Recap of first half, with a Report Card

Readers it's that time again when it's time to recap the first half of the MLB season with a Report Card. Today's report card will feature two major teams then a brief report card on the rest of the teams, the two teams that will be featured will be the two teams that I've followed my whole life and those would be the Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. (Note to Justin and Anna, I am also a Cards fan, I have been since I was on the Cardinals in T-Ball)
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Lets start with the Red Sox

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Manager: Tito Francoma; In my opinion the worst manager in the game today. He has this team loaded with talent and they're not in first place. Often times he's shown on the bench sitting there wondering what to do, instead of warming up somebody in the pen, he instead decides to let his starters get shelled and when he starts to warm somebody up it's always too late. He gets a C-
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Starting Pitching

Over all the best starting pitcher ont he Red Sox this first half has to be the man that should have started the All Star Game and that's Curt Schilling. He is for some reason the Red Sox #2 starter while in the minds of most in the Boston Area he's #1. How good is this guy, well he has yet to lose at Fenway in his short Red Sox career. In 18 starts this year he's 11-4 with an era of 3.16. He's strucken out 118 while walking 21. His WHIP is 1.16 with an OBA of .257. He's also been a horse for the Sox by pitching 125.1 innings, which is an average of 6.95 innings a game, so not only is he pitching well but he's saving the bullpen. He has 2 complete games, and he's only allowed 2 unearned runs this whole year.
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The Sox #1 starter, in the minds of many the #2 starter, is Pedro Martinez. He's also put up some great numbers the first half, in 18 starts he's 9-3 with an era of 3.67. His whip is 1.13 while his OBA is .232. He also pitches an average of 6.51 innings a game which is huge for the Sox. He doesn't have any complete games but when they need Pedro to go deep into the game 9 times out of 10 he can go deep. Like Schilling, Pedro is also undefeated at home with a 6-0 record and an incredible WHIP of .99 at home.
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The Sox #3 Starter who has been acting more like their number 5 starter is Derek Lowe. Many fans in Boston would be ready to place Wakefield or Arroyo over Lowe and I have to agree with them. In 17 starts he's 7-8 with an era of 5.57. His WHIP is a 1.65 and opponents are hitting a .297 against him. He's only pitching 5.48 innings a game, this is a huge difference from his Cy young season 2 years ago, which I still feel he was robbed. He's given up 21 unearned runs which is 21 too many, an dhis strikeout to walk ratio is 46:41, which is pathetic. It's hard to believe this is the same pitcher who went 21-8 back in 2002 with an era of 2.58, and he was averaging 6.85 innings per outing. He also had a no hitter that season. Derek needs to make changes now before it's too late.
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Another huge disapointment has to be the Sox #4 starter Tim Wakefield. In 16 starts he's 5-5 with an era of 4.17. He's averaging 6.58 innings per start. His wihp is down 1.36, but his OBA is a .262. He's allowed 11 Unearned runs, and his K to walk ratio is 7:4.
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And the Sox #5 starter is Bronson Arroyo, he is in my opinion the third best pitcher on the Sox team, sure he's only 3-7 but he's pitching an average of 6.39 innings per start, his era the last two months have ben 4.18 in June and 1.20 in July. He's been lights out and the sad thing is his defense behind him has made 5 less errors than the rest of the starters combined. He's given up 14 unearned runs, and the Sox just don't hit when he's on the mound, they only average 3 runs a game when he pitches, which isn't going to win you many games nomadder who is pitching. His K:BB ratio is 67:28.
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Overall the Sox Starting Pitching gets a B. check back tomorrow when I recap the Cardinals Manager and Starting Pitcher, on Saturday a report on the Sox hitting and fielding, while on Sunday we get the Cards hitting and fielding report.
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That's the blog for today
Chaggy