Now I am watching Anibal Sanchez throw a no-hitter.
Between Pedroia's struggles and the assortment of bums we have brought up from Pawtucket this season, it seems as though we might have lost two of the only legit members of the "youth movement" in the trade with Florida. Oh, and Josh Beckett is poop.
HE DID IT!
I hate baseball...
Fuck you, Theo.
Hanley, Anibal and Marte for Beckett and Coco looks ugly right now. One could have predicted that it would look uneven in 2009 or 2010, but not immediately. And by that time it would be expected that Beckett had pitched ace-like and Coco had been a solid leadoff man for three seasons of 95-win Red Sox basbeball. Damn.
Also, this isn't entirely 20/20 hindsight stuff. I refer you to the archives. It seems I was optimistic with the worst-case scenario on Beckett. Just out of curiosity, Ply, were the other two Liriano and Verlander?
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Honestly, I'm not that concerned about Coco. He missed time with the inury and the kidney stones and has just never looked comfortable at the plate since coming back. On top of that the injury was to his hand, and, if I remember correctly from my playing days, hand strength is rather crucial to hitting a baseball. I'm fairly conifdent he can hit about .280 with 15 home runs next season.
Beckett is another matter. He doesn't trust his curve/can't control his curve. His fastball is hard, but very hittable. If healthy I see him being a nice number 2 or 3, but perhaps not the ace we thought we had landed.
I'm not at all a Theo-hater. I love the guy, but 2006 has been a disaster for him in every way. I think the only move I approve of at this point is the Mirabllli-for-Loretta swap. But then he went a fucked that up by throwing away Cla Meredith to get Mirabelli back. I suppose the Alex Gonzalez signing was a nice, thrify move, but I still scratch my head why they were so eager to unload Renteria after just one year--how much of his contract are we paying again?
As for next season: Get a number five hitter, a lefty in the bullpen and a Cla Meredith. It will be interesting to see what happens with Trot. Three years, $24 million for an oft-injured 32-year-old seems somewhat reasonable, but who knows what he'll demand--JD Drew made over $11 million this year! I certainly dont see Trot being the type of player that a team would vastly overpay, but I suppose the Sox could take a hard stance and lose him. Other than that, our rotation has just three members at this point (Schilling, Beckett, Wake). The big decision is what to do with Papelbon. More valuable as a starter, sure, but they better be damn sure they have someone dependable closing games--Hansen is not the answer yet. My suspicion is that either Papelbon or Hansen will be given an opportunity to slide into the rotationnext season. I haven't even looked at the free agents, but they could obviously use an arm to fill out the end of the rotation. Between the struggles of Pedroia and Hansen, plus Lester's cancer, they don't seem to have many top-flight chips to move in a deal.
Anyway, the upcoming off-season is huge for Theo. He's now had two good off-seasons (one great trade deadline) and two pretty awful off-seasons (one awful trade deadline). Through the collapse of the 2006 team I think we have found that our farm system is neither as deep, nor as major league ready as we had suspected earlier. Theo has more money to spend than all but one GM, how is it that we are so often left without a run producer in in the number 5 spot, a single reliable pitchers to use in the sixth or seventh, or a half-way decent bat off the bench? We can talk about how Theo is reconfiguring the organization, bringing up more youth and such, but the things I just listed should are essential for any team.
Pencilling in Wily Mo in right and in the number 5 spot and Papelbon as the third man in the rotation would potentailly make things much easier for Theo this off-season, but who knows if would work out smoothly, or if that is the direction they aim to go in.
Rambles....
Some rational discussion of the trades.
"I think we have found that our farm system is neither as deep, nor as major league ready as we had suspected earlier."
A farm system is, by definition, not major-league ready. I don't know how we've found anything out about its depth if some players can't perform at the major league level yet - they're not ready to play in the majors. That's why they're in the farm system.
Louis, the only reason I claim you "hate Theo" is that, in my presence, you often say, "I hate Theo."
Well, when the major league staff is designed to rely heavily on the farm system and the farm system does not comes through I would say that is troubling.
He lacks passion, this disturbs me. Too reasonable. What happened to the man who created "Shoot Mike Timlin"? The World Series stripped him of his ability to be anything but a voice of reason. Boo.
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