We heard about all the injuries to the starters -- Ellsbury, Cameron, Martinez, Varitek, Pedroia & Youkilis. No doubt that injuries played a big role in the Sox not making the playoffs.
But I look at the San Francisco Giants lineup with a 23-year old kid hitting clean-up & think why are they in the playoffs. The answer is pitching. And while we say injuries kept the Sox out of the playoffs, it was really the poor pitching of John Lackey & Josh Beckett.
Maybe it was the big contract signings that got them off their game. Beckett was out with a mysterious back injury most of the season & ineffective when he was on the mound. Lackey made excuses about cheap hits, but he never mentioned how runners got on base before those cheap hits happened. Too many poor performances & lost leads in late innings, especially in important games.
We can only hope that Beckett & Lackey get it figured out for 2011. The Sox have bet the farm that these two will be better-than-average for the next 4 years. I hope they don't turn into J.D. Drew's -- a/k/a big money for mediocrity.
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