Spring training disasters
Well my posting has all but stopped - but I have an excuse (well several) - bronchitis... followed by Hawaii-itis... followed now by a broken finger... please send all donations, flowers and chocolates directly to me! That bout of Hawaii-itis was particularly bad - it is tough to post when all you want to do is snooze on the beach!
But the Sox are now all firmly in camp... well almost all. I really amn't sure what to make of Manny's agreed absence. Baseball players finish up in October... they start up again in February... and they need extra time off? And he isn't alone, K-Rod just reported to camp today because of visa problems, Pedro took time out of camp on Friday to deal with personal matters and it is an almost annual story that we hear of players struggling to be fit after off-season surgery... that took place in January...
When we look at the Sox offense v. 2005, I think a reasonable arguement can be made that says the 2006 team is worse (although not a lot), but with potentially more upside than last year's offense - departing are;
| 1B | Miller | .272 / .355 / .753 |
| 2B | Bellhorn | .216 / .328 / .689 |
| SS | Renteria | .276 / .335 / .721 |
| 3B | Mueller | .295 / .369 / .799 |
| CF | Damon | .316 / .366 / .805 |
While arriving are;
| 1B | Youkilis | .278 / .400 / .805 |
| 2B | Loretta | .280 / .360 / .707 |
| SS | Gonzalez | .264 / .319 / .686 |
| 3B | | .236 / .298 / .658 |
| CF | Crisp | .300 / .345 / .810 |
Clearly Loretta and Lowell are coming off down years - and have the potential to be significantly more valuable to the Sox than last year's stat lines show, but if they do perform at last year's level, Loretta will be fine, while the likliehood is that the Sox will replace Lowell - either by moving Youkilis back accross the diamond and picking up a 1b in a trade, or by acquiring a 3b in the market - if last year is really his new 'level'. Interestingly, one of the consolations that has been taken from the Lowell pick up is that he has a great 'gold' glove - but reading Peter Gammons 'blog' entry at ESPN Insider today, the defensive rankings that he talks about, only have Lowell at 21st... but they also have A-Rod as the worst bunt fielding 3b in baseball...
The big issue then for this Sox team is how (should that be if?) Manny performs...
| LF | Ramirez | .292 / .388 / .982 |
This team isn't good enough to miss that line...
posted by Neil Hay @ 9:24 pm
1 threw a strike
1 threw a strike:
Everyone seems to be going on about how bad the Sox have gotten just by looking at their offence but they seem to ignore the improvements made to the rotation and bullpen.
The Sox can afford to not be as awesome offensively as they have been in recent years. Few teams have been at that level.
Boston will do fine...at least till Beckett and Schilling get injured and Foulke and Clement burn out.
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