So Alex Gonzalez was signed Friday, which means the Sox now have to find room for him on the 40-Man. Gordon Edes had this to say…
The Sox are at the limit on their 40-man roster, necessitating a spot be created for González. One avenue the Sox appear likely to pursue is to ask first baseman Roberto Petagine whether he would be willing to play again in Japan. The Sox could simply release Petagine, but probably would prefer to see whether they could cut a deal for him in Japan, where he averaged 37 home runs and 99 RBIs over a six-year span before signing with the Sox last winter.
No need to further belabor the Petagine topic but it appears that his time as a Red Sox is coming to an end. I will never, ever understand his treatment here. Like we did in this space so many times over the course of last season, Rob Neyer, in his piece for the 2006 Hardball Times Baseball Annual goes into the absurdity of the Red Sox usage of Petagine in 2005. Now they apparently are eager to squeeze him off the roster to make room for Gonzalez. Did I mention that 38 year-old John Flaherty, coming off of an OPS+ of 20 in 2005, occupies a spot on Boston’s 40-man?
The Red Sox avoided arbitration with Josh Beckett, meeting right about in the middle of their respective original numbers. Beckett will make $4.325 million next season. It’s not huge news but I think it is good that the two parties were able to reach an agreement. All things equal, it’s probably best not to start out a working relationship by having the employer telling an arbitrator all of the reasons why the new hire isn’t worth what he thinks he is. Score one for compromise.
So how about a quick-and-dirty of how this staff is shaping up? We will have a soup-to-nuts Sox preview just prior to Opneing Day (along with previews of all 30 teams leading up to the Sox preview throughout late February and March) but here’s a quick exercise. Just for shits, I will list the Sox starter along with his PECOTA projected ERA and his ZIPS projected ERA and we will see how this staff is looking compared to last year’s.
Curt Schilling: 4.17 / 3.47
Josh Beckett: 3.87 / 3.86
Tim Wakefield: 4.65 / 4.74
Matt Clement: 4.11 / 4.33
Jonathan Papelbon: 4.91 / 4.14
Bronson Arroyo: 4.47 / 4.07
David Wells: 4.80 / 4.08
Lenny Dinardo: 4.78 / 4.30
2005 Starters’ ERA: 4.56
Obviously ZIPS is more optimistic than PECOTA but any way you cut it, this Sox starting staff appears to be an improved one, somewhere along the lines of 30 to 40 runs or so.
Good ol’ Jim Bowden…at it again. The Washington Nationals signed Royce Clayton yesterday for his 36 year-old season. Said Jim…
“We’re not going to sit back and watch Cristian Guzman have another year like he did last year,” General Manager Jim Bowden said, referring to Guzman’s .219 batting average and 31 RBI in 2005. “This [signing] gives us a viable option to go to in the event we don’t see improvement from Guzman.”
Jim Bowden (who signed Guzman) is not going to stand for Cristian Guzman’s suckitude, which, of course, was altogether foreseeable heading into the 2005 season. Once a good fielder, Clayton’s not even that anymore. The mind boggles trying to figure out just how bad his numbers could be if he gets a decent amount of plate appearences while playing home games at RFK…
We added a new blog on our blogroll on the left side of screen.
Seth Speaks has an interesting look at the fantasy baseball world, and he is doing a multipart 2006 fantasy preview. The AL East was today, and he tosses up projections for the staters as well. Give him a look, bruddas.
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