Red Sox Lineup Analysis: Part 2
A continuation of the ongoing series where we look at the 2007 team and evaluate the players and expectations on their season performance
7. Coco Crisp – CF – (S)
Here’s another guy who’s coming off an injury-filled season. We really haven’t seen the real Coco Crisp. If you recall, he had a great Spring and opened the season hitting and running very well. When he hurt the finger, he had just stolen second and was going for third, and was hitting over .300 at the time. But, of course, he got hurt and probably rushed back and just couldn’t get his swing back on.
Coco is a great player because he has great bat speed and is known by scouts for being able to hit any fastball. He uses the entire park (though that’s pretty easy when you are hitting from both sides of the plate) and actually has decent power. He’s a speed demon who can run like the dickens (I love that phrase!) and will probably run more this year at the bottom of the lineup with weak hitters coming behind him. I predict he’ll have more steals than Lugo – probably something like 30 to Julio’s 25. He uses his speed in the outfield to make some amazing plays as well – who can forget when he saved the game against the Mets last year in what was probably the best game of the year!
Last but not least, he has the coolest and funniest name of anyone in baseball. OK, I’ll say it – I’m Cuckoo for Coco Crisps!
8. Jason Varitek – C – (S)
Varitek is coming off one of his worst (probably THE worst) season of his career, hitting a lowly .238 and only playing 103 games. He hit the fewest home runs since ’02 (12 in ’06 vs. 10 in ’02), only scored 46 runs vs. 87 strikeouts. This comes with an $8 million price tag, which is probably too much for any catcher not named Joe Mauer.
None of this really matters, as we all remember when he turned the Sox season around in 2004 (with the help of Billy Mueller) as depicted here. His offense will prove to not really matter as he’ll be hitting down at the bottom of the lineup where you are expecting to see a soon-to-be 35 (on 4/11) year old catcher. And his real strength is his defense and the impact he has on the pitching staff. He is always very well-prepared, and many Sox pitchers have gone on record saying they trust ‘Tek more than most catchers they’ve dealt with in the past (probably most relevant for Josh Beckett this year). He’ll really earn that paycheck if he can get Matsuzaka on the right track too.
I expect at least some improvement at the plate this year, and hopefully he’ll stay healthy and play a solid 125 games. Gotta love having 2 switch-hitters at the bottom of the lineup! And the bottom line is that no matter what he does at the plate, this team is better with Jason Varitek in the lineup.
Stumble it!