Red Sox Offseason

This post origanally was posted on Total Bases. For more MLB offseason previews, go to Total Bases at MLBlogs.com.

 The Red Sox were a team that looked to contend for their division. Even with teams like the Rays and Yankees, the Red Sox still had one of the best teams in baseball. So, what was their downfall? Pitching? Injuries? Management? Or all of the above?

The Red Sox thought they had one of the best pitching staffs in baseball going into the year. They had Jon Lester, Josh Beckett was coming off a good year, and recently signed John Lackey. The rest of the rotation was a question mark, with Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, and Clay Buchholz.

Luckily for them Matsuzaka started the season the DL, giving them time to decide who was to go. Buchholz pitched himself into the starting role, and later the Red Sox ace. Wakefield moved to the bullpen for the time being. Buchholz ranked second in the American league in ERA this season, with Jon Lester not too far behind him.

Lackey, Beckett, and Matsuzaka all had inflated ERAs over four. Beckett was hurt most of the season, and Matsuzaka had three DL trips. Lackey was healthy all season, and to his credit got better as the year moved on, but he has to be summed up as a disappointment so far in Boston.

Speaking of disappointments, the bullpen. The Red Sox knew they were not going to lead the league in bullpen ERA this season, but that had to have been a major disappointment. Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez ended up being shipped out with their 5.00 ERAs. Hideki Okajima had a better second half, but was awful most of the year. In fact, the only re livers with a good year at all was Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard. But even in Papelbon there were his blowups, with eight blown saves and six losses in the closer role. By the end of the year, most of the Boston bullpen was made up of Robert Manuel, Micheal Bowden, Robert Coello, Matt Fox and Rich Hill. Yeah, who?

But the position players get even better. The final starts of the season? Lars Anderson, Marco Scutaro, Jed Lowrie, Yamaico Navarro, Josh Reddick, Victor Martinez, David Ortiz, Ryan Kalish and JD Drew. In case you were counting, that is four opening day starters. Three of those players started the year in AA.

But if you look at the team's opening day roster, not too bad. Ortiz, Martinez, Scutaro, Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Cameron, Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Beltre. If you ask me, that looks like a playoff caliber team. But Pedroia and Ellsbury missed chunks of the year with injuries, Cameron was out most of the season, Martinez missed a month, and Beltre missed the last week of the season. So it is hard to blame anyone for this season, with so many injuries.

The Red Sox used 45 players on their active roster this season, the most in baseball. They also had the most MLB debuts, with Kalish, Anderson, Navarro, Coello, Daniel Nava, and Felix Doubront. Four of those players started off in AA. It's actually pretty amazing where they were.

So what does Boston need to do to improve? Well, get healthy. After that, the only way to go is up. They are rumored to be interested in every free agent, including Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth, and Cliff Lee. To me, Lee does not seem possible unless Matsuzaka is moved. Rumor has it Seattle and Los Angeles are interested. I think right now Werth is probably the best possibility.

Next in series: Oakland