The Sox recently acquired yet another potential backup infielder in Kevin Frandsen, a 27-year old who hit .295/.352/.438 for the Giants AAA team last season.  Frandsen is similar to Tug Hulett in a few ways: both are roughly the same age, and both have had moderate offensive success as infielders in AAA while not being able to carry that success over to the MLB level as of yet.  Just for kicks, here are both players’ PECOTA projections stacked up against Bill Hall, who has a roster spot just about locked up at this point:

The projection engine at Baseball Prospectus seems to like Frandsen a bit more than the other two backup infielders currently looking to make the major league squad (for what it’s worth).  One thing that Frandsen has over the other two guys: he’s played a lot of SS recently: 67 games in 2009 between San Francisco and AAA Fresno.

Other notes:

• Apparently, the Red Sox are making a stand in the Josh Beckett negotiations, refusing to go beyond four years.  I think that’s the right move, since Beckett hasn’t exactly been the Greek God of Health and Consistency during his time here.  Maybe you throw in an incentive based option year at the end of the four guaranteed years.  All the same, I wish this type of stuff wouldn’t get leaked, since we don’t need Beckett’s camp “losing face”.  Beckett has a temper.  I once witnessed a child approach him for an autograph, and he responded by stabbing the kid with a hunting knife and dousing him with deer urine.  I could only imagine what he’ll do to Theo Epstein if these talks get tense.
• Speaking of Beckett, he will be the Opening Day starter on Sunday night.  He’ll be followed by Lester, Lackey, and Wakefield.  Buchholz will jump into the rotation  after Beckett’s second start.  I suppose this makes Buchholz the de facto “5th starter” which may not bode well for him during his final option year.
• A Red Sox-Yankees Opening Day at 8 pm is really just an asinine idea.  Since there appears to be some sort of language in the official MLB rule book which states that every Sox-Yanks game must be at least 3.5 hours long, this game has sleep deprivation written all over it.  You don’t really need to entice viwers to watch the first game of the season.  Why not save thel whole rivalry opener for mid May, when the luster begins to wear off.  Add to this the fact that Sunday is a travel holiday for some of us in the Northeast, and the ESPN/MLB cabal deserves a public flogging for this one.

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