Jon Lester- A Lesson to be Learned

Well it wouldn't have any meaning if I said the "King of Bronx" now would it?

P.S - The Cathedral is in the Bronx. I'll agree with you about him being the "King of Queens" since he's not joining the Mets anytime soon; much to my chagrin.

oops, I meant AL. lol.

Ok, I will retract the "impossible" and substitute an "improbable."

The Mariners are certainly going to feel the pressure if their offence and defense gets any worse. The best hitting prospect in the MLB, a decent 3rd starter in his early 20s, and 2 or 3 outstanding defensive prospects who are less than a year away from the majors, isn't too shabby of a deal. Not to mention the $32 million off their books that would open up a new world of possibilities. I didn't say it will happen, I said it was a real possibility. And if you think they won't consider the deal, then you're even more delusional than I thought.

I think you're definitely wrong about that. The Mariners aren't ready to ship Felix off to be the King of Queens. Also, I don't think he was the NL Cy Young winner last year either.

Nothing is impossible, Nothing.

P.S. - If you're still not convinced that you're asking for the impossible. Consider the this:

Of all those ace pitchers you listed in the post, only 1 has ever posted a season ERA in the "low 2s" as you requested of Lester. I'll give you a hint. He did it for the first time last year, he won the NL CY Young award despite being 13-12, he needs to change his first name to "King," and there is a very real possibility that he will be wearing Navy Pinstripes come the trade deadline.

He could be Cy Young out there and it wouldn't matter unless he's going to pitch 7+ innings. It's still only going to help you once every 5 games.

I understand where you're coming from, but putting all this pressure on Lester isn't going to necessarily make him perform any better. At least HE IS performing. What if he cracks under the pressure? The last thing you need is another DiceK on this sinking ship.

All I was trying to make a point of is that your time and analysis could be better spent if aimed at the real problem at hand. The reality is, that John Lester has never posted an ERA of under 3.21, and even if he managed to notch 20 wins (Unlikely if he can't get any run support) that wouldn't be enough to stop the bleeding.

Rob, I'm not pointing a finger at Lester. I too think he was great, unfortunately he needs to be even better than great. His mission is simple, if David Price allows 2 runs then he can only allow 1. I never said it was going to be easy but do the math.

I agree with you how bad the hitting is, that's out of Lester's control. But, to let the left handed hitting Damon beat you with a two run single isn't acceptable either.

My point was is, Lester is really stuck between a rock and a hard place and if he wants to be one of the elite in the league than he needs to win the close games.

As far as Lowrie is concerned, I have had two posts up where I think Lowrie should be the starter. He deserves a chance

If your ace puts up a quality start and you still lose there is clearly a larger problem at hand. I thought Lester's performance last night was great. So what happened? The Sox were OUTHIT by an injured and all-star starved team. Out pitched by not only David Price (Understandable) but by Kyle Farnsworth; there is a reason the Rays only signed him to a 1 year contract. And this "fluke" occurrence didn't just happen once, but 2 nights in a row. In Fenway of all places. Geeze Louise.

The lowly Rays were projected to be the bottom feeders of the AL East since the end of last season when it was announced that their budget would be cut by 30%. But who is it that's sitting at the bottom today? I think pointing the finger at Lester is the wrong thing to do here. David Price never should have been able to start the 8th inning with less than 100 pitches, and once they pulled him out, their non existent bullpen and closer should have been hammered into the Green Monster by the Sox power lineup. Stop trying to blame the pitching, and the catching, and the coaching for what's really going on here. THE RED SOX AREN'T PUTTING WOOD ON THE BALL. 19/91 with runners in scoring position is an embarrassment.

In what twisted parallel dimension are we living when we blame the likes of John Lester for the fact that your team is batting .230, or that 8 players are still batting below .200 11 games into the season? And one of them is named Carl Crawford?!?! This sample size just keeps getting bigger and bigger. With the likes of Kevin Youkilis, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, and company, why is it that Jed Lowrie has the best batting average on the team? And to make matters worse, he's not even playing every day!

Stop avoiding the elephant in the room. Everyone keeps saying it's early, which it is, but honestly... When you're breathing a sigh of relief because Lackey's start against James Shields got rained out, that means it's time to push the panic button. Maybe Francona should take a page out of Bill Martin's book and choose a lineup out of a hat or put a pitcher in center field, I doubt it could get much worse and at least it would give the Fenway Faithful something to get excited about.