Red Sox: Don’t Panic Yet

Why Red Sox fans should take a deep breath before calling for John Farrell to be fired.

Can Al Horford pitch?

Saturday was marked by severe contrasts in emotion for Boston, with Al Horford signing a 4 year, max contract early in the evening (more on that soon), followed by a 21-2 BoSox shellacking at the hands of the sub-.500 Anaheim Mike Trouts.

It was a rough game. I’ll grant you that. But the shouts for John Farrell’s head are, frankly, ridiculous. For one, the Red Sox are a good team. We’ve been in a bit of a slump as of late, obviously, but we’re above .500 and only a few games back in our division. If the season ended today, we’d make the playoffs.  

Ortiz and Bogaerts are both top 5 in the MLB in batting average. Ortiz is third in ribbies as well. For all the (justified) criticism of our pitching staff, there’s been some production there as well. David Price is fifth in K’s and has 8 wins. Both Rick Porcello and Steven Wright sit at 9. Wright sits in 6th place in the majors in ERA with a 2.42 that puts him firmly in the company of the league’s aces.

Obviously, stats aren’t everything, and most of the offensive production is due to raw talent rather than coaching. The Red Sox have work to do, there’s no denying that. But firing Farrell for it doesn’t make sense. When he was in Toronto, he tormented us. Remember the Bobby Valentine era? Unfortunately, me too. As soon as Farrell took over, he led a 69 win squad to a world series championship in his first year. While some of that must be attributed to serendipity, it wasn’t an accident.

It also seems that every time our pitching staff underperforms, fans jump to blaming Farrell. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Farrell’s known for getting the best out of pitchers, but he can’t spin gold out of Clay Buchholz. Sure, David Price should be doing better. Other than that… it’s fair to say that Porcello and Wright could be doing a lot worse under a different manager.

Since May 29, the Red Sox are 14-17. Three games below .500. That’s not ideal, but it’s certainly not grounds for termination given the torrid start beforehand. We should try to get some pieces at the trade deadline (looking at you, Chris Sale), and likely move Buchholz out– he could potentially thrive as the no. 3 or 4 on a different roster. If we acquire some pieces and things continue to move downhill, then we can maybe reconvene.

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As a closing thought, I’d like to point out how rarely quick managerial/head coaching turnover works out. With the exception of the Cleveland Cavaliers this year (effectively coached by LeBron James), patience has been an incredible asset. Tom Landry, one of the best coaches in NFL history, went winless in his first season and didn’t have a winning campaign until his seventh. Bill Belichick was 5-11 in his first Patriots season. The Boston Globe points out some specific Red Sox examples, most notably that of the Joe Morgan and Butch Hobson saga, one that I feel applies pretty clearly to our current situation.

Don’t panic, guys. Just wait until the all-star break and take a deep breath.

Next: Interesting Start to Bruins Free Agency Period

P.S. Ryan LaMarre pitched a shutout 9th inning. Compare that to another position player that pitched this week.
P.P.S. How about that Djokovic-Querrey match?
P.P.P.S. How about that Germany-Italy game?