| 08 September 2010
The Red Sox had planned to pitch Clay Buchholz on shirt rest tonight, but after last night's 14-5 loss to the Rays, the Sox will turn their attention to 2011 and give Tim Wakefield will get the start tonight in the series finale.
I have a few thoughts on all of this:
The fact that Red Sox management was willing to throw Buchholz on short rest - if they had won the first two games onf the current series - tells me that they believed the Red Sox still had a shot at making the playoffs. If that is true, why the hell didn't they make a more aggressive push for some bullpen help or run production back in July!? Like July 1st when we were 1.5 games out of the East and a 1/2 game up on the Rays...
Don't get me wrong. I'm sure Theo was making calls all season long, and I know that the Sox were trying to avoid the luxury tax, but the timing of some of this stuff is infuriating.
For months we knew that the bullpen needed fixing, but Theo was apparently unable to find a quality RP for the right price. Then, in late August, when the Sox are all but out of the hunt, Theo trades Delcarmen for a 21 year old rookie, admitting that Delcarmen wasn't getting the job done, but not replacing him with anyone better. Then, a week later, with the Sox still 6 or 7 games out of contention, he starts talking about pitching Buchholz in hopes of a sweep of the Rays.
I guess I just want to know what we're supposed to be rooting for here. It's not an easy job balancing what the fans want with what you and your bosses want for the organization, but if you're main concern is that the fans want you to fight until your mathematically eliminated - then you should have that same mentality right up to the end.
Don't start a lineup full of rookies and bench players behind Jon Lester on Monday and then pretend that you still have faith when they actually wins the game.
Okay. I'm done. Sop now it appears that Theo and the Sox have admitted defeat. Buchholz will not start on 3 days rest and Tim Wakefield will get the start instead. I saw one interesting note on this earlier today:
Wakefield's salary will jump from 1.5 million to 2 million if he can complete 3.1 innings tonight. The Sox know this, so you have to wonder if this is tip of the cap to Wake. Let's face it, after years of being the perfect soldier, Wake finally showed a chink in his armor this spring, telling the media that he feels he deserved a starting spot in the rotation, regardless of how well Buchholz or anyone else was pitching.
That didin't happen, but Wake kept his mouth shut (for the most part) and filled in when asked. He was set to make 4 million this year, but he won't get there due to lack of innings. He managed to pass the 2,000 K mark with 73 strikeouts so far this year, but with 17 starts on the books, he was only able to log 3 wins and remains 8 shy of the 200 mark.
Personally, I think this was an important goal for Wake, and even though he did get enough starts to reach that goal, the Sox didn't really put him in the best position to make it happen. That's not their job, but I think it should be noted that with guys like Manny and Nomar sulking their way out of town, Wakefield quietly waited in the bullpen while his last season in baseball (possibly) crumbled around him.
Wake is 20-6 with a 3.60 ERA against the Rays in his career, but if you watch this team regularly, you know he logged many of those wins while the Rays were a young and struggling franchise. Wakefield has only started one game since August 1st and took the loss against Seattle on 8/25. He did face the Rays earlier this year, but they tagged hims for 6 runs on 4 hits and 6 walks on 7/7.
Bottom Line: After last night, we can only hope the Rays have tired arms... but does it really matter anymore?
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