Red Sox fans... we're not contenders

I wrote a piece for Bleacher Report about why the Red Sox need to deal Josh Beckett. And I got a lot of flack from readers who did not agree with my assessment of the team.

I claimed the Red Sox are not legit contenders in 2012.
For some reason a lot of people disagreed with me.

Well tonight illustrated yet another example of why the Sox are not contenders. Going into the season, Jon Lester was the only pitcher I had any faith in.

He lost... again. And his ERA is 4.72.
That's not good. It is barely mediocre. And we are past the 1/4 mark of the season. The whole "It's early" excuse is getting flimsy.

The Sox lost to the Rays. Never good. This is a team the Red Sox are supposedly chasing.

But here is the most convincing stat I can give anyone to make my case that this Red Sox team is not a contender. In the Schedule and Results section of Baseball Reference, they break down the games, head to head match ups and amount of time in first place among other details of the season.

Here's the entry for the 2012 Red Sox in terms of "Most Games Above .500" for 2012.

NEVER!

They haven't been above .500 once all season.

We're almost in freaking June and they haven't been in the black for a day.
So yeah, the Red Sox should listen to offers for Kevin Youkilis, Kelly Shoppach AND Josh Beckett.

That's not blowing up the team. That's making some changes based upon moving some players who might help another club in 2012 and won't make much a difference in 2013.

But please. Don't call this team a contending team.
Contending teams have winning records.