Love Him Or Hate Him, David Price Is The Catalyst That Will Make Or Break The Red Sox Season
One of the most interesting men in Boston sports today, David price, is slated to pitch his first game of the regular this upcoming Monday against the Chicago White Sox.
Price has pitched two rehab starts down in AAA Pawtucket and has been obliterated in both of those games. Like he was pantsed and had his lunch money stolen by a bunch of schlubs who aren’t even in the majors yet.
On Wednesday’s start, Price was shelled for three earned runs giving up six total on seven hits lasting 3.2 innings. Four of those runs came in the first inning…
Now here is what I want to touch on. At this point, I want to say that most of us Red Sox fans who pay attention enough have a strong distain for the 31 year old pitcher who is causing our beer prices at Fenway Park to rise along with his 31 million dollar per year salary.
And believe me, it isn’t the rise in beer prices every single season that makes me hate David Price. That makes me hate John Henry. Come on man. You make millions and you’re going to continuously raise prices and make attending a Sox game a luxury?
But the reason most of us hate David Price (my reason) is because of the inconsistency of last season mixed with his inability to improve with a slight hint of his Twitter habits.
Listen, when a guy strolls in and you make him the highest paid player in baseball history, you expect that man to damn well be THE BEST pitcher in baseball. That’s a stone cold fact. Don’t @ me.
And Price simply wasn’t that. With a salary of 31 million dollars a year honestly, I’m realistic, I just want you to hold an ERA of around 3.00 with a WHIP somewhere around 1.00. But instead we get a Fenway Park opening day massacre at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles and an ERA of 3.99 with a WHIP of 1.204.
Yes I get it. Those numbers are huge improvements considering what he was sitting at early on in the season, but that doesn’t excuse crap to me. I never got the sense that he was dominant. To compare him to Sale, who no doubtably is causing Price to have mini mental breakdowns since he is no longer the shining star & stud here… But when I watch Sale pitch I see pure and utter dominance. I expect Sale to go seven strong innings and strike out 10. He’s a competitor and I believe in him every time the ball is in his hands.
I never had that with Price during his first year with Boston. When he had the ball I just prayed that he did well enough where I could shrug my shoulders and say “okay well at least he lasted six and only gave up three.”
I lied to myself for a good chunk of last season. I’ll admit that. I kept saying that in his next start, he’ll look like the guy I was excited the Red Sox signed. The David Price in his prime putting batters in his back pocket. But come late July, reality hit me and I knew what I was seeing is what I was going to get from Price… at least for the 2016 season.
With all of that being said, love him or hate him, you as a fan of the Red Sox need to rely on David Price this season because he is an arm in your rotation who, no matter how bad he could be, can be season altering.
Think about the rotation down on Yawkey Way right now. You have Sale, Porcello, Rodriguez, Pomeranz, fill in the blank with whoever has options left in Pawtucket here. For the first four pitchers listed, I trust three of them to go out to the mound and win the Red Sox games. I absolutely do.
And because of that, adding Price to your rotation means that if he can be an effective pitcher, a strong number two even, than you could easily have one of the best rotations in baseball and that is a fact. And that’s all I ask of him… to just be a strong number two because it is clear who our ace is, isn’t it?
Now on the other token, if Price stinks, than you are back to having two reliable pitchers, E-Rod who has been pitching very well to this point in the season, Price who potentially, for sole purpose of this example, stinks, and Drew Pomeranz who quite frankly you never know what you will be getting from him.
And with two teams above you currently in the standings who are both playing very good baseball, that rotation will not get you into the playoffs and WILL get your manager fired… Which I’m cool with. #BringInJimLeyland
You… WE need David Price to be a serviceable pitcher this season if we want to see postseason baseball back in Boston. He’s the turning point right now. If he pitches well, you can be one of the better teams in baseball as the offense seems as though they are finally starting to get a little hot. But if he falters and looks like he did last season, which was iffy, than expect the Red Sox to miss postseason baseball once again.
I’ll finish this blog by saying this. I am a huge proponent of the “bridge year”, and especially when it comes to Boston. The fans here are so passionate and the amount of pressure put on players shoulders grows to new heights when you either sign or are traded here. It is something that takes some adjusting to. For example, Craig Kimbrel. Kimbrel was okay last season, but he definitely was not the closer that we fans were expecting when Dombrowski snagged him from San Diego. And this year he has been one of the best if not the best closer in baseball and is seemingly unhittable. And I am hoping that Price settles in this season and can cause this rotation to take that step to the next level so the Sox can take first place in the division.
P.S. The fans sitting front row of the Paw Sox last night wearing shirts that said “31 million shades of suck” trolling David Price at his own minor league park is laugh out loud funny. Ahhh Boston fans… We’re all jack asses.