far from what his ace-like salary would merit, but one that we couldn’t really complain about, either.

But when I looked down at the score to see his line—seven earned runs in seven outs—I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of guilty pleasure.

As sports fans, we want to like our super stars. We want a connection with the players. We want the guys that seem like “good guys” to be successful. Had the Red Sox won, I would have been happy. I haven’t been rooting for them to lose. But when Beckett showed how little he cared about this team and its fans, part of me wanted him to fail.

That has been the biggest frustration with Beckett: He just doesn’t care. The Red Sox fan base is rabid, unforgiving and relentless. But more than anything else, they care. And for a fan base that has always celebrated the unsung heroes—the Gabe Kaplers and Doug Mirabellis of Major League Baseball—they want two things: to win and for the team to care as much as them.

The Red Sox are in a lose-lose situation. They have created a monster—too big to fail. The current ownership has built a team that has more money on the disabled list (over $70 million) than six other MLB teams; if they win…well…that’s what they’re supposed to do. And if they lose, they have only their bad judgment to blame.

Baseball seems like an individual sport in a team setting. The at-bats are pitcher versus batter. In the field, each player has their specific, individual responsibility. It isn’t like basketball where you can see the team chemistry on the field. One would think that if you put in the best player you can find at each position, it would make the best team.

But there is something to be said about team chemistry, even in baseball. The 2004 Red Sox were greater than the sum of their parts.

The Kevin Millars of the world make a difference. I’m not claiming that if Dustin Pedroia feels close to his teammates, he’ll try harder; but if he genuinely enjoys going to the clubhouse every day, his ceiling as a player will be higher. He’ll be happier, looser and subconsciously be in a better frame of mind to perform at his best.

The Red Sox ownership needs to press the reset button. They need to redefine what this team means. Because in a city with such scrutiny—such focus on everything each member of the team does—they can’t afford to have a team that is unwatchable, unlikeable and unsuccessful on the field.

It’s one thing to have an unlikable team that makes the playoffs; it’s another to see that team post a 13-19 record. Character matters for perception, and it matters for performance.

And that isn’t to say the Red Sox need to blow up the roster. They have a core of talented fielders and hitters. The bullpen lacks a dominant, strikeout pitcher that can come in with runners on base and extinguish the situation. But despite being overworked recently, they have performed admirably.

However, the starting pitching is dismal. The Red Sox shouldn’t get rid of quality players just for the sake of character. But this isn’t just about perception: The Red Sox are under-performing.

More than under-performing, they stink.

And really, there is only one move to make right now: get rid of Josh Beckett. He can veto any trade, but from his press conferences and general demeanor, he doesn’t seem like he wants to be here either. Ownership needs to take him aside, find out which teams he’s open to and work out a trade.

Equal value won’t be reached, but take 40 cents on the dollar. It will be addition by subtraction. If the ownership is serious about putting last year behind them, make a bold move.

If Beckett were traded—especially if the trade is obviously just for the sake of getting rid of him, rather than improving the roster—it sends a message to the team: If you want to stay here, show us on (and off) the field. But if you don’t want to be here, shape up or ship out.

It should be an honor to wear the Red Sox uniform. Boston has become a punch line of the MLB: overpaid, lazy and entitled.

It’s the 100-year anniversary of Fenway Park. For a city that wants to love its baseball team so bad—I know I have been looking for a reason to get behind this team all season—ownership needs to remember that the fans that care are the reason they have a team.

Maybe it’s unfair, but Josh Beckett has become a symbol of all that was wrong with the Red Sox at the end of last season going into this season. Letting him go would be as symbolic as it would be practical. This team needs a makeover and to remember what it means to be the Boston Red Sox. 

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In Boston the weather has been a tease this week.  

Two days ago the temps were in the mid 50’s. Yesterday, it snowed. The Fenway Faithful are starting to salivate for the start of the 2012 season. The team was disgraced last year. Hopefully that means there is a chip on the shoulder of many men on this roster.

Most of all, the pitchers.

With a lot to prove and a fanbase anxious for baseball, here is a look at what we can expect from the starting pitchers in 2012.

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