Some players are built for Boston.  We’re talking people like Orlando Cabrera, who come to town and suddenly, improbably, thrive when playing in the town of the dirty water.  Players for whom the intensive media scrutiny is a thrill or a motivation or both.  Players who like to go big when everyone else thought they would have to go home, like Mike Lowell, who the Marlins FORCED the Sox to take in the Josh Beckett deal as a salary dump…and who became the 2007 World Series MVP.

But this doesn’t work for everyone.  And when it doesn’t, it tends to not work sort of…epically.

This week, it’s Brad Penny–whose first start after being released by the Sox (for whom he was serviceable, but only because he got ridiculous run support) was for the Giants…and involved eight spotless shutout innings.  Last week, it was John Smoltz, for whom Boston clearly didn’t work out.  Since he joined the Cardinals, he’s been stellar.  Smoltz and Boston both wanted the pairing to work, though Smoltz expressed some frustration with the pitching coaches.  Penny spoke highly of the organization as a whole and thanked them for giving him a chance.

So, why are these pitchers so good outside Boston? Not to mention players like Julio Lugo and, even more so, Edgar Renteria, who just don’t reach the same heights they have with other teams or, maybe worse, don’t fulfill what looks like their potential.

A lot of people might pass this off on the media, but we don’t think that’s it.  Certainly, there’s a lot of media pressure in Boston: maybe more than anyplace else, especially since 2004 and even more since ‘07.  The downside of a citywide culture of sports excellence?  Fans and media who expect more of the same.

But we’re also seeing something else here: maybe a downside to the clubhouse culture that’s been so vaunted.  Hell, we’ve vaunted it ourselves.  If that’s a verb.  (Even if it isn’t!)

We know the clubhouse is supportive of slumps, of injuries, of its players.  David Ortiz shows us that.  But this is a clubhouse that’s vulnerable to non-clubhouse guys.  Nomar caused problems, Manny caused even bigger ones. A truly strong culture wouldn’t be affected so strongly, but this one was.

Not that any of the guys I’m talking about–Penny, Smoltz, et al–are clubhouse cancers: far from it.  But we remember Doug Mientkiewicz* talking about how on the planes, he would try to read, which nobody else did, and he’d get mocked–goodnaturedly of course–to the point that he couldn’t read.

Our theory’s simple: if you don’t fit the mold, the rest of the pressure gets to be too much, especially if you’ve come from a place like Atlanta (considered a good team because of a tradition of what we’ll call low-key excellence, and with a respectful media presence and fanbase).  If you don’t make friends right away, if you don’t connect, even though everyone in the clubhouse may want to adopt you right into the fold–if that doesn’t work for you, Boston’s too much.

The upside? Players like Alex Gonzalez, who hit two homeruns all season…until August 15th when, once acquired by the Red Sox, he went on a tear. He’s hit four more since.

So maybe it isn’t a curse, but it’s happened too often for Theo Epstein and his hot-shit Moneyball guys to ignore.  There’s no stats in this post for a reason. Some things (just ask Jeter!) are intangible.

*You probably won’t believe us, but we spelled it right on the first try! That’s the ONLY time this has ever happened.