Poor Coaching by Red Sox? Or Is Varitek Just Stubborn?

If the Red Sox are going to resign Jason Varitek, they need to deconstruct his left-handed swing.

It's difficult to understand how he could go through an entire season dropping his back shoulder as he takes his bat from perpendicular to nearly horizontal. When he does this, of course, his front shoulder comes up—and his front side flies open as he sweeps the bat through the strike zone. His bat doesn't stay in the strike zone very long, either.

The result, as Boston fans watched and groaned over and over again, was a weak grounder to second or a popup.

This is no way to hit, even for a Little Leaguer. And, once recognized, the problem of sweeping the bat is easy enough to fix. If pitching coach Dave Magadan has not worked with Varitek on this, well, that's hard to understand. If he has and Varitek declines to make the adjustment—well, that's hard to understand, too.

Another problem with Varitek in the playoffs was his defense—three passed balls. One was supposedly because of a mixup in the signals (there was a man on second at the time) but the other two were just lazy attention to technique on the part of Varitek.

Boston's other catcher, Kevin Cash, is no better behind the plate as he rarely attempts to get in front of the pitch when he is catching knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and Wakefield's pitches are difficult even when the catcher reacts properly.

More and more, it seems, catchers at the highest level of professional baseball don't bother to move their feet when a pitch is off the plate. Nor, for that matter, do they drop to their knees when a pitch is in the dirt.

If Varitek is brought back by the Red Sox and plays like he did in 2007, well, that's bad judgment all the way around. And, if he should falter, the prospect of the poor-hitting Kevin Cash in the lineup on a full-time basis doesn't make much sense, either.

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