You have to admire Red Sox fans. What other group of fans would reach for the panic button in unison 5.55% of the way into the season?
The Red Sox are three games under .500.
They lost two of three against the Rays, Angels, and As.
The Yankees just took 2-of-3 from the Rays.
David Ortiz isn't hitting, Jon Lester isn't pitching, and most importantly, the team isn't winning.
Where's that panic button?
Daisuke "WBC MVP" Matsuzaka has a mild right shoulder strain likely caused by over-exerting himself in the WBC.
Not to get off-topic, but the Selig Baseball Classic is nothing more than a nuisance at this point. Americans don't care. The games are mostly bad baseball because the players are still in spring training mode. Pitchers are put on strict pitch-counts and can't go full-speed.
Well, they shouldn't go full speed. When they do go full-speed, they Dice-K themselves onto the DL.
Anyway, back to the Red Sox.
The last time the Sox got off to a start this bad was 1996. Kevin Kennedy was the manager. For those of you who don't know who he is, he's the annoying guy on the FOX pregame show. And trust me, he was a much worse manager than he is as a commentator.
That team featured exactly one good hitter, the steroid-aided Mo Vaughn. His dealer, Jose Canseco, was decent. Jeff Frye was the only above average fielder on that team. They featured players like Mike Stanley, Lee Tinsley, and Troy O'Leary.
Their pitching staff featured an out-of-shape Roger Clemens, future Yankee reliever Tom Gordon, year two of Tim Wakefield, and the squishy-soft Aaron Sele. The immortal Vaughn Eshelman made an appearance, Heathcliff Slocumb closed games, and Rich Garces was as fat as ever.
Point is, that team was terrible. It was an ill-conceived roster full of guys who were either over-the-hill, over-weight, not that good, or completely forgettable.
If this Red Sox team looked anything like that Red Sox team, I'd be the first one to beat the panic button into oblivion. This Red Sox team features a ridiculously deep pitching staff, one of the best bullpens in the majors, and a pretty good hitting lineup. There's no Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz may not be David Ortiz anymore, but Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay, and Dustin Pedroia are all pretty good.
This may be the best fielding team in Red Sox history. The Sox have legitimate Gold Glove candidates at first base, second base, third base, and center field.
Josh Beckett is the best big-game pitcher in the league. Jon Lester (slow start aside) is a legitimate Cy Young candidate. Dice-K, for all his faults, led the league in batting average against last season.
There are only two guys in all of Major League Naseball with 100 or more innings and an ERA under 2.00. Both of them are in the Red Sox bullpen (Jonathan Papelbon and Takashi Saito).
Did I mention John Smoltz yet?
Anyway, point is, this team is hardly panic button worthy. This Red Sox team is a well put together championship contender that's off to a slow start.
That's all.
Come October, this slow start is going to be a very, very distant memory. So step off the ledge and hide the panic button. It's a long season.
Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner at Examiner.com. He writes a column every other Thursday for Sports Central. You can e-mail him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
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