Results tagged ‘ Mark Texieria ’
The Sox are out of the Mark Teixeria Sweepstakes
It was announced roughly two days ago that the Red Sox are out of the Mark Teixeria sweepstakes. As soon as I heard the news, I was happy. Like I’ve been saying since the second the rumor came out in the first place, we don’t need Mark Teixeria. When you get to Game 7 of the ALCS, there’s not much to improve upon, especially if some of your star players had injuries (Mike Lowell). Teixeria would’ve messed everything up with the Red Sox.
Kevin Youkilis at first is golden (alright, pun intended…). Earlier in the season he broke the record for most consecutive games at first base without an error. Why would you want to tamper with that? Sure he’s proven that he can play third (and outfield for that matter) but we already have a gold glover third basemen.
Plus, he was the 2007 World Series MVP, and we extended his contract in 2007. Sure Mikey had some offensive problems this year, and he couldn’t always make those impeccable backhanded catches when the ball was sharply hit down the third baseline, and then throw it perfectly over to Kevin Youkilis, but he had a hip injury! It can all be salvaged, that’s what rehab is for!
And for that matter, we already have a designated hitter, David Ortiz. Sure he didn’t have a great offensive season, he had that horrible slump at the beginning of the season, but his wrist was hurting, and his knee too for that matter. Hopefully he’ll engage in some training program that will make both those areas (which are essential for every hitter) less of an obstacle for him. This upcoming season, I think he’s going to have to step up and be the offensive forces of the lineup. And going back to the David Ortiz slump, in my opinion, a home run gets you out of a bad slump. So when the Sox were playing Texas kind of early in the season, I called his grand slam- placement and everything. I can only call a couple of home runs a year, so that was a nice one.
Here’s the rotation/lineup that I want for next year:
Pitchers (not in order)
1. Jon Lester
2. Daisuke Matsuzaka
3. Josh Beckett
4. Derek Lowe (I think we should go after him now that we’re out of the Tex sweepstakes)
5. Tim Wakefield *
Relievers
-Manny Delcarmen
-Ramon Ramirez
-Hideki Okajima
-Justin Masterson
-Clay Buchholz **
-Michael Bowden ***
-Javier Lopez
-Jonathan Papelbon
C: Jason Varitek
backup catcher: wishfully thinking, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, but if I have Clay Buchholz up there, then I don’t think that’s happening
1B: Kevin Youkilis
2B: Dustin Pedroia
3B: Mike Lowell
SS: Jed Lowrie
LF: Jason Bay
CF: Jacoby Ellsbury
RF: JD Drew
The actual lineup should look like this
1. Jacoby Ellsbury
2. Dustin Pedroia
3. Big Papi
4. Kevin Youkilis
5. Jason Bay
6. JD Drew
7. Mike Lowell
8. Jason Varitek
9. Jed Lowrie
*(Tim Wakefield): Depending on Spring Training, we could always move him to the bullpen like in 2003.
**Clay Buchholz: Maybe the bullpen would be better for him to start off in…
***Michael Bowden: I say put him in the bullpen, but treat him like the Justin Masterson of last year. We add him to the roster in September, and we can bring him up when needed earlier.
By the way, I think we should keep Tazawa in the minors for the entire year, or maybe bring him up as well in September.
Player to keep an eye on for Red Sox Spring Training: Lars Anderson. I predicted Jed Lowrie last year since the beginning, this year I’m thinking Lars Anderson.
Last but not least, like I mentioned in some of my former blog posts, I’m writing for this site MLB Center now as the Red Sox Correspondent (once again, thanks Ben! I found it through your link). So not only am I providing weekly updates, but I have a new assignment:
Top 10 Red Sox players of all time, ranked and everything. So, I would like to ask all of you for any opinions/input you may off. If your input doesn’t make the top 10, I’ll put it in the “honorable mention category” quoting you and putting a link to your URL.
-Elizabeth
Winter Meetings Updates-HOTTER HOT STOVE (finally)
If any of you are subscribed to the Hot Stove news feed, you may have been as overwhelmed as I was when I went online and saw 45 new updates!
Varitek declined arbitration, but I think that deep down, we all knew it was going to happen. It seems as if Theo only offered Varitek arbitration so that he would decline, because since he declined, the Sox will get two compensation draft picks should he sign with another team. So if this is the case, is Theo anticipating him signing with another team?
The situation is further complicated now that young Rangers catcher Gerald Laird is headed to Detroit. It would be harder for the Sox to acquire catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, unless they decided to give up Clay Buchholz, which is probably not going to happen. I’m pretty sure “Salty” used to play for the Braves, and I’m pretty sure that he has the longest name in baseball.
What confuses me is why Varitek would decline arbitration. Sure he wants a multi-year deal… and sure he wants more money I guess, but he is coming off the worst offensive season of his career. If Varitek had accepted arbitration, as some analysts put it, it probably would’ve been the best chance he had at making the $10 million he made in his last contract. Ideally, the Red Sox would want to retain Varitek and find a catcher who would be mentored by Varitek, or a successor if he was to sign with another team. Kevin Cash is definitely not ready to handle that yet.
The Red Sox also appear to be right in contention to acquire AJ Burnett. The biggest problems with that would be that he is seeking a five year deal, and the Red Sox would probably only offer him four (like what they did with Dice-K)… perhaps with a fifth year buy-out plan. Also the fact that he was (reportedly) very close to a deal with the Atlanta Braves, who were prepared to offer him a five-year deal.
The Red Sox are also stepping up their efforts to acquire the powerful switch hitter Mark Texieria, who is in the prime of his career. As we know, if we acquired him, Mike Lowell would be the most likely to be traded seeing that Youkilis is still under contractual control for the next two years, and Papi is basically the icon of the Red Sox. Then again, Mike Lowell has been a fan favorite since coming to Boston, seeing him go would be heart breaking for many of us. In my opinion, Tex would be great, but we don’t need him that badly, we got to Game 7 remember? Acquiring him would be like a mercantilist policy: there’s only so much wealth in the world (wealth is power in this case… hitting etc.) and you want to prevent others from getting wealth.
There have been some rumors regarding Derek Lowe, as of now, his top suitors are the Yankees, and Phillies.
The biggest news in baseball today is the Mets’ acquisition of K-Rod. They needed him since Wagner will be out the next season because of Tommy John Surgery (ouchhhh), and K-Rod is pretty much a perfect fit.
The Hot Stove went from zero-450 degrees and FAST, it’s flying with rumors, and hopefully more will appear as the Winter Meetings progress.
elidreesox
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