Josh Beckett’s Golfing, Pitching Raise Questions

Recently, Red Sox starter Josh Beckett was scratched from a start due to injury, and then he had the temerity to go out golfing. Depending on your perspective, that sentence might read sarcastically or non-sarcastically. Beckett’s golf outing was wildly unpopular, and after Beckett ... well I’m sorry for the phrasing, but after Beckett shit the bed in a start Thursday, now Beckett is wildly unpopular. Fans in Boston just can’t stand the guy for seemingly fiddling while Fenway burns.

Over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron isn’t concerned with Beckett’s golf outing or personality so much. Cameron doesn’t think Beckett’s problem is that he doesn’t care. Cameron thinks Beckett’s problem might have to do with something else, something physical and intuitively significant:

It’s Jeff Passan’s turn to weigh in on The Beckett Affair, and he done it good. Passan’s big finish:

One thing I haven’t seen anyone mention today: Bobby Valentine was ostensibly hired to change the tone in the clubhouse, which supposedly had gotten out of control under Terry Francona.

If you’d like to read an anti-Josh Beckett column today, you could do a lot worse than ESPN Boston’s Gordon Edes. See, some poor reporter had the temerity to ask Beckett about his now-infamous golf outing -- you know, the one two days before he missed his last start with tightness in one of those muscles most of us don’t have -- and Beckett didn’t respond with an excessive amount of grace. Essentially, he said he gets “18 off-days a year” and if you don’t like what he does on those off-days, you can go ... well, you know.

Just a bit of Edes:

May 2: Red Sox announce that Josh Beckett won’t make his next scheduled start, on the 5th of May, because of a sore latissimus dorsimus maximus muscle.

May 3: Josh Beckett goes golfing. Which is like rolfing, except outdoors. And generally speaking you’re not supposed to rolf or golf when you’re not feeling well enough to pitch.