Those new Red Sox (part 1 - well it's getting late...)

When your team wins the World Series, I guess the temptation is to change nothing – if they were good enough to win it all last year….. thankfully, the Anaheim Angels of Wherever They Want To Be Called This Week provided a recent enough lesson of the dangers of bringing back an entire Series winning team.

The Sox also had another excuse – the ‘Big 4’ were always going to be tough enough to bring back before Sox management induced the mother of all petted lips in Nomar and here we are with only one of the Big 4 back – if you had told any Sox fan before the 2004 season that the outcome of our negotiations with the 4 would have seen only Varitek return, then most of us would have been unhappy, but given the way the season unfolded, I guess I am not alone in being thankful (* - will return to this opinion) that only one is returning.

The major changes the Sox have in 2005 can be broken down as SS and Pitching….

Shortstop

I think I can honestly say, for all of Red Sox Nation, Edgar Renteria provided my favorite moment of the 2004 season ….will I be able to say the same in 2005?

Name	AB	R	HR	RBI	BB	OBP	SLG	AVG
Reese	244	32	3	29	17	.271	.303	.221
Cabrera	228	33	6	31	11	.320	.465	.294
Garciaparra	156	24	5	21	8	.367	.500	.321
Crespo	79	6	0	2	0	.165	.215	.165
Total	707	95	14	83	36	.296	.389	.260
Renteria
2004	586	84	10	72	39	.327	.401	.287
Career Average	547	82	9	63	48	.346	.399	.289
Garciaparra
Career Average	413	74	18	71	30	.361	.527	.312
Wonder Years	587	110	28	105	45	.389	.580	.340

Thankfully Edgar only has to replace the 2004 SS output to be a useful signing for the Sox - clearly he is capable of reproducing that output - this only focuses on his hitting. In defense he is clearly an adequate SS - the scouting report seems to be that he is steady, not as likely to make the spectacular plays in the hole as Nomar, but equally, not as likely to throw the ball into the home dugout having got there in the first place.

The reason for the additional Nomar stats is just to state....WOW.... why did a no name Oriole have to hit Nomar's wrist - his 1997 - 2000 numbers are just spectacular, and if we were asking Edgar to replace that level of output.....