The problem the Red Sox have had for a long time has been no team nor organizational distinct identity. What type of organization are they? Are they hitters? What kind of hitters? What’s their hitting strategy? What’s their pitching strategy?
I can tell you. Ineptitude is their identity. From top to bottom. FO, to team level managing, to players themselves too often.
Gone are the days that they were a team feared with bats. From much of the 2000’s and early 2010’s they could mash like few others in the history of the game. And when the power waned on random seasons they still did a great job at executing on taking good major league at bats. Working counts, getting pitchers to pitch a lot of pitches to them. Wearing down the opposition.
The Red Sox organization worked that from Single A to the Majors. Yes, the pitching suffered at times. They had less identity and clarity there. But they always retained enough pitching so that the bats could pull them into any game at any time.
The identity and clarity did start to become murkier as the 2010’s waned to the 2020’s, with even 2018 not marked by such a strong organizational philosophy but still with some great, explosive complimentary talent.
What we see now is an organizational philosophy of as many lefty bats as possible but not much on how to use them. Nothing about this team and organization screams complimentary, planned, intentional.
So we have a bad organization whereas we used to have a great organization. Yes, it was often flawed. But it always had a good identity and direction to return to.
I’ve personally been saying this is a 100 loss team. Regardless of whether they quite get to 100 losses, that energy of ineptitude is there. They could very well lose 90 games but I still think the wheels will fall off further as injuries mount.
I’ve left out a lot of the toxicity of the ownership but that’s a comment for another time.
And that grind it out philosophy is how you come back from 3-0 in the ALCS, how you have a season full of comebacks including a Mothers Day Miracle, how you show up for your fandom after a terrorist attack at a marathon.
The problem the Red Sox have had for a long time has been no team nor organizational distinct identity. What type of organization are they? Are they hitters? What kind of hitters? What’s their hitting strategy? What’s their pitching strategy?
I can tell you. Ineptitude is their identity. From top to bottom. FO, to team level managing, to players themselves too often.
Gone are the days that they were a team feared with bats. From much of the 2000’s and early 2010’s they could mash like few others in the history of the game. And when the power waned on random seasons they still did a great job at executing on taking good major league at bats. Working counts, getting pitchers to pitch a lot of pitches to them. Wearing down the opposition.
The Red Sox organization worked that from Single A to the Majors. Yes, the pitching suffered at times. They had less identity and clarity there. But they always retained enough pitching so that the bats could pull them into any game at any time.
The identity and clarity did start to become murkier as the 2010’s waned to the 2020’s, with even 2018 not marked by such a strong organizational philosophy but still with some great, explosive complimentary talent.
What we see now is an organizational philosophy of as many lefty bats as possible but not much on how to use them. Nothing about this team and organization screams complimentary, planned, intentional.
So we have a bad organization whereas we used to have a great organization. Yes, it was often flawed. But it always had a good identity and direction to return to.
I’ve personally been saying this is a 100 loss team. Regardless of whether they quite get to 100 losses, that energy of ineptitude is there. They could very well lose 90 games but I still think the wheels will fall off further as injuries mount.
I’ve left out a lot of the toxicity of the ownership but that’s a comment for another time.
Absolutely nailed it.
This team used to grind pitchers into dust with 7-pitch ABs and lineup depth that made opposing managers sweat.
And that grind it out philosophy is how you come back from 3-0 in the ALCS, how you have a season full of comebacks including a Mothers Day Miracle, how you show up for your fandom after a terrorist attack at a marathon.
It’s sad we don’t have that anymore.