Defensive Resignation

In the 8th inning of Friday's game, the Yanks stole second base while they were up by four runs.  With no throw going to second, it was ruled "defensive indifference".  This is strictly bookkeeping, but one can't help but wonder... WHY?  Were the Red Sox really indifferent being down by four?  After seven straight stolen bases in the game, against several pitchers at that, you cannot assume the Red Sox were indifferent so much as resigned to the fact Varitek couldn't throw anyone out, as he has a flabbergastingly low rate of throwing out baserunners this year.  Francona will surely not make the same mistake as last year in this year's playoffs.  In a clutch situation, he left Varitek in to hit late in the ALCS clinching game against the Rays last year while .300 hitter Sean Casey was sitting on the bench.  Varitek struck out, took his .220 average back to the bench, and the series was over for the Red Sox.  This year, Varitek's leadership should be exercised from the bench and exorcized from the lineup.

Leadership is nice, but that C on his, or anyone's, jersey doesn't help throw out runners, hit a baseball, or frankly, may not be an overly appreciable difference working with a pitcher.  Beckett's initial struggles this year were blamed on Varitek not being behind the plate for a particular rough outing, so when his ineffectiveness continued with Tek back there, "Varitek's supreme handling of pitchers" was scratched off the list of ways to get him back on track.  Meanwhile, a few miles South, AJ Burnett was showing he could be just as ineffective with Jose Molina catching him.

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