NESN’s Red Sox Blog Roundtable – Feb 25, 2010
Posted on February 25, 2010
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Our pal Evan, formerly of Fire Brand of the AL, has moved on to a job at NESN. Part of his job involves doing a blogging round-table for all of the major Boston sports teams. This week it was time for a little Red Sox action so go check out NESN’s Red Sox Blog Roundtable. I was honored to participate and my full answers can be found below:
Who do you think will end up being the MVP of the Red Sox team by season’s end?
This season’s team seems to be built heavily around pitching and defense. The pitching staff should have an outstanding season but the team MVP is going to have to go to the man that helps carry the offensive load and I’m making my pre-season guess that it will be Kevin Youkilis. The past two seasons have seen Youkilis with an .OPS of over .950 while averaging about 600 at-bats. He is one of those rare players that shines defensively while still getting on base and hitting the stitches off the ball. If he continues to do this while the new additions to the team work on meshing offensively, then he is an invaluable asset to the team.
The rotation saga is the storyline to watch during spring training. Assuming everyone is healthy, who should go to the bullpen?
With the assumption that the entire starting rotation is healthy, I think Daisuke Matsuzaka has to be sent to the bullpen. I realize that his potential as a starter is through the roof; however, I’m also aware that he struggles getting through a lineup for the second and third time. Take that and combine it with his arm fatigue from needing 120 pitches to go 5 innings and it looks like the pen is a better fit for him than the 15-day disabled list. Putting Tim Wakefield into the rotation (again, with the assumption that everyone is healthy) may seem like a wild card every 5th game but his potential to eat innings when needed is a huge positive for a team that suffered from bullpen ineffectiveness last season because of how overused the relievers were.
Where in the order should Drew, Beltre and Cameron hit?
This year’s batting order is probably not going to be much different looking than in previous years. Francona usually likes to stack lefty/righty hitters so that the other team can’t play the numbers by having a right-handed specialist pitch against 3 right-handed hitters in a row. My guess is that they’ll go with a lineup like this: Ellsbury, Pedroia, Martinez, Youkilis, Ortiz, Cameron, Drew, Scutaro, and Beltre. This leaves the only mismatch being with Scutaro and Beltre, both right-handed hitters, batting next to each other. The up-side is that there will still be some offensive pop almost everywhere in the lineup.
What player currently projected to start in the minors will end up having the most impact in the majors?
With a payroll like that of the Red Sox, the chances of a prospect taking over for a position player (barring injury) are pretty slim. Playing the odds, I would say that a pitcher will make the biggest impact and I’m putting my money on that pitcher being Junichi Tazawa. Last season he pitched some big innings against the Yankees but was also knocked around quite a bit. If he puts it all together this year, and if Casey Kelly doesn’t beat him to it, then I think he’ll turn some heads in Boston with his above-average slider and change-up.
Do the Red Sox have what it takes to overtake the Yankees and hold off the Rays?
The Rays still have a nice young core of players but I don’t see them being in the race for the long-haul. They tried to stick around last year but finally waved the white flag in August by dealing Scott Kazmir. If the team looks shaky AT ALL then I think they’ll try to spin Carl Crawford before the trade deadline and try to maximize their returns so they can make a run at it in 2011 after the team has matured a bit. That leaves the Yankees and make no mistake about it, they are THE team to beat this season. After spending what amounts to the GDP of a small country during the last off-season, they topped the century mark in wins and cruised through the playoffs on their way to their 27th World Series championship. The bad news for Red Sox fans is that since last October, the Yankees haven’t gotten any worse. They added Javier Vazquez to their pitching mix, traded for Curtis Granderson, and signed Nick Johnson. “Keeping up with the Joneses” has never been so hard and I don’t think that the Red Sox made the kind of moves this offseason that will allow them to recapture the AL East. The Wild Card, on the other hand, is a much more realistic goal.
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