25 for 25: Red Sox

I'm actually a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but over the past few months I've been working on a roster for each franchise in the majors, composed of players over the last 25 years. The way this works is that I pick one player from each season and I have to fill out an entire roster (for AL teams, 2 catchers, 2 infielders at each position, 5 total outfielders, one designated hitter, 5 starting pitchers, 4 relievers). I can't take more than one player for each year, I have to take one player each season even in the bad years, and I can't use the same player for multiple positions or years. If a player played the majority of his games at one position, I can't use that season for another position even if he's played it before. And I used basic minimums of 60 innings or 250 PA's (prorated for strike seasons).

The interesting part with this are the decisions that have to be made, whether it is, "Dang, there are some really nice outfielder seasons to choose from, who gets left out?", or, "Does this team even have two decent catchers in a 25-year span?", or, "This guy had so many great years - which one do I choose?" Sometimes a great year gets left out, sometimes a fluke, partial season gets tabbed for the team. I actually posted a fully researched extended version for the Cardinals from 1910 to 1934. The NL versions for this era are there as well (linky, linky, linky, linky).

You're welcome to pick apart my choices and make suggestions of your own. I'm looking forward to hearing from everybody.

C – Rich Gedman (1985), Jason Varitek (2005)

1B – Mo Vaughn (1996), Kevin Youkilis (2009)

2B – Scott Fletcher (1993), Dustin Pedroia (2008)

3B – Wade Boggs (1987), Bill Mueller (2003)

SS – John Valentin (1995), Nomar Garciaparra (1997)

OF – Jim Rice (1986), Mike Greenwell (1988), Ellis Burks (1989), Trot Nixon (2001), Manny Ramirez (2002)

DH – David Ortiz (2006)

SP – Roger Clemens (1990), Frank Viola (1992), Pedro Martinez (1999), Curt Schilling (2004), Josh Beckett (2007)

RP – Joe Hesketh (1991), Ken Ryan (1994), Tom Gordon (1998), Derek Lowe (2000)

Notable exceptions: Dwight Evans (1987), Jody Reed (1990), Mike Lowell (2007), Johnny Damon (2004), Jason Bay (2009), Oil Can Boyd (1985), Bruce Hurst (1986), Mike Boddicker (1990), Aaron Sele (1994), Tim Wakefield (1995), Jon Lester (2009), Keith Foulke (2004), Jonathan Papelbon (2006)