On Monday, May 16, the Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato wrote about the “elephant in the room”. The elephant, of course, was the depth of the Red Sox starting rotation. It showed itself in the use of Sean O’Sullivan, a career journeyman with a 6.03 ERA. He also wrote about September 2011, when “a potent offense made coming to Fenway Park a pure joy” and the failures of the starting pitching. Mastrodonato mentions Kyle Wyland, John Lackey, and Tim Wakefield as failures, despite strong hitting. That squad faded in the “chicken and beer” scandal and did not make the postseason.
Several other teams have been in this category, especially 1950 and 1977.