Boston Red Sox: Carl Crawford and 4 Players Who Will Turn It All Around
The Red Sox certainly had their stumbles in the season's opening month. At the end of April Boston stood at 11-15 after their 0-6 start.
The poor start of the team was not without poor starts from individuals, notably Carl Crawford, who batted .155 on the month with an equally terrible .204 OBP.
A bad month does not sink a season however. Through Sunday, the Red Sox are 6-3 in May, and some of the team's slumping players, like Crawford, have begun to turn things around.
Besides the latest on Crawford, who is showing clear signs of life, here are four other Red Sox who will also figure things out sooner rather than later.
1. Carl Crawford
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Carl Crawford is putting that yucky .155 April batting average behind him in a hurry.
Through Sunday, Crawford is hitting .351 in May with a triple and a pair of doubles. His walk-off last night in extra innings versus the Twins was his second walk-off hit of the month.
With Crawford, who is a career .294 hitter, it was just a matter of time before he started looking like himself at the plate. After a hard luck April he's now swung in the complete opposite direction with a splendid May. Crawford's BABIP (batting average on balls in play) for April was .177. Contrast that to his ridiculous .500 BABIP for May.
After a month's worth of infield dribblers and cans of corn, Crawford is finally living up to the proverbial baseball adage for offensive success of "hitting them where they ain't."
Look for manger Terry Francona to slide Crawford out of the eight spot and back up to the top of the batting order some point this week.
2. Dustin Pedroia
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After an mediocre April Dustin Pedroia is having a miserable May. Through Sunday, Pedroia is hitting a mere. 182 (6 for 33) on the month, which has brought his season average down to .237. Pedroia's double last night was his first extra-base hit since April 15.
If the Laser Show wants to live up to his nickname he will need to cutback on the strikeouts. Pedroia is currently averaging 5.1 at-bats per strikeout, which is way off of his 11.0 career AB/SO average.
However, given Boston's offensive depth, might Terry Francona flip Pedroia (two) with the formerly slumping Carl Crawford (eight) in the batting order?
Regardless, Pedroia traditionally heats up with the weather: his career batting averages for June, July and August are .318, .328 and .320.
3. Dan Wheeler
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Dan Wheeler is presently nursing a right calf strain on the 15-day DL. More than anything, however, Wheeler is licking the wounds of a hideous start (11 G, 13 ER and 10.1 IP).
After allowing runs in his first three appearances, Wheeler appeared to be settling into a groove, surrendering only one run on two hits with six strikeouts over his next five appearances.
Last week, however, Wheeler turned in two stinkers versus the Angels.
Wheeler's poor start has to be regarded as an aberration. Over his last three seasons, Wheeler made 203 appearances to the tune of 3.24 ERA and a slick 0.98 WHIP.
So far this season he's been particularly stung by the long ball, serving up four homers after giving up only seven all of last season.
A better indication of how Wheeler is pitching are his eight strikeouts and one walk.
With a little rest and time to clear his head, Wheeler figures to reel in his monstrous 11.32 and 1.84 WHIP later this month when he comes off the DL. Wheeler's going to turn things around.
As for the equally inept Bobby Jenks, now that's a different story...
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4. Hideki Okajima
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Hideki Okajima pitched two scoreless innings last night in his seventh appearance of the season. After struggling in his season debut on April 19 at Oakland (0.2 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 1 BB), Okaji has settled into a little groove, allowing only one run his six times out since then.
Okajima must be particularly pleased with his start after being assigned to Triple-A Pawtucket to start the season.
Okajima, with his remaining minor league options, was predisposed to drawing a short straw at the end of March when Terry Francona made his final cuts before taking his club north.
Dennys Reyes got the nod as Boston's left-handed specialist, an experiment which promptly blew up in Francona's face. Reyes' failure cleared the way for Okie's return to the Red Sox bullpen.
Okajima looks eager to build off of his strong second half last season and regain his prominence in Boston's relief pitching pecking order.
5. Jarrod Saltalamacchia
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Jarrod Saltalamacchia will turn things around because things can't possibly get worse than .203/.247/.275/.522, right?
Things have actually slipped from bad to worse this month for Saltalamacchia, who continues to see Jason Varitek cut into his playing time.
Salty's anemic bat is testing the faith and patience of the Red Sox front office. Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports that Boston has been talking with free agent Bengie Molina.
While Salty's lackluster start was not, unfortunately, exactly the most remote of possibilities, he really will turn things around simply because they really can't get any worse, right?
His career .245 batting average and .310 OBP. Are those numbers really too much to ask for?
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