As the Sox look beyond their shattered season into 2013, they have a starting staff that needs almost total rebuilding. But every successful staff needs someone to build around, and I believe that man should be Jon Lester.
It is not easy to be on the Sox staff these days. The pitching coach, after a year of controversy, was unceremoniously fired. The squad lurches from crisis to crisis, from stories of player-ownershsip meetings calling for the manager’s dismissal to ones about most of the team skipping the funeral of the sainted Johnny Pesky. The bullpen, which was one of the team’s strengths a good part of the year, has faded badly, probably since they have had to shoulder so much of the load.
Until last year’s chicken-and-beer controversy, Lester had been one of baseball’s most consistent hurlers. He had pitched a no-hitter, won World Series clinchers, and survived cancer. He was also a two-time all-star and won 19 games only two years ago.
Unlike teammates Josh Beckett and John Lackey, Lester came clean about the clubhouse issues. However, the collapse of 2011 still seemed to haunt him. His ERA lurched over 5. He would walk batters and become frustrated with umpires. He was allowed to give up 11 runs in a start, for reasons which are still unclear. Watching Les in the dugout that day, I could feel some of his pain. He had been the respected leader of the staff for so long; now he was constantly booed off the mound.
The remaining weeks of the season are important ones for Lester. I’m sure he wants to make this September a better one than last year. But whether or not his record improves, management should assure Lester that he is still the stopper and will be as the staff for 2013 evolves.
Starting pitching has been the major source of this season’s demise, and it will also be a huge factor if the Sox are recover to at least a level of respectability.
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