All that’s a mystery laid out there in front of me

Pouring some lemon juice in the paper cut: Since being DFA'd by the Sox and picked up off waivers by the Angels, Kevin Frandsen has gone 7 for 15 with Triple A Salt Lake. He was sacrificed to keep on Alan Embree (who was DFA'd soon after). Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

The Sox have an 11-14 record on May 3rd.  It isn’t time to set the team on fire because there have been a lot of bright spots over the last week, but it’s fair to say we could be looking at a team that struggles for the season.  I had a few interesting interactions with Sox fans last night online – the fact that it seems most people are down but not out is encouraging.

People have legitimate worries with the team but the underlying attitude around the Nation (or at least the part of the Nation that I interact with) seems to be frustration that they can’t beat a team like the Orioles tinged with an acknowledgment that it’s still a little  early to be lining up on the Zakim Bridge.

So what do we do?  We take comfort in the fact that the starting pitching is improving.  We realize that this is probably (hopefully) the lowest they can hit and look forward to the team moving on and up.  We have a good team and the idea that they will continue to plummet is just not fathomable to me right now.  “Billy R Ford”,  a contributor over at SoSH, had my favorite post thus far on this skid:

Some fun month-by-month records for everyone:

July 2008: 11-13, finished 95-67
June 2007: 13-14, finished 96-68
June 2004: 11-14, finished 98-64

One month is not a large sample size. Just because it happened at the beginning of the year is no reason to panic.

I wish I had written this.   Now I’m not ready to say “Woo, the Sox are going to the playoffs!!!” and pretend that they aren’t in a really ugly position right now but, as painful as this weekend was for Sox fans, I still hold out a lot of optimism for this season.  At the very least, I expect this summer (hey it’s only May) to be fun and exciting.

Being me, I have to put a positive spin on the awfulness of what we’ve witnessed so far.  Just think about how exciting the comeback will be.  When the mad winning streak actually begins we’re going to have one hell of a time.

Clay Buchholz takes on Joe Saunders and the Angels tonight at 7:10.  An Angels/Yankees homestand isn’t the ideal way to break out of a bad skid but you have to start somewhere, right?