I think I'll be a little less kind in evaluating the Sox..
C - Salty and Ross. Actually, not a particularly bad tandem. Salty can, y'know, sort of hit right handed pitching. I suppose he only appears passable vs. RHP because he's simply that awful against LHP. (.230/.299/.480) vs. (.170/.211./.283). Decent pop, but an astronomical K rate and inability to get on base with any kind of frequency pretty much makes me sour on him. Nothing to write home about defensively either. Ross was certainly a valuable pickup and probably the only offseason move the Sox made that I like. I would expect pretty much a full out platoon with Ross starting against lefties. Wouldn't surprise me if he started 50-60 games, and frankly it would be a good thing for the Sox if he did.
1B - Mike Napoli. Man oh man did I really hate this signing. Guy with no hips trying to be a full time first baseman. Riiiighttttt. I guess that's what you get stuck with when you inexplicably push the panic button and ship off Adrian Gonzalez, cause you know the Sox are too poor to afford Crawford and Beckett. Anyway, glad they managed to get him on a 1-year deal. I have extremely low expectations for him, and I would bet the farm on him never ever coming anywhere close to that ridiculous 2011 season he put up again. In fact, I wouldn't expect him to put up anything nearing his '08 or '09 seasons either. I'm sure the line will look a lot like last year or 2010. Sure, Fenway seems like a good fit for him, but when he only plays 110 games with a good majority of that likely battling hip problems, it's not going to translate into much.
2B - Dustin Pedroia for my money still a top 5 2nd baseman in the game. I definitely think his injury problems have been overstated. Pretty much the only player on the Sox that really gave any kind of a shit last year and as such still garners my respect. I have to expect the standard somewhere around .800-.850 OPS with above average defense from Pedey once again.
SS Stephen Drew - I liked this signing. So I kind of lied earlier when I said Ross was the only one I liked. Low risk/high reward for sure. When healthy, he's a bit above average as a hitter, good gap power, decent eye, average to slightly above fielder. Not much to dislike about him, besides his health, much like J.D. Never hurts to take a flyer on a guy who I'm sure wants to play his way into a long term contract with someone. Jose Iglesias will be starting on opening day as Drew is hurt. Iglesias at this point can't hit his weight, which is pretty sad since he's a (very generous) 175 lbs, but he'll provide some slick fielding.
LF - Jackie Bradley Jr. will be starting on opening day, I want to say solely due to the Ortiz injury. It's highly unlikely that he will remain in the bigs regardless of performance should Ortiz return in April. It was a good spring story, but it's hard to bank on a guy having success at the ML level that hasn't played above AA. As Yawk said he did show good plate instincts in the spring and drew his fair share of walks, but I can definitely see him being overmatched at the major league level at this point in his career. Jonny Gomes will be the starting LFer upon Ortiz's return. I didn't like this signing much as they paid him well over what he's worth. As a platoon hitter I love him, but as a full-time starter, no thank you. Mashes lefties. Crap against righties.
CF The injury prone Jacoby Ellsbury of course will man CF. When healthy, he can be one of the, if not the best all-around center fielder in baseball as demonstrated in his remarkable 2011 season. The problem is he has only managed 3 full seasons out of 5. Not the best injury history. The Sox absolutely need a healthy Ellsbury to have any hope of a productive offense.
RF Another signing that made absolutely no sense to me and that I hate, hate, hate, Shane Victorino. Victorino hasn't hit right handed pitching effectively in years, yet is penciled in as the #2 hitter in the lineup at this point. There's surefire success right there. He'll bring speed and above average defense in right, but is likely to be a fairly useless bat against RHP. He does, however, hit lefties quite well and he along with Gomes will be the reason this team should mash left handed pitching.
Bench - Nothing remarkable here. Ciriaco is the prototypical lanky slap hitting utility infielder that swings at pretty much everything and is a junky fielder at whatever position the Sox want to use him for on the INF. Nava is just okay and only against RHP. Very good plate discipline, awful fielder, no pop whatsoever. And well, Carp is just..yeah.
Starting Pitching - Wide range of possibilities here. This staff could be quite good, or quite awful. Since I'm a pessimist I lean toward the awful side. Jon Lester needs a big bounce back season if the rotation has any chance of success. When he's right he's one of the best left handed pitchers in the game, and a bonafide ace. When he's like last year, it's trouble for the Sox. Clay Buchholz has struggled off and on his whole career with his health. For the most part he's a very good #2 option, but he's very inconsistent and is prone to the "big inning". Ryan Desmpter is yet another signing that I hate tremendously. He pitched quite poorly for Texas in his brief AL stint, and I see no reason for that to change. Felix Doubront is yet another maddeningly inconsistent from inning-to-inning performer. He rarely gets deep into games due to control issues and concentration issues. Has the stuff to be a quality #3 or #4 pitcher, but the mental makeup is lacking. And of course there's John Lackey. He's just plain bad. There's no hope for him.
Relief Pitching - In my opinion, the strongest part of the team heading into the season. Hanrahan was a good pickup despite his control issues last year, but my favorite pickup of the offseason was Koji Uehara. Guy is just plain filthy and has some of the most ridiculous K:BB numbers I've seen. Junichi Tazawa put up equally impressive numbers pitching for the Sox last year. Miller/B] dominates left handed pitching despite his control issues. Alfredo Aceves is a bonafide psychopath, and Clayton Mortensen is a changeup artist that overachieved very much last season. Andrew Bailey runs out the pen. The former closer struggled to recovery from injury last season, so who knows what you'll get him from him this year.
Best case scenario I can see the Sox somehow sneaking into a wildcard spot. The more likely scenario, of course, would be a last place finish in the superpowered AL east.
C - Salty and Ross. Actually, not a particularly bad tandem. Salty can, y'know, sort of hit right handed pitching. I suppose he only appears passable vs. RHP because he's simply that awful against LHP. (.230/.299/.480) vs. (.170/.211./.283). Decent pop, but an astronomical K rate and inability to get on base with any kind of frequency pretty much makes me sour on him. Nothing to write home about defensively either. Ross was certainly a valuable pickup and probably the only offseason move the Sox made that I like. I would expect pretty much a full out platoon with Ross starting against lefties. Wouldn't surprise me if he started 50-60 games, and frankly it would be a good thing for the Sox if he did.
1B - Mike Napoli. Man oh man did I really hate this signing. Guy with no hips trying to be a full time first baseman. Riiiighttttt. I guess that's what you get stuck with when you inexplicably push the panic button and ship off Adrian Gonzalez, cause you know the Sox are too poor to afford Crawford and Beckett. Anyway, glad they managed to get him on a 1-year deal. I have extremely low expectations for him, and I would bet the farm on him never ever coming anywhere close to that ridiculous 2011 season he put up again. In fact, I wouldn't expect him to put up anything nearing his '08 or '09 seasons either. I'm sure the line will look a lot like last year or 2010. Sure, Fenway seems like a good fit for him, but when he only plays 110 games with a good majority of that likely battling hip problems, it's not going to translate into much.
2B - Dustin Pedroia for my money still a top 5 2nd baseman in the game. I definitely think his injury problems have been overstated. Pretty much the only player on the Sox that really gave any kind of a shit last year and as such still garners my respect. I have to expect the standard somewhere around .800-.850 OPS with above average defense from Pedey once again.
SS Stephen Drew - I liked this signing. So I kind of lied earlier when I said Ross was the only one I liked. Low risk/high reward for sure. When healthy, he's a bit above average as a hitter, good gap power, decent eye, average to slightly above fielder. Not much to dislike about him, besides his health, much like J.D. Never hurts to take a flyer on a guy who I'm sure wants to play his way into a long term contract with someone. Jose Iglesias will be starting on opening day as Drew is hurt. Iglesias at this point can't hit his weight, which is pretty sad since he's a (very generous) 175 lbs, but he'll provide some slick fielding.
LF - Jackie Bradley Jr. will be starting on opening day, I want to say solely due to the Ortiz injury. It's highly unlikely that he will remain in the bigs regardless of performance should Ortiz return in April. It was a good spring story, but it's hard to bank on a guy having success at the ML level that hasn't played above AA. As Yawk said he did show good plate instincts in the spring and drew his fair share of walks, but I can definitely see him being overmatched at the major league level at this point in his career. Jonny Gomes will be the starting LFer upon Ortiz's return. I didn't like this signing much as they paid him well over what he's worth. As a platoon hitter I love him, but as a full-time starter, no thank you. Mashes lefties. Crap against righties.
CF The injury prone Jacoby Ellsbury of course will man CF. When healthy, he can be one of the, if not the best all-around center fielder in baseball as demonstrated in his remarkable 2011 season. The problem is he has only managed 3 full seasons out of 5. Not the best injury history. The Sox absolutely need a healthy Ellsbury to have any hope of a productive offense.
RF Another signing that made absolutely no sense to me and that I hate, hate, hate, Shane Victorino. Victorino hasn't hit right handed pitching effectively in years, yet is penciled in as the #2 hitter in the lineup at this point. There's surefire success right there. He'll bring speed and above average defense in right, but is likely to be a fairly useless bat against RHP. He does, however, hit lefties quite well and he along with Gomes will be the reason this team should mash left handed pitching.
Bench - Nothing remarkable here. Ciriaco is the prototypical lanky slap hitting utility infielder that swings at pretty much everything and is a junky fielder at whatever position the Sox want to use him for on the INF. Nava is just okay and only against RHP. Very good plate discipline, awful fielder, no pop whatsoever. And well, Carp is just..yeah.
Starting Pitching - Wide range of possibilities here. This staff could be quite good, or quite awful. Since I'm a pessimist I lean toward the awful side. Jon Lester needs a big bounce back season if the rotation has any chance of success. When he's right he's one of the best left handed pitchers in the game, and a bonafide ace. When he's like last year, it's trouble for the Sox. Clay Buchholz has struggled off and on his whole career with his health. For the most part he's a very good #2 option, but he's very inconsistent and is prone to the "big inning". Ryan Desmpter is yet another signing that I hate tremendously. He pitched quite poorly for Texas in his brief AL stint, and I see no reason for that to change. Felix Doubront is yet another maddeningly inconsistent from inning-to-inning performer. He rarely gets deep into games due to control issues and concentration issues. Has the stuff to be a quality #3 or #4 pitcher, but the mental makeup is lacking. And of course there's John Lackey. He's just plain bad. There's no hope for him.
Relief Pitching - In my opinion, the strongest part of the team heading into the season. Hanrahan was a good pickup despite his control issues last year, but my favorite pickup of the offseason was Koji Uehara. Guy is just plain filthy and has some of the most ridiculous K:BB numbers I've seen. Junichi Tazawa put up equally impressive numbers pitching for the Sox last year. Miller/B] dominates left handed pitching despite his control issues. Alfredo Aceves is a bonafide psychopath, and Clayton Mortensen is a changeup artist that overachieved very much last season. Andrew Bailey runs out the pen. The former closer struggled to recovery from injury last season, so who knows what you'll get him from him this year.
Best case scenario I can see the Sox somehow sneaking into a wildcard spot. The more likely scenario, of course, would be a last place finish in the superpowered AL east.
