Can I paint his glove gold now? It’s kind of my thing, you know…
Hello Red Sox Nation…If there is anyone out there, who still doubts that Dustin Pedroia is a bonafide star, a clutch hitter, and a gritty defensive player… who still questions whether a 5 foot nothin’ 2nd year player can be a standout on a major league team…today is your answer.
Yes he can.
Today, Pedroia was awarded the American League Gold Glove for his outstanding play at second base.
And count me among those who think that he can do it again next year…
Yes he can.
So I hope you all join me in congratulating Dustin today on a very well deserved accomplishment.
Not only was he outstanding in the field this year, but he was also equally great on the offensive end of things.
And I think that ought to be reflected in the AL MVP voting later this month.
Can he win that too?
Yes he can.
(in my opinion anyhow…)
All the best from a very busy Front Office,
“The Voice of the Nation”
PS – My hot stove question for all of you today…Rank the following areas in order of importance this offseason (Starting Pitching, Catching, Outfield, RBI production, Defense, Bullpen, short stop)
Red Sox Insider Blog 
I’m pretty sure he will follow it up with a Silver Slugger award.
Greg
Red Sox Ramblings: http://thevendahhh.mlblogs.com
Congratulations to Dustin Pedroia! That’s great news for sure, and probably not the first award he’ll win this year (although Keven Youkilis must also be acknowledged; his versatility allowed us to deal with Mike Lowell’s injury with pretty much no problem; Mark Kotsay’s surprise abilities at first base sure helped there, too).
I’ll try to provide a ranking for the hot stove question…why not. 🙂 But up front, I’ll say: I know nothing. [Well, except that we should keep Varitek…that I know. :-)]
1. Starting pitching – We need one more quality starter to provide more depth. That might be Buchholz, though? Any chance? Or Zink? (That would be two knuckleballers, though, probably not good.)
2. RBI production – Adding a bat would be good [as long as that doesn’t mean getting rid of Varitek or Lowell :-)]
3. Bullpen – More depth in the bullpen never hurts, provided everyone can get some work. Having another pitcher who can take the closing role in a pinch would be great. Jonathan Papelbon is the closer, of course, but just in case…
4. Short stop – Need to make decisions about Jed Lowrie, and make sure we have more depth there. That assumes we don’t keep Julio Lugo, but if we do and Julio stays healthy, he and Lowrie should be able to handle SS fine. (I’m assuming we’ll trade Alex Cora.)
5. Outfield – Assuming we aren’t able to keep Mark Kotsay, we may need more depth there, especially if we trade either Ellsbury or Crisp (but I hope not).
6. Defense – Defense was pretty darn good this year. Just need to shore up depth in some areas.
7. Catcher – We already have a catcher. His name is Jason Varitek. 🙂 Between him and Cash, we’re in decent shape there. Keeping a third catcher (Ross? But his bat isn’t that hot…) on the roster can’t hurt, though, especially if Jason’s bat continues to slump (but I remain confident it won’t). That give us the flexibility to pinch hit for Varitek at key (late) moments in key games…if necessary…
Congrats to Dustin Pedroia !! He is a great player, strong and focused. I hope that he receives many more awards and accolades for years to come. I think that Jacoby Ellsbury was ripped-off in the judging for the Golden Gloves this year. He had an outstanding year in Center Field, so many awesome catches !! There could be a whole 30 minute show on him alone in 2008.
Next year Jacoby !! We will rally for you.
Speaking of rally, may I emphacize that we really need to bring back our star (superstar) Catcher Jason Varitek. No one else can do what he does. Make a deal. Ciao.
P.S. As far as Hot Stove on positional changes/trades, I am not a negative person & love all my Sox like my kids.
I could never say TRADE to my little ‘angels’ (Cora,Casey,Lowrie,Delcarmen,Cash,Buckholtz) No, I would never say trade !!
Starting pitching. Everything else mentioned – if not upgraded – no big deal, really. I think a healthy Lowrie could answer our starting short stop needs. If he’s not healthy, then there’s a need.
One and only priority – Starting pitching. Beckett, Lester, Dice-K, Wake…fine. Wake needs to really improve his win percentage though – but I do realize he lost some games even though we were winning when he came out, so I’m gonna cut him some slack there. Say what you want about Dice-K going deeper into games, true – but who’s gonna argue with the number of games he won. Hopefully Beckett witll be Beckett again and Lester, well nothing needs to be said about Lester, just watching him this past season said it all.
That’s 4, we need 5. Agree with me or not, with the savings of Manny R being gone we should persue CC Sabathia with everything we’ve got. Spend the stupid money. The Sox will get it back and another championship too. Add Sabathia and all of major league baseball will be jealous of the sox rotation and be even more afraid of the rotation than they would be jealous.
Keep Lowell, keep Tek.
Add one piece – CC and I bet the Sox win it all in 09.
We need Kurt Suzuki!!!!!!!!!
Pitching then catching. The Sox NEED to get Alex Trezza from the CanAm League. He’s with Worcester. He’ll be the next Jason Varitek at the plate & he’s been the home run leader in the CanAm League several years. PLEASE sign Trezza.
Oppss… Let me clarify on the catching comment I just made. KEEP VARITEK by no means let him go. But Bring Trezza on board to work with Varitek.
We obviosly need a backup catcher for Varitek but we definately need a power bat to help Big Papi. Matt Holliday would be a great fit fo rthe role and you could platoon Ellsbury with JD Drew in right. Also another front line starting pitcher would make this team again elite.
Get rid of Crisp while you can get something for him, bullpen help, or a bat off the bench.
Eat the money if there are anyone willing to take Lugo, definately one of Theo few mistakes.
“Voice,” I have two questions for you:
The first is going to reveal the lack of my pop-culture acumen, I’m afraid. 🙂 The picture you posted for the gold glove is perfect! But what’s it from? [I know, everyone else reading just groaned and said, “How could he possibly not know?” :-)]
The second is…what do you think of folks’ answers to your hot stove question? Looks like most agree another starting pitcher is top of the list…What’s your rankings for the list? Or was yours in order already? (Nothing official, I realize…)
Thanks!
hey voice… how do you do the dance between bringing in a young guy to work with varitek (as it seems everyone wants to do) while keeping cash to catch wakefield?
but to answer the question…
1) catcher – contrary to popular opinion on this board varitek isnt the catcher of the future and this should’ve been figured out 2 years ago.
2) rbi (i dont know what this really means… anyone batting 3,4,5 will get RBI opps) however, we probably need to be concerned about ortiz.
3) bullpen.. b/c you can never have enough help
will – its from “goldfinger” the third austin powers movie.
D’oh! Even I should have known that…
Thanks, ews1532!
(Starting Pitching, Catching, Outfield, RBI production, Defense, Bullpen, short stop)
1. Bullpen – we need middle relief I think first and foremost if….
2. We don’t land another starter who’s solid and can go deep into the innings. To me, this one is sort of a chicken/egg scenario.
3. Catching – we’ve got Jason, we just need to land a recruit with enough promise and potential to replace him in the next three years.
4. RBI production – I’ve got to be honest, sure we could use another big bat in the lineup – but the issue is that we really are solid with the rest of our outfield/defense — so how could we truly make that happen?
The only variable is Lowell, whom if all reports are true – is going to be healthy as a horse, so then there’s no real opening in the positions.
I think we’re pretty solid for the most part…
Rebecca
http://supergoddessgirl.blogspot.com
I too want to congratulate Dustin Pedroia on his Gold Glove award and his all around Great play this year. I hope this is just the first of many Gold Gloves for him.
As far as your Hotstove question goes, here are my ideas.
#1. Starting Pitching- I liked the idea that was talked about last off-season of going with 6 starters. I think it would keep them all fresher and if any of the starters felt like they needed more work, let them pitch an inning or two in relief between starts ; that would help to give the bullpen
more depth. I think keeping Wakefield is a mistake, he is 42 and was more of a detriment than an asset to the team last year. I would like to see a starting rotation that looked something like the following.
Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, Michael Bowden, Justin Masterson, and sign C. C. Sabathia or trade for one of the following- Tim Lincecum, Cole Hamels, Ervin Santana, Jake Peavy, Erik Bedard, Rich Harden or David Price. I am sure some of these can’t be had, but you never know unless you try.
#2. Catching. A trade with Baltimore for Matt Weiters (some think he will be the best all around catcher in the A.L. when he comes up to majors- probably early 2009) would be great. Try to resign Jason Varitek to mentor him and be the #2 catcher.
#3. RBI production- sign Mark Teixeira to play 1st base, move Kevin Youkilis to 3rd base and keep Mike Lowell to fill in at 3rd and held DH.
#4. Short stop- trade with the Marlins for Hanley Ramirez
( check his hitting chart!!! He’d be great in Fenway. Use Jed Lowrie as backup at SS, 2nd and 3rd base.
#5. Doing the above sures up the defence.
#6. Out field is fine as-is.
#7. Relief Pitching- David Aardsma, Clay Buchholz, Javier Lopez, Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon ( Clay Buchholz gets his pitching issues figured out- switch Justin Masterson back to bullpen).
P.S. I think if we are not this agressive, we will find the Yankees and Rays ahead of us next year.
P.S.S. Go all out to sign Junichi Tazawa from Japan to a minor league contract.
Yes he can!!!!
Most Valuable Pedroia!!!! Incredibly good news; made my day!