The Official 2011 Boston Red Sox Thread

Makes all that panic about the 2-10 start along with the catcher position issues (remember when people wanted the Sox to sign Benji Molina?) silly right now (also remember when people wished the Sox signed Russell Martin instead, check out Saltalamacchia's numbers compared to Martin's). But it's been a pretty amazing run by this team since those first 12 games. Not only that but they're playing very well on the road and they're beating good pitchers, something in the past few years this team hasn't been able to do. But being realistic I would like to see this team add another pitcher whether it's a SP or RP because you can never have enough pitching and also a RHH OFer because McDonald just isn't cutting it.

But hey up 10 games in the loss column to be in the playoffs is a nice position to be in right now.

 

JD Drew is headed to the DL because of his left shoulder. With no real OF options in the minor leagues that can be called up you wonder if between today and tomorrow night's game if the Sox will make a deal for another OF, even if that player will only stick for a few days until if/when the Sox can get a better OFer before the deadline. I'm thinking the Sox will put JD Drew on the DL for Jon Lester and go with a 13 man pitching staff tonight with Weiland as the long man out of the pen with Lester being limited to about 85 pitches. Then tomorrow a pitcher (most likely Weiland since he has options, goes down to Triple A to continue starting) goes down for the new OFer. The only other roster move the team can make would be put Drew on the DL and call up Drew Sutton, as he's the only guy on the 40 man roster that's big league ready and healthy, but he's not really an OFer and he and Navarro would be used in an emergency situation only.

 

There was a personal reason as to why Drew didn't get put on the DL and Kyle Weiland got sent down but Francona said he wouldn't go futher into it. It was certainly strange and did hurt the team last night as they could have used Weiland instead of Randy Williams in the 13th and 14th.

Yeah no thanks for Bedard unless they can get him without giving Seattle anything.

 

Yes I like the Rich Harden for Lars Anderson deal. Low risk, gave up nothing for him, well done Theo. I think the Mike Aviles move is nice too. Now just get that RHH OFer and possibly a bullpen arm (Craig Breslow perhaps?).

EDIT: I never liked Rich Harden (said of course after the deal fell through).

 

It stinks having to give up a solid defensive catcher in FedX but the Sox brass seem pretty happy with Saltalamacchia and can probably live with Lavarnway as a back up even if no one thinks he can be an actual MLB everyday catcher.

As for Navarro, I wasn't too sold on him. He seemed like a hacker and a lot of scouting reports have him as a total guess hitter at the plate where he decides in his head he's going to swing at a pitch coming no matter what. His ceiling is a back up infielder/outfielder so I'm not too disappointed in giving him up although not really sure what the Sox see in Aviles.

As for Bedard, he's pitched in the AL East before with success and getting a LHP is a pretty big deal, I think Miller will end up in the pen now with Randy Williams getting shipped out.

 

Rumor going around that Buchholz has a stress fracture in his back and is out for the season. If true it's pretty crappy news.

 

Ellsbury and Pedroia have simply been amazing this year. If the season ended right now Jose Batista, Pedroia and Ellsbury should be the top three on the MVP ballot.

EDIT: Just looked at BR's WAR listing and the Sox have 4 guys in the top 6 (Pedroia, Ellsbury, Gonzalez and Youkilis). That's why this team has just been so good this year.

 

RBIs are meaningless, how to do you think Gonzalez is able to drive in 100? Because Ellsbury and Pedroia are always on base. If Pedroia or Ellsbury had guys get on base at the rate they do in front of them they'd have similar RBI numbers. Plus you need to figure in the defense & positions (granted Gonzalez is a very good first basemen but it's harder to find a CFer or 2B who put up big numbers) and also both Ellsbury and Pedroia steal bases so they bring value to the base paths too.

Yes Gonzalez has had a great year but Pedroia and Ellsbury have been more valuable than he has when you factor in everything each player has brought to the table this year.

But the voters (at least the old dinosaur ones) love seeing big HR and RBI totals so Gonzalez would probably have the edge over the other 2. Of course all of it is a moot point if Bautista doesn't slow down.

 

And people who vote just on BA and RBI are clueless and shouldn't be voting. It's 2011 baseball shouldn't be judged just on those stats. I will say that the voters have done a much better job in voting in recent years and stopped just looking at HRs, BA, RBI, wins and ERA.

How exactly has Pedroia tanked in the first half? He hit .284/.395/.442/.836 with 16 SBs. He had a bad May and struck out a bit more than he's use too but guys (especially very good defensive 2B) would kill for those numbers in the 1st half of the year. So I don't agree with you there.

As for Bautista, what's he doing this year? You besides from being the best player in baseball? Not much else. I heard he's trying to cure cancer but he's too busy hitting home runs and getting on base at a .459 clip.

 

It's more than just Gammons though, the beat writers are especially bad and are pretty biased at times. You quote/reference Heyman a lot but he's worse than Gammons is in my opinion. At least Gammons on NESN talks about more advance stats.

If the season ended today and Bautista didn't win the award it would be highway robbery. The problem with that unwritten rule of guys not on winning teams can't win it is that they have in the past and there's really no reason why they shouldn't win it. It's not Bautista's fault that the 24 other guys on his team aren't better. If you put Bautista in the Red Sox or Yankee line up his numbers would be even better. The award should go to the best player no matter how his team did/didn't do. Arod won some MVP awards on last place teams in Texas, King Felix won a Cy Young on an awful Seattle team last year. The problem is the voters flip flop so much and for no real reason.

As for Gonzalez, if you take either Pedroia and/or Ellsbury out of the line up do you think Gonzalez would have those same numbers still? Pedroia and Ellsbury both have better WARs compared to Gonzalez (of course WAR isn't a perfect stat to go by especially when judging 1B) so that stat would disagree with you there since it says Pedroia and Ellsbury both bring more value to their team compared to a replacement level player.

 

Bautista has played 70 games in the OF already this year compared to 24 games at 3B so it's not a big deal for him. Most scouts think Lawrie will wind up in the OF since he's not a very good fielder. But having Lawrie's bat in the line up over (I'm guessing) Rajah Davis is an upgrade.

 

Nice weekend for the Sox although Friday and Sunday were frustrating to watch as the Sox had numerous opportunities to break the game open but never did. I'm shocked Lackey pitched decently and the Sox beating up Sabathia. I was expecting Randy Williams pitching multiple innings that game. Well now that the Sox won the season series from the Yankees for the first time since 2004, it means that if there's a tie for 1st at the end of the season the Sox would win the AL East. So while the Sox are techinically only 1 game up in the standings they're really 2 due to the tie breaker.

 

The ump over turned a call at home plate and took a run off the board (which ended up being a bad deal due to the final score). While it was the right call (Ellsbury was out at home plate) Francona was mad that the play was overturned and that the home plate ump wouldn't explain to him why the call was reversed. Francona said once the call was overturned everyone in the dugout knew he'd get bounced. Any manager would have done what Francona did.

 

I think the ump thought Bard (the catcher) dropped the ball and simply picked it up with his bare hand but that's just a guess on my part. It was a rookie ump so who knows. The call was right, he was out, so it's not a huge deal but I don't think I ever remember seeing a play like that overturned. But hey if they want to do that to make sure they have the call right I'm all for it, just be consistent with it and don't have the umps pick and choose which plays they want to ask for help with.

 

I didn't see the game but I heard the ump really blew a play at 2nd base for the Red Sox. Apparently it was on a DP and the ump said Lowrie never touched the base.

As for Darnell McDonald, yeah I'm surprise he's still on the team and was sure the Sox would have made a run at a RHH OFer at the deadline. There's still hope though and I'd guess they'll have a new 4th OFer by Sept 1st.

 

Good article on the Red Sox signing of their draft picks:

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/13351/sox-land-all-but-one-of-their-top-picks

In a nutshell they did a very good job.

 

Fact: Ryan Lavarnway was removed from last night's Triple A game in the 7th inning and was not in the clubhouse after the game.

Rumor: He's headed to KC and could be added to the roster depending on the health of either Ortiz or Youkilis.

Which leads me to think that this might be Ortiz's last year with the Red Sox since it's looking more likely that Youkilis will be the full time DH when Will Middlebrooks is ready for the big leagues. His ETA is end of 2012, beginning of 2013. With the way Youkilis goes all out and just beats up his body I just can't see him staying healthy on 3B, nor do I think he's a great defensive 3B. Best case is Ortiz accepts a 1 year deal with an option for year 2 but I can see him looking to get a Victor Martinez contract (which probably won't happen).

 

Best case for the Red Sox obviously. I just don't trust Ortiz being productive much longer and I'm pretty shocked he's having such a good season this year. Plus his body type doesn't age well.

And no I don't believe the Red Sox or any other team would give Ortiz 4 years 60 million dollar contract. At least with Martinez he could play 1B or C if needed, Ortiz can play 1B maybe once or twice a year during interleague but that's it. And to further the point which teams could afford Ortiz at that cost and have an open spot?

Obviously he's limited to an AL team so a quick look at each team: White Sox have Dunn, Tigers have Martinez, Angels never spend money and have a log jam anyway, Yankees have Montero penciled in to be the DH of the future along with giving the older players (Arod/Jeter/Teixeira) a break once and awhile. No way Oakland, Tampa Bay, Cleveland (who have Hafner anyway), Kansas City (Butler), Minnesota can afford him at that price. Not sure about Texas' situation but they let Vlad Guerrero walk for less money and may use the DH slot for Hamilton/Cruz/Young combo. Maybe Baltimore, Seattle or Toronto since they have money to spend but I highly doubt they would go that route nor would it make sense for them to do that. So where is he getting that money from? DHs just don't get that type of money anymore.

 

I think 5 million is still too low. Guerrero got 8 and Damon got 7 last year. Ortiz probably would fall into the 10 to 12 million range. But he needs to be realistic, he's not getting a more than a 2 year deal if he even gets that.