Bradley Jr. Defense Not Enough

(Photo: Jared Wickerham)
Eric D. Schabell
Contributing Writer

Everyone is raving about the level of his defense driving out the memories of Jacoby Ellsbury in centerfield.

His bat is enough to make a die hard Red Sox fan cry.

Jackie Bradley Jr. might be a good glove in center field, but quoting Major League, "...you hit like..."

The last game against the Athletics put the harsh glare of a spotlight on how many scoring chances he torpedoed at the plate.

His first at-bat in the third inning he hit into a double play.

In the fifth inning, bases loaded and one out, he hits into the 1-2-3 double play to end the inning. He only was able to hit the ball back to the pitcher with the bases loaded and one out?

Manager John Farrell seems to be losing faith, so in the seventh he took the bat out of his hands and had him bunt with runners on the corners. All he could finally put down as a bunt, was a dribbler right back to the pitcher who looked back the runner at third base and throw Bradley Jr. out at first.

In the 10th inning, game tied and Will Middlebrooks standing on second base. He hits a dribbler (a better bunt than he put down in the fifth inning) to second base where the charging Barton was able to throw out Middlebrooks at third, again killing a scoring chance.

Enough is enough.

These are the moment last year when a single would score runs, not when a double play would end the scoring chance.

This needs to change and more than a month into the season it has gone beyond the 'small sample size' argument. Luckily the Red Sox are only two games back from the division leaders, plenty of time to work out the problems.

There is little lost by putting Grady Sizemore into the outfield and letting Jackie Bradley Jr. work on his hitting issues. The defense is not winning the games when so many scoring chances are being wasted with bad at-bats.

What is the composition of the outfield you would like to see to fix the Red Sox offensive woes?

Post a comment or via twitter @ericschabell with your thoughts.

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