A piece by the Globe's Peter Abraham sums up the Sox' successful first half. Among the factors he cites for their success is team-wide contributions, the success of the rotation's "back-enders", and strong hitting throughout the lineup. Not many fans envisioned the Bosox leading the majors in runs, on-base percentage, OPS, doubles, walks and extra-base hits.
Abraham also mentions some deficiencies, including bullpen problems, with season-ending injuries to Andrew Bailey and Joel Hanrahan. One other area I question, however, is the situation with Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester.
Every successful staff needs at least two men who can be legitimately characterized as stoppers. At this moment the Sox have one, and his name is John Lackey. Possessing a 7-6 mark, he has an excellent 2.78 ERA with only 23 walks and 93 strikeouts. Lackey has also thrown over 100 innings. This situation, of course, was not the case when Boston opened the season with 12 wins in their first 16 games. At that time, Clay Buchholz was nearly untouchable and Jon Lester seemed to have regained the form that made him the Sox number one starter from 08 to 11. Since then, Buchholz has been idled by rather mysterious shoulder problems. He will not be back until August, maybe longer. Lester has returned to many of his 2012 habits and has fallen to 8-6 with an unsatisfactory 4.58 ERA.
With all his well-publicized baggage, we cannot expect Lackey to lead the team into the postseason. Nor should Felix Doubront or Ryan Dempster be under that kind of pressure. If neither Buchholz nor Lester come around soon, the Sox face a real dilemma. Should they go with the present starting staff, including rookies like Brandon Workman? Or should they look to trade for a Cliff Lee, knowing they are taking on a huge salary and will probably have to surrender some young talent?
One problem is the Red Sox' extremely surprising first half record. No longer can the front office call it simply a rebuilding year. Writers and fans expect them to make it to the postseason. Despite the end of the Curse, the Bosox are still identified with folding late; like it or not, it is a big part of their history. September 2011 is still very fresh in our minds. As Abraham points out, the Sox have been in first place in five of the last seven seasons, but haven't won a division title since 2007. A big trade might prevent another fold, but what would it do to their newfound team chemistry? All this remains to be seen.
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