Dojji

1: It wastes Varitek's biggest talents to have him caddy for a 1 pitch pitcher 2: It also exposes his biggest flaws (arm and K-ball handling) with no particular advantage gained 3: Varitek's not very good at it, or at least is wildly out of practice 4: Catching the knuckleball is very hard on a catcher, which is why it made sense to use the caddy system in the first place. 5: No way Tito or Tek would go for it. And before you go knocking the concept of a guy moving right into the coaching staff, you might remember Billy Ballgame did it back in '06 and MLB has a long history (albeit a short list) of player-managers. I would like to have Tek's influence on some of our young pitchers as they make the transition into the big leagues. I think he helped Lester, Papelbon, Masterson, etc a lot to attack hitters with the confidence that one of the two members of the battery have been through this before. Veteran starters have been around the block and probably don't need him as much so that's where you bring in the young catcher. It makes greater than zero sense anyway.

No, that's just a stupid solution. A more novel solution is to have Varitek caddy for the rookies who might benefit from his extra help and let New Rookie Catcher X handle Wakefield plus the rest of the staff.

The Farce is strong with this one.

Because Beckett and Daisuke were so overwhelming in these playoffs. I'm sure Santana would have silenced the red-hot Upton and Longoria (not to mention Aybar) just as effectively as Lester didn't. Seriously. Cut the nonsense.

Take Masterson out of the equation and we have to use MDC instead of Justin in nearly every Masterson situation. We might not make it out of the first round! That besides the fact that we'd probably be using Juan Uribe or Alex Cora as our every day SS unless we decided to throw Argenis Diaz into the fire. No good choices there!

I could see it. Lord knows JR Towles and Dusty Ryan could stand the mentoring.

Well, I think getting through the first round of the playoffs isn't too much to expect but once my team does that, I try not to be too disappointed that they're only one of the 4 best teams in the league that year.

Coaching OPTION. He'd be signed as a player but if he needed to hang them up his contract would allow him to remain with the Boston Red Sox in a coaching capacity. Varitek rammed his last contract down Boras' throat though in order to stay with the Red Sox. I'd like to hope that we treated him well enough that that sentiment persists. Boras will rattle the chains a little bit trying to stir up offers and money from other teams in order to increase the money Tek gets from Theo but I can't really picture Tek in another uniform.

I don't know if Varitek would go for it, but would it be possible to give him a contract with a coaching option if he can't stick behind the plate next year? There's no denying that Varitek is a very solid coaching prospect and will probably manage in the big leagues somewhere when his playing days are over. Being able to phase him into the coaching staff if we sign him to a deal and it turns out he needs to hang it up would allow the Sox to keep hold of a valuable asset to our pitchers without running the risk of having our roster clogged by a bad old player for a couple years if he can't get it done. And it would mean that Varitek would probably succeed Tito as the Sox manager when and if his health makes it impossible for him to be in the dugout anymore.

Now now, right now the fanbase is still catching up with the team, but Boston had to go through that -- themselves once (and if I remember my history correctly, much more than once!). And there are a handful of core faithful who would put 8,000 butts in seats to watch the Rays lose to the Kansas City Royals. Those fans do deserve this.

If Maddon was paying attention to Price's performance in the 9th last night that closer hole was just filled as well.

THe Jays were an 86-win team. That's more than enough to be team #4 in a 4 team pennant race even if they can't improve on it. It's an open question how they're going to fill out their rotation behind Halladay next year and Burnett's going to play a big role in what happens to them (does he stay, does he go, do the Jays throw more money at him to keep him in Toronto?) but if they get that ironed out and get some development from Snider and Lind, and Wells actually lives up to his contract, who knows?

If he hadn't thrown his tantrum in September I'd agree, but his inability to look at the big picture and make himself available for the playoffs really grates on me.

Pitchers: Starters: Lester: Hero Daisuke: Hero Beckett: Joe Wakefield: Joe Buchholz: Villain Byrd: Joe Schilling: Ghost Colon: Ghost/Villain (he could have been available instead of Wake in a game we lost in the ALCS) Pauley: Ghost Zink: Ghost Hansack: Ghost Bowden: Ghost RP: Papelbon: Hero Okajima: Hero Masterson: Hero MDC: Joe Lopez: Hero Hansen: Villain Aardsma: Villain Tavarez: Villain Timlin: Villain Snyder: Ghost Corey: Ghost Smith: Villain

Definitions: Hero: Someone who went above and beyond in a way that really helped define them this year Joe: A workmanline performance based on showing up, doing what was expected , and limiting the number of negative surprises. Villain: The enemy among us. Those whose failures cost the team. Ghosts: Nonfactors, or present but irrelevant players. Catchers: Varitek Villain. Provided some redeeming value, but his lack of offense was a decisive factor against his own team. Thanks for the great memories, Tek, but you did some damage this year. Cash Joe. Did his work, caddied his knuckleballer, and even hit a little more than I thought he would. Kevin Cash was your basic standard run of the mill backup catcher. Did nothing unexpectedly well or unexpectedly poorly. Ross Ghost. Practically a nonfactor except that his presence allowed Varitek to be pinch hit for. Kottaras Ghost. Probably should have been used more since he had 20 HR's and a good OBP in Pawtucket, but apparently Sox brass aren't quite sure of him yet. 1B: Youkilis: Hero. Went from short of 20 HR's last year to 29 this year and spent the last half of the year batting cleanup. A huge part of our offense in the stretch run, and for the first time didn't have his value compromised by late-season struggles. Also came up big a couple times in October. Casey: Joe. Could have been a hero but fell off in the second half and was a ghost in the postseason. Still, not much more you could demand of a backup 1B. Maybe a few HR's but if what you wanted was a LH contact hitter who could provide some depth at 1B, well, that's what you should have expected from Casey anway so he did his job. Kotsay: Joe. He's on the borderline between joe and villain because we counted on him to hit a fair bit more than he did. That said, he provided great defense and made a bit of noise in the postseason and for a waiver deadline pickup not much more you can ask. Bailey: Hero. No one really expected anything out of a 28 year old rookie 1B but in limited playing time Jeff Bailey was surprisingly solid. If the team finds itself in need of a righthanded PH who can play 1B, LF, and emergency C they could do worse. 2B: Pedroia: Hero. And then some. 17 HR's, 20 stolen bases, and a dynamo in the postseason. Shortstop: Lugo: Joe. This might surprise some people but to be honest, Lugo did provide OK value when healthy. His OBP was fairly high and he had some speed on the basepaths that made that OBP mean something. I wouldn't be surprised if someone called him out as a villain for a simple reason though: a man as fast as Lugo has no reason to be grounding into as many double plays as Julio did this year. Still, until he went down Julio was adequate, and I'll write his bad defense this year off as a symptom of the injury that eventually ended his season. I wouldn't be too broken-hearted if Theo somehow failed to dump Lugo in the offseason, although I'm sure we have better uses for the money tied up in his contract than a dink-and-dunk shortstop with an inaccurate throwing arm Lowrie: Joe. Borderline hero, but struggled from the left side and ultimately slumped his way down to average offensive numbers on the year. Pulled in a lot of key hits, including the seroes-winning hit in the ALCS. Also no errors and a better arm than we'd been led to believe. I donno how much more you could realistically expect from a rookie. Looking forward to watching this guy grow. Cora: Joe. Cora's job is to not totally suck at multiple positions and if he hits more than a little, fine. That's what we got out of him, and he threw in a pretty decent OBP as well, so, bonus. I wouldn't mistake him for a starter, but as utility men go he was meh. Not awful. 3B: Mike Lowell: Joe. The man did everything humanly possible to stay effective this year but it wasn't to be. WHen he was out there Lowell was a pretty big contributor to Boston's offense and we felt his absence in the playoffs pretty keenly. Get well soon, Mike. Left Field: Manny Ramirez: Hero. I'm going to catch some hell for this, but Manny bounced back from his first season since his rookie year with under 100 RBI and under a .300 AVG to be well on pace to beat both of those marks before he shot his way off the Sox roster. He was exceeding what a lot of people expected from him based on what we saw the previous season. Jason Bay: Hero. Bay made us feel Manny's departure far less keenly and did a great job of keeping the offense rolling. He was kind of a casualty of Youk's prospecity by the fact that he was batting 6th, the last hitter in our power alley and wasn't getting much protection himself. I'm kinda expecting that to change as we get to know him better. If Youkilis starts to spit the bit in the cleanup spot next year or if Bay just has a great year look for Bay to move up. Center Field: Crisp: Joe. I was an open question who the better CF was between Ellsbury and Coco. It still is. Crisp acquitted himself well this year and even hit a little (.750 OPS). We expected more from him when we first got him, but since '06 and '07 have lowered our expectations a bit I'll take what he is now. Ellsbury: Hero. Ellsbury led the league in stolen bases. He had a poor OBP and faltered in the playoffs but he was a force at the top of the order when he was hitting, and I expect him to hit more as he grows. Right Field: Drew: Hero. Undoubtedly and unequivocally. If we'd won Game 7 it would have been a tossup between Drew and Papelbon who the ALCS MVP was. And he carried the team for about a month and a half in the middle of the season when Ortiz was first hurt. Brandon Moss: Hero. We kinda forgot about him because of everything that happened at the deadline but Moss was doing great work as a backup during the first few JD Drew injuries. Despite the fact that he fell off the map after the trade I definitely would rather have had Moss than Kotsay at the end of the season and into the postseason. And Moss had some clutch hits for us before the trade too, starting with the HR off Houston Street that allowed us to win the opening day game in Japan. Designated Hitters: David Ortiz: Joe. I can't call Papi a villain and he still had what would be an OK year for a lot of people but... *sigh* I wish he could have really gotten his legs under him and his wrist working this year and see where we could have gone. If Ortiz was in the lineup and doing his usual while Drew was also hitting we could have taken this division. Chris Carter: Ghost. We've seen some potential for the future in Carter but he doesn't field well enough to be anything but a DH and there's no way he replaces Big Papi unless the big man goes down. Still, he's a nice guy to have around in an emergency and he can definitely hit.

Pedroia was a legitimate 5 tool player this year. I dunno if he improves on that, but if he can just hold it, he'll be a great asset to the Sox.

A hometown discount was exactly what he gave us in the last contract. I heard recently (can't source it) that Varitek has been deliberately avoiding the concept of free agency. A contract year collapse from a guy who's dreading FA wouldn't be a new thing. Varitek has made it very clear in the past that he very much considers himself a Red Sox above all else. I wouldn't be surprised that Varitek got hit by a recursive stress attack and that fueled a lot of his decline "Oh, crap, I suck, I'm gonna be cut because I'm suck, so I'm tense, so I suck worse, so I'm gonna be cut, so I'm tense..." Wouldn't be the first athlete who fell to that one. I wonder what would happen if you offered Tek the Wakefield option at, ohh, about 6M/year It would be the end of having to deal with FA, which Tek has indicated multiple times he prefers not to deal with. Who knows?

You'd be surprised. There are teams out there that might think that bringing in an experienced, veteran gamecaller, even if he can't hit, would be worth the price. And there are also teams that have catchers that are good at absolutely nothing that would like to "upgrade" to Varitek and take a gamble that he can recover his form offensively and if not, take the discounted version for his ability to help young pitchers.

I got to live and die with the Sox for 2 more games and that's all I want to do for as many days as the season schedule and the postseason run allow me to.

You realize we have homegrown solutions to all the things you want to go afield for. By the end of 2009 we could have defensive wizard Argenis Diaz behind Jed Lowrie at shortstop, and one or both of Kottaras and Brown with the team as catcher (based on their 2008 AAA numbers I'd take either), and Anderson clearing the roster by midseason in the event of an injury is very feasible based on the show he put on in AA this year. And Buchholz and Bowden, either one of these could fill your SP needs next year depending on how they progress (especially Bowden, I really loved his work in his debut against the eventual AL Central champ). The only position I'd have any qualms about filling internally if necessary is catcher, since Kottaras and Brown aren't precisely proven commodities and catchers' offense can be volatile from level to level. But still, those two are better than most of the external options when you take a real look at what they're capable of and compare it to the likes of Jason Kendall or Rod Barajas.

Leave Teixeira alone. Someone will offer more than we're willing to pay, and Anderson's too close for me to be comfortable going after him. If I was going to go after a big name infielder I'd make a trade offer for Carlos Guillen and take the opportunity to offload Lugo. (DET needs a SS and is one of the few teams that might be willing to take on Lowell's and Lugo's $$$)