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| Likely Our Only 'Rolling Rally' |
The big green moving van will start loading up in a little over a week (February 5th) and start heading to Fort Myers. With general manager
Ben Cherington stating that the offseason's "heavy lifting" is done, we have to surmise that 'what you see is what you get' in your 2013 Carmine Hose. An outfield of
Jonny Gomes in left,
Jacoby Ellsbury in center and
Shane Victorino in right. Various platoon situations will also insert
Daniel Nava and
Ryan Sweeney. An infield of
Will Middlebrooks at third,
Stephen Drew at short,
Dustin Pedroia at second and
Mike Napoli at first.
Jose Iglesias and
Pedro Ciriaco will be the back-ups.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia appears to be the main backstop—with
David Ross getting a substantial share of games as well behind the plate. Your DH is, of course,
David Ortiz. The Boston starting rotation lines up as: 1A.)
Clay Buchholz, 1B.)
Jon Lester, 3.)
John Lackey, 4.)
Ryan Dempster and 5.)
Felix Doubront. Another arm might be brought in before Opening Day—or one of the "kids" (
Rubby De La Rosa or
Matt Barnes) might get elevated to the big club. The bullpen is probably the most solid part of the team—as it was in 2012. It will feature
Joel Hanrahan as closer, and both
Andrew Bailey and
Junichi Tazawa in the 8th-inning set-up role. Also, you will see lefties
Franklin Morales,
Craig Breslow and
Andrew Miller. The righty contingent will be newcomer
Koji Uehara along with
Alfredo Aceves and possibly
Clayton Mortensen. And, that's it folks. As we have said before, despite all the "character guys" that have been added, this looks more like a fourth-place team than a contender. To wit, our 2013 AL East predictions (barring another big move by BenCher):
1.) Toronto Blue Jays
2.) New York Yankees
3.) Tampa Bay Rays
4.) Boston Red Sox
5.) Baltimore Orioles
