TOP 10 REASONS FOR THE RED SOX (complete) COLLAPSE.

by Matt Minucci

Hey-ohhhhh! It's good to be back. I just finished a much needed vacation and have come back in time to bring you the finest in sports entertainment. That's right, today, for one night only, it's going to be me vs. Stemkovsky in a no-holds barred steel cage match! Lumberjack rules!

Stemkovsky's (in the blue and white trunks) has no shot vs. Minucci. (I removed the padding from my gloves.)

Ah well. My editor has informed me that his union contract forbids participation in any unsanctioned cage matches. So, instead, we'll talk about the Red Sox.

What a disaster. The 2009 Boston Red Sox season went up in flames like so much kindling this weekend, as they flailed their way into a 4 game sweep at the hands of the Evil Empire in Yankee Stadium this weekend. Not only did the sweep leave the Sox floundering at 6 1/2 games behind the first place Bombers, but it dropped them into a tie for the wild card with the upstart Texas Rangers.

Another Boston Massacre. I love it.

Things can't really get much worse for the Bean-eaters, as they got swept by the Yankees, released Hall of Famer John Smoltz and dealt with the revelation that their heart and soul, Big Papi, was a dirty rotten steroid using cheater. Talk about a spirit breaker.

David Ortiz, post-steroid scandal.

So what happened?  Well here at Sport Vent, after minutes of exhaustive research, we delved into the surface of the Red Sox woes and came up with our top 10 reasons as to why the Sox fell apart.

10. Shortstop has become a black hole. 

View from the Hubble Telescope of the Red Sox shortstop.

The Sox started the year with youngster Jed Lowrie being anointed as the new Red Sock shortstop. Ah, the best laid plans of ... you know the rest. Lowrie hit a sparkling .143 with 1 HR and 7 RBI on the year before his season was mercifully ended by injury. Nick Green filled in admirably for a while, but...it's Nick Green. He's predictably hitting .074 since the All-Star break. Luckily, forgotten man Julio Lugo is hitting .357. Sadly, he's doing that for the St. Louis Cardinals. Hanley Ramirez, by the way, one-time Red Sox prospect of the future, is hitting .348 with 16 HR, 74 RBI and 20 SB for the Florida Marlins. Just throwing that out there. Meanwhile, the Red Sox will turn to career .243 hitter Chris Woodward for the remainder of the season. Or until somebody better comes along. Can Stemkovsky play shortstop?

9. No Reclamation Project Has Panned Out. 

Theo Epstein gambled and failed. Hard. Now he learns, when you mess with the bull, son, you get the horns.

In the halcyon days of spring, when March optimism bred dreams of titles from Oakland to Cleveland to Pittsburgh. Well, not Pittsburgh. Never Pittsburgh. But I digress. Anyway, in March, the Red Sox were lauded for taking risks on far cheaper options, such as Rocco Baldelli, John Smoltz, Brad Penny and Takashi Saito. While the Yankees were ridiculed for breaking the bank on proven all-stars like Teixiera, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. Well, fast-forward to August and the Yankees sit 6 1/2 games in front of the Sox. Big Tex leads the AL in homers, the Yankees in RBIs and is a prime MVP candidate all while playing gold glove defense. CC and AJ both have double digit wins and both shut down the Red Sox cold in this weekend's series. Meanwhile, the Red Sox released John "8.23 ERA" Smoltz, placed Rocco Baldelli on the DL...because, really, you can't spell Baldelli with out "DL", and had to endure mediocre to completely ineffective pitching from Saito (20 walks in 40 IP) and Brad Penny (5.26 ERA, hasn't made it to the 7th inning yet). So, not ONE of their lauded reclamation projects has panned out and it's left them woefully thin in the rotation, bullpen and bench. And the moral is, "You get what you pay for." You'd think Theo would have heard that one before.

8. Big Papi has turned into Lil' Papi.  

Ortiz, post steroids.  (Admit it, you knew this was coming...)

Apart from the steroid scandal - which we'll touch on later - is the fact that Big Papi isn't Big Papi anymore. He's downright Lil' Papi. The once feared Red Sox slugger can't hit even close to his weight right now, suffering through a putrid 0-17 slump during the Yankees series. Overall on the year he's managed a respectable 15 homeruns and 61 RBIs, but he's still hitting just .219 and is 2-28 over his last seven games. He's got an obscene .308 on base percentage and has struck out nearly 100 times in just 370 at bats. Most telling of all, Ortiz, formerly Mr. Clutch for the Sox, is hitting an abysmal .188 with Runners in Scoring Position this year. And that is just sad.

7. Jason Bay and JD Drew have been injured/ineffective.

JD Drew's comment to me when I asked him about his slump.

This one's a little less obvious. But when you jettison a first ballot Hall of Famer like Manny Ramirez, you have got to rely on other guys to pick up the slack. The Red Sox were convinced their corner outfielders, JD Drew and Jason Bay were more than capable of filling in for the departed Manny. And for a short while, they were right. Bay started off like gang busters, ripping the ball at a .359 clip up through the end of April. Predictably, he cooled off, but as of June 24th, Bay was hitting a more than solid .286 with 19 homers and 69 RBIs. Since June 24th - a span of 6 weeks - Bay has hit just 2 homers and knocked in a mere 6 runs. His average has plummeted to .252. As for J D Drew, he's just never really gotten started this year. He carried the Red Sox in short spurts several times last season, but this year, he's not been able to hit with any real consistency, hitting just .250 on the season with a modest 12 homers and 43 RBIs. For the Red Sox offense, that's just not going to cut it.

6. Tim Wakefield's Multiple Injuries. 

At 104, Age is finally starting to catch up with Tim Wakefield

In a rotation that was supposedly loaded with talent - from Beckett and Lester to Dice-K and Smoltz, Wakefield was a forgotten anchor, an afterthought as the 5th starter for the Bosox. But midway through the season, with Smoltz struggling and Dice-K hurt, Wakes became the anchor to the staff, rolling up 11 wins and 108 innings over 17 starts. Since going on the DL with arm, back and calf injuries, the Sox have had a huge void in their rotation. With Penny, Buchholz and Smoltz failing to give the Sox more than 5 innings in most of their starts, the bullpen has become tired and ragged. The Sox didn't realize how much they'd come to rely on the 42 year old knuckleballer until he wasn't there any more. His loss hurts and it's no certainty he'll be able to return at all this season.

5. Kevin Youkilis - Leftfielder. 

Yes, I know it's from 2006. But it fits dammit! Plus I love the Yankee machine gunner in there. It tickles me.

So, why exactly would you take your gold glove firstbaseman - who can also play outstanding defense at thirdbase - and stick him in left field where he can embarrass himself on a nightly basis?  Such is the state of the Red Sox right now, where they desperately try to juggle players into the lineup, forcing them to play out of position, due to ill-advised trades and problematic injuries. The Red Sox led Mark Kotsay go, who gave them versatility in being able to play OF and 1B, in favor of Casey Kotchman, who's better defensively at first, but doesn't really hit all that better than Kotsay, and cannot play the OF. They also lost Rocco Baldelli, Jason Bay and J D Drew to various nagging injuries, which left them woefully thin in the OF. It was basically Jacoby Ellsbury and no one. Add to that, the desperation trade for Victor Martinez, and you have a recipe for disaster. Trading for a power bat in Martinez should improve the lineup up, but it weakened their bullpen and, moreover, they had no real spot for Martinez. If he catches, they lose Varitek's superior defense and add to that the fact that he's their captain, and there's clearly cause for dissension there. Move Victor to firstbase and you either lose your big bat in Youkilis, or you have to move Youk to third, where he's less of a defensive star, and lose Lowell's bat. If you want Lowell, Youk AND Martinez in there, and you want to keep Varitek happy, you have to stick Youk in LF. And the baseball gods always have a way of finding you, when you do that.

4. No Pitching Depth.

I'm not sure what this image has to do with pitching depth. But it sure reminds me of the Red Sox this past weekend.

This one comes as a complete shock to many Red Sox faithful. The old adage is, "You can never have enough pitching" and it's never been truer than this season for the Sox. Coming into April, they looked stacked in the rotation, with Josh Beckett, 18 game winner Dice-K Matsuzaka, John Lester, Tim Wakefield and Brad Penny. They had John Smoltz in reserve, rehabbing his shoulder, ready to return in June and Clay Buchholz at triple-a, waiting for his chance to be a star. But now, fast forward to August. Beckett and Lester have been a solid 1-2 punch, but Dice-K was a putrid 1-5 with an 8.23 ERA before getting shut down due to injury. Tim Wakefield won 11 games but then went down with an injury too. Smoltz went 2-5 with an 8.33 ERA before being released. Brad Penny is a mediocre 7-6 with a 5.20 ERA - and keep in mind he jumped out to a 5-1 record before going 2-5 over his last 10 starts. Wunderkind Clay Buchholz has never regained the form that garnered him a no-hitter in September of '07, as he's struggled with a 1-2 mark, a 5.33 ERA and a WHiP near 2.0. How bad has it gotten? Junichi Tazawa is starting Tuesday vs. the Tigers. Who? Exactly. So much for pitching depth.

3. The Yankees and Rays are playing too well during Sox Slump.

The Yanks have been STREAKING during the Sox recent slump.

Sometimes, a team will slump, and all the teams around them will slump as well. Case in point, Joe Torre's once vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers have slumped a bit in the dog days of August and the end of July and no longer hold the major league's best record. However, neither the Rockies or Giants have done much to catch the Dodgers, picking up only a game or two and still sit 5 1/2 games off the pace. Not so for the Red Sox. While they've floundered with a 15-15 record since July 1st and an 8-11 record since the All-Star break, the Yankees and Rays have been playing inspired baseball. The Rays have gone 35-20 since the beginning of June and trail the Red Sox by just 1 1/2 games for the wild card. Meanwhile, the Yankees have been flat out unbeatable, going a Major-league best 18-5 since the All-Star break. Thus, the Red Sox fall from 5 1/2 games up in June to 6 1/2 games back in August. An amazing 11 game swing that had left Boston all but buried in the race for the AL East crown.

2. Steroid Sins Suddenly Soil Sox.

Oh my. That's....telling.

I love alliteration. But seriously, the Red Sox have long avoided the dreaded "S" word and their fans had gotten downright nasty - and haughty - about how their players were far above the steroid using dregs of the rest of baseball. Nary a single major player from the vaunted Red Sox teams of 2004 and 2007 had been implicated in the steroid debacle. Aside from a Manny Alexander here and a Paxton Crawford there, no one on the Sox had been named. That all changed this year, when news of Manny Ramirez's suspension related to PEDs came down. Sure Manny was on the Dodgers and most Red Sox fans and players were able to brush any seemly implications aside. But then it was the heart and soul of the Sox, David Ortiz, Big Papi, who was suddenly thrust into the spotlight, having been named as one of the infamous 104, one of the players that tested positive for PEDs in 2003. And there was Big Papi, with the weight of two tainted championships hanging on his suddenly narrow shoulders, crumbling before a barrage of questions, giving a humiliating interview at Yankee Stadium of all places, saying how he had no idea how he could have tested positive. How he never purchased or used steroids. How it must have been tainted vitamins. Really. Tainted vitamins. For the Red Sox and Papi to say this hasn't been a major distraction for them has just got to be blatantly untrue. It clearly weighs on all of them. Just how much remains to be seen.

1. Their Offense Has Been Downright Offensive.

The Red Sox vs. the Yankees. It was truly boys against MEN.

Right now, the Red Sox couldn't score in a brothel. They were shut out for a near record 31 consecutive innings over the course of being swept four games by the Yankees, but that only begins to tell the story. From Friday through Sunday, when the lost 3 games 2-0, 5-0 and 5-2 to the Yankees, the Red Sox had 102 At bats, and managed a mere 14 hits, 12 walks, 30 strikeouts (22 swinging) and left 21 men on base. That's a hilariously awful .137 batting average, a .200 on base percentage and they hit a positively putrid 0-16 with runners in scoring position. And that pretty much tells the whole story. The Sox aren't hitting. They aren't pitching and they aren't winning.  And now, their season hangs on the brink, while the Yankees sit on the catbirds seat, controlling their own destiny. I'm not saying it's time to stick a fork in the Red Sox, not yet...but I am setting the table and getting ready to feast.

Somewhere, a native american look-a-like is crying for the Red Sox.

This will likely be the last baseball article for a little bit, as we switch gears and take a look at the upcoming football season. I'll be taking a look at fantasy football and breaking it down on a position by position basis. Tune back in tomorrow as we kick things off with an in depth analysis