What a great time to be a Red Sox fan!
The Red Sox came into last season with expectation of being a phenomenal defensive team, but in a 'bridge season.' This didn't really seem to be the case. I figured the Sox would be fine offensively, and still had a great chance to contend. Then, the season and the injuries began. The Red Sox were without starters Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Varitek, Mike Cameron and Josh Beckett for considerable amounts of time. Missing about half of your starting lineup, including your spark plug in Ellsbury, didn't bode well. But, somehow, thanks to Adrian Beltre, David Ortiz and a group of bench/AAA players used to replace the injured starters, the Red Sox still did pretty well. They won 89 games. They weren't mathematically eliminated from the playoffs until the LAST week of the season. Pretty good for a team that was considered a 'bridge season' team PRIOR to all of their injuries, I believe.
After happily seeing the Yankees taking an early exit from the post season, the greatness that is the off season began. I love seeing where free agents end up, and trades that are made. I love the rumors. It's one of my favorite parts of baseball, especially when it works out well for the Red Sox. Everyday I scour MLB Trade Rumors, multiple times, looking for rumors, trades, signings and the like. Going into the 2010-11 off season the Red Sox had a need for either a 1Bman or a 3Bman, depending on if they switched Youk to third or not. Adrian Beltre was a free agent, and after his monster year in 2010 (how could he NOT have hit that well at Fenway?), he would probably command more money than the Sox front office would be willing to give him, so he appeared gone. While I would be sad to see his great defense and great numbers at Fenway leave, I wasn't sad to see the guy that had taken Jacoby out for the year (and Hermida, for that matter) gone. His replacement would make me forget he ever existed.
THE RED SOX ACQUIRED ADRIAN GONZALEZ! It was a great, great, GREAT day in Red Sox history. Basically, the Sox gave the Padres their top pitching prospect, Casey Kelly, and Carlos Beltran's cousin, Reymond Fuentes, among a couple other prospects for one of the best players in the game. Gonzelez plays Gold Glove-caliber first base (meaning Youk plays 3rd), is a career .284 hitter, and has hit 30+ home runs (and about 100 RBI) in ever season since 2007, playing his home games at the notorious pitchers' park that is San Diego's Petco Park. He's going to absolutely crush the ball in 2011, with Fenway's dimensions being much more forgiving than Petco. He hit 40 homers just two seasons ago, AND THAT WASN'T AT FENWAY. I'm more than excited for Gonzo.
After long amounts of speculation of going to the LA Angels, the Red Sox signed free agent left fielder Carl Crawford for a whopping $142 mm. While it is a steep price, Crawford is absolutely worth it; He is a five-tool player who will only make the players around him better. With the lineup he is in now (for many, many years) Crawford's numbers will also only get better. The Red Sox lineup, for lack of a better word (or lack of desire for another word) is STACKED.
It is almost unbelievable that the Red Sox (thanks, Theo!) could pull off BOTH of those huge, great deals, but they did. I haven't been this excited for a Red Sox season since the Sox broke the curse in 2004. I hope you are, too!
