Original Draft Series: #10 – Boston Red Sox

For those that missed the guidelines I am using for this series of posts, you can find them here.

Team #10: Boston Red Sox

General Managers(since 1994)

Dan Duquette (1994-2001): 656-574
Mike Port (2002): 93-69
Theo Epstein (2003-Current): 660-474

Team Performance

Playoffs			Division Finish
WC	League	Playoff App	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Last
2	2	9	2	10	2	2	0

All information is drawn from Baseball Reference.

Position	Name	Acquired	Years with Org.	Stats with Organization	Left?
C	Kelly Shoppach	2001 – 2nd Rd	4	9 gm, 0-15	Traded to CLE – 1/27/06
1B	Kevin Youkilis	2001 – 8th Rd	9	2 All Star Appearances, 1 Gold Glove .294/.394/.497, 112 HR, 470 RBI, 23 SB	Currently with Org.
2B	Dustin Pedroia	2004 – 2nd Rd	6	2007 AL Rookie of the Year, 2008 AL MVP, 3 All Star-Appearances 554 gm, .305/.370/.461, 54 HR, 253 RBI, 55 SB	Currently with Org.
3B	Freddy Sanchez	2000 – 11th Rd	3	32 gm, .220/.250/.260, 4 RBI	Traded to PIT – 7/31/03
SS	Hanley Ramirez	Int’l FA – 2000	5	2 gm, 0-2	Traded to FLA – 11/24/05
LF	David Murphy	2003 – 1st Rd (17)	4	23 gm, .250/.357/.500, HR, 2 RBI	Traded to TEX – 7/31/07
CF	Jacoby Ellsbury	2005 – 1st Rd (23)	5	349 gm, .291/.344/.405, 20 HR, 130 RBI, 136 SB	Currently with Org.
RF	Josh Reddick	2006 – 17th Rd	4	38 gm, .167/.205/.321, 2 HR, 6 RBI, SB	Currently with Org.
DH	Ryan Kalish	2006 – 9th Rd	4	12 gm, .300/.326/.400, HR, 4 RBI, SB	Currently with Org.
SP	Jon Lester	2002 – 2nd Rd	8	1 All-Star Appearance 54-23, 3.51 ERA, 711 IP, 647 K, 259 BB, 1.295 WHIP	Currently with Org.
SP	Carl Pavano	1994 – 13th Rd	3	No Major League Appearances with Org.	Traded to MON – 11/18/97
SP	Daisuke Matsuzaka	Int’l FA – 2007	3	45-24, 4.02 ERA, 535 IP, 496 K, 253 BB, 1.387 WHIP	Currently with Org.
SP	Clay Buchholz	2005 – 1st Rd (42)	5	1 All Star Appearance 25-19, 3.95 ERA, 317 IP, 248 K, 135 BB, 1.379 WHIP	Currently with Org.
SP	Justin Masterson	2006 – 2nd Rd	3	9-8, 3.76 ERA, 160.1 IP, 135 K, 65 BB, 1.279 WHIP	Traded to CLE – 7/31/09
RP	Manny Delcarmen	2000 – 2nd Rd	10	11-6, 3.83 ERA, 282 IP, 242 K, 127 BB, 1.348 WHIP	Currently with Org.
RP	Frank Francisco	Int’l FA – 1996	6	No Major League Appearances with Org.	Traded to CHW – 7/31/02
RP	Ron Mahay	1991 – 18th Rd	7	4-1, 3.00 ERA, SV, 51 IP, 36 K, 26 BB	Selected by OAK – 3/30/99
RP	Rafael Betancourt	Int’l FA – 1993	6	No Major League Appearances with Org.	Released – 11/18/99
RP	Daniel Bard	2006 – 1st Rd (28)	4	3-4, 2.80 ERA, 4 SV, 103 IP, 120 K, 40 BB, 1.087 WHIP	Currently with Org.
CL	Jonathan Papelbon	2003 – 4th Rd	7	4 All Star Appearances 18-16, 2.04 ERA, 348.2 IP, 392 K, 97 BB, 1.004 WHIP	Currently with Org.
BN	David Eckstein	1997 – 19th Rd	3	No Major League Appearances with Org.	Selected by ANA – 8/16/00
BN	Hideki Okajima	Int’l FA – 2006	4	16-7, 3.17 ERA, 6 SV, 224.1 IP, 200 K, 76 BB, 1.248 WHIP	Currently with Org.
BN	Anibal Sanchez	Int’l FA – 2001	4	No Major League Appearances with Org.	Traded to FLA – 11/24/05
BN	Jeff Suppan	1993 – 2nd Rd	5+1	12-10, 5.87 ERA, 220.2 IP, 131 K, 74 BB, 1.55 WHIP	Taken in the Expansion Draft – 1997
BN	Cla Meredith	2004 – 6th Rd	2	3 gm, 2.1 IP, 27.00 ERA	Traded to SD – 5/1/06

Week in Review – June 21 to June 27

If the Playoffs Started Today

Boston Red Sox (46-31) vs. Texas Rangers (45-29)
Minnesota Twins (41-34) vs. New York Yankees (46-28)

New York Mets (43-32) vs. San Diego Padres (45-30)
Cincinnati Reds (42-34) vs. Atlanta Braves (44-32)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Robinson Cano (NYY) – .359
Runs – Kevin Youkilis (BOS) – 61
Home Runs – Miguel Cabrera (DET), Paul Konerko (CHW), Jose Bautista (TOR) – 20
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) – 64
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) – 29

Wins – Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) – 13
Saves – Matt Capps (WAS) – 22
ERA – Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) – 1.60
Strikeouts – Jered Weaver (LAA) – 118
WHIP – Cliff Lee (SEA) – 0.91

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Dustin Pedroia, Mike Lowell, Felipe Paulino

Return from the Disabled List: Aramis Ramirez, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jimmy Rollins, Nelson Cruz,

To the Minors: Sam LeCure, Dioner Navarro, Rick Porcello,

Called Up: Matt LaPorta, Madison Bumgarner, Brad Bergesen, Matt Joyce, Andrew Oliver,

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• Erik Bedard made two different rehab starts this week, and is tentatively slotted in to make his return to the Majors on July 6th.
• Tommy Hanson had a pair of forgettable starts this week, as he allowed a total of 14 earned runs over 6 2/3 innings pitched.
• Ubaldo Jimenez had what was probably his worst start of the season, allowing 6 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Red Sox on Wednesday. The regression was due at some point, and this could be it.
• Injuries abound over the week, especially if your jersey says Red Sox on the front. The day after hitting 3 homers in a game, Dustin Pedroia fouled a pitch off the inside of his foot, breaking it. Return timetable: Uncertain, but placed on the disabled list. On Saturday, starting pitcher Clay Buchholz hyperextended his knee running the bases in the second inning. Return timetable: Unknown. And on Sunday, catcher Victor Martinez took a foul ball off of his left thumb during the game, breaking the thumb. Return timetable: Too soon to know yet. What a terrible weekend it was for the Red Sox in San Francisco, despite winning.
• Edwin Jackson of the Diamondbacks threw the 4th no hitter of the season on Friday, throwing a season-high 149 pitches and walking 8 to do it. It’s been really interesting to see so many no-hitters, and reminds me a lot of the 1991 season, when there were 7 of them during the season.
• Manager A.J. Hinch of the Diamondbacks was given a lot of grief for allowing his pitcher to throw that many pitches in pursuit of a no-hitter, but I’m inclined to believe that the group of the manager, the pitcher, and the pitching coach are going to know what their player can and cannot handle.
• In a rather surprising move, the Marlins fired manager Fredi Gonzalez on Wednesday morning. The Marlins were in 4th place at the time, and ownership had made it pretty clear that they expected the team to be in the playoff hunt and make the playoffs at the end of the season. Whether or not that was really realistic remains to be seen, but the Marlins will continue to search for his replacement.
• I don’t think we can really discuss the week that was without discussing Big Z and his big blowup during his start on Friday afternoon. Whether or not he was trying to fire up the team remains to be seen, but the Cubs did not appreciate the behavior, pulled him from the start after 1 inning, and suspended him indefinitely. It’s really been a lost season both for the Cubs and Zambrano himself, and Big Z will be sent to the bullpen when his suspension is over.
• Saturday brought the season debut of Giants’ pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner. He pitched effectively in the loss, going 7 innings and not having 100 pitches in that time. If they keep him up the rest of the season, they will have added an excellent arm to an already top-tier pitching rotation.
• Andy Oliver was called up on Friday to take the rotation spot of the recently demoted Rick Porcello, making his major league debut. His debut was nothing particularly amazing, but Oliver is probably best known for his legal fight regarding his eligibility to pitch in college.
• Josh Hamilton has been hitting out of his mind for over 3 weeks now, as he is in the middle of a 21-game hitting streak. He has hit nearly .500 with a whole lot of power since the streak started.
• Jose Guillen is also in the midst of a 21 game hitting streak, but it appears that it has not been nearly as prolific as the one by Hamilton at this point.
• Stephen Strasburg continues to dominate major league hitters, and took his first loss of the season in a 1-0 game against the Royals this week. He now holds the record for most strikeouts in his first 4 starts of the career with 41 in that time.

Upcoming Posts This Week:

Tuesday: The Original Draft Series – Team #18 and #17
Wednesday: The Original Draft Series – Team #16 and #15
Thursday: The Month of June in Review
Friday:  Trade Retrospective – Rafael Palmeiro to the Rangers

The Week in Review: June 7-June 13

If the Playoffs Started Today

Tampa Bay Rays (40-23) vs. Minnesota Twins (36-27)
Texas Rangers (35-28) vs. New York Yankees (40-23)

Los Angeles Dodgers (36-27) vs. Atlanta Braves (37-27)
Cincinnati Reds (36-28) vs. San Diego Padres (37-26)

League Leaders

Batting Average – Robinson Cano (NYY) – .371
Runs – Kevin Youkilis (BOS) – 54
Home Runs – Miguel Cabrera (DET) – 19
Runs Batted In – Miguel Cabrera (DET) – 56
Stolen Bases – Juan Pierre (CHW) – 25

Wins – Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) – 12
Saves – Matt Capps (WAS) – 20
ERA – Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) – 1.16
Strikeouts – Dan Haren (ARI) – 97
WHIP – Cliff Lee (SEA) – 0.93

Roster Movement

To the Disabled List: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Nate McLouth, Rich Harden, J.J. Hardy, Jeremy Hermida, Aramis Ramirez, Orlando Hudson

Return from the Disabled List: Miguel Montero, George Sherrill, Ivan Rodriguez

To the Minors: Jake Fox, Lou Marson

Called Up: Stephen Strasburg, Mike Stanton, Carlos Santana, Brad Lincoln, Jose Tabata

Top Stories and Weekly Links

• Clearly, the dominant story on the baseball landscape this week was the much-anticipated debut of Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday. And boy did he not disappoint. 14 strikeouts and only 2 earned runs over 7 innings on Tuesday en route to his first major league victory. As a result of this, Sunday’s start at the Indians became almost as hyped. He pitched well enough to get a victory on Sunday, striking out 8 and only allowing 1 earned run. But there does appear to be a human being under there, as he walked 5 and only went 5 1/3 innings in that start.
• Not to be outdone, the Marlins called up top prospect Mike Stanton to make his debut on Tuesday as well. In the 5 games he has played since being called up, he has hit .368 with 4 runs batted in and 2 stolen bases. The strikeouts will remain a bit of a concern for him, but let’s remember that the kid is still just 20 years old, and probably likely to see at least a bit of growing pains.
• On Friday, the Indians called up their top prospect C Carlos Santana. He is hitting .273, but slugging .636 after a homerun and a double in Saturday’s game. He faced off against Strasburg in his start on Sunday, and was the only player in the Indians’ starting lineup to not strikeout against the phenom. Pretty good start so far.
• Lost in all these top prospects making their debuts was the fact that on Monday, Bryce Harper’s rights officially became the property of the Washington Nationals. I did find it interesting that the Nationals have announced already that he will be moved to the outfield immediately upon his signing. Looking at the Nationals’ minor league system, this is probably the fastest way for him to get to the Majors, and the Nats also have a solid prospect (Derek Norris) already at the catcher position who is more likely to make it to the Majors behind the plated before Harper would. Either way, Harper could very well end up making it to the Majors in two to three seasons at most, and is very likely to be no older than 20 when he does so. Lots of paydays in his future.

Links are a bit light this week, as I’ve been pretty busy. I am looking for some input from the readers, as I am starting to look into which prospects I should review in the offseason. My only rules really for this for the next offseason is that I want to preview a prospect from each team again. So if you have someone you think is going to be a top-10 prospect in an organization that you’d like to see a scouting report for, leave a comment and let me know.

Upcoming Posts This Week:

Tuesday: The Original Draft Series – Team #30 and #29
Wednesday: The Original Draft Series – Team #28 and #27
Thursday: The Original Draft Series – Team #26 and #25
Friday:  Trade Retrospective – Rickey Henderson to the Yankees

Team Preview – Boston Red Sox

Roster Makeup
Lineup		Pitching Staff
Pos	Name	Role	Name
C	Victor Martinez	SP 1	Josh Beckett
1B	Kevin Youkilis	SP 2	Jon Lester
2B	Dustin Pedroia	SP 3	John Lackey
3B	Adrian Beltre	SP 4	Daisuke Matsuzaka
SS	Marco Scutaro	SP 5	Clay Buchholz
LF	Mike Cameron	Bullpen
CF	Jacoby Ellsbury	CL	Jonathan Papelbon
RF	J.D. Drew	RP	Hideki Okajima
DH	David Ortiz	RP	Daniel Bard
Bench		RP	Ramon Ramirez
IF	Mike Lowell	RP	Manny Delcarmen
C	Jason Varitek	RP	Tim Wakefield

Additional roster information can be found at MLB Depth Charts.

Off-Season Transactions
Key Additions			Key Losses
Pos	Name	How	Pos	Name	How
SP	John Lackey	Free Agency	OF	Jason Bay	Free Agency
SS	Marco Scutaro	Free Agency	1B	Casey Kotchman	Trade (SEA)
3B	Adrian Beltre	Free Agency	RP	Billy Wagner	Free Agency
OF	Mike Cameron	Free Agency

Top Prospects: Casey Kelly (P), Ryan Westmoreland (OF), Lars Anderson (1B), Jose Iglesias (SS)

2009 Review

The Red Sox finished 2009 with a 95-67 record, good for 2nd place in the AL East, and the Wild Card bid for the American League. The offense was led by LF Jason Bay (36 HR, 119 RBI), CF Jacoby Ellsbury (.301, 70 SB), and 1B/3B Kevin Youkilis (.305, 27 HR, 94 RBI), while the pitching staff was anchored by Jon Lester (15-8, 3.41 ERA) and Josh Beckett (17-6, 3.86 ERA). GM Theo Epstein was extremely busy during the season, acquiring C Victor Martinez from the Indians for a package of players, and also acquiring 1B Casey Kotchman while trading away SP Brad Penny, SP John Smoltz, 1B Adam LaRoche, and SS Julio Lugo.

The Red Sox season really appeared to be a tale of two halves, as the Red Sox were in first place as late as July 20th. However, once the Yankees got on a roll, the Sox were relegated to chasing after the wild card. In the playoffs, they drew the Angels in the first round, and were summarily swept in 3 games by the Angels.

The thing that I really found interesting about the Red Sox is that they were able to take some high-risk players, and when they didn’t work, still were able to make moves to allow them to recover. Penny and Smoltz both didn’t pitch particularly well for the Red Sox, but all they really cost the Sox was money. In spite of giving up quite a few players to acquire Victor Martinez, the farm system still remains extremely deep.

Team Outlook for 2010

The Red Sox are expected to compete for a playoff spot again this year, and would be on the short list of World Series contenders as well. They’ve improved at 3 positions where they were weak at the start of the 2009 season (C, 3B, SS), while losing some offensive production in LF. However, they’ve added excellent defenders at both 3B and LF, who should help make up some of that production. Their pitching staff is extremely deep, with Beckett, Lester and free agent signee John Lackey penciled in at the top of a rotation which still includes Daisuke Matsuzaka, a more experienced Clay Buchholz, and Tim Wakefield to fill in with solid innings in either long-relief or as a spot-starter.

I’m not really sure where the weakness would be on the Red Sox as of yet. J.D. Drew is always a risk to get injured, and DH David Ortiz was a bit of a mixed bag last season. The bullpen is still extremely strong, with Jonathan Papelbon slotted in as the closer yet again. Even the bench is fairly strong, with 3B Mike Lowell, C Jason Varitek, and 3B/OF Bill Hall among the players manager Terry Francona can call on to give the starters a rest.

Fantasy Outlook for 2010

Lots of players to like here, with C Victor Martinez, 1B/3B Kevin Youkilis, 2B Dustin Pedroia, SS Marco Scutaro, CF Jacoby Ellsbury, CL Jonathan Papelbon, and SPs Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey all being owned in standard 10-team leagues. If I were looking for a player with some upside, LF Mike Cameron could potentially hit better this season with a full home schedule of the Green Monster.

Prediction for 2010

The Red Sox, barring any unusual injuries, should be right at the top of the AL East again. I think that they’re going to be extremely competitive, and should be in the playoffs come October.

94-68, 2nd in the AL East
Wild Card winner for the AL