Red Sox pitching issues require an Occam’s razor approach

The Boston Red Sox pitching staff with special emphasis on the rotation is a disaster.  Maybe an Occam’s razor is the simplest approach?

The Red Sox won 108 games in 2018 and went through the playoffs like a locust swarm would to a Kansas wheat field, but now you have 2019 and life support beckons. Is this a bad team? The play between the lines details that aspect of the game and despite stellar personal resumes this squad is flopping around like a beached tuna.

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In the world of urgent care, one can run to the local dispensary for a quick evaluation of a cold, bruise, or mysterious ache. Medical advice is dispensed, instructions are given, and a pharmacy called if necessary. Right now for the Red Sox the baseball doctors on call – manager Alex Cora and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski are examining the patient.

The patient is as lively as a three-day-old corpse bundled in a storage locker, but the good baseball doctors are certainly not novices in the art of resuscitation baseball style. Cora has made some minor lineup tinkering in trying to somehow get the lineup functioning a tad better.

The way the pitching staff has performed the lineup could consist of a collection that included Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Josh Gibson and still not produce enough runs to offset the morbid or comical efforts of a pitching staff that are getting compensated with money that could exceed the GDP of some countries. Just what ails this staff?

The metrics diehards or as some say – pinheads – are actively dissecting all the intricacies for each and every arm. I am sure that without the war room at Fenway Park a dizzying plethora of charts, graphs, and what each had for breakfast is being analyzed. Somewhere something is missing on just what type of baseball virus has suddenly neutered such an accomplished staff.

One noted item that has surfaced is the longing each arm has for the astute ability of Sandy Leon to catch a game. A virtuoso with the glove. An Einstein of catching mechanics. This is representative of the shot in the dark method and placing eternal hope that it’s the catching and not the pitching. I hardily dismiss that adventure.

There is also the rather methodical approach implemented by Cora to make sure his arms do not bend, spindle or mutilate during the season. BSI’s Sean Penney covered that fertile ground so I’ll pass. Maybe there is validity? Maybe not?

There is also the fat cat approach meaning that three-valued arms – Chris Sale, David Price, and Nathan Eovaldi – are signed to pitch sometime into the next ice age. Does one get collectively lazy with a cushy contract? I consign that to the basement of bad ideas and trust me – I am an expert on bad ideas.

Since I started this with a medical approach I will take that advice that I often receive with my typical hypochondriac reaction to the sniffles. Just relax and time will work a cure. Ah ha! A simple deliverance is just waiting it out. When you look at the records of the patient zero’s – our rotation – nothing historically jumps out that each and everyone has suddenly decided to go pitching flat line.

Time and patience are two ingredients that are generally quite absent within the cherished halls of Red Sox Nation. Thankfully the number one nemesis to all things Red Sox – the New York Yankees – have decided to test to the extreme the health insurance system. If the dreaded Bombers had been on a run social media would really be aflame.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays are enjoying success and taking full advantage of the Red Sox pratfall and a Yankee’s physical breakdown. The Rays are functioning on a payroll of just $73M and my good for baseball side is cheering for the Rays to repeat last seasons 90 wins. The rest of the division can just wait for a resurgence from Boston and New York.

Patience is fine and I recommend it with disciplining children, dogs, investing, and following the Red Sox. The last one I am still diligently working on, but it is a long season and Boston has not even entered into the division games. If cream rises to the top I expect it. Just apply Occam’s razor and attendant patience as the simplest solution.