How about you?
This is not to slag Bedard, really. Well, OK, yes it is, because this was a guy we could have easily found a trade partner for in the offseason. There were Adam Dunn rumors, Austin Kearns rumors, Billy Beane was high on him. But I was a little glad they didn't move him (I'd have moved him for Dunn, but that's me), because I like(d) Bedard and really thought that if he could just stay healthy, he'd make himself into a fine starter.
He's got the fastball, he's got the smooth delivery, he's got the complimentary offspeed stuff. For a while last year he had a really great changeup he learned at Ray Miller Tech, then he got hurt and just kind of didn't throw it much anymore upon his return.
This isn't just me saying this, a bunch of you have, too, and Mazzone seems to heavily hint at it: Bedard seems like he doesn't care a lot of the time. And frankly, it's a fitting explanation, because there's nothing wrong with his arsenal of pitches when he's throwing well. But he seems to go from pitching well to being terrible in a snap. This isn't like Rodrigo Lopez, who just doesn't have the stuff and is completely reliant on pinpoint control and mixing it up. Greg Maddux is one thing, you don't get many guys like Greg Maddux in the world. And Lopez on his best days is a poor man's Maddux, which is a compliment. But I can understand easily what's wrong with Lopez this season. With Bedard, it's more of a problem.
Bedard has the stuff to be a good major league pitcher. And yet he has completely regressed. And at this point, he's 27 years old and not getting any younger. 27 isn't old, no, but logically he should be coming into his own around this age.
I think I'm just tired of the waiting. If Erik Bedard is mediocre at best the rest of this season and he shows up next year and he's lights-out all year, I won't be surprised. But I can't keep going into Bedard's starts thinking he's going to pitch well, because it's just damned frustrating when he doesn't. The less I invest in Bedard at this point, the better, I think.
On the other side of this is Daniel Cabrera, who is a guy with whom I should probably let expectations wane, but I can't help it. He throws 100. He's still very inexperienced. And I don't think anyone will ever accuse Cabrera of being indifferent to his performance.
It's not even June and this team's lack of chemistry is already coming out in the media. Kevin Millar seems more disappointed and frustrated than anything. This is a guy that (as far as I know) played a big role with making the Red Sox a team instead of a collection of players, and from day one of his signing, Millar seemed more concerned with helping us become a team than anything else. It's May and he seems like he's almost given up on the very idea of it.
I think some housecleaning might be in order, but I wouldn't even know where to start. Well, I've got some ideas, but maybe those aren't the right guys. Where would you start?