- Varitek - will he hit this season or is he Benito Santiago 2.0?
- Coco Crisp - is he the center field equivalent of Kerry Woods/Carl Pavano?
- I thought we could survive Dustin Pedroia this season if everything else clicked. If Varitek and Crisp hit below the Mendoza Line, slots 7-9 in the line-up will be mighty painful to endure.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Reason for Concern?
I'm feeling pretty good about the Sox this season. Based on what I've read and seen, that seems to be the general consensus of the national media. However, after reading Shaughnessy's article in this morning's Boston Globe, I am minorly concerned about the following three things:
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6 comments:
Good questions ... It seems that after the Dice-K stories are written there's no ink left in the pens to write about the other concerns. This team DID finish in third last year ...
That said, I am excited about the pitching staff. I do think there's depth on the major league roster and there's guys on the farm like Lester who are going to end up playing big roles as the year progresses.
Here's what scares me: so much of the Sox offense is predicated on Manny and Ortiz driving in the runs that if either gets hurt, who becomes a run producer? That really hits you when you look at Bill James' projections for this year's players http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/gallery/03_24_07_james_projections ... I fear any position where we end up counting on Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew for production.
I worry less about the bats and much more about Dice K and mostly Beckett. That said, I bet they'll rise to the occasion.
I think Shaugnessy brought up some legitimate concerns, and I am nervous about the end of the line-up...especially after reading the Bill James projections. If Varitek doesn't rebound we are hosed. The Mirabelli trade for Meredith/Bard has got to be the worst move Theo has ever made, and will really bite us in the ass if/when Varitek goes on the DL. The thought of watching Mirabelli struggle at the plate for any extended period of time is really scary. And Pedroia and Crisp could really go either way this year. The comments from Coco sounded paranoid at best, and almost made it seem like he was gearing up for a crap year and negagitve fan reaction. Also, I can't for the life of me figure out why we didn't pick up Loretta for another year. Let's hope the pieces fall into place this year...
One thing to keep in mind about the Mirabelli/Meredith/Bard trade is that, though premature, it was really a trade for Wakefield too. Up to that point, he had no confidence in his catcher and people ran on him at will (though the latter part hasn't changed much). This was really a trade to get the old Wakefield back - and if anyone had seen Meredith pitch before the trade, they would be hard pressed to say that he was good. He wasn't one of the big names in the minors at that point, if I recall correctly. Letting go of Bard is another story, but again, this was really to get Wakefield back, who we know is important to both the starters and the bullpen for his innings.
On Varitek...
Let's imagine you're the head barista at the busiest Starbucks on the planet. Your boss hires a stud barista from Brazil who doesn't speak a lick of english and asks you to take him under your wing and help him make it in America. He can make a mean latte, but he's not so good at interacting with customers, so you find yourself stepping in and helping translate to the best of your ability. You also spend a lot of your down time trying to learn Portuguese and working with the kid on his English. In the end, you're really not paying as close attention to your own skills to help make the team better and you screw up some orders along the way. Are you done, cooked, over the hill?
Let's give 'Tek a chance to manage the rotation and I'll bet he finds an offensive groove by May. This is why I *hate* Boston sportswriters these days... they stir the fan base into a frenzy over what are arguably minor or non-issues.
They need to sell the papers you know...
You raise an interesting point about language. I've always been struck by pieces on Latin players that describe their comfort with English. The question I'm always left with is: how many of the coaches and front office members are fluent in Spanish? For that matter, the Boston media is always accusing players of hiding behind langauage barriers, but I never hear anything about the local media members knowing a lick of Spanish. I find this odd.
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