CySox

I love Fenway Park and I hope they keep it around as long as possible. I've been to 4 other parks in person and seen all of them on TV or in pics, and I think Fenway is by far the coolest park in all of baseball. So what the seats are old, sit on your jacket. No leg room? Stand up whenever something good happens and cheer and stretch in between innings. Plus the unusual dimensions give us a distinct home field advantage over other teams because our outfielders know the park better than any visitor would. And even if the Sox build a new stadium, they should find a way to keep Fenway around as a sort of museum and exhibition game ballpark.

This is my humble suggestion for the off-season. 1. Sign a good, solid middle rotation starting pitcher. I like CJ Wilson and Mark Buehrle, although Buehrle would likely cost a couple million dollars more than Wilson. 2. Re-sign Papalbon. He had a great year and Daniel Bard didn't exactly instil confidence in his ability to close games with his performance in September. If Pap gets away in free agency or even if the Front Office just has a hole in their wallet, pursue Heath Bell, but this may not be necessary because Bobby Jenks will almost certainly pitch in more games in 2012 than 2011. 3. Re-sign Ortiz. Yes, he's going to be 36, but he is a big part of that locker room and had an excellent year in 2011. 4. Sign a 3B. I know we have Youkilis but he hasn't made it through a whole season in the last two years and I'm not confident he will in 2012 either. So by signing a 3B, Youkilis can platoon with Reddick in RF and with Ortiz at DH as well as providing a few spot starts at 3B and 1B. I like Albert Pujols or Aramis Ramirez here. When all is said and done the lineup will look something like this: 1. Ellsbury CF 2. Pedroia 2B 3. Gonzalez 1B 4. Pujols 3B 5. Ortiz DH 6. Youkilis RF 7. Crawford LF 8. Saltalamacchia C 9. Scutaro SS Bench: Lavarnway, Lowrie, Reddick, Kalish Rotation: 1. Beckett 2. Lester 3. Buckholz 4. Wilson 5. Lackey Bullpen: Papelbon, Bard, Jenks, Morales, Albers, Aceves, Weiland All for a grand total of around $190 million. Most of the $20 million dollar increase from last season would be from signing Albert Pujols to a deal comparable to Gonzalez's.