FanPost

My Playoff Roster

Responding to Jake's post, to create our own playoff rosters, I realised that the Red Sox don't have what you'd call a complete team. It's easy to forget, given just how incredible they've been all year, that the team has any holes at all, although we were reminded whenever Drew Pomeranz took the mound (miss you, 2017 Big Smooth). The team has been amazing at hiding weaknesses on the roster and continuing to win. I guess having two legitimate MVP candidates helps.

Turns out, trying to pull together a tough playoff bullpen from all the Red Sox arms is pretty hard this year. Obviously, there are a few names that are guaranteed to be on the playoff roster; Kimbrel, Barnes, Hembree, Thornburg have all earned that opportunity this year. But here I'm going to skip ahead, and come back to the pen later.

The lineup mostly speaks for itself. Against lefties I have:

Betts - Beni - Pearce - JD - Bogaerts - Kinsler - Nunez - Leon - Bradley

For righties, I'll swap Pearce for Moreland (dropping him down to 5th) and Nunez for Devers. I have Swihart and Holt on the bench. I did consider leaving Devers off the roster entirely, to give the team a bit more flexibility and to have a classic pinch-runner on the bench, but I didn't like that idea. I'd rather keep Holt as the swiss army knife on the bench, and Nunez has been hitting much better recently, which means he is safe. I looked at the pinch run options down in Pawtucket, and there are two fairly decent options (Tony Renda, 4 SB + 2 CS on the year, 80% career success rate; Cole Sturgeon, 8 SB + 1 CS this year, 70% career rate) but in the end decided not to choose either, and hope that it isn't Sandy Leon who gets the leadoff single in the 9th against Roberto Osuna. Most of the lineup can run, and those that can't, can swing the bat well enough that I'd hope Holt can do a decent enough job as the PR.

The rotation is set. Sale, Price and Porcello will all start a game, and with Cora stating ERod is coming back as a starter, he is my 4th guy, over Eovaldi, who gets sent to the pen. By my count, this means I have three spots left in the pen to fill, and no standout options to choose. Johnson, Kelly, Pomeranz, Brasier, Workman, Walden, Poyner, Velazquez, Lakins, Sharawyn (some are still asking about Feltman but I think he's too far away at this stage to make it to the Majors in time). I have chosen Workman, Poyner and Velazquez as my final 3 arms, but I would really like to see Travis Lakins get a call up to Boston prior to the August 31st deadline so that the Sox can get him an audition in the Majors, as he could pretty believably be an upgrade over any of these three. Brasier was my last man cut, but I would rather have the extra lefty in Poyner, and Brasier's stuff does not inspire confidence in me.

My 25:

Rotation: Sale, Price, Porcello, ERod,

Bullpen: Kimbrel, Barnes, Hembree, Thornburg, Eovaldi, Workman, Velazquez, Poyner

Outfield: Betts, Beni, Bradley, JDM

Infield: Pearce, Moreland, Kinsler, Bogaerts, Holt, Nunez, Devers

Catchers: Leon, Swihart

Let's hope they see the ALCS this year.