The Fault(s) in Our Sox

    There's no denying that the 2014 Red Sox are faulty!   The faults can be listed as anyone but Brock Holt, Brandon Workman, John Lackey, Rubby De La Rosa, Koji Uehara (recent struggles notwithstanding), Burke Badenhop, and, when he's not engaging in umpire-directed histrionics, Jon Lester.  That's basically 4/5 of the starting rotation (as it should be, sans Doubront and Buchholz), two bullpen guys, and all of one member of the starting lineup.  Seven players out of 25. The rest of the team, fuggedaboudit!  

      The Red Sox stand at 34-41.  Even in Bobby V-tainted 2012 they were in better shape than this in late June.  They are showing no signs of digging out of their hole, not with their bats so inept they would struggle to hit minor-league pitching.   Their own pitching is the only thing keeping them from having the worst record in baseball.   Workman and De La Rosa are proving themselves worthy of staying in the rotation.   Only Jake Peavy's performance opens a door for Buchholz or Doubront, the poster boys of inconsistency.   One could argue that Allen Webster or Anthony Ranaudo deserves a shot instead.  

       The pitching logjam is the least of the Red Sox' worries in their woeful attempt to defend their title.  They need bats, like, last month!   Aside from Holt, the rest of the lineup is nauseatingly bad.   Bogaerts and Bradley are wilting under the pressure of being the "Next Big Thing" at their respective positions.   Drew is covered in lack-of-Spring-Training rust.   Pierzynski is a GIDP machine.   Papi and Pedey are underperforming drastically.  Nava keeps getting benched for Farrell's binky Jonny Gomes so it's hard for him to get traction at the plate.   Napoli is still recovering from about 15 different injuries.   They are wretched with RISP and ground into double-plays like it's going out of style.   As a result, the pitchers are constantly pitching high-stress innings, which will make continued success going forward an iffy proposition. 

      Unless they get help in short order, the losing will continue.   By the time the trade deadline rolls around, it will be far too late to make improvements.   Sadly, they may have too many holes in their lineup to fix.  How far does one have to go back to find a Red Sox team as offensively inept as this one?