Report Card Time

First quarter grades are in for the 2011 Red Sox. Some of them aren't pretty, but there are 3 quarters left to turn things around.

Position Players

Jarrod Saltalamacchia - C Salty has been improving of late, both at and behind the dish, but the first few weeks were brutal.

Jason Varitek - C The batting average is not a sight to behold, but he is also improving (witness 2 RBI singles last night).

Adrian Gonzalez - A+ He is as advertised and the most consistent hitter and run-producer on the team. A legitimate MVP candidate and triple-crown threat, he leads the majors in RBI and is in the top 10 in home runs and top 20 in average (7th in AL). He's been money so far this season and is a joy to watch.

Dustin Pedroia - B- He's been scuffling something awful at the plate for several weeks now, but he helped the team dig out of the 2-10 hole to start the season and his D is once again Gold Glove caliber. Being a Yankee-killer helps, too.

Jed Lowrie - A He wrested the starting shortstop's job away from Marco Scutaro by virtue of his .320 batting average. The defense occasionally comes up short, but can you really give anything less than an A to a guy hitting .320 (8th in the AL)?

Kevin Youkilis - B He's come up with some big hits in the past 4 games to help spur on the Sox' winning streak. The D is also great, especially considering his changing positions for this season. The average is very un-Youk-like, however, and the K's are piling up.

Carl Crawford - C+ With a batting average just slightly north of the Mendoza line, this isn't yet the Carl Crawford who tortured the Sox as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, but his May has been considerably better than his April and it's not for lack of effort that he is struggling.

Jacoby Ellsbury - A Considering he missed almost an entire season, Ells has bounced back admirably. His average has been hovering around .300 and his OBP is at .358. He's among the leaders in both the league and the majors in stolen bases and he's looking very much like the leadoff hitter the Red Sox need him to be.

JD Drew - C The only thing keeping that minus away from his grade is his .373 OBP. Otherwise, he hasn't been doing much in the way of producing runs, with only 8 RBI and a .243 average.

Marco Scutaro - C He lost his shortstop job to Lowrie, but he had been improving at the plate at the time of his injury.

Mike Cameron - C- Perhaps he lacks the at-bats to develop any kind of consistency at the plate, but, with the exception of that 2-homer game a few weeks ago, he hasn't made the most of his opportunities.

Darnell McDonald - Incomplete Again, not a whole lot of at-bats, but he hasn't shown much in the at-bats he has gotten. He has made two costly baserunning errors as well. Seeing what he did last year in the wake of all those injuries, I have the feeling he's a guy who needs consistent at-bats in order to produce. Therefore, the 5th outfielder thing isn't quite working out for him.

Designated Hitter

David Ortiz - A- Papi was determined not to repeat his dismal starts of the past 2 years and his determination paid off. Papi's hitting .287 with 7 HR and 19 RBI. The shift still eats him up from time to time, but he's still proving to be one of the most valuable pieces to the Red Sox offense.

Pitchers

Josh Beckett - A+ What a difference a year makes. His 2010 was dreadful, but so far his 2011 is nothing short of spectacular. He leads the league in ERA at a microscopic 1.75. If he can keep up the stellar pitching, the Sox are in good shape. The ERA will be just about impossible to maintain, but anything in the 2s or low 3s would be great.

Jon Lester - B+ After having the best April of his career, Lester has faltered some in May, giving up 9 runs over his last two starts. Fortunately, his teammates picked him up Sunday night in New York and gave him his team-leading 5th win, but it would be nice to have him get back on track in his next outing.

Clay Buchholz - B- Buchholz was having Jon Lester's typical April. He's improved a lot in May and he's looking more like the Clay we saw in 2010 and his strikeouts are rising too. Reducing contact will help with that pesky BABIP regression.

Daisuke Matsuzaka C For two starts, Dice-K was brilliant. He was pretty good for the next two as well. However, he regressed to form last night after getting drilled by a line drive on the very first pitch he threw. He gets some slack for staying in the game and keeping the Sox within striking distance, but those 7 walks--oy!

John Lackey C- Like Dice-K he pitched a few gems, particularly against AL West teams, but when when he's throwing a clunker, he clunks big-time. He's gone on the DL with an elbow injury and he's going through some family issues which likely affect his concentration on the mound.

Jonathan Papelbon - A+ He's been the Pap of 2007 and 2008 so far this year, which happens to be his walk year. If he keeps it up, the Sox will have a very difficult decision to make this offseason.

Daniel Bard - B He's been having lots of trouble with command this year, but the stuff's still there. His workload really needs to be managed in order to keep him effective.

Matt Albers - A He's been a find so far this season. The most reliable middle-relief guy in the Sox bullpen, he can take some of the workload off of Bard as long as he continues to pitch so well.

Alfredo Aceves - B+ The balk got him into trouble a few times, but he's a good long-relief guy to have around and he saved the rest of the pen by tossing the last 3 innings of last night's game.

Tim Wakefield - C While Wake has adjusted admirably to his role as a reliever and spot starter, it's not a good idea to rely to heavily on a guy whose signature pitch is one as unpredictable as the knuckleball. If the knuckler's high and flat, look out! With Lackey on the DL, however, the Sox will have to lean on Wake for a few starts and that could get scary.

Hideki Okajima - B Oki has been better than expected after a very rough 2010 season.

Rich Hill - A So far, so good for Rich Hill, who was recently called up from Pawtucket when both Wheeler and Jenks hit the DL.

Dan Wheeler - D Far from the reliable guy he was in Tampa Bay, Wheeler has disappointed so far. Let's hope this DL stint gets him back somewhere in the neighborhood of what he used to be.

Bobby Jenks - D Another high-profile bullpen pickup who hasn't fulfilled the role he was expected to, Jenks is also rehabbing from injury and ineffectiveness.

The Red Sox as a team - C The dug themselves a huge hole to start the season--one that will leave them little room for error. They had been going in circles trying to reach .500 before this weekend. Last night's victory is a potential turning point for the season, but there's plenty of room for improvement, especially in the area of hitting with RISP. Getting better results out of the back of the rotation is also key. No one has run away with this division yet and it remains to be seen whether any team will take the lead and gain some separation from the pack. The Rays have the starting pitching to compete and, as much as they're on the schneid now, you can never count out the Yankees. The Jays and the O's have been sticking around and they are not the pushovers they've been in past years.

So there you have it. I hope I didn't leave anyone out.