If I were writing these reports on Friday mornings, instead of Monday mornings, this reports would be a lot more cheerful. If there had been three days of torrential rains in Boston preventing baseball from being played, this report would be a lot more cheerful. Hell, if the Red Sox two "best" starting pitchers, Beckett and Lester, were on the DL, this report would be a lot more cheerful...
- Let me ease the suspense a little bit up front - the Red Sox Pitcher of the Week this week was not Jon Lester.
- Josh Beckett also fell short.
- So, while we're hammering the starting pitchers (and why not? Everyone else has...), let's mention that in the last eight games, they've made it through the first inning unscored upon twice. They've allowed an average of 1.75 runs in the first over that stretch. Have the other aspects of the team been great? No, but nothing else has been as bad as the starters.
- For the week, the starters allowed 30 runs (26 earned) in 41 1/3 innings, for a 5.66 ERA (6.53 RA/9). That's including excellent performances from Cook and Buccholz and a good start from Doubront. The aforementioned big money disaster duo, Messrs. Lester and Beckett, started three games (not coincidentally, all of which the Sox lost) and allowed 22 runs in 14 innings of work.
- But let's speak about the offense for a minute. Over a 32 inning stretch, from the 6 inning on Wednesday night through the third inning yesterday, they scored only four times. Three of those scores were three-run home runs (Ross, Saltalamaccia and Gonzalez), which is nice, but that's it. In 28 innings, over the course of about three and a half games, they couldn't score even one run.
- A diet of three-run homers is nice for your offense. But it's not a balanced diet. If that's all you're getting, you need more than one-a-day, unless your pitching is better than good (and much, much better than Boston's pitching has been).
- How bad a week did Will Middlebrooks (.167/.167/.167/.333) have? Runs Created thinks he was even worse than Daniel Nava (.000/.214/.000/.214), who went 0-11 but did walk twice and get hit by a pitch...
- Number of games in which Ellsbury, Crawford, Pedroia and Ortiz all played for the Red Sox before August arrives? 0.00 (Zero. Nil. Nada. None. Zippo. The big goose egg...)
- Good to see Ellsbury and Crawford back. But the Crawford for Ortiz swap that happened on Monday night is not a positive.
- Great to see Pedroia back. I suppose. Because that gives us hope that the real Pedroia (at least, what we hope is the real Pedroia) will soon return to replace the Dustin Pedroia (.250/.250/.250/.500) we're seeing now.
- Red Sox Goat of the Week - If you got this far (and with such depressing subject matter, the question is, "why did you get this far?"), then you are not going to be surprised to see the name Jon Lester. He started twice, and got hammered twice. He allowed five runs in the top of the first on Sunday, and then, after his team went out to get three back and keep them in the game, promptly gave up four more in the second. All things considered, one of the worst performances ever from a starting pitcher.
- Red Sox Player of the Week - Cody Ross (.360/.385/.840/1.225) had a great week on Wednesday and Thursday, with three 3-run homers, but his performance was topped by Adrian Gonzalez (.429/.429/.750/1.179), who also homered three times.
- Red Sox Pitcher of the Week - He didn't get the win, but Clay Buchholz was outstanding against the White Sox, and kept the team in the game long enough for them to win a game in which they didn't score until the bottom of the ninth.
AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 7/23/2012
| | | | | | | Projected | Actual | | |
|---|
| R/G | (rank) | RA/G | (rank) | Pythagorean | (rank) | W | L | W | L | Luck | |
|---|
| Texas | 5.03 | (1) | 4.18 | (6) | 0.584 | (1) | 55 | 39 | 56 | 38 | 1 | |
| New York | 4.83 | (4) | 4.03 | (3) | 0.582 | (2) | 55 | 40 | 57 | 38 | 2 | |
| Los Angeles | 4.51 | (7) | 4.03 | (2) | 0.551 | (3) | 53 | 43 | 52 | 44 | -1 | |
| Boston | 4.99 | (3) | 4.54 | (9) | 0.543 | (4) | 52 | 44 | 48 | 48 | -4 | |
| Chicago | 4.63 | (5) | 4.22 | (7) | 0.542 | (5) | 52 | 43 | 50 | 45 | -2 | |
| Toronto | 5.01 | (2) | 4.71 | (12) | 0.529 | (6) | 50 | 45 | 48 | 47 | -2 | |
| Detroit | 4.59 | (6) | 4.38 | (8) | 0.522 | (7) | 50 | 46 | 52 | 44 | 2 | |
| Oakland | 3.81 | (14) | 3.63 | (1) | 0.522 | (8) | 50 | 45 | 51 | 44 | 1 | |
| Tampa Bay | 4.13 | (12) | 4.1 | (5) | 0.502 | (9) | 48 | 48 | 49 | 47 | 1 | |
| Seattle | 3.96 | (13) | 4.09 | (4) | 0.485 | (10) | 47 | 50 | 42 | 55 | -5 | |
| Baltimore | 4.16 | (11) | 4.62 | (10) | 0.452 | (11) | 43 | 52 | 51 | 44 | 8 | |
| Cleveland | 4.38 | (8) | 4.87 | (13) | 0.451 | (12) | 43 | 52 | 47 | 48 | 4 | |
| Kansas City | 4.16 | (10) | 4.7 | (11) | 0.444 | (13) | 42 | 52 | 40 | 54 | -2 | |
| Minnesota | 4.26 | (9) | 5.21 | (14) | 0.409 | (14) | 39 | 56 | 40 | 55 | 1 | |
Top 5 projections (using current winning %)
| Texas | 97 | 65 | |
| New York | 97 | 65 | |
| Los Angeles | 88 | 74 | |
| Detroit | 88 | 74 | |
| Oakland | 87 | 75 | |
Top 5 projections (starting with today's record, using Pythagorean winning %)
| Texas | 96 | 66 | |
| New York | 96 | 66 | |
| Los Angeles | 88 | 74 | |
| Chicago | 86 | 76 | |
| Detroit | 86 | 76 | |
Standings for the week
| | | | | | | Projected | Actual | | |
|---|
| R/G | (rank) | RA/G | (rank) | Pythagorean | (rank) | W | L | W | L | Luck | |
|---|
| New York | 4 | (10) | 2.57 | (1) | 0.692 | (1) | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -2 | |
| Seattle | 5.43 | (2) | 3.57 | (4) | 0.683 | (2) | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | |
| Minnesota | 5.86 | (1) | 4.29 | (7) | 0.639 | (3) | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 | |
| Detroit | 5.29 | (4) | 4.14 | (6) | 0.61 | (4) | 4 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | |
| Texas | 4.6 | (8) | 4 | (5) | 0.564 | (5) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | -1 | |
| Toronto | 5.33 | (3) | 4.83 | (8) | 0.545 | (6) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | |
| Tampa Bay | 3.43 | (11) | 3.14 | (2) | 0.54 | (7) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | -1 | |
| Los Angeles | 5.29 | (4) | 4.86 | (9) | 0.539 | (8) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | -1 | |
| Oakland | 3.17 | (12) | 3.17 | (3) | 0.5 | (9) | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | |
| Baltimore | 4.86 | (6) | 5 | (10) | 0.487 | (10) | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | |
| Boston | 4.86 | (6) | 5.43 | (12) | 0.449 | (11) | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | |
| Kansas City | 4.57 | (9) | 6.14 | (14) | 0.368 | (12) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | -1 | |
| Cleveland | 3 | (13) | 5 | (10) | 0.282 | (13) | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 | |
| Chicago | 2.43 | (14) | 5.71 | (13) | 0.173 | (14) | 1 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 0 | |
Labels: pythagorean, Red Sox
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