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Could Beckett Be Traded?
It’s no secret that Josh Beckett has lost a lot of fan support since last September. Just yesterday it was reveled that he and Clay Buchholz went golfing even though he was “resting” a lat injury. Shortly after people were calling for him to be traded or just outright released. Now this is a little unrealistic, it’s not like he’s completely unproductive (although tonight he looked it) there’s still trade value. Obviously the Sox would have to eat most of his contract ($51 million over the next 3 years) so the question is a waste of $20 million+ worth keeping the fan base and taking a bad influence out of the clubhouse. I’m not saying I’m on board with it, but if Ben Cherrington is here are some teams that may be takers.
San Diego Padres: This may seem like an odd match, but this is the same team that was willing to take John Lackey, plus with 3 of their starters on the DL they could use a pitcher right now. Beckett could also be a teacher to their young pitchers, but in baseball only.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Another interesting team, but they want pitchers at any cost. Their staff has filled up, but I’m sure they’d welcome Beckett to the team.
Los Angeles Angels: The Angels have a lot of bad contracts and they want pitching depth, so in an extreme case they could swap contract for contract. It’s not likely, but it’s a possibility.
Kansas City Royals: People have been saying all they need to contend is pitching, and with a system full of quality prospects they could match up nicely. It’d be difficult to get them to part with prospects, but the amount eaten by the Sox would determine the size of the return.
This is only list of teams that could take Beckett off our hands right now. All are long shots, but still possibilities. I think what this proved the most was that trading Beckett would be difficult and futile. They won’t get a huge return and they’d still have to pay him. I’m sorry if you hate him, but he’s likely here to stay.
Rock Bottom 2.0?
Here we go again another losing streak. The only positive is it was to the best team in baseball so we can say it was them not us. Even with that it’s going to be tough to get over this, but the Royals look like a nice remedy, but not enough to make this into a winning team. Everything needs to click at once for that to happen, but that doesn’t look like it’ll happen with this team. Either the starter can’t go into the 6th, the bullpen falters, or the hitting just isn’t there. It seems like after a nice revival, were back at the bottom in danger of getting on a long painful losing streak. If things don’t start getting put together this team will soon be turned into a rebuilding project. Everyone with an expiring contract will be gone in July and we’ll be 5 years from contention, at least. But of course that’s worst case scenario, they can always pull off an amazing road trip winning all but one game. That’d be nice, but that seems like a pipe dream at this point. We just got to wait and see.
Will Middlebrooks Live Up to the Hype?
Yesterday the Red Sox recalled Aaron Cook, Jose Iglesias, and Will Middlebrooks from AAA. They also optioned Junichi Tazawa and Lars Anderson to AAA and placed Kevin Youkilis on the DL. Will Middlebrooks is expected to play third base in the absence of Youk. If you don’t already know, Middlebrooks is the top prospect in the Sox’s farm system. He was tearing up AAA pitching is April and many fans have been hoping to see him called up. Although he’s only expected to stay until Youk is reinstated from the DL, but there’s reason to believe he might over stay his welcome.
Will Middlebrooks is a near complete hitter. He can hit to all fields, but has a lot more power to his pull field. He also tends to expand the strike zone and chase pitches, especially fastballs up. Yesterday, in his debut, he was able to show patience by drawing a walk so he might be more patient at the big league level when he knows he’s not going to be able to handle all of those pitches.
If Middlebrooks can consistently play like he did last night (2 for 3 with a walk) he could find himself staying on the big league roster for a long time. He could end up being very valuable in keeping Youk healthy by having a trusted bat slid into the lineup when Youk is taking an off day which will be frequent. Although Middlebrooks is over hyped, he does has the skill to develop into the player that many project he will be one day. He’s a reason now to get excited even if his first stay isn’t for long.
Have We Found a Savior?
Savior to the bulpen that is. Today the Red Sox called up Rich Hill and optioned the shaky Justin Thomas to AAA Pawtucket. This is huge for the Sox. The only reason Thomas was in the majors was to keep the seat warm for Hill, and it quickly became the hot seat.Thomas was the lefty specialist, but he had a slight problem, he couldn’t get lefties out. Last year Hill had a great start in the lefty role, but Tommy John surgery ended his season forcing the Sox to get Franklin Morales. Now Morales can be committed to his eight inning role knowing that lefties will be held in check by a lock down guy in Rich Hill. This was the second biggest hole for the Sox’s (closer being the biggest) and now we have a solution. I know the Sox have had a recent up swing, but this helps insure it’ll last.
How Crawford’s Injury Can Help
Tonight the Sox wrapped up their fourth straight win with a 9-3 win over the White Sox. Sadly it wasn’t all good news today as we found out Carl Crawford will be out for up to three more months.Now this sounds terrible, but there is some bright side to it.So far this the two of the teams hottest hitters are Cody Ross and Ryan Sweeney. With Crawford returning one of them would’ve had to been benched despite their hot starts which is more than you can say about Crawford in his Boston start.
Sweeney to many was a pleasant surprise, but not to me. If you have read here before you’d know that I had faith in him since we got him.He’s currently on an eight game hitting streak and has been hitting great all this year. Ross on the other hand has been a pure power hitter. He’s come up with some critical homers so far.I love the way they’ve both been hitting and they both have been an upgrade from Crawford thus far.
To look at it from a numbers stand point, Sweeney has a disappointing .286/.344/.386 career line, but this year he’s off to a great start with a .383/.406/.583 line. He’s also fourth in the entire MLB. You can’t put up numbers like that playing with against the pitching that the Sox’s have faced and call it a fluke. He can pound nighties even with his limited power. He’s learning to hit lefties and becoming a more complete hitter. Batting him second could be wasting his talent as a pure doubles hitter, robbing him of several RBI chances, but he does set up those chances for Pedroia, Gonzalez, and Youk.
Looking at Ross, he’s just a great pure power hitter. You give him a fastball belt high and you don’t see it again. Actually any fastball he gets wood on has a good chance of going for extra bases. This year he’s got a nice .267/.328/.567 line which tops his .261/.323/.458 career line. His five homers have him tied for eighth in the majors. He can hit and I expect him to continue to go deep. Overall I prefer Sweeney to Ross, but either way they both add value to the Sox’s lineup.
Red Sox Aquire Marlon Byrd
Today the Red Sox acquired Marlon Byrd from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Michael Bowden and a player to be named later. I have mixed feelings about this move. On one hand it’s nice to have an experienced center fielder, but is it a pressing need? Not really. After what unfolded today Ben Cherrington should have put center on the back burner and focused on relief. The thing I like most about at this move though, is how much we have to pay. Bowden’s not the top prospect he once was and he really needed a change pf scenery before he was going to have success at the big league level. Also, the Sox only have to pay $400k of his $6.5 million contract. This move is either a hit or miss, and who knows we might be able to flip him to somebody for relief help.
Relief for the Relievers
It’s no secret that the Red Sox bullpen has been bad. They need some type of quick fix to save the pen. As promised here’s my list of guys who can help save the bullpen by the end of May.
Huston Street RHP-SDP: I mentioned Street in my article yesterday. He’s currently the closer for the San Diego Padres. He doesn’t appear to be a trade candidate, because they just traded for him, but I’ve heard that they only got him to spin him off to another team, when his value got higher, for more. At this point the Sox may be reluctant to add a pricey closer, but at the same time you look at the problems with the bullpen you have to expand what you call too expensive. He can save the pen by bringing his closer experience along with some leadership. With a win-loss record of 30-21 with 179 saves and a career ERA of 3.09 he’s proven to be a quality arm over the past 8 years.
Jeff Gray RHP-MIN: Gray isn’t a name known by many and perhaps that benefits the Sox. Gray is a reliever for the Twins currently and has played for 5 different teams in his 4 year career. He hasn’t had too many chances to prove himself, but he ended last year strong and has started off this where he left off. The Twins don’t appear to be contenders this year and the asking price for Gray would likely be low and they might be able to get a quick and painless deal done.
Brandon Leauge RHP-SEA: Last year League established himself as an elite closer. Their Mariners were thrilled with his ability to step into the closer role in their time of need, but as a rebuilding team they entertained the idea of trading him this offseason. Hopefully the market for League is still open. It’s highly unlikely they’ll deal their closer within the first two months of the season, but everyone has their price. He’d be very valuable to the Sox, because of his AL East experience and his closer experience as well.
John Lannan LHP-WSH(AAA): Lannan’s situation in Washington is getting worse and worse and he wants out. Yes, Lannan is a starter, but he gives the Red Sox the option to send Bard back to bullpen which would obviously help the pen. Lannan would add a third lefty to the rotation which isn’t a bad thing, but it could lead to some match up problems with right-handed heavy lineups. I like the idea of adding Lannan, but I like the idea of putting Bard back into the pen a lot more.
Juan Carlos Oviedo RHP-MIA: I know the Red Sox don’t want another troubled reliever (Bobby Jenks) but Oviedo was pretty special when he was Leo Nunez. The Marlins considered non-tendering him in the winter, so we know they’ll be willing to part with him. Oviedo can still close games and a deal could be made.
Roberto Hernandez RHP-CLE: He’s a cross between Oviedo and Lannan a troubled starter. Formerly known as Fausto Carmona, Hernandez has had an up and down career. The Sox did make a push for him at the deadline and can rekindle talks at a lower price. He also gives them the option to move Bard back into the pen and he could pitch pretty well in the rotation. If the price is right the Sox can’t pass up this oppertunity.
Junichi Tazawa RHP-BOS: I know he’s already part of the pen, but he hasn’t pitched yet, so he’s still got a clean slate. In 2009 he was able to showcase his ability and he had some pretty good stuff. He was fantastic in his short stay. I saw his start against the Yankees and that’s when I was sold that he was going to be good. Lately he’s been sidelined with injuries, but now he has his chance to establish himself as a big leaguer.
Brandon Duckworth RHP-BOS (AAA): Duckworth is currently a righty pitching for the PawSox. He has some major league experience, and he could end up being a quality reliever in the pen. Key word is could though.
Clayton Mortenson RHP-BOS (AAA): We dealt Marco Scutaro for him so the former starter turned reliever can have an impact on this team. He’s not always dominate, so he might not be a quick fix, but he has potential and I can only hope he’ll live up to it.
This list isn’t really a star-studded list, but that’s not the point of it. These are guys who can be acquired (or called up) and have an impact. There are other guys out there, but I complied this list based off of a little research and my own personal knowledge. Feel free to add names or pick apart this list. If you want, send me a tweet @thebestsoxblog (or at least follow me). Personally I like all of these guys, some more than others, and I’d be thrilled in the Sox got any of the 6 not on the team.
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