Boston Red Sox: David Price and his road to redemption
By Rick McNair
Boston Red Sox ace David Price has some postseason demons to extinguish. Clayton Kershaw just put a dent in expunging his – now Price has to step up.
You are David Price of the Red Sox and your life sucks.
How can life suck with a $217 Million contract that pays around $32 Million a season? The answer can be found quite simply by examining the statistical profile of Price in the category called the postseason. The stat line is ugly with a 2-8 record and an ERA of 5.54.
That may seem horrendous and it gets even more of a negative play when postseason starts number nine with no wins and eight losses. Price has lost for Tampa Bay, Toronto and Boston, so he has a clean pattern of consistency – a consistency dipped ibn failure with a very healthy dose of choke tossed in to tarnish a pitcher who is recognized as one of the best in baseball.
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Best in baseball is limited to the excruciatingly long march towards the post-season and where Price has excelled is getting you there. Even after the traumatic start in Boston, Price turned it around to finish with 17 wins. He led the American League in starts and then took the league lead in innings pitched. Then Price went 3.1 innings against Cleveland in the ALDS, allowing five earned runs.
In 2008 Price surfaced in the playoffs as a 22-year-old wunderkind who dazzled the Red Sox in three relief appearances – just ask Jason Varitek. My reaction to watching Price was a simple “Wow!!”
The next venture into the playoffs against Boston Mr. Price was lit up like the lighthouse at Alexandria. Seven innings and seven runs allowed to the future World Series champions.
Pitchers can firmly cement their reputation by excellence in the postseason. Curt Schilling is the most recognizable name in recent Boston and baseball history for pitching heroics when it counted most. Price is the total opposite and that was a crucial area of concern and discussion when he signed with Boston. On the bigger stage Price has demonstrated a severe case of stage fright.
Price is a competitor and what has happened is a blotch on his legacy at this point of his career. His psyche is dented as is his reputation as Price will be constantly mentioned as one of the great pitchers of his day and that conversation will have the word “but” embedded and that flows into postseason.
Price has to live with that. He knows the vociferous media in Boston will have the emotional petal to the metal when discussing Price the pitcher. No matter what Price chooses to do publicly he has to privately seethe over his failures – failures that cannot be minimized. Failures that are attached to him like the ill-fated Bill Buckner and the ignominious error.
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You see the names attached to Price on posting boards such as “overpriced” and they certainly reach the real intended audience – Price himself. Price is totally aware of the negativity associated with his postseason Chernobyl type meltdowns. This winter he must live with it as he has in other winters and gear himself for a long road to clutch pitching recovery.
Price will undoubtedly dedicate himself during the winter and spring training – he does this routinely as Price is a hard worker extraordinaire. During 2017, barring injuries, Price will be his usual dominant pitcher personified. There will be no first half lapse as in 2016.
The goal of Price has to be in only one area and that is career redemption. Time to remove the career albatross of losing in the second season and that is exactly where the focus will be. My assumption is the regular season for Price will be just another baseball hedgerow until the playoffs are reached and I am confident Boston will be there.
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Price’s season starts at that point. Nothing else will matter to establishing a baseball legacy then pitching some outstanding playoff baseball and having the “over” removed from his name in any discussions. With Clayton Kershaw, it took one magnificent performance against the vaunted Chicago Cubs to partially lift the veil of negativity. Price must do the same.
Sources: Fangraphs