Last year’s record and finish are in parenthesis with projected improvement/decline indicated by plus or minus.
Boston Red Sox (86-76, 3rd in the AL East) +11 games
Get Crunked: Manny and David Ortiz are the best 1-2 punch of any lineup in baseball. Those guys are studs, and the rest of the lineup is solid, not spectacular, but solid. The pitching rotation is pretty studly, just looking at Schilling, and Josh Beckett, who should rebound and adjust to the AL East. Dice K appears to be pretty good and should have success. Papelbon was as good as any closer in baseball last year and he’s back in that role. The lights are bright in Boston.
Party Foul: The bullpen is a bit of a mystery. The have two castoffs from the Angels in JC Romero and Brendan Donnelly, who weren’t at their bests last year. Joel Piniero is trying his first season as a reliever. The other issue for Boston are the injuries. Coco’s had em, Varitek was slowed by one last year, and needless to say, JD Drew is an injury waiting to happen.
What’d my GM do: He totally reworked the bullpen, bringing in Piniero, Donnelly, and Romero. He signed JD Drew to a huge $70 million deal over five years. They also signed Julio Lugo to a 4 year $36 million deal, pretty hefty for the shortstop who looked so poor the second half of last year. Oh yeah, and there was that whole Dice K signing thing. Over $50 million to negotiate with the guy, and over $50 million for a six year deal. The contract really isn’t too large, it’s just the posting bid that makes the entire transaction seem so expensive.
Lay it on me Straight: The hitting is pretty godly, just because of Manny and Big Papi. The rotation is also the best in the league. The bullpen is the question mark for the second year in a row, but it should be more stable than last year.
So where my boys gonna finish right now: Barring injury, they should win the division and win more games than any other team in baseball.
Can we be better than that: Damn, I just said they’re going to have the best record in baseball, what more do you want?
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