Joel Sherman

Joel Sherman

MLB

Red Sox struggle among hot topics at MLB quarter mark

The Boston Red Sox just may be the New York Giants.

And we are not talking the Mel Ott or early Willie Mays career Giants.

We are talking about the NFL Giants, who actually have brought great pain to the Boston region by winning a couple of Super Bowls against the Patriots.

Both teams have this strange quirk — they win championships and miss the playoffs. In the past seven seasons, the Giants have won two Super Bowls, failed to qualify for the postseason four times and were blown out in the divisional round of the playoffs.

In the past four years, the Red Sox have won a World Series and missed the playoffs three times. Plus, this year they are under .500. In a longer view, Boston has won three titles in the past 10 seasons, missed the playoffs four times, gotten swept out of the first round of the playoffs twice and reached the ALCS.

Any organization would take that decade — three championships trump all else. But the extremes are interesting. For here we were thinking the Red Sox had unlocked a dynamic future with their championship last year in which they would be conservative financially with veterans and trust a deep farm system.

Instead, they went into the weekend having been swept on a homestand of at least six games for just the second time in their history, getting outscored 33-13 in three games each against Detroit and Toronto and leading in just one of 54 innings.

Memorial Day weekend traditionally is the first take-stock period of the season — the first moment when it becomes a little more difficult to say “it’s still early.” Boston, for example, assessed that the left side of its infield was just not good enough, and broke down and signed Stephen Drew for $10 million. Of course, it really is early enough for a team such as the Red Sox (even at 20-27 heading into Saturday) to right itself and make this a special season.

However, one-quarter of the way into the schedule, Boston’s struggles with its offense, rotation and indoctrination of young players have stood out.

Here are the rest of the top-five things I am thinking about with 75 percent of a season left:

2. We have been so fixated on injuries this season that maybe we have missed this: The season really is going to come down to who gets healthy and when.

Without great teams and with few horrendous ones, there promises to be a traffic jam for playoff spots. And the difference between an injury and a season-ending injury will be huge.

For example, the Rays have struggled this season and are not getting Matt Moore back for their rotation. But Alex Cobb (oblique) returned last week and pitched spectacularly, and Jeremy Hellickson is throwing simulated games. Can this save their season?

Meanwhile, it is not just that Texas has used the disabled list 17 times this year, but that it’s lost Martin Perez and now Prince Fielder for the season, and Matt Harrison and Jurickson Profar might be gone for the year, too.

The Rangers traded Ian Kinsler for Fielder believing they needed lefty might in the middle of the lineup, plus they had Profar to replace Kinsler at second. Now, they are without Fielder and Profar. It just might be too much to overcome.

Yasiel PuigGetty Images

3. Yasiel Puig is the biggest star in the game.

Notice the wording — star, not best player. You can’t miss him in any phase — hitting, fielding or baserunning. Because you can get brilliance or a car crash, almost always at full speed.

The Dodgers right fielder made the defensive play of the year and didn’t know the infield-fly rule in the same game Thursday against the Mets.

The background about how he got here from Cuba — filled with kidnapping, extortion, threats of mutilation — was the subject of two recent magazine-length pieces that both clarified his story and added further mystery.

He is in the perfect place — Hollywood.

It is as if DNA from Bo Jackson, Vladimir Guerrero, Rickey Henderson and Shaun White (older folks, ask your grandkids) was combined to form a unique talent with the ability to thrill and annoy in near equal dosages. I can’t take my eyes off of him if he is swinging a bat, trying to throw a runner out on the bases or going first to third.

And just so you know, Puig has played almost a full year now. He went into the weekend with 146 career games, and his totals were .323 average (fifth in the majors since his promotion, minimum 500 plate appearances), .401 on-base percentage (seventh), .556 slugging percentage (fifth) and .957 OPS (fifth).

4. The A’s are amazing.

They lost two of their best starters for the year (Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin) without throwing a pitch. They do not have a single position player — not one — who has taken even one at-bat this year who ever has played in an All-Star Game. And they led the AL in blown saves despite investing significantly — for them — in the offseason to add Jim Johnson and Luke Gregerson.

Yet, Oakland went into Memorial Day weekend with the best record in the majors.

It is no fluke historically, since the A’s have the majors’ best record (220-152) since the beginning of the 2012 season. Or currently, since it is not like Oakland is just using all that foul territory in its home park (not to mention the backed-up sewage) to cushion its record. The A’s have the best road record in the majors.

They are deep and versatile, maximizing the various skills of their roster. For example, the most productive catcher in the sport is Oakland’s two-headed platoon of Derek Norris and John Jaso.

And orchestrating this from the dugout is Bob Melvin, the runner-up to Terry Collins when Sandy Alderson picked his first manager.

Mark BuehrleGetty Images

5. In a season when more guys are throwing harder than ever, Mark Buehrle arguably has been the best starter in the majors.

There were 105 pitchers who were qualified for the ERA title. The slowest average fastball actually is thrown by Buehrle’s Toronto teammate, R.A. Dickey, at 82.2 mph. However, in the non-knuckleball division, it is Buehrle at 83.1.

But he is the tortoise in this world of hares with an 8-1 record and 2.16 ERA. He is well on his way to his 14th straight season of double-digit wins and 200-plus innings. Just three pitchers in MLB history have longer streaks of doing so: Warren Spahn (17 years), Phil Niekro (15) and Gaylord Perry (15).

Buehrle embodies so many of the lessons when pitching coaches preach that velocity is not everything — he works quickly, fields his position well, commits to the repertoire he has, hits spots and changes location. At least when it comes to Buehrle, slow and steady wins the race.