Are These The Real Boston Red Sox?

Sometimes a headline says it all ...

Maybe Red Sox Just Aren't Very Good

That's atop Tyler Kepner's latest column in The New York Times -- and it's about how maybe the Boston Red Sox just aren't very good. Which seems like a reasonable maybe, considering they're missing a bunch of guys who were supposed to help them be pretty good:

Mark Melancon, acquired last winter to be the lead setup man, was sent to Class AAA on Wednesday, his E.R.A. a ghastly 49.50. Andrew Bailey, acquired to be the closer, is out until midseason with a thumb injury.

Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury is out with a shoulder injury, and left fielder Carl Crawford is still recovering from wrist surgery. Darnell McDonald, Jason Repko and Cody Ross formed the starting outfield Wednesday against the Texas left-hander Derek Holland. Their combined batting average is .178.

--snip--

Doubront and Bard have more strikeouts than innings, but neither would be in the rotation if the Red Sox were at full strength. John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka are on the disabled list with elbow injuries, consuming more than $25 million of the payroll.

Melancon. Bailey. Ellsbury. Crawford. Lackey. Matsuzaka.

Melancon, Bailey, and Ellsbury are cheap.

Crawford, Lackey and Matsuzaka are not; they're getting paid roughly $45 million this season.

Is this just bad luck? Sure, to some degree. Crawford had always been been exceptionally healthy before signing with the Red Sox. Ditto, Lackey. But Matsuzaka had been hurt in Japan, and Bailey's been on and off the Disabled List a few times over the years. Before them -- and I know this doesn't have anything to do with 2012, but I'm mentioning it anyway -- the Red Sox spent a great deal of money on J.D. Drew, who was chronically injured before they got him and was chronically injured after they got him.

One might accuse the Red Sox of thinking they were smart enough to keep chronically injured players from getting injured again. But, in the event, were not.

I'm not accusing them of that. But one might, especially if one were disposed toward rashness.

Which I am not.

And in the interest of non-rashness, I will mention in passing that just three weeks ago, the consensus opinion among the objective cognoscenti was that the Red Sox would win more than 90 games this season, and grab one of the American League's Wild Cards. That wasn't my opinion; not quite. But close enough.

Granted, those numbers were formed before Bailey got hurt and before Ellsbury went down, and probably came with an assumption that Crawford would play, and play at least decently. But nothing's happened yet that should, on paper anyway, convince us the Red Sox can't still compete for a spot in this fall's championship tournament.

Of course they don't play the games on paper, and almost everything that's happened so far suggests a long and painful season for the Red Sox and everyone else associated the team, except for maybe the gulls who feast on Fenway leavings after every home game.

Let's give them at least another week or two, though. Before, you know, digging a grave.