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Red Sox sign Roy Halladay, Mike Cameron

Posted by Steven Lourie at 06:45 PM on December 16, 2009 Comments comments (0)

The Red Sox have made quite a splash in the past few days, after a relatively quiet start to their offseason which for the most part consisted of low balling Jason Bay and pissing him off and trading for Boof Bonser to counter the Yankees’ addition of Curtis Granderson. On Monday, the finalized a 5 year 85 million dollar deal with John Lackey, previously of the Los Angeles Angels and then they followed that up by practically saying goodbye to Jason Bay by signing Mike Cameron to a 2 year 15.5 million dollar contract.

 

I can see the John Lackey signing going horribly wrong. Lackey has a career ERA of 5.75 in Fenway and clearly does not like pitching in the park and has actually expressed frustration at times with the Green Monster. That’s not bad luck because of how many times he’s pitched in the park. That’s a trend, an explainable trend and one I don’t want to see 85 million dollars spent on. Lackey was the one guy in the Angels rotation that I, as a Red Sox fan, used to actually look forward to facing. Now, who do I have to look forward to facing? Lackey also has a injury of history problems, especially recently, and his career ERA of 3.81 is good, but not great, not worth the money we’re paying him. He’s also 31 and will be under contract until he’s 36, a lot can happen between now and then. Remember when the Mets signed Pedro Martinez. He was 33 and they signed him until he was 37, for a big money 4 year deal. Pedro was an amazing pitcher at the time, but age got the best of him quickly and he only ended up winning 32 games in the 4 years he was a Met thanks to age and injury. I don’t like the idea of signing a good, but not great pitcher, who has been awful in Fenway in his career, and is on the wrong side of 30, for 85 million dollars over 5 years.

 

Cameron is a decent player, decent power, decent speed, amazing fielder, bad hitter for contact, but he’s going to be 37 by Spring Training so he in no way warrants a 15.5 million dollar deal over 2 years. He has 49 homeruns and 24 stolen bases in the last two years, but a .246 average and he did it against inferior NL pitching. He hasn’t played in the AL since 2003 and he strikes out way too much, 298 times in the last 2 years. It’s not that I don’t like having Cameron and Lackey on the team, but the Red Sox gave up 100 million dollars for these two players instead of paying Jason Bay what he wanted, 5 years 75 million dollars. I would have rather had Bay than these two guys and we could have used that 25 million dollars for something nice, like another starter if that was really our problem last year, which I don’t think it was, or maybe we could have used that money and the money we saved by shipping off Mike Lowell, to get Adrian Beltre and add another big hitter to the lineup which we needed more than pitchers.

 

The one thing I think the Red Sox should do now is go after Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres. He would be a perfect fit for the offense. We could offer a package surrounding Jacoby Ellsbury, who would be a great fit to cover a ton of ground in center field in Petco, and also to hit a ton of doubles and triples into the gaps in Petco. He could offer Ellsbury and a top pitching prospect other than Clay Buchholz plus another 2nd tier prospect and that could be enough to get Gonzalez, who is a 27 year old left handed hitter who can hit to all fields and had 40 homeruns last season in spacious Petco Park and more walks than strikeouts. He could play 1st and Youkilis could move to left field or 3rd, depending on whether or not Mike Lowell actually gets traded, which is not a for sure thing anymore because of his injured thumb. This is a bit of a projected lineup for next year with Gonzalez in Beantown.

 

2B Dustin Pedroia

3B Kevin Youkilis

1B Adrian Gonzalez

C Victor Martinez

RF JD Drew

DH David Ortiz

CF Mike Cameron

LF Jeremy Hermida

SS Marco Scutaro

Bench: Jed Lowrie, Casey Kotchman, Jason Varitek

MLB Playoffs 1st round

Posted by Steven Lourie at 02:34 PM on October 07, 2009 Comments comments (0)

 Minnesota vs. NY Yankees

 

I do believe that any team can beat any beat in a best of a 5 series if the momentum is right, and I would like the see the Yankees lose, but I don’t think the Twins have enough firepower, before pitching and offensively, for me to legitimately predict them in this series. The Twins are an excellent small market small ball team, but the Yankees have the big names and assuming they produce (A-Rod?), they should win this series.

 

NY Yankees in 4

 

LA Angels vs. Boston

 

You can’t underestimate the Red Sox’ success against the Angels in the playoffs in years past, but also you can’t underestimate their success against the Angels in the regular season this year. The Angels can give the Red Sox a lot of trouble if they get on the basepaths and start running, but Red Sox pitching has kept them off the basepaths this year and I believe they will continue that here and win a good series.

 

Boston in 4

 

Colorado vs. Philadelphia

 

I don’t want to count the Rockies out because they seem to prove people wrong when people count them out, but I don’t see them having the starting pitching to hang with the Phillies. The Phillies have the advantage in the starting pitching matchup in pretty much every game this series and you can’t forget about their deadly offense as well. The only thing that can hurt the Phillies is their bullpen and Brad Lidge at the end of it.

 

Philadelphia in 4

 

LA Dodgers vs. St. Louis

 

The Dodgers have a good team, but they’ve kind of been stumbling into the playoffs. They haven’t been much more than a solid .500 team since about June. Teams that jump out to big early division leads always then coast tend to struggle in the playoffs. As for the Cardinals, this seems like their year again in the NL. They have an excellent balance of hitting and pitching.

 

St. Louis in 5

 

 

Defending Manny and Papi

Posted by Steven Lourie at 02:36 PM on July 30, 2009 Comments comments (0)
I assume you want me to comment on this. Those of you who know me know I'm a big Red Sox fan. If you've been paying attention to the sports news, both espn.com and sportingnews.com have as their head stories that both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz tested positive for steroids in 2003, one year before breaking the curse in 04. In 2003, steroids were not banned, the tests were merely taken so that Major League Baseball could investigate how many players were juicing. No suspensions were to be given out and no one was supposed to find out. I guess Major League Baseball kind of messed up that 2nd part. This list first came to prominence when Alex Rodriguez was revealed to be on the list. At that time, Major League Baseball announced that 103 other players were on that list. Sammy Sosa's name as well as Barry Bonds' name were also on that supposedly secret list. I'm going to defend my team here a little. Before you call me a homer, I promise these are valid points.

Yes, Manny and Papi did take steroids in '03. However, we won in '04. The year steroids were banned. The whole point of the ban was the stop the steroid use in major league baseball. Do you think Major League Baseball would ban steroids and then not retest the players who tested positive in '03 to make sure they stopped? Unless you believe in conspiracy theories, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were clean in '04. As far as I'm concerned, '04 was not tainted. No asterisk needed, in fact, I doubt you can even put an asterisk on any World Series title because that would be taking away from the clean, hard working players on that team. Plus, its not like its just one team that was juicing.

Now, this is not to say that I'm not dissappointed in them for using steroids, especially David Ortiz, one of my favorite players and a man who several times denied using steroids, but as you've heard, there were at least 104 players using steroids at the time. Steroids were seen by the players as not a way to get ahead, but a way to catch up with all the other players who were using it. It was dirty and wrong, but you didn't think you'd get caught and it was what you had to do to keep up with Barry and Sosa and A-Rod. Not that I'm saying what they did was right, but I don't think that if I were a major league baseball player in the early 2000's that I would be able to resist the steroid temptation and before you ridicule any players, whether Red Sox players, Yankee players for juicing, think to yourself whether or not you would have been able to resist the temptation, because I'm willing to bet a good percentage of you would not. We're humans, everyone's human. Baseball players, though we like to hold them to godlike standards, are human too. 

Now comes the matter of what to do with steroids and this list. Major League Baseball, how about, instead of trying to keep this information private, which you obviously suck at doing, reveal the whole list, give everyone who failed in '03 the same treatment as each other rather than having your star players have their career tarnished one at a time for failing a test that was supposed to be private. I'm willing to bet, when people see the list, all 104 of them, it won't be as bad on the players' reputation as it would if it were revealed one at a time, so that the media could make sure that every single player on that list's career is tarnished. I'm willing to bet that at least one player from every team is represented on that list, maybe even another Red Sox player (like how did Johnny Damon grow a beard that fast). 

Then, Major League Baseball needs to make an official statement, saying that they are sorry that they let what was supposed to be classified information slip out. And Bud Selig has to actually do it this time, rather than send one of his hencemen like he did when Barry broke the record. He needs to say that cheating is not right, but neither is letting classified information slip out, tarnishing players' careers. He needs to say that he's sorry he had to release the whole list, but in fairness to the players who had already been outed, he had to. He needs to say that each and everyone of the players who failed these drug tests will be treated equally, whether they all have asterisks slapped next to their stats that they failed a test or whatever, they all need to be treated equally. 

Honestly, if Selig doesn't come out with a statement like this, anything resembling this, in the next week or so, I'll have lost all respect for him. Steroids happened on his watch. Steroid testing happened on his watch. The players' names slipped out on his watch. That ridiculous Mitchell Report, which may or may not have even been true, happened on his watch. And yet, he's sitting on his ass not saying anything. Where Bud Selig these days?

Red Sox trade for Chris Duncan, Adam LaRoche

Posted by Steven Lourie at 08:31 PM on July 22, 2009 Comments comments (1)
The Red Sox haven’t had the greatest 2nd half, even if it has just begun. They are 1-4 in 5 games, have lost Tim Wakefield, their leader in wins, for at least 2 weeks with a lower back strain and have fallen behind the dreaded Yankees by one game in the AL East. However, even though they have yet to play a game, they are having a good day today, thanks to two trades. 

Their first trade was a bit of a minor deal, but I really like what they did. They finally found a taker for Julio Lugo, trading the highly paid shortstop to the Cardinals for Chris Duncan and a player to be named. Though they will eat the rest of Lugo’s contract, Lugo can now no longer hurt them. Lugo has been one of the worst defensive shortstops in the majors over the past few years, to the point where Terry Francona kept him and his highly paid bat on the bench as much as he could to prevent him from hurting their infield defense. With Jed Lowrie back from injury, they really had no need for Lugo. Duncan has big time power and can play both first and the outfield. He had 43 homeruns over a 2 year stretch from 06-07, but hasn’t played as much lately because of his high strikeout rate. The Sox will send him to the minors to fix his swing which they have done before with good success. 

The second deal is one that is getting more buzz. Power hitting first baseman Adam LaRoche, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates, will go to Boston for two minor leaguers, Argenis Diaz and Hunter Strickland. LaRoche also has big time power, with 20+ homeruns in every season from 2005-2008, and 12 already this year, but is not a great contact guy. However, he helps take the pressure off of Mike Lowell and David Ortiz, who are not the healthiest players on earth. LaRoche can play DH from time to take, giving Papi a break, and he can play 1st, allowing Kevin Youkilis to move to 3rd, giving Mike Lowell and his bad legs a break. And, for what they gave up, that’s not bad.

Speaking of what they gave up, let’s look at them. Diaz has spent the last 6 years in the minors and has pretty much no bat whatsoever. He’s likely a career minor leaguer. Strickland is 20 and has some upside, but not a ton. This just looks like another salary dump for the Pirates, whose frugal ways have bothered the fans to the point where the fans have threatened to not show up for the games. The Pirates have traded Nyjer Morgan, Nate McLouth, and Eric Hinske, getting back what has been regarded as lesser value by scouts in all 3 deals and they might not be done yet. Last season, they traded former all-stars Xavier Nady and Jason Bay, Bay going to Boston as well. The players they have received in those deals have definitely not been as good as the players they gave up, Bay being an MVP candidate and an All-Star in the AL for the Red Sox this season. 

Maybe the Red Sox should just keep trading with them. Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson are still on the block for the Pirates and you know you’re likely going to win that deal if you trade the with the Pirates for either of those guys. Wilson actually fills a hole for the Sox at shortstop and Sanchez could be a nice utility guy for them. Maybe they can trade 10 bats to the Pirates for the pair.

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