State of the Red Sox

Let's cap off the Red Sox season so far. They started off at a ferocious pace. On April 18th, they were 10-4. Since then, they've gone 4-8 to find themselves at 16-12. There's been a lot of focus on the pitching situation, but it's really about the run support.

Coco Crisp, who became a folk hero in only 5 games, has been injured and will stay on the DL until mid May.

Josh Beckett had a torrid start, but has slumped in his last three games. I'm wondering if he's injured again, but with the tight lips policy at Fenway, we might not know until after he goes on the DL.

Ortiz has started off hot and has remained so. David has 11 HR so far and has shown no sign of slowing.

Manny has been the April/May Manny and will hopefully pick up his productivity soon. Especially since I traded away Crisp for Manny in a multi player deal in my fantasy league.

Wily Mo Pena still doesn't have any errors credited to him. But Francona has started avoiding letting him play in the field. In the meantime, because of the injuries, he's been productive at the plate. He's currently hitting .322 with a slugging percentage of .559.

Lowell has been hitting better than expected with 13 doubles so far. I can't figure out if this is a good thing or not (as far as what we should expect from him for the rest of the year). He may have 13 doubles, but only 2 hr. Does this mean he's hitting it long, but having trouble hitting it out?

Kevin Youkilis has been the 10th man of the team so far. Curt Schilling may have predicted it, but I wasn't expecting it.

I really wish Wells would just retire. He's going to have a rehab game, can't we just leave him in the minors until we know he's going to get out of the third inning in a start?

I still want Papelbon to get out of the bullpen. Yes, he may become the next great closer. I'd rather he become the next great starter.

Wakefield has suffered from the lack of run support, not because Josh Bard was having trouble catching the knuckleball. Maybe the rest of the team will be more confident going into his starts with Mirabelli in the lineup, but we'll have to wait and see.

Foulke has 15 games so far and has a high ERA at 4.26, but that's misleading. He's been doing a lot better this year and batters are only hitting .224 against him. Only Wakefield, Schilling and Papelbon are doing better.