NY Boston Fan

Been a while since I posted about baseball. This is kind of the down period to me, not close enough to take spring training seriously, but not far enough away to be going nuts talking about what could be...especially when other people do it much better than me.

But I was looking at the Sox roster, and it seems to me they are going to have some very difficult decisions. Let's assume they start the season with 12 pitchers. And let's assume that they keep the following 11 for sure:

28 Doug Mirabelli
33 Jason Varitek
12 Mark Bellhorn
15 Kevin Millar
11 Bill Mueller
16 Edgar Renteria
18 Johnny Damon
7 Trot Nixon
44 Jay Payton
24 Manny Ramirez
34 David Ortiz

That leaves 2 spots for all of the following players:

78 Hanley Ramirez
23 Ramon Vazquez
20 Kevin Youkilis
25 Adam Hyzdu
62 Kelly Shoppach
36 Shawn Wooten
10 David McCarty
70 Simon Pond

OK let's assume that two guys who are getting a lot of time, but who have uniform numbers in the 70s, are going back down.

If they want a 5th outfielder (uh, good idea!) then they probably keep Hyzdu. If they want a utility infielder (uh, great idea!) they keep up Vazquez. I assume that Vazquez is pretty much a sure thing at this point.

So that means no 3rd catcher, no McCarty, and no Youkilis. Personally, I'd like to see them keep up Youkilis, who can play at 1st, and use Millar as the 5th outfielder when necessary. Then you can choose between a 12th pitcher, and Hyzdu.

If they take the pitchers that I think are sure things, and only take 11 in total, then there is only one roster spot to be won by either:

B.K. Kim
Lenny DiNardo
Mark Malaska
Anastacio Martinez
Jeremi Gonzalez
Denny Tomori

I have no idea who has the upper hand, but it woud surprise me if it was anyone other than DiNardo or Tomori at this point. But then again, I forget to listen to the games every day.