A whole bunch of things, that's what. Don't know if I can put it in any order, but from the start....
-The Spring Training illusion of Grady Sizemore
-The missing season of Vic
-Nava's offensive shitshow early in the season
-JBJ's offensive struggles (his defense still made him a net positive however...)
-Middlebrooks utter ineptitude
-Sox' Brass lack of patience with X at SS (which led to)
-Bringing back Drew (which, IMO led to)
-X losing his rhythm, and his subsequent struggles at the plate
-Pedroia's down season on the offensive side
-AJfuckinP
-Clay
-Peavey
-Doobie
Boiling it down to: 3/5 of starting pitching. left side of infield. entire outfield. catcher. poop.
It seems a lot of people want to dump on X and especially JBJ's offensive struggles, but IMO they could have played reasonably well (.725 OPS out of X and .700 OPS out of JBJ) and there was still far, far, far too many other problems to overcome.
-The Spring Training illusion of Grady Sizemore
-The missing season of Vic
-Nava's offensive shitshow early in the season
-JBJ's offensive struggles (his defense still made him a net positive however...)
-Middlebrooks utter ineptitude
-Sox' Brass lack of patience with X at SS (which led to)
-Bringing back Drew (which, IMO led to)
-X losing his rhythm, and his subsequent struggles at the plate
-Pedroia's down season on the offensive side
-AJfuckinP
-Clay
-Peavey
-Doobie
Boiling it down to: 3/5 of starting pitching. left side of infield. entire outfield. catcher. poop.
It seems a lot of people want to dump on X and especially JBJ's offensive struggles, but IMO they could have played reasonably well (.725 OPS out of X and .700 OPS out of JBJ) and there was still far, far, far too many other problems to overcome.