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By Phin Lambert
Editor Ben Fidler
The MLB Package has been heaven sent this season. Embroiled in the best pennant races of the last decade, it can't get any better for baseball
fans than to be able to effortlessly flip through channels and be able to see soon to be NL MVP Andruw Jones hit a homer, followed by a Travis Hafner round tripper for the tribe, followed by some more power from the ‘Stros Morgan Ensberg.
Having the package has allowed me to become quite familiar with players and teams that over the years have only been accessible to me via box score.
It has also afforded me the opportunity to make some obvious recognitions.
The most important realization concerns the Boston Red Sox, the nemesis of my New York Yankees (who oh by the way are finally in first place). My simple insight about the New Englanders, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Yet Theo and crew didn’t listen.
The Sawx FINALLY won the World Series and what do they do? They f*ck it up the next season by letting one of their two aces get away. Yeah, that’s right, I am talking about Pedro Martinez, who obviously has had something in the tank this season.
Theo, you didn’t want to overpay him, were you crazy? The guy was partially responsible for bringing the most crazed baseball town in America its first championship in 86 years and you worried about a few lousy millions? This is still sports right, the land of the overpaid? If anyone deserves to be overpaid, it’s a member of that Red Sox championship team.
Yet instead, the Sawx opted to replace Petey and playoff hero Derek Lowe with the 80 year-old David Wells and Chicago Cub castoff Matt Clement, who before this season had a career record six games under .500 and an ERA over 4.00.
Now don’t get me wrong, they aren’t bad pitchers, but you can’t pencil them in for a win in most starts the way you could have with Petey. They don’t strike fear into opposing hitters. Pedro had hitters scared of looking foolish and scared for their safety. For years he was the Red Sox and the modern version of - dare I say it - Bob Gibson. And the thanks he gets is a one-way ticket out of town over a few bucks for a franchise worth almost a billion.
Combine the loss of Pedro with the ineffectiveness of Curt Schilling and his inability to recover from offseason ankle surgery and the Red Sox are down two of the four players most responsible for bringing Beantown championship (the others being Manny Ortiz and David Ramirez, at least so says John Kerry). That’s 50% for the math impaired portion of the group.
Editors note: Fidler sincerely thinks Schilling will never be the same pitcher
Now look at what Pedro has done in New York. He is 15-7 this season with an ERA of 2.80. He has over 200 strikeouts, only 45 walks and a WHIP under 1.00. So let’s say in the hit happy American League he had an ERA of 3.80, most likely the same number of strikeouts and walks and a WHIP somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3. Not amazing, or CY material, but a solid if not spectacular number two pitcher for any team or in the case of the Sawx a quality number one guy who is a fan favorite and brings it everytime he pitches (unlike say, Wells). A 3.80 ERA would have been good for at least 17-20 wins for the Sox.
The change in personnel in the Red Sox rotation has caused a rise in ERA to 4.53, from 4.31 a year ago. That might not seem like a big difference, but consider that no starting staff in the AL had an ERA under 4.00 last year (Twins were first at 4.08, according to ESPN.com), five teams do this year. So the minor change has cause the Sawx to fall from third in starting pitching to seventh, just by losing a little ground.
By contrast, the Sawx didn’t lost anyone major on offense and added Edgar Renteria. They were number one in the league in runs in 2004 with 949 plated and guess what??? They are number one again this year with 857 runs.
For the Mets, Martinez has brought them back to respectability. Despite being out of the playoff race and in last place, Martinez has brought the electricity back to Flushing, at least every fifth day. He may even be the most popular player in New York this season, although the Giambi love is in full effect. In fact on a side note, ESPN has on the MLB front page a picture of Pedro with the caption underneath saying “Pedro Martinez has been everything the Mets hoped he would be.”
So instead of taking a chance on Wade Miller, who the media has given the Sox a pass on after believing at the beginning of the year that he was a “steal,” making Clement your prized free agent acquisition, adding the interminable Wells, and going all in on Bronson Arroyo (who’s more concerned with his music career) you should have kept Pedro maybe Lowe and over paid them whatever was necessary.
Now the Sawx sit behind the Yankees for the first time in a long time. Yet for many, this day seemed to be a long time coming, with even Boston sportswriter Bob Ryan admitting as much when he said on ‘Around the Horn’, something to the effect of, “When Bubba Crosby hits a walk off, you know you’re in trouble.” Couldn’t agree with you more there, Bob.
In the end, if they miss the playoffs, they have no-one to blame but themselves, those Red Sox. Anyone with the MLB package could have recognized that.
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