Nine Up, Nine Down: The season so far

Now that the three-country odyssey has come to an end, perhaps the Red Sox can put their struggles behind them.
The offense has been streaky, the bullpen mediocre en route to a 3-4 start and the schedule won’t get any easier. The off-day tomorrow will be followed by the 2007 World Series ring ceremony, the Tigers and Yankees en route to 20 straight days with a game.
Tough times, indeed. Here are some observations from the road trip. Let’s go nine up, nine down.

• J.D. Drew is looking good… real good. He’s hit two homers so far on the season (in four games that he’s played). He’s hitting an impressive .357, but curiously enough has yet to draw a walk. With a .643 slugging percentage, I’m okay with that. Drew’s hot start has come during a sluggish start by pretty much everyone else on offense. If Drew’s second go-round in the American League can be up to par with his previous seasons, the lineup will become a lot more formidable once Big Papi’s bat (and everyone else’s) heats up. Our anemic offense isn’t quite a source of concern yet due to the circumstances surrounding the team, but it’s happening at a pretty bad time with heavyweights on our schedule.
• Dice-K has easily been the Sox’s best pitcher in the early going. He sports a shiny 2.31 ERA and will be severely tested his next two starts, which will come against Detroit and New York. Both these teams feature powerful lineups, so he’s going to have to stick with his newfound control if he expects to win both games. Beckett’s first start yesterday was rather rough, but I don’t think anyone expected him to be Cy Beckett in his first start back with basically no spring training time.
• The rest of the starters haven’t quite stank up the joint, but the bullpen has been nothing short of horrendous with only Hideki Okajima escaping the road trip unscathed. Papelbon does look to be moving past his Japan issues but other than that, no one has come close to allaying early fears that we may be in the middle of a long bullpen retooling. The return of Mike Timlin will get rid of either Bryan Corey (an undeserved 11.25 ERA) or David Aardsma (long on potential, short on control for a 5.40 ERA) but that still leaves us banking on Manny Delcarmen and Javier Lopez to recapture their 2007 form. I have faith in the Trampoline, not so much in Lopez.
• The problem is that we don’t exactly have much depth in the bullpen to draw from. The Pawtucket Red Sox roster has Lee Gronkiewicz, Craig Hansen, Dan Kolb, Jon Switzer, Lincoln Holdzkom, Edgar Martinez and Abe Alvarez. Only the first three could have any shot of making an early impact with the Red Sox, but there’s a reason they’re all in Triple-A — although Gronkiewicz could end up being the next Bryan Corey for us, so there’s some potential there. Francona does like to have two lefties in the bullpen, though, so I don’t see any potential for any of the aforementioned three to hit the majors considering only Papelbon has options remaining. It’s a tough situation to be in, but it’s one that I think will be an issue as the season goes on. The bullpen is easily the early source of consternation, but a healthy and effective Mike Timlin will do absolute wonders for our bullpen depth and would go a long ways towards settling those fears.
• Jacoby Ellsbury bashed a home-run last night. Could he potentially have 15-20 roundtrippers in that slender frame of his? It’s certainly possible. The home-run was in his wheelhouse and he had a fluid swing that took minimal effort to launch the ball out of the park. As he progresses to bulk up in the coming years, he could become a consistent 20 HR threat (and I’ve heard whispers that some people feel he could top out at 30) but I don’t think it will happen this year, especially with him splitting time with Coco Crisp. I expect him to crack double figures, but just barely.
• Speaking of Crisp, how horrendous has he and Ellsbury been lately at the plate? Ellsbury’s total line is .200/.200/.400 in 15 AB while Crisp is at .235/.235/.294 in 17 AB. I completely understand the need to platoon the two. It serves two needs. The first and most obvious is to showcase Crisp for a trade (I earlier opined that we could reasonably ask for Carlos Quentin from the White Sox and got lambasted for it, but Theo indeed did ask the White Sox for Quentin) and the second is to keep Ellsbury fresh early so he doesn’t wear down near the end like most rookies are wont to do. Still… make the trade already. We’re not doing either favors by continually yanking them in and out of the lineup and not allowing them to get into a rhythm. Package Crisp, Snyder and Javier Lopez in a trade for an upgrade in the bullpen and call it a day.
• What’s going on with our fielding? We set a record for defense in 2006, we were second last year and this year, the floodgates have opened. Youk is still Youk, but Sean Casey has an error. Julio Lugo has four (!) and Lowell had a mental error yesterday as he muffed a routine play. We can’t hit, we can’t pitch, we can’t field. And we expect to make the playoffs? The culprit I’m most concerned about is Lugo. His career fielding percentage at short is .965, 4.61 range factor, .845 zone rating. Last year he checked in at .968, 4.21, .822 so he slid backwards in terms of range and zone rating. This year is no different. Not including yesterday’s three-error debacle, he had a 3.71 range factor and .909 zone rating. He’s losing his range, although he is getting to balls in his zone more effectively. It’s still yet early, but it looks like his legs might be disappearing… in the second year of a four-year contract. Great.
• Jason Varitek’s looking mighty fine in the early going. He’s hitting .261/.320/.565 with two homers and I’ve seen a couple of occasions where he absolutely roped balls right at people. He’s certainly shown me enough in the beginning of the year for me to feel that our lineup depth could be even better than last year’s (assuming that everyone else busts out of their slumps). Lugo looks to be picking up right where he left off and has shown absolutely zero power, as he has five singles in 21 AB for a .238 average. David Ortiz rocked Alan Embree for a homer snapping his 0-12 streak but is now mired in a 2/26 slump and a meager .489 OPS. Hopefully the return to Fenway will shake Big Papi out of his early season doldrums.
• The return to Fenway: is it really going to hold a lot of significance for the players? I say yes. There’s nothing like playing in front of a raucous home crowd and I know that there’s always a mental sigh of relief when I go away for an extended period of time and then come home. That sigh of relief will be there for the players, and being reminded of their successes last year during the ring ceremony should only bring more confidence into themselves. Fenway baseball is tomorrow. What’s better than that in April?