Via BBTF, Bob Ryan comes down hard on Theo Epstein over the Red Sox shorstop situation. What’s more interesting is Evan Brunell’s take on the situation. Since the Blue Jays signed Alex Gonzalez, Marco Sutaro is the best shortstop on the market. If the Red Sox sign him, they give Toronto a first round draft pick:
Toronto has then not only plugged their hole at shortstop but has forced the Sox into a situation that may be tough to maneuver out of. Either downgrade from Scutaro and sign a weak alternative, or find a trade partner and somehow pull off a trade. (Which would almost certainly require some trade pieces Boston is hoarding for a possible Roy Halladay/Adrian Gonzalez/etc. trade.)
Of course, it’s possible the Red Sox take a step back and regroup. This is something Theo wanted to do when he ended up in the rift with upper management and left the team for a winter. A team with Adam Everett vacuuming balls at shortstop would still compete, which is all the team really needs to keep fans in the seats. How the Red Sox go about plugging the hole at shortstop will tell a lot about their expectations for 2010.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:57 am | Free Agents, Management, Team Evaluation | Permalink | 3 Comments
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November 28th, 2009 @ 12:53 pm
I speculated over at my blog that pressure from the press won’t push Theo into making the colossally foolish decision to sign Scutaro. I figured they would go internal and let Iglesias take the job vacuuming up the ground balls and hitting below average. But Everett makes plenty good sense on a one year deal to let Iglesias have a season in the minors to acclimate to US baseball. The Sox last year had a .234/.297./358 slash line and prior to Gonzalez’ arrival less than good fielding ability at short. A defensive wiz, needs merely to clear that low set bar to add value to the position. I’m not surprised that Bob Ryan doesn’t get that.
November 29th, 2009 @ 11:43 am
Agree, if Lowrie’s not ready to take over on an everyday basis, Everett for one year would make good sense. Say nyet to Scutaro — I’d prefer rushing Iglesias to signing Scutaro.
Not at all surprised at Ryan’s shallow, uninformed reasoning. He’s not baseball savvy. This kind of knee-jerk “Theo’s gotta do something NOW!” reaction would be a spot-on parody of an aging columnist’s need to submit copy during a slow news period were it not done with absolute lack of irony and self-awareness.
November 29th, 2009 @ 9:55 pm
What was Theo thinking when Toronto signed Alex Gonzalez?