TwitterTruck Day at Fenway
5 Feb 2013
Well, today is truck day for the Red Sox. The day a big semi heads south with equipment, baseballs, juggs machines, advil, beer, fried chicken and various other baseball necessities for the 2013 Red Sox.
For Red Sox fans, we have a rough idea of which players will break camp with the team. Here’s my guess:
- c – Jarrod Saltalamacchia (baring a trade)
- 1b – Mike Napoli
- 2b – Dustin Pedrioa
- 3b – Will Middlebrooks
- ss – Stephen Drew
- lf – Jonny Gomes
- cf – Jacoby Ellsbury
- rf – Shane Victorino
- dh – David Ortiz
- c – David Ross
- ut – Pedro Ciriaco
- ut – Brock Holt
- sp – Jon Lester
- sp – Clay Buchholz
- sp – Ryan Dempster
- sp – Felix Dubront
- sp – John Lackey
- rp – Franklin Morales
- rp – Koji Uehara
- rp – Andrew Miller
- rp – Andrew Bailey
- rp – Joel Hanrahan
- rp – Craig Breslow
- rp – Alfredo Aceves
- rp – Daniel Bard
That leaves Ryan Lavarnway, Junichi Tazawa, Clayton Mortensen, Daniel Nava and Jose Iglesias in the minors. Of course there is a strong sense the Red Sox will move a catcher, most likely Saltalamacchia which would mean Lavarnway makes the club.
Things I like: I like the Red Sox bullpen. It is strong and well-balanced. Andrew Bailey might get moved as, from this perspective, he doesn’t appear to take conditioning too seriously and still has value.
I’m ok with the rotation, but that really is assuming new manager John Farrell get light a fire under the likes of Lester, Lackey and Buchholz.
The line-up is a huge mystery to me. There are guys who are tough at bats like Pedrioa and Ortiz, but there are also guys who give at bats away in Gomes, Saltalamacchia and Victorino (poor OBPs). With luck, this team could produce some runs, but there really is no superstar element save for Ortiz, and he’s 37, and Pedroia who is a nice hitter, but can’t be counted on as a major run producer.
After the last 7 months of disastrous Red Sox baseball, it is difficult to get too excited about this team. Yes, they could make the playoffs, but I again will state that this team has 82-88 wins written all over it.
Feb 05, 2013 @ 18:36:40
I’d take 82-88 right now.
Lackey makes the all-star team, write it down…then has disastrous 2nd half and ends around 15-12 4.30
Feb 05, 2013 @ 20:54:10
also, put an asterisk next to Ellsbury, he won’t be with the team on August 1st.
Feb 06, 2013 @ 00:37:50
Hi bl. Nice lackey prediction. I’ll bet you a cool wobbly pop on that one. As for Ellsbury, he has had way more bad seasons than good and I hope he kills it first half and they get a crap load for him in a trade as I think he just cannot sustain an excellent level of play.
Feb 06, 2013 @ 01:45:25
after last year he is due to have a great year, very inconsistent and injury prone, here is another prediction for you, the only one of the 1-9 players listed above that doesn’t do time on the DL is Ellsbury.
Feb 06, 2013 @ 15:51:57
BL, I’ll take that bet too. At least I hope you are wrong but with Ortiz and Drew, the Dl seems inevitable.