One Year Ago...
Shaugnessy talks about how a year ago from yesterday the Sox won a 9-5 game against the Yankees in which Josh Beckett (yes that guy) pitched 7 innings raising his record to 12-5 and 4-0 against the Yankees. Then Daniel Bard went 1-2-3 in the 8th and Papelbon got the save. Also he notes Jason Varitek hit a two run homer, Jed Lowrie hit an RBI single and Adrian Gonzalez started the rally. None of those guys are here anymore besides Bard.
At that point, the Sox were 83-52, leading the AL east by 1.5 games favorites to win the World Series. Now look where they are; since that day the Sox are 69-91. They are ranked the 19th best team in baseball, behind Seattle.
It's amazing how fast something great can deteriorate. Imagine if the Sox played great in September. Where would we be now? We sure wouldn't have Valentine as manager. Theo probably would still be GM, and maybe the three (stars) we dealt to the Dodgers would still be here and maybe the team would be doing just as well as "last year".
Now they are dismantling this team. One baby step at a time, Cherington is cleaning up this mess. The Sox stand at 62-71, yes 9 games below .500, and just got embarrassed by an Oakland team full of old teammates.
It's a shame what was once a "dream team" is now one of the biggest jokes of the MLB. As a Boston fan it is pure embarrassment. We as Boston fans want success (remember when everyone was bashing the Celtics when they were struggling?). We won't settle for mediocre, we want results. Hopefully management started to see this and let's hope next year we can come back and compete (without Valentine).
