State of the Nation: Rounding the Bases
In 2009 I decided to loosen up the purse strings a little and indulge in a couple new Red Sox t-shirts from Bob’s Store (you know, the one’s with the numbers on the back – and not the Walmart version – aka: a “fakey”). Hurrying over to the red and blue sea of shirts, pillows, throws, trash cans, and much more, I dove directly into the racks of shirts.
Wakefield? Nah, he’s GOTTA retire soon. Masterson? He’s young but will he stay on the team? Pedroia, YOUUUUK, ‘Tek, Pap, Papi, Beckett…? Got ‘em all. That’s it, I am going for the gold, JayBay and Mikey Lowell, you are coming with me! I was as psyched as a guy can be about purchasing two new t-shirts and I have worn them proudly since that day.
However, on Friday we stood by as JayBay officially became a free agent, no longer “Property of the Boston Red Sox” and probably even having a conversation or two with those Damn Yankees! And as for Mikey Lowell, according to Fox Sports and NESN, the Sox are starting to shop him around town like a housewife on Craiglist with a nose for the barter ads.
Looking at this team during this offseason, there seems to be a lot more “remodeling” needed than in past years. Obviously that isn’t a hard quota to fill since this team has won 2 World Series Championships in recent memory and were swings away from the Series in 2008. Coming off of a 2009 season in which they finished with a pathetic (just kidding) 95-67 record, these Sox may be the best team to ever be ostercised for their efforts and forced to make moves to keep up with everyone else. And of course, by everyone else, I mean the Yankees.
The Red Sox made a somewhat surprising move in parting ways with SS Alex Gonzalez after A-Gon brought complete stability to the shakiest part of the lineup throughout the year. Where are the Sox planning on going from here with this position? Are they putting all of their eggs in the Jed Lowrie basket? Sounds like a ‘wicker’ bad idea! (dee-dum-dum-chh! – yes, I am cheesey). Is Marco Scutaro the answer in 2010 to anchor the position? So many questions, so few answers.
One place that we are seeing answers arise that are causing questions are around the bases. As you may notice if you go back through the 4SB posts in 2009, the hot corners were a hot topic as Lowell had some slow streaks along with some down time and rumors were swirling about adding a bat to the mix while YOUUUUUK played hot potato between 1st and 3rd. Once the move was made to get Victor Martinez into Fenway, it was an amazing answer that seemed to only cause more questions, but in a good way. We saw the carousel of YOUUUUK, Lowell, ‘Tek, and ‘Martinez dance around the diamond while poor Dustin Pedroia just grinded out every game with fresh faces on either side of him each day. It is a good problem to have when you have numerous players playing well and you have to decide which one will sit on any given day.
Gonzalez
Much like our recent indulgence into the Celtics’ new rest initiative, it may play a factor into the Sox lineup in 2010. Nonetheless, we saw V-Mart get his contract extended a couple weeks ago and he will start to become the fulltime starting catcher with Varitek as his backup. This stability will keep us mindful that his main place right now is behind the plate. I do see this as a weakness on this club but we will save that for later. But this move leaves us with YOUUUK and Lowell remaining at 1st and 3rd. With the Red Sox trying to shop Mike Lowell, 3rd base is looking mightly juicy and once again is leaving the hot stove talk burning on high.
Obviously, the main rumor of late has been a possible trade to get Adrian Gonzalez for 1st and move YOUUUUK to 3rd. People saw the move of Jed Hoyer over to the Padres front office as our way in but in all reality it may make the move tougher. During trades, a lot of teams are able to move prospects more on their numbers and potential rather than how they actually look on the field and having Hoyer on the other end of this trade will mean they actually know what they are dealing for. Minor details but the trade should be able to work itself and happen before February. Another name that popped up yesterday was Adrian Beltre, the former Seattle Mariner 3rd baseman turned free agent. Either way, the Sox are one Adrian away from having an answer for the corners!
Pedey has gotten almost no mention here on 4SB all season and here into the offseason but sometimes that’s a good thing. He has been one of the few constants in an ever changing lineup and hasn’t merited any worry or conversation of sorts. Even with his big raise this season, he is still grinding it out hard and other than YOUUUUK is probably the only other current Dirt Dog on the field.
As for the bad decisions in the catcher position, I just can’t help but think the Sox took a step in the wrong direction here. For the past few seasons, all that has been talked about is what to do about Varitek and each year he ends up back on the team, this year via his own option. But in past years, we were also keeping a younger catcher in the loop to take the guidance from the veteran leader and hopefully be the future face behind home plate. However, this year we have indulged all of our thoughts and expectations on V-Mart so much that we have gotten ourselves to forget that we are now looking at 2 catchers that we don’t want to see crouching behind home by the time we head into 2011 and no backup option looming.
Yes, Victor will be a great every day guy for the Red Sox. They may even be able to give him the ‘Tek plan of attack and have Jason catch every 5th start but in all reality, thinking beyond this season, how long do we want Martinez grinding his body out in a crouch for 3 hours? You just cannot designate a great hitter like V-Mart to play the most physically demanding position on the field. And so far, and the way things are looking with him and ‘Tek, there are no third options on the table with the recent release of George Kottaras who was just picked up by Milwaukee.
The OF is a very vague term for what the fans are looking for a whole to be filled in. Obviously we will see Jacoby “The Jet” Ellsbury and JD Drew (coming off of a minor shoulder surgery) patrolling 2/3 of the field but who will be guarding the Green Monster is the big question on everyone’s mind.
Will we see the Sox and JayBay hammer out a deal? He did shoot down the initial offer from Boston of 4 years and $60M right before he became an unrestricted free agent. It seems like JayBay and his agent will be fighting for something more in the $18-20M range per year, most likely 4-5 years. The interesting part may be that no matter how talks seem to be going with the Sox, every fan knows from the Mark Texeira deal that the Yankees are always on the other shoulder in their little devil costumes with their finger on the +$1 button, straight E-Bay style.
So what are the other options for the position of LF? Well, the least desirable ones for Red Sox fans come out of the Bronx under the names of Hideki Matsui and Judas Johnny Damon. Matsui is obviously getting older and it has shown as the Yanks basically had to rip him out of the field with bad knees and whatnot so he just does not make any sense. Damon makes a little bit of sense as his numbers looked phenomonal (to Damon standards) over the past couple seasons but his HR numbers were glossed a short right field and I am pretty sure that even with a short left field that he could not reach the cut-off man with a throw. His biggest weakness is that LF is a position the Sox are used to getting a big boost of power from and with 2 power options there now between Bay and Matt Holliday, one of those deals should be getting done. Holliday looked like a fluke going from a couple big seasons in Colorado to Oakland where he couldn’t even find the wall let alone get over it but a mid-season trade to St. Louis seemed to be just what he needed as it propelled him to a strong finish in 2009.
So, the race for OF comes down to JayBay and Holliday. Generally, you would expect to see the Yanks pull the other of the two to their club but they may also be more interested in keeping the familiar faces of Matsui and Damon in pinstripes in 2010 and beyond as well. In the end, JayBay should be back at the foot of the Monster with his eye black on his face and thoughts of Yankee-slaying in his mind.
Some people are still questioning David Ortiz following his performance in 2009. Yes, he did have an absurd “slump” for the first 3 months of last season but he came out of it shortly after all of the steroid talk dwindled down and he showed why he is the player people thought he was. He was amongst the top in baseball in HRs and RBIs from May to September and the only real place he was lacking was in the batting average. You never want to pay someone who hits .230 to be just a batter but I fully expect him to rebound in the upcoming season and stabilize. He may never be the Big Papi we know and love again but I do expect him to even it out and swing better this year.
Pitching is something that was a rollercoaster ride in 2009 for the Sox. We came into the season thinking we were the “cat’s meow” (yea, I said it) and by mid-season we looked more like dog vomit and then to finish out the season we looked to be leaning toward the better of those two again (you go ahead figure out which that is). As we stated all through 2009, Beckett and Lester were the two pillars holding up the foundation of the team. Having two Aces on your staff can be a daunting challenge but once again falls under the category of “good problem to have”. But how will the rest of the rotation line up going into 2010? You would have to assume there will be somewhat of a silent battle going on between Buchholz and Dice-K for the third spot in the rotation but with Dice-K finally on board for a vigorous off-season, I fully expect him to rise to the occassion. Of course, Mr. Dependable himself, Tim Wakefield, will round out the rotation in the 5th spot with his shiny new 2 year contract.
There are still plenty of rumors swirling about how much money the Red Sox have to play with and who is actually available but you never really know what tricks Theo Epstein is going to pull out of his sleeves. Will he be giving a solid shot at guys like Roy Halladay, Jack Wilson, or Adrian Gonzalez? New questions started to arise about the possibility of being in the hunt for someone like Miguel Cabrera even. We will have to wait and see but you can bet that the rumors of Mikey Lowell being on the trading block should draw some attention from some teams as to what exactly the Sox are willing to give up to bulk up their lineup for the 2010 season.
I just hope I can still wear at least one of those t-shirts come February 18th!
One Response to “State of the Nation: Rounding the Bases”
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You know every time I hear about trades and turning down prices it pisses me off that someone like Jason Bay wouldn’t take the deal to stay with our fans. I know it’s a ‘job’ but it just pisses me off.
The one defense for the players are look what happened to Bronson Arroyo. He took the home team discount a couple years back and we traded him immediately after.
Players should just take the deal with a no trade clause.