Tonight’s game of the week is the Cubs and Red Sox from Fenway Park in Boston Mass. The Red Sox have won 7 of their last 8 games and 7 straight going into last night to recover from their terrible start and get to within a half game of the Yankees and Rays atop the AL East. The Sox’ resurgence has been fueled primarily by hitting, particularly that of Adrian Gonzales and Carl Crawford who have begun to put early season struggles behind them. However, two guys who have not come around in Boston’s lineup are the two catchers, Jason Varitek and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The Red Sox counted on this combo to be productive for them this year and, well, that didn’t work. Lets start with these guys and see what other projects and risks teams took have not worked out so far.
Tekalamacchia, Boston Red Sox- The Red Sox wanted Salty to carry the brunt of the catching load and to be spelled by the Tek, the captain. However, Boston has had to go to Varitek more than they thought because of lack of offensive production but he hasn’t produced either. Saltalamacchia has raised his average 20 points in May but it’s still only .236. He’s got 2 homers and 11 RBI. This is just not good enough for a team with World Series aspirations. Varitek, though, is hitting only .197 with no home runs, only 5 RBIs. He has struck out 3 times for every 1 walk he’s drawn this season. It remains to be seen what the Sox will do about this serious problem but it’s clear that they’ve got to try something.
Vernon Wells, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim- The Angels acquired Wells this offseason from Toronto to show that they were willing to spend money and to add a little offensive production to a team that finished under .500 last year and second in the Adrian Beltre sweepstakes this winter. Unfortunately, Wells has been an embarrassing disappointment. Despite making $23 million this season, Vernon is batting .183 and hasn’t been over .200 since he went 1-4 on opening day. He’s got 4 home runs and 13 RBI. He’s struck out 30 times compared to only 7 walks. Though he was an All Star last season, his WAR is currently -0.9 which means he’s cost his team almost an entire game this season just by playing instead of an average, generic replacement player. It’s safe to say that the Vernon Wells experiment has not worked out for the Angels thus far.
First Base, Arizona Diamondbacks- The Dbacks went into the season trying to platoon Russell Branyan and Juan Miranda but Branyan was released Saturday after the supposed slugger hit only 1 HR in 31 games. Branyan was hitting only .210 and had just 2 RBI. That leaves former Yankee bench player Juan Miranda to be the everyday first basemen in the desert but Juan’s got only 2 HRs and 9 RBI in 34 games. The Dbacks are playing well but it’s definitely not because of production out of 1st.
Javy Vazquez, Florida Marlins- Javy Vazquez has had a very up and down career. He’s an immensely talented pitcher and a strikeout machine. He’s shown flashes of brilliance and flashes of pure ineptitude. Most of his success had been in the NL, and his struggles have been the AL, especially the very challenging AL East. With that in mind, the Marlins decided to take a flier on Javy as a compliment to ace Josh Johnson but it hasn’t worked quite as planned. Vazquez is 3-4 with a 6.41 ERA. He’s surrendered 54 hits in 46.1 innings and has struck out only 1 more batter than he’s walked. Only one thing to say about that…
Well, that didn’t work.
-Max Frankel
