Spring Happenings

With Mark Teahen throwing away his chance to be the everyday 3rd baseman, there aren’t many more question marks for Spring as far as the roster is concerned. Beyond finalizing the bullpen personnel, there is the matter of hanging the closer tag on somebody and selecting the 4th outfielder.

Let’s start with the latter as I think the former requires some extra discussion. Alejandro De Aza will once again be playing his arse off this spring in an attempt to make the roster. Unfortunately for him, Lastings Milledge will be working just as hard to prove that his career won’t end on empty promise and Dayan Viciedo will be riding the strength of his bat tool while learning RF just so he has somewhere to play. Personally, I’m torn. I’d love to see some of that long Lastings ceiling that was spoken of so much back in his Mets days. It would be a huge steal for the Sox to see this guy go nuts and realize some of his potential. I think that’s a pretty big long shot. The most likely outcome, and also one I'm excited to see is Dayan Viciedo working his way into the lineup by learning how to not completely butcher RF defensively. The good news on that is the bar is low, as Carlos The Haircut Quentin is rated by many defensive metrics as the worst defensive RF in the league with a -22.9 UZR rating. From what we saw last year of Dayan, his bat loves to pop the gaps, so the defensive liability will probably be worth it for a couple few days a week. A resting Dunn can also bring some ABs for DHayan.

As for the closer, it's really one of those good problems. Matt Thornton just signed on to stay with the Sox for another 2 years after the 2011 campaign. The Sox also have a 2014 option on Matty Ice. The deal seems a little rich for a 34 year old, but I do like Thornton, and it’s not my money so I’m game. Money like this might be looked at as “closer” money, but we all know that Ozzie won’t be announcing any official closer any time soon. Mention has been made of a closer by committee, but that’s just plain silly. Santos could possibly see some opportunities in this setup, after that, we’re just looking at Thornton and the team’s second favorite impossibly thin and (hopefully) successful major leaguer, Chris Sale. Bullpen by committee is, like communism, nice in theory, but can’t really be executed without serious issues. Being able to pick and choose freely what pitcher to use in what situation in a game by game basis seems like an excellent idea. In fact, it seems like exactly the sort of thing that all managers should be allowed to do. Unfortunately managers are tethered to conventional thinking, players feelings and economics. Each team has one closer, that’s just the way it works. Pitchers like to know their role. They want to know if they are the man, the guy to shut it all down in the end. Somebody needs to be able to rack up those saves in order to use them to leverage a better contract in the future, or the agents and the players union will throw tantrums.

My opinion is it doesn’t matter who gets the job. That's correct, it doesn’t matter. I say give it to the guy that chooses the better music to run in from the bullpen to. Having 2 potential closers allows Ozzie to somewhat circumvent "wasting" his strongest reliever in the 9th, in the event that it’s not the highest leverage situation in the game. A couple of writers over at FanGraphs recently discussed the situation briefly and it was pointed out that we saw that a bit last year with Bobby Jenks being the closer, when Thornton was the more effective pitcher. Bobby worked the 9th, while Thornton could get plugged in when the game was at a pivotal point. If we were up a run with opposing runners on base late in the game, for instance. That flexibility could be there again this year. No matter who ends up getting the closer tag, we will have one hard throwing and hopefully greatly effective lefty available to go to work when the game is really on the line. That said, sometimes the 9th inning is the high leverage point in the game. I understand that and don't deny that closers are, in fact, important. Just not closer money important.


In other news, I got my first look at the latest and greatest Chosen One today. Mr. Eye Black himself made in appearance in the Braves/Nationals game this afternoon (thanks, MLBNetwork) and lined out to LF. Despite the single at-bat, and all the negative things I hear about the kid personally. I do believe that I like Bryce Harper. I look forward to watching him play, even though it won’t be for a few years.