in MLB Articles
MLB Insider - Did the Red Sox Shoot Themselves in the Foot?
by Charles Jay
Red Sox Regrets?
Okay, not for nothin' guys, but I'm just going to try this one out on you, and remember that this is from a guy who thought a couple of months ago that there was no way the Boston Red Sox were going to miss out on another World Series victory. Wouldn't it be unbelievable if somehow the Red Sox, who are now listed at +330 to win the American League pennant at BetUS, missed out on getting to the American League playoffs, and then John Smoltz and Brad Penny wound up hooking up against each other in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, or any series for that matter? Do you think there would be fans all over New England just throwing up over something like that? I do.......
The Brad Penny Express has left the station, for sure. Penny is now 3-0 with the San Francisco Giants (+1200 to win the National League at BetUS) with a 1.64 ERA. He's allowed only 17 batters to reach base. He is ahead of the John Smoltz Express, which has not produced a win yet for the St. Louis Cardinals (+200 to win the NL at BetUS) but has a 3.27 ERA and has been involved in three Cardinal wins in four starts.
Hey, what if the Red Sox DID make the playoffs and fell short because they just didn't have any reliable starting pitching beyond Jon Lester and Josh Beckett? That would be irony, because Smoltz and Penny were picked up precisely to give them some insurance in that department, because they thought something might happen to, say, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is scheduled to get knocked around again on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels (+330 for the AL pennant at BetUS).
Do you think Roy Halladay, who's gone the distance twice in a row and pitched a one-hitter against the New York Yankees a week ago, is looking pretty good to them right now?
And speaking of those Yankees (-125 to win the AL pennant and +200 to win the World Series Betting at BetUS), what is this nonsense with Joba Chamberlain? He has now gone four starts in a row where he has worked a total of 13 innings. As I write this he is going on Monday night, and Joe Girardi says he is going to let him go a little bit further. What has happened is that the Yankees are invoking something called the "Joba Rules," which I'm not kidding about. Essentially, it means that they are trying to rest his arm as much as possible, like he's some friggin' rookie, so that he is fresh and ready to go by playoff time.
Let me tell you something - either a guy is a major league starting pitcher or he isn't a major league starting pitcher. Real starting pitchers are expected to go innings. This is the guy the organization has been so crazy about? Why would a team turn him into a starter if they wanted to restrict his innings, at ANY time, in this manner? Well, the answer, most likely, is that he has never gotten over the durability problems in his arm that made many scouts shy away from him in the first place. He is a reliever, and when the Yankees release that, they'll just go out and buy another starting pitcher and they'll have a stronger staff for it.
Phil Hughes has allowed a .166 batting average to the opposition in his setup role. Mariano Rivera is Mariano Rivera. Since everybody wants to specialize these days, why not use him as the sixth and seventh inning guy, and they can pay A.J. Burnett a zillion dollars to go five innings in a game.
I really long for the good old days, when pitchers actually finished what they started, or got close to it.....
That reminds me - I wanted to bring up two other guys who were pitching on Monday; guys who really DO go some innings for a change, and deserve better. In the last thirteen starts for Houston's Wandy Rodriguez, he has allowed ONE EARNED RUN or less on eleven occasions. Yes, I said ELEVEN occasions. His team's record in those starts is just 8-5. His Astro teammates have scored 48 runs in those 13 starts, and 18 of those runs came in two games.
Rodriguez's opponent in Monday's game, Bronson Arroyo of Cincinnati, had a string of eight starts and 59-1/3 innings (where he went seven or more inning in every start) and had a 1.97 ERA in that period, microscopic by today's standards, yet his team was just 3-5 over that period because they scored eleven runs in the games they lost.
When you have a guy like Zach Greinke, whose Kansas City Royals are 8-15 in his last 23 starts despite him having the AL's leading ERA, that is just cruelty. No wonder the guy is just 13-8 in a year when he should be coasting to a Cy Young Award. Hey, it's not just the have-nots who could be sued for non-support. Look at Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers (+250 to win the NL pennant at BetUS), who are leading the National League West. In his last nine starts, Kershaw has a 2.75 ERA. Yet the Dodgers are 1-8 in those games because they have scored 21 runs (2.33 per game) in those contests.
You don't find legitimate starters very often. You can't be this mean to them.
