Bye Bye Boston, Blow Up the Red Sox

The Dumbest Man in Baseball is gonna do New York. Watch out.

Red Sox fans aren’t going to want to hear this, but I’ll make it easy for them. Blow the team up. Get rid of everyone but Ortiz and Beckett and start all over. Because this team, as it is right now, stinks.

With Damon signing with the Yankees, the Red Sox now don’t have a short stop, first baseman, or center fielder. Their third baseman can’t hit any more (Mike Lowell), their right fielder is a lock for two stints to the 15 DL or more (Trot Nixon), their left fielder doesn’t want to play in Boston any more (Manny Ramirez), and their second baseman is Mark Loretta. And their old.
They had a nice run. They made the playoffs three years in a row and won the World Series in 2004. But it’s over now thanks in part to just some brutal moves in the front office this winter.

First they went out and traded their best prospect that played short for Josh Beckett. Okay understand that. But then they turned around and traded their short stop, Renteria, for a third base prospect that they don’t have room on the major league roster for. Huh? Oh on top of that Manny wants to be traded, David Wells wants to be traded, Schilling is about 429 years old and didn’t look good last year, their bullpen which was bad last year still hasn’t been addressed, if Kevin Youkilis doesn’t start they don’t have a starting player under the age of 30, and now Damon has left… for the Bronx.

Looking at this team right now, they’ve got 75 wins in them. Even with Damon it was only an 82 or so win team. This is just a killer for the Red Sox and the loss of Damon is huge not only because he’s leaving Boston but because of where he’s going. They’ve got next to nothing, they aren’t going to compete this year or next year with the way things stand so… blow it up. Trade Manny. Trade Schilling. Trade Nixon. See what you can get. Play some kids, win 70 games (seriously, this team is not that good even with those three) and then go out next year and sign a few free agents to surround Beckett and Ortiz. But with the way things are right now, it’s just not happening for the Red Sox in 2006. And unless they can figure how to get a good starter, a few arms in the pen, a short stop, centerfielder, and first baseman this team may just finish in fourth place next year.

For the Yankees? Of course it’s a good deal. The contract is manageable, they get a centerfielder and a lead off hitter, and they’re the favorites to run away with the AL East. In fact, that race is over. Yankees are the 2006 AL East Champs. But I’m not sure they’re any closer to getting back to the World Series right now. Their pitching is still a huge question mark and to think they’ll get the same performance from Aaron Small or Shawn Chacon would be stupid. They may score 1,000 runs this year, but what good that does them when they’re in the playoffs… I don’t know. I’d have to say the Indians, White Sox, and Angels are still the favorites to win the AL pennant.