We can't pitch so let's trade away our best pitchers!

This article by Tony Massarotti titled “Time for Red Sox to put Josh Beckett and Jon Lester on the trading block,” just makes my head hurt. It’s so ridiculous I have to break it down paragraph by paragraph.

The New York Yankees were without their ace, C.C. Sabathia, and so now we can say it definitively and without any hesitation: the Red Sox simply do not have an answer. Not for Sabathia and, apparently, not for anyone else.

The Red Sox lost 3 of 4 games to the hottest team in baseball with half their team on the DL. They’re still 43-43 and 2 ½ games out of the wild card. The season series between the Red Sox and Yankees seem to even out every year, but let’s panic!

Aren't we being a bit dramatic saying they don't have an answer for anyone else? The Red Sox have had an answer for seemingly most pitchers they've faced this year considering they have the 2nd most runs in all of baseball. 

What the Red Sox can do about this should be the focus of all internal discussions approaching the annual July 31 trading deadline.

Possessors of a 40-35 record roughly 10 days ago, the Red Sox limped into the All-Star break late Sunday night on the heels of a 7-3 defeat to the Yankees at Fenway Park. With loss, the Sox dropped to a perfectly mediocre 43-43. But before we make this too much of a big-picture issue, let's focus on the two men who absolutely needed to step up in the weekend series against New York and who jointly fell on their faces.

Josh Beckett and Jon Lester.

Can we stop acting like this was a huge series for either team? It’s early July for the love of god. Yes, the Yankees are 9.5 games up but it’s not like we’ve never seen a team collapse from being that far ahead, right Sox fans?

I know Josh Beckett and Jon Lester struggled over the weekend but Fenway is a hitter’s park and the Yankees have one of the better offenses in baseball. It happens, sometimes your best guys just struggle with a team. Neither Lester nor Beckett have looked too good against the Yankees this year but its baseball, it’ll probably even out.

Here's the most meaningful statistic of this Red Sox season to date, folks: the Red Sox are 12-20 in games started by the men who should be their two best starting pitchers. Were the Sox even, say, 16-16 in those games, they would be in possession of that suddenly coveted fifth-best record in the American League. And if they were, say, something more like the 20-12 they should be, they would be 51-35, nipping at the heels of the Yankees for the far more desirable lead in the AL East.

That is not a meaningful statistic because measuring a pitchers success based on whether their team wins and loses is illogical. It’s obviously illogical because the pitcher does not control how his team hits. Beckett and Lester haven’t been great this year but it's unfair to say if they were 20-12 when they pitched the Sox would be right in the hunt. Here’s where Tony really goes off the deep end though.

Please, no whining about run support, of which Beckett (27th among 41 qualifying AL starters) and Lester (28th) have had relatively little. Front-end starters, particularly those in big markets, are paid to win the lower-scoring games. Beckett and Lester also rank 28th and 30th among the same 41 pitchers in ERA, making it all the more curious that the Sox would allow chicken-fried running mate John Lackey to be joining the team on road trips despite the fact that he will not pitch for at least the majority of this season.

Know who ranks last in the American League in run support? Detroit Tigers righthander Justin Verlander, who is nonetheless 9-5. The Tigers are 11-7 in his starts. Verlander is 29, just three years younger than Beckett, one year older than Lester.

What are you fucking high? What do you mean no whining about run support? You honestly don’t think that had anything to do with the Red Sox being 12-20 in their starts? Come on, clearly it’s not just them but a combination of them pitching below their high standards and the rest of the team not hitting when they pitch. It's really more of a by product of abysmal luck the Red Sox have had this year and not because Beckett and Lester are "not clutch" and incapable of being ace caliber pitchers. You win as a team, not because you have two good pitchers.

And who gives a shit about what Justin Verlander has done this year? What does he have to do with this? Beckett and Lester are not Justin Verlander and if you thought they were going into the season I want some of whatever this drug is that you’re clearly high on.

I’m also confused as to what John Lackey hanging around has anything to do with this. His presence alone causes chaos and losing baseball apparently. Beckett and Lester just can’t help but crack open beers and eat bad food when Lackey’s around. Give me a break. What are the Red Sox supposed to do with him, pretend he’s not on the team anymore?

Massarotti goes on to quote Cody Ross for 3 paragraphs for some reason, so I’ll skip ahead. (Maybe Cody Ross being an essential piece of your team is part of the reason you’re 500, just a suggestion though. Let’s get back to tar and feathering Beckett and Lester)

Weak. Weak, weak, weak. If Ben Cherington and the Red Sox are smart - and assuming they are not doing so already - they should be exploring any and all deals for either Beckett or Lester (but not both) as we approach the trading deadline set for the end of this month. Lester is obviously the more desirable to keep, but he would probably fetch more in return.

Why? Why? Why? Why? What would this accomplish? Why would you trade them at their lowest possible trade value? This is why you’re not general manager, because you would trade away your best pitchers on a team that’s struggling with its pitching. Guess what? They’ll probably pitch better in the second half then you can trade them when their value is actually not in the cellar. That’s if you think they’re the big problem with the Red Sox still.

Entering the weekend's series against the Yankees, the importance for the Red Sox was clear. The Sox trailed the Yankees by 7 1/2 games in the division. They were coming off a bad road trip. They had Beckett and Lester lined up to pitch the series opener and finale, and New York was without both Sabathia and Andy Pettitte, who have been arguably the team's two best starters. Add in the relative desperation with which the Sox were (allegedly) playing, and the factors were in place for a productive Red Sox weekend.

Instead, the opposite happened, neither Beckett nor Lester (nor anyone else for that matter) were capable of enduring even the first inning without digging the Red Sox a hole.

I get it, this was the most important series ever for the Red Sox and since Beckett and Lester both had poor outings one of them needs to go. You still haven’t explained how this would make the Red Sox a better team or why exactly you’d trade away either of those guys. You also lost 3 of 4 to the Yankees, not the Royals or the Twins, so let’s keep our pants from combusting here.

Nearly four years ago, following the 2008 season, Sabathia was a free agent. The Red Sox expressed little or no real interest at the time, partly because their pitching was in good shape, partly because they had concerns over Sabathia's knees. The Yankees subsequently signed Sabathia and then re-signed him three years later, all because the Yankees recognized they needed a truc ace at the front of their rotation.

In 2009, Sabathia's first season in New York, the Yankees went 22-12 in Sabathia's 34 starts, then won the World Series. In the next two seasons, they went 23-11 and 22-11. This year, they are 11-4. Add it all up and the Yankees are 78-38 in Sabathia's 116 career starts with the team, the kind of winning percentage a team should have anytime a true, front-end starter takes the mound.

I dont understand what your point is. Do you think getting rid of those guys will allow the Red Sox to get an ace pitcher? I don’t think anyone has been questioning the value of CC Sabathia or doubting that he's better than Jon Lester and Josh Beckett. What exactly are you trying to say? Those pitchers are not CC Sabathia so the Red Sox need to get rid of them? CC is one of the best pitchers of this generation and pretty much a lock to be in the Hall of Fame, so let’s not be unfair to your guys here.

Again, with Beckett or Lester starting, the Red Sox this season are 12-20.

Again, how does trading them make the Red Sox better or help the team? Do you want Franklin Morales to be your ace instead?

Sooner or later, somehow, the Red Sox really need to do something about that.

So your thesis is that since the Red Sox are 12-20 in games pitched by Lester and Beckett this year and since they had bad starts against the team with the best record in baseball, that one of these guys needs to be traded. You fail to explain how this would make the Red Sox better in the slightest way or whom they could even get for these guys.

You compare them stupidly to CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander and want to trade them because they are not as good as those guys. It’s just completely unreasonable to think the Red Sox really need to do something about that. Do what? Get an ace? Do you not think every team in baseball would kill to have CC Sabathia or Justin Verlander? I think most teams would be pretty happy having Jon Lester or Josh Beckett in their rotation as well for that matter.

You know what would be really stupid? Trading one of your two best pitchers when you are in the bottom half of the league in ERA. Even stupider? Thinking the year is over because you’re 43-43 with 76 games to go. This is some ridiculous hysterical writing that can’t possibly be considered sports journalism. It's articles like this that explain why people make fun of the Boston media and Boston sports fans, just thought you should know.