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Originally Posted by CityofBrotherlyShove Peter Gammons' latest ESPN article predicts Coco Crisp will have a breakout year.
I'm also pretty excited about the upgrade at 2nd from Bellhorn to Loretta. Bellhorn had a fantastic 2004, but he was beyond atrocious last season. |
bellhorn played like 10 games for the red sox last year. and yeah he sucked, but graffanino was great. i don't see loretta improving on graffanino's half a season here. which is why i can't understand trading mirabelli for loretta. you just weaken wakefield greatly by doing so. they were a tandem, wakefield w/o mirabelli sucked last year. now they're basically going to be forced to trade graffanino, and they won't be getting a doug mirabelli in return. so i think they lose bigtime on that one. it's not a glamorous role, but he was the best backup catcher in baseball, and he handled that great, never complained, knew why he was there.
but aside from that curious move, they did about everything right this offseason, especially in the bullpen. taveras, riske, seanz are all very good signings. and hansen and delcarmen will probably start in aa or aaa, but be better midseason callups than just about anyone you could trade for. foulke is of course the big question mark in the pen, but if he repeats his performance of last year, i stick timlin in there as the closer again. he was great in that role last year, and this year you have the arms to get from the starter to him. i don't want to even entertain papelbon as the closer, if they're going to give the chumps a chance at the beginning of the year - arroyo and clement, and like i said, wakefield will be shakey - then put papelbon down in the minors to start and get innings. i don't agree with it, but it's better than wasting him in the bullpen. one or two of the extra starters should be traded or in the bullpen by may, and papelbon will be ready to step in then.
offense will be about the same i think. a little dropoff, not drastic. youkilis is a bum, i'd rather j.t. snow start every game, but crisp will have nearly as good a year as damon did last year. damon will have a better year this year than he did last, so it'll look like the red sox screwed up, but every year after i'd take crisp. lowell will be good, not 2, 3 years ago good, but good, wall is going to help him. nixon is a stiff, they've got to improve that position, but maybe he stays healthy for 50, 60 games, then we can trade one of these extra starters, get something decent in return for the last 2/3rds of the year.
i think they'll win 93, 94 games, less than last year, but if they make the playoffs, they're going to go very far, probably even win it again. they're a much better playoff team than they were last year. it'll be tough to get to the playoffs, with the yankees more than likely winning in the high 90s, the blue jays a real contender this year, they owned the red sox last year, and they made a bunch of improvements. also of course the indians and white sox two great teams in the central, and the angels in the west, and the a's are going to be a very very good team too. so it's shaping up to be a great year for baseball.
03-08-2006, 11:40 AM
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