Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Beckett for Ramirez

No, not that Ramirez. Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, and an unspecified minor league pitcher are heading to Florida, while Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell are headed on up to Boston. Trading Hanley Ramirez this off-season was obvious, with Edgar Renteria's contract being too large to unload this year.

Seems like a good idea to me to add pitching, but the way Yahoo number 2 is complaining on the radio this morning, you would think blisters were the end all and be all of ailments. While it's true that Josh Beckett has been on the DL twice a year, most of those stints were because of blisters. If Beckett can pitch in 28 games a year, he'll be an improvement over what we had last year. He has underachieved since winning the MVP, but that does not make him a bad pitcher. He's also arrogant enough to pitch in a major market, something that isn't always true.

Also added to the payroll will be gold glover Mike Lowell (it's officially time to say goodbye to Miller). Unless the Marlins have decided to pay for half of his salary, it looks like all that money the Red Sox were saving by playing rookies next year (BTW, where's Youkilis going to play, first? Or will he be gone, too?) is going to go to Lowell and Ramirez (yes, that Ramirez). I can't see how they're going to flip Mike or dump Manny based on their large salaries.

BTW, it looks like the left side is going to be horrible next year when it comes to hitting. Between Renteria and Lowell, I'm not sure who's going to have worse numbers at the plate. Lowell was just .236 with eight homers and 58 RBI this past season despite entering the campaign as a career .277 hitter with an average of nearly 25 homers and 95 RBI over the previous five years with the Marlins. Renteria on the other hand, batted .276 with 8 HR and 70 rbi last year. Maybe Lowell will return to form and give Edgar a run for his money.

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2 comments:

Scott said...

Don't forget about Anibal Sanchez as a big part of this deal. He had great numbers in the minors last year. I think Beckett is great, but don't expect his AL numbers to match what he's done recently.

Unknown said...

Compared to losing Lester (hopefully, you can never tell with prospects), I'm more than happy to lose an untested prostpect for an established pro about to enter the top of his career. I don't expect his AL numbers to match, I actually expect his win total to go up, with a better offensive backing him up!