Your 2013 Red Sox

[wyo-sox]

I clearly am smarter than everyone else here. :-)

[wyo-sox]

I think for me it's important to break things down into things I know, things I assume based on reason but don't know for sure... and things I'm guessing at.

 

WE KNOW:

1. This current team sucks.

2. This current team has been trending down for several years.

3. Our starting pitching is our biggest problem.

4. This current mix of players is not providing a winning environment.

5. There is not one player that we could loose and not sustain our current record.

 

THINGS I ASSUME:

1. The Sox are far from one or two players from turning it around.

2. There is some sort of chemistry / club house problem

3. Dumping Beckett still means we are paying for him, and we have nobody else to fill in.

4. Putting in another new average pitcher, hoping Lester turns it around, guessing Buch will be dependable, gambling on a young bull pen arm turning into a quality starter..... sounds like to many iff's and maybe's to think it would somehow become a good enough staff to turn things around. Sounds like the approach taken last year.

 

THINGS I ONLY AM GUESSING:

1. Pedroia is a great club house guy... we just don't know. I assume he is... but the whole yelling at the ump, throwing his helmet and dropping an F Bomb may just bug the other players. We don't know. He may be a dick head who does not use deodorant and the guys cant' stand him... we don't know. I know there's unpopular guys that do stuff like Pedroia and we call them babies, claim they are letting the pressure get to them... but when Pedroia throws his helmet and drops an F Bomb we all (myself included) go, "wow, that guy's got heart".

 

2. As was pointed out earlier by someone else, Pedroia is the type of guy GM's drool over... that makes me guess he would get you good dividends in the trade market.

 

3. Pedroia will return to hitting like he used to, and has a few more years of all star type player in him / or Pedroia will continue to go on his downward trend and never hit great again. We don't know.

[mvp 78]

I clearly am smarter than everyone else here. :-)

 

Not until you learn how to spell "losing."

[wyo-sox]

Not until you learn how to spell "losing."

 

No, my superior smartness gives me certain freedoms with the language.

[cbbosox]

While he seems to be universally hated among the media and fans there is that possibilty that a healthy John Lackey could be a decent pitcher again.

Im thinking they try to unload beckett and go with

 

Bucholz

Lester

Doubront

Morales

Lackey

(this doesn't seem great but look around the AL east -besides the Rays this could be the 2nd best starting staff IF everyone is healthy) Ideally i would like to see Garza in there with Morales as a swing guy

If you did that

 

Bucholz

Lester

Garza

Doubront

Lackey

 

Morales

Aceves

Bailey

Miller

Breslow

Tazawa

Mortensen, Atchison or Wilson from the Pawsox to fill things out

 

Not the perfect staff but should be the pen would be a strength.

 

Time to cut Ortiz loose-injury prone but more than that with interleague play all year i don't want to have an important september game in a NL park where my 4 hole hitter can't play

 

lineup

Crawford LF

Pedroia 2b(not a 3 hole hitter)

Ellsbury Cf(see if he's worth the millions he'll want)

Gonzalez 1B

Ross RF

Middlebrooks 3b

Lavarnway C

Mix and Match Dh (use Lavarnway and Ross sometimes)

Iglesias SS (now or never and this could give us best defensive if in the AL)

 

Bench

Shoppach

Ciriaco

Kahlish

Rh OF bat

Rh 3b-1b type bat

 

 

i'm getting rid of Beckett ,Punto, Salty, Sweeney,Ortiz- i'm hoping somehow we can spin this into Garza without depleting the farm

[jacksonianmarch]

Wait, a rotation minus Beckett and plus Lackey could be the second best rotation in the ALE? You really are hoping for a miracle, aren't you?

[jung]

The comments about inter-league play and Ortiz are interesting. To be honest I almost wish he had not stepped up like he has this year. It only serves to make the Sox more and more dependent on him.

 

I do think that the money Ortiz can make in baseball shortens up every year though regardless of his potent bat. The key to signing him if the Sox decide to do that might be convincing him that the best place for him is here in Boston. Try to sign him for reasonable money on either a one year deal with a team option or a two year deal with a team option. I would also sit Ortiz down and insist that he stop this nonsense in front of the media. This team has difficulty scoring runs with Ortiz out of its lineup. Sooner or later they have to learn to live without him. Not sure 2013 is that year though.

 

None of the proposed rotations I have seen here will get the job done for the Sox in my view unless the Sox decide that 2013 is finally a rebuilding year and plan to resolve the rotation issues in 2014. It might after all be the best way for the Sox to approach 2013 as these continual efforts to resolve years of mistakes in one off season just seem to make things worse.

 

However I do think everything wrong with the way this team plays is solvable if they have a real deal contending team rotation. IMO, they need a true 1 to solve the rotation issues. They score runs. They don't score them when they need them but they do score runs. There defense is terrible in the key defensive positions but there are really only two super important defensive positions on the field and maybe one that is about half that important. The Sox have answers for those defensive questions but just seem stubborn about resolving them.

 

This team is struggling to stay out of the basement of the AL East. So if you want to look for some evidence that they are in a situation that will take much more than a tweak here or there to fix, you need only look there. They had virtually all of their pieces back once Ells and Crawford got here and still stunk as a team. But it is not so much of a mess that it is beyond fixing.

[tomrules1]

Heres my idea for the 2013 sox

 

1.ellsbury cf bench ciriaco/iglesias salty/lavarnway nava kalish bullpen

2.CC lf lhp breslow

3.pedey 2b rotation Bucch Lester doubront lackey morales? rhp mortensen

4.gonzo 1b rhp tazawa

5.ortiz dh lhp morales?

6.MB 3b su rhp bard

7.ross rf closer bailey

8. lavarnway c/salty

9.ciriaco ss/ iglesias ss

[tomrules1]

add aceves in bullpen

[Rdsxmbnt]

Lineup looks to be pretty good already going into next year. Gonzalez and Pedroia are back to hitting like all-stars and even Crawford looks pretty good which is promising. For lineup I'd go:

 

1. Ellsbury CF

2. Crawford LF

3. Pedroia 2B

4. Gonzalez 1B

5. Ortiz DH

6. Middlebrooks 3B

7. Ross RF

8. Lavarnway C

9. Aviles SS

 

Rotation wise I'd unload Beckett and take the hit. Doubront should have quite a bit of value and could be a center-piece to get a legitimate #2 type SP like Josh Johnson

 

1. Buchholz

2. Lester

3. Johnson

4. Lackey

5. Morales

[3rdManOut]

@Rdsxmbnt

What about Dice-K though? Or would you be assuming he would be gone in addition to Beckett?

[Rdsxmbnt]

@Rdsxmbnt

What about Dice-K though? Or would you be assuming he would be gone in addition to Beckett?

 

DiceK is a free agent after this season so definitely assume he is gone forever

[SoxFanForsyth]

Lineup looks to be pretty good already going into next year. Gonzalez and Pedroia are back to hitting like all-stars and even Crawford looks pretty good which is promising. For lineup I'd go:

 

1. Ellsbury CF

2. Crawford LF

3. Pedroia 2B

4. Gonzalez 1B

5. Ortiz DH

6. Middlebrooks 3B

7. Ross RF

8. Lavarnway C

9. Aviles SS

 

Rotation wise I'd unload Beckett and take the hit. Doubront should have quite a bit of value and could be a center-piece to get a legitimate #2 type SP like Josh Johnson

 

1. Buchholz

2. Lester

3. Johnson

4. Lackey

5. Morales

 

Lineup looks really good. Although, I really, really want some elite defense at SS so I take Iglesias at SS over Aviles. I punt Punto, and make Aviles the utility IF. I also resign Ross. He's got a .755 OPS vs RHP this year, so he's adequate vs RHP, and he absolutely punishes LHP (1.152 OPS vs LHP).

 

I'm curious about something, though. Lets say we resign Ross on a 2 year deal, and we have Sweeney until 2014, with Brentz, Jacobs, Bradley, and potentially Bogaerts (if he doesn't stick at SS), do you deal Kalish along with Doubront, and a RP like Melancon in a deal for someone like Josh Johnson?

 

If so, then you have a bench of Aviles, Salty, Sweeney, and Ciriaco (who they are trying to get to play IF and OF, and likely will be able to by next year). The bullpen will be very stout next year, too, with Alex Wilson, Bard, Bailey, Aceves, Miller, Breslow, and Tazawa.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Plus, you've also got guys like Chris Carpenter, who is hitting 100 in Pawtucket and has allowed 1 ER in 11 IP and 13 K's, De La Torre who has a 2.45 ERA and throws in the high 90s from what I hear (24 K in 18.1 IP this year).

 

It seems like, with Bailey, Bard, Miller, Carpenter, Wilson, and to a lesser extent, De La Torre, the Red Sox could have a hard throwing, deep bullpen next season.

[a700hitter]

Lineup looks to be pretty good already going into next year. Gonzalez and Pedroia are back to hitting like all-stars and even Crawford looks pretty good which is promising. For lineup I'd go:

 

1. Ellsbury CF

2. Crawford LF

3. Pedroia 2B

4. Gonzalez 1B

5. Ortiz DH

6. Middlebrooks 3B

7. Ross RF

8. Lavarnway C

9. Aviles SS

 

Rotation wise I'd unload Beckett and take the hit. Doubront should have quite a bit of value and could be a center-piece to get a legitimate #2 type SP like Josh Johnson

 

1. Buchholz

2. Lester

3. Johnson

4. Lackey

5. Morales

^ This is a 4th place team this season. Replacing Beckett with the oft-injured Johnson will not improve this team. This type of tinkering around the edges will have our boys watching the playoffs from their couches. They will miss the playoffs for the 4th consecutive years.

[jung]

I agree with 700. This tinkering around the edges smacks of the same thinking that killed this year. We are now finally hearing V say some of the same things about the inability of this lineup to gel as a cohesive offense that many of us have been saying for a long time now. He has begun talking about the things that the Sox hitters simply do not do and he does not sound to complimentary doing it either. Why do you think we can score 14 runs one day and can't buy a run the next?

 

As for the rotation, the Sox in my view are actually fortunate in that it is an all or nothing shot. Bringing in a legit #1 while being difficult can take this rotation from the basement to the penthouse (along with dumping Beckett). Bring in a real 1, put Buch behind him with either Lester (if fixed and still here) or Felix or Frank or maybe even Lackey as the 3 and the others rounding out the backend....basement to penthouse rotation...baring injury. However, bringing in another 3 does nothing to resolve the issues with this rotation.

 

As for the lineup, this lineup does not work. We have to stop stubbornly pointing to the individual talents of the players that make up the lineup and deal with the fact that it does not work as a whole. V is finally now talking about this and the suggestion is that this lineup may not be able to gel to produce a cohesive offensive effort and I am in complete agreement.

 

We have two left handed speed guys at the top that do not draw walks. That is at least one left handed speed guy at the top that does not draw walks to many. It should be clear by now that two guys like that in Fenway will always be underutilized and ineffectual as part of a cohesive offensive effort. Makes no sense.

 

The middle of the lineup is choked with guys with little to no plate discipline. Ortiz is the only hitter in the Sox lineup talented enough to be that free swinging. They all want to and try to approach their plate appearances in terms of how Ortiz approaches his and not a single one of them is talented enough to do it. The bottom of the line up just always seems like a bunch of leftovers. The lineup needs to be constructed sensibly from top to bottom with the guys at the bottom having roles just as important as the guys at the top, just different.

 

In the first place a Fenway lineup will always be able to utilize speed at the bottom better than it can utilize speed at the top. Guys like Iggy and Ceriaco may actually be more able to contribute to building a cohesive offensive effort than Ells and Crawford can simply because they will put speed down at the bottom of the lineup where a Sox team can use it. In fact I no longer want to see those two LH speed guys at the top of the lineup against LH pitchers. That lineup will look much better with CC batting 9th against LH pitchers. At least we won't see two speed guys getting on and then remaining pinned where they are because the power hitters are coming up in the lineup. Put CC 9th against LH pitchers and let him run wild in front of Ells if he gets on.

 

As for who to move in the offseason...there are some guys that really can't be traded because their contracts are so bad or because we have no way to mitigate the lose of a particular player. Everyday players I would be reluctant to include in trades would be CC (cause we would get raped), WMB, Ross, Lavs, Agons. I would likely even be reluctant on guys like Ceriaco depending on how I was planning out the future of this team and this lineup. I would love to keep Iggy for the same reason but I suspect the Sox would trade Iggy if they had a chance to do it. Any organization that can insert Aviles as its everyday SS does not know how to think about the SS position nor can it possibly appreciate Iggy for what he represents. Ortiz is on one year deals and the market for an Ortiz is really restricted anyway. I would be willing to discuss anybody else as part of a multiplayer deal that would bring us a #1 and I do mean anybody else.

[mvp 78]

Feel free to write 3,000 words on the subject, but the Sox are still 2nd in runs scored. The issue is the lack of top of the line the pitching, nothing else.

[Beecke]

Feel free to write 3' date='000 words on the subject, but the Sox are still 2nd in runs scored. The issue is the lack of top of the line the pitching, nothing else.[/quote']

 

I don?t think anybody will disagree with that.

 

But to me both (the pitching and the sometimes frustrating offense) are part of the same problem. The front office seems to fail at laying out a working plan of what this Red Sox team is supposed to be, and get it done.

 

The Red Sox are assembling talent, not a team. As soon as the front office negotiates a way out of their current miserable state things will improve on all fronts because I am convinced our poor pitching situation and the unbalanced offense is a direct result of the front office either not knowing what kind of team they want or not being able to do what they set out to do.

 

Should that change, we will see improvements in pitching, batting and coaching.

[Orange Juiced]

Here's what I hope will happen (and I'm trying to be somewhat realistic here):

 

1. Trade Salty - he has never had higher value because he can hit homers, but he will be due for a big raise soon and I don't think he's a good defensive catcher or game-caller. Whatever his issues are behind the plate, consistently over his career pitchers have had worse stats with him than with other catchers. There's a reason for that (though I don't know exactly what it is). May as well keep Shoppach around to be the backup...he's solid in that role.

 

2. Try to re-sign Ross to a 2-year deal (probably would cost the Sox around $10 mil per year). He's a really nice RH bat, perfect fit for this team.

 

3. Honestly, I'd stick with Beckett one more year. He's had a pretty established pattern of every-other-year good/bad, and next year he is scheduled for his "good" year. Plus, trading him now is at the nadir of his value. So I'd run with him to start next year and then trade him after next year.

 

4. Promote Morales to the rotation full-time. He's proven he can be pretty good there. And keep Doubront...cost-controlled LHP that has some ability. He's young, with some upside. Perfect 5th starter kind of guy.

 

5. Decide whether Iglesias is your future MLB shortstop or not. He'll almost certainly never be even an average MLB hitter (even for a SS), but he's ridiculously great with the glove. Can you live with a black hole in the lineup because of his defensive talents? If you can, then just go ahead and promote him. Enough with the Scutaros and the Aviles' of the world. Bring the kid up. But if you decide you can't, then trade him and make space for Bogaerts in 2014. Personally, I want Bogaerts to be the SS so I'd move Iglesias and let Ciriaco play SS for one year. He's also very good defensively (though not as good as Iglesias) and his minor league stats are far superior to Iglesias'. So we know he's a better hitter.

 

6. Decide what to do with Ellsbury. If you want to sign him to a mega, Boras deal, then fine. If you aren't going to do that, what to do with him then? Keep him for 2013 and then let him go as a FA? Or just trade him now? It's not an easy call and I can see arguments for all three options. Personally, I try to move him. I think he still has a ton of value and you can get an awful lot for him. Trade him and let Kalish play CF regularly until the arrival of Jackie Bradley Jr in 2014. If you get a good pitcher then it may impact what the lineup below looks like, but probably you're talking about serious prospects instead.

 

7. Re-sign Papi to a 2-year, $30 million deal. At some point the wheels are just going to fall off Ortiz and it may happen in the blink of an eye so there's a real risk here. But geez, the guy is just still so good...worth the risk, IMO.

 

So here's what I'm looking at:

 

C - Lavarnway

1b - Gonzalez

2b - Pedroia

3b - Middlebrooks

SS - Ciriaco

LF - Crawford

CF - Kalish

RF - Ross

DH - Ortiz

Bench - Shoppach, Nava, other dudes

 

Rotation - Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, Doubront, Morales

Bullpen - Miller, Hill, Bard, Bailey, Aceves, Melancon, Breslow

 

Primary Lineup

LF Crawford

2b Pedroia

1b Gonzalez

3b Middlebrooks

DH Ortiz

RF Ross

C Lavarnway

CF Kalish

SS Ciriaco

 

And then 2014 hopefully you have Bradley, Brentz, and maybe Barnes ready to come up.

[jung]

Yep the Sox are the 2nd highest scoring team in the league. They score a million useless runs when they don't need them ala a 14-1 win and can't buy a run when they need one which is why it is an offense by accident....an offense entirely dependent on mashing the ball and an offense that becomes completely docile when it can't mash because what it does as a group does not represent a cohesive offensive effort.

[mvp 78]

Yep the Sox are the 2nd highest scoring team in the league. They score a million useless runs when they don't need them ala a 14-1 win and can't buy a run when they need one which is why it is an offense by accident....an offense entirely dependent on mashing the ball and an offense that becomes completely docile when it can't mash because what it does as a group does not represent a cohesive offensive effort.

 

The Rangers do the same thing, but nobody complains because they can pitch too. The Rangers can win 2-1, the Sox can't because of pitching...

[jung]

The Rangers offensive effort looks much more cohesive than ours. They are generating more walks. They are looking for pitches that allow them to do specific things with their plate appearances. They use what speed they have better than we use ours. The 2-1 game is clearly a pitchers dual. There is a whole middle ground of games that are not slugfests but are not pitchers duals either and we are for the most a fail in those games.

 

There is no doubt that starting pitching is the biggest problem this team has followed by the inability to mount a cohesive offensive effort.

[SoxSport]

You don't have to be a stats freak to see what's wrong with the Red Sox. As was said, just look at the team offensive and pitching leaders in the AL. The Sox are near the top in offense, and near the bottom in pitching. The Yankees are near the top in offense and in the top half in pitching. Pitching is the difference.

And it's mainly the starting pitching, from the ERA numbers, though I think the back end of the bullpen was screwed up by Bailey's injury and moving Bard to starter. Aceves is not a closer--he has too many losses and blown saves. And they don't have a setup guy.

 

Aside from that, I think their biggest problem is the Front Office. The turf war with the manager which is affecting team personnel (eg, Iglesias) and maybe a lot of the lineup and moves on the field (they still don't steal bases). When you hear somebody called Hazen from the FO saying Iggy will never get called up until he becomes an "offensive" player, we like offense on this team--well that's a pretty stupid remark and reflects serious competence and turf issues in the FO. When you consider there has been a brain drain from the FO the past few years, losing a few top people, it appears the leftovers have been promoted to their level of incompetence.

 

It's amazing how little is known of front offices--considering the power they wield on teams like the Red Sox. It's the FO that determines the personnel, and maybe even who starts and who sits. As for the lineup and how the pitchers are handled, it's an open question as to what is the FO and what is Valentine.

 

The problem of course is Lucchino/Henry, who have mishandled the team. Creating turf wars. What's needed is a new VP to oversee baseball operations--somebody from the outside with experience. A guy like John Hart. That is what is needed to turn this team around--some real baseball leadership--that is currently lacking.

[jung]

There is no question that starting pitching is this teams biggest problem and it has been for two years running. That makes it hard to fathom why people would want to basically bring back the same staff again so that it can fail...again. As I have stated before this year's starters have ragged out the bullpen even faster than last years starters.

 

As for wanting to bring back Beckett, his velo is down significantly and has been on the slide now for years. It is not coming back and he has not successfully transitioned to the pitcher he will need to be to survive without velo. Deal with it. He is what he is at this point and either the Sox continue to wait for him to figure this out or they cut bait. I would cut bait.

 

Of the two of them I would likely keep Lester cause he has not lost his velo. His problems are mechanics and a new found (possibly Lackey influenced) inability to deal with setbacks on the mound. Lester falls apart. Either he will get back to more consistent mechanics or he won't. He will stop going into a blue funk every time something goes wrong or he won't. I am willing to bet maybe one more year on Lester. However, I am growing less and less confident that he will ever get his emotions in check on the mound. If I do not see significant improvement before the end of this year, I might cut bait on him also.

 

However there is no denying that the Sox simply cannot manufacture runs. They score 14 one day and can't buy one the next. Everybody is frustrated with that and then acts like it is some sort of luck based anomaly. September was an anomaly...scores 14 and can't score 1 is an anomaly....I have never seen so many excuses made for a team in my entire life. Believe what your eyes should be able to tell you.

 

Beeke is correct IMO. The Sox have assembled talent but have not assembled a team and that is reflected in their lack of a cohesive offensive attack or even effort.

[kapsis21]

I don?t think anybody will disagree with that.

 

But to me both (the pitching and the sometimes frustrating offense) are part of the same problem. The front office seems to fail at laying out a working plan of what this Red Sox team is supposed to be, and get it done.

 

The Red Sox are assembling talent, not a team. As soon as the front office negotiates a way out of their current miserable state things will improve on all fronts because I am convinced our poor pitching situation and the unbalanced offense is a direct result of the front office either not knowing what kind of team they want or not being able to do what they set out to do.

 

Should that change, we will see improvements in pitching, batting and coaching.

 

Agree a 100% . Redsox are falling in the same trap the Yankees did when they kept signing big players since 2000.

 

The 2004 redsox team was a team started by Billy Beane and we are totally walking away from it now.

[mvp 78]

The 2004 redsox team was a team started by Billy Beane.

 

What?

[kapsis21]

What?

not literally... sorry wrong word choice there by me..

i mean the concept of getting players who get onbase. Billy Beane showed a different way of winning baseball games and we got players like Mueller Millar who all contributed hugely..

[SoxFanForsyth]

There is no question that starting pitching is this teams biggest problem and it has been for two years running. That makes it hard to fathom why people would want to basically bring back the same staff again so that it can fail...again. As I have stated before this year's starters have ragged out the bullpen even faster than last years starters.

 

As for wanting to bring back Beckett, his velo is down significantly and has been on the slide now for years. It is not coming back and he has not successfully transitioned to the pitcher he will need to be to survive without velo. Deal with it. He is what he is at this point and either the Sox continue to wait for him to figure this out or they cut bait. I would cut bait.

 

Of the two of them I would likely keep Lester cause he has not lost his velo. His problems are mechanics and a new found (possibly Lackey influenced) inability to deal with setbacks on the mound. Lester falls apart. Either he will get back to more consistent mechanics or he won't. He will stop going into a blue funk every time something goes wrong or he won't. I am willing to bet maybe one more year on Lester. However, I am growing less and less confident that he will ever get his emotions in check on the mound. If I do not see significant improvement before the end of this year, I might cut bait on him also.

 

However there is no denying that the Sox simply cannot manufacture runs. They score 14 one day and can't buy one the next. Everybody is frustrated with that and then acts like it is some sort of luck based anomaly. September was an anomaly...scores 14 and can't score 1 is an anomaly....I have never seen so many excuses made for a team in my entire life. Believe what your eyes should be able to tell you.

 

Beeke is correct IMO. The Sox have assembled talent but have not assembled a team and that is reflected in their lack of a cohesive offensive attack or even effort.

 

Through July 31, 2011, the Red Sox bullpen threw 322 IP. Through July 31, 2012, the Red Sox bullpen had thrown 321.33.

 

In all of August, 2011, the Sox bullpen threw 80 IP. They've thrown 33 IP thus far this month, which puts them on pace for 79.2 IP for August.

 

So no, they haven't burned through the bullpen faster this year than last year.

[SemperFi Sox]

Here's what I hope will happen (and I'm trying to be somewhat realistic here):

 

1. Trade Salty - he has never had higher value because he can hit homers, but he will be due for a big raise soon and I don't think he's a good defensive catcher or game-caller. Whatever his issues are behind the plate, consistently over his career pitchers have had worse stats with him than with other catchers. There's a reason for that (though I don't know exactly what it is). May as well keep Shoppach around to be the backup...he's solid in that role.

 

2. Try to re-sign Ross to a 2-year deal (probably would cost the Sox around $10 mil per year). He's a really nice RH bat, perfect fit for this team.

 

3. Honestly, I'd stick with Beckett one more year. He's had a pretty established pattern of every-other-year good/bad, and next year he is scheduled for his "good" year. Plus, trading him now is at the nadir of his value. So I'd run with him to start next year and then trade him after next year.

 

4. Promote Morales to the rotation full-time. He's proven he can be pretty good there. And keep Doubront...cost-controlled LHP that has some ability. He's young, with some upside. Perfect 5th starter kind of guy.

 

5. Decide whether Iglesias is your future MLB shortstop or not. He'll almost certainly never be even an average MLB hitter (even for a SS), but he's ridiculously great with the glove. Can you live with a black hole in the lineup because of his defensive talents? If you can, then just go ahead and promote him. Enough with the Scutaros and the Aviles' of the world. Bring the kid up. But if you decide you can't, then trade him and make space for Bogaerts in 2014. Personally, I want Bogaerts to be the SS so I'd move Iglesias and let Ciriaco play SS for one year. He's also very good defensively (though not as good as Iglesias) and his minor league stats are far superior to Iglesias'. So we know he's a better hitter.

 

6. Decide what to do with Ellsbury. If you want to sign him to a mega, Boras deal, then fine. If you aren't going to do that, what to do with him then? Keep him for 2013 and then let him go as a FA? Or just trade him now? It's not an easy call and I can see arguments for all three options. Personally, I try to move him. I think he still has a ton of value and you can get an awful lot for him. Trade him and let Kalish play CF regularly until the arrival of Jackie Bradley Jr in 2014. If you get a good pitcher then it may impact what the lineup below looks like, but probably you're talking about serious prospects instead.

 

7. Re-sign Papi to a 2-year, $30 million deal. At some point the wheels are just going to fall off Ortiz and it may happen in the blink of an eye so there's a real risk here. But geez, the guy is just still so good...worth the risk, IMO.

 

So here's what I'm looking at:

 

C - Lavarnway

1b - Gonzalez

2b - Pedroia

3b - Middlebrooks

SS - Ciriaco

LF - Crawford

CF - Kalish

RF - Ross

DH - Ortiz

Bench - Shoppach, Nava, other dudes

 

Rotation - Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, Doubront, Morales

Bullpen - Miller, Hill, Bard, Bailey, Aceves, Melancon, Breslow

 

Primary Lineup

LF Crawford

2b Pedroia

1b Gonzalez

3b Middlebrooks

DH Ortiz

RF Ross

C Lavarnway

CF Kalish

SS Ciriaco

 

And then 2014 hopefully you have Bradley, Brentz, and maybe Barnes ready to come up.

 

So basically we do nothing to change this below .500 team?

[a700hitter]

So basically we do nothing to change this below .500 team?

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic would not have kept the ship from sinking.