I Knew This Was Going To Happen

Last night Varitek was scratched from the lineup late in favor Of Victor Martinez. When I heard this news, all I could think was "please god let Beckett pitch great so I dont have to listen to arguments about how Tek can call a great game". Of course, Beckett goes out and throws like shit so now everyone is saying its because Tek wasnt behind the plate calling a good game for him. Nevermind the fact that Beckett couldnt hit his spots to save his life last night, or the fact that the pitcher calls his own game by choosing his signs, the catcher just throws down suggestions. Varitek calling a good game is like Derek Jeter and his intangibles.

Varitek was a very effective catcher for a long time, but now he is just a hole in the lineup and making his living off his "can call a good game" reputation. Seriously, thats it. He cant hit, he cant play defense, all he can do is "call a good game" whatever that means. After last night, I knew I could rely on a boston paper to write a shitty article that talks about this phenomenon. John Tomase of the Boston Herald did not let me down.

If nothing else, the Red Sox need Jason Varitek just to catch Josh Beckett

Right, and make their already starting to resemble a national league lineup weaker. Makes sense to me.

The Red Sox captain was a late scratch last night, forcing Victor Martinez to move behind the plate to catch Beckett for the first time. The two had never so much as thrown a side session together, and it showed.


Not throwing a side session together does not mean that this forced Beckett to miss his spots as badly as he did. I dont think Varitek not being behind the plate was forcing Josh to have a nervous breakdown and completely miss his spots. He is a professional MLB pitcher, all he had to do was put the ball where V-Marts glove was and maybe he wouldnt have gotten smacked around as much as he did.

Martinez hastily huddled with Varitek before the game, and then did the same with Beckett, but it’s unfair to expect any catcher to walk right in and know how Beckett ticks. The staff ace has spoken in the past about how the get-to-know-you process with Varitek took much of his first season here in 2006.

So....the get to know you season lasted the entire 2006 season? Really? Thats why Josh Beckett sucked so bad? Because of a "get to know you" phase? Okay, being as I remember this pretty vividly. The reason he got smacked around so much was because he was relying too much on his fastball and not enough on his secondary pitches because a)he thought he could just blow away hitters with his fastball and b) he thought his breaking ball was causing his blisters so he was reluctant to throw it.

And as he told WEEI.com last week, he doesn’t spend a ton of time reading scouting reports, instead putting himself in the best position possible physically to have every pitch at his disposal, while relying on his backstop to know the ins and outs of opposing tendencies.

I'm pretty sure V-Mart knows the "ins and outs of opposing tendencies" being as he has spent his whole career in the AL. Oh, and by the way, he has caught the past 2 cy young award winners, so I would argue that he can call a pretty good game as well.

All of that said, Beckett was not about to pin last night’s miserable outing (5.1 IP, 7 ER) on Martinez.

That would have been a pretty dick thing to do if he did.

Vick did a great job. My stuff didn’t equal what he was doing,” said Beckett, who noted that Martinez caught Cy Young Award winners C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee in Cleveland, “so he must be doing something right.”

Hey! I just said that! Way to include that quote in there to undermine the point of your article.

Still, the numbers are hard to ignore. Beckett is 14-2 with a 2.52 ERA when Varitek is his catcher. When someone else catches him, Beckett is 0-2 with an 11.25 ERA. Consider the following three games.


The one thing he chooses to ignore is out of all of his starts, only 3 times has another catcher caught beckett, so say it with me now: Small sample size. Not to mention that at the end of May, Beckett was rocking a ERA over 6. Who was catching him then? Yup, Varitek.

Beckett admitted he had nothing last night and the Jays teed off on him for three home runs and the seven runs.

Way to undermine the point in your article Pt. 2.

After last night’s game, manager Terry Francona noted that Beckett is a creature of habit, and the absence of both Varitek and pitching coach John Farrell (family issue) disrupted his routine. Beckett is never going to pin the blame on anyone but himself when he pitches poorly, but last night made it pretty clear that Varitek is a partner in his success.

You have done nothing to convince me that without Varitek Beckett is nothing. You even undermined your point twice by having quotes of Beckett admitted he had nothing, and you yourself admitted he had nothing. The only thing Mr. Tomase gives to make his point is a sample size of 3 games. Color me not convinced.