Reality Check

Josh Beckett is not the answer.

I started to suspect this back in late June but thought that I was succumbing to "Nationitis" aka Chicken Little syndrome. But after watching Beckett over the past month, I am disgusted with him because a pitcher with his talent has no business sucking this bad. Call me negative, hate on me if you will, but I'm over it.

Is that harsh? Maybe so, especially in light of his 13-7 record. But the facts are that he hasn't won in two weeks, he hasn't strung together two consecutive good outings since the first third of the season, and his ERA in the first inning alone is positively horrendous at almost 7.o. I'm willing to bet that a closer look at his record will show that he's won most of those games behind run support & not his pitching.

Sure, it's a team game and it's the team that wins or loses, not one player. However, spotting three first inning runs to the best team in the MLB probably doesn't make the top 100 list on ways to win ballgames.

And what the fuck is it with shaking off his catchers? Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part but I could have sworn I saw Javy Lopez roll his eyes when Beckett shook him off for the 80,000th time tonight. Perhaps the Sox should start fining Beckett for every trip to the mound his catcher has to make to "get on the same page" with him. If Beckett thinks he can call a better game than his veteran catchers, maybe he should consider becoming one himself. Someone who throws a fastball that hard with no movement could probably really gun 'em down at second.