Who's the Boss?
Trust me, it ain’t Tony Danza.
So then who is it? Is it the boisterous guy from Texas who parties with country stars, packs a whole tin of Skoal at a time, and swears on camera or is it the quiet mannered lefty who survived cancer and showed everyone his strength just by coming back after beating it?
It is a good problem to have. Two heavy hitters at the top of your rotation reminds me of the likes of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling back in the early days of the Arizona Diamondbacks trying to make a name for themselves other than “Expansion team”. EVERYONE knew that team by its’ deadly 1-2 pitching staff. When it came time for the NL Cy Young, there were two candidates, and they both wore the same uniform.
These two players are good enough to match that reputation. Each of them had rough patches to their season and still had numbers that embarrassed most of the rest of the sport. Lets take a look at some comparisons now:
Josh Beckett: 2007 ALCS MVP, Ace of the staff since Curt Schilling started taking Viagra.
In 31 games started Becket is 16-6 with a 3.78 ERA. He is the proud owner of 4 complete games with 2 of those being shutouts. He boasts a 3.73 K/BB ratio, 8.42 K/9 innings, and 1.17 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched). And 4 verbal attacks on opposing players… or maybe it was 5…
Jon Lester: Powerful lefty with a no-hitter already under his belt, waiting, possibly in the process, to take over as Ace of this club.
In the 30 games started by Lester, he is 14-7 with a 3.33 ERA. He has thrown 2 complete games with neither being a shutout. He has a 3.58 K/BB ratio, 9.94K/9 innings, and 1.21 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched). And of course there is the anaplastic large cell lymphoma whose ass he kicked (yea it was a couple years ago now but he still did it).
Beckett has given up 15 more ER this season.
Lester has given up 8 more walks.
Beckett has given up 25 home runs and Lester only 19.
Lester has only pitched 194.2 innings with Beckett pitching 207.1.
There is a case for each of them but the bottom line is they get the job done and they lead.
On a team that came into the season with fans thinking that they were 8-9 starting pitchers deep and not even Hiroshima (sorry Dice-K, Oki, and Saito) could wipe out a portion of the tools we had, these two men held the foreground. We always knew who was pitching on days one and two, even if we had no idea what would happen on three, four, and five.
Well now the dust has settled and it seems the rotation has ironed itself out just in time for the Playoffs with Buchholz taking the 3rd spot in the rotation, Dice-K close behind in 4th, and Wakefield and Byrd flapping around in the case a game goes 47 innings. “KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS! YOU LOOK… GREAT!”
But who is ready to lead this club to the promised land?
After 7 months of baseball, I really don’t think there is an answer. I think this is a twin tower of success, just like the Johnson/Schilling combo but not even peaked yet.
Having been a part of many organizations and businesses and of course the hours upon hours of reality television that I consume every week, I know that different people are pushed in different ways (see “Biggest Loser: ie Bob & Jillian”). For some people, the overbearing, loud, pompous Ace of the club is who they need in their face rooting them on and telling them that this is the biggest play/game/series of your life while others prefer someone a little more even-keeled who will lead by example and just expect everyone to do their job in the meantime (hell they make enough to do it, right?!).
So right now, I honestly can say that having these two on the staff is the only reason the Boston Red Sox are headed to the Playoffs this year. The offense was shaky from 1-9 up until a month ago, the pitching staff outside of these two ended up being a disaster that NO ONE thought could possibly ever happen, even the bullpen had their down time but have recently picked it back up.
But without these two men leading it all, this team would have never been able to bounce back from any of it. Morally or literally, this club would have been done and in Boston, when a sports team is done… they are DONE as you are well aware of.
I look forward very much to seeing these two at work in the Playoffs this year and you should too. We will definitely see some exciting things, new moments made, and maybe even see one of these guys emerge as the true Ace of this club.
Leave a Reply
