| 08 December 2009
Alex Speier, WEEI.com - Speier takes a look at a projected 2010 lineup that DOES NOT include Bay or Matt Holliday, but DOES include Marco Scutaro. He uses the Baseball Musings Lineup Analysis tool, which takes the average stats of all AL left fielders instead of Bay's stats.
Taking Marco Scutaro’s career averages in place of the Sox’ shortstop production from 2009, a Bay-less Sox team would bump up to 5.337 runs per game, good for 865 in a full year.But of Bay returns...If the Sox enjoyed a repeat of Scutaro’s career year in 2009 – in which he set new career highs with a .379 OBP and .409 slugging mark – their run expectation, even with an average outfielder replacing Bay, would jump to 5.458 runs a game, or 884 on the season – just ahead of the mark that established the Angels as the second highest scoring offense in the game.
With Scutaro performing in 2010 at his career average level and Bay maintaining his 2009 numbers, the Sox project to add 5.563 runs a game, pushing them up to a total of 901 on the year. If Scutaro and Bay both repeated their excellent 2009 performances, the Sox would project to score 5.683 runs a game, or a whopping 921 runs – more than the Yankees’ major-league leading total in 2009.Mike Silver, Fire Brand of the AL - Mike is frustrated with the theory that Matt Holiday won't be productive in the AL East. I agree... and sited some details stats in our Pros & Cons article back in early November.
Peter Abraham, Boston Globe - Abraham has a few interesting tid bits from Terry Francona in today's Notebook:
Tito on Dasiuke Matsuzaka: “Maybe what happened [in 2009] is the best,’’ Francona said yesterday at the winter meetings. “At the time, it wasn’t a lot of fun. But sometimes, when things happen, how you move forward is really important.
“We kind of put the gloves down and told him how we felt and he told us. I think it was really good for everybody. We had probably gotten to the point where we needed to have pretty direct conversations. And from him to us, also. I think it was good.’’
Tito on David Ortiz: Ortiz, he said, has lost 12 pounds since the end of the season and realizes that changes are needed at this point in his career. “He’s a big guy that’s been injured, and he’s getting older. So he either has to work harder than he has in the past . . . I’m not saying he has not worked hard but you have to work harder or it’s not going to work, and he understands that."
Tito on Jason Varitek: Francona saw Varitek at Ortiz' Golf Tournament and said he was very "upbeat."
"Which is exciting for me, because this is either a really good situation, or not,’’ Francona said. “Obviously I would like it to be a really good situation, and I think he’s ready for it to be that way, too.’’
Ben Buchanan, Over the Monster - Ben has the details on Fabio Castro, on of two RPs the Sox added yesterday. The other was Scott Atchison. Neither player has played in the MLB since 2007, so it's tough to know if the Sox are stock piling for Pawtucket or if the expect these guys to be in the major league bullpen come April.
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