[Moriarty9]

Red Sox are in rough shape
Fenway Faithful likely to have tough year
March 17, 2012

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Joe Maddon is in the last year of his contract as manager of the Boston Red Sox, and he may not last long enough to see it all the way through.

The Red Sox lost 94 games last season and do not appear to be in any better shape. It will take some moves from GM Dan Evans and work from Maddon, bench coach Grady Little, hitting coach Lloyd McClendon, and pitching coach Bryce Firth if the team is to try to avoid a losing season.

One bright spot will be having Kevin Slowey for the full season. Slowey, 27, was acquired from the San Francisco Giants last season and made 18 starts for the Red Sox down the stretch. Overall, he went 14-8 with a 3.16 ERA on the year. He owns a 67-59 record and 3.77 ERA in his career. Firth is a big fan of Slowey and believes he has ace potential.

The Red Sox also bolstered their rotation with the signing of left-handed starter Cole Hamels. The 28-year-old has seven years of big league time with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he went 72-60 with a 4.57 ERA in 183 starts. Last season, he went 13-12 with a 4.41 ERA in 34 starts.

"Cole is going to help us out a lot," said Maddon. "He works hard, he pitches a lot of innings, he knows what he's doing."

Joe Saunders, another lefty, enters his second season with the Red Sox in 2012. Saunders went 10-13 with a 5.21 ERA in 28 starts for Boston last year after going 61-69 in seven seasons with the Florida Marlins.

Daisuke Matsuzaka has been a disappointment for Boston since they acquired him a trade from the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 2010 season. He was especially poor last season, going 2-7 with a 5.93 ERA in 16 games, including 12 starts. He spent half the year in AAA as a result, going 6-4 with a 2.12 ERA in 19 starts there. Matsuzaka twice won 15 games during his four full seasons with the Pirates.

Jon Garland rounds out the rotation, and isn't a bad guy to have at the back end of a rotation, The 32-year-old went 8-12 with a 4.61 ERA in 32 games, including 26 starts, last year. He went 13-11 with a 4.24 ERA in 32 starts for Boston in 2010.

Fighting Matsuzaka and Garland for the fifth spot in the rotation is Kelvim Escobar. The 35-year-old went 10-17 with a 5.06 ERA in 34 starts last year for the Red Sox, but was 12-14 with a 4.70 ERA in 2010, and 18-8 with a 3.73 ERA in 2009. The team hopes he can reverse his downward progression.

Jesse Crain was effective in his first year as Boston's closer. The 30-year-old went 0-6 with 27 saves and a 2.77 ERA in 62 games, not bad for a team that won 68 games. The former Devil Rays reliever is 3-12 with 33 saves and a 3.41 ERA in 185 big league appearances.

Setting up for Crain will be right-handers Leo Nunez and Pat Neshek. Nunez was Boston's closer in 2010 and is a candidate to return to the role if Crain falters. Nunez went 2-6 with seven saves and a 3.53 ERA in 59 games last year after saving 27 games and posting a 2.56 ERA in 2010. Neshek went 2-6 with a pair of saves and a 4.46 ERA in 56 games for Boston last season, his first year with the club. He previously pitched in nearly 200 games for the Washington Nationals, going 14-6 out of the Nats' bullpen.

Helping bridge the gap from starters to closer will be David Aardsma. The hard-throwing righty went 1-2 with one save and a 5.88 ERA in 36 games for Boston last season after three years with the Devil Rays.

The rest of the guys fighting for jobs in the bullpen are largely inexperienced: Luis Mercado, Jason Hammel, David Sanders, and Eulogio De La Cruz.

Mercado, 21, is a Costa Rican-born right-hander who pitched 4 2/3 innings of perfect baseball, striking out seven batters, for the Red Sox last September. He is expected to be the primary middle reliever.

Hammel, 28, made five relief appearances last season, going 0-1 with a 5.29 ERA in 17 innings. His previous big league experience came with Boston in 2010, going 9-11 with a 5.88 ERA in 25 games, including 22 starts. Overall, he is 9-12 with a 5.81 ERA in 148 2/3 innings in the big leagues with a 1.69 WHIP and .290 opponents average against.

Sanders, a 32-year-old lefty, has just 17 1/3 innings of big league experience, most of which came with Boston last season. He posted a 5.40 ERA in 13 1/3 innings over seven relief appearances in 2010.

De La Cruz, 28, went 1-0 with two saves and a 6.29 ERA in 27 appearances last season with a 2.14 WHIP and .320 opponents average against.

Behind the plate, Victor Martinez remains a strong option despite hits to his power numbers due to decreased playing time as a result of nagging injuries. Martinez, who was named to five consecutive All Star teams from 2003-2007 with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, has not been the force the Red Sox expected him to be when he signed a seven-year contract with Boston in February 2008. Martinez hit .292 with seven home runs and 49 RBI in 108 games last season, .302 with eight homers and 71 RBI in 134 games in 2010.

Pablo Sandoval has emerged as a quality catcher when Martinez has been out of the lineup, and may push his way into the lineup even when Martinez is healthy. Sandoval hit .299 with nine homers and 65 RBI in 138 games last year, .309 with 12 homers and 79 RBI in 150 games in 2010. Sandoval has been spending some time at first and third base in an attempt to get his bat into the lineup, but he is a natural catcher and a better defensive player behind the plate than Martinez, who is owed more than $25 million this season, more than $26 million next year, and $27 million in 2014.

Thought Martinez or Sandoval could move to first base full-time, Maddon seems intent on giving the job to rookie Wesley Rogers. A Massachusetts native, Rogers is farily popular for a 23-year-old kid with no big league experience. He hit .313 with seven homers and 27 RBI in 62 games in AAA last year, .353 with five home runs and 36 RBI in 68 games in AA last year.

At second base, the club is looking at a platoon between Pete Orr and Maicer Izturis. Orr, a left-handed hitter, hit .262 with four homers, 38 RBI, 45 runs scored, and 17 stolen bases in 134 games with the Texas Rangers last season. The Red Sox are his sixth team in the last four years, and seventh team in his seven-year career. He came up with the Chicago Cubs in 2005, was with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim from 2007-2009, the Kansas City Royals in 2009, Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers in 2010, and Texas last year.

Izturis, 31, is a switch-hitter, acquired as a Rule V pick from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who had signed Izturis to a minor league deal this winter. He hit .249 with four homers and 54 RBI with 60 runs scored and 26 stolen bases in 152 games with the Texas Rangers last year.

The team is also trying to figure out who will start at third base, if Sandoval isn't moved there on a more regular basis. The leading candidates are Jose Bautista and rookie Elliott Seguin.

Bautista, 31, hit just .105 with two homers and four RBI in 31 games with Boston last season. In six years with the Red Sox, he has hit .244 with 25 home runs and 133 RBI in 399 games. He is not a very good defender at third base.

Seguin, a second round draft pick in 2010, has no big league experience and hit just .229 with three home runs and 19 RBI in 58 games in AAA last year, though he did score 27 runs and steal 19 bases. He hit .282 and stole 28 bases in 67 games in AA last year.

The outfield appears set with Marshall Spencer in left field, Shane Victorino in center, and Tolenka Pletnikov in right field, with Dave Kirkpatrick and Norris Hopper fighting for the fourth outfielder spot.

Spencer, acquired this winter in a trade with the San Diego Padres, hit .303 with seven homers and 31 RBI, scoring 57 runs and stealing 30 bases in 107 games. He's a career .288 hitter with nine homers, 34 RBI, 67 runs, and 37 steals in 146 big league games. Based on his speed, look for Spencer to spend a significant amount of time as the Boston leadoff hitter.

Victorino has been one of the better players for the Red Sox in recent years, and has developed a reputation for coming up big in clutch situations. The 31-year-old switch-hitter hit .272 with 11 homers and 72 RBI in 155 games last season, following up a 2010 season in which he hit .305 with 15 homers, 89 RBI, 109 runs, and 53 stolen bases.

Pletnikov, 25, came over from the Seattle Mariners last July, and wrapped up the year with a .281 average, 10 home runs, 72 RBI, and 78 runs in 154 games between the two clubs. He has very good speed and is a strong defender.

Kirkpatrick is well liked by the Boston front office and are pushing for him to get a chance in 2012. The 22-year-old left-hander has no big league experience. He hit .298 with 18 runs scored and 11 stolen bases in 30 games in AAA last year, .259 with five homers, 43 RBI, 47 runs, and 31 steals in 75 games in AA.

Hopper, 32, had just one at bat last year in Boston, and has struggled in the few opportunities provided him. He's a .122 hitter in 41 at bats over the last three seasons with the Red Sox.

Lee Grant appears poised to be the club's DH, though he is also an outfielder. The 23-year-old hit .252 with three home runs with 11 RBI, 14 runs and three stolen bases in 47 games last year.