RED SOX PITCHING STRUGGLES

Remember, the battery of Kelly and Hanigan is new to the American League.

Yes, the Red Sox starters have the worst ERA in all of baseball with 5.84.  If you add in relievers the team is second to only the Orioles.  While this is known and being harped on by the media, I'm going to take a few minutes to look a little closer to the statistics so you can see the full picture.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how everyone needs to relax about Buchholz.  Today the focus is on the starting pitchers and catchers.  I'll first start with some information about the catchers that seems to get ignored yet I deem is important for understanding all of the pitchers' inconsistencies this season.

Starting catcher Ryan Hanigan has played the majority of his career in the NL.  Last year he caught about half the games for Tampa Bay.  Heading into the season he was going to be the backup for Christian Vazquez.  I think the guy deserves a little slack for not exactly being on the same page as his pitchers. 

Backup catcher Sandy Leon also come from the National League.  Including this season Leon only has 41 major league games under his belt.  I'm not talking starts people, I'm talking getting into 41 games total.  To put some perspective on that, Vazquez got into 55 games last season alone.

While there maybe wasn't a plan, or a very good one, for who would be our 1-5 starters this season, this wasn't the plan for catcher.

Now that there is a chance that you might have a little bit of empathy for the pitchers, here is a quick look at some of the team numbers before I get to the individuals:

                            ERA                  AVE                   WHIP

Team                   5.0                     .256                  1.34
Starters               5.84                   .254                  1.39
vs. NL                  4.25                   .200                  1.09
Bases Empty      1.4                    .239                  1.27

Prior to looking at the starting pitchers' numbers, just a reminder that both Joe Kelly and Wade Miley hale from the National League and won't be of much help to their NL catchers.

                              EMPTY                     OVERALL
                        AVE         WHIP            AVE       WHIP
Buchholz       .192          1.02             .272       1.43
Kelly               .175           .71              .207        1.1
Masterson    .216           1.05            .241        1.32
Porcello        .266            1.4              .277        1.44
Miley              .222            1.38            .274        1.79 

Now, while I think it's pretty obvious that the pitching struggles might have a little something to do with the batteries being uncomfortable with each other, that is merely just my opinion. Looking at the statistics I just shared, you can see that each starting pitcher is having trouble with guys on base. Hopefully, reading this post has given you something to think about over the next few games.

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