As the Red Sox hover near the bottom of the AL East, one thing is clear. The veterans on the team are not stepping up.
Injuries and poor performances have made the 2014 Sox a very different one from last year’s World Champions. The most obvious one is hitting. Where last year’s squad finished with a .277 average, this group (as of Monday) was scuffling along at .247..I want to take some stats of four veteran hitters who had a great deal to do with last season’s success.
David Ortiz has had some big hits. Overall, however, his production has slid- batting average down 50 points to .259, OBP down 73, and slugging down 53. Dustin Pedroia’s mark has dropped 22 points to .275, OBP is 22 under, slugging 36 under. Mike Napoli has a better average and OBP, but his slugging has slipped almost 40 points. The most dramatic has been Shane Victorino, with a drop of 52 points to .242 and a slugging slide of nearly 100. The point must be made that Victorino has appeared in only 21 games because of various injuries, and Napoli has also spent time on the DL.
The 1-2-3 starting group of Jon Lester, John Lackey and Jake Peavy have not really done the job. Lester and Lackey have pretty good stats, but with the hitters in a season-long slump, the team needs a consistent lights-out guy, and neither one has been that. Lackey has had a habit of falling behind early in games, such as last week in the opening game at Cleveland. Lester has been Jeckyll-and-Hyde. He has a 15-strikeout job to his credit, but several of his performances have recalled the 2012 campaign. Peavy has won once in 15 starts and seen his ERA balloon to almost 5.
The job of sparking the team should not fall to youngsters, though Brock Holt and Xander Bogearts are working hard. It seems unlikely that men like Daniel Nava, Stephen Drew, Will Middlebrooks and Grady Sizemore will suddenly turn things around. The jury is still out on Jackie Bradley Jr.
With Napoli and Victorino coming back, things may change. But if the Sox have any chance of getting back in the race, the vets will have to show more-and very soon.
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