What is your 2009 Red Sox team?

I think it’s more likely for us to see Lowe or Burnett in the rotation rather than Masterson. Personally i’d sign Texeira, trade Bowden for Salty (if possible), then let Clay be the 5th starter.

Has everyone forgotten how highly touted Buchholz was just one year ago?

Though Buchholz gave up way too many runs (and wayyy too many home runs, at a rate of one every seven innings), his numbers may not be as bad as they appeared, and hopefully we will see a regression to the mean next season. For one thing, his strikeout total remained stable (actually, it exceeded his PECOTA projection by about one K/inning). For another, his Delta-H, a statistic that tries to measure the effect of BABIP on pitchers, was a whopping 15 (14th highest in the majors), which means that the added three hits per nine innings, while troubling high, shouldn’t continue into 2009.

From “Peter’s Red Sox Forever,” an MLB scout watching Buchholz in Arizona has this to say about the future star:

"I think he’s gained some of his swagger back. He lost some confidence during the year, but his velocity was back. He was throwing 91-95, and was free and easy. He had a dominant curveball and a plus change. He didn’t need his slider. He looked focused on the mound. It looked to me like his arm slot was the same as it used to be, with a high three-quarters release, which adds to the depth of his breaking ball. This guy has three plus pitches and should be a front-of-the-rotation starter. His ceiling is very high."

The basic fact is that Clay Buchholz is a 23-year-old stud, who let too many games get away from him in the most competitive division in baseball. Be patient with the kid and hope we can trade for quality catching with the likes of Bowden and Masterson.

SP:
Beckett
Lester
Dice-K
Kenshin Kawakami
Wakefield

Lineup:
Drew RF
Pedroia 2B
Ortiz DH
Teixeira 1B
Bay LF
Youk 3B
Lowrie SS
Tek C
Ellsbury CF

Bench:
IF Jerry Hairston
1B Jeff Bailey
OF Rocco Baldelli
C Kevin Cash
LF/1B Paul McAnulty

RP:
CL Papelbon
SU Masterson
SU Ramirez
Oki
Delcarmen
Lopez

You can’t assume a young catcher with weak defensive skills will be able to catch Wakefield competently… nor can you guarantee that someone with highly-touted defensive skills like Teagarden can deal with Wake’s knuckler. This is why I think it’s finally time to make Wakefield a reliever/spot starter. With the number of MLB-ready starting pitcher prospects we have, combined with the free-agent market, we could easily fill five spots with some leeway. And we wouldn’t have to continue making terrible trades to have backup catching prospects that can catch an aging knuckleballer (think Josh Bard and Clay Meredith for Doug Mirabelli).

Then again, if we let Tek go altogether, our starting catcher could be Salty, and our backup could be someone who can deal with the knuckler…