These Buyers are Wary Weary

These Buyers are Wary, Weary

"Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer."

5.13.03:  As you've no doubt noticed there's a fundamental tension between producer and consumer in all things Red Sox.

We, the consumer, have been roundly criticized for, well, being critical. It has been suggested that we are pathological in our love of misery and that we wouldn't know how to handle success. Some say we are fickle. Some say we don't know how good we have it. We are told to be patient (my personal favorite), even as our grandparents die never having enjoyed a championship. We are mean, unforgiving, spiteful, hateful, negative.

All of that may be true, but, above all, the Red Sox consumer is a smart shopper.

The producer has made a product that they believe should be perfectly satisfactory to the consumer, a team that wins more than it loses, plays exciting games and even wears brand new red jerseys in some home games.

So why is their complaint box brimming over? It's simple. Their consumers are simply too shrewd, too steeped in the laws of caveat emptor to be duped by this product. We are the discerning parent who sees the poor workmanship in the shiny toy our child so desperately wants. We know it will fall apart the second time he plays with it. We are looking for a product that can last until the end of October. This ain't it.

The team defense is lousy, the bullpen is a nightmare, the superstar has prematurely entered the decline phase of his career and the manager often seems in over his head.

While Jeremy Giambi's phenomenal gack with the bases loaded was truly stunning, there were two other plays in Sunday's one-run loss that are much more troubling to me because they involved a player who is a regular at the position in question. The Twins' first hitter of the game, Jacques Jones, bounced a harmless ground ball about a stride and a half to Todd Walker's right. This is a play that a Major League second baseman should make 95 percent of the time, meaning it is slightly more difficult than average, but only slightly. Walker made his slow, ungainly crossover step to his right, got to the ball much more off-balance than he should have been and made a weak, terrible throw to first that pulled the first baseman off the bag. Infield hit. You've got to be able to get to this ball in time to plant that back foot and make a decent throw to first -- or you simply cannot play second base in the Majors. Jones came around to score the Twins first run, an earned run mind you. Later, with the game seemingly out of reach, Bruce Chen induced the most routine of double play balls, hit right at Walker. Ol' Stone Hands botched it, recovered, and got the runner at first. No error. The run that scored on the play was once again earned, but Chen should have been out of the inning. You don't need John Thorn and Pete Palmer's complicated fielding stats to tell you Todd Walker is a terrible second baseman (his stats are spectacularly poor), all you need is an understanding of the game... and vision.

Back to Giambi's much more memorable play for a moment. How was he not charged with two errors on this play? As he settled under the flair it's safe to assume the runners started retreating to their bags, right? He drops it, allowing the runner on third to score. Then he fumbles the one-hop bounce off the turf. Then he bobbles the ball a third time as he bends to pick it up. Even if you say the runner on second would have scored on the initial drop, there is no way the runner on first goes to third and the batter ends up on second without the additional spasticity. Ah, the joy of a roster with five DHs.

So much has been written and bemoaned about our horrible bullpen that it feels like tilting at windmills to go over it again. But I will say that it is highly unlikely that Robert Person is the answer. He was never a good closer in Toronto (his ERA was 7.04 and 9.82 in the two seasons he recorded saves as a Blue Jay). He has never had an impressive WHIP. And he is coming off an injury. Not a formula for late-career success.

As for our struggling superstar, I am now resigned to the sad belief that we will never see the old Nomar again. He may hit .300 with 50 doubles and 20 homers (Cooperstown numbers, to be sure), but you know what I mean. Larry Bird averaged 20 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7 assists in his final season, but he wasn't Larry. For the first four seasons of Nomar's career we were gripped by the giddy knowledge that he kept getting better... .306, .323, .357, .372. Yeesh, at this rate, the guy will be hitting .440 in three years. Now the inexorable, injury-fueled slide has begun. Nomar's petulant pig-headedness and medical condition (see OCD and OBP in the archive) aren't helping matters, but the fade always comes eventually. We just didn't want it to be so soon.

The manager. While I think Grady Little has been something of a revelation this year, much more in tune with what is actually happening on the field, I still think he has serious limitations. Like many of my fellow consumers, I happen to know that the Minnesota Twins really struggle against lefthanders, which is why I was not surprised that the Royals promising lefty Jeremy Affeldt beat them last night. Grady Little is either unaware of this statistical trend or does not have access to a Red Sox schedule. Given the added flexibility of an off day (and a quick ejection), how Grady managed to have Casey Fossum miss the Twins twice is incredible. Instead, he had Derek Lowe pitch the final game of the road trip on the rug and responded with incredulity that so many ground balls got through. Yeah, Grady, that's what happens on turf (especially when you have a lousy second baseman). Wouldn't it make more sense to have Fossum, a strikeout-flyball pitcher, take the turn in Minny and have the sinkerballing Lowe open the homestand - where his ERA is 12 runs better - against the homer-happy Rangers? Of course it would.