Sox Set Rotation, Lineup

With less than one week before opening day, the Red Sox have set up their starting rotation and are close to setting the lineup.

Josh Beckett was named the opening day starter and is poised to be the Ace of the staff once again.

He'll be followed, in order, by Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield.

The Sox won't need a fifth starter until April 12 at the Los Angeles Angels. If all goes well, Brad Penny will likely be that starter, but if Penny has a set back between now and then Clay Buchholz may get the nod.

Either way, having Penny or Buchholz as your fifth starter has to be a great feeling for Terry Francona.

Penny has looked good in his two starts since returning from a sore shoulder, throwing in the mid 90s.

Buchholz has the been the team's best pitcher in the preseason with a 0.46 ERA. It would be ideal for the Sox to be able to send him down to Pawtucket to start the season and then have the luxury of bringing him up if there is an injury or someone is ineffective.

And in case the Sox are in need of another spot starter they always have Mr. Versatile Justin Masterson.

Masterson was arguably the most valuable pitcher on the team last season and will have a major role once again. He'll start out in the bullpen and likely will be the 7th-inning guy, getting the game to set-up men Hideki okajima and Takashi Saito before Jonathan Papelbon closes the door.

The Red Sox have never had such a deep and talented pitching staff which should take a lot of pressure off the offense.

But the offense is no slouch either.

The top four spots in the order are set with Jacoby Ellsbury leading off followed by Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis.

Francona is leaning toward batting J.D. Drew fifth, Jason Bay sixth and Mike Lowell seventh.

That order makes the most sense. If everyone is healthy, Drew belongs in the fifth spot to set up the left-right-left situation. Bay and Drew both run the bases well and that should help Lowell drive them in.

Again, any way they set the lineup, a combination of Drew, Bay and Lowell batting fifth, sixth and seventh in your lineup is a nice problem to have.

Jed Lowrie will bat eighth with Jason Varitek batting ninth. Hopefully they can contribute a little more than the bottom of the order did last year setting up Ellsbury and Dustin to do some damage.

Any way you look at the Sox will be a team to be reckoned with in 2009.

Thanks Schill, It Was a Great Ride

From the first day he put on the Red Sox uniform and proclaimed that he hated the Yankees, Curt Schilling has had a special place in Boston sports lore.

Schilling announced his retirement Monday on his blog, 38pitches.com, and will forever be remembered as a warrior and a winner.

The Bloody Sock Game is one of the greatest and gutsiest performances in baseball and sports history.

Without Schilling, the Red Sox definitely don't win the World Series in 2004 and likely don't win it in '07 either.

In his final Major League Game, he allowed 1 run in 5 1/3 innings to get the win in Game 2 of the Red Sox' 4-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series.

His numbers speak for themselves -- 216 career wins and a 3.46 ERA over 21 seasons. But where Schill really left his mark was in the playoffs.

In four of the five times his teams made the playoffs they advanced all the way to the world series, winning it three times. His 11-2 postseason record is the best all-time and his 2.23 ERA in 133.1 innings is pretty damn good too.

He and Randy Johnson were co-MVPs of the 2001 series when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in seven games. Schilling started Games 1, 4 and 7, pitching at least 7 innings in all three games, with at least 8 strikeouts in each outing and allowed 1, 1 and 2 runs, respectively, in the three games.

As we all know, Schilling loved to talk (and hear himself talk), but he always backed it up. He was 4-0 in five "win-or-go-home" playoff games.

He said he was going to bring a championship to Boston when he got here and he did. Even though he doesn't have the 300 wins that pitchers usually need to get an automatic pass to the Hall of Fame, his quality of wins and importance to his teams should get him to Cooperstown.

Hopefully when that day comes, he'll be enshrined wearing a Red Sox cap.

Dice-K WBC MVP Again as Japan Repeats

The 2009 World Baseball Classic ended a lot like the inaugural Classic in '06 as Japan was crowned the champ again and Daisuke Matsuzaka was named the most valuable player.

Dice-K won three games for Japan allowing 4 earned runs over 14 2/3 innings. He is now 6-0 with a 1.95 ERA overall in the two WBCs.

Despite the U.S. getting bounced in the semifinals, the final between Korea and Japan was a compelling, exciting game. Ichiro's two-run single in the 10th inning was the game-winning hit as both teams made outstanding plays and came through with big hits throughout the night and the tournament.

The U.S. was decimated by injuries and didn't have its best pitchers. The key losses of Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, who was leading the team in home runs before injuring his foot, were too much to overcome.

It was good to see the Red Sox players do well in the tournament, but now that it's over it's nice to have them back in camp getting ready for the season.

Even though Dice-K threw a lot of pitches and they were in much more stressful situations than would have been in Grapfruit League action, he should be fine for the season. And Youk and Dustin have returned from their injuries so it looks like the Sox came out of it relatively unscathed.

Two weeks to opening day!

Paps Rips Manny

Jonathan Papelbon said what many people have believed to be true about Manny Ramirez since he forced the Red Sox to get rid of him last summer -- Manny was a "cancer" to the team.

It's about time someone called it like it was.

A lot of people questioned how the team could deal Manny when they did, but it was obvious they had no choice and Paps' statements in Esquire magazine back this up.

The Sox had no chance to even make the playoffs had Manny stayed on the club and continued to drag them down with him. It was the classic case of addition by subtraction.

"It just takes one guy to bring an entire team down, and that's exactly what was happening," Papelbon told Esquire. "Once we saw that, we weren't afraid to get rid of him. It's like cancer. That's what he was. Cancer. He had to go. It [stunk], but that was the only scenario that was going to work. That was it for us."

Lowell Returns to the Field

Mike Lowell made his long-anticipated return to the Red Sox lineup Tuesday and had a base hit in three at-bats.

Lowell was the designated hitter in his first game back since undergoing hip surgery at the end of last season.

The Sox will ease him back into action, but Lowell said he felt fine after the game.

He is expected to play third base on Thursday and be in the lineup on opening day.

Lowell added that he expects to play 150 games this season.

That would be a huge boost to the lineup and would solidify everyone's role in the offense.

Ortiz, Bay Bounced From WBC

Looks like some of the teams in the World Baseball Classic weren't what we thought they would be.

In a stunning upset, The Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic for the second time in a week and knocked the Dominicans out of the tournament.

With their backs against the wall on Tuesday, the DR started David Ortiz at first base. Papi didn't make any mistakes in the field and went 1-for-4 at the plate with a double.

As a Sox fan, I don't mind Ortiz going back to join the club in Florida for the rest of Spring Training rather than risking injury by playing first base for his country in games that matter.

Canada and Jason Bay were also booted from the tournament. They lost to Italy in another upset.

Only 12,000+ fans showed up at Toronto's Rogers Centre for the elimination game, showing they really do only care about hockey up north.

Bay was 2-for-2 with a double and knocked in the only two runs for Canada. He batted .500 during the tournament and looks to be in mid-season form.

Red Sox Lock Up Lester for 5 Years

Jon Lester and the Red Sox have agreed to a five-year, $30 million contract extension with a $13 million team option in 2014, according to Yahoo Sports.

This is a huge signing for the Sox.

Lester is already one of the top 10 pitchers in the league and probably the best lefty in the American League. Add in the fact that he is just 25 and will be coming into his prime over the length of the contract and this singing looks like another major coup for Theo Epstein.

The Sox now have three of their most important young players -- Dustin Pedroia (six years), Kevin Youkilis (four years) and Lester -- locked up for the next several years creating an outstanding nucleus to build around.

Lester was 16-6 with a 3.21 ERA last season and is 27-8 with a 3.81 ERA in 59 career starts.

He also has a 2.25 ERA in 36 post-season innings, won Game 4 of the World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies in 2007, and, oh yeah, he tossed a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway on May 19, 2008.

While the Yankees continue to throw obscene amounts of money at injury-prone free agents and mortgage their future so much that they have no depth to fill in for starters that get injured (A-Roid), the Red Sox continue to make smart investments on proven young players that will help the team for years to come.

Sox Players Impacting WBC

One thing is evident after just a few games of the 2009 World Baseball Classic -- Boston Red Sox players will have a dramatic affect on this year's tournament.

The Sox organization has 12 players involved in the tourney, including Major League players Jason Bay (Canada), David Ortiz (Dominican Republic), Daisuke Matsuzaka (Japan), Javier Lopez (Puerto Rico), Dustin Pedroia (USA) and Kevin Youkilis (USA).

Big Papi had a key RBI base hit in the Dominican Republic's win over Panama in an elimination game Sunday.

Dice-K got the win in Japan's 14-2 rout of Korea on Saturday. He went 4 innings allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2.

Matsuzaka, who was the MVP of this event in 2006 when Japan won it, wasn't at the top of his game, but it was a decent outing for his first game and for Sox fans, as long as he comes through the tourney unscathed we'll be happy.

Bay had 3 walks and a run scored in Canada's loss to the U.S. on Saturday, but he flew out to right for the final out with the tying run on second base.

Dustin and Youk have played major roles in the U.S. advancing to the second round with wins over Canada and Venezuela.

Pedroia only has 2 hits in 11 at-bats, but he had a huge 2-run double to help the team pull away in Sunday's win over Venezuela. He also has made some spectacular plays in the field.

Youk is proving he is the cleanup hitter the Sox hope he will be. He went 3-for-8 in the two games with 3 RBIs and 7 runs scores, and he homered in both games.

In Saturday's win over Canada, his homer tied the game after the U.S. fell behind early. On Sunday, his two-run bomb was the icing on the cake in the team's 8-run 6th inning. He has now become the cleanup hitter for the club too.

It's still strange to see Dusty and Derek Jeter teaming up on double plays and high-fiving each other, but it's a little easier to take since Jeter isn't wearing that sinister Yankees hat.

Injuries Will Be The Key

Spring training is only a couple weeks old, and we've already had our first J.D. Drew back injury update.

Along with the chronically injured Drew, there's also word that new starting pitcher Brad Penny is suffering from shoulder soreness and Mark Kotsay - who could play a major role for the team due to injuries - won't be ready for that start of the season as he recovers from back surgery.

Add in the fact that nobody really knows how healthy Mike Lowell and David Ortiz will be or if new fourth outfielder Rocco Baldelli will be available enough to fill that key spot and there are legitimate concerns heading into the season.

Injuries in every sport often are the key to winning and losing, and the one thing the Red Sox have done better than anyone during this decade is stocking the roster with quality depth in case of injuries.

This season is no different. The additions of Penny and John Smoltz - who also won't be able to pitch until the end of May as he recovers from shoulder surgery - should really strengthen the pitching staff.

The Sox also bolstered the bullpen this offseason with quality pitchers such as Takashi Saito and Ramon Ramirez, making the pitching staff one of the best in the Majors.

Having the versatile Justin Masterson available to start or come out of the pen is a huge boost as well.

The offense is a different story, however. Since Manny Ramirez was rightfully traded last summer, all we've been hearing about has been the lack of power in the middle of the lineup. It is a valid concern, but one that can be overcome as long as the team is healthy.

Ideally, the Sox wouldn't want Kevin Youkilis batting cleanup, but that looks like the best option at this point. And if Youk can put up numbers like he did last season (.312, 29, 115) that will quiet all the naysayers.

If Ortiz is healthy - and all indications are that he is - Youk's numbers should actually improve as he will get to see a lot of good pitches.

Lowell and Drew can have a huge impact on the lineup as well. The fact that Drew is injured shouldn't surprise anyone at this point. He always misses significant time during the season. Maybe it's best that he gets it out of the way and can be ready for the stretch drive and the playoffs.

The biggest question mark may be Lowell. Even if he is ready to start the season - which is no guarantee at this point - will he return to his World Series MVP form or will he be more like the guy the Florida Marlins couldn't give away in 2005?

Lowell is a consummate professional and will put in the work to be ready. Let's just home father time doesn't catch up to him.

There are a lot of factors that go into winning a championship, but injuries may be the biggest and every team has to deal with them. Just ask the Yankees and A-Fraud, err A-Rod, who reportedly needs hip surgery that will keep him out at least 10 weeks.

And if the Sox are struggling and have some key injuries, you can bet that Theo Epstein will make some moves to fill whatever holes the team may have during the season.