2017 Red Sox Postseason Recap
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2017 Red Sox Postseason Recap

Similar To Last Season, This Team Once Again Let Us Down And Here's Why.

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2017 Red Sox Postseason Recap
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As we all know, people say teams hit a switch going into the playoffs and turn it on. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, this 'switch' wasn't working and now we have yet another embarassing post season exit for the 2017 Boston Red Sox. The issues with this year's team was similar to last year's post season exit too and it makes you wonder about this team like what are they really? What the definitely are not is a post season proven team after how this series ended and here's my three theories why (not in any order): 1) your 'ace' pitchers, 2) John Farrell decision making, 3) almost everyone in the batting order.

Last year your ace was David Price but as we all know, in the post season he is an awful pitcher (shockingly was the highlight of the pitching this playoff run) and going into this year, you needed someone who was a true ace you feel good about. When I see the Red Sox got Chris Sale, I was beyond ecstatic because this was THE guy we needed to lead the staff. He showed it too, before the all star break, Sale was 11-4 with a 2.75 ERA while striking out 178, but the one knock against Sale is he tails off at the end of the season. After the all star break he went 6-4 with a 3.12 ERA (2-2 in August with a 4.38 ERA) but the thing with Sale is he's unproven in the playoffs so seeing how throughout majority of the regular season Sale was the top guy, you felt alright.

One thing with unproven with post season playoff players, it shows they are unproven. Game 1 was a start to forget for Sale after going 5 innings giving up 9 hits 7 runs (all earned), and a home run too. Watching Sale pitch that day, it just felt like his stuff was never there. His breaking pitches were always hanging and had location issues throughout.

If there was a game in Houston I thought the Red Sox were going to win, it was this game. The odds just seemed to be well in your favor with your ace on the mound but that just was not the case losing 8-2, it was just a frustraiting situation.

As John Farrell said after game 1 "We know that this is a quick-strike offense that we're going up against, and when you don't locate, things can happen quickly, that was the case today". Game 4 Sale came in to pitch as a relief pitcher for Rick Porcello and Sale delivered an overall solid start going 4 innings with 4 hits, striking out 6, and two earned runs.

Those two runs were the key blemishes because one was a game-tying and the other for the lead.

Yes, Sale pitched an overall decent game today, but as I said before, he was unproven in the playoffs and giving up runs at a time like that show the unproven nerves came into play.

Fans can't grill Sale too much though because this guy is legit, but like David Price, is he only a regular season pitcher?

Time will tell.

Next up on our 'ace' list, is Drew Pomeranz who was quite the pleasant surprise this year going 17-6 with a 3.32 ERA while striking out 174. If you told me this year my top two pitchers were Chris Sale and Drew Pomeranz, I would've laughed because after seeing Pomeranz struggle so much last year, no way I could see this.Well, I was wrong, Pomeranz did just as worse as Sale going 2 innings, giving up 5 hits, 4 runs (all earned) leaving with an ERA of 18! Pomeranz had experience with postseason play last year pitching out of the bullpen and wasn't bad but wasn't great with a 4.91 ERA but clearly, this was different.At the end of the season, the Red Sox had a 4 game series against the Astros and Pomeranz started the second game in this series and had a real nice outing.He went 6 innings, gave up 3 hits, one run and struck out 6 so going into this start, I couldn't help feeling a little confident. However, his pitches like Sale, just were not located where they needed to be and Pomeranz's signature pitch is a knuckle curve and when these pitches hang, people take advantage of this and he got shelled.I think I just set too high expectations for Pomeranz and same as I did last year with Porcello, I should've realized that these guys are just not post-season material quite yet but need to figure it out asap.You cannot strictly rely on the bullpen each game and while postseason baseball consists of strategically using your bullpen, you want to give them a chance to rest to be ready.After the first two games, the Red Sox starters did not do that and like with Sale, you'd hope next year they get better but how many 'next years' can there be?

Like I said last year, John Farrell was a problem for this team and what do you know, here we are again and John Farrell is a problem. Game 1, Farrell decided to bring Eduward Nunez on this roster.Before the season ended, Nunez was nursing a knee injury he had suffered and not many people expected him to play this postseason. Farrell decided otherwise and had him batting second and he hits a grounder and next thing you know, he's down and out.Nunez needed help coming off the field due to the severity of his injury and was just an unfortunate sight to see especially with how well he was playing before an injury.Down a man now, Farrell decides to put Hanley in and what does he do in his first at-bat?Hits a scorching double and ended the day going 2 for 3.Speaking of Hanley, for the rest of the playoffs, he was 4 for 14 with 3 RBI's hitting .571, hmm almost like he should've just started originally?That's exactly what Farrell should have done, the fact he decided to originally choose Nunez over him is an absolutely awful move since we knew Nunez wasn't the same player and his knee was not healed fully.Sure, Hanley is inconsistent and had an awful postseason last year (3 for 12, hitting .250), some may be a little hesitant with Hanley but he's obviously better than a person with one knee. Same as game 1, Farrell decided to bench Devers for Devin Marrero who coming into the season, vs lefties hit .291 whereas Devers hit .400.Farrell chose Marrero over Devers because of how overmatched he looked in game 1 and while that may have been, it was his first ever playoff game.Farrell from the get-go should've had Devers start because of how well he hits lefties and this team was desperate for offense.While he may be a defensive liability, you'd take that risk with how well he can hit lefties, unlike Marrero who this whole season had trouble hitting in general.I'd blame him for the Chris Sale situation in game 4, but that was the bench coach because Farrell got ejected for arguing with umps because of a strike 3 call on Pedroia (who I will get to next).So game 4, Farrell you're off the hook and if it's up to me, off this team next year.

During the ALDS, the Red Sox hit .285 as a team which may not sound too terrible, but the problem is Houston hit .333 with 8 home runs too compared to the Red Sox 5.

The Sox scored only 18 runs whereas Houston scored 24 and if the Red Sox did not have their 'breakout' game when they scored 10 runs and scored their average 4 runs per game, they would've been outscored by 10 runs.

My main culprits for this lackluster offense are Jackie Bradley Jr, Xander Bogarts, and Dustin Pedroia.

First, let's start with Jackie Bradley Jr (JBJ). This season JBJ took a slight step back from his breakthrough 2016 season (.267 avg, 26 HR, 87 RBI) and instead this season he hit .245, 17 HR, 63 RBI. JBJ continued this slump into the postseason as well hitting .200, 1 HR (which was a fluke HR), and 5 RBI's.

JBJ just could not hit anything it felt like this whole series and in game 4, he struck out one at-bat on 5 pitches and didn't even swing on any of them.

You want to score runs for your team, you swing the bat. JBJ just like last postseason, just could not make much contact and after back to back post seasons not hitting, it makes you wonder if he is playoff material?

In his career, JBJ is hitting .160 with 1 HR and 5 RBI's and that's two years of postseason play. JBJ is not at all a reliable hitter in the playoffs and you need someone like him who we know when he gets hot, he's on fire. Unfortunately for Bradley, it just seems like he's not playoff material at all and if he continues to decline in the regular season, do you consider him as a trade chip? Seeing how he played these playoffs, it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

Second, let's take a look at Xander Bogarts who had an awful postseason this year. Bogarts went 1 for 17 batting .059 with 1 HR and 1 RBI.

Bogarts in the lineup just killed this team because every time he came up, you already had the feeling his going to get out. It's unfortunate with the Nunez injury because you could've had him take some plays at ShortStop to give Bogarts some rest and the offense some pop.

Bogarts is one you consider a core player and having him perform like this making his career postseason average .138, shows this guy too that is just not a postseason performer. This team was filled with them the past two years and Bogarts is easily the worst offender of this making him just another dull spot in this team's lineup.

Finally, Dustin Pedroia. In the past two playoffs, Pedroia is hitting .143 and this has to be a cause of concern. Pedroia is going to be 35 next season and his postseason play has been going down ever since 2013 and it makes you wonder, is Pedroia someone you start to move away from and make a bench player?

He clearly isn't the same player he used to be and this postseason he only had 2 hits in 16 at-bats. This is not something you want from someone who is supposed to be your 'guy' and it does not seem like it will get better too.

Pedroia struck out on a pitch that was debatable but insisted on arguing with the home plate umpire and get his manager tossed. This is not a good look for the little leader and to end the game he weakly grounded out to second.

It seems to me that it may be time to slowly phase out Pedroia between his postseason play and the fact he was bogged down by injuries this season, you need someone more durable there.

I love Pedroia don't get me wrong but going forward who would I rather have, Edwardo Nunez or Pedroia, I take Nunez due to the fact he'll be healthier and is an offensive machine when healthy.


Every year, the obvious expectation is to contend for a World Series title. Of course, winning the World Series every year is completely unrealistic but hey we can dream, can't we?

However, being a team with one of the top payrolls in baseball, the fans deserve a team that can at least compete for a championship. The fans could care less about division titles if they lead to immediate postseason exits. Sorry, this isn’t the Atlanta Braves, this is Boston, and we expect championships.

Not feel good division titles. The main takeaway is that the Red Sox as they are currently formed, are not good enough to win a championship. This is not a newsflash people. Fans could’ve said this back in March when the Red Sox were surprisingly listed as co-favorites to win the World Series.

They weren’t better than Cleveland and now saw that they’re not better than Houston too. Fire the manager?

Sure, go for it. Unfortunately, this team isn’t going anywhere anytime soon in October without some huge shakeups on the roster. I’m saying names like Benintendi, Bogaerts, Bradley, Pedroia, all names while fan favorites, should not be a shock when you hear their names in any trade rumors this offseason.

Of course, I am not suggesting that we blow this up and trade them all, but like what the Celtics did this offseason, nobody should be off the table when it comes to exploring all avenues to improve this roster. 2018 will be an interesting year, we could either have a similar team to this year's or a completely new one ready to contend.

Alright Dombrowski, time to show us what you can do.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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