Too much balance?
For the better part of the last hundred years, Red Sox clubs have been notoriously one-dimensional. Any successful Sox team has featured an outstanding slugging club with spotty pitching and absolutely no speed. This was the blueprint, and the Yawkey era very rarely strayed from it.
Such a club was featured as recently as the 2003 edition, which featured both a record-breaking offense and John Burkett in must-win playoff games. Over the past several years, Theo Epstein has cobbled together a much more balanced club that can hit, pitch, run, and play defense equally effectively.
Looking at the general tendencies over the course of the year, however, one has to wonder if such a balanced team can get the job done in a five or seven game playoff series.
We all know good pitching beats good hitting. These Sox feature an imposing set of arms who have kept us competitive on a nightly basis all year. Unfortunately, the rotation is almost too even - each guy has an equal chance of pitching well, but each can also fall apart at a moment's notice. Who starts Game 2 in a playoff series? A case could easily be made for any of Schilling, Matsuzaka, Wakefield, Buchholz, or Lester. A case could also be made than any of these guys could not be included on the playoff roster.
At the dish, the same problem presents itself. Any Sox player could conceivably step up and get the job done at any time, but we have no one on whom we can really count to get the job done. I know the OBP attitude can drive some fans nuts, and such an attitude will also lead to leaving many runners on base, but it is the weapon of choice for this offense. They haven't changed all season, and they won't be changing now.
This universal level of achievement has turned the Sox into a regular season powerhouse, as no one is expected to carry the team on their shoulders. Exhibit A is having the team's top slugger and cleanup hitter miss the finial month of the season without the club missing a beat. In the playoffs, however, the team will need someone to step up, not cover a gap.
But who is that person going to be?
No comments:
Post a Comment