Saturday, May 05, 2012

Red Sox Magic Number - 144

Many people have made the point that the Red Sox have more contract dollars on the DL then teams have in total salary. The people talking about this are missing an important point - it is not the players on the DL that are making this Red Sox team a mediocre unit - it is the players on the active roster. In specific it is the starting pitching.

Before last season some people were arguing that the Red Sox starting 5 of Beckett, Lester, Lackey, Buchholz and Matsuzaka was the best in baseball. This season some people are arguing that the Red Sox starting 5 is the worst in the AL East. Talk about the bloom being off the rose.

Daniel Bard has the best ERA among the starters with a 4.38 which equates to an ERA+ of 98. That means that even the best Red Sox starter has been worse than the MLB average (average being 100). Put it another way - of the Red Sox starting pitchers only Clay Buchholz has a winning record (3-1) and that's only because he's been "lucky" as evidenced by Buchholz's 8.69 ERA.

Red Sox fans have been rooting for this team out of habit - not because of anything they have earned on the field.

As an aside the USS Worcester (CL-144) was a post WWII light cruiser. I'll use any excuse to mention Worcester.