Is it Already Time to Panic for the Red Sox?

(Photo Source: Forrest Mulheron/New England Baseball Media)

By: Tom Joyce

Winning the Grapefruit League title and the Mayor's Cup do not necessarily guarantee anything for the regular season. And more often than not, the Red Sox are not a great Spring Training team because they tend to play their regulars sparingly. Even so, they have dropped seven straight, so it time to panic? 

So far, at 5-10 through 15 games, the Red Sox are in 13th place among the 15 Grapefruit League teams. To put it in perspective, only the Atlanta Braves, who were far and away the worst hitting team against right-handed pitching last season and the Baltimore Orioles, who have arguably the worst pitching rotation in the American League, are behind Boston. 

Wins and losses aren't huge in the spring. But teams are looking for their teams to play clean games. If a pitcher isn't bringing the heat and surrenders a few hits, that is not an issue. But when a pitcher can't throw strikes and guys aren't making routine plays in the field, there might be an issue. 

Yesterday's Red Sox game wasn't so clean as Clay Buchholz was not on his game. None of the pitchers except Carlos Marmol and Anthony Varvaro, who each recorded just one out, had a particularly sharp outing last night. 

Mookie Betts went deep and Hanley Ramirez had some clean play at first base. A few regulars had a base hit, but nothing too special. 

There were positives to to take out of the 9-4 loss. But it is hard not to question a team when they are not playing clean ball games. There is losing a hard fought game and then there is giving games away. And the Red Sox have done the latter on several occasions this spring. 

There are still so many question marks on this team that will be echoed until they are answered: Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Rusney Castillo, Jackie Bradley Jr., everybody in the rotation whose name isn't David Price and John Farrell. Sure, the Red Sox look deep on the mound -- especially in the bullpen. But the bullpen can't win a team games, they can just not lose them. 

It does not help the Red Sox case either seeing that they are in a tough division. There might not be a standout team, but there aren't any slouches because even the O's have a strong lineup. Certainly, it will he interesting to see how the managerial situation unfolds with Farrell's replacement sitting right next to him in the dugout.