{"id":489,"date":"2008-01-05T08:18:37","date_gmt":"2008-01-05T16:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/05\/the-2008-red-sox-so-far\/"},"modified":"2008-02-06T09:50:57","modified_gmt":"2008-02-06T17:50:57","slug":"the-2008-red-sox-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/05\/the-2008-red-sox-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2008 Red Sox So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m really amazed at how intact the 2007 Red Sox are so far with less than 2 months to spring training. Not a single key player is left to sign and only a couple that got regular playing time in 2007 have been let go.<\/p>\n

I took the 25-man World Series<\/span> roster and added a few key players that were left off (Tavarez and Wakefield) to see how we’re doing.<\/p>\n

Here’s how it stacks up as of today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Position<\/th>\n2007<\/th>\n2008<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Catcher<\/td>\nJason Varitek<\/span>\/Doug Mirabelli<\/span><\/s><\/td>\nJason Varitek\/Doug Mirabelli<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1st Base<\/td>\nKevin Youkilis<\/span>\/Eric Hinske<\/span><\/s><\/td>\nKevin Youkilis\/Sean Casey<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2nd Base<\/td>\nDustin Pedroia<\/td>\nDustin Pedroia<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shortstop<\/td>\nJulio Lugo<\/span>\/Alex Cora<\/span><\/td>\nJulio Lugo\/Alex Cora<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3rd Base<\/td>\nMike Lowell<\/td>\nMike Lowell<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Left Field<\/td>\nManny Ramirez<\/span><\/td>\nManny Ramirez<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Center Field<\/td>\nCoco Crisp\/Jacoby Ellsbury<\/td>\nCoco Crisp\/Jacoby Ellsbury<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Right Field<\/td>\nJ. D. Drew<\/span>\/Bobby Kielty<\/span><\/td>\nJ. D. Drew\/Bobby Kielty\/Jonathan Van Every<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DH<\/td>\nDavid Ortiz<\/td>\nDavid Ortiz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Starting Pitcher<\/td>\nJosh Beckett<\/span><\/td>\nJosh Beckett<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Starting Pitcher<\/td>\nCurt Schilling<\/span><\/td>\nCurt Schilling<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Starting Pitcher<\/td>\nTim Wakefield<\/td>\nTim Wakefield<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Starting Pitcher<\/td>\nDaisuke Matsuzaka<\/td>\nDaisuke Matsuzaka<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Starting Pitcher<\/td>\nJon Lester<\/td>\nJon Lester<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nEric Gagne<\/span><\/s><\/td>\n(Hooray!)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nManny Delcarmen<\/td>\nManny Delcarmen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nJulian Tavarez<\/span><\/td>\nJulian Tavarez<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nBrendan Donnelly<\/s><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nJavier Lopez<\/span><\/td>\nJavier Lopez<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nMike Timlin<\/span><\/td>\nMike Timlin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nHideki Okajima<\/td>\nHideki Okajima<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Relief Pitcher<\/td>\nKyle Snyder<\/span><\/td>\nKyle Snyder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Closer<\/td>\nJonathan Papelbon<\/span><\/td>\nJonathan Papelbon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Amazing. At the start of the 2007 season, it was said that, on paper, this appeared to be a championship team. It turns out they were right. Wouldn’t that mean that essentially the same team would look the same in 2008? <\/p>\n

Some players will likely not come back as strong. I think Schilling will continue his aging decline, but Dice-K should be even more effective after seeing the league once. Hopefully Ortiz will come back strong and we won’t suffer the kinds of injuries as the last half of the 2006 season. <\/p>\n

In any case, I’m optimistic.<\/p>\n

Update 1\/11\/2008: Mirabelli is back!
\nUpdate 1\/19\/2008: Lopez re-signed. Youk and Snyder still in salary arbitration.
\nUpdate 2\/2\/2008: Youkilis and Snyder re-signed. Sean Casey added at 1st base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m really amazed at how intact the 2007 Red Sox are so far with less than 2 months to spring training. Not a single key player is left to sign and only a couple that got regular playing time in 2007 have been let go. I took the 25-man World Series roster and added a …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The 2008 Red Sox So Far’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boulter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}