Boston Red Sox: Who's Really To Blame for This Season's Failures?

It's all over now. Regardless of which players stay and which players go, the biggest changes and biggest departures have already taken place. Manager, general manager, pitching coach—all gone. Replacements? Ben Cherington is likely to be announced as the new general manager on Tuesday, and from that point going forward, the shape of the 2012 Red Sox and beyond will begin to be earnestly assembled. 

How did the Red Sox get to this point? Who is really worth blaming for this? The easiest answers are of course the black-and-white ones. No one—or everyone—is to blame. Those two options either spread the blame thinly over so many people that it weighs heavily on none of them individually, or it completely denies the blame instead, passing it off to mythical places like "lady luck" or "god." The reality, of course, if there is blame here. 

It starts with the owners. They don't play the games or make the signings or scout the free agents or come up with physical fitness routines for players to follow. What they do is hire everyone who is responsible for those decisions, and when those go wrong, then some of that is on the individuals, and some of it is on the people who hired them. 

There are two ways to handle problems in life. Proactively and reactively. Proactively is when problems are seen and dealt with before they actually impact performance. Proactively dealing with problems is a way to prevent them from actually becoming problems. It's also a complex thing to "sell" people on. 

Reactively handling problems is always an easier sell. The problem has already taken place. Now, it's about fixing it. If you the reader are of the opinion that the Red Sox were totally blindsided by this past season's collapse then that in many ways absolves the Red Sox ownership from too much blame. After all, they didn't play a game, didn't scout a player, they weren't in the clubhouse or dugout during games. Those are all key points. 

To be sure, some of this past season's problems were largely unforeseen. While I myself still contend that the Red Sox overpaid for Carl Crawford to the point that he's unlikely to ever earn the contract which he plays under, I also would hazard to guess that almost no one out there would have predicted he'd have the type of season he ended up having. 

It wasn't just "subpar," it was statistically speaking a total outlier. He dropped off by large percentages in every major offensive category. He played in less games than in every single one of his previous nine major league seasons except for two. Plus he had difficulty fielding a position that he won a Gold Glove for in 2010 playing in a ballpark, league and division he was already very familiar with.

Indeed entering the 2011 season, Carl Crawford had already played against the Red Sox in 144 games for his career—more than almost any opponent in all of baseball. 

Put simply, his season was a shock to everyone Crawford included who, to his credit, was humbled by the season's end and the role he played in it.

Commenting on the matter, Crawford said: "I know what kind of season I had. I know what I did," he said. "I have to go back home and live with that. It's going to be a tough offseason for me. I have to come back and prove myself." 

A full admittance of fault as his role in the season's nightmarish outcome. That was back on September 28th, 2011, the night of the season's end. It's been nearly a month, and since then, there have been precious too few types of statements like this . When they have happened, they've come as qualifying statements, usually in advance of some form of blame denial or deflection.

After the owners, one goes to the general manager or now ex-general manager, Theo Epstein. The man responsible for two World Series titles and numerous player development successes has had his failures to be sure. That was an overview of his entire Red Sox career though. Within this season, there were some other mistakes that would have a dramatic impact, and the first one was the manner in which he assembled this season's bullpen. 

Last season's bullpen was shaky at best. Plagued by Jonathan Papelbon's worst season of his overwhelmingly successful career, the tree rotted from the top down as long-time bullpen staples like Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima both became liabilities. Efforts to stem the bleeding proved fruitless as well, and youngster Daniel Bard was not up to the task of placing the entire bullpen on his young shoulders. 

For 2011, Epstein brought in new players, but his choices were quite odd. There's an old saying in life—"you get what you pay for" That could be applied perfectly to Matt Albers and Dan Wheeler—two players who Epstein brought in for $875,000 and $3 million, respectively.

A relative "bargain" compared to guys like Jesse Crain in Chicago ( three years/$13 million) or Scott Downs in Los Angeles ( three years/$15 million). To be sure, those are higher-priced and longer-term deals than anyone would want to spend on middle relief. 

The Red Sox of course employ a team philosophy that places a very high burden on the bullpen. The limiting of starting pitchers' pitches and innings inevitably means that the Red Sox relief pitchers will see more innings than many of their peers on other teams will. Red Sox relievers ranked fifth in all of baseball in innings pitched this past season, and among teams with 90 or more wins, they were easily first. The Sox got Albers and Wheeler for low prices, but they also got exactly what they deserved for those prices as well. 

Matt Albers entered the season with a career earned run average over 5.00, and at this past season's All-Star break, was sporting a statistically absurd ERA of 2.55. Are the Red Sox geniuses? Had they mysteriously found the secret to Matt Albers success that both Houston and Baltimore had overlooked?

No. They hadn't, and the statistical correction took place in the form of a post-All-Star break earned run average of 7.36. Albers would finish the season with a very much "Albers-like" ERA of 4.73. He only cost $875,000 though. 

Dan Wheeler arrived with a better resume, but like so many other members of the Red Sox, he had problems maintaining consistent health or performance. That's been another trademark of Red Sox teams for the past few years, and at the conclusion of every single injury-plagued season, the same laundry list of nebulous excuses are offered up.

What about the manager? Terry Francona has been at the center of a swirling storm surrounding the clubhouse atmosphere as the team collapsed this past season. While I personally don't think that Francona needed to be fired or let go to improve the team, I also don't think it's a stretch to suggest that this past season was not exactly one of his better ones.

There is blame here too. Clubhouse drinking, ordering takeout...pick whatever story sourced anonymously you'd like and its seriousness and severity was likely exaggerated. What may or may not be exaggerated is the impact that it had on the team? Were players uncomfortable with what transpired and yet felt as if they had no one to turn to?

A manager doesn't have to be a parent who carefully monitors the actions of his players. What he does need to be is be accessible so that if there are problems, all players must feel like the manager is someone they can turn to to not just listen to their concerns but potentially fix them as well.

It seems like this may be the area in which Francona failed this past season. He nearly admitted as much at his press conference following his resignation when he said:

“I just wanted our guys to all go in one direction. We’ve got some great guys down there, don’t get me wrong. I know to get where we want to go we needed to try to do it a little more consistently and pay more attention to detail. We saw in it in our play and didn’t do a lot of things well. That’s my responsibility.”

In the end, there really is blame to go around everywhere. Some people have already taken hits. Some likely have consequences coming their way down the road, but it really does start at the top. If the owners continue to not deal with problems until they've reached critical mass, then the disappointments of this past season stand to be repeated in future seasons.  That's something no one wants to see.