If the sox end up with injry plagued seasons from jd drew, mike lowell and coco crisp the sox typical starting line up would look like this:
cf ellsbury - rookie
sb pedroia - 2nd year
lf manny - old
dh ortiz - old
1st yuke - medium young
rf mossy - rookie
c tek - old
3rd lowrie - rookie
ss lugo - medium young
And the starting pitching:
beckett - medium young
dice k - medium young
wake - old but doesn’t matter
lester - prob qualifies as a rookie
clay - so young he’s dating a penthouse pet - sidebar - what are the vet sox wives saying about this? is she participating in the wives charities? what type of suggestions is she making? Have the other sox players all looked at the pics of her on-line? Is it a team joke? Are the old guys pissed? I need answers.
And if any of them goes down you know Justin Masterful is in the wings…
That’s a whole lotta young on this team. And the amazing thing is that NONE of the 1st or 2nd year guys really worry me that much. I like having them up in key situations. They seem to really relish the moment and not get caught up in it. I remember when Yuke was a rookie - he looked like he was going to pee his pants for three straight days during a late summer series in NYC. Now, the young guys coming in seem completely comfortable with the biggest stage. On the roster above the only guy who scares me is Lugo. I’m not saying everyone is destined for stardom, but they all seem to be gamers.
And that’s cool.
Heck, the only two guys I’d put behind JD Drew on my “Need a clutch hit” list are Lugo and Moss and Moss may pass him this year is he gets enough playing time. He’s certainly more clutch in the field.
So for the first time since the mid-80’s the Sox have soo much home grown talent that they are going to be stocked for the 5-10 years. This means that during this time we will be able to target the big free agents and bring in the heavy hitter we need to put us beyond over the top. I guess the Yankees could out-bid the Sox if they want to on every free agent but seriously, right now, if you were a free agent, where would you rather play? There’s some seriously bad mojo in Yankeedom right now and the Sox are the model franchise.
One Comment
Yeah…lately the guys getting the promotions have been providing instant contributions. Papelbon a couple years ago. Ellsbury last year. Masterson, Lowrie this year.
Craig Hansen…ummm, no.
One thing to consider is this. Players in the sox farm system seem to be held back from the big league club until they are truly ready. It seems to be a mandate that they should make contributions right away.
On other teams there seems to be a greater willingness to throw young talent into the lineup on a regular basis and let them work it out. Remember when the Sox traded Hanley Ramirez? He was still in Double-A at the time. Then suddenly, he’s the everyday starting shortstop for Florida. This past winter in the Santana talks, Jed Lowrie’s name was getting thrown around and folks were doing lineup projections for the Twins with him as an everyday infielder.
Have no idea if the way sox treat younger guys is a factor of the state of the organizational depth or a fundamental approach to their system. Perhaps its a combo of both.
As a fan, hard to say which I like more. Obviously what I enjoy most is the team winning. But, do I want to wait until Jed Lowrie is ready to bat 9th everyday, hitting .315 out of the box? Or is it more rewarding to see a guy like Pedroia struggle mightily, be given the patience then figure it all out to be a major contributor.
I was definitely calling for the benching of Pedroia for Cora last year. But watching him turn it around and become the player that he is was one of the best parts of last season.