First off, I agree wiht ma11l that Bay saying Bay isn't "clutch" isn't valid.
But now onto Dusty Brown, who I was suprised to see come up so often in this discussion. As a matter of fact, I have seen Dusty in person 5-10 times. During the summer I work at a camp that is based in Maine, and so we frequently take trips to Hadlock Field in Portland to see the Sea Dogs play. Typically, and especially without a program, the fans don't know too much about any of the players, besides the big name prospects. So without having any preconceived notions of Dusty, his drawing my attention is fairly significant. And he did attract my attention, particularly in the field. I'm foggy on his ability to block pitches in the dirt, but I can tell you that he has an absolute cannon of an arm. In one of the games I went to he threw out 2 runners in the same inning, and another one later in the game. His bat seemed to be pretty mediocre at the time, but that was a couple of years ago, so who knows how he currently looks at the plate (statistics in the minors are misleading - the year before Hanley got traded to Florida and had that monster rookie season he was hitting in the low/mid .200s in Portland).
I can't tell you if the Sox see any Major League potential in this kid, but I think he has a shot. Definitely not to replace Tek - we all know the Sox will either re-sign Tek or acquire an established Major Leaguer to replace him. But Dusty may have a shot at Cash's job. His defensive prowess would make him a better candidate for that job than Kotteras.
As far as the big league roster goes:
- trade Crisp, his value has reached its maximum
- keep Buckholz, his value is low, and try to re-establish him in the big leagues
- don't count out Mike Lowell just yet, people who do that tend tend to eat their words later on
- trading Papi doesn't make sense. he's an influential clubhouse guy who may have suprisingly little value on the market until he proves that he can play again. But if he proves he can play again- wouldn't we want him at that point?
- will Lowell, Ortiz, and Youk on the team, which they will be, there's no room for Texeira.
- if they trade Coco, re-sign Kotsay as short-term insurance for Drew and Lowell. If one of them goes down indefinitely, Tito can plug in Kotsay until the Sox can pull off a midseason deal.
- dump Lugo, go with Lowrie - hopefully Lowrie gives us a solid effort, but beware that there are no guarantees with him yet.
- might as well sign Wake again. you can never have enough pitching.
- Masterson's role depends in his third pitch. can he develop a quality change up? if so, then i think he'll start. if not, he can still be valauable in his current role. I would imagine the pitching situation the Sox encountered this year will encourage them to make Masterson a starter.
- Schilling: he won't be pitching for us, but it should be interesting to see if he inks a deal with the Rays, like he has mentioned as a possibility.
The main question about the Red Sox is whether they should go to battle next year with the same cast of characters. Are they good enough to compete again without making any major moves? My take on this question is that they are good enough to compete, especially if Ellsbury and Lowell come back strong and prove everyone wrong. But to win, they need to spend the bulk of their free agency money on a starting pitcher. I say Lowe, not the more expensive Sabathia, as they need depth more than they need an ace. That way they can save some dough to go for a slugger at the deadline if an injury or an underperforming position player plagues the lineup.
Topic: Who Will the Red Sox Target for 08/09 FA? Who Will They Trade? (Read 138401 times)