Sox are going to totally regret trading Coco

[gkiteisscal]

I was a CoCo fan myself, but I was not sad to see him go.  I don't think he would have liked going into a contract year as a 4th outfielder, especially in this economy and I think to that extent he could have become a personality issue. 

The real problem here is Nancy Drew's albatross contract (in this market).  No team is going to want to trade for an aging injury prone OF who is owed roughly $30M over the next two seasons, so the Sox are stuck w/him.  Also because of that the FO is probably hesitant to sign another OF to compete w/JD, because they do not want to pay $30M + $X for a RF platoon.  This left them with bargin basement shopping.  I think this offense is going to underperform this season.  As they are thoroughly relying on Papi & Lowell returning to form or Lars being ready to perform at a high level. 

However, the CoCo trade has given us a piece that lends itself to a potentially unhitable bullpen.  This should ease the burden on the starters and the offense.  The bullpen has the potential to shorten games.  6th: Ramirez, 7th: Saito/Oki, 8th: Oki/Masterson and 9th: Paplebon. 

All in all I think because of the number of question marks this year he Sox are going to struggle to make the playoffs in the AL East.  Hopefully, teams with bad finances will be looking to shed payroll mid-summer if their team falls out of the race and attendance is lacking.  With the organizational depth the Sox have the pieces to make blockbuster trades and hopefully they will be able to do something, whether OF depth, C or corner infielder.  Because honestly this lineup:

Dreamboat
Pedroia
Papi
Youks
Bay
JD
Lowell
Bard/Varitek
Lugo/Lowrie

We have two unknowns, three aging players with huge injury concerns, and three known blackholes (Bard, Tek & Lugo).

[ma11l]

I'm not going to panic about the injuries yet.  We're still a month away from the season.  Even then if we're banged up and get off to a slow start we'll have plenty of time to make up ground, it's a long season.


Drew was back at camp yesterday and should be in the lineup in the coming days.  Baldelli can give us two starts a week.  Kotsay can take his time coming back, we have some young guys who can fill a gap for a month or so.  I think we're going to be fine in the outfield.