State of The Nation Part One: Defending a Nation

It’s hard to be disapointed in a Red Sox team that just missed its chance at a third improbable comeback to advance to the World Series in four years. Hard, but possible. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Red Sox of ’08 and take a look ahead to ’09

With a group that won its first World Series in ’04 with slugging and defense and a team in ’07 that won it with pitching and defense, it can get a bit tough to figure out what moves this ball club to championships. But we know that defense matters, so let’s hand out some grades, shall we?

Catcher: Jason Varitek

Grade: B

Reasoning: Age. With an aging-Varitek behind the plate, the season started off just fine. With his offense in decline, the Nation gave ‘Tek a break due to his stonewall defense and his intangibles that he brought to the pitching staff. The playoffs showed a frightening glimpse of an aging ‘Tek who no longer had a decent arm like he did in the past (True, the Angels and Rays could both run well, but there was nothing left in ‘Tek’s tank in October). With the youth in the rotation, namely Lester, finally showing some big league poise, ‘Tek could finally put some time in during the offseason and work on hitting.

That is if he comes back…

First Base: Kevin Youkilis

Grade: A

Reasoning: Range. When Youkilis moved from third base to first in 2006, we could only assume that he would be a better defensive first baseman than Kevin Millar, but wow. Just wow. Youkilis has continued to build on a resume that screams Gold Glove-candidate at first base. With a knack for diving he developed at third base that transferred well to first, Youkilis has proven that as long as you put him next to a line he will guard it with a dirt dog style of play that Red Sox Nation has grown to love.

Second Base: Dustin Pedroia

Grade: B+

Reasoning: Range. Dustin Pedroia narrowly missed getting an A for one reason. His range. It may look to some who watch highlights of Red Sox games that Pedroia has some of the best range for a second baseman in baseball. However, those highlights are misleading. After watching him for two years now, I’ve realized that his range comes purely from his ability to dive with the best of them. There are lot of balls, however, that he does not play well because he is not in the right position. I have a feeling that he’ll be a consistently good second baseman for a long time, but there’s a reason he got moved from shortstop to second base in the minors. Range.

Third Base: Mike Lowell

Grade: B

Reasoning: Age. With a hip that screams geriatric, Mike Lowell faded away at the end of the season because of his desire to play the game, which got him bonus points here. But there is no way Lowell comes back as effective as he was in ’05 or before. Look for the Sox to find a way to dump him on another team.

Shortstop: Jed Lowrie / Julio Lugo

Grades: B / D-

Reasoning: Ability. I’m still torn whether Lowrie earned that B or if Lugo made Lowrie’s defense look better. All in all, Lowrie is at least a serviceable option defensively at shortstop, and Julio Lugo is just a throwing-error machine. If the Sox could find a way to pawn Lugo, that would be great. Outside of eating all $9 million per year over four years, I don’t see that happening. The more-likely scenario is Alex Cora walks and Lugo becomes a ‘super-sub.’

Left Field: Jason Bay

Grade: A

Reasoning: Ability. With Manny Ramirez heading to Hollywood and Bay finally joining a Major League-caliber team, it gave Bay a chance to show how much of a five-tool player he really is. In the field, Bay showed that you don’t have to play five feet from the infield to be effective by contributing five assists (one less than Drew in 57 less games) and some difficult, clutch catches from left field. Bay is an overall improvement in left field over Ramirez.

Center Field: Jacoby Ellsbury/Coco Crisp

Grades: A+/A+

Reasoning: Speed. I would’ve said Range here, but these guys have the speed to cover more ground in the outfield than most rosters’ entire outfield. This could have led to more errors with balls they might have just missed getting to, but Ellsbury finished the season with no errors, and Crisp with two. Not to mention, both had numerous starts in left and right field during the season. (Gold Glovers?)

Right Field: J.D. Drew

Grade: B

Reasoning: Sample Size. With Drew playing 106 games in 2008, we got a sample size  of what we expected when he was signed when delivered fairly well defensively. With four errors, he led all Red Sox outfielders in errors, but his arm strength and range more than make up for those.

8/02/08 1,2,3,4,5 about time for this line-up to thrive.

(Feist jokes in my title already, insomnia IS getting the better of me)

Note: This update will be made during the game due to my need for sleep.

The Red Sox took a familiar shot in the bottom of the first when Emil Brown (Really?!) hit a home run off of Jon Lester with a man on Lester was able to gather himself quickly and stop the bleeding. Knowing the anemic offense of the Red Sox over the past half a month that could’ve been enough to put the Sox in the loss column. However tonight seemed to be different.

Dana Eveland doesn’t exactly strike fear into the hearts of many of his counterparts at the dish, but he’s a major league pitcher who’s put up some Ws. So the guy obviously knows how to get a guy out. That wouldn’t be the case tonight.

Pedroia – Single

Youkilis – Homer

Papi – Single

Lowell – Single

Bay – Homer

I think a manager will take that kind of production… well over an entire game, when you get it all in the first 5 BATTERS OF A GAME, well then, there seems to be a perfect mix of a pitcher who doesn’t have it and a lineup thats been hungry for a pitcher who doesn’t have it.

My hope for this game is obviously to win (Currently 5 – 2 w/ 2 outs in the bottom of the 1st, not over at all) but I’m also hoping that this lineup can develop some confidence and let that carry over to when they have some less favorable pitching matches down the stretch run.

::Append::

Not much more to add to this the morning after. I see the Sox offense went on cruise control as I had hoped (I fell asleep after the 5th when it was 9 to 2). The biggest thing here is that Jon Lester has been throwing strikes, and when he does that he can be ace-like. As long as the guy gives you 7 innings or more, we usually get the win.

Side note: Manny hit his first career home-run as a Dodger. Good to see Manny isn’t going to be turned on by the fans in LA (You know, the ones that show up in the 3rd and leave in the 7th) I’m glad to see Manny go for the sake of chemistry but the guy is still one of my favorite hitters to watch.

8/1/08 – A Splash in the Back “Bay”

Although Bay’s debut will be remembered for his clutch triple (5 foot more to the left and thats a homer), Bay’s first plate appearance, a walk, was more telling of what Bay brings to this line-up. Discipline.

With one of the largest standing O’s I’ve seen Fenway give anyone, Bay awkwardly waved to fans and kind-of tipped his helmet. Bay then stepped in against Justin Duchscher, and watched 3 straight balls, a letter high strike, and a 4th ball for a walk. Out of context, this is not that telling of how any player will pan out. However with the circumstances considered this guy just walked in from a AAAA ball club – into Fenway park – in his first at bat – with a standing ovation – and didn’t give in to the temptation to try and put one over the monster. That alone should speak volumes about what we’ve gotten, and will be getting, from Jason Bay, and that’s a disciplined pro at the dish.

Bay did strike out twice, once by Duchscher, the other from Ziegler (Who hasn’t been K’d by Ziegler, jeez). But Bay ended up getting the last laugh and finished off with a near perfect story book ending to this game with his triple to put him in scoring position, and then Jed “clutch” Lowrie (Well, One can hope) squeezed a bloop over the pitcher to score him. There was something about Don Orsillo’s excitement, the team’s all congratulating Bay, and the fans being extra into this game that made me think this game could be the catalyst for a good stretch run to take the sting out of a terrible July, and begin an, at the least, above .500 August.

Two side-notes to the end of the day:

1.) Mike Lowell left late in this game due to a hip strain, I would actually like to see Lowell DL’ed for a bit to help him get some rest, and get Sean Casey into this line-up. He can be a hitting machine and this may finally give Tito an excuse to use him.

2.) Manny looked good for the first half of his debut but failed to deliver in the clutch and grounded into a DP to end the game. Perhaps a sign of things to come? Probably not, That guy can hit like crazy. Also, 99? Really? I’ll call So Taguchi later and let him know he’s now the 2nd best player wearing 99 in the majors.

Till tomorrow, actually, later tonight (Damn my insomnia). Adios.

The new era may feel oddly similar.

With the passing of the non-waiver trade deadline comes the passing of the guard. Manny Ramirez is now a Los Angeles Dodger, and there is no question that on paper, our line-up should suffer from it.

Manny brought a lot of things to this Red Sox line-up for 8 years, some consider Ramirez the best Right Handed hitter in all of Baseball, and that is exactly what he brought to this line-up. The feeling in the pit of a pitchers stomach that they had to face a living legend who’s made pitchers better than them look like scrubs. That is what this line-up will miss most from Ramirez. The fear.

But it isn’t like we gave Manny, Hansen, and Moss up for nothing (Hansen and Moss weren’t really going anywhere on this team anyways). We got a peaking, power hitting, dirt dog, left fielder in Jason Bay.

Now, Some of Red Sox nation just knows Bay as the best hitter in the Pirates line-up (And that doesn’t really count for much these days) but what you need to understand is that Bay will never be Manny Ramirez. But let us look to another Fenway icon of the past to give fans an idea of what they are getting from Bay. Trot Nixon.

Trot gave the Red Sox some great moments as a clutch hitter, dirt dog fielder, and all around good guy. Jason Bay still hasn’t proved that he can be clutch on a big stage, through no fault of his own, and has put up some great numbers this season that compare pretty well to Nixon in his prime (Big difference being Bay can actually hit a lefty). Let’s take a look at the two at the age of 29 (Bay’s current season, Nixon’s 03 season)

         G   AB    R   H   2B   HR   RBI BB  SO  BA   OBP  

Nixon   134 441   81  135 24   28   87  65  96  .306 .396 

Bay     106 393   72  111 23   22   64  59  86  .282 .375 

With 2 solid months of baseball left to play, it’s safe to say that Bay will strikeout more than Nixon, but in the process will put up some monster offensive totals in his new home. With a big wall out where the middle of left field would’ve been in PNC Park, one would assume bay will see his doubles and home runs will take a heavy step in the right direction. His RBI totals will also see a rise since he will be in a much better line-up with much better hitters surrounding him.

My hope is that in his first game Bay goes 2-4 with a nice catch that Manny wouldn’t have made in the outfield, if all that can happen in one of these games against the A’s Bay won’t feel the pressure as much and would be free to become the monster he’s been due to become.