Rodriguez, Sele aren’t trade bait

You’ve been watching the nose-diving Red Sox try to score runs. It’s driving you crazy.

It has also been very frustrating for Red Sox Senior Vice President and General Manager Lou Gorman.

“It’s disappointing,” said Gorman on Wednesday afternoon. “I just felt we’d have a better ballclub and that we’d play better baseball. It really gets to you after a while.”

The major problem is as clear as day: lack of offense.

Entering Wednesday’s game against the Yankees, Boston had scored a league-low 244 runs in 63 games (3.87 per game). They had hit a league-low 29 homers and are on a pace to hit a paltry 75 homers this season.

“That has killed us. If we had scored more runs, we’d be in a much different position now,” said Gorman. “(Andre) Dawson, (Ivan) Calderon and (Carlos) Quintana haven’t been hitting. We all felt Dawson would hit. He hit 22 homers and drove in 90 runs a year ago. He had 31 homers and 104 RBIs the previous year.

“We knew Calderon had a shoulder problem but he’s a very good hitter. And Quintana had a very good spring. It looked like he was back (after sitting out 1992 due to injuries suffered in a car accident).”

Entering Wednesday’s game, there were six American Leaguers who had more runs batted in individually than Dawson, Calderon and Quintana had combined!

The Bosox trio had combined for 47 RBIs and had played a total of 147 games between them.

Dawson has averaged 89 RBIs in the 16 seasons of 100 or more games played; Calderon has averaged 80 RBIs in the four seasons he has played in 100 or more games, and Quintana averaged 69 in his two 100-plus game seasons.

“When you aren’t scoring many runs, anytime you make a mistake, like throwing a ball away or missing a ball, it really hurts you,” said Gorman. “And the pitchers have very little margin for error.”

Trade rumors have the Red Sox in the hunt for San Diego Padres slugger Gary Sheffield and Atlanta Braves outfielder Otis Nixon, but don’t expect either one in a Red Sox uniform.

Sheffield is a first-class problem child who once admitted that he purposely made errors in Milwaukee so he’d get traded. He spent Wednesday morning in jail following an altercation in a restaurant. And he has said that he wouldn’t spend more than a year in Boston.

Nixon is a leadoff hitter, not a power hitter, and can exercise his option to become a free agent at the end of the season.

“I’ve had some good conversations with teams about bringing a bat to our club,” said Gorman. “We’ve got some possibilities but nothing is definite. We need somebody who can drive in runs and hit the ball out of the ballpark, somebody who can jumpstart our offense. And we want him for at least a year or two or three.”

Gorman said the need for a slugger is more acute than it was a year ago and “we may have to gamble a bit to get that bat. We’re going to have to give away something of value.”

Top-notch minor league pitching prospects Aaron Sele and Frankie Rodriguez are not going to be traded.

Sele has been pitching very well in Pawtucket (AAA) (7-2 record, 2.09 earned run average) and Rodriguez (3-3, 3.42) has pitched well in New Britain (AA).

Gorman has been pleased with his pitching staff – the Red Sox lead the AL in ERA – so he’ll leave Sele in Pawtucket for the time being to “give him innings and groom him a little while longer.”

Gorman feels Rodriguez is a year away.

As for manager Butch Hobson, Gorman said, “We decided in spring training that we wouldn’t talk about his job until late in the season. Some people have second-guessed some of his moves, but I think he’s done a good job. The club just isn’t performing (up to capabilities). We aren’t hitting and we’ve made mistakes on defense and that’s a bad combination.”

Before passing judgement on Hobson, I’d like to see Gorman obtain a thick-skinned slugger who thrives on pressure and who can produce under the Boston microscope.

Remember, Red Sox fans and the media who cover them are passionate about baseball.

The slugger-to-be must be able to take the heat. It is a requirement.