Nonsensical Ramblings about 2008 and beyond

So, this outlook comes 2 games into the season, right before game three. I didn't watch the first two since they were on at God-awful times, and I might not watch the third tonight since the Massachusetts Minutemen are in the Final Four against Florida tonight. Don't let the liberal/conservative media fool you. The Final Four is UMass, Florida, OSU and Ole Miss.

Anyway, I when I started this post, I didn't feel very confident about this season, which is weird as pretty much everyone's returning from a World Championship team. Then I began writing and I realized how good this team can be. Granted, two of the top three in the rotation are on the DL now, though Beckett is eligible to come off Thursday. Schilling's on the 60 day DL, and besides, he's really old. I don't know how much he has left in the tank.

At first glance, age appears to be a huge factor with this team. Wakefield, Schilling and Timlin are all 42ish. Varitek did rebound from a horrible 2006, but he's gonna be 36 in a week and a half. How long do catchers hold up? Even the heart of the order, Manny and Ortiz, are perhaps starting to show signs of decline. Rameriz will be 36 next month and had a huge decline last year. Compare his 2006 and 2007 numbers. 15 more home runs, 14 more RBI, a 30 point batting average drop and a 50 point OBP drop. Plus, he played more games in 2007, so the power numbers bug me. Ortiz on the other hand had his worst power year as a Red Sox since 2003, hitting 19 less homers and driving in 20 less runs then last year. The only thing is, in 2003, he played in limited time sharing with Hillenbrand, Millar, and Mueller. I'm not as worried about Ortiz, as he did have a career high batting average last year. The other area of concern with age is the throw in, Mike Lowell. He had an unexpectanted great year . I'm just hoping now that he's been paid, he'll still show up. I believe he will. He doesn't seem like that much of a jerk to just cash it in, but what do I know?

Throw J.D. Drew into the areas of concern list. He's not that old, he just really sucked last year. He gets a pass only because he hit a grand slam in game 7 of the ALCS. But he has to contribute something, anything during this regular season.

The nice thing is, the Red Sox are acknowledging their age problem and have begun phasing in the next generation. Everyone knows about Papelbon, but the pitching staff also includes Manny Delcarmen in the bullpen and Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester in the rotation. Concerning the everyday nine, last years rookie of the year Dustin Pedroia is returning as is October hero Jacoby Ellsbury. It would have been nice to have traded for Santana, but being set for the future is a good consilation prize.

The Red Sox will win the division this year. No one else scares me. The other day, I was wearing my Red Sox jacket on the T, and someone in Cardinal gear started yelling at me "Forget Red Sox Nation. It's all about Cardinal Nation. The Red Sox are a joke." I politely pointed out the Cardinals didn't even finish above .500 last year, and though they won the World Series the year before, they, in fact were the joke and shouldn't have qualified for the playoffs seeing as how the Phillies (not to mention the Blue Jays, the Red Sox, the White Sox, and the Angels) had a better record but due to the foolishness that is the division rule, the Cardinals somehow qualified. He kept yelling about how great the Cardinals were. Eventually, someone approached me and said "Hey man, don't look to me for help. I'm a Yankees fan." I responded "How's the millenium been? I don't even know why you bothered single yourself out like that. The Yankees are irrelevenant." It was beautiful because it's true.