Bridge Closed for Construction

Could be one of those types of seasons

Throughout the off-season Theo has said how this upcoming season will be a bridge season for the Sox. Which is fine and I respect that teams need to take a year to re-sign within the organization and save money for a potential bring name player down the line. The Red Sox representative keep saying they think the Sox will be a solid ball club with a chance to win this season. I disagree.

I have the feeling this years team will be a lot like the team of 2006. A team that looks dominating at the beginning of the season but could fall of as the All-Star break hits.

The potential starting line-up for opening day would be:
Ellsbury LF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez C
Youkilis 1B
Ortiz DH
Drew RF
Beltre 3B
Cameron CF
Scutaro SS
…that line-up, scored 733 runs last year. The 2009 Red Sox line-up scored 872, which average out to 5.3 runs per game. Where the 733 collected by these players last year only averages to 4.5 per game. Almost one run less per game, in the AL East, is not a good way to enter the season.

Which brings me to my next point, the Red Sox won 95 games last season and were 8 1/2 games behind the Division Winning Yankees. Does anyone really think, the Sox will win 95 games 3-1 or 4-2 all season. Especially when the Yankees will be scoring 5 or 6 runs a game there is no way the Sox will survive.

But what about the pitching?? isn’t that why the Sox got Lackey?? The team as a whole gave up 736 runs, 695 of those were earned. The starters (Beckett, Lester, Penny, Buchholz, Wakefield, Matsuzaka, Smoltz) gave up 434 earned runs. Now with this years potential starting five (Beckett, Lester, Lackey, Buchholz, Matsuzaka) gave up 324 earned runs. It is more than one hundred runs less but you must take into consideration that Buchholz only pitched 92.1 innings and Matsuzaka threw 59.1 innings.

If the pitching is healthy it will help out a lot, and the players acquired for the field are a little better defensively. I still do not think it will be enough. Beckett the past two seasons has fallen apart after 150 innings.

If Tampa is good again this year I will not be surprised if we finish third.