Show me some better stats and then maybe I’ll reconsider. FYI: ERA isn’t a great way to measure a pitcher’s performance.

Josh Beckett is the f’ing man. Both he, and Schilling have “lifetime get out of jail free passes” as far as I’m concerned. If those 2 players aren’t in Sox uniforms, the Bosox don’t have 2 World Series rings. Beckett is a beast, if he was healthy in the ALCS, Tampa doesn’t win. Plain and simple.

I fully expect Beckett to rock this year. He’s a great performer if a little inconsistent from year to year. This is pretty standard for most pitchers anyway outside of the truly great…and Johan Santana.
He’s only 28 and I’d say he’ll have at least 2 maybe 3 really great years out of the next 5. Good enough for me as his down years are still on par with a #2 starter.

It’s just that stats show he has been declining the last few years. I just wanted to know about what people thought of Josh Beckett

The stats that I mention up in the fanpost point out what I say….

I’m not saying Josh Beckett is not still at the top of the pitching world. But he has been deceasing, and anyone can see it if they go to baseballreference.com. It shows that he is not AS good as he used to be. He is still the greatest of the Red Sox pitchers in their currrent rotation, I think. If you think, its someone else, please comment. I would like to know what you think. But don’t go around saying things, when they might not be true.

Injuries were the prmary problem. Though his season was still much better than his 2006. I think the FO is confident in a rebound, else we’d be players in the Sabathia market. I’m expecting Beckett-Lester to be the top 1-2 in the AL next year.

Here’s a comparison of 2007 and 2008:

2007: 6.68 IP/GS 3.27 ERA 8.70 K/9 15.5 P/IP .245 BAA (.307 BABIP) 17 HR (0.76 HR/9)
2008: 6.46 IP/GS 4.03 ERA 8.88 K/9 15.4 P/IP .256 BAA (.320 BABIP) 18 HR (0.93 HR/9)

In many ways both years are similar. Beckett’s overall numbers, except for K-rate, were slightly better in 2007. The nearly one run more a game he allowed in 2008 is partially the result of bad luck. I agree with tommy about Beckett’s injuries.

If Beckett is healthy in 2009, I have no worries.

Of course I’m kidding, Beckett is the part of our rotation that I’m less worried about.

in the bullpen to pitch mop-up innings in blowouts?

However his overall conditioning and fitness has to be a worry. He clearly has had some injuries that derailed his performance last year and those can be directly tied to conditioning. If he does not work harder on his conditioning you will see a steady overall decline in performance and overall health. He is at the breaking point in his career where his natural testosterone levels will start declining and without a increased effort on strength and flexibility conditioning he will suffer serious injuries and drop in velocities which will dramatically alter his pitching mechanics and approach to pitching.

He’s a power pitcher. Most big, strong power pitchers of Beckett’s body size last for quite a while.

but have we signed Teixeira yet?

Josh Beckett has been injury prone his entire career. He’s been dealing with back issues and blister issues since he’s been in the Majors. This year it was his shoulder if I remember correctly. Anyway, in his 4 years with the Marlins he averaged 145 innings pitched each year. Not exactly a work horse. In the three years in Boston he has one good year. He got smacked around his first year in the AL and everybody said is was because he didn’t listen to Varitek. His ERA was over 5 that season and that is far from special. Josh Beckett has always been streaky. At times he dominates but does tend to slump. He dominated in 2007 and it’s no surprise because he’s a great pitcher, but 2007 was a career year. It wasn’t just another Beckett like year, but that’s the only Beckett season that Boston fans seem to remember. His ERA in three years in the AL is over 4,…..that’s far from dominant. If you want to compare Beckett to somebody you might want to look at John Lackey. His numbers against Lackey’s are very similar. I’d argue Lackey is better. So please don’t compare him to Schilling, or Pedro or Roger. Beckett has to pitch another 8 years and he needs a few more seasons like 2007 before we consider this guy one of the greats. Schilling is a hall of famer, and Beckett could easily go 15-10 next year with a 4.23 ERA.! Like I said Beckett has had ONE GREAT season in Three with Boston and that is all Red Sox fans remember. They don’t remember how most of them cursed him in 2006. And now because of 2007 he gets a pass in 2008. He wasn’t hurt all year and when he was healthy he pitched just O.K. In my opinion Beckett hurt his team by pitching when he was clearly unable to get the job done. Let’s not forget Curt got the job done.

What are you smoking. ERA is the bottom line my friend, it’s the bottom line and the FIRST THING you look at when determining domination. Remember Pedro and his 2.20 that’s domination. Becket is real good.

…when you have a pitcher like Dice-K getting a 2.9 ERA but loading the bases like it’s going out of style. A lot of ERA has to do with luck, his teams defense and not to mention the subjectivity of a score keeper giving out hits and errors. I am by no means a baseball stat genius, but even I know you need to look beyond ERA and Wins and Loses to determine how well a pitcher is doing. I like the majority of the people on this site, still think Beckett has a lot left in the tank, and I can overlook 2008’s less-“dominate” season because like Schilling in the past, Beckett poured everything he had into the previous year to get us a championship. That’s why it is sometimes overlooked.

Becket is real good.

Before the season started Beckett was the best pitcher in the league,….if you listened to Boston fans you would think they found another “Rocket”. The fact is that Beckett has spent 3 seasons with Boston now and 2 of those seasons have been sub par.

You said both of these things, Louie.

It’s when you go over board that I step in. He’s not DOMINANT. He’s not a lock for 18 wins, or for 200 innings or for playoff superiority, he’s not a lock to hold his opponent to two runs and there are a bunch of pitchers I would personally rather have. Lester being one of those guys. Santana, Peavy, Liriano, C.C. Lincecum, Lackey. Halladay, Hamels, Haren just to name a few.

is that I’m pretty sure LouieTheLip agrees with most of us about Beckett. He’s not dominant the way Pedro or Roger were, but he’s damn good. One of the better pitchers in the league and has dominated in the playoffs more than once. Your problem Louie, is that you will say anything to get a rise out of us. I mean, someone who discusses baseball on the internet, but points to wins as an important stat? Someone who claims Beckett is no good because, “he’s not a lock to hold his opponent to two runs.” What standard is this? No logical human being would ever make these arguments in seriousness, much less spend time and effort trying to justify them. Its obvious his entire intention is to piss people off.