Here are our holes, so to say:
C - Jason Varitek 1B - ??? (Kevin Youkilis) 2B - Dustin Pedroia SS - ??? (Pedroia, Julio Lugo, Alex Cora) 3B - ??? (Mike Lowell) LF - ??? (Manny Ramirez) CF - ??? (Coco Crisp) RF - ??? (Wily Mo Pena, Trot Nixon, JD Drew) DH - David Ortiz
SP - Curt Schilling SP - Josh Beckett SP - Jonathan Papelbon SP - Tim Wakefield SP - ??? (Daisuke Matsuzaka)
RP - Mike Timlin RP - ??? CP - ???
Keep in mind, I listed only absolute locks. If there is trade speculation at all, I didn't list them. If there is speculation that a player may lose their job, I didn't list them.
I feel confident in this list, but it also poses a problem for Sox fans: look at all the question marks. Obviously, 2/3 of those ??? will be filled by the current player or a player in the parenthesis, but it still means a lot of work needs to be done.
Here are some key free agents that I'd like to see the Sox at least LOOK into:
SP Roger Clemens
SP Jason Schmidt
SP Ted Lilly
RP Justin Speier
OF JD Drew (maybe)
Clemens would be nice for obvious reasons. Schmidt is just one of the best. Lilly would be nice to have because A) he's a lefty and B) if he's on the Sox, he wouldn't kill us anymore. I think Speier is a solid bullpen arm. He could either close or set up with Timlin. Drew puts up some pretty good numbers as long as he's healthy.