Weekly Superlatives: Jacoby Ellsbury, Jason Varitek & More
The week began well for the Red Sox, as they took 5 straight to end their west coast swing. After splitting a short 2-game set with the Oakland Athletics they swept a 4-game set with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, their 1st 4-game sweep in 3 decades. Unfortunately, the past 2 games in Baltimore have been forgettable at best, with 2 straight losses at the hands of the over-cocky Buck Showalter. After his comments this Spring, there are a lot of fans who wanted to beat the pants off Showalter’s Orioles, but this series has not gone the way most expected. Looking back at the week, there were a few players that stood out in their overall performance, both on the positive and negative end of the spectrum. Let’s take a look at a few of those players in this week’s edition of Weekly Superlatives.
Jason Varitek and Jarrod Saltalamacchia
The ‘We Can’t Get a Hit if Our Lives Depended on it’ Award
Regardless of whether you believe Jason Varitek should be the starting catcher or the Red Sox should stick with Jarrod Saltalamacchia, it is impossible to overlook their combined awful offensive output this season. Just this past week, in 6 total games, ‘Tek and Salty were a combined 3 for 20 with 2 doubles and 8 strikeouts. Needless to say, it leaves something to be desired. On the season, ‘Tek and Salty are the worst catching duo in baseball in terms of offensive numbers, which is plain embarrassing. The Red Sox have shifted, it appears, to giving ‘Tek more starts behind the plate, but in the long run, can he handle catching 80 games in 2011? As committed to Salty as the Red Sox still appear to be, they will need to really start looking at other options, because 2 catchers hitting below the Mendoza line is difficult to watch. As much as everyone loves ‘Tek, he is not the everyday answer at age 39.
The ‘Overdue to Turn His Season Around’ Award
One of the big storylines last season surrounded Jacoby Ellsbury and more specifically, his ribs. The 2011 season was a fresh start for the outfielder and he began on the right foot by dominating in the batter’s box this Spring. Then came the regular season. He began the season on a streak, just a bad one, striking out in 5 straight games to begin 2011. He was dropped in the lineup and appeared to be swinging for the fences and not for base hits, which was not what the Red Sox were hoping for out of their ‘lead-off’ hitter. It appears Ells is turning his season around, now hitting in 6 straight games and 8 of the last 10. His overall season numbers are still poor, as he has a .244 average with 22 strikeouts and just 20 hits, but that is a far cry from his low .182 average just over a week ago on April 20th. Ells appears to be regaining a strangle-hold on the lead-off spot once again, a spot that Francona wants him in going forward, as long as he is hitting. After playing in just 18 games last season, Ells has a lot to prove, both to himself and his team. If he can continue his hitting streak and become and on-base machine at the top of the Red Sox lineup, this team will score a lot of runs on a regular basis.
Boston Red Sox
The ‘We Have a Powerful Lineup, but Can’t Hit Home Runs’ Award
Maybe the most surprising thing about the 2011 Red Sox team is their inability to hit home runs. With a middle of the lineup that consists of David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, and Adrian Gonzalez, many, myself included, would have expected a large number of home runs in April. This past week, the entire team only hit 3 bombs in 6 games (ranked 20th in baseball), 2 for Kevin Youkilis and 1 for Carl Crawford. Now for the season, the Red Sox have just 20 home runs in 23 games, which places them 20th overall out of 30 teams in baseball. That is hardly an impressive number and is a trend that is concerning in the long run. Ortiz, Youk, and Gonzo have 8 total home runs, but Ortiz and Gonzo have just 3 combined. No one expected the 2 big power-lefties to have a power-outage, but in all fairness, they have faced many tough lefty-starters to begin 2011. If the Red Sox are going to climb back to .500 and potentially compete in the postseason this year, they need more power production from the middle of the lineup, especially Ortiz and Gonzo. It seems like a distant memory when people were predicting Gonzo to hit 50+ home runs playing in Fenway Park.
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