Boston Red Sox

With Wednesday night's loss the Sox officially have their first losing season since 1997

 Current Record: 69-93 (.426win%)
10 Game Streak: 1-9
Losing Streak: 8
From August 1st - End of Season: 16-43 (.271win%)


Playoff Picture and the Triple Crown
By: Jim Doucette

So the MLB regular season ended today, and the playoffpicture is complete. Baseball this year had some amazing storylines throughout the year. I think one of the biggest things is when you look at the playoff teams, some unfamiliar teams are there, and some of the perennial playoff teams are nowhere to be found. Boston, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Anaheim are all on the outside looking in, and along with Los Angeles, represent 4 of the top 5 payrolls in baseball.

New York, Detroit and Oakland won the 3 American League division crowns, with New York and Oakland winning on the final day of the season. Oakland won the AL West in historic fashion, coming back from 13 games back on July 1 and 5 games back with 9 to go. Baltimore and Texas, the teams that lost out on the division titles, captured the two wild card slots.

In the National League, the races were a little less exciting. Washington and Cincinnati led their divisions pretty much wire to wire, and San Francisco led throughout the last 2 months of the year. Atlanta had a comfortable lead in the wild card and was never really in jeopardy of losing it, and St Louis is looking to defend their 2011 World Series crown.

The 1 game wildcard playoff games are Friday, with Texashosting Baltimore and Atlanta hosting St Louis. The winners of these games will play New York and Washington, the top seeds in their respective leagues. In the American League, Detroit and Oakland will face off in the other series, and it will be Cincinnati and San Francisco in the National League.

My predictions are as follows:

AL Wild Card                                     NL Wild Card

Baltimore over Texas                          Atlanta over St Louis

ALDS                                                NDLS

Baltimore over New York                  Washington over Atlanta

Detroit over Oakland                        Cincinnati over San Francisco

ALCS                                               NLCS

Detroit over Baltimore                       Cincinnati over Washington

World Series

Cincinnati over Detroit

On a side note, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers did something this season that has not been done in 45 years, and I don’t think enough people are talking about it: winning the Triple Crown. There have been over twice as many perfect games in ML history as Triple Crowns, and to say this has flown under the radar until the final days of the season is an understatement. So, congratulations to Miguel Cabrera, for doing something only 9 others have done in the history of baseball.

Celebration... Really???
By: Eric Falcone

I write this as I sit in my room and see my Red Sox hat hang from my bed post. When  I look at it I remember when my team use to play with their all and as a team. I remember sitting next to my brother and father and enjoying a game at Fenway. But that was then and this is now.

The Red Sox for me are ranked number four when compared to all other teams in the Boston area. I'd rather watch the revolution play soccer at an empty stadium in Foxboro. There is a key reason to this, and it is not because I hate baseball, I like the sport, even though it doesn't move as fast as hockey does, I still enjoy the product. But, and theres a big but to this, The Red Sox have cared more about their brand than the sport in the past two or three years. This has only been made worse by the fact that this year the Red Sox are having a losing season. As I'm typing this the Red Sox win percentage is .434. For those of you that are not too bright or not Asian enough to be good at math that is below 50%. How can you celebrate anything and not look like a jackass when you lost more games than you have won.

With that history lesson on to the celebration. The Pesky celebration is not what I am referring to. I am referring to the celebration for the 2004 world series win. Really? I don't mean to be redundant but Really? How can you celebrate 8 years after winning the breaking of the curse during one of the worst seasons in recent history. I understand it was because this year is the 100th year anniversary, but now is not the time. This to me, and in my opinion, just shows how bad it has gotten in Fenway. Maz from the Felger and Maz show on 98.5 the sports hub said it right today. He said something along the lines of "Most teams when they win the world series celebrate it once and then move on". And this should be the case. I understand 86 years is a long time with no victory at the big game, I understand the park is 100 years old now, but for god sake have some humility.

Now I don't claim to be speaking for every sports fan, nor do I expect everyone to accept my opinion on this. I accept contrary beliefs to this. But take this into consideration. Do you think that if you did half the work that you were suppose to at your job that you would have a steady income for much longer. No and to think you would, would just be ignorant. So I say to you, oh fenway faithful, oh rouser of the green monster, should we really celebrate anything this season? (Other than Pesky, because both he and we need to celebrate his life.)


What a difference a year makes.....
By: Jim Duce

On September 1, 2011, The Boston Redsox possessed the best record in the majors, at 82-53, and held a 9 game lead on Tampa Bay for the AL Wild Card. The Redsox went 7-20 the rest of the way and along with the Atlanta Braves, went on to have the two worst regular season collapses in MLB history, both losing on the final day of the season and missing out on the postseason. Throughout September, stories circulated that members of the Redsox pitching staff would partake of fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse during games they were not pitching, with Josh Beckett rumored to be the ringleader

Then came the aftermath, with Terry Francona fired two days later, and a “smear campaign” soon
followed, with Francona’s failing marriage and prescription painkiller dependency dredged up in a story by Bob Holler. Holler would not disclose his sources, but the prevailing opinion is the information came directly from the offices at 4 Yawkee Way. Not long after, Theo Epstein left to take over as president of the Chicago Cubs, effectively abandoning ship the first chance he got. Assistant General Manager Ben Cherington was promoted to replace Epstein, but that did little to alleviate the sense of discontent radiating from Redsox Nation. A long, drawn out managerial search followed, in which Cherington and team president Larry Lucchino disagreed on the best path for the organization. Cherington wanted to hire Dale Sveum as manager, but Lucchino had other ideas, and in early January, the Redsox hired Bobby Valentine to be the next manager. The assumption was that Valentine, a manager who in the past was known for his toughness, would be able to straighten out the clubhouse issues. However, Valentine was effectively marginalized early on, not being able to choose his staff, as many of the holdovers from the Francona regime remained.

Once the season began, it was clear that similar clubhouse issues plagued the Redsox. Valentine publicly called out Kevin Youkilis early in the season for lack of effort, a move that did not sit well with the players, leading to de-facto captain Dustin Pedroia saying “That isn’t the way we do things around here.” Management sided with the players, again undermining Valentine. Throughout the season the team hovered around the .500 mark, never getting more than 5 games over .500. Injuries also took their toll on the Sox, with John Lackey out for the season Daisuke Matsusaka working his way back from Tommy John surgery, Carl Crawford starting the year on the DL, and Jacoby Ellsbury and Kevin Youkilis missing significant time due to injury early in the season. The injury to Youkilis provided an opportunity for Will Middlebrooks, the top prospect in the organization, to flourish in the bigs, cementing himself at the hot corner and effectively replacing Youkilis. This led to the Sox trading Youkilis in late June to the Chicago White Sox.

However, as the calendar changed to July and then August, the Sox were still unable to play better than .500 baseball, and David Ortiz injured himself running the bases and was forced onto the DL. On August 24th, with the Redsox definitively out of the playoff race, they placed star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and embattled starter Josh Beckett on waivers, and both were claimed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, setting the groundwork for a monumental trade. The next day, the Redsox traded Gonzalez, Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to the Dodgers in exchange for first baseman James Loney and 4 minor leaguers. Money-wise, this is the most significant trade in the history of Major League Baseball, with $262 million in salary moving to the Dodgers, and represents an apparent reset of the roster.

At the time of this writing the Redsox are 1-9 in their last 10 games, have a record of 63-76, and sit in
last place in the AL East. This is about as far as a team can fall in 12 months, from being the best team in baseball to one of the worst. Valentine will certainly be fired following the season, but he is merely the fall guy. The blame for this situation belongs to the players themselves for underperforming, and upper management for taking too long to react to the myriad of clubhouse issues, issues seen throughout Redsox Nation. I would like to say things can only get better from here, but with a poor free agent class this offseason, and the hassle of going through another managerial search, I would tend to believe it will be 2014 before the Redsox are truly competitive again.



How far from Grace does this feel....


Boston Red Sox 2004 & 2007 World Champions