So it.  Y'know. Something.

I should've posted this, given the title, a few days ago. However, I've worked about 50+ hours in the last four days, including until 4 am on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day. 

Plenty of great discussion in the fanposts, on a number of important topics, all of which should be figured out in 2009.

1. Catcher.

Let's be f'n honest with ourselves. Bard isn't a starting catcher. I'm not sure he's a backup catcher on this team. If Wake retires for some reason before ST, then sure, as a backup. Does anyone really think they'd be content with Bard as the starter? This is like after the 2006 season when the Sox were "comfortable with Alex Cora as the starter at SS". It's posturing, and as the results from that 2006 proclamation can tell you, we ended up bidding against ourselves for a now-$9M backup IF. 

I do think it's silly that some have suggested Varitek couldn't or wouldn't catch Wake with he and Bard more or less splitting time overall. I'd be more comfortable with him than Bard, for sure. Kevin Cash isn't walking through that door, and it's not like Varitek has been throwing anyone out anyway. This could qualify as an aesthetic thing, but I'd love to see us get on track to having a catcher who can throw out more than 4% of runners. I don't know how we're going to do that, but hey. A guy can dream. Greg(g) Zaun anyone (random, I know)?

2. Starting Pitching.

I also don't think we're really done here. Penny could be a good pickup, sure, but I have to imagine Lowe's demands will come down in accordance with no one offering him the money he wants, and the Sox will jump back in. Could be in on Kawakami as well. 

3. The Bench.

I don't know what the deal is with Lugo, Lowrie, and the backup IF position. I wouldn't be crazily opposed to hanging onto Lugo if he's willing to backup SS, 2b, 3b, and a bit in the OF as needed. He can still run, his .OBP was actually decent last season, and unlike Alex Cora, I wouldn't do a complete double-take if he had to (knock on wood) take over for an injury at 2b or SS. Other options if we can trade Lugo: Willie Bloomquist (add back the "complete double-take" in reference to starting, and he could do most everything we'd expect from Lugo as the backup), Juan Uribe? Alex Cintron? David Eckstein? How about a backup corner guy? Internally, we could go with Jeff Bailey or Chris Carter. Outside? Doug Malphabet (.OBP and defense), Nomar (nostalgia?), Hinske (no one going to give him a shot starting at 1b or LF?). Funny thing I found out looking up Malphabet and our backup 1B last season: Sean Casey is not, in fact, older than Doug despite looking and playing like he's 50. 

4th OF, of course, is not a solved problem either. Amongst FAs who can approximate (or better) playing CF; Baldelli, Kapler, Kotsay. I left Edmonds off on purpose. 

We can go a number of ways with this. Defense/versatility: Uribe, Malphabet, Kotsay. Not sure how well he did it, but Malphabet played 1b, 3b, and rf last season. Uribe: 3b, 2b, ss, and Kotsay in all 3 OF spots and 1b. Offense: Lugo (surprising/depressingly), Bailey, Hinske, or Carter and Baldelli. I dunno.

4. Andruw Jones.

Final item for me, and I've gotta get ready to go back to work. No. Final answer. OMFG no. I guess I had more to say. Probably completely useless at this point. Probably done now.

Anyway. Absolutely not. This is a player who successfully, in a pretty unprecedented way, restructured his contract in order to better facilitate a trade, and apparently the MLBPA did nothing to even lean in the way.