Earlier this season, I wrote an article for Bleacher Report where I urged the Red Sox to deal Josh Beckett. He was pitching well at the time and I felt that he could get a decent minor leaguer in return. The Red Sox were not contenders, I argued, and they should try to flip some of their veterans for pieces that could help from 2013 on.
People wrote to me saying I was crazy for waving the white flag on the season.
I asked them if they thought the Red Sox were contenders.
They said that they did and consistently pointed to how close they were in the standings and how the team would improve when they get healthy.
Meanwhile the Red Sox have been very consistent all year. And it is the kind of consistency that keeps teams out of the playoffs.
All year they have had two settings: Lose a bunch in a row and look incompetent. Win a bunch of series in a row and look like a pennant contender turning it around.
They start the season 4-10 with the embarrassing Yankee series, then rattle of six straight wins and look like a contender.
Then they went on a 2-9 stretch and looked awful. Then they won five in a row and looked great again. They won five of six in early June to climb over .500. Then lost seven of eight to fall below .500. They went on a five game winning streak in mid June. Now they just got swept by the A's.
It is the morning of July 5th and they are 2 games over .500.
This is not a contender.
This is a streaky team.
This is an 83-85 win team.
Just enjoy the winning streaks when they happen and remove any post season hopes for this team.
Detect these patterns. Don't go too crazy when they win and don't get too upset when they lose.
That is the nature of this team.
Lower your expectations and this season will be pretty fun.
Agreed
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