Your 2015 Starting 9

[Gringo]

As presently constituted, I'm going with:

 

Castillo CF

Pedroia 2B

Ramirez LF

Ortiz DH

Sandoval 3B

Bogaerts SS

Craig 1B

Victorino RF

Vasquez C

[User Name]

Betts

Pedroia

Ortiz

Hanley

Panda

Napoli

Bogaerts

Vasquez

Castillo

[Bellhorn04]

Betts

Pedroia

Ortiz

Hanley

Panda

Napoli

Bogaerts/Castillo - order based on performance

Vasquez

[Spudboy]

Betts

Pedroia

Ortiz

Hanley

Panda

Napoli

Bogaerts

Castillo

Vasquez

 

I did not try to go right/left

[Bellhorn04]

Betts

Pedroia

Ortiz

Hanley

Panda

Napoli

Bogaerts

Castillo

Vasquez

 

I did not try to go right/left

 

Pretty hard to with only two lefty bats.

[Spudboy]

Pretty hard to with only two lefty bats.

 

Yup. That and I don't really get the whole right/left thing anyway. I never have!

 

But then I don't understand little things like the infield fly rule either!!!

[Bellhorn04]

Yup. That and I don't really get the whole right/left thing anyway. I never have!

 

I think the main purpose of the right/left thing is to prevent the other team from being able to have a lefty reliever face two lefty hitters in a row. That can be big late in the game.

[iortiz]

Hanley

Pedroia

Ortiz

Cespedes

Panda

Napoli

Victorino

Vazquez

XB

[dupree]

Victorino CF

Pedroia 2B

Ortiz DH

Cespedes RF

Hanley LF

Sandoval 3B

Napoli 1B

Boegarts SS

Vazquez C

[Dojji]

We could really use to get a bit more lefthanded somehow. Wow. if you recall that Victorino gave up batting from the left side in 13, right now our only LHH off the bench of any quality is Daniel Nava and we only have two lefties in the lineup, Papi and Panda.

 

If I knew who to go for I'd be all for finding a way to get a good LHH 1B to replace Napoli. Don't suppose there's any chance the Reds have fallen out of love with Joey Votto and his huge contract now that he's gotten a bit older and they're no longer contenders? Maybe the Royals might want to sell high on Alex Gordon? I dunno, I have no idea. Just throwing out possibilities here.

 

As it is right now we could really use a great development year from Cecchini, he's the only LHH I see coming for awhile, and we just overloaded his position.

Edited November 29, 2014 by Dojji

[sk7326]

I'll do one better - the 13 position players (14 if you carry 11 pitchers, Sox probably will carry 12 at least early)

 

C: Vasquez

1B: Napoli

2B: Pedroia

SS: Bogaerts

3B: Sandoval

LF: Ramirez

CF: Betts

RF: Castillo

DH: Ortiz

 

C: Somebody

IF: Holt

OF1: Victorino

OF2: Craig

 

I just figure Cespedes and Nava have the right contracts to move. Middlebrooks will be sold for a bag of baseballs. Cecchini is a prime candidate for trade filler, I do think last year he moved from "prospects for us" to "currency" anyway.

 

Also figure Vasquez and Castillo could be had in a more "premium level" deal.

[Orange Juiced]

C - Vazquez

1b - Napoli

2b - Pedroia

3b - Sandoval

SS - Bogaerts

LF - Ramirez

CF - Betts/Castillo

RF - Betts/Castillo

DH - Ortiz

Bench - veteran C, Holt, Victorino, Craig

 

SP - Lester, Porcello, Buchholz, Kelly, RDLR

RP - Miller, Tazawa, Layne, Uehara, Workman, Mujica, Barnes/Webster/Ranaudo (one of those three)

 

That team right there would be *very* good. With a chance to be great, if Buchholz reverts to the "good" Clay.

[Bellhorn04]

C - Vazquez

1b - Napoli

2b - Pedroia

3b - Sandoval

SS - Bogaerts

LF - Ramirez

CF - Betts/Castillo

RF - Betts/Castillo

DH - Ortiz

Bench - veteran C, Holt, Victorino, Craig

 

SP - Lester, Porcello, Buchholz, Kelly, RDLR

RP - Miller, Tazawa, Layne, Uehara, Workman, Mujica, Barnes/Webster/Ranaudo (one of those three)

 

That team right there would be *very* good. With a chance to be great, if Buchholz reverts to the "good" Clay.

 

There are a lot of things that could go wrong with that team too.

[Bellhorn04]

I just figure Cespedes and Nava have the right contracts to move.

 

You too?

 

I know some people are sick of me talking about Nava. Let me try to approach this a little differently.

 

It's my understanding that the Red Sox, under the philosophy of Bill James and Moneyball and all that stuff, place a high value on OBP. Nava was 2nd on the team in that stat in 2013, and 3rd in 2014. I would think they would be reluctant to dish off one of their top OBP guys, especially one who makes jacksquat, especially in light of the offensive struggles last year and the 'new emphasis on offense' and the various health and inexperience issues surrounding our 2015 outfield.

[sk7326]

You too?

 

I know some people are sick of me talking about Nava. Let me try to approach this a little differently.

 

It's my understanding that the Red Sox, under the philosophy of Bill James and Moneyball and all that stuff, place a high value on OBP. Nava was 2nd on the team in that stat in 2013, and 3rd in 2014. I would think they would be reluctant to dish off one of their top OBP guys, especially one who makes jacksquat, especially in light of the offensive struggles last year and the 'new emphasis on offense' and the various health and inexperience issues surrounding our 2015 outfield.

 

You do not have to sell me on Nava - I was thinking about the contract relative to others. If you just grade the outfielders (not Betts or Ramirez) on the market value of the contracts, you'd get:

 

1. Cespedes

2. Nava

3. Castillo

4. Bradley

5. Victorino

6. Craig

 

I am not choosing Victorino and Craig over Nava, but I am trying to be realistic about how things will probably shake out if the Sox are going to deal from their surplus. Craig and Victorino have the hardest contracts to move (without giving them away) and both have some upside.

[MJantomaso]

C - Vazquez

1b - Napoli

2b - Pedroia

3b - Sandoval

SS - Bogaerts

LF - Ramirez

CF - Betts/Castillo

RF - Betts/Castillo

DH - Ortiz

Bench - veteran C, Holt, Victorino, Craig

 

SP - Lester, Porcello, Buchholz, Kelly, RDLR

RP - Miller, Tazawa, Layne, Uehara, Workman, Mujica, Barnes/Webster/Ranaudo (one of those three)

 

That team right there would be *very* good. With a chance to be great, if Buchholz reverts to the "good" Clay.

 

That starting rotation is not very good.

[Dojji]

It's going to be made even better with an outright bad left side D, with an OK but immobile 3B and an outright horrible defensive shortstop. Righthanded hitters are going to find a lot of chinks and holes to work with.

[MJantomaso]

Don't forget we should have a shortstop playing left!

[Palodios]

It's going to be made even better with an outright bad left side D, with an OK but immobile 3B and an outright horrible defensive shortstop. Righthanded hitters are going to find a lot of chinks and holes to work with.

 

I am not sure if you know what the words "outright horrible", "immobile" and "outright bad". Pablo and Xander are average defenders, and we have no idea how Hanley is going to fare in one of the smallest left fields in baseball.

[Spudboy]

I am not sure if you know what the words "outright horrible", "immobile" and "outright bad". Pablo and Xander are average defenders, and we have no idea how Hanley is going to fare in one of the smallest left fields in baseball.

 

Xander is an average SS? Since when? I'm not sure what your WAR, etc. figure tell you and I really do not care.

 

Anyone who wattches all of the Sox games and has watched hundreds of SS play the position before knows that "Xander" blows goats defensively. It's so obvious that I can not believe anyone would actually challenge it and make an issue of it.

 

He sucks at shortsop.

 

Sandoval is okay from what I have seen. Which is admittedly limited.

 

The left side D is going to be terrible this year unless "Xander" has made significant progress over this winter. Even then his range to the left will always be inadequate because he is slow footed, big, and gangly.

 

I wonder where Alex Gonzalez is?

[a700hitter]

Xander is an average SS? Since when? I'm not sure what your WAR, etc. figure tell you and I really do not care.

 

Anyone who wattches all of the Sox games and has watched hundreds of SS play the position before knows that "Xander" blows goats defensively. It's so obvious that I can not believe anyone would actually challenge it and make an issue of it.

 

He sucks at shortsop.

 

Sandoval is okay from what I have seen. Which is admittedly limited.

 

The left side D is going to be terrible this year unless "Xander" has made significant progress over this winter. Even then his range to the left will always be inadequate because he is slow footed, big, and gangly.

 

I wonder where Alex Gonzalez is?

I agree that Xander is far from being good at SS. His footwork is terrible. He needs intensive tutoring to improve. Is Disarcina still in the organization? Maybe he can give XB a crash course. His fielding is why I have been talking about him as trade bait. The organization seemed to have had plans for him at 3rd eventually, but after signing Sandoval that might have changed. Marerro is a guy with a major league glove at SS.

[MJantomaso]

I'm pretty interested in what Craig has in store for this upcoming season. I wouldn't be opposed to trying to ship Napoli off and giving Craig the reigns at 1st. Or letting him play LF, Panda 1st, Hanley 3rd. The guy has too good of a track record to write him off for a bad season, dealing with an injury. It would give us more money to throw at pitching.

[sk7326]

I agree that Xander is far from being good at SS. His footwork is terrible. He needs intensive tutoring to improve. Is Disarcina still in the organization? Maybe he can give XB a crash course. His fielding is why I have been talking about him as trade bait. The organization seemed to have had plans for him at 3rd eventually, but after signing Sandoval that might have changed. Marerro is a guy with a major league glove at SS.

 

Their best fielding coach is in Boston already ... the 350 or so PAs that XB did not get at SS did not help. Key will be Farrell (and the org) having conviction with evaluations. Bogaerts' case history is positive for him figuring much of this stuff out.

[MANNYHOF24]

I agree that Xander is far from being good at SS. His footwork is terrible. He needs intensive tutoring to improve. Is Disarcina still in the organization? Maybe he can give XB a crash course. His fielding is why I have been talking about him as trade bait. The organization seemed to have had plans for him at 3rd eventually, but after signing Sandoval that might have changed. Marerro is a guy with a major league glove at SS.

 

I believe that when Ortiz retires (maybe say 2016), They probably will move Panda to first base, Hanley to DH and can shift Xander to 3B.

 

Just a hunch.

[Dojji]

I am not sure if you know what the words "outright horrible", "immobile" and "outright bad". Pablo and Xander are average defenders, and we have no idea how Hanley is going to fare in one of the smallest left fields in baseball.

 

Pablo is a good handsy 3B but his range is nothing to shout about. Couple that with a shortstop who is also bad at range (along with everything else) and I don't hold out a lot of hope for our defense if a righthanded hitter hits one on the ground.

[GomesBeard]

Their best fielding coach is in Boston already ... the 350 or so PAs that XB did not get at SS did not help. Key will be Farrell (and the org) having conviction with evaluations. Bogaerts' case history is positive for him figuring much of this stuff out.

 

I'd like to see hm play a full year at SS, without fear of a shift to third, and see his game, both offensively and defensively. I think he will be fine in both areas. The Sox just need to stop messing with him.

[User Name]

Other than 2013 (and the very much publicized defensive struggles Panda had that year) he's had positive range factors both by the components in UZR and the scouting community, and you're sitting here telling me Panda has no range. How did you come to that conclusion Dojji?

[Palodios]

Other than 2013 (and the very much publicized defensive struggles Panda had that year) he's had positive range factors both by the components in UZR and the scouting community, and you're sitting here telling me Panda has no range. How did you come to that conclusion Dojji?

 

Both Pablo and Xander are fine in range according to UZR. Everyone here just prefers the eye-test.

[a700hitter]

Both Pablo and Xander are fine in range according to UZR. Everyone here just prefers the eye-test.

Stats don't show footwork and XB looks like he needs some lessons.

[User Name]

Scouts do the eye-test too. Scouts tell me Sandoval has great range, especially for somneone his size. Who do i believe? A scout that has watched Sandoval a significant number of times, or the tv eye-test?