Next year, it is pretty clear that the Red Sox will have one of the more dominant pitching staffs in baseball. The only ones that I can think of that compare is the upside of a Sabathia-Burnett-Wang-Chamberlain-Hughes rotation and the Zambrano-Dempster-Harden 1-2-3 punch in Chicago. But what about the offense? Many people discussed the need for another big bat in the lineup during the negotiations with Mark Teixeira. However, it’s easy to take for granted what one has, and I think Red Sox fans may be guilty of just that.
Remember, that you have the reigning AL MVP and the man who placed third in the voting on your team. You also have Jason Bay, who would have been right up there in contention had he spent the entire season in the American League. That’s three potential MVP candidates in the lineup. In my reckoning, only the Yankees (Teixeira, A-Rod, Jeter), the World Series Champion Phillies (Howard, Utley, and maybe Rollins) and maybe the Mets (Beltran, Wright, Reyes) can say that. That’s before you add in the 20-30 home run potential of healthy David Ortiz, JD Drew, and Mike Lowell. What we saw last June from Drew is what Theo expected his production to look like throughout the duration of his contract. If he could maintain that level of production throughout the season, the Red Sox offense could begin to resemble a new-school Murderer’s Row.
Of course the back end of the lineup is nowhere near as fearsome. You’ve got Lugo/untested Lowrie and a catcher who may or may not be Jason Varitek. The combined average of those two spots will likely sit in the range of 230-250, not exactly the ideal model of production. Even if the Red Sox do pull off a trade for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, well, his batting average has never been his strong point, although that would add another potential 30 home run bat to the lineup. And all of this is without mentioning Jacoby Ellsbury, who’s performance could make or break the team. If he hits upwards of .300, and runs like he did last year, you’ll almost always have someone on base ahead of Pedroia, putting added pressure on the pitcher. However, if Ellsbury doesn’t improve into the can’t-miss prospect with envisioned, that means less RBI opportunities for the rest of the team, and less runs scored. The equals more losses, pitching or no pitching.
Finally the bench is one of the deepest we’ve seen in quite some time, especially in the outfield and at first base. You’ve got Kotsay and Baldelli already on the major league roster, with Bailey and Carter, who has great success at Triple-A last year, waiting in the wings. Add to that Chip Ambres, Paul McAnulty, and Jon Van Every in Pawtucket in case someone gets hurt, and you have an outfield that can still win games despite injuries. Something tells me we won’t see Youkilis playing left field again this year, but who knows. At third base, you can have Youk back up Lowell, playing Kotsay at first. Behind Tek or Salty you have Josh Bard and George Kotarras at catcher. Lugo and Lowrie will share shortstop and backing up Pedroia at second. All-in-all a fairly deep team.
