The Red Sox really, really cannot hit

"The Boston Red Sox have scored just four runs in their last three games. It is now abundantly clear that this is not a good offensive team. Moreover, it won't be a good offensive team even if we see a little bit of a bounce back from Trevor Story, Caleb Durbin, Carlos Narvaez, Roman Anthony... from everyone except Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu, really. The lineup's ceiling is... league average, maybe?"

"There are four major components of the game - hitting, fielding, starting pitching, and relief pitching - and it's rare for any team to excel in each of them. But when a team is outright bad in one of those areas, it can make for some ugly watches. But I will say this: if your team has to be terrible at one of those components (note to Craig: it doesn't!) then I think I'd take the ugly lineup."

"The Red Sox might be losing ballgames, but at least they aren't losing lopsided, four-hour affairs that are out of hand by the fourth inning, which is what fans of teams with terrible starting pitching are forced to deal with."

"So I suppose my question today is: what's the most tolerable kind of bad baseball team? Use this space to talk about that and whatever else you want and, as always, be good to one another."

The Boston Red Sox have scored four runs across their last three games, indicating poor offense. Even with potential improvement from several players, the lineup’s ceiling is described as league average at best. Baseball performance is framed around hitting, fielding, starting pitching, and relief pitching, and teams rarely excel in all areas. When a team is clearly bad in one component, games can become difficult to watch. The preference expressed is for an “ugly lineup” over terrible starting pitching, because poor starters can lead to lopsided, four-hour games that are out of hand by the fourth inning. The Red Sox are portrayed as losing games without the same level of early, overwhelming deficits.

Read at Over the Monster