Clay Buchholz won’t be on the All-Star team as his hamstring injury sends him to the disabled list. Andy Pettitte gets to take his place on the team. The Red Sox now have 11 players on the disabled list.
Clay Buchholz won’t be on the All-Star team as his hamstring injury sends him to the disabled list. Andy Pettitte gets to take his place on the team. The Red Sox now have 11 players on the disabled list.
The body (DL) count drives me crazy. Means little in terms of impact. Here are the Red Sox MIA.
Tazawa (all season-return end of 2011). Scheduled to start the season in Pawtucket. The Red Sox started the season with 6 starters (Wakefield the 6th starter), and they have made all of 1 start.
No impact.
Jed Lowrie (all season-returns maybe after the ASB). Also, scheduled to start the season in Pawtucket. If he was healthy, he might be playing 2B now. But he is to OF’ers what JD is to OF’er when it comes to durability. Not very dependable.
No impact to the Red Sox prior to Pedroia going on the DL. The difference between Lowrie and hall is minimal.
Mike Lowell (end of June-may have played his last game with the Red Sox). Got all of 80 AB before going on the DL shortly before Pedroia was injured. If he was not on the DL, he would likely have been DFA since he has little value as a backup DH (Papi), 1Bman (Youk) and 3Bman (Beltre).
Zero impact, although with V-Mart on the DL, he would be the backup 1Bman if something happened to Youk or Beltre.
Josh Beckett (since mid may-return?? Aug 1). Started the season poorly. His starts have been made up by Wakefield who has been ok.
Impact minimal thus far given his bad start and Wakefield being a decent SP’er.
Clay Buchholz (July-returns after ASB) . Should only need s short time on the DL which will mean 1 more start from Doubront.
Impact minimal (might cost them a W against the Rays though as he would have went up against Niemann tommorow).
Manny Delcarmen (July-returns after ASB). Not expected to miss much time. Pitched very poorly before going on the DL which may or may not be related to the injury he is on the DL for.
Impact minimal due to his DL stint will only cost him 3 IP or so and the bullpen otherwise is healthy.
Jacoby Ellsbury (most of season, return ?? maybe Aug 1). His replacements have 10 HR and 56 RBI in LF. And Scutaro at leadoff has a 344 OBP and has scored 45 runs.
Impact has been minimal.
Jeremy Hermida (early June, return after ASB). He is one of Ellsbury’s backups, and is perhaps the poorest defender among the backups. Nava. McDonald and now Patterson have all done a decent job.
Impact-minimal.
V-Mart-Varitek combo (July- Tek – 6 weeks, V-Mart 2-6 weeks). Kevin Cash is decent defensively, but can not hit.
Impact-significant going forward (to date have only missed 5 games). Together they are 5 WAR over 162 games.
Dustin Pedroia (8 games, expect 4-6 weeks). A 7 WAR player this year over 162 games. Bill Hall (or Lowrie if healthy) is not the same player defensively or offensively.
Impact-significant going forward.
So I have 3 impact injuries at 2 positions. If all 3 miss 6 weeks, that will be 2 WAR lost
over 25 games.
Remember, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality of injuries, and the depth behind the injured players.
Wow. Just wow. Nice minimization.
“Remember, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality of injuries, and the depth behind the injured players.”
Well, their top four catchers are hurt right now. How many teams have a quality Major League fifth catcher?
They’ve played virtually the entire season without one of their starting outfielders and about 1/2 of the season without another of their starting outfielders and their fourth outfielder. One of the consequences is that they’ve got a .231/.301/.386/.687 line from their left-fielders and a .251/.309/.383/.692 line from their center fielders. That’s far below what they projected and expected before the season began.
Wakefield’s been OK, but to say that there’s been no impact from losing a healthy Beckett is just silly. Last year, Beckett had a 1.84 ERA in 8 starts between May 19 and July 6, despite a bad start similar to this year’s. This year he’s been on the DL for that stretch, and Wakefield’s started those 8 games with a 4.70 ERA AND five more innings of work for the bullpen. Yes, Wakefield’s filled in admirably. But he’s not a healthy Josh Beckett.
Manny Delcarmen had thrown 32 1/3 innings of 2.23 ERA ball before he got hurt. He had three terrible outings on his way to the DL, but was very effective before that. If he’s out for two weeks, that probably costs them 6-7 innings, not three, and it shifts innings to less effective relievers at a time when the starting staff is still short. These things add up.
The fact is, they are playing the last nine games before the All Star Break, six of which are on the road against good division opponents, without their:
Opening day starter
Opening day left fielder and lead-off hitter
Opening day second baseman and 2nd hitter
Opening day catcher and 3rd hitter
Number two catcher
Number three starter
First middle relief pitcher
Fourth outfielder
You can play all of the semantic games you want to pretend that any of those have “minimal impact,” but the cumulative effect is very large. They are playing a big series against a playoff rival with a skeleton crew. They’re not whining about it, and they shouldn’t but this isn’t the team they started the season with, and it’s silly to pretend otherwise. The last straw doesn’t have to be any bigger than the straws that didn’t break the camel’s back – it’s the cumulative effect of all of them.
@Lyford: The other thing is that all these injuries force the team to make moves they otherwise would not make. Pulling people from AAA means they need to be replaced, so hitters and pitchers may be being promoted sooner than the team would like, or free agents get signed with drains money resources.
@David Pinto:
David, that’s just right, and that’s where the Tazawa and Lowrie injuries become relevant. That’s high depth that’s already missing and needs to be filled in from elsewhere. Neither of those two is really affecting the Major League club, but they affect the organization…