Season Preview: Red Sox healthy at the start
BOSTON (AP) – David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and the Boston Red Sox are healthy again heading into their season opener Monday at Fenway Park against the team that stopped them a game short of another World Series.
Now the 2007 champions face another huge obstacle – perhaps the toughest division in baseball.
“Everyone talks about a three-team race,” Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said, “but Toronto’s got new leadership and they’ll be getting better in the years ahead. Baltimore’s got some good young talent so they’re going to be getting better.”
Tampa Bay, Boston’s opening day opponent, added slugger Pat Burrell. Toronto’s Cito Gaston starts his first full year as manager in his current tenure. Catcher Matt Wieters leads Baltimore’s long list of solid prospects.
Then, of course, there are the New York Yankees, who committed $423.5 million to Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to get them back to the top of the AL East and the playoffs.
The Red Sox spent much less – a total of $12.5 million in base salaries for 2009 for pitchers Brad Penny, John Smoltz and Takashi Saito and outfielder Rocco Baldelli.
All were sidelined for substantial parts of last year, but have stayed healthy throughout spring training, aside from Penny’s brief bout with a tired shoulder that he’s recovered from.
Boston’s low-risk, potential high-reward approach could pay off.
“It’s too soon to say,” Lucchino said. “It seems from this vantage point now a sensible approach, but the proof is in the pudding. We have to wait and see what kind of results these guys bring about.”
The Red Sox made fewer significant changes among their starting position players than their pitching staff. The return of Ortiz and Lowell from serious injuries are major parts of a lineup that lacked power once Manny Ramirez was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline.
Ortiz missed time with a wrist injury and, when he was the designated hitter, his swing had changed. Lowell tried to play through a damaged hip until the third baseman finally gave in before the playoffs and had surgery Oct. 20.
“I’m not really worried about the hip,” Lowell said late in spring training. “It’s more like just stay on top of it maintenance-wise.”
Lowell slipped from a .324 batting average with 120 RBI in 2007 to .274 with 73 RBI last year, when he played 41 fewer games. Ortiz’s decline was more drastic: from .332 with 35 HR and 117 RBI in 2007 to .264 with 23 homers and 89 RBI last year, when he played 40 fewer games.
Catcher Jason Varitek can’t do much worse than he did in 2008 when he hit a career-low .220 with 122 strikeouts and 43 RBI in 423 at-bats. He led the Red Sox in spring training with 15 RBI in 46 at-bats.
“The early returns on Lowell, Ortiz, Varitek are quite positive,” Lucchino said. “I think they all have plenty of gas in the tank and I think we’re going to see some serious bounceback performances there from those guys who are team leaders who can help carry this team.”
There are others: AL MVP Dustin Pedroia, first baseman Kevin Youkilis and outfielders Jason Bay and J.D. Drew.
The strength of the team appears to be the pitching.
The rotation of Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield and Penny is deep – with top prospects Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden starting the season in the minors. The bullpen anchored by closer Jonathan Papelbon got stronger with the additions of Saito and Ramon Ramirez.