February 10th, 2008, 04:19 PM
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Join Date: May 21, 2006
Location: ME
Posts: 1,561
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Originally Posted by spidysox
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Originally Posted by Havokscry
Sean Casey had 4 homeruns last year in 453 ab. Alex Cora is not a power guy. Coco will probably not be around and I'm not sure if they will resign Kielty. I agree that character guys are essential to any team, but with the Yankees in the division you'll need offense.
Both Manny and Papi had down years offensively and nagging injuries. Lowell had a career contract year. I agree that Ellsbury is the future and hopefully he can develop Sizemore like power, but you can't really expect that early on. I'm not sold on Kevin Youkilis. Sure he's great defensively, but he kind of struggled down the stretch again and you'd hope for more power and production from a corner infield position.
As for the pitching, outside of Beckett and a few spot starts from some rookies, everyone seemed to struggle in August and September. Wakefield was pitching batting practice, Dice-K couldn't find the plate, and Tavarez lost his starting job due to poor performance. Thankfully, most caught their breath in the playoffs and turned things around a bit.
The Yankees worry me, but not so much with their 2008 team. Their $1.2 billion stadium is going to give them the resources to spend much more than they are now. Fenway is pretty much capped for upgrades, although they are still trying to squeeze more seats in. Boston fans are already paying the highest ticket prices by far.
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Don't be so caught up on power off the bench. We didn't have any last year and it didn't hurt us. All we need to do is keep games close and get it to Oki and Papelbon and we'll be fine. Casey I think will mostly be used as rest for Youkillis and Lowell. All in all, I think the Sox have a lot less to worry about than most teams do.
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Don't forget that the Sox almost lost a double digit lead in the AL East last year. The bench didn't really step up much last year when there were injuries to Manny and Drew. Ellsbury was really the only bright spot. Hinske and Pena had a few spurts, but performed under par for the most part. If the Yankees would have come back to win the division last year, who knows how things would have ended up.
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