New Year, Same Problems

(originally posted January 1, 2006) So here we are, January 1, 2006. Outside the snow has blanketed the grass, the ground is rock solid, the trees are little more than a bunch of sticks trembling in the cold wind, and inside the Hot Stove is burning. Yeah, I know, you've all heard that metaphor a million times. We New Englanders are a little more nervous this time around than we were last year: the warm fuzzies of the 2004 Red Sox WS victory have well since worn off, and the hangover that was 2005 is for the most part forgotten. Still, the 2006 Red Sox have made us all sick to our stomach, and they haven't even set foot on the field. Let's recap, shall we?

1. October 31, 2005: "Boy Wonder" Theo Epstein announces he is leaving the Red Sox (and possibly baseball) because of personal reasons. Speculation has it that a power stuggle between Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino and the young GM created the division in the upper echelons over on Yawkey Way, and a Dan Shaughnessy Sunday column is credited for driving the stake through Theo's fragile heart. He's gone. Rumors swirl and simmer even now that Theo will be back, and Sox fans continue to believe.

2. November 3, 2005: Mike Timlin resigns with the Sox. Well, at least we know what we're getting.

YEAR TEAM W L Pct. ERA WHIP G Hld. Sv.-Opp. IP H R ER HR BB-IBB SO Avg.
2003 BOS 6 4 .600 3.55 1.03 72 17 2-6 83.2 77 37 33 11 9-3 65 .239
2004 BOS 5 4 .556 4.13 1.23 76 20 1-4 76.1 75 35 35 8 19-3 56 .259
2005 BOS 7 3 .700 2.24 1.32 81 24 13-20 80.1 86 23 20 2 20-5 59 .277
*stats taken from The Sporting News 2006 Baseball Register

Over three years with the Red Sox, Timlin has shown that he can still get batters out even though he'll be 40 come March.
He's a contact pitcher, as he averages less thank one strikeout/inning. This fact makes his rising WHIP and Opp. Avg. somewhat frightening. Still, there's no reason to think he can't still come out of the pen and be an effective reliever/setup man.

3. November 25, 2005: The Red Sox send Hanley Ramirez (SS), Anibel Sanchez (P), Jesus Delgado (P), and Harvey Garcia (P) to the Florida Marlins for Josh Beckett (P), Mike Lowell (3B), and Guillermo Mota (P). The biggest pieces of this trade are obviously Beckett and Ramirez, so let's take a look at their stats.

JOSH BECKETT:
Year Age Tm Lg W L G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA
2001 21 FLA NL 2 2 4 4 0 0 0 0 24.0 14 9 4 3 11 24 1.50
2002 22 FLA NL 6 7 23 21 0 0 0 0 107.7 93 56 49 13 44 113 4.10
2003 23 FLA NL 9 8 24 23 0 0 1 0 142.0 132 54 48 9 56 152 3.04
2004 24 FLA NL 9 9 26 26 1 1 0 0 156.7 137 72 66 16 54 152 3.79
2005 25 FLA NL 15 8 29 29 2 1 0 0 178.7 153 75 67 14 58 166 3.38
*stats from '06 Baseball Register and www.baseball-reference.com

HANLEY RAMIREZ: (just his 2005 AA Stats, since he was 0-2 in 2 AB's at the Major League level)
Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS AVG
2005 PORT 122 465 66 126 21 7 6 52 179 39 62 26 13 .335 .385 .720 .271
*from minorleaguebaseball.com

Pos. G E FPct.
SS/2B/3B/DH 122 22 .957
*from '06 Register

The big questions with Beckett are his health, as he's never pitched 200 innings in a season, and he has repeated blister problems, resulting in numerous DL stints over his short MLB career. Regardless, Beckett is considered one of the premier NL pitchers, and when you package him with a steady reliever like Guillermo Mota, even the downside of Mike Lowell can't take the shine off this deal. Geting rid of Hanley Ramirez, Boston's prized SS prospect, can.

Ramirez was really nothing spectacular in Portland, either with the glove or the bat. While he remained in AA the entire season, his 2B counterpart Dustin Pedroia took off like a rocket, debuting at AAA Pawtucket midway through the season. For all the hesistation to part with a much-hyped prospect like Ramirez, Pedroia seems to have taken his place as top fielding prospect, and again, we picked up a few legit MLB players. Besides, Edgar Renteria was locked up through 2009 at shortstop... at least, until:

4. December 8, 2005: The Sox send SS Edgar Renteria and $11 million to the Braves for 3B prospect Andy Marte. Gulp. OK, so, who's going to play SS?

EDGAR RENTERIA
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP
1996 20 FLA NL 106 431 68 133 18 3 5 31 16 2 33 68 .309 .358 .399 172 2 3 0 2 12
1997 21 FLA NL 154 617 90 171 21 3 4 52 32 15 45 108 .277 .327 .340 210 19 6 1 4 17
1998 22 FLA NL 133 517 79 146 18 2 3 31 41 22 48 78 .282 .347 .342 177 9 2 1 4 13
1999 23 STL NL 154 585 92 161 36 2 11 63 37 8 53 82 .275 .334 .400 234 6 7 0 2 16
2000 24 STL NL 150 562 94 156 32 1 16 76 21 13 63 77 .278 .346 .423 238 8 9 3 1 19
2001 25 STL NL 141 493 54 128 19 3 10 57 17 4 39 73 .260 .314 .371 183 8 6 4 3 15
2002 26 STL NL 152 544 77 166 36 2 11 83 22 7 49 57 .305 .364 .439 239 7 5 7 4 17
2003 27 STL NL 157 587 96 194 47 1 13 100 34 7 65 54 .330 .394 .480 282 3 7 12 1 21
2004 28 STL NL 149 586 84 168 37 0 10 72 17 11 39 78 .287 .327 .401 235 6 10 5 1 14
2005 29 BOS AL 153 623 100 172 36 4 8 70 9 4 55 100 .276 .335 .385 240 6 5 0 3 15

ANDY MARTE
Year Team Lvl. G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG
2005 RICH AAA 109 389 51 107 26 2 20 74 197 64 83 0 3 .372 .506 .275
2005 ATL MLB 24 57 3 8 2 1 0 4 12 7 13 0 1 .227 .211 .140
*minorleaguebaseball.com and baseball-reference.com

Fielding (3B)
LVL. G E FPct.
AAA 109 15 .950
MLB 24 3 .857
*'06 Register

So what've we got? An All-Star SS traded away because he made a league-leading 30 errors in 2005, even though his offensive numbers were more or less on par with the rest of his career, and we picked up YET ANOTHER corner infielder. Granted, Marte is considered one of the best prospects in the game, but again, a prospect is just a prospect, while a Show-ready player is just that. This trade may have made a bit more sense had the Sox not traded away their prize SS prospect only a month before. And poor Kevin Youkilis just can't catch a break.

5. December 20, 2005: The Yankees sign free agent center fielder and the newest Boston villain Johnny Damon. I'm not going say anything other than check out this good article by John Brattain over at The Hardball Times : http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/its-not-the-second-advent-in-the-bronx-people/

And, well, here we are. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that we traded Doug "The Thug" Mirabelli to the Padres for 2B Mark Loretta, and Larry Lucchino named Ben Cherington and Jed Hoyer as "co-GMs" and stated that the light is on in the window for Theo Epstein, whatever the heck that means. All we know for sure is that we have no CF, no 1B, no SS, 50 million 3B, and a despotic CEO. Mmm, tasty. Stay tuned for a review of the moves by the other team I follow (granted at 1/1,000,000 the intensity of the Red Sox), the St. Louis Cardinals.