"He’s been an effective starting pitcher in the American League East this year. However you want to look at it, that’s what he’s been. We’re not doing anything to help us if we take that off the table. We’re trying to improve things. … You’ve got to take the win-loss record with a grain of salt. He’s generally given us a chance to win when he’s gone out there. That’s what we’re looking for."

Ben Cherington on Josh Beckett, Friday

"Yeah, we'll turn it around, go 10, 15, 20 games over (.500). We'll get on a good streak. We haven't had our good streak yet. That's the good news."

Bobby Valentine after a 10-3 loss to the Yankees on Friday

I can't figure it out, but I think I've narrowed it down to three options. 

A) The Red Sox -- specifically Larry Lucchino, Ben Cherington and Bobby Valentine -- think we're morons.

B) The Red Sox -- specifically Larry Lucchino, Ben Cherington and Bobby Valentine -- aren't as smart as they think they are (and more importantly, as smart as they think we think they are).

C) Everybody in the Red Sox front office -- and their manager -- got delusional at exactly the same time.

The Boston Red Sox are 49-51. There are 14 teams in the American League. The Sox have the 11th-best record in the American League, ahead of only the Royals, Twins and Mariners (combined payroll of $205 million, or about $20 million more than the Sox). They are 56-71 since last September 1, which is 18 games behind the Yankees. And they are now 6-8 since the All-Star break, even with some of the vaunted "varsity" -- Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia -- back in the lineup.

There is no evidence, none, to suggest that this team is going to make the playoffs. It'll take, what, 88 wins or so to get that second-wild card spot? To win 88 games the Red Sox will have to finish 39-23. That's .590 baseball for a team that hasn't been six games over .500 at any point this season and has played at .440 level over its last 127 games. 

It's not going to happen. The 2012 Red Sox, just like the 2011 and 2010 Red Sox, will miss the postseason. It's another lost season. And Friday night's loss to the Yankees was just another confirmation of what almost all of us already knew: When you scrape away all the drama and finger pointing and Bob Hohler exposes dissension between manager and players and bitching about contracts and attention on Liverpool and wondering who kidnapped Wally and focus only on what is happening on the field, you see a mediocre and lifeless baseball team that appears to be on a collision course with 81-81. 

You know this and I know this. I'm not sure Bobby Valentine is the right guy for this job -- he'll be fired at the end of the year for myriad reasons that aren't in any way his fault and some that are his fault -- but I'm sure he's not stupid. He's watched this team all season, watched Beckett and Lester and the rest of a staff that ranks 10th in the American League with a 4.30 ERA, watched Adrian Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia have the worst seasons of their careers, watched Crawford come back and look a lot like the Crawford who had the worst season of his career last year, watched Mike Aviles and Jarrod Saltalamacchia -- both everyday players -- post OBPs under .300. 

If Bobby Valentine were still an ESPN analyst and was asked if he thought the Sox could finish 20 games over .500, he'd give you the same condescending look he gives the writers here when they ask him to explain why this team has underachieved so spectacularly. What's the point in trying to sell an idea that nobody is going to buy? This is where the Red Sox lose a lot of us. A little honesty would go a long way. Give it a spin, see if it works.

I'm not expecting Valentine to blast any players -- Lucchino and others (including some in the media) tried to paint a portrait of Valentine when he was hired as the anti-Francona, a real wild card, the guy who will tell us what he thinks all the time, feelings be damned, and that hasn't been close to reality, he was declawed from the moment he backed down on Youkilis in April -- but isn't it OK to say that this team isn't very good right now? Is he so tone deaf as to believe that anyone following this team thinks there's a chance they will win 90 games? 

You don't have to tell the truth, but stop lying to us. It's insulting at best and borders on offensive at worst. How about this: Be better than five teams in the American League before predicting championships and long winning streaks. Worry about catching those pesky Cleveland Indians first.

Same goes with Cherington, who hasn't made anyone forget Branch Rickey in his first season as GM. He seems fixated on the second wild card being a barometer for a team actually being good or not, which isn't really what anyone thinks. If they added four more wild card teams would that then be the test? And if the Sox finished 84-78 this season and lost a one-game playoff would you feel any different about this group? Of course not. Cherington should be worried about April 2013, not August and September 2012. The choices of his players, his predecessor as GM, his ownership and his own mistakes have buried this season. 

Again, just give me some accountability. And, again, I'm not asking you to rip players. God forbid that ever happens in this organization. But don't tell us something that we know isn't true just because you want it to be true.

Josh Beckett is being paid $15 million this season and is 31st (out of 43 AL pitchers) in ERA. He's not "generally" giving you a chance to win games, he's generally continuing to be what he was last September, a lousy starting pitcher paid and treated like a great one. 

Does the enabling ever end with these guys? Would the world end if Cherington said that Beckett has been a disappointment this season? I'm sure, if you asked Beckett, he'd agree with that assessment. Hasn't handling Josh Beckett with kid gloves time and time again proven to be a failure? If Cherington is really "looking for" a 4.59 ERA from Josh Beckett maybe the Sox should start looking for someone else to be the general manager of this franchise.

But I don't think Cherington really believes what he's saying about Beckett, just as I don't believe Valentine thinks the Sox are going to get rolling and I don't believe Lucchino buys into any of the propaganda he was slinging in that embarrassing, minor league email to the fans at the All-Star break. But what they don't realize is that they are fooling absolutely nobody. 

We can all see the standings. We can all read the statistics. We've all watched the games. We all know the reality of the situation. And fans want things that are broken to be fixed, not to be told that they aren't broken by people who probably also think they are broken. Stop the spin and stop trying to hang on to something that is gone. 

It's simply a question of respecting the intelligence of Sox fans. 

And, with that, I suppose I've found my answer.