More thoughts on the Punto Trade

Joel's thoughts on the Sox' mega-trade are well-worth reading. I'd add a few things:

One, we need to call this the Punto trade. There really isn't any other option.

Two: I second Joel's sentiment: Show Ortiz the money.

Three: I think one of the major reasons the Sox gave up on Gonzo and CarlCrawford so quickly (other than wanting to save money) was that they expected 2011 & 12 to be their prime - the peak of their bell curve, if you will. The risk in long term contracts is that you'll end up overpaying  for past performance in the last years, and since the Sox didn't get what they expected in the beginning, they blanched at the risk over the rest of the deal and took the opportunity to dump both the salaries and the risk.

Implicit in this decision is that they're now committed to building the team "right": developing and promoting in-house talent; making safe, short-term free agent signings; not signing older free agents to long-term deals, etc. The problem with this is that not only can it take a while to develop in-house talent, but it's a crapshoot. There's no guarantee that any of the players we received from the Dodgers will become serviceable major league players, much less superstars. I read somewhere this weekend that the great '04 team only had one regular player that came up through the Sox organization (Nixon). But it's one thing to rely on Pedro and Manny and Damon; it's another to find these type of players on the cheap. Face it: the Sox haven't been great at finding diamonds in the (free agent) rough recently. In fact, in the last few years, the only unqualified success I can think of (although i'm sure there are more) is Beltre. For every average to above-average guy they find (think Cody Ross), there's a slew of Camerons, Renterias, etc.

My point is that while the trade may have been the right move to make, the Sox gave up known commodities in favor of the vagaries of the talent market. And while this may prove successful, it just as likely may mean years of mediocrity. At the very least, it will mean a year or two of odd lineups that blend proven players with developing skills, like what I saw in person on Saturday:

1. Podsednik, LF
2. Pedroia, 2B
3. Ellsbury, CF
4. Ross, RF
5. Gomez, 1B
6. Saltalamacchia, C
7. Lavarnway, DH
8. Aviles, SS
9. Ciriaco, 3B

One last time... Yooooook!

Wanted to take a moment to say goodbye to Kevin Youkilis, who was traded away yesterday to the White Sox for two players I had never heard of (25-year-old RHP Zach Stewart and 28-year-old utility man Brent Lillibridge, more details on them here) to make room for the en fuego Will Middlebrooks, who has a .960 OPS, nine homers and 33 RBI in his his first 40 games.

While for that reason and getting Gonzo out of the outfield, I know he needed to go, I'll miss having Youkilis on the team. It wasn't too long ago that he was perhaps the toughest out in baseball, even if he did look really, really strange up at the plate doing it.

I should mention that it did appear like both Youkilis and the team were ready to move on from each other. On his best days, Yook didn't have a sunny disposition, and as the team tries to recover from last season and rebuild itself around Bobby Valentine he did not seem to be fitting in. Combine that with his poor performance this year and the writing's been on the wall for some time. Still, Yook is only 33 and may still have some good years left in him, and it makes me sad to see another mainstay from the Sox' championship days send packing. I'm also not sure how to explain to my 5 year old that we won't be chanting "Yooooook!" during Sox games any more.

Farewell #20! We'll see you again on July 16th.

Historically Good

I knew that the Red Sox lineup was amazing, but this fact is incredible:

Each of the top five hitters in the Red Sox lineup has an OPS over .865:

Jacoby Ellsbury .911
Dustin Pedroia .893
Adrian Gonzalez .973
Kevin Youkilis .890
David Ortiz .960

The rest of the American League combined has five.

Jose Bautista Blue Jays 1.138
Miguel Cabrera Tigers .986
Paul Konerko White Sox .935
Curtis Granderon Yankees .930
Jhonny Peralta Tigers .901

Quick Thoughts about Sox/Phillies

Last night's game was ugly, but at least it was Cliff Lee, so we can rest easy that a lot of teams look really bad against him. I'm also chalking Beckett's sub-par performance to his sickness .

I don't feel good about tonight's game because:

- Lackey's pitching. Ugh.
- Gonzo's playing Right Field! WTF? If Tito was going to play him in RF, wouldn't you think he'd do so on a night where the pitcher typically gets lots of ground balls, rather than "all these runs aren't my fault" Lackey? As Pedroia says: "It will be good for us offensively, but damn, I’m going to have to play second, first and right."

Ortiz Goes to Left

WEEI has a great article about how much Gonzo is helping out Ortiz at the plate, and gives this great stat:

...more than half of his hits (51.9 percent) at Fenway have been to the opposite field represents a clear departure from the rest of his Red Sox career, in which Ortiz has never had more than 37.7 percent of his hits to the opposite field.

Here's hoping Papi can keep it up against Masterson tonight!

Gonzo

I've missed most of his timely hits, but Gonzo (don't like the nickname? Come up with a better one!) has been raking lately:

Gonzalez is hitting .359 (32 of 92) in the last 22 games with 13 extra-base hits and 17 RBIs. He has hit home runs in three of the last six games at Fenway, two of them going over the wall. His batting average is up to .314 and he has a healthy .873 OPS.

So this is what the hype was all about. Now only if Carl Crawford would start doing the same...