The Winds of Change
Could 05′ mark the end of massive run production? Could it be the end of offensive dominance and the beginning of Aikido style fight? It was apparent that pitching won the world series. Both league representatives had plenty of it. While the Sox, Yanks and Rangers were rounding the bases, the White Sox were out pitching and making 98.5% of plays in the field. It kind of goes back to the old Meat Loaf song ” Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”. If you have good pitching and defense with a mediocre offence, you will still win. In 04′ we had all three. In 03′ the Marlins had pitching and defense. In 02′ the Angels had all three. In 01′ the D-Backs had all three. In 2000, the Yanks were kind of an exception and were in the middle of the pack in all three categories. But you get my drift. You almost must have two out of three.
At this point in the winter we are unsure, very unsure, about our offence. We know the Papi will be back, but who will set him up with Damon jumping ship? Can Loretta get the job done hitting in the 2 hole and who will hit clean up if Manny gets moved? I would say that we can expect normal numbers from Variety and Nixon, but will Graffanino continue to flourish as a Sox? Can Lowell get his stroke back and will Youkillis play in the majors this year or will he watch from the bench?
We do know (or hope very much) that our pitching should be right on key. Schilling will be back, maybe not a Cy Young version but a 15+ game winner. Beckett will have less blister problems and will live up to the hype and thrive in this rabid city. Wakefield will eat innings and continue to baffle the Yanks. Whether it’s Arroyo, Clement or Paplebon, we look good at 4 and 5 in the rotation. Not many teams look that good deep in the week. Wells most likely will be traded. In the bullpen, much is depended on if Foulke is back in form or not. We still have Timlin, but we all want him to set up. Hansen isn’t quite ready but he’ll be up by summer. Delcarmen has a live arm and DiNardo will get his chance to the long relief lefty. Seanz had two great years in SD, so I suspect that this trip to Boston will be better than his last.
So if offense is in question and the pitching looks solid, all we need is the defense to pull through. I’m not even going to try to predict on this at all. Not after 30 Renteria errors. We do know that Lowell and Varitek are gold glove caliber and we can’t possibly be worst at 1B this year than we were last year. So if the offence isn’t rolling teams, than maybe we can stay in it with good pitching a defense.
We also know that runs cost a lot of money compared to solid pitching. And defense is the cheapest threat to buy, so maybe the tide is changing for the Sox. We’ll still score our share of runs, but maybe this year we’ll win a few more of those 3-2 games, unlike losing the 7-6 games last season.
S.
December 27th, 2005 at 1:24 pm
I kind of have to agree with you. It doesn’t appear that offense is high on the Front Office’s priority list. Pitching, certainly appears to be. D-Fense, well, that still remains a question mark since we have 3 regular positions to fill, and 1 to possibly fill after a trade.
I like the pitching rotation, I think we still need help in the pen. It doesn’t appear that Millwood will be back, but maybe that wind that’s changing will be strong enough to get the Rocket back to Fenway… I’m not losing sleep on that notion, however.
If Foulke returns to form, and the starters are their best 66% of the time, we’ll do very well… if we have the defense to back them up.