FRANKly I want MOREales

Last night I flipped on the Sox game around 9:30PM to catch the last few frames of the game and to my dismay the score was 7-2 bad guys.  The Sox would come back in the bottom of the eighth to make it interesting, but ultimately fell to to the Chicago White Sox behind the bat of Kevin Youkilis 7-5. 

 

As rejuvenated as I was by the eighth inning rally of the Red Sox to pull within two, I quickly became quite perplexed upon seeing Franklin Morales warming up to come in and hopefully keep the deficit to two runs in the top of the 9th inning.  Morales, who was without question the most effective Red Sox starter over the past month and one half, has only had one hiccup as a starter not surprisingly against the first place New York Yankees.  As recently as Friday he shut down division foes Tampa Bay.   I tried to rationalize the move in my head: maybe Bobby Valentine was continuing to run out a six-man rotation and simply needed to get our old pal Frank some work.  Then after the game I did some investigating and discovered via the Providence Journal that Morales had been moved back to the bullpen in favor of Clay Buchholz.

In a rotation disgraced by the (dis)likes of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Daniel Bard it seemed to me as though management had turned the corner and realized they needed to be playing those were performing—shelving Dice-K and ditching the Bard experiment (albeit ten starts too late) were two steps in the right direction.  Head-scratching trades and transactions have come to epitomize this 2012 Red Sox team becoming more prevalent than bronze plaques along the concourse at Fenway Park.  Whether it was trading away the top two starting shortstop candidates entering 2012 for two middle relievers, dangling Josh Reddick and prospects for an oft-injured closer and powerless back-up outfielder, or giving away Kevin Youkilis (and paying most of his salary) for a lackluster pitching prospect and a utility player designated for assignment just two days ago, it has become increasingly difficult to root for this entitled, grossly overpaid team.  No longer can I sit back and try to comprehend what is going on down at Yawkey Way.

The Red Sox have won only six times in games started by Jon Lester, Josh ‘not on my off day’ Beckett already took his annual trip to the disabled list for 2012, Clay Buchholz has never in his major league career pitched over 175 innings, and Aaron Cook is due to implode with just two K’s in 29.2 innings pitched; even as a sinker ball pitcher his success is simply unsustainable missing so few bats.  Not to mention arguably the most durable and consistent member of the staff (for all of 2012), Felix Doubront, has already surpassed his innings total from 2011 at just 24 years of age.

The services of Franklin Morales will once again be called upon in the 2012 starting rotation, why bother interrupting his recent run of success?  The top three performers in the Red Sox rotation for 2012 have been by far those with the three smallest salaries in Doubront, Cook, and Morales. Somewhere along the line those working on Ben Cherington’s baseball operations team have decided they must play those with the highest salaries instead of slotting in those who give the team the best chance to win.  Not everyone goes to ‘America’s Most Beloved Ballpark’ to see a living museum; some of us are interested in watching the best product take the field night in and night out, right now that simply is not the case. 

Don't Get Caught Up in the Highlight Reels

2010 represented a lost season in the development of the Boston Red Sox CF of the present and future, Jacoby Ellsbury.  Playing just a mere 18 games due to a mysterious recurring rib injury, Ellsbury hit for  a miniscule .192 batting average reminiscent of the days when Darren Lewis used to man CF. 

This offseason when the Red Sox signed Carl Crawford I envisioned a mesmerizing tandem of speed and defense atop the order, similar to what the Seattle Mariners had hoped to have capture with the signing of Chone Figgins to compliment Ichiro Suzuki in 2010. Crawford and Ellsbury have essentially flip flopped the roles I envisioned of them at onset of the season; Ellsbury has put up superstar numbers and has emerged as an MVP candidate, while Crawford has struggled to find his bat in the first year of a 7-year, $142 million dollar contract.

The re-emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury and Jose Reyes has started to convince some MLB fans that the superstars of future will be an electric combination of speed, slick fielding, and high batting average.  Crawford has been the most consistent member of this budding class of superstar routinely posting a .300 batting average and 50 stolen bases in seemingly every season of his career.

With free agency pending at seasons’ end, Jose Reyes is going to cash in big after having a contract year with the New York Mets and will almost certainly point to the money received by Carl Crawford when negotiating for a new contract.  Ellsbury, a client of the infamous Scott Boras, will almost certainly walk after the 2013 season when he too is eligible for free agency.  Only time will tell, but I suspect Ellsbury will seek a pay day similar to that of his predecessors.

MLB players at the earliest reach free agency in their late 20’s, but more often early 30’s.  It would be a grave mistake for any team to offer Reyes or Ellsbury a contract similar to what Crawford received.  Power almost always projects later into a player’s career than speed and range.  So unless you’re signing a middle of the order bat that will routinely post a line of .300, 30, 100, 100 (Avg., HR, RBI, R) don’t bother handing any batter a contract with an annual salary upwards of $20 million.